What's new in IBM Business Automation Workflow V20.0.0.2

Business Automation Workflow on containers

Use SQL integration capabilities in your process applications running in Business Automation Workflow on containers

You can now use the SQL integration capabilities that are available in the System Data toolkit to integrate your process applications with your SQL databases and content. For more information, see Invoking SQL Integration service flows.

Install based on scripts

Business Automation Workflow on containers can now be installed on a private cloud with simplified pattern-based templates, and you can now add Business Automation Workflow from a user script for production as well as evaluation purposes. For more information, see Containers: Installing IBM Business Automation Workflow.

Use Oracle or PostgreSQL databases

Business Automation Workflow on containers now supports Oracle and PostgreSQL databases. For more information, see Creating required databases.

Migrate IBM Case Manager V5.3.3 to IBM Business Automation Workflow on containers

You can migrate your IBM Case Manager V5.3.3 on-premises production environment to IBM Business Automation Workflow V20.0.0.2 on containers in Red Hat OpenShift and also to IBM Content Navigator and Content Platform Engine. For more information, see Migrating IBM Case Manager V5.3.3 to IBM Business Automation Workflow on containers.

Author and run workflows in IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation 20.0.3

With Cloud Pak for Business Automation 20.0.3, you can now author workflow applications in Business Automation Studio to run in IBM Business Automation Workflow in a Cloud Pak for Business Automation runtime environment. For more information, see IBM Business Automation Workflow in the Cloud Pak for Business Automation documentation.

Author, run and operate your workflow applications more efficiently

Expose strongly typed REST automation services

You can expose capabilities that are implemented by a process application as strongly typed REST automation services. They can be used by external clients, or they can be published and used in a low-code fashion in Cloud Pak for Business Automation 20.0.3 by using the new automation and automation service capabilities. For more information, see Creating a REST service.

Use new case APIs to create packages, file documents, and obtain the current stage

The following new APIs have been added to the TWProcessInstanceParentCase namespace in the JavaScript API for processes and service flows to help you create case packages, file case documents, and obtain the current case stage:

• createDefaultCasePackage
• createCasePackage
• fileDocumentInCase
• getCurrentStage

These APIs enhance your ability to create and work with cases from JavaScript in a process or service flow. For more information, see TWProcessInstanceParentCase in JavaScript API in processes and service flows.

Run and debug instances on a remote IBM Workflow Server

Now you can choose to run and debug instances on a remote on-premises or on-container Workflow Server to ensure it runs correctly in the production or test environment. For more information, see Configuring a traditional Business Automation Workflow to run and debug on a remote on-premises Workflow Server or Configuring an on-premises Business Automation Workflow to run and debug on a remote on-container Workflow Server for a traditional environment and Configuring a remote server for a container environment.

Assign process tasks to the same user who started the process

In the Assignments page in the properties view, the Assign To list now includes a Process Starter option that assigns the runtime task to the user who started the process. For more information, see Assigning teams to process activities.

Automatically reconnect diagram nodes when the nodes are deleted

If you delete a node with a single outgoing connection, the incoming connections to the deleted node will automatically be reconnected to the target node of the deleted node. For more information, see Tips and keyboard shortcuts for the Process Designer.

Directly refer to the BPM target store

In Process Designer, you can select the new built-in BPM target store server entry from the list of ECM servers, or in JavaScript you can reference the new constant ECMServerNames.IBM_BPM_TARGET_STORE. When working with case instances, the new server entry and constant enable you to refer to the target object store without needing to define it in the process app settings. For more information, see Building a service that integrates with an ECM system or a BPM store.

Create a new case from a process or service flow

You can start a new case from a script task in a process or service flow. The JavaScript methods used to create a new case can be called from a process running in either a case solution or a process app. For more information, see Interacting with cases and activities from processes or service flows.

Use new case page layouts built using client-side human services and case-specific views

In addition to the current widget-based case pages, you can now also create and customize your own case pages. These pages are built on the same client-side human services technology that is used by process task user interfaces and displayed seamlessly in the Case Client. For more information, see the topics Designing views, Defining case page layouts, and Adapter pages.

Leverage the new Case toolkit that provides default client-side human services and UI views for the new case pages

The Case toolkit contains the default client-side human services for the Case Details page and the Add Case page as well as a set of case-specific UI views that are used on these pages. For more information, see Views in the Case toolkit.

Use IBM Business Automation Insights to view case dashboards that use data from FileNet® P8 processes

If you are working with IBM Case Manager V5.3.3 or you have solutions that include numerous case activities that call FileNet P8 processes, you can now view FileNet process engine dashboards that use data from FileNet P8 processes in case solutions. For more information, see Case dashboards.

Work more efficiently

Manage all your work in one place

 Containers:  Workplace is now available with Business Automation Workflow on containers. It brings together process, case, and workstream functions, with full support for processes and newly added case support. A consolidated work list for all your process, case, and workstream tasks offers you the advantage of managing and completing different types of work in one application. Using the Teams dashboard, managers can manage their teams' performance and balance the workload through batch reassignment. To increase your efficiency, Intelligent Task Prioritization sorts your task list and prioritizes the high-value and fastest tasks for you to work on next. For more information about Workplace, see Managing work. For information about workstreams, see IBM Automation Workstream Services. For more information about Intelligent Task Prioritization, see Prioritizing work.

Accelerate the completion of work with AI-driven recommendations

You can now add recommendations to help end-users make decisions based on the data provided to them right in the context of their task-completion page. An action will be suggested to users with a confidence level and set of explanations based on the history of the work of the team on this same screen. The feature is currently for non-production use. For more information, see Decision Recommendation.

Manage teams and process performance in IBM Process Portal on containers

The Team Performance and Process Performance dashboards are now available in Process Portal on containers. For more information, see Dashboards in Process Portal.

IBM Process Federation Server

Implement a federated Team Performance Dashboard by using new REST APIs

Process Federation Server provides a new set of REST APIs that allow BPD Team managers to gather key performance indicators for their teams. These new REST APIs can be leveraged to create a federated Team Performance Dashboard. For more details, see REST APIs for the Team Performance Dashboard.

Experience the new version of the remote Elasticsearch service

Process Federation Server now uses a new version of Elasticsearch (7.8.0 onwards) as a remote Elasticsearch cluster, while earlier versions use Elasticsearch 6. For more information about how to migrate external Elasticsearch 6.x indices, see Upgrading external Elasticsearch indices to Elasticsearch 7.

Note that because Process Federation Server Containers stores the federated saved searches in an Elasticsearch index, if you migrate to Process Federation Server Containers V20.0.0.2 from an existing Containers topology based on an Elasticsearch 6.x cluster, you must export your existing saved searches before upgrading. For more information, see Migrating saved searches from Elasticsearch 6 to Elasticsearch 7.

Index case instances in the Elasticsearch index

 Containers:  The case management tools provide support for indexing case instances in the Elasticsearch index. Full re-indexing and live index updates are supported. For more information, see Indexing case instances.

Supported configurations

Find out about the supported configurations for Business Automation Workflow.