What's new in IBM Business Automation Workflow V20.0.0.1

Business Automation Workflow is on containers

Run your projects in an alternative runtime environment that boasts numerous advantages

Business Automation Workflow provides a new container runtime environment. You can choose to install your projects in the traditional WebSphere runtime environment or in the new container runtime environment. When you create a new project in IBM Workflow Center (such as a case solution, process app, or toolkit), you must select one of the following options for the target environment:

• Traditional
• Traditional or Container

If you have an existing project, you can change the target environment at any time.

If you choose the Traditional option for the target environment, your project can be installed and run only in the traditional environment. If you choose the Traditional or Container option for the target environment, your project can be installed and run in either the traditional environment or the newer container environment. Your project artifacts must be compatible with both environments. For more information about Business Automation Workflow on a container environment, see Runtime environments and Editing project settings.

Note: In the documentation,

• The  Traditional:  tag indicates information that applies only to Business Automation Workflow in the traditional runtime environment.
• The  Containers:  tag indicates information that applies only to Business Automation Workflow in a containers environment.
• Information that is not tagged applies to both traditional and container environments.

Use comprehensive new validation capabilities to identify project artifacts that are not compatible with the target environment

When you select a different target environment for an existing project, the dependent toolkits and artifacts in the project are automatically validated to ensure that they are compatible with the new target environment. If there are incompatible dependent toolkits or artifacts, the Validation pane in Process Designer displays the critical errors that must be fixed to enable the project to be installed or run. These critical errors are flagged with the prefix [Critical]. In Workflow Center, snapshots that have critical errors are flagged as Not installable.

Typically, critical errors in this context are the result of selecting a Traditional or Container target environment for a project that contains artifacts that are not supported in the environment, such as integration services and BPDs. These unsupported artifacts must be converted or removed. For more information, see Feature support for Business Automation Workflow on containers, Artifact support in traditional and container runtime environments, and Converting the target environment of projects.

Easily convert project artifacts that are not compatible with the target environment

If your project contains dependent toolkits or artifacts that are not compatible with a selected new target environment, a Target Environment Conversion tab is displayed. This tab is available in both the Process App Settings view and the Toolkit Settings view of Process Designer. On the Target Environment Conversion tab, you can convert, fix, or remove incompatible toolkits and artifacts that would prevent your project from being installed or run in the target environment. For more information, see Converting the target environment of projects.

Integrate Business Automation Workflow on containers with IBM Business Automation Insights

You can integrate Business Automation Workflow on containers with Business Automation Insights by installing these products together and configuring the custom resource accordingly. After you complete the integration, a User Tasks dashboard is available in the Business Automation Insights Kibana dashboard and the event messages will be available in the Business Automation Insights configured egress topic.

Use new custom routing expressions to set the team and user for a task

In Process Designer, you can take advantage of the new custom routing expressions to set the team and user for a task. The use of custom routing in processes is fully supported on container environments. For more information, see Assigning teams to process activities.

Configure Business Automation Workflow to work with external Business Automation Navigator and FileNet® Content Manager container on a Kubernetes environment with a Docker server

You can now configure your Business Automation Workflow deployment environment to use an external Business Automation Navigator container and FileNet Content Manager container for a Business Automation Workflow user. For more information, see Configuring Business Automation Workflow with an external Content Platform Engine container and Configuring Business Automation Workflow with an external Business Automation Navigator container.

Work more efficiently

Share documents and folders with external users by using the external Share feature in IBM Content Navigator

In the Case Client, the external Share feature enables case workers to securely share case documents and folders with external users. In Case Builder, the external Share feature is available for the Case Information widget, Attachments widget, and Content List widget. For more information, see Case Information widget.

Business Automation Workflow processes are now represented in the All Assigned Work in-basket

In the Case Client, the All Assigned Work in-basket displays a list of all assigned and claimed work items for all case workers in every role. Although these work items always originated solely from FileNet P8 processes, the work items can now also originate from Business Automation Workflow processes. For more information, see Configuring in-baskets for roles.

Note: From V20.0.0.2 onwards, the All Assigned Work in-basket has the following limitation: only Business Automation Workflow admin users can view all user tasks originating from Business Automation Workflow. Non-admin users will only see the tasks that are assigned to them, if any.

Discover a new way to make your workplace more efficient

With task prioritization, a skill score and a performance score are predicted for every task in a worker's task list relative to all the other workers. Then, this list is sorted, placing the high-valued, high-skill, and high-performance tasks at the top so a worker can then prioritize his or her time on the highest valued tasks, leading to an overall more effective workplace. For more information, see Installing, configuring, and administering Machine Learning Server.

Index and retrieve instances in a federated environment

If you use an external Elasticsearch cluster, you can now enable indexing of process instances for a BPD federated system. IBM Process Federation Server provides a new Instance List REST API that you can then use to retrieve a list of BPD process instances for the calling user. For more information, see Enabling process instance indexing.

Enjoy the Carbon theme enhancements in Case Builder

The Case Builder user interface has been updated to be more consistent with Workflow Center and other Workflow platform offerings. A new Overview tab has been added and the following elements have been moved to it:

• Basic solution information and description
• The Deliver action icon
• The Click to see more actions menu

Set up a new external Content Platform Engine or configure Business Automation Workflow to work with an external Content Platform Engine by using reassign approaches

You might be currently working with the BPM content store to store Enterprise Content Manager (ECM) information in Business Automation Workflow. But you might want to work instead with an external ECM system. You can now set up a new Content Platform Engine and configure it to work with Business Automation Workflow or you can choose to reassign the domain or reassign the BPM object stores to the domain of an existing FileNet Content Manager when you switch to an external Content Platform Engine. For more information, see Configuring a new external Content Platform Engine and Reassigning the BPM content store.

APIs

Automate administrative actions

To automate administrative actions for Business Automation Workflow, use Operations REST APIs instead of wsadmin commands. To perform administrative actions for applications running in the container environment, you must use Operations REST APIs. For more information about Operations REST APIs, see IBM Business Automation Workflow Operations REST APIs.

Regenerate or update themes easily

Use new Swagger Operations REST APIs to regenerate or update themes. Using POST /std/bpm/containers/{container}/regenerate_theme, you can regenerate the runtime theme CSS for a project (process app, case solution, or toolkit) snapshot on Workflow Center or Workflow Server. Using POST /std/bpm/containers/{container}/versions/{version}/update_theme, you can make a project look like another project without redeploying the project. For more information, see Swagger UI.

Supported configurations

Find out about the supported configurations for Business Automation Workflow.