Planning for an external Content Platform Engine

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To use case management, you must configure IBM® Business Automation Workflow with an external Content Platform Engine, also called an external Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system.

Business Automation Workflow contains the BPM document store as a content repository that is used for Business Automation Workflow documents. This internal BPM document store is automatically configured. Its usage is restricted so that it cannot be integrated with all existing IBM Content Foundation products.

Plan to use an external Content Platform Engine under the following conditions:

  • You intend to use case management.
  • You have an existing Content Platform Engine that you want to use with Business Automation Workflow.
  • You want to retain artifacts that will persist longer than six months, such as documents and cases.
  • You intend to use Content Platform Engine for documents (in addition to cases and processes).
  • You have an upgrade to an existing IBM Case Manager installation.
  • You want to build integrated solutions that use IBM Content Foundation products.

When you use an external Content Platform Engine as the content repository for the BPM document store, you can build integrated solutions that use other IBM Content Foundation products. For example, you can use Content Navigator as a content-centric user interface or IBM Datacap to capture documents that come from your customers. Capturing these documents can automatically start a case. For more information, see IBM Content Foundation.

Configuration with an external ECM server

You can author applications in the same way with an external content repository. All integration functions used with the BPM document store also work in the same way.

  • Business Automation Workflow documents can be accessed with JavaScript, web services, and REST APIs.
  • Content integration steps can be used as in the predefined BPM document store server definition. Content integration steps can also be used as in the BPM content store server definition, if you have the Basic Case Management feature from a previous release installed.
  • Coach views from the Content Management toolkit can be used with one of the predefined server definitions without any difference for either the embedded or external content repository.

To use an external FileNet® Content Manager installation as a content repository for the BPM document store, you must have a common user repository. The repository must contain the users that work with your applications. This repository is an enterprise-wide Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) repository that contains all the users and groups. The FileNet Content Manager must be set up on a WebSphere Application Server.

Each Business Automation Workflow deployment environment that you want to integrate with an FileNet Content Manager installation must have its own dedicated object store. To get your Business Automation Workflow deployment environment to use an object store in the external FileNet Content Manager installation, you can configure your Business Automation Workflow deployment environment to use empty object stores in an external FileNet Content Manager installation. This configuration is useful if you set up a new Business Automation Workflow deployment environment. If the embedded content repository in your Business Automation Workflow deployment environment has data, it will be lost when you configure an external FileNet Content Manager. For information on how to configure this option, see Configuring an existing external Content Platform Engine.

Frequently asked questions

The following list provides some common FAQs relating to an external Content Platform Engine:

  • How is the existing data handled in the embedded content repository that exists before switching to an external FileNet Content Manager server?

    The existing data in the embedded content repository is lost after switching to an external FileNet Content Manager server.

  • How is the existing data handled in the external FileNet Content Manager server?

    The existing data in the external FileNet Content Manager server is not affected.

  • How is the database for the external FileNet Content Manager server configured?

    The database for the external FileNet Content Manager server is configured with the FileNet Configuration Manager utility. It is not configured in Business Automation Workflow.

  • Are there constraints when you use the user registry?

    All users and groups that are referenced by the object store must be defined in a shared user registry to work with Business Automation Workflow and the FileNet Content Manager installation. Your applications that use content function must use only users and groups from the shared user registry. Non-shared users or groups, for example, from an internal file repository, are not able to work with the content. The EmbeddedECMTechnicalUser authentication alias, which is used by Business Automation Workflow to access the external ECM with administrator privileges, must refer to a user from the shared user repository.

    Business Automation Workflow and Content Platform Engine must have the same registry for achieving single-sign on (SSO). For example, Business Automation Workflow and Content Platform Engine could both have federated repositories such as the Virtual Member Manager (VMM) repositories. A combination of Business Automation Workflow with VMM and Content Platform Engine with a stand-alone LDAP is not supported by IBM WebSphere® Application Server. If using shared LDAP repositories, they must be added to the WebSphere federated repositories on both the Content Platform Engine, as well as IBM Business Automation Workflow.

  • Is it possible to share the same FileNet P8 domain with separate Business Automation Workflow environments?

    When configuring separate IBM Business Automation Workflow environments with an existing Content Platform Engine, it is possible to configure separate IBM Business Automation Workflow configurations with a single FileNet P8 domain. The requirement is for all of the separate IBM Business Automation Workflow configurations be on the same product version. For example, all IBM Business Automation Workflow configurations are V21.0.2 or V20.x. Each separate environment has its own set of unique object stores. Sharing of object stores across the different IBM Business Automation Workflow configurations is not allowed.

Considerations for object store configuration

The case configuration tool allows you to select any object store to configure as the design object store (DOS) and target object store (TOS). The default set of object stores that are created includes:
  • Design Object Store (DOS): The object store used by case management to store design data.
  • Target Object Store (TOS): The object store used by case management for storing runtime data.
  • Workflow Document Store (DOCS): The object store used by workflow processes to store documents.
Different users can be familiar with some object stores but not with others. For example, process users are familiar with DOCS but not with DOS and TOS, whereas case users are familar with DOS and TOS but not with DOCS. It is important to make sure you configure the object stores correctly for different users. For information on how to assign user and group permissions for administering and working with case solutions, see Planning for security in the development environment .

If you configure the object stores incorrectly initially, the add-ons for the object stores are installed incorrectly, which might leave your system in an unsupported state. Object store add-ons cannot be undone. To recover from this situation and correct any other potential missteps, you must rebuild the environment and recreate the profile.