It turns out there is no possible "UnlockDocument" or "CancelCheckout" operation in filenet's webservice. However, I have found a neat workaround that let's you do just that.
When a document is checked out in filenet through the client or through a webservicecall of the operation:
"CheckoutAction".
A copy of the document is made internally in filenet with the same VersionSeriesId
as the original document, but with the property Isreserved = 'true'
. If you perform a "DeleteAction" on this copy, you essentially recreate the manual "Cancel Checkout" step available in the filenet client. "DeleteAction" requires an ObjectId
and doesn't work on the VersionSeriesId
. In order to get this ObjectID through a webservice call, you need to make a SOAPCall that obtains this ObjectID
. To cancel the initial checkout, a second SOAPCall should be made that deletes the document with the in the previous step obtained ObjectID
, aka: "the copy". Herefollows two examples of usable SOAPCalls:
ExecuteSearchRequest SoapCall:
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:sch="http://www.filenet.com/ns/fnce/2006/11/ws/schema">
<soap:Header>
<sch:Localization>
<sch:Locale>en_EN</sch:Locale>
<sch:Timezone/>
</sch:Localization>
</soap:Header>
<soap:Body>
<sch:ExecuteSearchRequest xsi:type="RepositorySearch" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<sch:SearchScope xsi:type="ObjectStoreScope" objectStore="ObjectStoreXXX"/>
<sch:SearchSQL>SELECT [Id] FROM Document WHERE VersionSeries = {"enter the VersionSeriesID of the initial document without quotes"} AND IsReserved = true</sch:SearchSQL>
</sch:ExecuteSearchRequest>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
DeleteActionRequest SoapCall:
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:sch="http://www.filenet.com/ns/fnce/2006/11/ws/schema">
<soap:Header>
<sch:Localization>
<sch:Locale>en-EN</sch:Locale>
<sch:Timezone/>
</sch:Localization>
</soap:Header>
<soap:Body>
<sch:ExecuteChangesRequest xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<sch:ChangeRequest>
<sch:TargetSpecification classId="Document" objectId="{"enter the objectId of the previously obtained document without quotes"}" objectStore="ObjectStoreO7"/>
<sch:Action xsi:type="sch:DeleteAction"/>
</sch:ChangeRequest>
</sch:ExecuteChangesRequest>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
Now in order to get this to work from a SOA, you'll need to invoke filenet's webservice twice from your BPEL. First with the first operation: ExecuteSearchRequest
, which yields you the ObjectId required to cancel the checkout, afterwards with the second operation ExecuteChangesRequest
, which deletes the correct document, undoing the initial checkout. These operations are listed in the above SOAP examples. Additionally you need to add WS-security in your outgoing header with working credentials to access the Filenet service. Otherwise you won't be able to connect with filenet.
This has cost me a lot of time so I hope this helps someone besides me. Enjoy your mastery of filenet checkout deletion!