Get Started with the Answer Service

The answer service is available only for policy models that have a data mapping to a web service connection. It accepts input and returns answers as specified by the data mappings in the policy model.

The two actions provided are GetInputDataDefinition and GetAnswer.

• GetInputDataDefinition uses the data model of the connected application and returns a description of all the mapped in data for the deployed policy model.
• GetAnswer returns all the mapped out data for the deployed policy model. An error is returned if not all defined input data is provided.
  • Audit reports are included in the GetAnswer response for every attribute in the policy model for which audit reports have been enabled.
  • Unknown values can be returned in the response if insufficient data or unknown values are supplied in the input data. If the value of any mapped out data element cannot be determined by using the supplied input data, then the value in the response will be unknown.

The answer service is designed to be used together with web service connectors. One of the two namespaces used by the answer service is shared with that framework, and they are always kept in sync as new versions are released. For each deployed policy model, the input data definition for the answer service exactly matches the data format returned by the web service connection Load method, and the output data definition for the answer service exactly matches the data format that must be passed to the web service connection Save method.