Converting from desktop Process Designer to web-based Process Designer

Procedures & Guidelines

Migrate or upgrade to the latest Business Automation Workflow (BAW) version before you perform your application conversion. Some features required to perform conversion to web PD are only added at the latest levels. If you have yet to upgrade to BAW, then you might want to attempt the conversion on BPM 8.6 cf2018.03. However, there are many known defects in BPM 8.6 cf2018.03 that are addressed in later product levels. For more information about known fixes, see the BAW Fix list.  You can also review the What's new section of the IBM Knowledge Center to see changes between versions.

Once the BPM environment is upgraded, you can continue to use your desktop PD-based applications and update the system toolkits to the latest levels. In some cases, you might be required to update the system toolkits to correct defects or take advantage of new features.

Then, plan to convert your applications over time. You do not need to convert all applications at the same time. If you want to maintain a converted and unconverted stream, then use tracks. Ensure you have a snapshot of your application before the conversion in case you have any issues with the conversion process.

Here are some points to consider when you are converting your applications. Reviewing the documentation can help determine the specifics of any special cases.

• BPDs, services, and coach views can be converted via the product tools. These converted artifacts might not require any further editing.
• In some cases, the converted artifacts require further editing as some features cannot be converted like task assignment, inline web services, JRules, or send alerts. In these cases, place holders will be created and you will have to create the implementation after the conversion.
• In some cases, the artifacts are converted but some settings or activities are read-only as they are not features supported by web PD. In these cases, you can technically still use the content at execution time but you would not be able to make any modifications. This scenario could cause you issues if you run into bugs or requirements that require the code to change. Ensure you identify these cases and replace the deprecated content.
  Note: Heritage coaches fall into this category although there is some manual editing still allowed in web PD.
• In some cases, a top-level artifact type is deprecated and not included in web PD. For these items, you might want to delete them as they are not visible when Eclipse PD is removed, for example historical and simulation analysis scenarios. If something is missing, you might want to check the features of latest product level.

Related Documentation

This documentation covers the conversion utilities for BPDs, services, and coach views along with some details on how features are converted.

• Where to edit Process Designer artifacts
  Note: This documentation page lists the artifacts that exist in desktop PD and web PD.
• Converting BPDs to processes
• Converting heritage services
• Mapping heritage human service artifacts to web PD
• Re-creating heritage human services as client-side human services
  Note: While heritage human services are still available in web PD, they are deprecated. If you are having to do extensive development work for your human services, then you might want to take the opportunity to convert to client-side services.
• Conversion of deprecated artifacts from the coach and content management toolkits
  Note: This link provides details on converting from Dojo based coach views (SYSC toolkit) and responsive coach views (SYSRC toolkit) to BPM UI coach views (SYSBPMUI toolkit). Heritage coaches do not have a conversion utility. The heritage coaches need to be manually converted. Do not mix views from multiple coach toolkits in the same service. It is best to remove the old toolkits after you complete converting. It also discusses the conversion of content management coach views.

The time required to convert your applications could vary depending on many factors specific to your environment like these:

• How many applications and toolkits require conversion.
• How complex the BPDs and services are.
• How many deprecated or removed features are being used.

In all cases, you likely need to do a code review and testing of your converted application. Depending on how much deprecated or removed content is impacted by the conversion, you might also need to do further development work on your application. In some cases, the conversion work can be significant so it is best to start planning and reviewing the applications well before you plan to complete the conversion.

Once the conversion of an application or toolkit is complete, then you can create a new snapshot and move on to other apps or toolkits.
Note: You can have mixed content for BPDs and services where part of an application is converted. Although for coach views, avoid mixed content in the same human service or coach. Once the conversion of your applications is complete, then ensure that your developers are careful to not introduce further content specific to desktop PD into process apps or toolkits.

If you notice that a feature is missing from web PD, you can open a RFE, but double check that the latest product version is also missing the feature you want. The features of web PD changed significantly between the base Business Process Manager 8.5.7 level and Business Automation Workflow. There are also many known APARs that would be addressed with the latest BAW version.