PMG Documentation

# Direct Work Proxy

The Direct Work Proxy feature provides for out of network support for users to respond to human activities; approvals, task, choice. Out of network access is often required for mobile devices which have no VPN or similar access to internally networked applications. Email client users may similarly be off network where human activity responses require support.

The Direct Work Proxy feature operates as a standalone Web application which can run isolated from the main application. The application provides a similar end user interface to the internal application direct work function.

The Direct Work Proxy is intended to be hosted in a publicly available network where individuals assigned work can interact with the assigned task with a device which does not have internal network access. The Proxy delivers responses in either real time, if the proxy application has access to the internal application web services. Alternatively, the proxy transmits the users’ responses in formatted emails which may be processed by a system workflow, which processes the response and routes to the respective workflow via the SPEWS operation: “DoWorkItem”, or “DoWorkItemWithXml”.

The files for Direct Work Proxy are obtained separately from the product installation, as the function is intended to run on the same or separate server.

Installation, configuration, and use of the function is done manually, as target environment configurations will vary based on requirements.

The application files should be copied to a target IIS server folder which will host the proxy application. IIS should be configured to serve the application for a given folder name, e.g. /DirectWorkProxy

Configuration of the proxy application behavior is done by editing the web.config in the new folder.

A sample web.config file is below.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <appSettings>
        <!--mode = "email" or "webservice"-->
        <add key="mode" value="webservice" />
        <add key="spews_user" value="speuser@pmgnet.dev" />`
        <add key="spews_password" value="******" />
        <add key="spews.spews" value="http://portal.company.com/spe/spews.asmx" />
        <add key="mail_host" value="mail.company.com" />
        <add key="mail_port" value="25" />
        <add key="mail_from" value="workproxy@company.com" />
        <add key="mail_to" value="workpickup@company.com" />
        <add key="xmail_cc" value="anotheruser@company.com" />
        <add key="mail_subject" value="#WorkProxyEmail#" />
        <add key="mail_ssl" value="false" />
        <add key="mail_username" value="" />
        <add key="mail_password" value="" />
    </appSettings>
    <system.web>
        <customErrors mode="Off" />
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Branding of the response page is done through modification of the Default.aspx file.

Work which is intended to use this proxy feature should have the human action properties set to “Direct Response Allowed, Yes without authentication”. Emails templates used with the proxy feature should reference the proxy hosted resource like below. Please refer to the product documentation for the Email action, under the “Body Template” property for more details about this format and other options:

<a href="G{{BaseHref}}/DirectWorkProxy/Default.aspx?wi=[WI_WorkItemId]&output=Approved">

The URL used in this manner should be accessible for both internal and external network users.

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