Deprecated and removed features of IBM Business Process Manager V8.5
IBM® Business Process Manager V8.5 extends capabilities that are found in previous versions of IBM Business Process Manager, IBM Integration Designer, WebSphere® Lombardi Edition, WebSphere Process Server, and other business process management products. Some features of those products are deprecated and removed in IBM BPM V8.5.
If a function is listed here as deprecated, or certain
system requirements are indicated as deprecated on the 
Software Product Compatibility Reports website,
IBM might remove this capability or support in a subsequent release
of the product. Future investment will focus on follow-on technologies
or the strategic function that is listed under Action. Typically,
a function is not deprecated unless an equivalent alternative is provided
or available. A function is not removed for at least two releases
after deprecating the function is declared. In rare cases, it might
be necessary to remove functions sooner; such cases are indicated
in the descriptions of these removed functions.
The following items are deprecated in IBM Business Process Manager V8.5 from previous releases.
| Deprecated functions | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| The Participant Groups business object under the Processes list in IBM Process Designer | The Participant Groups business object under the Processes list is deprecated in IBM Process Designer V8.5. The Using Expression and System options to define a group of members are also deprecated. | Use the Team business
object from the list of components under Processes in
the Designer view. You can use Team to define
a team of members and a team of managers for your team. In addition
to a static team of users and groups, you can now use a team retrieval
service to define a dynamic team. However, you cannot define a team
of managers if your team is defined by a custom JavaScript expression
or the System option. If you migrate your earlier process applications that were built using Participant Groups into IBM BPM V8.5, all of your defined participant groups run correctly, but are called Teams in the Designer view. In addition, if you define and assign a team of managers after you migrate your process applications, you can use the new Team Performance dashboard to manage tasks for instances that are in progress. |
| APIs for the participant groups | The following JavaScript API methods
for participant groups are deprecated in IBM Business
Process Manager V8.5:
The REST API method /rest/bpm/wle/v1/participantGroup/{participantGroupId} is also deprecated. |
Instead of JavaScript API methods for
participant groups, you must use the following JavaScript API methods
for the Teams business object:
Instead of the deprecated REST API method, use /rest/bpm/wle/v1/team/{teamId} for Teams. |
| The assignment options such as Last User in Lane, Routing Policy, List of Users, and Custom under an Activity's Properties in IBM Process Designer | The assignment options such as Last User in Lane, Routing Policy, List of Users, and Custom from the Assign To list in the Assignments section under an Activity's Properties in IBM Process Designer V8.5 are now deprecated. The functionality to assign a runtime task to a team of members according to a routing policy, an ad hoc list of users, or a user-specified JavaScript expression is deprecated. | Instead of Last User in
Lane, select Lane from the AssignTo list
and select Last User from the User
Distribution list in the Assignments section
under an Activity's Properties. Instead of Routing Policy, List of Users, and Custom options, select the Team business object from the AssignTo list. You can use the team retrieval and team filter services to define a team of members dynamically within the service implementation. The runtime environment in IBM BPM V8.5 then uses the Team business object that is returned by the service for assignments. |
| The Team Manager Group option under the Group Management option under User Management menu in the Server Admin area of the Process Admin Console | The Team Manager Group option under the Group Management option under User Management menu in the Server Admin area of the Process Admin Console is deprecated for V8.5. This option was used to designate a group of members as the Team Manager Group. | Use the Team business object under the Processes list in IBM Process Designer to define a team of managers while you are modeling the process. This business object eliminates the requirement to use the Process Admin Console to add the group of managers after the process application is deployed. |
 Viewer iWidgets |
The Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Google Gadgets, and Web Feed iWidgets in the Viewers category of the Process Portal spaces palette are deprecated in IBM Business Process Manager V8.5. | Use the Web Site iWidget with links
to pages and documents to achieve the same result as the Document,
Presentation, Spreadsheet, and Web Feed iWidgets. The Document List
and Document Viewer coach controls provide similar functionality with
better process integration compared to the Document, Presentation,
and Spreadsheet iWidgets. Note: The iGoogle service that is used by
the Google Gadget iWidget might no longer be available for use after
November 01, 2013. For more information from Google regarding the
removal of support for iGoogle, see
What's happening to iGoogle?. |
| Use of Custom
iWidgets |
To create custom iWidgets, you create the file for the iWidgets, create a catalog file to register the iWidgets, and then package and deploy the iWidgets. The functionality to install or uninstall custom iWidget files into the Business Space palette is deprecated in IBM Business Process Manager V8.5. | If you are using IBM BPM Process Portal and coaches, use custom coach based dashboards. If you are using custom iWidgets with Human Task iWidgets in IBM Business Process Manager Advanced, an alternative is to use WebSphere Portal portlets along with the Human Task iWidgets on portal pages. For more information, see Generating WebSphere Portal portlets. |
| Process Performance and My Team Performance dashboards in Process Portal. These dashboards were formerly known as scoreboards in releases before IBM Business Process Manager V8.0. | Process Performance and My Team Performance
dashboards in Process Portal are
now deprecated and not exposed by default. The Report and Scoreboard components continue to be deprecated since IBM BPM V8.0. Important: The deprecation of the old-style dashboards and the
Report and Scoreboard components does not include the ad hoc reporting
capabilities included in Process Portal. For
information on ad hoc reports, see Creating ad
hoc reports in Process Portal.
|
The deprecated scoreboards are replaced
by the new-style Process Performance and Team Performance dashboards,
which are now available in Process Portal. If
you want to expose any of the deprecated scoreboards, you must open
the Process Portal Application in Process Designer. Under
the Performance tab, select the intended scoreboard from the Exposing
section. For more information, see Exposing performance scoreboards. Instead of using the deprecated reporting capabilities, use Coaches and Coach views to create dashboards similar to the new Process Performance and Team Performance dashboards. For more information, see Creating user interfaces for business processes. You can also enable the deprecated reporting in Process Designer. For more information, see Defining reports in Process Designer (deprecated). |
| Common Event Infrastructure (CEI) and Common Base Event Browser in the IBM Process Server administrative console | Common Event Infrastructure (CEI) and
Common Base Event Browser in the IBM Process
Server administrative
console are deprecated in IBM Business
Process Manager V8.5. The Common Event Infrastructure (CEI) is an embeddable technology that is intended to provide basic event management services to business process applications. CEI is not configured by default and the CEI APIs are also deprecated. The Common Base Event Browser is used to retrieve and view events from the CEI database. This browser is now removed. Common Base Event events are supported in a proprietary format, and in XML. There are CEI configuration settings to format the Common Base Event messages as XML or the proprietary format. The Common Base Event proprietary format is now deprecated. The Common Base Event loggers WBIEventMonitor.LOG and WBIEventMonitor.CEI, which are the trace settings to send Common Base Event events to CEI or trace logs are also deprecated. |
Instead of the CEI APIs, use the Mediation
Flow Component (MFC) node, Java Messaging Service (JMS), Representation
State Transfer (REST) APIs, or Web Services Notification (WS-N) to
emit events. For more information, see Event emitting methods. Instead of the Common Base Event format, the only supported event formats are XML or Common Base Event events that are serialized in XML format. CEI server configurations must use the XML format to send and receive data. Configure CEI to distribute events in the XML format and update applications that use these events to expect XML. Alternatively, you can use IBM Business Monitor V8.0.1 to capture and replay events. |
| The Header tab of the Properties view of an outgoing Web Service Integration component | Use of the Header tab of the Properties view to create or remove a SOAP header from outbound web service requests is deprecated. | To add a SOAP header, map a system variable or a newly created variable into the Input Header Mapping or Output Header Mapping fields under the Data Mapping tab of the Properties view of an outgoing Web Service Integration component. You can create a variable of the type SOAPHeader or SOAPHeaders under the Variables tab of the Properties view. For more information, see Creating implicit SOAP headers for outbound SOAP web service requests. |
The following items are removed in IBM Business Process Manager V8.5 from previous releases:
| Removed functions | Description | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Common Base Event Browser in the IBM Process Server administrative console | Common Base Event Browser in the IBM Process
Server administrative
console is removed fromIBM Business
Process Manager V8.5. It was not available by default, but as a separate download package. |
Configure CEI to distribute events in the XML format and update applications that use these events to expect XML. Alternatively, you can use IBM Business Monitor V8.0.1 to capture and replay events. |
| Database design generator tool | The database design generator tools DbDesignGenerator.bat and DbDesignGenerator.sh are removed. Using the database design generator tool was optional. | Enter the information about your database directly into the Profile Management Tool, or the response file that is passed to the BPMConfig tool. |
| Use of the typical installation option to create a stand-alone Process Center or Process Server profile | You can no longer create a stand-alone Process Center or Process Server profile using the typical installation option from the V8.5 launchpad for IBM Business Process Manager Standard, Advanced, and Advanced: Process Server. However, this functionality is still available in IBM Business Process Manager Express. | Using the typical installation option
from the V8.5 launchpad for IBM Business Process Manager Standard,
Advanced, and Advanced: Process Server, you can install the software
and configure the deployment manager and managed-node profiles and
configure a single cluster deployment environment that contains a
single node and single server. For IBM Business Process Manager Express, typical installation creates only a stand-alone Process Center or Process Server profile. |
| wsadmin commands that are used for configuration tasks in the IBM Process Server administrative console | Some of the wsadmin commands that are
used for configuration tasks in the IBM Process
Server administrative
console are removed. The following list of commands (grouped as per
the command group) are now removed:
|
Use the new BPMConfig command-line utility to complete all tasks that are related to configuration of the deployment environment. |
| Command-line utilities for migration tasks that are used in the IBM Process Server administrative console | The BPMCreateTargetProfile, BPMMigrateProfile, BPMMigrateCluster, and BPMSnapshotSourceProfile command-line utilities are removed. These utilities were used for migration tasks in the IBM Process Server administrative console and are now removed. | Use the BPMMigrate command-line utility instead. |
| The IBM Integration Designer for WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus option on the IBM Integration Designer launchpad and the qesb profile | The IBM Integration Designer for WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus option is removed from the installation program for IBM Integration Designer V8.5. This option is no longer available from the launchpad for Integration Designer. The qesb profile for IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus is also removed. | To test mediation modules in Integration
Designer, use IBM Process Server. If you are migrating from a previous version of WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus and intend to deploy the mediation modules only, choose the BPM Advanced-only Process Server as the type of deployment environment for your deployment manager profile. |
| The IBM Integration Designer for IBM Business Monitor option on the IBM Integration Designer launchpad | The IBM Integration Designer for IBM Business Monitor option is removed from the installation program for IBM Integration Designer V8.5. This option is no longer available from the launchpad for Integration Designer. | Although you cannot install IBM Business Monitor from the Integration Designer launchpad, you can author the monitor models in Integration Designer V8.5 and deploy them to a remote Business Monitor V8.0.1 server. |
| IBM Forms software that is bundled with the installation program for IBM Integration Designer V8.5 | The IBM Forms
software such as  IBM Forms
Designer, IBM Forms
Viewer, and IBM Forms Server
are removed from the installation program for IBM Integration
Designer V8.5. These
options are no longer available from the launchpad for Integration
Designer.The Integration Designer wizards for IBM Forms that are used to generate an initial human task user interface continue to be deprecated and hidden. |
You can download the IBM Forms software from an external website and
install it for use in Integration
Designer. Instead
of the Integration
Designer wizards
for IBM Forms, use one of the
following methods to generate a human task user interface:
See Defining user interfaces for a human task for more information. |
| IBM Business Process Manager Advanced Client option that is shipped as part of the IBM Business Process Manager Advanced | IBM Business Process Manager Advanced Client feature for all platforms (distributed and z/OS) is removed from the installation program for IBM Business Process Manager Advanced V8.5. | Instead of the existing proprietary IBM Process Server client invocation technology (EJB), use the strategic connectivity interfaces that are available in web services and the REST API. |