What's new in IBM Business Process Manager V8.5.6

IBM® Business Process Manager V8.5.6 introduces many new features.

Installation and configuration

New supported environments and databases

You now have the option to install IBM WebSphere® SDK Java™ Technology Edition 7.0 or 7.1 and switch between Java SDK versions. See Switching the edition of Java used in IBM BPM.
On Power® 8 hardware, you can run IBM Business Process Manager on Ubuntu Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise 12.
You can use Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise database or Oracle 12c database.
To run IBM Business Process Manager in IBM PureApplication® System, use IBM Business Process Manager Pattern 8.5.6.

Extract and compare configurations

You can extract a human-readable external representation of IBM BPM configuration data from two V8.5.6 deployment environments. You can use your favorite comparison tool to compare the differences in the extracted configuration files and understand the differences in configuration. See Exporting configuration properties for comparison.

Clone the deployment environment

You can export the configuration properties from an existing deployment environment, modify the properties by using the IBM BPM Configuration editor, and then create another deployment environment on a different IBM BPM installation that is similar to the exported deployment environment (a clone with modifications). See Cloning the deployment environment.

Use new BPMConfig parameters

BPMConfig -export and BPMConfig -migrate support the following additional properties:
- Single sign-on (SSO) configuration properties (bpm.cell.singlesignon.*)
- Log and trace tuning parameters (diagnosticTraceEnable and ibmServiceLogEnable)
- Performance tuning properties:
  - Transaction service properties (bpm.dmgr.transactionService.*)
  - Web container properties (bpm.de.node.#.clusterMember.#.webContainer.*)
  - disableWSAddressCaching (JVM custom property)
BPMConfig -update supports a -performanceTuning option so that you can update all the performance properties for the deployment environment that is specified in the configuration file.
BPMConfig -upgrade -de supports a new -component option to add an IBM BPM document store to an existing IBM BPM deployment environment that uses DB2® for z/OS®, for example
```
BPMConfig -upgrade -de de_name -component EmbeddedECM
```

See BPMConfig command-line utility and Configuration properties for the BPMConfig command.

Distinguish between advanced content across deployment environments

You can now set the AdvancedDeploymentDEScoped property in each deployment environment to distinguish between advanced content in business-level applications when there is more than one deployment environment in the cell. Setting this property adds the deployment name to the application name.

Reset endpoint service caches

You can use the new clearBPMEndpointServiceCache command to reset the endpoint service caches of all running servers, including the endpoint service configuration cache and the endpoint service URL cache, automating the previous manual loop. See clearBPMEndpointServiceCache command.

Administer IBM BPM virtual hosts

Use the following new commands to administer IBM BPM virtual hosts:

deleteBPMVirtualHost deletes a virtual host. See deleteBPMVirtualHost command.
getBPMDefaultVirtualHost gets the default virtual host. See getBPMDefaultVirtualHost command.
getBPMVirtualHost displays the attributes of a virtual host. See getBPMVirtualHost command.
setBPMDefaultVirtualHost sets the default virtual host. See setBPMDefaultVirtualHost command.
setBPMVirtualHost creates or updates a virtual host. See setBPMVirtualHost command.

Migration

Extract and import a WebSphere Application Server configuration: In addition to the customized configuration exported by the BPMConfig –migrate command, you can now use the exportWASConfig.py script to export customized WebSphere Application Server configuration, including data sources, authentication aliases, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) settings, from your source environment. You can refer to this configuration to manually update the target environment or use the importWASConfig.py script to import the configuration after the target environment is configured. See exportWASConfig.py script and importWASConfig.py script.
Follow new instructions to migrate to new hardware: Read the instructions for migrating your IBM Business Process Manager V8.5.6 environment, including applications and running instances, to the same version on new hardware. See Migrating IBM BPM to new hardware.

Maintainability and serviceability

Script the installation of process application snapshots by using generic installation packages

Because there is now a generic installation package that omits migration information for a specific process server, you no longer need to export an installation package for each process server. Instead, you can use the same generic installation package and provide that information when you install the snapshot onto a process server. Existing scripts can continue to use existing wsadmin commands to install custom installation package.

Use new or enhanced commands to perform more tasks

BPMDeactivate has two new parameters:

-suspendAllBPDInstances causes the command to suspend active instances instead of letting them run to completion.
-outputFile causes the command to output messages to a specified location.

BPMInstallPackage is a new command that uses an installation package to install a process application snapshot onto a process server. Unlike the BPMInstallOfflinePackage command, which uses custom installation packages only, the BPMInstallPackage command can use generic or custom installation packages.

BPMUpdateInstallationInformation is a new command that associates a generic installation package with a specific offline process server. Use this command to keep Process Centersynchronized with the content that is on the offline process server. For connected process servers, the association happens automatically.

BPMTasksCleanup is a new command that deletes tasks from process instances to improve system performance and migration performance. Use this command on long-running process instances that build up many completed task instances.

Use enhanced information to detect and handle infinite loops in services and process instances

For more information on using the loop-detection-duration and loop-detection-exception properties in the 99Local.xml and 100Custom.xml files, see Properties for detecting infinite loops.

Process Designer and Process Center

Create user interfaces that are enabled for multiple device types

You can specify whether you want a new client-side human service or coach view to be used on multiple device types. When you configure your client-side human service or coach view for use on multiple devices, the coach palette is filtered to provide only responsive controls for all the new coaches and coach content. See Modeling client-side human services.
To run your applications on multiple device types, you can use different methods to acquire the multiple device-ready coach views:

Build your own coach views by using the responsive JavaScript library.
Download and use the Responsive Coaches toolkit that is provided as a technology demonstration from IBM. See Getting responsive coach view toolkits.
Use third-party coach views from business partners.

Use controls that can run on any device

The Responsive Coaches toolkit, which is available as a technology demonstration that you can download, contains a set of controls. You can use these controls to design applications that can run on various device types, such as mobile and desktop devices.

All the coach views in the Responsive Coaches toolkit are suitable for use on both desktop and mobile devices. If you add the toolkit as a dependency in your process application and you flag your client-side human service or coach view as intended for use on multiple devices, the controls in the Responsive Coaches toolkit appear in the coach palette and default coach content from the Responsive Coaches toolkit, such as the OK button, is used. See Controls in the Responsive Coaches toolkit.

Generate MobileFirst applications from mobile-friendly IBM BPM client-side human services

You can export IBM BPM client-side human services that are configured to be used on multiple devices as MobileFirst projects. The MobileFirst projects can be imported into IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation and used to develop, optimize, and secure applications that can be deployed to the mobile device of your choice. For more information, see Managing client-side human services for multiple devices.

You can work with IBM BPM using the Safari browser on iOS 7 on an iPad.

Secure access to IBM BPM REST APIs from IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation by using MobileFirst adapters

A new integrated MobileFirst adapter solution simplifies the development of mobile applications by providing secure access from IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation to IBM BPM REST APIs. Generic and application-specific adapters that are deployed on the MobileFirst server mediate the communication between your mobile applications and the IBM BPM server. The mobile applications call procedures in the MobileFirst adapters. The adapters translate the procedure calls from the mobile applications into REST API invocations, receive results from the IBM BPM server, and communicate the results back to the mobile applications. In this way, the MobileFirst adapter solution helps create native or hybrid applications that can run on various mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. For more information, see Using IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation to enable IBM BPM process applications in mobile environments.

Update process applications for seamless use in IBM BPM V8.5.6

Typically, when you import process applications that use coach validation features from IBM BPM versions earlier than V8.5.6, you can continue using the process applications without additional configuration changes. However, when you update the imported process applications to use the latest versions of the Coaches toolkit and the System Data toolkit, you must update the references to the CoachValidation and CoachValidationError classes to be the same as those defined in the System Data toolkit V8.5.6. To locate the unresolved references, you can use the validation error feature in Process Designer. The CoachValidation and CoachValidationError classes were moved from the Coaches toolkit to the System Data toolkit.

Create relationships between process instances

You can create relationships between process instances so that IBM Process Portal users can view all the information for their cases and processes. See Creating relationships between process instances.

SOAP 1.2 protocol support

When your business process works with outbound or inbound web services, you can use the SOAP 1.2 protocol. SOAP 1.2 is the latest version of this web services protocol for exchanging information. See Configuring a Web Service Integration component.

More efficiently use SAP Solution Manager integration

You can now generate guided workflows interactively by using SAP Transaction coach views that you can build by dragging SAP components from specified SAP transactions. See Generating guided workflows automatically or manually.

Furthermore, within a process application, business process definitions (BPDs) that have SAP information can be associated with business scenarios. You can define and manage the business scenarios that a BPD belongs to in the custom properties of the BPD. You can import SAP business scenarios into IBM BPM as smart folders. The smart folders are directly created from the imported SAP business scenarios and no longer require tagging. By using the configurable import and export functions, you can specify which processes or tasks that contain SAP transactions are to be excluded from the import or export.
Also, a new SAP event pattern is provided in Integration Designer to facilitate the receipt of message events from SAP modules based on existing SCA interfaces.

For more information, see SAP Solution Manager integration.

This topic applies only to the IBM Business Process Manager Advanced configuration.

Basic Case Management Feature

Use an external Enterprise Content Management server: You can use a new or existing external Enterprise Content Management server for the applications you develop with the Case Type editor. Your applications can be integrated with IBM Content Foundation products on IBM FileNet® Content Manager. See Planning for an external Enterprise Content Management server.

This topic applies only to the IBM Business Process Manager Standard configuration.

Process Federation Server

Enjoy centralized access to task information

Process Federation Server is a new IBM BPM server that is based on WebSphere Application Server Liberty Network Deployment. It provides centralized access to task information that is anywhere in the federated IBM BPM environment.

The federated environment can include any of the following IBM BPM server environments:

Multiple IBM BPM cells
Multiple IBM BPM deployment environments
Multiple IBM BPM releases

Transition from previous versions of IBM BPM more easily

When you transition from one IBM BPM version to another, it can take several months until all your processes run on the new version. Because you can include previous versions of IBM BPM in your federated environment, you can gradually phase out process applications that are still running on the previous versions while new versions of the process applications run on the latest version of IBM BPM.

See federated BPEL- and BPD-related task information together

In previous versions of IBM BPM, it wasn't easy to combine BPEL- and BPD-related task information into one list of tasks for process participants. Process Federation Server aggregates both BPD and BPEL-related work from all the IBM BPM systems, including systems that run previous versions of IBM BPM.

For more information, see:

Process Admin Console

Use a faster and improved Process Inspector

Not only has the performance and accessibility of Process Inspector improved, the user interface is visually and functionally improved as well. For example,

When you scroll to the bottom of the list of displayed results, additional results automatically load.
You can filter activities and tasks by state in the details area and you can modify due dates.
You can search for process instances by severity type and last modified time. After you create a search, you can bookmark it to rerun the search.
You can manage ad hoc activities and managing process instances without tasks.
You can manage instance relationships, which are new for IBM Business Process Manager V8.5.6.

Create alert definitions to monitor process instances and tasks

You can now create alert definitions that trigger alerts when the number of process instances or tasks go beyond a specified threshold. For example, you can create an alert definition that triggers when the number of instances reaches a number that impacts performance. You can use APIs to create an application or another service or implementation to capture and display these alerts. For example, you can create a dashboard to display alerts in the Process Admin Console. See Monitoring the number of process instances and tasks.

Emergency repair system

Investigate and repair your system: The emergency repair system provides an alternative way for administrators to investigate and repair database-backed resources such as process instances. By using the emergency repair system, you can investigate and repair your system even if all application cluster members are busy or down and cannot be started again (for example, because of a severe error like an infinite loop in a process application). See Creating and using an emergency repair system.