Change history

You can now leverage enhanced version control when you edit, run, and deploy your workflows. From the workflow editor, you can view the version history and open, name, and restore old versions. In addition, you can now deploy specific versions in API endpoints and run specific versions in your Automation Center tiles. For more information, see Workflow version control.

When you create tiles in Automation Center to run workflows, you can now configure your tile input parameters to display drop-down lists of values. These lists can be populated from static values that you provide or from values that are provided by workflows that run dynamically when you run the tile. For more information, see Configuring lists of values in tile parameters.

Two new function-as-a-service (FaaS) blocks are introduced that allow you to use the powerful capabilities of Ansible in your workflows. The Ansible Pull block allows you to run Ansible playbooks in your workflows via a default execution environment. The Ansible Builder block allows you to build a customized execution environment if the default environment does not contain everything that you need to run your playbooks. For more information, see FaaS.

The quick access menu in the workflow editor is significantly expanded to give you quicker access to integration blocks, commonly-used action blocks, and your favorite blocks. For more information, see Using the workflow editor.

When you create an API, or update its settings in the Workflow Deployments page, you can now define rules to control which IP addresses and networks can access the API. Furthermore, for deployed workflows, you can adjust these rules on different deployment stages for the same API. For more information, see APIs.

New functionality is added to the workflow debugger to make it easier for you to track the variables that you are interested in. For more information, see Debugging workflows.

You can now monitor, measure, and report license usage for your IBM Rapid Infrastructure Automation® instance by installing the IBM License Service tool. For more information, see Installing IBM License Service.

In the Workflows page and the workflow editor, you can now view additional information about workflows, such as their current hash values, their creation and modification dates, and the number of action blocks that they contain. For more information, see Using workflows.

Masking overridable passwords

When you use the Auth Override workflow block to provide overridable authentication credentials, password credentials are now masked by default. For more information, see Auth Override and Auth Override JSON

Authenticating to multiple services

In the workflow editor, when you create authentication variables, you can now associate them with multiple service types. For example, you can now associate the same authentication variable with the Ansible and Ansible Tower API services. For more information, see Using authentications in workflows.

Overriding default input values for scheduled jobs

In the Jobs page, you can now specify input values for workflow parameters in the same way that you specify parameter values in the workflow editor and in Automation Center. For more information, see Creating jobs.

Optimizing the performance of worker groups

You can quickly identify inefficient worker groups by specifying the expected number of active workers for each group. In the Worker Groups page, warnings are now shown for groups that have a lower-than-expected number of active workers. For more information, see Worker groups.

Preserving log filters

In the Logs page, the filters that you apply when you view the list of logs are preserved and remain in place, even if you navigate away from the page and return later. For more information, see Logs.

ECMAScript2020 support for Monaco editor

The Monaco editor, which is used throughout the application to allow variables, blocks, parameters, and other configuration to be edited, now supports the ECMAScript2020 version of JavaScript.

Integration packages now contain all required dependencies in a self-contained form. They are backward-compatible with previous versions and allow platform integrators to work without pulling dependencies from the network at installation time. These self-sufficient integrations work across online and air-gapped installations. If your installation is air-gapped, you can now add, remove, and upgrade integrations.

In the workflow editor, you can now create or clear custom input values when you run workflows. This enhancement is also available when you debug workflows. In the editor, click Run with Custom Inputs to open will open Run Workflow dialog, where you can enter your custom input values. The Remember the values for the session duration option lets you test workflows without manually filling out inputs for each test run. Your inputs are stored locally, so the flow is not modified and doesn’t affect other users and their access to the workflow.

Additionally, you can run workflows with custom inputs directly from the workflow list, or from the Logs page.

During the execution of workflows in Automation Center tiles, you can now see status message updates in the Run Workflow window. You no longer need to navigate to the Logs page to see this information. In addition, you can view the total amount of time since the start of the execution.

You can now test authentication credentials directly when you create authentications by clicking Test Authentication. You can also specify which worker group you want to use to test the authentication.

This release introduces feature-specific guides. These guides provide short tutorials on the most important platform features. The guides are automatically shown to all new users after their first successful login, and are also shown to users who haven’t seen them yet.

When a guide is viewed a check-mark indicate that in the side panel that is accessible from the question mark button in the Overview page. The guides can be disabled from the sidebar that is available under the question mark menu.

The newly-added Finally block is a control block that is designed to clean up a workflow execution. This clean-up is done regardless of whether the workflow completed successfully. When placed in the workflow editor, this block produces a sequence that can encapsulate complex logic.

Maintenance mode is a new option that allows administrator users to temporarily stop and prevent jobs and workflows from running. It can be enabled in the System Configuration menu. It is mainly used during platform upgrades or snapshots. When maintenance mode is enabled, all logged-in users receive a warning message and banner to indicate that maintenance mode is enabled. The system remains usable, except for workflow-related operations.

Full-screen editor button now available in the Start block

You can open the full-screen Monaco editor for the entered values in the Start block by clicking on the icon. Note that this function is not available for password-type variables. If the workflow is opened in read-only mode, the dialog can still be opened, but the entries cannot be changed.

authKey creation in the object editor

You can now seamlessly create authKey entries in the object editor. Navigate to the desired authKey value in the object editor and click Create Authentication.

Password-type variables no longer available as output variables

Password-type variables can no longer be set as output variables in workflows. However, when a password-type variable is assigned a string variable, the password is shown in the execution output.

Automatic search focus in drop-down fields

When you search for particular values by using drop-down fields, search boxes are automatically focused.

Spaces in worker group names

You can now include spaces in the names of worker groups that you create.

Button name updates

Button names are now updated across the UI to make the user experience more consistent and user-friendly.

Starting in this release, you can access APIs that are owned by other users if you have the appropriate permissions. You can publish your own workflow or decide if you want to share it with other users. You can also publish workflows that other users created. Shared APIs that you can access appear in a Shared folder in the APIs page. If you have edit permissions, you can manage shared APIs. If not, you can interact with them in read-only mode. You can also create APIs on behalf of users who shared them with you.

More than one license now can be loaded and made available in the underlying platform. This enhancement prevents a license that is pending expiration from topping active workflows when a new subscription is added. You can add as many licenses as needed by clicking on the Add License button. All currently active licenses are accumulated and the ones that are valid for the current period are leveraged. When a license in the pool expires it is automatically removed from the list and the quota is modified accordingly. You can track active licenses in the About page.

In this release, the Python CLI FaaS block is introduced. This block allows you to run Python code as if it is run through the command-line interface, and gives you the extra flexibility of integrating Python-based code into your workflows.

Password-type fields are now available in the workflow editor. In these fields, you can hide the input value, You can then access it by selecting the password type of a given variable. In the Automation Center, password-type fields hide their values in the preview modes of the tile creation and editing dialogs. In your workflows, if you use an action block that contains a password type parameter, the password value is hidden by default. Note that if you are use the JSON/YAML editor, password-type field values are displayed as plain text.

You can now compare workflows using the newly added Add to Compare menu option in the workflow editor. This feature provides an easier way to check for workflow updates, compare and contrast versions, and organize complex workflows. You can add an unlimited list of workflows in the comparisons list, but you can only compare two at the same time. The Compare Workflows page shows the first selected workflow in read-only mode, while the second one is editable.

Using this new deep search capability, you can easily find and add specific integration blocks to your workflow without browsing into the integration folders.

Advanced searching of inputs, blocks, and objects within a workflow is now supported. You can access this search option via the standard keyboard shortcuts (CTRL + F/ CMD + F). You can search for block types, input names, and values, along with third-line variables in a workflow layout. The search also returns results of hidden parameters. They are expanded automatically and highlighted in the user interface.

When you create or update worker groups, you can now assign roles that receive access rights to the groups. You can assign these roles via the Permissions section of the Worker Groups page.

A new high-contrast UI theme is accessible from the Color-Scheme drop-down menu in the theme customizer. This enhancement improves accessibility when viewing workflows and other parts of the application.

In the Theme Customizer, you can now import and export UI themes. You can now transfer themes from one instance to another by exporting your themes in JSON format and importing them to the target instances.

A new menu option is added in the workflow editor to allow you to access the list of available keyboard shortcuts. A new Keyboard shortcuts dialog shows all of the available combinations. You can also optionally disable them in the dialog.

Updated FaaS log messages

FaaS integrations now feature updated log status messages to enable easier tracking of workflow progress and troubleshooting of workflow issues. The updated log messages are also visible in the Logs tab.

Decreased vertical spacing between input variables in the workflow editor

When using the flat layout to view blocks in the workflow editor, the vertical spacing is now decreased between input fields to improve accessibility and readability.

A new Python block is introduced to allows you to run Python code inside workflows. You can seamlessly pass data from the workflow to the Python script and vice versa. The system caches build to accelerate processing when deploying multiple copies of the same block. The Python block is accessible from the FaaS folder in the integration list in the workflow editor. You can drop it onto any desired location within a workflow.

IPv6-only and dual-stack deployments are now supported to enable complex enterprise and service provider use cases.

A new Run on Worker Group block is now available under the Common folder in the workflow editor. You can use it to delegate the execution of a workflow to a different worker group. When you place this block onto the workflow, you can drag any block onto it and configure which worker group executes it.

You can use the new Split block to orchestrate workflows into branches to enable parallel execution. You can branch as many times as needed to create complex and performance-optimized automations.

You can now define IP addresses that are excluded from a proxy connection. This option is available from the worker group configuration menu.

• Internal component versions are updated.
• The backend is updated to the latest Java™ LTS for compliance and security reasons.
• The frontend is updated to the latest Angular LTS for compliance and security reasons.
• The internal HTTP library is migrated to Axios.
• A UI components kit and design system is now used to provide independence from third-party libraries.
• Security updates to all critical components.
• Reported user interface bugs are fixed.
• Tooltips are improved for better visibility.
• Other proxy settings improvements are made.
• The process of importing integrations into air-gapped installations is improved.

• Binary workers are now deprecated.