What's new in IBM Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1

Introduction

In this article, I am going to explain some of the new features of Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1. Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1 combines IBM® Business Process Manager and IBM Case Manager in a single product and a single installation. IBM Content Navigator and the Content Platform Engine are included in the product installation. Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1 is now available for you to download and upgrade today.

Overview

IBM Business Automation Workflow 18.0.0.1 highlights

• Ø Experience multiple features from unified products
• Ø The changes to the product's terminology
• Ø Experience enhanced usability in the web IBM Process Designer
• o Organize library items in custom smart folders
• o Gain greater insight into problems in scripts through improved validation
• Ø Monitor system maintenance data in the Process Admin Console
• Ø Import environment variables and servers from other process applications or toolkits
• Ø Identify resource issues by using Performance Monitoring
• Ø Model gateway decisions using decision tables or action rules in Process Designer
• Ø Benefit from a single sign-on experience
• Ø Specify a common logout page for third-party authentication products
• Ø Work with process launch steps and tasks more quickly in the Work Dashboard
• Ø Run your process and its inline user tasks and robot tasks immediately after an IBM Blueworks Live import occurs
• Ø Author robot tasks in your processes and implement them in IBM Robotic Process Automation (IBM RPA) with Automation Anywhere
• Ø Test your robot tasks by manually playing them back in the generated UI
• Ø Generate a bot definition from a robot task and implement the bot in IBM RPA with Automation Anywhere
• Ø Fail user tasks and robot tasks using a new REST API
• Ø Share saved searches with teams by using the new Global Team REST API

What's New in IBM Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1

Experience multiple features from unified products

Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1 combines IBM® Business Process Manager and IBM Case Manager in a single product and a single installation. IBM Content Navigator and the Content Platform Engine are included in the product installation.

Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1 works with IBM Integration Designer V8.5.7. For the Integration Designer V8.5.7 documentation

Terminology changes

The documentation and product user interfaces have changed to reflect that IBM BPM and IBM Case Manager have been unified into a single product, such as the following changes:

• IBM Business Process Manager and IBM BPM are renamed to Business Automation Workflow.
• IBM Process Center and Process Center are renamed to IBM Workflow Center and Workflow Center.
• IBM Process Server and Process Server are renamed to IBM Workflow Server and IBM Workflow Server.
• IBM Case Manager is renamed to Business Automation Workflow.
• IBM Case Manager configuration tool has been renamed to Business Automation Workflow Case configuration tool.
• IBM Case Manager administration client has been renamed to Business Automation Workflow Case administration client.
• Case Manager Builder has been renamed to Case Builder.
• Case Manager Client has been renamed to Case Client.
• The Process Designer that is included in the Content Platform Engine has been renamed to IBM FileNet Process Designer. Mentions of Process Designer refer to the Process Designer that was in IBM BPM.

Experience enhanced usability in the web IBM Process Designer

Usability functions that were available in the desktop Process Designer are now available in the web Process Designer.

Organize library items in custom smart folders in the web IBM Process Designer

You can arrange library items in custom smart folders for quick and easy access in the web Process Designer. You can use predefined smart folders, and now you can also create custom smart folders to organize library items according to your preferred criteria.

Gain greater insight into problems in scripts through improved validation in the web IBM Process Designer

With the addition of client-side JavaScript validation support, you now see and fix JavaScript semantic error messages as you work in these web Process Designer editors: the process editor, client-side human service editor, and heritage human service editor.

Monitor system maintenance data in the Process Admin Console

You can now actively monitor the amount of data generated for key process-related artifacts that can impact performance by using the System Maintenance Status feature in the Process Admin Console. When the data exceeds the established thresholds, the system notifies you with SystemOut.log file messages. You can customize the threshold settings according to your system's usage and requirements. Import environment variables and servers from other process applications or toolkits

Now you can easily duplicate environment variables and server entries that artifacts copied or moved from other process applications or toolkits refer to by using the import function in Process App settings in Process Designer.

Identify resource issues by using Performance Monitoring

You can identify potential resource issues by monitoring the usage of resources such as CPU, heap, JDBC connections, and thread pools, displaying the real-time historical data, and then looking for a correlation with process instances and tasks. To analyze the data offline, you can export the data from the dashboard to a spreadsheet.

Model gateway decisions using decision tables or action rules in Process Designer

For an exclusive or inclusive gateway, you can now define your gateway decision using decision tables and actions rules by assigning a service flow to your gateway.

Benefit from a single sign-on experience

If you have multiple Business Automation Workflow installations, you can use the new User Management Service to provide a single sign-on experience for users who use more than one instance.

Specify a common logout page for third-party authentication products

If you use a third-party authentication product that requires that all logout actions in clients are redirected to special URLs, you can specify a single logout exit page URL by setting the Security.CommonLogoutExitPage DE-level custom property.

Work with process launch steps and tasks more quickly in the Work Dashboard

If you are launching a process from a document, in either IBM Content Navigator or the Browse view of the Business Automation Workflow desktop, and the process is configured with a launch step, the Work Dashboard now automatically opens and the launch step is displayed. Similarly, if the first task in the process is assigned to you, the Work Dashboard now automatically opens and the task is displayed.

Run your process and its inline user tasks and robot tasks immediately after an IBM Blueworks Live import occurs

The Blueworks Live import now generates a process that you can run immediately after it is imported. All user tasks are now imported as inline user tasks and any Blueworks Live robot tasks are also imported as robot tasks. Variables are automatically created and data mapping is automatically performed for all tasks and services to render the process immediately runnable.

Author robot tasks in your processes and implement them in IBM Robotic Process Automation (IBM RPA) with Automation Anywhere

In your processes, you can now author robot tasks, which are tasks that are configured to be performed by a software robot rather than a human. Bots that are implemented in IBM RPA with Automation Anywhere or in other robotic process automation tools can run robot tasks. Each robot task has a specific interface that is implicitly defined by the data that is exposed to it.

Test your robot tasks by manually playing them back in the generated UI

When you finish authoring a robot task, you can manually test the robot task by playing it back using the generated UI and then complete, postpone, or fail it.

Generate a bot definition from a robot task and implement the bot in IBM RPA with Automation Anywhere

You can generate a bot definition from a robot task in a process and then download and import it into IBM RPA. The bot definition defines the steps that are needed to implement a bot in IBM RPA with Automation Anywhere. In IBM RPA with Automation Anywhere, you can capture work interactions, such as the tasks that someone performs to process an order, and then play them back by using the bot.

Fail user tasks and robot tasks using a new REST API

A new REST API enables you to fail user tasks and robot tasks with an error code and error data. For more information, see IBM Business Automation Workflow REST APIs resources and Processing user tasks by calling a REST API.

Share saved searches with teams by using the new Global Team REST API

You can now share saved searches with members of a same BPD process team instead of sharing it with everyone. The new Global Team REST API lists the teams the calling user can share saved searches with.

Conclusion

The above new features and fixes are included in Business Automation Workflow V18.0.0.1 cumulative fix (CF) 2018.06. Please wait for more new features in upcoming releases.

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