Release Notes
September 2010, Version 8.0

System Requirements & Installation
About ActiveVOS 8.0
Supported Systems
Installation
Migrating to ActiveVOS 8.0
ActiveVOS Designer
What's New
Resolved Issues
Known Issues
ActiveVOS Server
What's New
Resolved Issues
Known Issues
Resources
Active Endpoints Forum Support

ActiveVOS 8.0

ActiveVOS is the industry leading Visual Orchestration System (VOS).

Supported Systems

A complete list of supported systems can be found at ActiveVOS System Support

Memory Recommendation for Server

We recommend the following application server memory settings:

• -Xms256m -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=512M

Installation

Before installing ActiveVOS, make sure you have access to your ActiveVOS Designer and/or ActiveVOS Server licenses. Evaluation customers will only need a license for ActiveVOS Designer, and can use the embedded runtime engine for deployments. A link to download licenses was emailed to you or your company shortly after purchase or evaluation request.

Console-Mode Installation

Installation can be run from the command line in console mode using the following commands:

• On Windows

start /wait .exe -c


• On Linux

installer.sh -c

Installing Designer on Fedora 8

The following error may occur when running the ActiveVOS Designer installer on Fedora 8.

• Error: java: xcb_xlib.c:50: xcb_xlib_unlock: Assertion 'c->xlib.lock' failed.

The workaround is as follows:

• Change directory to the java directory
• Run: find libawt.so
• Change directory to the location of that file
• Backup the file (cp libawt.so libawt.so.backup)
• Run this command: : sed -i 's/XINERAMA/FAKEEXTN/g' libmawt.so

The installer should now run without issue.

Installing Designer Plugins To An Existing Eclipse Framework

If you are installing ActiveVOS Designer plug-ins into an existing version of eclipse (3.5 or higher):

• Download the plugin distribution (designer_update_site_8.0.0.zip) from the ActiveVOS download site (the link was provided with your license key)
• In eclipse, navigate to Help / Install New Software
• Select the Add button
• Provide a name that will appear in the available-software list
• Browse to the location of the designer_update_site_8.0.0.zip on your file system
• Select the new item in the list of available software, and select
• Follow prompts provided in the eclipse dialogs to complete the installation

The installer should now run without issue.

Migrating to ActiveVOS 8.0

Important Note:

ActiveVOS 8.0 introduces a new deployment strategy called "Contributions".  A contribution is a deployed business process archive (BPR), managed as a unit of files.  Beginning with the 8.0 release, deployments  will contain BOTH current and updated resources (processes, WSDLs, schemas, HTML, etc.), rather than only the items which were updated.  This new approach to deployment makes rolling-back to a previous version much easier.

When upgrading your ActiveVOS server from a version earlier than 8.0, all previously deployed BPRs will be preserved as a single 'legacy contribution'.  For future deployments, it's critical that you understand this new methodology - as deploying a single process or artifact within a larger project will yield undesirable results.

Please refer to product documentation to familiarize yourself with Deployment Contributions:

• ActiveVOS Designer Online Help > Welcome to Designer > Converting Legacy Deployments to Contributions

• ActiveVOS Designer Online Help > Deploying Your Processes > Managing Deployoment Contributions

• ActiveVOS Designer Online Help > Getting Started in ActiveVOS Designer > ActiveVOS Preferences > Contribution Preference

        

        Upgrading Existing ActiveVOS Designer

• Migrating to a new version of Designer and using the same workspace
• The workspace records the path to the ActiveVOS embedded server (and startup settings) - which includes paths that contain version number. Existing embedded ActiveVos Servers should be removed and re-created:
• In the "Servers View" - Right-mouse and select "new server"
• Click "Configure runtime environments" link in the new server dialog
• Remove the existing embedded server from the preferences dialog
• Click "Add"
• Select "ActiveVOS_Embedded_Server", then click "finish"
• Click "Finish" on the new-server dialog to add the new server
• Delete the old server from the server view

Migrating to a new version of Designer using the plug-in distribution
• If you are migrating from ActiveVOS Designer 6.x or ActiveVOS 7.x you will need to install eclipse 5.0 or 5.1 and follow plug-in installation instructions provided above.

Upgrading Existing ActiveVOS Server

You can upgrade from an earlier version of ActiveVOS.  However, you must be sure to follow the instructions below:

• Be sure to run the upgrade scripts for the database definitions
• The default database name is ActiveVOS

ActiveVOS Designer

What's New in ActiveVOS Designer 8.0

At a glance, version 8.0 of ActiveVOS Designer adds the following new features and functionality:

• Data Access Service
• Swimlanes
• Custom Task Properties
• Boundary Events

For a comprehensive review of new features in Activevos 8.0 please read the What's New document on our website WhatsNewinActiveVOS80.pdf

Data Access Service

The Data Access Service is a new ActiveVOS System Service that provides first-class access to any JDBC-accessible data source.

Swimlanes

BPMN concepts of pools and lanes have been added to ActiveVOS Designer to provide models with the ability to graphically organize a process model by participants or roles.

Custom Task Properties

This new feature allows the developer to expose custom task data (eg. invoice #, state, etc.) to end users as part of their task list. These items are sortable and searchable, allowing for more productivity for end users.

Boundary Events

Boundary events provide designers with powerful graphical annotations to convey the interrupting and non-interrupting execution behavior following the arrival of a message, timer, error or compensating event.




Resolved Issues - Designer

7940	Custom Report from Web Service calls. Report data does not get populated when the datasource is specified as a web service
8323	Installer should detect proxy during setup.
8855	BUnit design tab not getting updated. When making the changes to the bunit source, specifically changing the attribute data from the existing datetime value to a "*" (* because to let the BUNIT ignore the timestamp field), it does not update the contents in the design tab, even after the save, UNLESS the file is closed and re-opened.
8940	Gap between activities needs optimization. Change the automatic “scooching” of activities that overlap so that some overlap is allowed.
8945	error when running BUnit AntScript. When the Ant Script is run inside/outside the designer, from the command line, if there is a white space in the file path to the ant script (workspace location), the ant script fails.




Known Issues - Designer

00926	Schemas imported via wsdl:import do not resolve in wsdl:types section	Many WSDL generators create this type of WSDL definition but it is not WS-I compliant. All schema imports should be in the <wsdl:types> section of the WSDL definition.
01404	When selecting a completed from the Remote Debug option " Prompt for process from list" the default focus in Debug view is on launch configuration and the console is not populated with data.	Click on the process name in the debug view to see the console information.
02038	Extraneous namespaces may be added to expressions	This does not cause any known issues
02305	The namespace prefix of a fault name is not displayed in the designer	You can look at the BPEL source to find the namespace prefix
03372	Vbpel files are shown in the designer navigator and there doesnt appear a way to filter them out.	We believe this to be related to an Eclipse defect.
03468	Process builder does not validate correctly when changing xsd used in a wsdl.	If you alter a schema file used in a wsdl, which in turn is used by a process, you will not receive problem items or visual indicators when the change (should) invalidate both the wsdl and the bpel process. You need to manually do a clean on the project to see problems/errors and visual indicators. Conversely, if you correct the problem, problem items and visual indicators remain until you clean.
03492	If you remove process nature from a project, previous errors that were found still display	Delete and re-import the project to remove messages
03498	There is no visual indication in the Project Explorer if an imported wsdl in your WebRefrences project folder contains an error
03643	The second (or greater) time you execute an On Event, when you select Execute, focus does not move to the Event
03647	Renaming a .bpel can cause unexpected behavior	If you rename a .bpel process, activities added to the process may not be populated to the outline.
03680	When you drag and drop an operation into a scope, the scope is sometimes all blue
03694	Tabbed properties disappear for the executing activity when simulating	In simulation, when executing an activity - the properties view displays all properties in a tabular fashion (similar to version 4.1 view)
03743	WSDL that imports WSDL via a project location may not resolving correctly	Try importing from file location instead of project location.
03795	ArrayIndexOutofBounds error thrown when attempting to save changed service name of an imported WSDL	Make changes outside of Designer and re-import
04246	WS-HT getMyTasks operation does does not return tasks if maxTasks element is not set.	Provide a value to maxTasks (optional element).
04549	Task reports are not available if server is stopped and unlicensed	Typically this happens when initially starting the enterprise server because it is unlicensed and therefore stopped.
04598	Errors appear in the error log when defining a new server from the Project Explorer (Right Mouse / New / Other / Server)	Update WTP plugins to the latest version. The errors do not affect functionality of the server wizard or view.
05007	Linux Designer - Opening help from the embedded server wizard results in the help panel being opened in a manner that requires the user to close the wizard to read it.	--
05324	When adding a correlation set to a one-way invoke (eg. only an input variable is assigned) - Response and Request-Response options are still available to the user (resulting in an error if selected).	This will be addressed in a future release.
08684	ActiveBPELAdmin.wsdl shows errors when imported as a service reference.	--




ActiveVOS Server

What's New in ActiveVOS Server 8.0

At a glance, version 8.0 of ActiveVOS Server adds the following new features and functionality:

• Data Access Service
• Deployment Contributions
• Custom Task Properties
• Single Sign-on

For a comprehensive review of new features in Activevos 8.0 please read the What's New document on our website WhatsNewinActiveVOS80.pdf

Data Access Service

The Data Access Service is a new ActiveVOS System Service that provides first-class access to any JDBC-accessible data source.

Deployment Contributions

Deploument Contributions improve the ability for teams of developers to incrementally build and deploy versions of a business process application and minimize the risk of introducing incompatibilities at runtime.

Custom Task Properties

This new feature allows the developer to expose custom task data (eg. invoice #, state, etc.) to end users as part of their task list. These items are sortable and searchable, allowing for more productivity for end users.

Single Sign-on

ActiveVOS now integrates with Single-Sign On frameworks, allowing users to access forms and ActiveVOS Central without being prompted for credentials.

Resolved Issues - Server

8106	Variable display in log filter of admin console. The variable or partner link data in log filter of active process detail view appear as html entities.
8162	Use of 'loading' icon rather than wait for pages to complete the load.
8384	Process and Subprocess invokes adds to pending invoke count and leaves journal entries.
8400	Task state process faults with missing reply exception during recovery. The aeb4p-task-state process can fault with a missing reply exception. This happens only when the state process comes out of recovery and attempts to reply to an onEvent.
8749	Invocation of a sub report via URI or drill through has issues when the server is secured.
8750	Invokes count of '' should mean 'I dont care'. Currently, if the invoke count in a BUnit is "" it means the same thing as 0, so if the invoke ever occurs, a bunit assertion failure is triggered that complains "Invoke count of 1 doesn't match expected value of 0".
7501	Admin API: Expiring Multiple Plans. Need a provision to select multiple plans and expire them. Allow users to expire multiple deployed plans at a single time instead of navigating to the individual plans.
8117	Report does not complete - remains running.

Known Issues - Server

Platform Issues

WebLogic	There is an conflict with the version of castor that ships with WebLogic	To resolve the issue you must do one of the following Remove the castor-xml_0.9.4.jar from the Receive/weblogic90/common/lib - the version of castor will then be loaded from our directory Replace the castor-xml_0.9.4.jar with the castor jar that we ship
WebSphere	There is an issue with the Oracle driver when running under load using WebSphere 6.0.1	Only occurs on this platform combination.

Product Issues

00904	If you display the details of a process running on a server that has a tight process intensive loop (e.g., while loop with only an assign that executes 10,000 times) and no other interactions the process will become suspended.	The process instance will need to be manually resumed using the administration consoles.
00910	The Process details page of the Administration Console will throw an exception if the server is running in a headless mode if not configured for graphical display.	The Process details page renders a graphical representation of the running or completed process and relies on GUI components from the Java's SWT package, such as Fonts. If you are running on a headless server (i.e., the server does not have a graphic subsystem), you may see one of the following errors in the Stack trace: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: sun/awt/X11GraphicsEnvironment Can't connect to X11 window server using ':0.0' as the value of the DISPLAY variable There are a several ways to correct this error: Configure the JVM with system property java.awt.headless=true This method requires the system property java.awt.headless=true to be set in your JVM. Go to Administration Console's Servers-> Process Definitions -> JVM -> Generic JVM Settings. Add the setting -Djava.awt.headless=true At the Command line, start the JVM with arguments -Djava.awt.headless=true Run a X-windows virtual frame buffer (Xvfb) For details, see your system administrator. Disable the graphic image generation of the Administration Console's Process Details page You can disable the process view graph by adding a Servlet init parameter in the web.xml file. For details on this please contact Active Endpoints support.
01170	If you deploy a service.wsdd file into Tomcat server in a directory other than the bpr directory and restart the server any WSR's that are deployed in the bpr directory will not get loaded.	Make sure you deploy all service.wsdd files in the same way.
01861	When the engine can not connect to the database only some of the license page displays	Correct the database connection issue and then access the page
02265	When running a process that contains a parallel forEach activity and the number of iterations is very large (i.e., 10K - 20K) all available memory can be allocated to one process instance or in a worse case the server to run out of memory and no be able to restart	Make sure that you have set the maximum number of threads per- active processes reference a schema or WSDL resource before deleting from the Resource catalog
02529	A Null pointer exception is thrown if you attempt to run a process after a referenced schema or WSDL file has been deleted	Make sure that no active processes reference a schema or WSDL resource before deleting from the Resource catalog
02852	The Resource Catalog and Deployed Services page do not filter out System Resources	No work around at this time
03248	Alarms remain listed in the queue after the process has completed. This happens when a running process is persisted to a database, and the server is restarted.	No workaround available at this time.
03696	Validation error on a properly formatted message where schema-A **includes** schema-B and 'elementFormDefault' valuse are not same in each schema.	Castor models the result of an include as a single schema object with only 1 value for 'elementFromDefault' (value is last one read). Modify schemas to use **import** instead of include, or make sure 'elementFromDefault' values are consistent.
03845	Illegal Access Errors when attempting to shut down the embedded engine before it has completely stated	Check the console to ensure the engine has completed it's startup before shutting down.
03914	Task explicitly assigned to a user on the excluded list does not appear in the inbox when they login	This use case is not well defined in the current specification. Waiting for clarity on proper handling of this use case.
04188	Workflow Application Server Error signing off the inbox on Solaris WebSphere. 404 error - The requested resource was not found 404 error - SRVE0190E: File not found: /ibm_security_logout Request URI: / aetask/ibm_security_logout	This only happens when global security is turned off.
04761	Deleting a resource from the catalog resets the filter to "All".	--
04934	Caching allows a user to view admin console pages after logging out (as admin) by hitting the browsers "back" button.	Use IE browser setting "check for new content every time I visit a new web page". Note: Attempting actions such as deploying a process are not allowed because security is checked each time such an activity is invoked.
04976	Enterprise installation displays an error in the output tab during installation. The following snippet is an example: "... [null] : Error! file:///home/ebolles/Oracle_rc10_Secure/activeVOS_6.0.0/server-enterprise/tomcat_config/bin/resources/xsl/reportconfig.tomcat.xsl: line 35: Attribute 'name' outside of element."	This is essentially a rogue error with no actual impact on performance.
05103	After database upgrade, the (old) process logs are no longer available in the active process detail page.	--
05264	Weblogic console periodically displays deployments as stuck in "Start Running" state instead of "Started".	This is essentially a rogue error with no actual impact on performance.
05484	Process Service Times report does not display data for services that are inside a Pick	To be addressed in a future version.
05486	Active Response Time report displays PA's that use the same task twice	To be addressed in a future version.

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