Add gateway services to workflows

With Gateway configured and your gateway services registered, you can now use the Itential Platform to orchestrate these services through intuitive workflows that simplify complex network operations.

Build a workflow with gateway services

The following procedures provide a high-level overview for adding a service to a new workflow. For additional guidance, see the following topics:

For more information on variable sources, see Variable types.
For more information on workflows, see Create and run workflows.
For more information on tasks, see Configure and manage tasks.

Step 1: Add the runService task to your canvas

Open Itential Platform in your browser.

Select Studio from the Design collection in the left-side navigation menu.

Click the plus (+) icon on the Studio homepage.

Select Workflow in the type dropdown in the Create dialog.

Enter a name for your new workflow.

Click Create. The workflow opens in the Canvas.

In the Task Palette, expand the GatewayManager section and find the runService task.

Drag the runService task onto the canvas between the Start and End nodes.

Create connections by drawing transitions from Start to the runService task, and from the runService task to End.

Step 2: Configure the runService task

Double-click the runService task to open the task panel.

From the runService task panel, you can specify the gateway cluster and gateway service on that cluster that you want to include in your workflow.

When you select a service with decorators attached, the task extracts the expected input variables from the decorator and lists them as input parameters. For more information on decorators, see Using Decorators.

Set input parameters

You can supply input parameters through a key-value form or as a JSON code block.

Key-value form (default): The task panel displays input parameters in a key-value form where you configure each variable defined in your decorator individually. You can configure the variable source (static, job, or task) and specify static key-value pairs.

Key-value form in task configuration panel

JSON code block: To define input parameters as a single JSON code block, select JSON Code Block under Parameters in the task panel.

JSON code block in task configuration panel

Define gateway cluster and service variables

You can use the Gateway Cluster ID and Service Name fields to specify which gateway cluster and service you want to run, or you can define the Gateway Cluster ID and service as input variables that receive data from elsewhere in the workflow.

To use as variables:

Enable the Gateway Cluster ID & Service: Use as Variable toggle at the top of the task panel.
Define the source for the gateway cluster ID and service variables as static, job, or task to determine how these values will be passed to the runService task.

Use as Variable toggle in task configuration panel

runService task output

The runService task returns the gateway service’s execution result as the task’s output. Downstream tasks in your workflow can reference these fields directly.

Field	Description
`result.stdout`	Raw standard output from the service execution.
`result.stdout_json`	The `stdout` content parsed as JSON. Present only when `stdout` is valid JSON.
`result.stderr`	Standard error from the service execution.
`result.return_code`	Process exit code. `0` indicates success.

To use an output field in a downstream task, set that task’s input source to task, with Previous Task set to the runService task and Task Variable set to result.stdout_json or another result field.

For the complete list of input and output fields, see runService task reference.