Designing IBM BPM User Interfaces using Coach Views

Introduction

Business Process Management (BPM) solutions can help your business operations run more smoothly by automating your business processes, and providing increased visibility and analysis into the performance of your processes.  In addition to getting the right tasks to the right people at the right time, efficient business operations require tasks that provide a modern user experience that enable business users to complete their work effectively. User Interface (UI) plays a fundamental part of a BPM solution and can have a major influence the overall architecture. This post outlines 5 things to consider when developing UI for IBM BPM, so you can make the right choices for your BPM solution.

Implementation

     1.     Creating user interfaces with Coaches

IBM BPM includes the necessary tools required to rapidly design and build custom user interfaces for your business processes. The IBM Coach Framework is integral to IBM BPM and enables process authors to rapidly construct web-based user interfaces for business user tasks. Coaches are responsive UI forms that seamlessly integrate with your business processes that can be accessed from a variety of devices including smart phones, tablets and desktop computers. New grid and theme editors introduced in IBM BPM 8.5.7 enable process authors to easily layout and style Coaches to create a modern business user experience.

     2.     Building Controls using Coach Views

Process authors assemble user interfaces by dragging pre-built controls from a palette onto a canvas using the IBM Process Designer. These are sufficient for developing UI for simple mock-ups, playback scenarios, and full production BPM solutions. The IBM Coach Framework is extensible to allow process authors to add additional controls and leverage alternative UI technologies. Coach Views are the building blocks that are used to create controls that appear on the palette. Coach Views can also be used to aggregate content that can be used on multiple coaches.

     3.     Salient Process SPARK UI toolkit

The SPARK UI Toolkit is an IBM BPM UI toolkit created by Salient Process, a Premier IBM Business Partner specializing in IBM Smarter Process consulting services and innovation. IBM and Salient Process have partnered together to make the SPARK UI Toolkit the UI toolkit of choice for IBM BPM customers. There are already efforts underway to incorporate the SPARK UI Toolkit into the IBM BPM product. The SPARK UI Toolkit:

  v  Can increase UI developer productivity up to four times faster than using traditional methods and decreases maintenance costs by avoiding UI complexity.

  v  Achieves the productivity increase through an efficient and intuitive development experience in combination with reduced skills expectations.

  v  Provides 90+ responsive and configurable controls, which can adapt to the form factor of the device running the Coach and are suitable for both production and fast-build "proof-of-concept" scenarios.

  v  Includes with every control a simple and powerful event-based framework that creates a consistent approach for validation, formula-based computations, and cross-control interaction.

  v  Optimizes UI performance by using controls that support lazy loading and server side pagination that can support complex UIs and large tabular data sets.

     4.     The IBM Process Portal

The IBM Process Portal provides the primary user interface used by business users to perform their work when using IBM BPM solutions. The Process Portal was redesigned from the ground up in IBM BPM 8.5.7 and built using the Coach Framework. The Process Portal is now responsive, which liberates field workers by enabling them to access and execute their tasks when outside the office using a mobile device. The Process Portal can be modified to accommodate your specific user experience requirements. It can be easily styled using themes, extended to include custom dashboards, configured to enable or disable specific capabilities, and customized or add your own modifications.

     5.     Mixing the Coach Framework with other approaches

Coaches are not the only approach available to create user interfaces to interact with IBM BPM processes. There can be numerous reasons for an enterprise to use alternative approaches to design and deliver BPM UIs, and each of those approaches comes with consequences on the application’s design, as well as its security and performance. You can choose from a number of design patterns depending on your specific requirements.

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Integrate Google Maps with BPM Coach View

Introduction

Google makes available a technology for showing maps of various types inside a web page. This service from Google provides a wealth of features beyond just the simple display of the map. These features include placing markers, calculating directions, geolocation and much more. This Coach View provides a wrapper around the Google Maps technology such that it can be included within a Coach without the consumer having to learn the Google Maps technologies directly.

Using Coach View presents a Google Map with abilities to interact with that map. I am going to show how we can build Google map in Coach View.

Implementation

Before starting implementation of Google Map with Coach View, we should have below tools.

Ø  IBM BPM.

Ø  Google Account.

Before implementing IBM BPM code, we should have Google account, than we should get a Google API key for using Google map in our coach view.

Get the Google Map API key from

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/embed/guide#api_key

Create Process Application and upload images:

Open Process Designer and click on Create New Process App à Enter following details.

Process Application Name

Acronym

Enter description under documentation (Optional) as shown below.

Open the Google Map App process Application and select + symbol beside Files. Select the Image file (google Map image which can be downloaded in internet).

 

Create a Coach View

Click on + symbol beside User Interface select Coach View. Enter the Name as ‘Google Map CV’ then click on Finish.

 

Now it will open Coach View editor view. Select Layout Tab, drag the Custom HTML into pallet and enter below code under Properties à HTML à Text

 

Select Inline CSS under Behaviour tab and enter the below code as shown below.

 Select Load under Behaviour tab and enter the below code as shown below.

Select Overview tab and select Pallet Icon and layout Image which we have uploaded in first step.

Create a Human Service

Click on + symbol beside User Interface select Client Side Human Service. Enter the Name as ‘Google Map CHS’ then click on Finish.

 

Select Diagram Tab, drag a Coach into pallet and rename as Google Map than connect from Start to Coach and Coach to End node.

Select Coach Tab or double click on Google Map Coach. Drag Google Map CV from views to pallet as shown below.

Now we have implemented Google map using Coach View. We are ready to test our application now.

Test Application

Open Google Map CHS human service and click on Run button at top right corner as shown below.

 

Now we should able to see the google map location which was given default in our code.

Now we can enter location which we need to see in google map and click on geocode. I entered as ‘London’, now google map is updated location as London as shown below.

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New in IBM BPM V8.5.7 Cumulative Fix 2016.09

Introduction

IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) updates are now released every quarter to enable customers to stay current, apply the latest fixes, and take advantage of new product enhancements sooner. Cumulative Fixes are applied to the latest BPM release as a simple in-place upgrade. IBM BPM 8.5.7 Cumulative Fix 2016.09 is now available for you to download and upgrade today.

Highlights

The following new feature and fixes are included in IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) V8.5.7 cumulative fix 2016.09. With this update you will be able to…

New features:

  v   Invoke REST services directly from your business processes

  v  Create custom integrations using new low code web-based service editors to discover Java and REST based services

  v  Deploy BPM Advanced assets and manage the health of your processes using new self service facilities for BPM on Cloud

  v  Deactivate users who are no longer in the user registry and clean up their group memberships

New supported environments include:

  v  Microsoft Edge (for IBM Process Portal & Responsive Coaches)

  v  Oracle 12c multi-tenant feature

  v  Microsoft SQL Server 2016

  v  IBM DB2 11.1

Overview

New function in web Process Designer to create services

  Ø  Discover REST services, for example Watson, and Java applications and call them by using service flows. 

  Ø  Model services for business processes in the web Process Designer by using service flows. 

  Ø  Bring heritage services (that were created in desktop Process Designer) into the web Process Designer by converting them into service flows.

Deactivate users from your system who are no longer in the user registry

In typical organizations, people come and go and take on new roles. However, when users are known to IBM BPM (meaning they are in the IBM BPM database), they were available for task assignments and social interactions even after they were deleted from the user registry. Before this cumulative fix, there was no way to deactivate users in the database that were no longer available in the user registry. For more information about user lifecycle, see Runtime user availability and lifecycle.

Note: Deactivate users only if you use clients that rely on REST or JavaScript API calls. If the client uses the web service API, do not deactivate users because the API does not support user deactivation.

The following improvements were made for user deactivation:

  Ø  A new parameter added to syncExistingUsers admin script helps you sync user availability between the user registry and the IBM BPM database.

  Ø  APIs were adapted so that you can now look up users based on their availability by using an availability flag.

  Ø  APIs were adapted to prevent task assignments and social interaction requests to deactivated users.

  Ø  A new configuration property for the BPMServerSecurityUsers configuration object helps you define a default task owner to use when all the assigned task owners are deactivated.

Prevent group membership updates that might cause inconsistent data

  Ø  Now IBM BPM APIs validate group types before applying group membership updates, ensuring group membership updates that might cause inconsistent data are refused.

Update IBM BPM files at run time

  Ø  Use the new BPMUpdateFile command to update the contents of an existing file in your process application or toolkit. When the command is run, it creates a new version of the file at the tip of the branch.

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IBM Blueworks Live Overview

Introduction

IBM Blueworks Live is a cloud-based business process modelling tool that lets you discover, design, automate, and manage business processes for your organization. It’s easy to use and accessible anywhere through a browser. Using a web browser, you can collaborate with local and distributed teams and access the tool from anywhere.

With a Blueworks Live, your organization can:

Ø  Discover and document business processes and decisions using an easy-to-use interface.

Ø  Use industry standards such as BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Modelling and Notation 2.0) for business processes and DMN (Decision Modelling and Notation) for decisions.

Ø  Add custom attributes to the standard set of properties to document details that are specific to your organization.

Ø  Create accessed-controlled spaces to collaborate within teams before publishing artifacts to the wider organization.

Ø  Automate workflow and checklist style processes that are currently performed through email.

Ø  Define and refer to a set of glossary item that represent the approved terms and definitions used in your organization.

Ø  Analyze processes to discover areas for improvement.

Ø  Use playbacks to step stakeholders through process flows, generating discussion and feedback on the process.

Overview

Key features

Simplified Process Modeling

Get started quickly with no training required. Enter in each step of your process, drag and drop the boxes to reorder the flow, and then automatically generate a process diagram with one click.

Simultaneous collaboration

See changes in real-time as your team updates process information. Social media-style collaboration lets you follow items of interest and receive notifications when items you're following change.

Template Library

Over 200 process model templates are available for download in a wide range of industries and functions. Just import the model that most closely resembles your own process and start editing and adapting it immediately.

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Testing the REST APIs in IBM BPM V8.5

Introduction:

IBM® Business Process Manager provides a set of APIs that are implemented based on Representational State Transfer (REST) services. A set of REST resources is available for accessing IBM BPM artifacts, including business processes, and tasks. A test tool is provided with the IBM® BPM REST APIs. You can use this tool to help you learn about the REST APIs, and to test those APIs that you are planning to use in your application.

Overview:

The REST API test tool is a web application that you can use to prototype the following IBM BPM REST resources and their associated parameters:

           Ø  BPD-related resources

           Ø  Federated BPM resources

           Ø  BPEL-related process resources (IBM BPM Advanced only)

           Ø  BPEL-related task resources (IBM BPM Advanced only)

The tool is installed on each Process Center and Process Server node as part of the IBM BPM installation.

How to Use REST API test tool:

Start the REST API test tool. Direct your web browser to the URL for the REST API test tool. The value of the URL depends on how the virtual host and context root were configured for your installation. The URL takes the following form:

http://host_name:port_number/bpmrest-ui

Where:

host_name is the network name for the host of the process server or Process Center.

port_number is the port number used by the REST API test tool. The port number depends on your system configuration. The default port number is 9080.

For example, if you wanted to test the REST APIs available on port 9080 on myserver1, you would open the http://myserver1:9080/bpmrest-ui URL in your browser.

In the REST API test tool, select an API.

Optional: Enter any associated parameters that you want to include in your test.

Click Execute Call to start the test. The response data is shown in the results pane.

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Generating the Service Wrapper in Red Hat JBoss Fuse

Introduction:

The Red Hat JBoss Fuse console's wrapper feature generates a wrapper around the JBoss Fuse runtime that allows you to install a message broker as a system service. The wrapper feature does not come preinstalled in the console, so before you can generate the service wrapper you must install the wrapper feature.

Once the feature is installed the console gains a wrapper:install command. Running this command generates a generic service wrapper in the JBoss Fuse installation.

Overview:

To generate the service wrapper:

1.      Start JBoss Fuse in console mode using the fuse command.

 

2.      Once the console is started and the command prompt appears, enter features:install wrapper.

 

The features:install command will locate the required libraries to provision the wrapper feature and deploy it into the run time.

3.      Generate the wrapper by entering wrapper:install -n serviceName -d displayName -D description.

The wrapper:install command has the options described in below table.

 

Table: Wrapper Install Options

Option	Default	Description
-s	AUTO_START	(Windows only) Specifies the mode in which the service is installed. Valid values are AUTO_START or DEMAND_START.
-n	karaf	Specifies the service name that will be used when installing the service.
-d		Specifies the display name of the service.
-D		Specifies the description of the service.

Generated files

The following files are generated and make up the service wrapper:

• bin\ServiceName-wrapper[.exe]—the executable file for the wrapper.
• bin\ServiceName-service[.bat]—the script used to install and remove the service.
• etc\ServiceName-wrapper.conf—the wrapper's configuration file.
• Three library files required by the service wrapper:
• lib\libwrapper.so
• lib\karaf-wrapper.jar
• lib\karaf-wrapper-main.jar

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MuleSoft Anypoint Studio Update Sites

To access these update sites in Anypoint Studio:

1.      Go to Help > Install New Software.

2.      Select one of these updates sites from the drop-down menu next to the Work with field. 

3.      If you don’t see the site you need, click Add to add it manually.

Note: None of the URLs listed below are accessible from a browser. Only use them in the Anypoint Studio Work with field.

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