5.5

Accessing Server Objects from URLs 7
You can add URLs to Web view pages to access objects in the Orchestrator server, without having to
implement a Web view component. For example, you can add URLs to Web view pages that run an action
in the Orchestrator server or URLs that retrieve resource elements from the Orchestrator server.
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Running Actions from URLs on page 43
Running actions from URLs rather than by implementing Web view components allows you to run
operations directly in the Orchestrator server without requiring any input parameters from the Web
view user. Running actions from URLs also allows you to define how to process the action results.
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Accessing Resource Elements from URLs on page 45
Workflows and Web views can require as attributes objects that you create independently of
Orchestrator. To use external objects as attributes in workflows or Web views, you import them into
the Orchestrator server as resource elements.
Running Actions from URLs
Running actions from URLs rather than by implementing Web view components allows you to run
operations directly in the Orchestrator server without requiring any input parameters from the Web view
user. Running actions from URLs also allows you to define how to process the action results.
When you run a workflow from a Web view component, the Web view prompts you for input parameters
before it runs. Web view components also apply formatting to any data they receive from the server. If you
retrieve objects from the server from a URL rather than from a Web view component, you can apply your
own formatting or processing to the data that the URL retrieves.
For example, certain actions return JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data. If you call such an action from a
URL in a Web view, you can write Ajax functions to process and format the action results. Similarly, if the
action returns an object from the Orchestrator server, you can write JavaScript functions to act on this object
in the Web view.
To run an action from a URL in a Web view, you must declare that action as a Web view attribute and
reference the attribute in the URL.
Web views access actions that you have defined as Web view attributes at the following URL:
https://orchestrator_server:8280/vco/vmo/web_view_url_folder/system/execute/action/action.html?
action=action_attribute_name
To avoid hard-coding the orchestrator_server address into the URL, you can provide relative paths to the
action that start from the directory below the Web view URL folder, as the following path shows:
<a href="./system/execute/action/action.html?action=attribute_name"></a>
VMware, Inc.
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