Using the Groove Data Bridge and Remote Groove Web Services
Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007 Data Bridge provides a Web services-enabled data access tier that integrates Microsoft Office Groove workspaces with other applications and databases in an organization's IT infrastructure. An Office Groove Server Groove Data Bridge installed within a company's data center provides a secure centralized access point for hosting Groove workspaces.
This section describes the differences between calling services on Groove and the Groove Data Bridge. It also describes how to develop an application that calls remote Groove Web Services, a feature that is available only on Groove Data Bridge.
API Differences between Groove and the Groove Data Bridge
A Groove Web Service client application can request the service from either Microsoft Office Groove or from Microsoft Office Groove Data Bridge. The web services interfaces for these two systems are nearly identical.
The main differences are:
The Groove Data Bridge supports both remote and local Web Services request, but Office Groove supports only local Web Services requests.
Office Groove provides the GrooveLocal service, which allows access to the Groove user interface. The Groove Data Bridge does not support the GrooveLocal service.
The Groove Data Bridge adds a timestamp field to Forms Tool records. (See Forms_Tool_EDBSeqTime.)
On the Groove Data Bridge, the GrooveSubscriptions CreateAggregated operation has the same behavior as CreateAggregated2. CreateAggregated on Office Groove has a more restricted behavior, which is retained for compatibility. CreateAggregated2 provides enhanced behavior. Compatibility with a previous version was not an issue on the Groove Data Bridge so both CreateAggregated and CreateAggregated2 have the enhanced behavior.
Microsoft Office Groove can have more than one account on a single system. Groove Data Bridge has only one account, which typically has multiple identities.
Calling Remote Web Services
On Groove Data Bridge, the Remote Request Key is used for the security key for remote Web Services. The value of this key is not changed when Groove Web Services are stopped and restarted. The value is changed only when the administrator explicitly changes it using the administrator interface. See the Office Groove Data Bridge 2007 Administrator's Guide for more information.
When Groove Data Bridge is first installed, it requests the administrator to enter a value for the Remote Request Key. Note that, if Groove Data Bridge is installed as an upgrade, it will use the Remote Request Key value used by the previous version of the Groove Data Bridge. But if there is no existing value, it will assign a random value to the Remote Request Key.
If your application is running as a remote SOAP client to the Groove Data Bridge, you must provide some mechanism for the remote system and the Groove local system to share the value of the port. Typically, Groove Data Bridge devices that provide remote Web Services are secure devices within a tightly controlled environment. Consequently, the port specified by GrooveHTTPDesiredPort or the default port, 9080, should always be available.
If it is possible that the default port will not be available, you must provide some mechanism for the remote system and the Groove Data Bridge device to also share the value of the GrooveHTTPPort key.
The code to call a Remote Groove Web Service is almost identical to the local code. The two changes are that you need to specify the external port in the HTTP Post URL and you cannot read the RequestKey from the local registry. In place of the local host device, you can specify the device by name or by numeric IP address.
For example, the following is the HTTP Post URL for the Groove Accounts service on the device GrooveServer.MyCompany.Com:
http://GrooveServer.MyCompany.com:9080/GWS/Groove/2.0/Accounts/
When Groove Data Bridge returns a remote call, it sets the GrooveResponseKey in the GrooveResponseHeader to an empty string instead of setting it to the value stored in the LocalResponseKey registry key.
Enabling Remote Groove Web Services
In order to enable Remote Groove Web Services on a Groove Data Bridge, the administrator must do the following:
Enable remote Web Services.
Set the remote access key.
Start the Web Services listener.
Server Load SOAP Exceptions
If the Groove Data Bridge is under a very heavy load, it may reject some Groove Web Service requests in order to prevent overloading. The SOAP exception "Error: The server's capacity has been exceeded." can be returned after calling the following GrooveSpaces Web Service operations:
GrooveSpaces.Create
CreateFromGSA
CreateFromGSAByRef
CreateGrooveFileSharingSpace
See Also
Reference
Groove Web Services Registry Keys
Headers Used in Groove Web Services