What's new in IBM Content Manager Enterprise Edition V8.7

IBM Content Manager Enterprise Edition V8.7 introduces the following new features.

Tip: Many of the following features are at least partially supported in mixed software version configurations. For details, see the "Compatibility" section in the IBM Content Manager V8.7.0 Release Notes.

REST services

REST services provide a set of programmatic RESTful APIs that enable you to access and interface with data that is in IBM Content Manager repositories. You can list item types, and you can create, change, find and delete items, parts, and folders.

The functions that are necessary to build a web-based application with IBM Content Manager data are provided by the endpoints in REST services. For example, you might want to get a copy of an insurance claim or change the address of a customer.

REST services provide APIs that perform the following operations:

  • authenticating to a IBM Content Manager repository
  • listing item types
  • creating, updating, querying, retrieving and deleting items
  • checking items in and out
  • adding items to a folder, removing them, and listing the items that are in a folder.

Learn more...

Event monitor webhooks support

The event monitor can read the events that are generated by the library server, and then send event data to all of the webhook URLs that are specified in the ICMWEBHOOKS item type, according to the event subscription definition. For more information, see Event monitor webhooks.

Passwords

You can now set longer passwords for some users.
  • IBM Content Manager supports passphrases for RACF user IDs (up to 100 characters).
  • The maximum lengths of the passwords are now as follows:
    • For the IBM Content Manager user: 255 bytes.
    • For the resource manager administrator: 128 bytes.
    • For system users (such as the IBM Content Manager library server administrator): 255 bytes, or less if restricted by the operating system and database manager.
    • For LDAP users: 255 bytes, or less if restricted by the LDAP server.

    For more information, see Db2 ID and password rules and Oracle ID and password rules.

Cloud storage

  • Support for Microsoft Azure Block Blob Storage. The resource manager can now store content in Microsoft Azure Block Blob Storage. For more information, see Configuring cloud storage volumes.
  • Support for Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) with Object Lock. The resource manager can now store content in Amazon S3 with the Object Lock feature enabled. This feature prevents the content from being updated or deleted by applications other than IBM Content Manager. For more information, see Support for cloud object storage with object lock.
  • Support for accessing Amazon S3 by Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) role. When the resource manager is deployed in an Amazon® Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance with an Amazon IAM role attached, it can be configured to use temporary credentials to access Amazon S3 buckets. The temporary credentials are updated and distributed periodically by the Amazon IAM role. For more information, see Configuring cloud storage volumes.
  • Support for Google Cloud Storage. The resource manager can now store content in Google Cloud Storage. For more information, see Configuring cloud storage volumes.

Administration of IBM Content Manager using IBM Content Navigator

You can now use a plug-in in IBM Content Navigator that enables you to administer IBM Content Manager.

IBM Content Navigator supports the following IBM Content Manager tasks:

  • Authenticating and authorizing users.
  • Data modeling.
  • Importing LDAP users.
  • Configuring the library server.
  • Item type data modeling text search options.
  • Custom settings for automatic deletion in item type retention settings.
  • Listing of language definitions has been added to Tools.
  • A Document Routing category has been added to list work nodes, processes, work lists, actions, and action lists.
  • Resource managers items can be created, modified, and deleted in the System Modeling category.
Learn more...

Data model administrator support

You can create a data model administrator user who can perform data model operations (that is, creating and maintaining itemtypes), but no other administrative tasks. For more information, see Creating a data model administrator user.

Supported Java versions

The IBM Content Manager API supports Java versions 8, 11, and 17.

For Java 8, IBM Content Manager supports IBM SDK, IBM Semeru Runtimes, and Oracle.

For Java 11, IBM Content Manager supports the IBM Semeru Runtimes and Oracle. The JRE for the IBM Semeru Runtimes 11 is included with IBM Content Manager; this JRE is used to run the system administration client and configuration.

For Java 17, IBM Content Manager supports the IBM Semeru Runtimes and Oracle.

Only long term support releases (8, 11, and 17) of Java are supported, so version 9 and 10 are not supported.

Support for log4j 2.x

IBM Content Manager now uses log4j 2.x as the default logger, instead of log4j 1.x. The installation includes only the log4j 2.x jar files; it does not include any log4j 1.x files. log4j 1.x support is deprecated in V8.7.

For components that are installed by IBM Content Manager, log4j 2.x is set up with default settings when you install IBM Content Manager or upgrade from V8.6.

If you have applications that use the IBM Content Manager APIs with log4j 1.x, you must change them to use log4j 2.x instead. For more information, see Moving from log4j 1.x to log4j 2.x.

Other new features

  • Record when users last logged in: The server now records the last time each user logged in, and whether the login was successful. The IBM Content Manager system administration clients display this information when you log in, and administrators can see the information for all users in the system administration client. Applications that use the Content Manager API can also access this information, so that they can see when a specific user last logged in. For more information, see Understanding last logon time.
  • Resource manager administration web console last login: The IBM Content Manager resource manager administration web console displays the date and time that you last logged in on the Home tab. The date and time are based on the local time of the computer that the resource manager is on. They are not displayed the first time that you login.
  • Set token duration at item type level: Token duration can now be set at item type level; in previous releases, you could set it only at resource manager level. This is useful if you need longer token durations for things like streaming video files. You set the token duration in the item type relations; you can set it for each part type that the item type is associated with. To use this feature, you must set it explicitly; the default setting uses the resource manager token duration, as in previous releases. For more information, see Retrieve Token Duration.
  • You can now specify the location of database files for Db2. For more information, see Create library server (Library Server Database window).
  • The LDAP User Import Scheduler updates an LDAP user's "Maximum Privilege Set" definition when a LDAP user moves to a different group. For more information, see Importing and synchronizing LDAP users and user groups with the LDAP user import utility.
  • You can use Windows domain user accounts to install and configure IBM Content Manager. For more information, see Configuring Windows domain user accounts.
  • You can replace the IBM Content Manager library server and resource manager database user IDs and passwords with user accounts from a credential vault. For more information, see Configuring the library server and resource manager database with credential vault user accounts.
  • The system administration client and API now tolerate multiple "set-cookie" headers in resource manager requests.
  • The event monitor allows passing of JVM arguments when it is run as a service. For more information, see Running the event monitor as a Windows service.
  • When you filter the rows in views, you can use the following operators:
    • not equal to (!=)
    • greater than (>)
    • greater than or equal to (>=)
    • less than (<)
    • less than or equal to (<=)

    These are in addition to the existing equals (=) operator.

  • You can use Configuration Manager with a Db2 instance that is SSL-enabled: see Using a Db2 instance that is SSL-enabled.

For information about new features that have been added in fix packs, see IBM Content Manager Version 8.7 Fix Pack 1 Readme.

Behavior changes

  • From V8.7, the library server on Db2 defaults to using the currently committed semantics by changing the Db2 database configuration parameter currently committed (CUR_COMMIT) to ON. Currently committed semantics are turned on by default for new Db2 databases; this should reduce the number of deadlocks and timeouts, if any, in the system. This change should be transparent to IBM Content Manager applications. For more information, see Currently committed semantics in the Db2 documentation.
  • V8.7 on zLinux: If you use text search user exits for the Net Search extender, you must recompile them as 64 bit.

Dropped and deprecated features

Content Manager Enterprise Edition V8.7 has deprecated support for the following items:

  • Web services applications that use Apache Axis 1.4
  • Generic Web Services

    Generic Web Services is based on JAX-RPC, which has been removed from the Java EE standard starting with version 6. JAX-RPC is not available in WebSphere Liberty. For more information about generic and specific web services, see Comparison of the IBM Content Manager web service interfaces.

  • Db2® Net Search Extender (NSE).

    Db2 V11.5 has dropped this support, so NSE is supported only when using Db2 V11.1. If you are using NSE, you should migrate to Db2 Text Search (Db2TS) as soon as possible: for more information, see Migrating from Db2 Net Search Extender to Db2 Text Search.

  • Support for the log4j 1.x logger is deprecated, and will be removed in a future release.

End of support for V8.6

For Content Manager Enterprise Edition, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/software-withdrawal-andor-support-discontinuance-select-software-from-following-divisions-data-ai-automation-sustainability-software-security-z-linuxone-products-part-numbers-vrm-some-replacements-available.

For Content Manager for z/OS®, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/announcements/software-withdrawal-support-discont-select-z-platform-programs.