What's new in V8.9.1

General

Enhanced usage metering in IBM Cloud Product Insights

Product Insights monitors application usage such as the volume of decisions a client gets from Operational Decision Manager. Product Insights now offers improved metering that includes support for groupings and aggregates, exportable comma-separated value (CSV) files for metrics, and support for application servers WAS-ND V8.5.5 and Tomcat 8. Also, the same Product Insights reporting for IBM® ODM on Cloud is applicable to ODM Hybrid Entitlement. Learn more...

Decision Center

Decision Center REST API

Use the new Decision Center REST API to build, test, and deploy decision services. You can set up automated continuous deployment for the programming language of your choice. Learn more...

Importing, refreshing changes, and filtering LDAP users and groups

Decision Center now offers three import modes for accessing the Business console: semi-automatic, automatic, and manual. Each mode provides specific options for importing users and groups from Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories. Learn more...

In addition, you can use LDAP query expressions to filter the lists of users and groups that you upload from an LDAP server to Decision Center. Learn more...

Embedded managed Java XOM in RuleApp archives

The Decision Center Java API and REST API now give you the ability to generate a RuleApp archive that includes an embedded managed Java XOM. Learn more...

Exporting and importing projects in the Business console

In the Business console, administrators and configuration managers can now use compressed files to import a project or export the working branch of a decision service. Learn more...

Migrating classic rule projects to decision services

New Ant tasks let you migrate your classic rule projects to decision services. You can migrate a project to a decision service that is either simple or governed. Learn more...

Deleting a decision service in the Business console

Administrators can now delete decision services from the Business console. This operation used to be limited to the Enterprise console. Learn more...

Improved content display in the Business console

The Business console tabs (Decision Artifacts, Queries, Tests, Simulations, Deployment, and Snapshots) can now display their contents on multiple pages. This eases tab browsing, especially when there are numerous artifacts. Learn more...

Enhanced interface for managing decision service snapshots

Snapshots play a key role in editing, validating, and deploying decision services. New features for sorting and filtering can shorten your search time for finding snapshots. Learn more...

Rule Designer

ARL debugging and automatic importing

When you use the decision engine, your action rules and decision tables are compiled into the advanced rule language (ARL). Now you can check the compilation results in the ARL tab. For example, if your project model contains similar objects, you can check that the rules use the correct objects. Learn more...

Also for ARL, these frequently used packages are now automatically imported:

• java.lang.*
• com.ibm.rules.engine.runtime.*
• com.ibm.rules.engine.ruledef.runtime.*
• com.ibm.rules.engine.ruleflow.runtime.*

You can declare these packages in the Import field without ambiguity. Learn more...

Automated builds with the Build Command Line

The Build Command Line can automate the build of your projects in a continuous deployment environment. Learn more...

Rule Execution Server

Deleting resources and libraries cleanly

Your Java™ XOM resource or library might not be alone. It could reference, or be referenced by, other artifacts. Now you can sever all ties in one go by using the Rule Execution Server console, REST API, or Ant tasks, giving you a clean delete. Learn more...

Decision Server Insights

Offloading entities to a database to reduce memory requirements

Entity offloading can be enabled in a cluster to reduce memory usage, shorten load and preload times, and stabilize the grid. When entity offloading is enabled, entities are restored from the database only when they are needed, which can reduce memory requirements. The eviction time (a date and time) is based on the evictor type, which is defined in the objectgrid.xml file. Learn more...

Offloading mementos to a database to reduce the memory requirements

Memento offloading can be enabled in a cluster to reduce memory usage and stabilize the grid. When memento offloading is enabled, mementos are restored from the database only when they are needed. The eviction is based on the evictor type, which is defined in the objectgrid.xml file. Learn more...

Reducing the size of the memento in a database

It is now possible to use a concise JSON format to store the externalized state of rule agents. Switching the format from XML to JSON reduces the size of the data that is communicated between the run time and the database, and the time to load and save the memento. Learn more...

DDL statements to create indexes on BATCHID columns

The Decision Server Insights database tables now have indexes for the BATCHID columns. Finding data with an index is much faster than reading every row sequentially. The beneficial effect of the indexes is likely to be seen during a cluster startup, especially if your database is large. The new BATCHID indexes are included in the .sql files under <InstallDir>/runtime/ia/persistence/sql. Learn more...

Configuration

Improved profile templates for WebSphere® Application Server

The Operational Decision Manager profile templates have been improved for easier configuration of Decision Server and Decision Center on WebSphere Application Server. Learn more...

Sample and tutorials

Decision Center sample: REST API in Java

This sample demonstrates how to use the Decision Center REST API in Java™ to build, test, and deploy a decision service. Learn more...

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. Learn more...

Decision Center tutorial: Using the REST API tool

This tutorial shows you how to build, test, and deploy a decision service by using the REST API tool. Learn more...

Rule Designer tutorial: Debugging a decision service

This tutorial shows you how to debug a decision service in Rule Designer. You use debugging features to find errors in rules and a ruleflow. Learn more...