Accessing appian rules from stateless servlet(401 error)

Hi Team,

We were originally on APPIAN 7.1 and have upgraded and reached 18.4. In previous versions we developed a stateless servlet which invokes an appian rule via APPIANSCRIPTENGINE expression evaluation API. Problem is when we invoke this servlet ,whenever the logic takes to call the appian rule via APPIANSCRIPTENGINE ,the server returns a 401 error to client. This causes re-processing in client side and adds to the load. We want some quick work around by which we need to stop sending 401 error back to client.

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  • Hi George.

    The product has benefited from a number of improvements related to integrations since 7.1

    I'm not saying you must abandon your servlet, but - I recommend that you consider the possibility that you can achieve your goal easily without one.

    If all you need to do is to interact with an expression rule, you can do this with an Appian web API.  The docs on web api's are here.

    Now, the 401 suggests an authentication error.  I'm not sure how you were authenticating into Appian with your servlet, but it sounds like whatever you're doing isn't in accordance with the security model.  Info regarding Web API Authentication  is here.

    Yes, Appian is backwards compatible, and we're committed to that.  We're also committed to a secure system.
    A custom servlet is outside of product support's purview.  I won't speculate on how you accessed appian with this servlet all those years ago.  

    I understand it's not the answer you hoped for, but consider reviewing these new features and see if you can't satisfy your requirement with supported product.  That way, in the future, if it ever breaks down, it should be very easy to resolve.

    Let us know how you progress!

  • Thank you Robert for your inputs ; yes I do agree that we may have to put to rest the servlet approach and implement the same using latest and greatest features of APPIAN. Time to re-factor Slight smile