What's new in IBM Business Automation Workflow V21.0.2

Business Automation Workflow on containers

Import traditional Business Automation Workflow projects into IBM Business Automation Studio in Cloud Pak for Business Automation

You can now import traditional Business Automation Workflow projects into Business Automation Studio. After you import the projects into Business Automation Studio, you can convert them for use in Cloud Pak for Business Automation on the Project Conversion tab in Workflow Designer. For more information, see Converting project artifacts.

Expose strongly typed web services

You can expose capabilities that are implemented by a process application as strongly typed Web services. They can be used by external clients. For more information, see Creating a web service.

Switch roles for case workflows in Workplace in Business Automation Workflow on containers and Cloud Pak for Business Automation

In Workplace, you can now switch your current role for a case workflow to another one if you belong to the multiple roles category. For more information, see Switching roles in Workplace in IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation.

Integrate files, JMS messages, and emails in process applications

You can use samples to integrate text files on the file system, send or receive messages on a JMS queue, publish messages on a JMS topic, and send or receive emails. You can find the samples in the Integration Samples GitHub repository.

Use process applications with Java integrations that use the Liberty features JavaMail or MQ JMS client

You can send and receive emails or integrate MQ applications by using the Liberty features JavaMail or MQ JMS client. To enable these features, do the steps that are described in Enabling Liberty features to integrate with Java Mail and IBM MQ.

Author, run, and operate your workflow applications more efficiently

Improvements for editing a discovered automation service in Process Designer

• On the Details tab, the description of the discovered automation service is provided.
• On the Binding tab, you can see which version of the automation service is discovered and specify either the discovered version or the default version to use at run time.

For more information, see Invoking a REST service.

Improvements for calling external REST services in a low-code fashion

Use a service task to invoke an external REST service that uses content types text/plain or application/x-www-form-urlencoded in a low-code fashion. For more information, see Invoking a REST service by using JavaScript.

Improved rediscovery of automation services in Process Designer

When you discover an updated automation service, the existing automation service is updated so that existing references to it do not need to be updated. For more information, see Invoking a REST service.

Display client-side human services in Case Client

The split case pages in your case projects can now be designed as client-side human services just like the add case and case details pages, allowing additional flexibility and customization to this feature. For more information, see Split Case pages.

Experience a locale-setting enhancement in Case Client for process user configuration

When you change the language setting in Case Client by using Change Language and Locale Settings, the Business Automation Workflow process user configuration for preferred locale is updated. For more information, see the additions for V21.0.2 in National languages in IBM Business Automation Workflow.

Work more efficiently

Enjoy the improved work management experience in Workplace

Comprehensive improvements to your work management experience have been made to the now fully accessible Workplace. To facilitate your navigation and collaboration in Workplace, support for URL addressability and easy access to custom dashboards were added. A new search scoping function and further information added to all system and business data items improve your search and filter experience for tasks and workflows. The column-resizing function with persistent changes and the ability to multi-select and batch-modify tasks give you more flexibility and improve your experience managing your work. Also included are overall improvements to workflow pages for case types, access to workflow history that is now extended to all workflow types, and other improvements that you can discover exploring Workplace. For more information, see Managing work.

Discover a REST service from an OpenAPI V3 definition in IBM Integration Designer

In Integration Designer 21.0.2, you can now discover a REST service from an OpenAPI 3.0 specification (formerly known as Swagger) and generate an SCA import including an HTTP/REST binding based on the discovered REST service. You can then use the SCA import to invoke the REST service for instance from a BPEL process or a mediation flow. For more information, see Invoking a REST service using OpenAPI 3.0.

Retrieve stage information and list documents and folders

Use the new case REST API Case stage to retrieve stage information and REST API List of case folder resources to list all the case folder and case documents in case instances.

Have a newly created case open automatically

When a new case is added, you can configure the case type to automatically open the newly created case, allowing additional work to be performed on it quickly. When you work on split case, the auto-open capability is set by default to open the newly created case automatically.

View case folders, subfolders, and case documents in a tree view

The Case Folder tree view is a new view in the Case toolkit. In this view, which is a part of the default split case client-side human service, you can view the case folders, subfolders, and case documents in a tree view. For more information, see Views in the Case toolkit.

IBM Process Federation Server

Search for tasks and instances more efficiently

Process Federation Server REST APIs provide an enhanced search experience by allowing you to

• Use additional fields in saved searches. For more information, see Search Metadata Resource.
• Run ad hoc saved searches to find process instances. For more information, see Process Instance List Resource.
• Retrieve a list of values indexed for task or instance fields. For more information, see the getFieldsValues parameter of Task List Resource - PUT Method and Process Instance List Resource - PUT Method.

For more general information about Process Federation Server REST APIs, see The Process Federation Server REST APIs.

Supported configurations

Find out about the supported configurations for Business Automation Workflow.