Introduction
MetaField requires Integration Framework to utilize one or more services for the features it has, such as "DocuSign", or "Forney Integation". As such, Integration Framework has many services that can be hosted on a server (for this wiki article, we assume the server is localhost) and then MetaField can call these services for CRUD operations for some of its specific features as mentioned before. These services are also called as "Provider Services".
Provider Service
The details of the Provider Services (in Integration Framework) are available in the Integration Framework Database as shown in the Figure:001. Please note that, only the providers which are active (IsActive=1) are hosted as WCF Services for serving their clients. The corresponding binaries for these provider services are available in the location that is configured in the App.config as shown in the Figure:002.
Figure:001
Figure:002
How are these provider services hosted?
The "IntegrationFramework.Host.Windows.Service" project in the "Integration Framework Solution" as shown in the Figure:003 is responsible for loading the active providers from the Integration Framework Database, loading their binaries from the configured location, and hosting them as WCF Services to serve their clients. For technical details on how to host these provider services, please click here.
Figure:003
Listener Service
Listener Service (in MetaField) is hosted as a WCF Service that is called back from the Provider Service (in Integration Framework) in order to make some changes in the MetaField application (please note that, not all the provider services will require a listener WCF service. however, the Forney Provider Service requires it's listener service.). This means that there is a 2-way data exchange and manipulation between MetaField and Integration Framework. For example, MetaField calls the Forney Service (which is hosted as WCF Service in Integration Framework) for fetching the Forney Test Results data. This Forney Service, after fetching the Forney Test Results data, will call the Listener WCF Service in order to update the MetaData database with these test results data. This is illustrated in the Figure:004
Figure:004
How is the Listener WCF Service hosted?
The "MetaField.WebService" project in the "MetaField.All" solution as shown in the Figure:005 is used to host the Listener WCF Service which is used by the Forney WCF Service. For technical details on how this project is used to host the Listener WCF Service, please click here.
Figure:005
Steps to host the Provider Service (as WCF Service), and the Listener WCF Service
Host the Provider Service (Integration Framework) as WCF Service on localhost
Step 01: Open up the SQL Server Client application (SQL Server Management Studio or any application of your choice), connect to the local Integration Framework database. |
Step 02: Deactivate all the providers by executing the sql command "update Providers set IsActive = 0" |
Step 03: Activate the only provider which you would like to test by executing the sql command "update Providers set IsActive = 1 where ID = {the ID of your Forney Provider Service}" |
Step 04: Make sure that the provider settings are updated as seen in the Figure:006. For UserName and Password values, please connect with the Operations Team. |
Step 05: Make sure that the provider binaries are available in the configured location (refer Figure:002 for this configured location) as seen in the Figure:007 |
Step 06: If you already have not cloned the Integration Framework solution, please clone it from the bitbucket site (bit bucket (Agile Frameworks)). |
Step 07: Open Visual Studio in the Administrator mode, and then open the Integration Framework Solution, and then change to the latest branch and pull it. |
Step 08: Right click on the project (Core ==> IntegrationFramework.Host.Windows.Service) and then click the "Set as Startup Project" option. |
Step 09: Right click on the project (Core ==> IntegrationFramework.Host.Windows.Service) and then click the "Properties" option. |
Step 10: Select the "Debug" tab from the left hand side menu. |
Step 11: In the ("Start options" ==> "Command line arguments:") text box, add "--console", and then save the changes. Please refer Figure:008 for this information. |
Step 12: Build the solution. |
Step 13: Click the "Start" button on top to deploy this active provider as the WCF Service. Once the deployment is complete, you will see an open command prompt. |
Step 14: Please do not press any button in this command prompt, else, the deployed WCF Service will be decommissioned. |
Step 15: If you click http://localhost:8080/Forney.Braun.svc and you see a screen similar to the one in Figure:009 then, you are all set. Else fix the issues. |
Now, your Forney Provider Service is deployed as a WCF Service on your localhost and the URL of this service is http://localhost:8080/Forney.Braun.svc (where Forney.Braun is the name of the provider). |