Metastorm BPM 9.0 SR1

Started 05-09-2010 by

Modified 05-25-2010 by

Metastorm BPM Version 9 Service Release 1 has been released. Be sure to read the Release Notes in detail. I have listed some of the important features, fixes, and changes.

NEW FEATURES

Navigation Pane

Service Release 1 includes a new navigational style in addition to the traditional task pane oriented approach within the Designer environment. This new Navigation Pane improves ease of use for non- technical users and familiarity for users of Metastorm ProVision. This may be enabled via Designer Options - > Display -> Task Panes.

Custom Lists

Custom Lists provide a simple mechanism for creating customized role specific task or work lists. In previous versions of Metastorm BPM, Custom Lists were defined via Administrative Forms and could only be accessed via the Metastorm SharePoint Web Parts. Version 9 Service Release 1 includes many enhancements to the Metastorm’s Custom List capability including:

• Faster Implementation - Custom Lists are now included as a standard capability within the

Designer which makes the design and deployment much easier and faster.

• Broader Participation – Custom Lists are now utilized by all clients including the standard

Web Client.

• Enhanced Filtering – Custom Lists now include enhanced filter capabilities allowing end users even greater control over their task or work lists.

Enhanced Process Model Customization

Service Release 1 further enhances the customization capabilities of the BPM Process Model with the ability to either hide or show the icons for Stages, Actions, and their events. This new capability allows customers to create a more simplified process model view that is in better alignment with and more appropriate for users of Metastorm ProVision.

Enhanced Web Services Connections

Service Release 1 provides faster and easier integration into web services with enhancements to the Web Service Connection. When connecting to a web service, a new layer of proxy code is now created removing the need to write code to access web services. In addition, the Web Service Connection definition includes a new tab “Methods and Parameters” which allows the process designer to automatically indicate which service methods should be displayed as custom formulae in the Expression Builder or activities within the Visual Scripting environment.

Simple Generation of Web Services for Process

Integration

Originally contained within the Process Orchestrator for Web Services, the Process Activator for Version 9 is within the core platform and is distributed as part of Service Release 1. The Process Activator enables process specific web services to be generated using the ECL for Web Services for easy integration from other processes or 3rd party applications.

Report Hyperlinks and Drilldown

Service Release 1 includes new functionality for the Metastorm Reports capability to allow for the inclusion of dynamic data driven hyperlinks and inter-report navigation.

Reports now include a new Hyperlink field type. Hyperlinks can be used to initiate new processes, open existing folders, open other reports, and open custom web pages.

When Hyperlink fields are used to call another report, data may be passed from the calling report in order to pre-populate the report filters of the new report. Any report opened from another will automatically include a breadcrumb link at the top of the report to allow the user to easily navigate back to the calling report.

Process Debugging

Service Release 1 includes new integration to Visual Studio 2008. When Visual Studio is installed on the same machine as the Designer and Process Engine a new button titled “Debug” will be available on the “Home” ribbon. This will deploy the process and open all deployed code within Visual Studio enabling process designers to use Visual Studios debugging capability to debug any process logic including processes, forms, expressions, process and form event visual scripts, and server-side script code.

Side-By-Side Compatibility

Service Release 1 introduces the new Side-by-Side compatibility for v7.6 and v9.x. This new capability provides additional flexibility for customers with a large number of deployed processes to choose when and how they migrate. Using this new capability, v7.6 and v9 environments can be effectively merged to provide end users with a single user interface displaying processes and work items from both

systems. With this, customers can set up a v9 environment in parallel to their existing v7.6 one and can begin new development in v9 while maintaining or planning migrations of processes in v7.6.

Support for Firefox

Metastorm BPM now supports the Firefox browser Version 3.5 and higher.

Additional Client-Side Scripting Control

Client-side scripting functionality has been extended with three new functions to provide additional control and support to developing custom form behavior. The additional functions are:

• submitForm

• cancelForm

• buttonClick

Customizable Intellisense for Expressions

Intellisense is used for expressions to assist process designers in the creation of data expressions. By default, in version 9.0, this list was restricted to provide a simple interface showing only formulae provided by Metastorm or promoted from user defined Server-Side Scripts. Service Release 1 includes a new option to disable this filtering allowing any .NET framework class or method to be used in addition to the standard Metastorm core formulae.

FEATURE CHANGES

The following are the feature changes to note since the Version 9 General Availability Release

(GA):

• The 'Max length' property on text fields was not being validated correctly in version 9.0.

This validation has been corrected for 9 SR1 and therefore may cause some old solutions to fail validation. The user simply needs to adjust the value of the properties failing validation.

• In version 9.0 the eEntryTime in the eEvent table was being recorded incorrectly for new folders. As a result reports for folders created prior to v9 SR1 may be wrong.

• To better align with the Metastorm ProVision product, the Solution Explorer is now known as the Inventory, the Services Explorer is now known as the Repository, and the Business Object Explorer is know known as Data Access.

• When referencing fields on Form Segments in a client script, it is no longer necessary to include the Form Segment name and reference. The user now just uses the field name as in version 7.6. This change means that all fields on a Form now have to be uniquely named. This may cause validation of existing solutions to fail.

• In version 9.0 SR1, there is a change in the library code generation implementation. As a result, library code is now generated in the ‘Metastorm.Runtime.Models.Library1' namespace, where ‘Library1’ is the name of the corresponding library. In version 9.0, library code was generated in a 'Metastorm.Runtime.Models.Project1.Library1' namespace, where ‘Project1’ is the name of the project that references the library. Existing library script namespaces will need to be updated as well as any code referencing the library namespaces for existing solutions to validate and deploy successfully.

• Web Service connections built in version 9.0 did not contain some of the properties required within the 9.0.1 release. To obtain these properties, the web service needs to be reactivated by clicking on the "Locate" button.

RESOLVED ISSUES

ASP.NET Web Parts

Help Desk# / Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐11162009‐0009

DEF10819

ASP.NET Web Parts

Time Zone adjustment is not applied to ToDo list.

Designer

Help Desk# / Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐12302009‐0012

DEF10707

BPM Designer

Weekday units not available.

DEF10708

BPM Designer

Code compilation fails when referencing a Library

with server script using Visual Script activity.

SR‐01042010‐0006

DEF10709

BPM Designer

Assignment activity hint does not update.

SR‐02092010‐0006

DEF10766

BPM Designer

Default maximum length property for Grid column

with Column Editor is not correctly set.

DEF10662

BPM Designer

Event code is created with the same name as an

existing event code.

DEF10828

BPM Designer

Swimlanes order is not saved after re‐opening of

solution.

Help Desk# / Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐12112009‐0001

DEF10452

BPM Designer

Problems with editing property values using arrow keys.

DEF11098

BPM Designer

Search does not find text in client scripts.

DEF11099

BPM Designer

Using Save As for a solution that uses MLP throws exception on re‐open

SR‐02162010‐0001

DEF11103

BPM Designer

ODBC driver warning message is not clear.

DEF11166

BPM Designer

Standard system roles from Library take precedence over default roles in a Project.

DEF11483

BPM Designer

A form template that references a form segment

template cannot be deployed.

DEF11394

BPM Designer

Field width increases automatically when caption

size is longer than the field and alignment is set to

Top.

DEF5983

BPM Designer

Controls can be dragged off the edge of the form.

DEF11700

BPM Designer

GetAttachment Path description should mention

file name with extension to be included in the path.

SR‐03102010‐0003

DEF11828

BPM Designer

When deleting a Business Object, which is

assigned to a variable, the message shown has

GUID instead of variable name.

DEF12016

BPM Designer

Polish characters are being lost from Server Script.

Deployment

Metastorm#

Component

Issue

DEF11002

Deployment

Changing the variable name of the Business Object column results in run time error.

DEF10998

Deployment

Action fails if the target stage has a Timed Action with a null date.

SR‐01182010‐0009

DEF11283

Deployment

Code generation fails if Project contains Library

with promoted scripts.

DEF11432

Deployment

Validation error message are not helpful.

SR‐03102010‐0001

DEF11573

Deployment

Validation fails if sub procedure and main process have comments in the process.

DEF10931

Deployment

Complete validation not happening on Library

deployment.

SR‐01182010‐0009

DEF10727

Deployment

Code generation failed if Project contains Library

with promoted scripts.

SR‐11192009‐0022

DEF10226

Deployment

Error message missing parameters.

DEF7156

Deployment

Using the 2008 Native Client driver at runtime

causes error on grids.

SR‐03102010‐0002

DEF11936

Deployment

A validation fails to flag warning/error even though

referenced Business Object is deleted.

Documentation

Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐03032010‐0016

DEF11445

Documentation

When action started for flagged action mentioned

but it does not exist.

SR‐01272010‐0009

DEF11492

Documentation

Installation Guide.pdf does not mention how to

add eUser.js when DB is created.

DEF11225

Documentation

Library code namespace was changed and should

be documented.

SR‐02112010‐0013

DEF11121

Documentation

Designer documentation should include *.PNG in supported image formats.

SR‐12282009‐0005

DEF10646

Documentation

Migrated solution does not deploy due to type mismatch error.

SR‐06302009‐0013

DEF10598

Documentation

Numbering is not in the right order.

SR‐12282009‐0006

DEF10600

Documentation

What MLP stands for is not mentioned.

SR‐11132009‐0013

DEF10489

Documentation

Deployment of migrated procedure fails to start in

Blank Form.

DEF12187

Documentation

Exceptions thrown if custom assembly is not

strongly named.

SR‐04212010‐0005

DEF12040

Documentation

Remote access of the Web Client is not possible

when using split deployed SSO.

SR‐03252010‐0013

DEF11730

Documentation

We need a note in the Support Environments.pdf

stating that any DB driver used must support DTC.

SR‐03112010‐0026

DEF11670

Documentation

No way to set group separator to empty.

SR‐03032010‐0012

DEF11899

Documentation

VERSION 9 Designer guide documentation should

not mention external forms as this feature was not implemented.

SR‐02082010‐0006

DEF11903

Documentation

Information shared with respect to alert generator in InstallConfig.chm is not clear.

Engine

Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐04082010‐0003

DEF12157

Engine

“Object reference not set” error on inserting to

table when action completed.

DEF10903

Engine

Stages within a Sub‐Process do not show the Form

specified in the Sub‐Process stage.

SR‐01052010‐0021

DEF10689

Engine

Error when raising flag using eRaiseFlag.exe

SR‐11122009‐0014

DEF10641

Engine

Alerts are getting locked if same static/dynamic

roles assigned to ToDo & Watch.

SR‐11302009‐0023

DEF11277

Engine

In certain instances, the Metastorm BPM Engine

does not respond.

DEF11580

Engine

Folder priority should not be restricted to 0 to 9.

MEMP

Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐03122010‐0022

DEF11256

MEMP

Behavior of Rule is incorrect during moving of

control on front and back (z‐order).

DEF4377

MEMP

Transparent color should not be available for

Form.

Migration

Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐02112010‐0003

DEF11092

Migration ‐ Files

Version 7 procedures with icons fail to migrate to

version 9.

Reporting

Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐01192010‐0016

DEF10944

Reporting

Page orientation in reports is incorrect when

exported.

SR‐01182010‐0002

DEF10737

Reporting

Percentages in pie chart display in decimal format

only.

Web Client

Metastorm#

Component

Issue

SR‐01222010‐0002

DEF10954

Web Client

Referencing Client Side Scripting with Form

Segment Objects using eworkSetField does not work.

SR‐12212009‐0012

DEF10589

Web Client

Web Client displays a blank page when the locales are modified.

SR‐03112010‐0026

DEF11542

Web Client

No way to set group separator to empty.

DEF11392

Web Client

Not possible to type multiple letters in a dropdown

field to narrow down the search.

SR‐02152010‐0004

DEF11264

Web Client

Commit button with required field on the form is

getting disabled.

SR‐04212010‐0015

DEF12180

Web Client

Column sort order is lost on grids when field is

dependent.

SR‐04092010‐0014

DEF12177

Web Client

When changed property is not setting dropdown

to empty.

SR‐04192010‐0013

DEF12258

Web Client

Client Script is not getting committed when

clicking on Commit button.

DEF11945

Web Client

Not possible to submit a form with required grid

even if no row has been added.

KNOWN ISSUES

*Metastorm #*	*Component/Area*	*Issue*
DEF4357	Business Objects	Not possible to have the parameter name the same as the column name.
DEF6415	Business Objects	Spaces in Oracle column names will cause forms to fail to open when a field uses a Business Object referencing that column.
DEF7105	Business Objects	SQL Server DateTime2 data types display as Memos unless the SQL Native Client driver is used.
DEF7230	Business Objects	LDAP Business Objects returning date/time data will throw an error when accessed during process execution.
DEF10056	Business Objects	Trying to open a form containing a grid that references process data Business Objects or local Business Objects on Oracle will throw an error.
DEF8780	Business Objects	Trying to use an equal/does not equal filter against a memo column will cause an error message, "The data types ntext and nvarchar are incompatible in the equal to operator".
DEDF12181	Custom Lists	Filtering on float columns can sometimes give incorrect results due to rounding.
DEF11814	Custom Lists	SQL comments in a query used by a Custom List may cause an error when viewed in the Web Client. The error displayed is “multiple step OLEDB operation”.

DEF4629/DEF 4628	Deployment	Projects with large images or many images may timeout while deploying.
DEF12084	Deployment	Trying to deploy sample solutions fail with validation error messages.
DEF10415	Designer	Width property is not available when more than one form control is selected.
DEF12211	Designer	Importing a Form that is missing a Form Segment into a new Project and then validating causes Designer to crash. Workaround is to delete the reference to missing form segment before validating or to re‐link the Form Segment.
DEF10852	Designer	Adding stages to lanes on the Process design surface does not immediately set the role. Workaround is to move the stage within the lane.
DEF12198	Designer	Tooltips are wrong for the Inventory and Data Access items on the View ribbon.
DEF11996	Designer	There is currently no validation of Custom Lists formed in an unsupported way – i.e. queries with duplicated columns.
DEF11915	Designer	It is possible to select Reports from the Forms list on stages. Doing so will cause a deployment failure.
DEF11828/ DEF11708	Designer	When deleting a Business Object that is assigned to a field, the warning message shows a GUID rather than the name. Same problem when deleting a Business Object from a Custom List.
DEF11459	Designer	Roles in a referenced Library are not read‐only.
DEF11432	Designer	Validation error messages do not always provide the location of the error.
DEF11018	Designer	The export graphic feature does not correctly display lanes on a Process. The lanes do not extend to the full size of the Process.
DEF12271	Designer	Copying and pasting fields from one form to another results in all the names and captions changing.
DEF12296	Designer	When working with solutions out of source control, solution backups can sometimes be read‐only. Saving the solution then throws an error on trying to overwrite the read‐only files. The workaround is to switch off the backup system via the Designer options.
DEF11888	DMS	It is not possible to tab through the DMS browser window in the Web Client.
DEF11784	DMS	DMS folder icons are not consistently displayed as open in the Web Client.
DEF11408	DMS	Unauthorized windows appear behind the DMS blank form.
DEF12321	DMS	Assignment Expressions cannot be used for form fields dependant on DMS Multi clip selected rows.
DEF12320	DMS	DMS Multi clip displays Remove and Delete options when set to Edit Mode.
DEF12323	DMS	DMS Multi clip SelectRow dictionary items are not in upper case for Oracle.

DEF12325	DMS	Files are displayed in alphabetical order in a DMS Multi clip if using SelectedRow.
DEF12326	DMS	Last file added to a DMS Multi clip is not given focus if SelectedRow event is used.
DEF8906	Expression Builder	When building a SelectSQL function containing ‘@’ parameters against Oracle, the Expression Builder does not show the parameter fields correctly. Workaround is to remove the quotes from around the parameter in the SQL.
DEF11488	Installation	The wrong Oracle driver is currently included in the main install’s Redist folder. Please see Supported Environments document for the correct ones to use.
DEF11169	Installation	Configuration files are not created if the user selects a physical path rather than a URL path to the Engine and Deployment Service configuration files.
DEF12178	Installation	The ActivateCallerID Engine registry key is getting reset on some operating systems after upgrading to SR1. This will affect SSO configuration.
DEF11978	Installation	When Deployment Service account is set to a local admin account on Server 2008, the upgrade from version 9.0 to SR1 may roll back. Workaround is to change the Deployment Service account before the upgrade and then revert afterwards.
DEF12192	Installation	Deployment and Engine services do not auto start on Server 2003 when SQL Server is installed to the same machine. Workaround is to start the services manually.
DEF10295	Migration	If an action name is changed during the migration process, any chained action properties that reference the action will not be updated. These can be manually updated afterwards.
DEF10384	Migration	Forms that contained spaces in field names prior to migration will throw validation errors post migration with regards to invalid fields. Workaround is to reselect the form fields for each action that references the forms.
DEF6606	MLP	Grid column captions are not previewed when switching language.
DEF11914	Reports	Spaces in Business Object columns cause data to fail to appear in a Report. Workaround is to create a query like “SELECT [My Column] AS [NoSpaceName] ...”.
DEF11171	Side by Side	Auto refresh does not work for 7.6 processes in the Version 9 Web Client.
DEF9420/ DEF11329	Validation	Double clicking a validation message returns a message “Associated item was removed from view” when the error relates to a field event such as “When changed”.
DEF10319	Web Client	Clip fields can only open the current folder’s attachment. Even if the clip fields references a variable from another pr ocess data Business Object it will use the current folder’s folder ID to retrieve the attachment.

DEF9635	Web Client	Dropdown controls placed at the bottom of a form can result in the list appearing at the top of the form on clicking the dropdown.
DEF9680	Web Client	Dropdown controls can display their list in the wrong position on a form when used in an Arabic or any RTL locale.
DEF8945	Web Client	Using web help link on locales other than English, German, French and Spanish will cause an invalid URL error.
DEF12209	Web Client	Trying to sort on Memo/Hyperlink/Folder columns in Custom Lists will give an error. This is not a supported operation and needs to be disabled.
DEF12089	Web Client	Multi‐clip controls show all previous attachments after deleting them and then adding a new one.
DEF11998	Web Client	Not possible to narrow down a search on items in a list field by typing multiple characters.
DEF11943/ DEF11497	Web Client	Edit Grids: clicking the Delete row button when no rows are present will throw a script error.
DEF11901	Web Client	GetField client extension fails for empty Date/Time fields.
DEF11695	Web Client	It is not possible to sort on Folder or Hyperlink columns in Custom Lists.
DEF11736	Web Client	Values cannot be entered into dropdowns in grids using the keyboard on Firefox.
DEF8941	Web Client	When selecting an item from Recent Content dropdown in the Web Client, before the item is opened and dropdown display is closed, the item name is displayed twice in the dropdown. However, when you click again on the dropdown to select an item, the items in the list are displayed correctly without any duplicates.
DEF12265	Web Client	In some case after an upgrade from version 9.0 to version 9.0 SR1, the Web Client shows an error on first load similar to the following: Line 121:</bpm:AdminFormListPart> Line 122: Line 123:<bpm:CustomListPart Line 124: runat="server" Line 125: AlternatingRowCssClass="altGridRow" GridHeaderCssClass="gridHeader" ScrollBars="Auto" To fix this issue, reset/restart the IIS.