What's new in V8.8.1

Decision Connect

Managed API support with API Connect Essentials V5.0

The Express®, Standard, and Advanced editions of Operational Decision Manager now include a Decision Connect capability that provides entitlement to IBM API Connect® Essentials V5.0. This entitlement is part of the Business Operations Connect concept for IBM® Business Process Manager and Operational Decision Manager.

API Connect Essentials V5.0 is packaged as an optional supporting program. It provides an API management capability for on-premises solutions. It has the ability to expose managed decision APIs to cloud solutions such as systems of engagement and cognitive applications that use Swagger definitions, enabling them to easily intraspect, test, and reuse. For more details, see Decision Connect.

Decision Server Rules

Ownership relations on business object model classes for simplified rules

You can now add an ownership relation to BOM classes to access the owned classes directly in rules. Learn more...

Cascading ruleset execution

You can now run a ruleset from rules of another ruleset in a different instance of an execution unit (XU). Learn more...

Managing Decision Warehouse traces

You can now retrieve or delete Decision Warehouse traces by using the REST API. Learn more...

Swedish localization

You can now work on business rules in Swedish. Learn more...

Decision Center

Bytecode generation in the Business console for faster ruleset loading

You can now deploy rulesets that contain executable Java™ bytecode from the Business console. Bytecode improves the loading time of the rulesets that you build on the decision engine. Learn more...

Enforcing project security in the Business console

Business console users who have administrator privileges can now enforce security on projects in decision service branches, releases, and activities. They can also limit access to projects to specific groups of users. Learn more...

Creating and running queries in the Business console

You can now create and run queries in the Business console to find specific elements in your decision services, apply batch actions to the results of queries, and extract rules to generate a ruleset. Learn more...

Excel export feature in the Business console

You can now export decision tables in Excel files from the Business console for offline review. Learn more...

Creating and editing ruleflows in the Business console

You can now create and edit ruleflows in the Business console. You use ruleflows to set the sequence and conditions for running rules. Learn more...

Creating variable sets in the Business console

You can now create variable sets in the Business console to simplify the definitions part of rules, or to refer to input and output parameters in decision operations. Learn more...

Sample: Decision Center rule model property extensions

A new sample shows you how you can extend rule model properties in Decision Center. The sample runs in both Decision Center consoles. Learn more...

Decision Server Insights

Cluster startup improvements (8.8.1.4)

For an update to 8.8.1.4, you must stop the cluster, apply the update, and then restart the entire cluster. The startup requires that all of the server versions are greater or equal to 8.8.1.4. If a cluster contains a mix of version numbers, it cannot be started.

Improved monitoring

Insight Monitor now shows the server workload, and how fast the servers are processing events. A new MBean, named SystemMonitorMXBean, captures and returns warning messages from the system. Learn more...

You can also enable monitoring that captures warning messages about a solution, and system monitoring that captures messages that are logged by eXtreme Scale or the runtime server:

• Solution monitoring: Learn more...
• System monitoring: Learn more...

You can set the size of the cache that stores the messages to prevent excessive memory consumption.

You can also store the information about the events that the solution is processing in a separate log that is formatted in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). The solution trace in this format can be loaded into aggregation and visualization tools. Learn more...

Defining thresholds for alarms

You can now define thresholds that trigger an alarm in Insight Server in property files. Run the pmiManager guardian command on the directory that contains your guardian files. The guardian utility writes a message to the Java logger when the defined thresholds of the property files in the specified directory are reached, and in some cases nearly reached. Learn more...

Monitoring and analyzing your log files

SmartCloud Analytics Embedded is no longer distributed with Decision Server Insights. To monitor and analyze your Decision Server Insights logs, you can use an open source project or a commercial product. Learn more...

Expression to postpone the processing of events

You can now postpone the processing of events by specifying a delay in the when part of a rule. Learn more...

Improved solution testing in Insight Designer

You can now create test artifacts from the solution map. The artifacts include common definitions, entity loaders, event sequences, and test scenarios. Other new features include pausing between steps in a test scenario, the option to trigger pending schedules, and the ability to automate test artifacts by using TestDriver. Learn more...

Deployment configurations in Insight Designer

The Configure and Deploy wizard has a new name: Deployment Configurations. The new name comes with improvements for editing existing deployment configurations. Learn more...

Test driver connection modes

You can now choose the connection mode for the target server configuration of your tests. On a single server, the HTTPS connection is optimized for the testing environment, and you no longer need to set debug properties in this connection mode. Learn more...

Support of JavaScript Object Notation formats for retrieving entities, and loading entities and submitting events

You can now use the REST API GET method to return information about an entity in the JSON format. Learn more...

You can also load entities and submit events from a set of JSON files. Learn more....

Grouping events to calculate shared aggregate values

You can group events from which you want to calculate aggregated values by using the grouped by expression. For example, you can calculate the average price of purchase events that are grouped by the city of these events. You can access aggregated values from shared aggregates that are defined with the grouped by expression in rule and Java agents. Learn more...

Updated Insight Server support for Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Insight Server now supports TLS v1.2. Learn more...

Inbound binding construct

You can now use the new setting <property name> to <property value> construct on inbound events to copy message context values to event attributes. Learn more...

Data provider cache size

You can manage your data provider cache size by adjusting the dataProviderCacheSize value in your server.xml file. Learn more...

Advanced connectivity properties

When you install the V8.8.1.1 fix pack, new properties are available for advanced solution connectivity configuration. For delivery failures, you can use the thread.max.retry.count property to set the number of times a delivery is reattempted before the delivery is discarded. This property replaces the thread.retry.count.before.discard property. You can also use new properties for HTTP and JMS inbound endpoint configuration, and new advanced thread pool properties for outbound endpoints. Learn more...

Accessibility

Improved usability

Changes to Operational Decision Manager improve the accessibility of the product for people who have disabilities. Most noticeable are changes to interfaces to make them easier to read and operate. Learn more...