Working with Request Offerings and Service Requests

About Request Offering and Service Request Web Methods

There are several web methods that provide access to the request offerings available in the Service Catalog, provide the ability to submit service requests, and provide access to retrieve them once they are submitted.

The following table summarizes the available web methods for this.

Web Method	Description
GetCategories	Returns a list of categories in the Service Catalog.
GetCategoryTemplates	Returns a list of the request offerings in the Service Catalog that belong to the specified category.
GetAllTemplates	Returns a list of all of the request offerings in the Service Catalog.
GetSubscriptionId	Returns the subscription ID that corresponds to the request offering for the current user.
GetPackageData	Returns the details of the specified request offering.
UserCanAccessRequestOffering	Checks if the current user can access the specified request offering.
SubmitRequest	Creates and submits the service request on behalf of a specified user.
GetRequestData	Returns the data for the specified service request.
FetchServiceReqValidationListData	Returns the allowable validation list data for the specified service request parameter.

When accessing the various Service Catalog web methods via the API, most of the web methods are invoked based on the ID of the service request subscription record, and not with the ID of the request offering itself. When you define the request offering, you must specify whether it is configured as "Publish and Subscribe" or "Publish".

Publish Action

•When configured as "Publish and Subscribe", users belonging to the indicated organizational unit have access to the request offering.

•When configured as "Publish", users have access to the request offering based on the service level agreement for the organizational unit to which the user belongs.

The ServiceReqSubscription record (used internally by the Service Catalog) contains information about the organizational unit to which the request offering is associated, along with the service level agreement information if it is configured relative to the service level agreement.

In the following sections, several of the web methods use the ID value of the ServiceReqSubscription record. You can use a helper web method called GetSubscriptionId to obtain the subscription ID, which can then be used in any subsequent operations, such as SubmitRequest.