Release Notes Skelta BPM.NET 2007 (Service Pack 2)

Transcription

1 Skelta BPM.NET 2007 (Service Pack 2) Version: Date: November 12 th, 2008

2 Table of Contents OVERVIEW... 3 Introduction... 3 RELEASE SUMMARY... 3 Enhancements in this release... 3 Fixes in this release... 6 SharePoint fixes in this release Known Issues Skelta Software,

3 Overview Introduction This document provides what s new information for the patch release of the Skelta BPM.NET 2007 product. Release summary Product: Skelta BPM.NET 2007 Version: Date: November 12 th, 2008 Enhancements in this release This patch release of Skelta BPM.NET 2007 includes the following enhancements: Case Sensitive Database Support: Support for case sensitive collation (SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS) in SQL Server. Performance: Performance enhancements for Skelta Engine and Task Scheduler. Task Scheduler: Thread usage optimization in Task scheduler. Task scheduler has been optimized to use predefined set of threads to perform tasks. This No. of Threads which will perform the tasks simultaneously can be edited from Skelta Farm Configuration Wizard (Task Scheduler Service Settings). The default count is 25 and on high end machines this count can be increased for completing the task more accurately. Change in task scheduler service logic to run predefined no. of threads rather than using System.Thread.Timer which will span N no. of Threads on heavy load. The no. of tasks getting performed on heavy load will reduce with the new approach but the behavior is more predictable and stable. Skelta Setup Size Optimization: Setup size has been reduced after removal of unwanted images from BPMUITemplates folder. WorkItemControl new property QueueDisplayOrder: For using WorkItemList control in a separate page and to display queues in a specific order at the left hand side Tree View, 1. Create a SortedDictionary<int,string> which specifies the Order and the QueueName. 2. Assign the SortedDictionary to the QueueDisplayOrder Property of Workitemcontrol. For example, if the Queue Names are A, B, C and if you want to display as C, A, B System.Collections.Generic.SortedDictionary<int,string> Qdisplay=new System.Collections.Generic.SortedDictionary<int,string>(); Qdisplay.Add(1,"C"); Qdisplay.Add(2,"A"); Qdisplay.Add(3,"B"); Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.WorkItem Control WIL = new Skelta Software,

4 Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.WorkItem Control(); WIL.ApplicationName = Default ; WIL.UserIdString = skeltalist:: D3C16BC8-D F F38AFE7 ; WIL.ID = "WorkItemListControl"; WIL.QueueDisplayOrder = Qdisplay; PanelWIL.Controls.Add(WIL); Queue Item Detail View:When clicked on a Queue item from the Workitem inbox Subject, Notes, Executionid, Executiondetailsid, Data passed to the workflow and Workitemid details gets displayed below. New API for RecallAllocatedItem: New API RecallAllocatedItem in Skelta.HWS.WorkItem which returns the new queue work item id after the API call. Syntax: RecallAllocatedItem(Guid actorid, out Guid newqueueitemid). New Property Settings: New property settings in Farm Configuration Wizard, to configure auto resume feature for FE/EP workflows. Select Date for FE Workflows to resume: If this property is set as Jul , the workflows from July 11 th which are gone in FE status will get resumed. Skelta Software,

5 No. of tries for FE workflows to resume: This will count how many times the FE workflow needs to be resumed. If zero, the auto FE feature will be disabled. FE Time Span: This property is used to set the time interval for FE workflow to resume. EP Time Span: This property is used to set the time interval for EP workflow to resume. Repositories: This property is used to determine the repository for which the FE and the EP workflows should resume. Workitemlist Control: EnableExport property has been added for Workitemlist control. Based on this property, Users can control the visibility of export icon in the details grid status bar. ToolTip has been added for Priority column image. Alternate actor validation for not adding the same alternate actor multiple times for a particular actor. ColumnsAlignmentEvent delegate event has been added for Workitemlist control. Register this event in the work item list control page to align the columns and set the dataformatstring. The following example demonstrates how to align the Workflow column to the right and displays the createddatetime column as dd.mm.yyyy format, Orderamount in currency format and OrderQty column in number format without decimals. protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) { Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.WorkItem Control wictrl = new Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.WorkItem Control(); wictrl.applicationname = "applicationname"; wictrl.useridstring = "skeltalist::c7067b7e-9d99-49c4-adec- 4DD8C7365AF2"; wictrl.id = "workitemcontrol"; WorkItemControl1.ColumnsAlignmentEvent += new Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.WorkItem Control.ColumnsAlignment(wictrl_ColumnsAlignmentEvent); panel1.controls.add(wictrl); } void wictrl_columnsalignmentevent(object sender, Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Worklist AlignmentArgs e) { Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem ListAlignmentColumns wilaligncolumns1 = new Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem ListAlignmentColumns(); wilaligncolumns1.columnname = "Workflow"; wilaligncolumns1.columnalignment = "right"; Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem Skelta Software,

6 ListAlignmentColumns wilaligncolumns2 = new Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem ListAlignmentColumns(); wilaligncolumns2.columnname = "CreatedDateTime"; wilaligncolumns2.dataformatstring = "dd.mm.yyyy"; Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem ListAlignmentColumns wilaligncolumns3 = new Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem ListAlignmentColumns(); wilaligncolumns3.columnname = "Orderamount"; wilaligncolumns3.columnalignment = "right"; wilaligncolumns3.dataformatstring = "c"; Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem ListAlignmentColumns wilaligncolumns4 = new Skelta.HWS.WorkListChannel.Web.WorkItemListControl.Workitem ListAlignmentColumns(); wilaligncolumns4.columnname = "OrderQty"; wilaligncolumns4.columnalignment = "right"; wilaligncolumns4. DataFormatString = "N0"; e.workitemalignmentcolumnlist.add(wilaligncolumns1.columnna me, wilaligncolumns1); e.workitemalignmentcolumnlist.add(wilaligncolumns2.columnna me, wilaligncolumns2); e.workitemalignmentcolumnlist.add(wilaligncolumns3.columnna me, wilaligncolumns3); e.workitemalignmentcolumnlist.add(wilaligncolumns4.columnna me, wilaligncolumns4); } 1. Options available for Column Alignment are Left, Right and Center. 2. Options available for DataFormatString 3. For Date Columns 4. dd.mm.yyyy - It will display the date like d - It will display as short date like 08/26/ D - It will display as long date like Tuesday, August 26, For Numeric Columns you can give like 8. N - Displays as general format. 9. F - Displays as fixed format. 10. c - Displays as currency format Fixes in this release The following issues have been taken care in this patch release of Skelta BPM.NET 2007: Skelta Software,

7 Branding for Calendar List View: Provider column in list of existing calendars displays Skelta for branded Product version also. Branding for Inactive Product key error: If the product key is not activated, the error message displays Skelta for branded Product version also. Following was the error message coming in earlier releases. Branding for Skelta List provider in Enterprise Console sites: Enterprise Console site s Home page displays Skelta List provider for branded version of Skelta Product. Enterprise Console page, after logged in successfully to the Skelta List provider. Skelta Software,

8 After applying patch, for newly created Repositories, provider name will be automatically displayed as the value of CreateRepository_SkeltaListname key from [Skelta Installed Path]\Locales\CentralConfigurations.txt file. For already existing repositories, update values of DisplayName column of SKEntityDataSourceProvider table from Skelta List to the desired display name and from Skelta List Role to the desired display name for all the repositories. Branding for Import Skelta Process Definition Title: The Import Skelta Process Definition page displays Skelta in the title for branded version of Skelta Product also. Skelta Software,

9 Task Assignment for Disabled Users: Tasks get assigned to the Disabled Users. Queue Display with Access Rights: When the User doesn t have any access rights to the queue, it was getting displayed in the Workitemlist left tree view and in GetNextItem Queue Dropdown. Queue Item Allocation: There was no validation, while allocating Queue Workitem to different user through API. Script action fails for VB.NET: Script action was failing, if the scripting language is VB.NET. Variable comparison in Rule Activity: Unable to compare datetime variable in the Rule Activity is fixed. Datetime Variable in Decision Activity: Unable to publish workflows when comparing two datetime variables from Decision activity in U.K. culture. Culture Specific Scheduler Issue: The date calculation was not correct when the date is taken from the SharePoint list Xmlvariable which is in U.K. culture. Argument Support for Shell Activity: Unable to pass multiple arguments for Shell activity. Provided an option to pass multiple parameters (arguments) separated by ',' for the Shell activity. Least Used Resource Dispatch Provider in Queue: Auto dispatch with least used resource for queue was failing if the queue contains more than 10 participants. Enterprise Console Login: Active directory provider login issue from Enterprise Console in secured environment. Performance When Loading Work Item List: SQL Connections getting exhausted when there are multiple work item fields used in Work item list. Workflow Activity: The workflow added inside the folder does not get displayed in the drop-down available in Properties window for Workflow activity. Mail Channel Duplication Mail: If the user acts on the task through Mail channel, a confirmation message is sent to the user twice. Note: Only for the confirmation mails. Skelta Software,

10 App Domain: Appdomain change to handle N number of repositories in single farm. All workflow instances get in single app domain. The shadow copy feature still holds good. Notification Engine for Out of Office Reply : If the user has set an Out of Office Reply in his outlook, and if a mail goes to this user from mail channel, an automated mail Out of Office Reply gets sent to the notification engine. Notification engine sends a reply back, since the mail is invalid and this in turn sends the Out of Office Reply again. These mails get into a loop and goes on. Note: A new key is to be added in the locales folder Notification_Ignore_SubjectMailMessage: Out of Office AutoReply and this key need to be added to Template.txt file. Any which matches the value field Out of Office AutoReply will be ignored by the notification engine. Calendar in Different Culture: In Calendar control, setting workslots in Greek culture was throwing an exception. Client and Server in Advance Server Environment: Advance Server Custom Properties were not getting set. Client Installation with SQL Authentication: Client was not getting installed using SQL authentication. Client and Server with DB Users: Client is failing to connect to the same Server Farm with same DB user. Process Designer: If process designer is loaded through visual studio from code behind, the changes made in staging used to update deployed workflows (production). Decision Activity: If Decision Activity has more than 25 output conditions in one activity, there was an exception while publishing the Workflow. Queue Allocate with ASP.NET Provider: Allocating the task to a user in a Queue was failing with ASP.Net membership provider. Kill Workflow: Killing a Workflow instance through API was failing. Timeout Warning in Queue: Time out warning property for human activities, if set Using system (predefined) variable was not scheduling the task for a Queue work item. Queue Put Back in Queue and Move to Different Queue: Through API, the task was not able to put back to queue and was not able to move from one queue to another. Mail Handler: Failure to send a notification to an external id while task gets assigned from human activities. Process Definition Issue: Caching of process definition during runtime was failing in multi threaded scenario. BAM Report: Performance issue in BAM report is optimized. Subject Columns in WorkItem Report: Subject column was not populated in workitem report. Skelta Configuration Wizard Localization: The text Provision SkeltaWebSite and Create SkeltaFarm in Skelta Farm Wizard was not localized. Save Repository-ActiveDirectory Provider: LDAP connection was failing, if Search Base had single DC entry. Skelta Software,

11 Information Activity: Information action status was not getting updated in the database. Transaction Type Details: Enable Workflow-specific report in BAM for Transaction Type Details link (report). Queue Resource Unavailable for Queue Sleep Mode: The Activity will be placed in sleep mode, along with the output Resource Unavailable for Queue. This output is fired when there are no users found in the queue. The activity does not complete as a manager or owner for the queue can assign this task manually to a resource. Queue Item Update from UN to AB : When Kill API gets called, unallocated Queue Work item statuses were not getting changed. Single Context load in Thread: Changes to make sure a single thread always uses the same instance of Context object across thread execution. The below message is logged as information in debug mode 2 Information: Different execution instances for same workflow definition are getting started in single thread. The message can be ignored for now, if logged from any other process except Skelta engine. Skelta engine uses single thread internally for executing single workflow instance. Which means, all requests coming for the same instance (execution id) gets queued and gets processed one by one (Uses Queue). If there are multiple instances running, then there will be multiple threads spawned, that are executed in parallel. API Deprecated: Workflow.NET.Engine.Context.BeginTransaction (); has been deprecated. This API was deprecated to avoid the exception Error while Committing the Transaction Data for executionid. BeginTransaction API was provided in the context of enabling transactions across objects in the previous versions of product. With the introduction of TransactionScope in.net, this is now no longer required. Please see sample below on using context with transaction and without transaction. //Without transaction Workflow.NET.Engine.Context currentcontext = Workflow.NET.Engine.Context.GetContext(1, "applicationname"); currentcontext.variables["variablename"].value = "Value"; currentcontext.savevariables(); //With transaction //Placing context in transaction while saving variable. using (TransactionScope tscope = Workflow.NET.CommonFunctions.GetRequiredNewTransactionScope()) { Workflow.NET.Engine.Context currentcontext = Workflow.NET.Engine.Context.GetContext(1, "applicationname"); currentcontext.variables["variablename"].value = "Value"; currentcontext.savevariables(); tscope.complete(); } Skelta Software,

12 Localization Changes: Creating Central Configuration shortcut: Use following API for customizing Skelta Central Configuration shortcut in Start menu. void CreateShortcut() { Skelta.FarmConfiguration.HandleSkeltaFarm handleskeltafarm = new Skelta.FarmConfiguration.HandleSkeltaFarm(); handleskeltafarm.createccshortcut(@"c:\documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Skelta\Skelta BPM.NET"); handleskeltafarm = null; } Specify the path in CreateCCShortCut method where the shortcut needs to be installed. This code will create a Skelta Central Configuration shortcut at specified path. Pre-requisites: Add reference of Skelta.FarmConfiguration.dll and Skelta Server/Client needs to be installed successfully before running this code. Skelta heading label in Skelta Farm Configuration Wizard Create Skelta Farm screen. Help Icon in Farm Wizard Help icon with mouse-over effect will be available only if Skelta BPM 2007 Admin Guide is downloaded. Otherwise it will not be visible. Skelta List in Resource Provider while Configuring Repository in Central Configuration Site only The text in the drop-down for resource provider can be localized. Skelta Label in License Properties Dialog If Skelta is branded with any other name, the same name will appear in the drop-down and [SKELTABIN] is renamed as [PRODUCTBIN]. Multiple instances of Skelta Farm Wizards If more than one instances of Skelta Farm Wizard were opened, a message is displayed saying that Another instance of Skelta Farm Installation is running, which was not localized before. The following new localization keys have been added in CentralConfigurations.txt (Skelta Installed Path\Locales\en-US\) file: CreateRepository_ActiveDirectoryname CreateRepository_Formsname CreateRepository_ASPNETMembershipname CreateRepository_SkeltaListname Another instance of Skelta Farm Installation is running. Skelta Software,

13 SharePoint fixes in this release This patch release for Skelta SharePoint client includes the following fixes: Scroll Bar in SharePoint Explorer: In Skelta SharePoint explorer, the horizontal scrollbar was not appearing for SharePoint sites with long titles. SharePoint lookup (Allow Multiple Values) column: In SharePoint site, if the column type is of Lookup with Allow Multiple Value, then it was not possible to retrieve or set the value of that column. SharePoint Multiple Lines of text column: In SharePoint site, if the column type is of multiple lines of text, and if user enters text with double space, then it was not possible to get these values from the Skelta workflow. InfoPath Task Activity: Validation for Form Server Installation at Client Side when Users view the Activity from Work Item control (inbox). ListNavigator Activity: CAML Query was crashing when user imports the workflow from different Repository. SharePoint Action output: Error Encountered Action Output will be given along with all SharePoint Activities Negative Outputs. Scope of SP List/DocLibrary XML variable: The scope of properties like Site, Library/List for SP List/DocLibrary xml variables will be applied to particular instance and will not be spanned across workflow instances. SP List/DocLibrary XML variable values on restarting Workflow Engine: The SP List/DocLibrary xml variable properties like scope, site, library/list, CAML query which are set at list navigator level will be persisted even after restarting Workflow Engine and will be used in subsequent process flow. SP List/DocLibrary XML variables in local scope: SP List/DocLibrary xml variables can be used with local scope. Property Include In AssociationList : Action property called as Include In Association List is added for Wait for SharePoint event and Associate Workflow to SharePoint event Workflow Actions, whose default values are set to No and Yes respectively. Update Variable Activity: A document can be copied as a list attachment using Update Variable Activity. Update Variable Activity: A document with its metadata can be copied using Update Variable Activity. Horizontal Bar for SharePoint explorer: Horizontal bar to SharePoint explorer will get activated for viewing large number of sites easily. Expanding Sites in SharePoint explorer: SharePoint explorer will expand the sites regardless of sites having owner information. Performance of Resource Provider: SharePoint resource provider was taking minutes to fetch users from web applications that have more than 800 sites. Performance is Skelta Software,

14 improved of SharePoint resource provider fetch user from site level and not from web level. MoveCopy Activity: Files with large size can be uploaded or downloaded from SharePoint, from or to the physical/network location. Edit Link in Document View: Inconsistency issues in the edit link functionality, popup window opens from both image and text links. Property Stop Action On Exceptions : Action property called as Stop Action On Exceptions is added for all SharePoint activities, whose default value is set to No for backward compatibility. If this property is set to Yes, then action completes execution with errors, for any exceptions and negative outputs will not be passed. Important Note for patch (SharePoint users): After applying the patch, make sure to run the executable file named UpdateSPXMLVar2007RunTimeData before starting the engine or before alerting any of the existing instances. This tool helps the existing instances which are not completed, to retain the properties like scope, site, library/list, CAML query that were set before applying the patch. Please note that, the existing instances using SharePoint List/DocLibrary xml variables might fail if the tool is not run. The following scenario will fail and make sure to take corrective steps for the existing instances For an existing instance, say an xml variable scope was set as New before upgrade and is used to access values of the added item after applying patch. This will fail because the newly added item id was in memory and was not persisted anywhere for the workflow instances. This will not have any issue, if a CAML Query is used to fetch newly added item. This scenario should work for the new workflow instances. There is some change in the way to assign the runtime properties like scope, site, library/list, CAML query to the SharePoint List/DocLibrary xml variable. Please change accordingly in the custom actions /aspx pages if any. //if you need to set all the properties,create a new //instance for RunTimeStorageData Skelta.SharePoint.Enterprise.XmlStorageType.RunTimeStorageD ata runtimedata = new Skelta.SharePoint.Enterprise.XmlStorageType.RunTimeStorageD ata(); //else if you need to change only some of the run time //properties,get the RunTimeStorageData from the xml //storage like below Skelta.SharePoint.Enterprise.XmlStorageType.ListStorage liststorage = (Skelta.SharePoint.Enterprise.XmlStorageType.ListStorage Skelta Software,

15 )CurrentContext.XmlVariables[vXmlVariableListType].StorageH andler; Skelta.SharePoint.Enterprise.XmlStorageType.RunTimeStorage Data runtimedata = liststorage.getruntimestoragedata(); //Wrong Implementation : These properties of list storage //is considered now as design time properties liststorage.siteid = <SiteId>; liststorage.webapplicationid = <WebApplicationId>; liststorage.siteurl = <SiteURL>; liststorage.siteid = <SiteId>; liststorage.webid = <WebId>; //Correct Implementation : Set the respective runtime //properties with proper values runtimedata.webapplicationid = <WebApplicationId>; runtimedata.siteurl = <SiteURL>; runtimedata.siteid = <SiteId>; runtimedata.webid = <WebId>; runtimedata.listname = <ListName>; runtimedata.listid = <ListId>; runtimedata.scope = <Scope>; runtimedata.foldername = <FolderName>; runtimedata.newitemid = Guid.Empty; runtimedata.camlquery = ""; runtimedata.camlqueryrawxml = ""; runtimedata.currentindexoflist = 0; //Call this if required to re-initialize the //RunTimeData liststorage.initializescope(); //Set the RunTimeData to the storage liststorage.setruntimestoragedata(runtimedata); Known Issues Disabled Workflows: Disable Workflows can be Published and Associated through ribbon bar. Update Variable activity: Copying a SharePoint list attachment from one SharePoint list to another SharePoint list/ document library is not supported using update variable action. Instead you can perform the same using MoveCopy Action. Please contact support for the fix if the update variable is been used for the above purpose. Running Workflow.NET.sql script on Oracle Database: Compilation error occurs while running Workflow.NET.sql script on Oracle database. To fix this, before running Workflow.NET.sql script on Oracle database, while creating a new Repository Datasource, remove the following statement from the script. Skelta Software,

16 INSERT INTO SKDBScriptVersionStamp (VersionNumber) VALUES (2255) ListNavigator Activity: User cannot build the CAMLQuery on first column of the content type if first column is not a Title. Eg: SharePoint provides predefined content types such as Contact and in that user cannot query on Last Name ie the first column in the item. Best Practices There are 2 ways to handle negative outputs (List not found, file not found, etc.) of a SharePoint activity. 1. Set Stop on Exceptions as NO: This will give appropriate negative outputs like List not found, File not found. User can link these outputs to corrective flows or send information to desired users using an Information or activity. The Workflow will complete successfully after all the liked activities are executed 2. Set Stop on Exceptions as YES: In case the activities encounters any error during execution (including list not found, file not found etc.) the activity will stop with errors and Workflow will end with status Finished with Errors. User can later resume this workflow from BAM or using APIs. Skelta Software,