IBM® WebSphere® Process Server V6.1 (hereafter called Process Server) includes many new and updated features. In this article you will learn about the new features and their importance.
Process Server V6.1 includes four main themes:
- Ease of use and installation.
- Portfolio integration that supports additional platforms, current software levels, and additional product integration.
- Human workflow and clients that extend flexibility options, as well as new features to enable closer functional parity with WebSphere MQ Workflow.
- Improved performance and efficiencies.
One of the first tasks with any software system is the installation and configuration. Process Server offers a wide variety of deployment options, ranging from single servers to multimode clusters with a remote database. Process Server V6.1 has an Installation Factory that enables wizard driven configuration, reducing complexity and time to deploy. These Custom Install Packages can include specific fix packs and iFixes, eliminating the need to install then apply patches. You can create templates for cluster deployments that enable you to add a new cluster member with just three mouse clicks. You can select various topologies for the cluster, such as all components on each server, or the messaging engine on a different node from the process container.
Process Server V6.1 plugs into the Eclipse® based Profile Management Tool for WebSphere Application Server. This provides a consistent experience in profile management for each product stack. It also simplifies the development environment by enabling fixes to be applied to both WebSphere Integration Developer and its integrated test server at the same time. For UNIX® based servers, this new feature enables non-root users to perform the installation and configuration.
Process Server works with WebSphere Adapters V6.1, which also includes ease of use features, as well as improvements in the Enterprise Metadata Discovery wizard.
Platforms and software currency
Process Server V6.0 was built on top of WebSphere Application Server V6.0. Similarly, Process Server V6.1 builds on WebSphere Application Server Network Deploy V6.1, enabling customers to leverage its improved features and functions. In addition, Process Server now supports 64-bit platforms in both Windows® and UNIX, enabling higher performance. Customers running i5/OS® can now leverage their iSeries servers to run Process Server. Remote database access is also supported to DB2® running on i5/OS as well as to DB2 running on z/OS®. Lastly, Process Server now supports Windows Vista as a platform for test and development, although it is not supported for production systems. You now have more flexibility in deciding which servers to leverage for your Process Server deployment.
Process Server V6.1 adds new capabilities for human workflow, beginning with flexibility for clients. In addition to Web and portal clients, Process Server now includes a forms-based client using IBM Lotus Forms. Forms can be displayed in a Web client "out of the box", although the Forms Server is not bundled with Process Server.
In Process Server V6.0, the WebSphere Application Serer plug-in for a specific directory was configured. Process Server V6.1 includes the Virtual Member Manager (VMM) that can federate multiple user repositories into a single user director for Process Server. Participant substitution is now possible when using the Virtual Member Manager. In this scenario, users can manage a list of substitutes. When the user notifies the system that they are absent, their work is automatically assigned to their substitutes. This is an important feature for users looking to transition to Process Server from WebSphere MQ Workflow.
The default Web client, the BPC Explorer is improved with new functions and usability improvements. The graphical process viewer has improved graphics, as well as the ability to zoom in and out or scroll the process as figure 1 shows.
Figure 1. Process instance viewer
New options allow authorized users to suspend and resume, as well as support for custom properties on all tasks, instead of just at the process level. The priority for tasks is now exploited, allowing task lists to be sorted according to priority order. The priority for a task can also be manually adjusted, enabling administrators to override the default task priority as figure 2 shows.
Figure 2. My to-dos
The names of the human task types have been updated to reflect a better terminology for business users. Participating tasks (pTasks) from V6.0 are now called To-do tasks. Originating tasks (oTasks) are now called Invocation tasks. Ad-hoc tasks are now called Collaboration Tasks. As figure 2 shows, the kind of task also appears on the To-do list.
The install process features improved performance, takes over one-third less time than in previous Versions. At runtime, several scenarios have greatly improved performance as well. Event sequencing for example is nearly fifty percent faster. The increased performance enables the use of larger business objects. In a 64-bit environment the maximum size is now 500MB, while 32-bit UNIX systems can handle 100MB objects. Windows has a limit of 50MB due to the smaller heap size.
Along with the main themes for Process Server V6.1, a variety of other new features and functions are now supported.
For some human workflow scenarios where the process needed to go back to some previous point (such as performing rework), Process Server V6.0 required the use of while loops because the WS-BPEL only allows forward movement in a process flow. Process Server V6.1 adds a new optional extension to WS-BPEL called a Cyclic Flow Activity. This activity is a container, much like a Sequence Activity or a Scope. Within the Cyclic Flow Activity, connectors can go backwards to a previous activity. This can greatly simplify the modeling of complex human workflow scenarios. As figure 3 shows, the Approve Request step in this example can flow forward to Process Request, or backwards to Review Input, depending on the transition conditions.
Figure 3. Cyclic flow
Another new WS-BPEL activity supported in Process Server V6.1 is called "ForEach". This activity enables the bundling of work. Within the bundle, a dynamic number of branches can be run in serial or parallel. For example, if a request requires a dynamic number of reviewers, a forEach activity could be used. ForEach is a container activity, as figure 4 shows.
Figure 4. ForEach activity
In the properties of the ForEach activity, you can select if the iterations are sequential or parallel, as well as the iteration type as figure 5 shows. You can define an early exit Criteria as well, to stop iterating at a given point. For example, if three approvals are needed for a request, and the second approver rejects the request, the early exit criteria will stop iterating, since it would not make sense to seek approval from the third approver anymore.
Figure 5. ForEach properties
Long-running business process and task instances are stored in a database. In Process Server V6.1, you can specify a deletion policy. You can automatically delete successful instances upon completion for example, while failed instances can be kept in the database.
You can now access activities in a business process programmatically enabling a variety of scenarios, such as specifying that if a previous activity failed, then the process needs to continue on a particular branch. These new capabilities also bring better functional parity with WebSphere MQ Workflow.
You can also suspend process instances for a given amount of time or until a specified time, then automatically resumed. For example, if a client asked to put their order on hold, you could suspend the process for seven days, or until a specific date and time. This suspend until function is available in the BPC Explorer.
In Process Server V6.0, if a business object was missing data, a fault would be thrown. A new option enables to you ignore this error, and continue processing.
Process Server V6.1 supports new Service Component Architecture (SCA) binding for HTTP. WebSphere Process Server V6.0 supported HTTP only as a transport for Web services. Process Server V6.1 supports HTTP as a general transport, supporting HTTP 1.0 and 1.1, as well as SSL. You can now integrate with HTTP based systems without needing to write custom code. This feature provides improved functional parity with WebSphere Interchange Server. SCA Exports support endpoint based routing, while dynamic elements in the HTTP header can now be accessed in WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus (hereafter called WebSphere ESB) mediation modules.
Figure 6. SCA bindings
The SCA import and export for JMS has been enhanced to support JMS 1.1 ASF-compliant providers, as figure 6 shows. This enables the use of third-party JMS providers in addition to JMS in WebSphere Application Server. Generic JMS resources in WebSphere Application Server are automatically setup, although manual setup is required for third-party JMS resources. As with the new HTTP support, you can now access the dynamic elements of the header in a mediation module.
A new data binding is supported for WebSphere TX, enabling the transformation of business objects to and from semi-structured data and complex industry schemas. You can use this binding in both SCA imports and exports for WebSphere MQ,, JMS, HTTP, and Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). For less complicated scenarios, improved documentation demonstrates how you can develop a custom data binding.
The handling of XML schemas is improved in V6.1. A business object instance validator can apply schema constraints to a business object in memory such as minOccurs or maxOccurs, enabling validation as an SCA qualifier or through an API. XSD support is improved to better work with XSAny, XSAnyType and XSSimpleType (although XSAttribute is not supported). This support will improve the ability to work with third-party WSDL and XSD.
Application Programming Interfaces
A new batch API for the human task manager enables you to perform operations on multiple items at the same time to improve performance. A generic JMS interface for the Business Flow Manager enables JMS-based clients to interact in much the same way as Web services clients. The Web services client APIs are also improved with addition functionality to enable more function-rich clients. A new public API is available for business rules in Process Server. This new API enables the creation of custom clients for the rules engine.
Process Server includes WebSphere ESB. New mediation primitives let you extend the reach and capabilities of these products. One new primitive enables mediations to use business object maps in the mediation flow. Fan-in and Fan-out scenarios are supported through new primitives for splitting one message into multiple parts, or aggregating several messages into one. ServiceInvoke is a new primitive to invoke a service within a mediation flow. You can also add new terminals to your custom mediations.
Performance is improved in WebSphere ESB V6.1, as well as other various improvements to existing functionality. And of course WebSphere ESB can leverage the new SCA binding for HTTP and the improved JMS binding to extend its reach, without requiring custom coding.
In this article you learned about the new features and functions in Process Server V6.1 and its four new themes:
- Ease of use and installation.
- Portfolio integration that supports additional platforms, current software levels and additional product integration.
- Human workflow and clients that extended flexibility options, as well as new features to enable closer functional parity with WebSphere MQ Workflow.
- Improved performance and efficiencies.
Learn more about Process Server and other WebSphere version 6.1 products by reviewing the Resources section.
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What's new in WebSphere Integration Developer V6.1
Describes new features available in WebSphere Integration Developer V6.1. -
What's new in WebSphere Business Modeler V6.1
Describes new features available in WebSphere Business Modeler V6.1. -
WebSphere Process Server V6.1 Announcement Letter
Describes new features available in WebSphere Process Server V6.1. -
WebSphere BPM zone
Provides the technical resources you need to manage your business processes. -
WebSphere Business Integration zone
Provides the technical resources you need for process integration and application integration. -
WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere Integration Developer
This resource page provides the technical resources you need for Process Server and Integration Developer.
Marc Fasbinder is an I/T Specialist at IBM with the WebSphere Technical Sales team in Southfield, Michigan. You can reach him at mfasbind@us.ibm.com.
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