Work Management System Integration (WMSI)

If you choose to integrate a Work Management System (WMS) with your Designer XI application, your implementation team may recommend the Work Management System Integration service (WMSI). WMSI connects and manages the communication between the Designer XI application and your WMS.

Think of WMSI as a translator between your WMS and the Designer XI application. Messages such as a design work order with XY coordinates are translated by WMSI into a custom XY projection. The projection is used to create a buffer point from which to find features within a feeder. The feeder ID (or subnetwork, if UN) is shared with the network feature service to enable extracting features. Finally, the design is created in Designer XI, assigned to the designer, and returned to the WMS via a work order message. The workflow for a work order without XY coordinates is even easier, with a blank design created and assigned to the designer before returning to the WMS. Your implementation team will help you configure WMSI through the Solution Center > Designer Extensions plugin.

WMSI communicates with your WMS via the Azure Service Bus which uses a queue of JSON formatted messages. Asynchronous messaging means that messages are sent to a Service Bus Queue, where your WMS can pick them up for processing. Using standard asynchronous web communication methodologies, we can integrate with most systems. One important note is that Service Bus Queues are a one-to-one relationship, meaning that one entity will put a message into the queue, and then one entity will retrieve that message. The queue securely stores the messages until the receiving application is available to receive and process the message. Each message is removed from the queue as soon as it is received. Inbound messages travel from your WMS to WMSI, while outbound messages are sent from WMSI to your WMS.

Review the WMSI Advanced Documentation page for examples and definitions of the service bus messages that are used to coordinate between Designer XI and your WMS, via WMSI. Here you can explore the different types of messages and the formatting options.

The Solution Center > Messaging plugin is helpful for identifying and troubleshooting issues related to the Azure Service Bus, including Dead Letters Search to manage service bus messages that could not successfully complete their journey.