Configuring Business Automation Navigator

IBM Business Automation Navigator configuration settings are recorded and stored in the shared YAML file for operator deployment. After you prepare your environment, you add the values for your configuration settings to the YAML so that the operator can deploy your containers to match your environment.

1. Open the CR file that you created in Generating the custom resource.
2. Check the values to make sure that they are the values that you want to deploy. If you need more configuration parameters, then use the fully customizable Business Automation Navigator template to copy lines from and paste them into your CR file.
   Go to the descriptors/patterns folder in the product archive to find all of the templates.

   If you chose to customize Business Automation Navigator from the outset by manually copying a fully customizable decisions template, then edit where necessary the default values for each Business Automation Navigator parameter in the CR file.

   Consider the following information as you record the values for your deployment environment in the CR file:

   Shared configuration settings

   Un-comment and update the values for the shared configuration, LDAP, datasource, monitoring, and logging parameters, as applicable.

   Remember: Set shared_configuration.sc_deployment_platform to other if you are deploying on a non-OpenShift certified Kubernetes platform.

   Use the secrets that you created for the root_ca_secret and trusted_certificate_list values.

   Remember: If you plan to use External Share with the 2 LDAP model for configuring external users, update the LDAP values in the ext_ldap_configuration section of the YAML file with the information about the directory server that you configured for external users. If you are not using the 2 LDAP model of external share, leave this section commented out.

   For more information about the shared parameters, see the following topics:

   • Shared parameters
   • LDAP parameters
   • Datasource parameters
   • Monitoring parameters

   Business Automation Navigator settings

   Use the navigator_configuration section of the custom YAML to provide values for the configuration of Business Automation Navigator. You provide details for configuration settings that you have already created, like the names of your persistent volume claims. You also provide names for pieces of your Business Automation Navigator environment, and tuning decisions for your runtime environment.

   In the Business Automation Navigator section, leave the enable_appcues setting with the default value, false.

   Tip: If UMS is included in your deployment, the SSO version of the Navigator image is required for your environment. If you specify the non-SSO Navigator image, the operator substitutes the SSO image at deployment time.

   You can configure a Navigator desktop to make the Send Email context menu option available to end users. Use the java_mail settings to configure Send Email for your Navigator deployment. For example:

   navigator_configuration:
      java_mail:
          host: "my_exchange1.com"
          port: "123"
          sender: "MailAdmin@myexchange.com"
          ssl_enabled: false

   If you do not want to include Send Mail in your deployment, ensure that the java_mail parameter section is commented out.

   For more information about the settings, see Business Automation Navigator parameters.

   Copying files to the Navigator application WAR file

   The operator provides a mechanism to add files into your Navigator application WAR file. This can be useful for enabling customizations.

   In a sample use case, you might want to add a workflow step processor customization. This requires a .jsp file inside of the Navigator WAR file. You can configure the operator to locate the custom file and copy it to a specified location in the WAR file.

   The following source files types are supported for copy into the WAR file for Navigator:

   • .jpeg
   • .jpg
   • .gif
   • .png
   • .bmp
   • .svg
   • .pcx
   • .tif
   • .tiff
   • .html
   • .htm
   • .jsp
   • .css

   Other file types are ignored and not copied into the WAR file.

   This copy operation uses the copy_files_to_war parameter to specify a configured XML file with the copy parameters.

   To configure this capability:

   1. In the configDropin/overrides directory for Navigator, create an XML file with the following format:

      <files>
          <file>
              <source>$source_file_path$</source>
              <dest>$target_file_path$</dest>
          </file>
      ......
      </files>

   2. Replace the $source_file_path$ with the path to the file that you want to add.
   3. Replace the $target_file_path$ with the location in your WAR file where you want to add the custom file.
   4. Save the file to the configuration overrides folder for Navigator:

      /opt/ibm/wlp/usr/servers/defaultServer/configDropins/overrides

   5. In the custom resource file, uncomment the copy_files_to_war parameter and add the path and name of the XML file that you created for the file copy operation.

   Initialization settings

   If you are using the Navigator component with the FileNet® Content Manager components, you can use the initialize_configuration section of the custom YAML to provide values for the automatic initialization and setup of Content Platform Engine and Business Automation Navigator. The initialization container creates required configuration of IBM Business Automation Navigator and Content Platform Engine. You also make decisions for your runtime environment.

   You can edit the YAML to configure more than one of the available pieces in your automatically initialized environment. For example, if you want to create an additional Business Automation Navigator repository, you copy the stanza for the repository settings, paste it below the original, and add the new values for your additional repository:

   #   icn_repos:
    #   - add_repo_id: "demo_repo1"
    #     add_repo_ce_wsi_url: "http://{{ meta.name }}-cpe-svc:9080/wsi/FNCEWS40MTOM/"
    #     add_repo_os_sym_name: "OS01"
    #     add_repo_os_dis_name: "OS01"
    #     add_repo_workflow_enable: false
    #     add_repo_work_conn_pnt: "pe_conn_os1:1"
    #     add_repo_protocol: "FileNetP8WSI"
   

   You can also create additional Business Automation Navigator repositories and desktops.

   For more information about the settings, see Initialization parameters

   Verification settings

   If you are using the Navigator component with the FileNet Content Manager components, you can use the verify_configuration section of the custom YAML to provide values for the automatic verification of your Content Platform Engine and Business Automation Navigator. The verify container works in conjunction with the automatic setup of the initialize container. You can accept most of the default settings for the verification. However, compare the settings with the values that you supply for the initialization settings. Specific settings like object store names and the Content Platform Engine connection point must match between these two configuration sections.

   For more information about the settings, see Verify parameters.