4.1

sendCustomEvent Operation
The sendCustomEvent operation synchronizes workflows with external events.
public void sendCustomEvent(String eventName, String serializedProperties);
The sendCustomEvent operation sends messages from Web service clients to workflows that are waiting for a
particular event to occur before they run. The waiting workflows resume their run when they receive the
message from sendCustomEvent.
A custom event that calls sendCustomEvent to send a message when it occurs can be any script, workflow, or
action that Orchestrator can run. For example, a workflow might use sendCustomEvent to trigger another
workflow that reloads all Orchestrator plug-ins when the sending workflow performs a specific action while
it is running.
The messages that sendCustomEvent sends are simple triggers, the format of which is not exposed to users. The
message triggers the waiting workflow to run at the moment that the server receives it.
IMPORTANT Access to the sendCustomEvent operation is not protected by a username and password
combination. VMware therefore recommends that you only use this function in secure, internal deployments.
For example, do not use this operation in deployments that operate openly across the Internet.
Type Value Description
String
eventName
The eventName property is the name of
the event that a workflow is waiting for
before running. The eventName string
you pass to sendCustomEvent must
match the name of an Event object
declared in the script, action or
workflow that defines the custom event.
String
serializedProperties
The serializedProperties property
defines the parameters to pass to the
waiting workflow as a series of name-
value pairs. The syntax of
serializedProperties is as follows:
"
name1 = value1 \n name2 = value2 \n na
me3 = value3 "
If the workflow requires no input
parameters, the
serializedProperties property can
be null or omitted.
Return Value
No return value informs applications that the sendCustomEvent operation ran successfully.
The sendCustomEvent operation returns an exception if you pass it an invalid parameter.
Receiving Messages from sendCustomEvent
Workflows waiting for a message from sendCustomEvent before they run must declare the event they are
waiting for by calling the System.waitCustomEventUntil operation from the Orchestrator API. The following
example shows two calls to waitCustomEventUntil.
System.waitCustomEventUntil("internal", customEventKey,
myDate );
System.waitCustomEventUntil("external", customEventKey, myDate );
vCenter Orchestrator Developer's Guide
278 VMware, Inc.