5.5.1

3 Emit the workflow token's result attributes for display or for use by other applications.
for (int ii = 0; ii < retAttributes.length; ii++) {
System.out.println("\tName:'" + retAttributes[ii].getName()
+ "' - Type:'" + retAttributes[ii].getType()
+ "' - Value:'" + retAttributes[ii].getValue()
}
The preceding example code prints out the name, type, and value of the workflow token's result
attributes.
You defined a Web services client that finds objects in Orchestrator, runs workflows on them, interacts with
the running workflows, and extracts the results of running those workflows.
Time Zones and Running Workflows Through Web Services
Running workflows through Web services can lead to erroneous timestamping, if the run request comes
from an application running in a different time zone to the Orchestrator server.
If a workflow takes the time and date as an input parameter, and generates the time and date as output
when it runs, and if this workflow runs through a Web services application, the time and date sent as an
input parameter reflects the time and date of the system on which the Web services application is running.
The time and date that the workflow sends as its output reflects the time and date of the system on which
the Orchestrator server is running. If the Web services application is running in a different time zone than
the Orchestrator server, the time returned by the workflow does not match the time that the Web services
application provided as input when it called executeWorkflow or getWorkflowTokenResult.
To avoid this problem, you can create a function to compare dates in your Web services application. You
must serialize the date and time, taking the time zone information into account. The following Java code
example shows how to transform a String that Orchestrator returns into a Date object.
public Date dateFromString(String value){
java.text.DateFormat s_dateFormat = new java.text.SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHHmmssZ");
Date date = null;
if (value != null && value.length() > 0) {
try {
date = s_dateFormat.parse(value);
} catch (ParseException e) {
System.err.println("Converting String to Date : ERROR");
date = null ;
}
}
return date;
}
Web Service Application Examples
Orchestrator provides working examples of Web services client applications that provide Web access to
Orchestrator.
You can download the Orchestrator examples ZIP file from the VMware vCenter Orchestrator
Documentation landing page.
Chapter 3 Writing a Client Application for the Orchestrator SOAP Service
VMware, Inc. 67