Osb connecting to external webservice

Question

In an already existing developed use-case in our project
There is one teststub -- proxy service in which an operational branch is added for that ws_processtransaction and ws_reprocesstransaction two fields are added as per wsdl.
For both fields they are using a replace activity in which they are replacing body with the below code
<fron:WS_ReProcessTransactionResponse>
<fron:WS_ReProcessTransactionResult>
     {fn-bea:serialize("<FRONTIERData><ReplyCode>0</ReplyCode><ReplyText>None</ReplyText><Processed>1</Processed><RequestID>D3021FC4-C3CA-48C2-B089-AC44BCDBC3DC</RequestID><TransactionNumber>60120311462083015525</TransactionNumber><ItemID>50</ItemID><InstructionSet/><Mess1Destination>16</Mess1Destination><Mess1Content>Call us and we'll get you a weightless phone</Mess1Content><SaleItems><SerialNumber>1234567890</SerialNumber><PinNumber>12154658</PinNumber></SaleItems></FRONTIERData>")}
</fron:WS_ReProcessTransactionResult>
</fron:WS_ReProcessTransactionResponse>
Now i need to develop a use case in this which is known as ws_getbalance which is available in wsdl ... I need to get balance from one of the service providers
I am unable to understand the existing code above as to why it has been used and why the values are being hardcoded
as i am new to osb
Does the service providers need any hard coded values for authentication when we are connecting to an external webservice
Can i use the same hardcoded values for my usecase ws_getbalance also. Can someone pls let me know on this
Thanks,

Answer 1

Can a Business service call an external webservice or do i need a proxy service for thisBusiness Services in OSB are outbound service (kind of like a web service client). So you will need a business service to call the external system web service.
Right now the external webservice provider is not available
If i configure the Business service with the endpoint uri of the external webservice
Will this be okYou can point the business service to the Endpoint URI of external webservice, but then you will not be able to test the success scenario until the time external service becomes available. Because the business service will always throw a connection error as it will not be able to find the external service(which is unavailable at the moment)