Change history

July 2024

Features introduced in July 2024.

General

Deprecated features: The following features are deprecated in this release. Deprecated features are still supported, but they are no longer developed.

• Decision model services (removed)
• Legacy ruleflow editor (deprecated)
• Intermediate code generation in the decision engine (deprecated)

Trial version removal: The trial version of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud is no longer available. A trial version of IBM Operational Decision Manager in a software-as-a-service environment is available for IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation as a Service.

Rule Designer

New Java and Eclipse: Rule Designer now uses Java 17 and Eclipse 4.30. You must install these versions of Java and Eclipse before you install the latest version of Rule Designer.

New ruleflow editor: A new ruleflow editor brings improved functionality to Rule Designer. The legacy editor is also included in the component. You can choose between the two editors.

Decision Center

Ruleflows and variable sets in the timeline: The timeline now shows ruleflows and variables among other decision artifacts such as action rules and decision tables. You can compare older versions with newer ones, and restore them.

Improved branch merge in the Business console: The branch merge function in Decision Center now handles changes to decision service properties such as categories, queries referenced in decision operations, dynamic XOM (schemas), and the engine mode.

Pagination in the Library page: The Library tab is now paginated to avoid performance issues when listing many decision services. You can choose to see 10, 50 or all the decision services on one page. You can browse quickly through the pages with arrow buttons, and use the filter to search for specific decision services. The number of pages displayed is saved across sessions for each user. The maximum number of decision services that can be displayed on a single page is 500. If there are more than 500 decision services, then the pagination is forced to 500.

Enabling distributed caching: A distributed cache is available to reduce the amount of information retrieved from the Decision Center database. The cache is provided by using Infinispan libraries, and it is shared by all the Decision Center modules that are connected to the schema of the database. Contact your cloud support team for this feature.

Long-running deletion without timing out: Deleting a branch or a full decision service can take a while and have timeout issues. The deletion process now runs in background mode. A single request is sent to initiate the deletion, and then a background process does the actual deletion. This deletion process applies to decision services and branches (regular branches, change activities, and releases).

REST API for generating rule reports: You can generate reports based on decision services, projects, or queries. These reports show the content and properties of deployed project elements.

March 2023

Features introduced in March 2023.

General

Deprecated features: The following features are deprecated in this release. Deprecated features are still supported, but they are no longer developed.

• Legacy rule and decision table editors
• XML binding
• Java 8
• Execution using SOAP + WSDL (HTDS)
• Execution using REST + XML (HTDS)

New rule and decision table editors: New decision table and rule editors are available in Rule Designer and Decision Center. The new editors are displayed by default in the components, but you can switch to the legacy editors, which are deprecated.

Norwegian support: The components now support Norwegian. Developers can use the editors to write code in this language.

Rule Designer

Formatting empty cells in test suites: In Excel, you can format empty cells in test suites so that the cells are not treated as null. This formatting works for Excel scenario sheets made in Rule Designer and Decision Center.

Decision Center

Default grid columns setting: Use this setting to define the default gird columns that are displayed for all the users in the Decisions Artifacts and Query Results tables. Users can override this setting in the Profile dialog, where they can apply their individual preferences for the grid columns.

Locking and unlocking decision artifacts and files: In the Business console, you can both lock and unlock artifacts and files to control when they are edited.

Permission for all users to export decision service projects: Decision Center has predefined roles that include rtsUser for regular business users. The standard permissions of rtsUser have been expanded to include exporting decision service projects. These exported projects can be imported back into Decision Center.

Improved snapshot comparison: Snapshot comparison now displays changes in business object models (BOM), vocabularies, and BOM to XOM (B2X) strings. Comparison dialogs for BOM, vocabularies, and B2X are also improved in the merge view.

REST API to delete and rename decision service snapshots: Now you can delete and rename decision service snapshots with REST API.

Diagnostics reports on project usage: You can use the diagnostics in the Business console to track project usage, and charge subscription costs to specific business units. The diagnostics for billable artifacts have also been changed to focus on decision services. The diagnostics do not count projects in a repository that are not used by decision services, but they can count each instance of an artifact shared among decision services.

Additional OpenID Connect attributes: Three optional attributes have been added for creating a JSON file for setting up Decision Center to connect to OpenID Connect Providers: logoutURL, logoutTokenParam, and scope. Okta users can use the logoutTokenParam parameter to configure OpenID logout requests.

December 2021

Features introduced in December 2021.

General

REST API for service credentials: You can regenerate the password of an existing service credential.

Previous documentation unavailable: The resource for documentation from the previous release is not available. IBM® Documentation shows information for only the current release of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud.

Decision Center

Enterprise console removal: The Enterprise console is no longer available. Use the Business console and the REST API to develop decision services and manage user groups.

Displaying vocabularies and BOM paths:

Now, you can view the vocabularies and BOM paths in decision services. In the Model tab of the Business console, you can find two new subtabs:

• Vocabulary: Shows a view of the vocabulary that is available in each project of the decision service. A selector on top of the view allows you to select a project. A tree grid displays the elements of the vocabulary: sentences, concepts, and concept instances. All of these elements are available in the Intellirule editor for writing rules.
• BOM Path: A table displays the entries of the BOM path for each project in the decision service. A BOM path entry is either a project reference that gives access to the BOM of another project, or a BOM file entry that links to a BOM file that defines a BOM. Click a BOM file entry to display the file content below the BOM path table.

Verbalized test reports: In test reports for collection comparisons, collection attributes are now verbalized according to the available vocabulary that is referenced by either the user's locale language or the persistence locale.

Exporting snapshot by using REST API: You can use REST API to export a snapshot and debug it in Rule Designer.

Reporting for resource updates in snapshots: You can report updates to resources and models when you compare snapshots in the Business console.

Default manual column adjustment in decision tables: By default, column widths in decision tables are manually adjusted now. You can set the Business console to automatically set the widths.

December 2020

Features introduced in December 2020.

General

Assigning roles to service credentials: You can create a service credential and assign it a user role in the portal. The role can be cloud administrator or an Operational Decision Manager user.

REST API for managing service credentials: Create, delete or share a service credential between subscriptions through the new REST API for managing service credentials.

Decision Center

Deprecation of the Enterprise console: The Enterprise console is deprecated, but the Business console is still the primary Decision Center environment for developing and deploying decision services. If you must use the Enterprise console, you can access it through the URL: <YourInstanceURL>/odm/dev/teamserver.

Business console session timeout: Work sessions in the Business console have an automatic timeout of 30 minutes. The user is warned before the timeout.

Creating branches from snapshots: Create an editable branch from a snapshot in the Business console. You can edit decision artifacts in the new branch, and deploy to an execution server.

Unlocking decision artifacts: When a rule or other decision artifact is locked, a user who has the right permissions can now unlock the file in the Business console.

Sharing projects in new branches: Now, you can propagate dependencies on shared projects when you create a branch in a decision service. By selecting the new Propagate Shared Dependencies option in the branch creation dialog when you create a branch, you carry over the shared projects of the copied branch.

Rule Execution Server

OpenAPI 3.0: Operational Decision Manager on Cloud now uses OpenAPI 3.0. .

Property to limit run time for rulesets: The ruleset.decisionEngine.maxRunningTime property is used to set the amount of time that a ruleset can run. The time is given in seconds, and the property works in only the decision engine, not the classic rule engine.

Enforced security for decision service executions: The user roles now come with predefined rights to execute rules in the development, test and production environments.

December 2019

Features introduced in December 2019 and the March 2020 refresh.

General

Monitoring billable artifacts: The usage reports now show separate entries for billable artifacts. By excluding items in the recycle bin, the entries only show the artifacts for which you are billed.

Performance guidelines: Improve the performance of your business rule applications by following guidelines to make your applications run efficiently and reliably. Also, learn where to find additional information for improving performance.

User group management REST API: Manage users, groups and their access in Operational Decision Manager on Cloud through the new user group management REST API.

Transport Layer Security: Set up Transport Layer Security (TLS) for your cloud solution. A cryptographic protocol that provides communication security over a computer network, TLS is used to securely connect clients' browsers and applications to the development and server components in Operational Decision Manager on Cloud. When you connect to the components, TSL safeguards your data.

Getting previous documentation: When a new release comes out, the documentation is updated. Now clients who are waiting to be updated to the new release can continue to access the documentation for the previous release. (This resource is not available for the 2022.02 release.)

Rule Designer

Direct deployment to all Rule Execution Servers: Now you can deploy a RuleApp from Rule Designer to Rule Execution Server in any of the portal environments. Deployment was limited to just the development environment, where you deployed to the test and production environments from Decision Center. You can maintain this restriction or limit deployment to the environments by contacting your IBM support representative.

Decision Center

Additions to the REST API: There are two new entry points in the REST API. They enable you to create a snapshot of a given decision service, and delete a test report of a given test report ID. They are in the Build section of the Swagger user interface.

User defined methods for decision tables: Calls to user defined methods are supported when you export and import the decision table.

June 2019

Features introduced in June 2019.

General

Usage dashboard: Operational Decision Manager on Cloud now includes a dashboard for monitoring artifacts in Decision Center and decisions in Rule Execution Servers. The dashboard is accessible to cloud administrators, and monitors usage over a selected period of time. The dashboard replaces the monthly usage reports.

Adding an environment to Express: Express comes with a single environment for developing and deploying decision services. Now, you can add an additional environment for integration testing or production. Taking Express all the way to three environment requires switching to the full version of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud.

Checking your user role: Now, you can check your user role in your portal profile. Your role determines your access to the various features, environments, and components in the portal. Check the role to see what is available to you. If you have more than one account with different roles, you can check the role in the profile to determine which account you are working in.

Rule Designer

MacOS Mojave support: You can now use Rule Designer on macOS Mojave (version 10.14).

Upgrading Rule Designer: Each release comes with its own version of Rule Designer. When you upgrade to the latest release, you must reinstall the rule editor. To see which release you are working with, look for its number in the bottom right corner of your tenant of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud.

Decision Center

Exporting and importing test suites and simulation artifacts: Export test suites and simulation artifacts with a project from the Business console. The export function generates a compressed file that you can import back into the console later or use with a different tenant of Decision Center. A few limitations apply, but you get a working, portable file that's ready for validation.

Grid columns for displaying properties: Select and order the columns used to display the properties of rules, decision tables, ruleflows, and variable sets in the Decision Artifacts and Queries tabs of decision service branches in the Business console.

Generating reports on your projects and decision services: You can now generate reports on decision services, projects, or queries. Displayed in the HTML format, the reports show the content and properties of deployed project elements. You can use the reports in auditing your repository or doing other resource management operations.

You can also use the new Decision Center REST API endpoints to see the contents of your repository.

Creating and editing advanced rule artifacts in the Business console: Now you can create and edit advanced rule artifacts in the Business console. Developers can use technical rules to tap constructs and features such as loops and explicit ILOG® Rule Language (IRL) mapping, and functions to share procedure code between elements in a ruleset. (Note: The Business Action Language (BAL) is not supported.)

Locking decision tables in the Business console: In Rule Designer, you can apply different types of locks to a decision table to prevent edition by others. Now, you can apply those locks to decision tables in the Business console when you publish your decision service.

Sharing projects in different decision services or branches: Administrators and configuration managers can set up project dependencies in the Business console to make a project available in other decision services, or in other branches of the same decision service. For example, you might want to place your BOM and vocabulary in a separate project and reference it, so that you need to maintain only one BOM and one vocabulary, and changes made to the BOM and vocabulary are automatically propagated to all the projects that use them.

December 2018

Features introduced in December 2018.

General

Subscription selection: Now you can switch between your tenants of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud without logging out. The new feature enables you to move quickly among subscriptions.

Decision Center

Decision modeling in the Business console: The decision model service makes business experts autonomous in developing rule applications. They can create, maintain, and deploy decision services, and edit a model directly by using a relatively nontechnical language. A diagram-based development system clearly shows the flow of data and decisions through a decision service. (This feature has been removed.)

Decision governance through REST API: The Decision Center REST API now includes decision service management through the decision governance framework.

Running diagnostics in the Business console: Administrators can now run diagnostics on their systems from the Business console. They can get information about versioning, data sources, extensions, verbalizers, and databases, and use it to troubleshoot issues.

Customer survey in the Business console: An in-application survey now solicits feedback from users of the Business console. A pop-up window opens on your screen, giving you an opportunity to rate the service by selecting a score. (Note: The survey opens in English when it does not support the user's locale.) The system is set to check in with you every 90 days. Your time is valuable, and you are under no obligation to participate. Even if you close the pop-up without responding, taking a couple of minutes to provide input directly to the Operational Decision Manager on Cloud team is appreciated. Your feedback is taken seriously. By taking advantage of this feature, you can contribute to improving Operational Decision Manager on Cloud.

Rule Designer

Move to Eclipse 4.7.3: Rule Designer now runs on Eclipse 4.7.3. The move brings changes to the component for creating and deploying rule applications.

Rule Execution Server

REST API methods for Rule Execution Server diagnostics: You can use new methods in the REST API to get Rule Execution Server diagnostics. These methods are available in the /utilities tab in the REST API test tool in the Rule Execution Server console.

Ruleset selection for RuleApp archives: When you package a RuleApp archive for downloading from the Rule Execution Server console, you can now choose to include only selected rulesets. Previously, all rulesets in the RuleApp were included in the package downloaded.

Tutorials

Getting started with decision modeling: This tutorial shows the basics of creating a decision model service. You model and author a decision service from the Decision Center Business console. (This feature has been removed.)

October 2018

Features introduced in October 2018.

General

Operational Decision Manager on Cloud Express: The new Operational Decision Manager on Cloud Express covers the entire lifecycle of a decision service in one environment. It includes all the components for creating a decision service, developing it collaboratively, and running it for a client application. Unlike the complete Operational Decision Manager on Cloud, Express does not include separate environments that are dedicated to integration testing and production applications.

Updated password policy: The constraints for composing passwords have been updated. Also, the duration for passwords is now 90 days.

June 2018

Features introduced in June 2018.

General

Customer-defined cloud portals: Now you can configure the environments in your cloud portal to better match your development process. New customers determine the makeup of their cloud environments during the initial provisioning. Existing customer can buy new environments to change their current setup. The provisioning of additional environments is done by IBM.

Usage reports for decisions and managed artifacts: Reports are now sent on the usage of decisions and managed artifacts. You can use the reports to track your services and manage your subscription compliance. The reports are sent monthly, and cover daily usage. You can request to receive your reports more frequently. For information about metrics:

New password rules and duration: The constraints for composing passwords have been updated to remain in compliance with rules set by the US Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). The rules also include a shorter duration for cloud portal passwords, which now expire in 60 days instead of 90 days. When a password created under the old 90-day expiration period is changed, the new password becomes subject to the new expiration period.

Decision Center

Using Decision Center with multiple subscriptions: Now you can attach the Decision Center of one Operational Decision Manager on Cloud subscription to the execution runtime environments of another subscription of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud. This can increase the redundancy of execution environments in cases where higher availability is required, and a choice has been made to have a tenant deployed in the same or multiple data centers.

You can use a similar setup in a hybrid environment where the runtime environment is running on premises or another cloud. The Rule Execution Server console in the cloud environment must be securely exposed on the public Internet or through an outbound VPN. Ask your IBM representative for more information.

Offline updating of decision tables from the Business console: Now you can work on a decision table offline, and then import it into the Business console. You start by exporting the decision table from the Business console as an Excel spreadsheet. After making changes, you import the spreadsheet back into the Business console to update the corresponding decision table.

Managing servers in the Business console: As a Decision Center administrator, you can now use the Business console to manage the list of servers that are available through Decision Center for deployments, tests, and simulations. You can also restrict access to specific groups.

Tutorials

Getting started in Operational Decision Manager on Cloud: This tutorial shows you how to work on a decision service in the Operational Decision Manager on Cloud portal.

Debugging a decision service in Rule Designer: This tutorial provides a methodology for debugging a decision service in Rule Designer.

October 2017

Features introduced in October 2017.

General

Customer survey: An in-application survey now solicits feedback from users of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud. A pop-up window opens on your screen, giving you an opportunity to rate the service by selecting a score. (Note: The survey opens in English when it does not support the user's locale.) The system is set to check in with you every 90 days. Your time is valuable, and you are under no obligation to participate. Even if you close the pop-up without responding, taking a couple of minutes to provide input directly to the Operational Decision Manager on Cloud team is appreciated. Your feedback is taken seriously. By taking advantage of this feature, you can contribute to improving Operational Decision Manager on Cloud.

Password restrictions: The restrictions for composing passwords for the cloud portal have been updated to conform with the current guidelines from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). These restrictions do not apply to SAML accounts.

Rule Designer

Rule Execution Server console

Deleting resources and libraries cleanly: When you remove a Java XOM resource or library, it might be referenced by other artifacts or it might reference other artifacts. Now you can remove all the links that point to the resource or library, as well as all the links that point from the library, in the Rule Execution Server console in just one go, giving you a clean delete.

Decision Center

Decision Center REST API: You can use the Decision Center REST API to build, test, and deploy decision services. You can set up automated continuous deployment that uses the programming language of your choice.

Exporting and importing projects in the Business console: Administrators and configuration managers can now export the working branch of a decision service to a compressed file, and import a project into the Decision Center Business console from a compressed file. The working branch can contain more than one project.

Multipage display in the Business console: The Business console now shows the contents of its tabs (Decision Artifacts, Queries, Tests, Simulations, Deployment, and Snapshots) on one or more pages. The new feature improves the browsing of projects, especially when you have numerous artifacts.

Deleting decision services: Administrators can now delete decision services directly through the Business console. This operation used to be limited to the Enterprise console in Decision Center.

Embedded managed Java XOM in Decision Center: You can now use the Decision Center REST API to generate a RuleApp archive that includes an embedded managed Java XOM.

June 2017

Features introduced in June 2017.

Cloud portal

Service credentials for client applications: You use service credentials to authenticate a client application when it calls a decision service that is running in the cloud.

Decision Center tutorial

Merging branches in the Business console: This tutorial shows you how to merge changes between branches in a decision service in the Decision Center Business console. You can develop rules in one branch, and then transfer your changes the same rules in other branches.

Troubleshooting and support

Support for Decision Center: Find out how to get support for Operational Decision Manager on Cloud. Customer support is available for users of subscription tenants of Operational Decision Manager on Cloud. Other online support resources are also available.

March 2017

Features introduced in March 2017.

Rule Execution Server

Running on Java 8: Rule Designer runs on Java 8. You must use JDK 8 and Eclipse 4.4 to run Rule Designer on an existing tenant of Eclipse.

Decision Center Business console

Using custom test data providers: You can generate scenario files for custom test data providers in the Business console. You select the tests and expected execution details, and then download a custom data provider template. You can then use the template with various data sources, such as XML files or a database.

Comparing versions of a variable set: You can see the differences between versions of a variable set by comparing snapshots of the versions in the Business console.

December 2016

Features introduced in December 2016.

IBM Cloud® Product Insights

Enablement for IBM Cloud Product Insights: (No longer available.) Decision Center is now enabled for IBM Cloud Product Insights. This Bluemix® service replaces the experimental service IBM Cloud Hybrid Connect. IBM Cloud Product Insights serves as a window onto your running inventory and runtime usage metrics.

Rule Execution Server

OpenAPI support for running decision services: Generating OpenAPI descriptions, or Swagger, is part of the Decision Connect capability. It makes it easier to integrate decision service APIs into calling applications. The descriptions are compatible with IBM API Connect® and other API management products.

Including resources and libraries in the deployed RuleApp archive: When you deploy a RuleApp archive by using the Rule Execution Server console, resources and libraries can be included in the deployed archive.

Decision Center Business console

Comparing and merging branches: You can now use the compare and merge function in the Business console to manually merge the contents of branches, releases, and activities in a decision service.

Managing resources in decision service projects: Upload files of any type to a decision service project in the Decision Center repository through the Business console. You can then find the files in the Resources folder of the project, where you can view, edit, create, or download files.

Updating dynamic domains: You can now update dynamic domains in the Business console. If a domain is defined in an Excel file, you can download and upload the file from the Model tab in the Business console.

Filtering columns in decision tables: Searching through a long decision table for a specific value can be slow, tedious work. The new filtering feature for decision tables can shorten your search time by showing only the rows that contain your filter values.

Direct links to console content: Any URL in the Business console is accessible externally. You can bookmark these URLs in your browser, or reference them from an external source, and navigate directly to a specified branch, release, activity, or project element. You can now see the differences between versions of a variable set by comparing snapshots in the Business console.

Decision Center tutorials

Creating ruleflows: You set the order for firing rules in one or more ruleflows, and in doing so, list the rules that are run in your decision service. This tutorial shows you how to create and implement ruleflows.

Creating simulations: Use the simulator in the Business console to validate your rules with real or representative data. The simulator produces reports that you can use to refine decision services. Follow this tutorial to learn how to make simulations.

Creating decision tables: (No longer available) Don't write the same rule over and over again to apply different condition and action values. Instead, create a decision table that forms a series of rules by applying the same rule statement to a table of values. Learn how in this tutorial on decision tables.