Connections from Process Designer to Process Center

To establish and work with connections from Process Designer to Process Center, you should understand the typical behavior of the connections and know where to update the connection settings.

Information about connections from IBM Process Designer to Process Center are found in the following sections:
  • Behavior
  • Settings
  • Ports
  • Troubleshooting
  • Other sources of information

Behavior

Components of Process Designer use multiple endpoints in communicating with Process Center. The initial connection is defined in the Process Designer eclipse.ini file as the value of the com.ibm.bpm.processcenter.url system property. The property value is set during Process Designer configuration based on the value of the EXTERNAL endpoint for bpmrepo-services.war that is configured on the Process Center. See the topic Configuring the httpProtocolOnly property for Process Designer.

If the endpoint configuration of the bpmrepo-services.war file has changed, Process Designer needs to be downloaded from the Process Center using a browser that is running on the machine where the Process Designer will be installed. Installation of iFixes is another more common reason why repeating the download and installation of Process Designer is required. Developers should never update the connection information in the Process Designer eclipse.ini file.

Other endpoints used by Process Designer are not assumed to be relative to com.ibm.bpm.processcenter.url in the eclipse.ini file. If the configuration of any of these other endpoints is changed on Process Center, reinstallation of Process Designer is not required. Simply restarting Process Designer is sufficient because the URLs of these endpoints are transferred from Process Center to Process Designer with other configuration settings at the beginning of every Process Designer bootstrap operation (as a response from an EJB call).

Settings

The IBM BPM settings related to Process Designer are transferred through the network from Process Center to Process Designer as properties of the AuthoringEnvironmentConfig configuration object every time Process Designer is launched. These properties affect the connections created between Process Designer and Process Center. The following list contains properties that affect the connections and explains how to set the properties.

The AuthoringEnvironmentConfig object contains the following properties:

Name Description Additional Information
Images Prefix The Images Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_IMAGES_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URLs that are used in the Process Designer authoring environment to get images. Information about using the scenario keys to configure the IBM BPM endpoints is described in the topic Configuring endpoints to match your topology.
Portal Prefix The Portal Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_PORTAL_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URLs that are used in the Process Designer authoring environment to reach Process Portal.
Repository Prefix The Repository Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_REPOSITORY_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URLs that are used in the Process Designer authoring environment to reach the repository.
Servlet Prefix The Servlet Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_SERVLET_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URLs that are used in the Process Designer. This scenario must specify an absolute URL by setting the url property.
Social Bus WebApp Prefix The Social Bus WebApp Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_SOCIALBUS_WEBAPP_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URLs that are used in the Process Designer authoring environment to reach the social bus web application.
Web API Prefix The Web API Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_WEBAPI_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URLs that are used in the Process Designer authoring environment to reach the web API.
REST Gateway Prefix The REST Gateway Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_REST_GATEWAY_CR_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URL that is used in the Process Designer authoring environment to reach the Process Center REST Gateway.
Web PD Prefix The Web PD Prefix endpoint maps to the AE_WEB_PD_PREFIX scenario key, which configures the URL that is used in the Process Designer authoring environment to launch the web editor.
Webviewer WebApp Prefix The Webviewer WebApp Prefix specifies the endpoint of the web application contained in the webviewer.war file.

The host and port number of the URL can be customized by setting the IBM BPM virtual host.

The context root of the URL can be customized by adding a prefix before the context root.

Information on setting the IBM BPM virtual host is found in the topic Configuring endpoints to match your topology.

For information about setting the context root prefix, see the topic BPMConfig command-line utility.
BPM Asset Prefix The BPM Asset Prefix specifies the endpoint of the web application contained in the bpmasset.war file.

The host and port number of the URL can be customized by setting the IBM BPM virtual host.

The context root of the URL can be customized by adding a prefix before the context root.
Process Portal Prefix The Process Portal Prefix specifies the endpoint of the web application contained in the process-portal.war file.

The host and port number of the URL can be customized by setting the IBM BPM virtual host.

The context root of the URL can be customized by adding a prefix before the context root. For example, /prefix/ProcessPortal.
HTTP Protocol Only

If this attribute is true (which is the default), communication between Process Designer and Process Center is limited to using HTTP or HTTPS protocols.

If this is set to false, Process Designer uses a mix of HTTPS, ORB (RMI over IIOP), and JMS communications.

Information on setting the httpProtocolOnly attribute is found in the topic Configuring the httpProtocolOnly property for Process Designer.
Suppress Redirect URL Password Specifies whether to suppress the inclusion of the user password in the URLs that Process Designer opens. For example, each time you run a playback in Process Designer, a new Process Portal browser session is opened. Process Designer then submits the user credentials, which consist of the user ID and password, and the browser session uses these credentials to log in. The suppressRedirectUrlPasswd option stops the password from being included in the URL to improve security.
Note: When you use the suppressRedirectUrlPasswd option, you only need to log into the browser the first time that you open a web editable artifact or run a playback in Process Designer. This option only applies to Process Designer and can be turned on and off as needed.
 Information on setting the suppressRedirectUrlPasswd attribute is found in the topic Installing IBM Process Designer.
Formatting Templates Specifies the predefined character formats for text controls or specifies the creation of additional formats. The data type is FormattingTemplatesConfig.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<formatting-templates merge="replace">
     <formatting-template comment="Currency" template="$ ###,###,###.##"/>
     <formatting-template comment="Currency" template="###,###,###.## €"/>
     <formatting-template comment="Currency" template="€ ###,###,###.##"/>
     <formatting-template comment="Integer" template="###,###,###"/>
            <formatting-template comment="Decimal" template="###,###,###.##"/>
            <formatting-template comment="US phone" template="(###) 000-0000"/>
            <formatting-template comment="US SSN" template="000-00-0000"/>
  </formatting-templates>
</authoring-environment>
 These properties are all configured using IBM BPM configuration XML files. For information about setting the properties, see the topic Changing IBM Process Server properties in 100Custom.xml.
Inspector This property specifies inspector configuration. The data type is InspectorConfig.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<inspector>
		<target-servers>
			<type></type>
			<name></name>
			<default-action-policy>
				<action>
					<type></type>
					<role>role1</role>
					<role>role2</role>
				</action>
			</default-action-policy>
		</target-servers>
	</inspector>
</authoring-environment>
Library Event Stream Manager The data type is SequencedStateDeltaManagerConfig.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
 	<sequenced-state-delta-manager>
 		<fallback-timeout>15
 		</fallback-timeout>
 		<slow-timeout>15
 		</slow-timeout>
 		<scheduled-timeout-padding>15
 		</scheduled-timeout-padding>
 		<time-in-fallback-before-link-reset>15
 		</time-in-fallback-before-link-reset>
 		<time-in-fallback-after-link-reset-before-full-reset>15
 		</time-in-fallback-after-link-reset-before-full-reset>
 	</sequenced-state-delta-manager>
</authoring-environment>
Mime Types The data type is MimeTypesConfig.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<mime-types merge="replace">
    <mime-type type="application/javascript"/>
    <mime-type type="application/octet-stream"/>
    <mime-type type="application/pdf"/>
    <mime-type type="application/xml"/>
		  <mime-type type="application/xml-dtd"/>
		  <mime-type type="application/zip"/>		
    <mime-type type="image/gif"/>
    <mime-type type="image/jpeg"/>
    <mime-type type="image/png"/>
		  <mime-type type="text/calendar"/>
		  <mime-type type="text/css"/>
		  <mime-type type="text/csv"/>
		  <mime-type type="text/html"/>
		  <mime-type type="text/rtf"/>
	</mime-types>
</authoring-environment>
Repository Broken Ping Time Specify an integer value. The default value is 15000 if the value is set to 0 or a value is not specified.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<repository-broken-ping-time merge="replace">
	</repository-broken-ping-time>
</authoring-environment>
Repository Max Wait During Shutdown Specify an integer value. The default value is 3000 if the value is set to 0 or a value is not specified.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<repository-max-wait-during-shutdown merge="replace">
	</repository-max-wait-during-shutdown>
</authoring-environment>
Repository Ping Delay Specify an integer value. The default value is 15000 if the value is set to 0 or a value is not specified.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<repository-ping-delay merge="replace">
	</repository-ping-delay>
</authoring-environment>
Repository Slow Ping Time Specify an integer value. The default value is 7500 if the value is set to 0 or a value is not specified.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<repository-slow-ping-time merge="replace">
	</repository-slow-ping-time>
</authoring-environment>
Add Redirect URL Credentials Specifies whether the credentials are permitted to be passed in IBM® Business Process Manager URLs. For example, a service can be started directly from IBM Process Designer without presenting a login screen. The default value is true.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<add-redirect-url-credentials merge="replace">true
	</add-redirect-url-credentials>
</authoring-environment>
Deploy Snapshot Using HTTPS Specifies whether the Process Center Server uses HTTPS to deploy process applications and toolkits to process servers. If the property is set to the default value of true and all process servers are secure, then communication from Process Center to Process Server will work with HTTP Secure (HTTPS) or HTTP over SSL. However, if you have a mix of secure and non-secure servers, Process Center can only communicate with Process Servers that are configured to work with this mixed configuration.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<deploy-snapshot-using-https merge="replace">true
	</deploy-snapshot-using-https>
</authoring-environment>
Encode Redirect URL Credentials Specifies whether the credentials that are passed in an IBM® Business Process Manager URL that implements redirect-login.jsp are encoded. For example, you can encode credentials in a URL that is used to start a service directly from IBM Process Designer. By default, this property is set to true, which specifies that the credentials passed in an IBM BPM URL are encoded. If you change the setting to false, the URL is composed with credentials in plain text.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<encode-redirect-url-credentials merge="replace">true
	</encode-redirect-url-credentials>
</authoring-environment>
Use Portal For Preview Specify a boolean data type. The default value is true.
<authoring-environment merge="mergeChildren">
	<use-portal-for-preview merge="replace">true
	</use-portal-for-preview>
</authoring-environment>

Ports

Process Designer communicates with Process Center or Process Server using the following ports depending on your security, endpoint, and httpProtocolOnly settings. If you have a firewall or proxy server, or are running a service that forwards the ports, check that communication on the following ports is open.
Note: By default, only the WC_defaulthost_secure port is used.
Table 1. Process Center ports accessed by Process Designer
Port Name Cluster Communication protocol
BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS Application cluster Object Request Broker (ORB) - Remote Method Invocation (RMI) over Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP)
CSIV2_SSL_SERVERAUTH_LISTENER_ADDRESS Application cluster ORB (RMI over IIOP)
ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS Application cluster ORB (RMI over IIOP)
SIB_ENDPOINT_ADDRESS Messaging cluster Java™ Message Service (JMS) over service integration bus (SIB)
SIB_ENDPOINT_SECURE_ADDRESS Messaging cluster JMS over SIB
WC_defaulthost Application cluster HTTP
WC_defaulthost_secure Application cluster HTTPS

To determine the ports used by your Process Center environment, see the WebSphere® Application Server administrative console Ports collection page for the appropriate cluster member. Click Server Types > WebSphere application servers > server_name > Communications > Ports.

Troubleshooting

Trace support exists for logging the configuration object that is obtained and used by Process Designer. You should increase the-Djava.util.logging level to either the ALL or CONFIG level as described in the topic Troubleshooting Process Designer and Process Center connectivity. This will cause the configuration values that are made available by Process Center to Process Designer to be written to the Eclipse .log file. Search the log for the AuthoringEnvironmentConfig string and examine the listed properties to ensure that the values of the properties are correct.

For information about troubleshooting connections between Process Designer and Process Center, see the topic Troubleshooting Process Designer and Process Center connectivity.

Other sources of information

Other relevant information is found in the following topics:

Parent topic: Connections in IBM Business Process Manager