Setting preferences

IBM® Process Designer provides several settings to control the appearance and functionality of the editors and interfaces that it includes.

Process Designer preferences

The following steps describe how to access the preference settings and the following table describes the options that are available:
  1. Select File > Preferences from the main menu.
  2. Click the IBM BPM entry to display the available options.
  3. Click the option that you want. For example, to set the user name for Blueworks Live™ process subscriptions, click the Blueworks Live option.
Table 1. Options for IBM Process Designer preferences
Option Description
Blueworks Live Set the Blueworks Live server URL and email address for Blueworks Live process subscriptions.
Tip: Changing the email address or the URL logs you out of Blueworks Live.
Capabilities Control the capabilities of the current user. For example, to create external activities in IBM Process Designer, you must enable IBM BPM Developer Capability and IBM BPM Advanced Features.
Decisions Control the locale setting for BAL Rules.
JavaScript Set preferences for the JavaScript editor included in IBM Process Designer. For example, you can choose whether to display JavaScript warnings.
Optimizer Settings Set options for the Optimizer. For example, the KPI thresholds that are used by the Visualization Modes are the thresholds from the current working version of your process application or toolkit. If you want to use the KPI thresholds from the snapshot (version) of your process application or toolkit that was most recently run and tracked, change the Optimizer to the following preference setting: Use the KPI threshold values from the actual version of the Process App/Toolkit.
Passwords Manage the passwords that are stored when running tasks from the Inspector.
Web Browser Select the web browser to use when web pages are opened from IBM Process Designer. If you do not see a particular external web browser as an option, click New to add it.

Process Center Console preferences

To set the locale for IBM Process Center Console and Process Designer, access the Process Center Console by opening your web browser to the following location:http://[host_name]:[port]/ProcessCenter. Click Preferences in the upper right corner and choose the language that you want from the list. When you change the locale, you must exit and then restart IBM Process Designer for the change to take effect. (When you are accessing Process Center Console from a browser, you can log out and then log back in for the change to take effect.)

The locale preference that you selected applies to the user who logs in. Each IBM Business Process Manager interface that is started by the same user in the same environment uses this preference setting.

Process Designer XML configuration 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. Based on your business requirements, you might want to change the properties of Process Designer.

For IBM BPM XML configuration settings that are related to Process Designer, see the following table that contains properties 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 set (which is the default), communication between Process Designer and Process Center is limited to using HTTP or HTTPS protocols instead of RMI with JMS.

Note that if the attribute is not set, HTTP or HTTPS communication still occurs between some Process Designer components and Process Center, but not exclusively.

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>
Parent topic: Getting started with IBM Process Designer