New In this Release

A number of new features are provided in this release of ActiveMatrix BPM.

The following tables provide summaries of each new feature and links to the relevant parts of the documentation set where they are described. For a detailed description of each new feature, see "New Features" in the TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM 4.3 Release Notes.

Process Management

New Feature Summary
Purge Process Command-Line Interface is configurable You can enable or disable (the default setting) the Purge Process CLI using the "ActiveMatrix BPM: Purge Process CLI Configuration" option in the TIBCO Configuration Tool "Edit TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM Instance" wizard. (See "Edit TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM Instance" > "ActiveMatrix BPM: Purge Process CLI Configuration" in the "TIBCO CONFIGURATION TOOL REFERENCE" section of the TIBCO ActiveMatrix BPM Installation and Configuration guide.)

In ActiveMatrix Administrator, you can manage the cryptographic security settings used by the SSH host key that is generated when an SSH client attempts to conenct to the Purge Process CLI.

Process Engine (BX and PVM) JVM system properties moved to properties files Process instance- and Process Engine-related properties that were previously configured using JVM system properties in TIBCO ActiveMatrix Administrator are now configured in properties files. Two new properties files have been added:
  • bx.properties - This file contains process instance-related properties.
  • pvm.properties - This file contains Process Engine-related properties.
BLOB data compression for process and process instance attributes is configurable When process and instance attributes are written to the PVM tables in the BPM database, large string values are stored as BLOB data. If there are a lot of these large string values, significant amounts of BLOB storage can be used. The blobCompress, blobCompressThreshold and blobCompressBufferSize properties have been added to the pvm.properties file. You can use these properties to compress large field values and so reduce the storage used.
Configurable ID sequence caching provides makes performance tuning easier The sequenceCacheSizeInstTask, sequenceCacheSizeInstLink, sequenceCacheSizeInstProcess and sequenceCacheSizeInstProcessIm properties have been added to the pvm.properties file. You can use these properties to define the number of ID sequences to cache for different entities that are managed by the Process Engine, which makes system performance tuning easier.
Maximum call depth for sub-processes can be set The maxSubprocessCallDepth property has been added to the bx.properties file. You can use this property to configure the maximum sub-process depth that can be reached from a parent instance.
Row cleanup on the PVM_QUERY_PAGING database table is configurable

The following properties have been added to the pvm.properties file. You can use these properties to control the cleanup of rows in the PVM_QUERY_PAGING table:

  • queryPagingCleanupBatchSize
  • queryPagingCleanupBatchCount
  • queryPagingCleanupInterval
  • queryPagingCleanupTimeout
Configurable timeout value for process script execution A se.scriptexecutiontimeout JVM property has been provided, which allows you to define the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that a process script can take to execute before timing out.
'Least Recently Used' cache size for process definitions and modules can be configured ActiveMatrix BPM maintains a 'least recently used' cache (LRUCache) of process definitions and modules. You can use the com.tibco.pvm.LRUCache.proc.size and com.tibco.pvm.LRUCache.module.size JVM properties to configure the cache sizes. Tuning the cache size can help with system performance.

ProcessManagerService.listProcessInstances operation can return in-memory process instances

In the ActiveMatrix BPM public API, the ProcessManagerService.listProcessInstances operation can now return in-memory process instances, if the string '#IN_MEMORY' is appended to the module name specified in the request.

Organization Management

New Feature Summary
Resource Query Language (RQL) performance improvements

The original RQL expression algorithm (version 1) can result in RQL expressions taking a long time to execute. A new version 2 is available, which translates RQL expressions into SQL, resulting in much faster RQL expression processing. See RQL Expression Evaluation.

The ResourceQueryVersion property has been added to the de.properties file. You can use this property to specify the algorithm version.

The ability to change user settings can be restricted

The restrictUserSettings property has been added to the de.properties file.

You can use this property to define whether there are additional restrictions when calling the deleteUserSettings or saveUserSettings operations in the UserSettingsService. These operations are used to delete or save user settings that are either managed by the Workspace Configuration Administrator or are defined as part of a system view.

Case sensitivity of attribute values in a user's LDAP Distinguished Name when seraching for a user can be configured

The LdapDNCaseInsensitive property has been added to the de.properties file.. You can use this property to control whether ActiveMatrix BPM treats attribute values in a user's LDAP distinguished name (DN) as case-sensitive (false) or case-insensitive (true) when searching for that user in an LDAP source.

Work Management

New Feature Summary
Sample code is provided to re-offer work items on a ssession timeout If a Workspace user's session times out, by default, work items that the user currently has open are cancelled. You can now customize Workspace so that, in this situation, open work items are re-offered after being cancelled. Sample code, which is commented out by default, is now provided in the AppMain.js file.

Case Management

New Feature Summary
TIBCO DocumentStore can be used to host case folders in a production environment You can now use the TIBCO DocumentStore to host case folders on an ActiveMatrix BPM system in a production environment. (In earlier versions of ActiveMatrix BPM, the TIBCO DocumentStore was only available as part of an ActiveMatrix BPM Development Server installation. It could be used to work with and test case folder functionality in a development / test environment, but could not be used in a production environment.)

ActiveMatrix BPM Administration

New Feature Summary
Online backup of an ActiveMatrix BPM system This version of ActiveMatrix BPM provides an online backup capability. In earlier versions, it was necessary to take an offline backup, shutting down the ActiveMatrix enterprise before backing up the ActiveMatrix BPM system.

Now, you can suspend the ActiveMatrix enterprise, instead of shutting it down, and continue to use the ActiveMatrix BPM system while the backup is being taken. This facilitates taking a backup if your operational requirements do not allow for a suitable window in which to perform an offline backup.

Logging and Auditing

New Feature Summary
rulesinfo utility to validate the event probe and event rules files A new rulesinfo utility is provided, which can be used to show, validate or test proposed modifications to the event processing rules that are defined in the event probe (ec-probe-rules.xml) and event rules files (ec-event-rules.xml).

ec_delete_case_audit stored procedure to clear audit data associated with cases

A new ec_delete_case_audit stored procedure is provided, which can be used to delete audit entries associated with case data from the BPM database (the entries in the ec_event_int and ec_case_status tables).

Security

New Feature Summary
Single Sign-On via OpenID Connect ActiveMatrix BPM applications can now be configured to use OpenID Connect to authenticate users.

To use this capability, the ActiveMatrix BPM application must be registered with an Identity Provider (IdP) that supports OpenID Connect authentication. (Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) is the only IdP that is supported by, and has been tested with, ActiveMatrix BPM.) After the application is registered with the IdP, and properly configured to use OpenID Connect, users of the application can log into the ActiveMatrix BPM application using their IdP-issued credentials.

Single Sign-On via SAML Web Profile ActiveMatrix BPM applications can now be configured to use SAML Web Profile to authenticate users.

To use this capability, the ActiveMatrix BPM application must be registered with an Identity Provider (IdP) that supports SAML Web Profile authentication. (In ActiveMatrix BPM 4.3, the only IdP supported for use with SAML Web Profile is Google.) After the application is registered with the IdP, and properly configured to use SAML Web Profile, users of the application can log into ActiveMatrix BPM applications using their IdP-issued credentials.