MicroFocus-Serena released version SBM 11.3
At the end of June, MicroFocus-Serena released version 11.3 of the business process automation platform. The release is minor, however there are a number of very popular and useful changes in it. Let's go through the list of the most significant of them.
The tools for organizing your workspace, known as Folders and Quick Links since the TeamTrack 6.2 version, were unfairly forgotten and excluded from the new layout of the WorkCenter user interface. Quick links made it possible to quickly “link” to the desktop a reference or to a constantly needed report, or a current release, or a sprint backlog diagram, or a saved defect form template in the current version of UI, or a link to the TOR. And Folders allowed all this wealth to be conveniently stored and quickly found. Moreover, the contents of the folders can also be shared with colleagues. For example, I collected all useful KPI reports in a folder and gave everyone access — use it on health ... Of course, there were many new tools in the WorkCenter, for example, report search filters, but Folders and Links will not be superfluous.
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In this version, for Folders, the roles of Owner (owner), Co-owner (co-owner), Participant (collaborators), Add (contributors), To view (viewers) were added.
Programmers can now use SBM ModScript to implement business logic scripts running on the SBM application server. SBM ModScript is a descendant of ChaiScript, and contains extensions for working with SBM objects. Details can be found in the documentation - SBM ModScript Reference Guide. You can understand the main differences from the previous SBM AppScript technology in another document - the SBM ModScript Transition Guide.
Recall that the basis of SBM AppScript was VB Script. This engine is over 20 years old. It works very quickly, and copes well with its tasks. The disadvantages include the lack of powerful ready-made libraries for working with strings or XML, as well as the absence of some of the usual conveniences for debugging.
For a long time, SBM has been isolated from users who do not have a profile in the system. Some time ago it became possible to send emails to random email addresses from the system. Now there are more such opportunities:
Anonymous posting by email
So, external users (who do not have their own profile in SBM) can now send an email to the mailbox that is processed by SBM, and if the Administrator sets up the ability to create records in the respective projects from unknown senders, the record will be created. Additionally, you can configure blocking attachments to emails, spam filters, and routing rules for incoming emails from unknown users. See the SBM Application Administrator Guide documentation for setup details.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this feature for companies where SBM is used to automate customer support or ServiceDesk processes. Now there is a normal channel of communication with all its customers!
Manage external user profiles
It is clear that if we received a call from a client previously unknown to us, then we need to somehow interact with it. For this, a new widget has been added (available through the Actions menu on the object form), which allows you to look at the email address from which the request was received, enter the client's name, and add additional external users.
After setup, the system will automatically substitute the addresses and names of external users in the form of sending a letter.
Note: A new External Communication privilege has been added to manage external user profiles. Do not forget to include it in the appropriate role.
E-mail Recorder and Communications
The E-mail Recorder module allows you to automatically attach e-mail between users to the discussion object. The module will handle correspondence with external users. In SBM, you can configure the rules for automatic transitions (state changes) upon receiving a response from an external user.
Email templates to external users
Additional email templates have been added to the system for sending notifications to external users. In addition, the built-in letter editor automatically inserts the email addresses of external users associated with this entry into the To field. Letter templates can be edited in the settings of each project.
Kanban boards, widely popular in narrow circles, appeared in 11 versions of SBM and are available at WorkCenter. What appeared new:
Calendar reports and views appeared Work Center for a long time. As the name implies, this tool allows you to “project” entries on the calendar day / week / month, dynamically apply the system of coloring / attaching icons by field values, and also dynamically conveniently filter the display of records on the calendar according to the selected system of coloring / icons. On one calendar, you can combine data from multiple data streams simultaneously. What's new here:
Users with Global Administration privilege now have Deleted Items and Change History reports available, which will show the list of deleted reports and the SBM report change history respectively.
Users with the Remote Administration privilege in the settings menu have access to new performance analysis reports on the SBM components, utilization of system resources, etc. SBM System Analytics includes Real-Time Monitoring and Run-Time Statistics.
Reuse nested Workflows for Orchestration scripts. BPEL language scripts and orchestration models are widely used to implement process interaction scenarios both within the SBM and with external systems. Both synchronous and asynchronous models are possible. In this version, it became possible to select frequently occurring steps or actions in separate models, and then incorporate them through the palette of orchestration elements. In general, the change is useful for large projects, where the orchestration engine is widely used, where there is a need to simplify scenarios and reduce the cost of decision support.
In the SBM configurator, you can enable additional attack protection — Secure Response Headers. See the documentation for the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide.
SBM Work Center
New system reports
Query at runtime enhancements for text fields
Data selection filters in reports allow the option to specify filtering values ​​at the moment of the report execution - this is Query At Runtime. However, working with test fields is often not enough for a single conditional operator. Therefore, the logical operators “AND”, “OR”, “contains”, “like”, “not contains”, “not like” appeared. Very useful, I must say.
SBM System Administrator
Open Custom Popup Now a Modal Dialog Box
Added a new powerful user interface form tool - Open Custom Popup. It works simply. When the user clicks a button, link or image, an additional menu of possible options appears, which opens up a wide palette of implementations of new convenient scripts for working with the system. You can use your code in Javascript or CSS.
Here is such a release. Ask questions. Follow our news.
Folders and Quick Links also appeared in WorkCenter
The tools for organizing your workspace, known as Folders and Quick Links since the TeamTrack 6.2 version, were unfairly forgotten and excluded from the new layout of the WorkCenter user interface. Quick links made it possible to quickly “link” to the desktop a reference or to a constantly needed report, or a current release, or a sprint backlog diagram, or a saved defect form template in the current version of UI, or a link to the TOR. And Folders allowed all this wealth to be conveniently stored and quickly found. Moreover, the contents of the folders can also be shared with colleagues. For example, I collected all useful KPI reports in a folder and gave everyone access — use it on health ... Of course, there were many new tools in the WorkCenter, for example, report search filters, but Folders and Links will not be superfluous.
')
In this version, for Folders, the roles of Owner (owner), Co-owner (co-owner), Participant (collaborators), Add (contributors), To view (viewers) were added.
New script engine
Programmers can now use SBM ModScript to implement business logic scripts running on the SBM application server. SBM ModScript is a descendant of ChaiScript, and contains extensions for working with SBM objects. Details can be found in the documentation - SBM ModScript Reference Guide. You can understand the main differences from the previous SBM AppScript technology in another document - the SBM ModScript Transition Guide.
Recall that the basis of SBM AppScript was VB Script. This engine is over 20 years old. It works very quickly, and copes well with its tasks. The disadvantages include the lack of powerful ready-made libraries for working with strings or XML, as well as the absence of some of the usual conveniences for debugging.
Improving communication with the outside world
For a long time, SBM has been isolated from users who do not have a profile in the system. Some time ago it became possible to send emails to random email addresses from the system. Now there are more such opportunities:
Anonymous posting by email
So, external users (who do not have their own profile in SBM) can now send an email to the mailbox that is processed by SBM, and if the Administrator sets up the ability to create records in the respective projects from unknown senders, the record will be created. Additionally, you can configure blocking attachments to emails, spam filters, and routing rules for incoming emails from unknown users. See the SBM Application Administrator Guide documentation for setup details.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this feature for companies where SBM is used to automate customer support or ServiceDesk processes. Now there is a normal channel of communication with all its customers!
Manage external user profiles
It is clear that if we received a call from a client previously unknown to us, then we need to somehow interact with it. For this, a new widget has been added (available through the Actions menu on the object form), which allows you to look at the email address from which the request was received, enter the client's name, and add additional external users.
After setup, the system will automatically substitute the addresses and names of external users in the form of sending a letter.
Note: A new External Communication privilege has been added to manage external user profiles. Do not forget to include it in the appropriate role.
E-mail Recorder and Communications
The E-mail Recorder module allows you to automatically attach e-mail between users to the discussion object. The module will handle correspondence with external users. In SBM, you can configure the rules for automatic transitions (state changes) upon receiving a response from an external user.
Email templates to external users
Additional email templates have been added to the system for sending notifications to external users. In addition, the built-in letter editor automatically inserts the email addresses of external users associated with this entry into the To field. Letter templates can be edited in the settings of each project.
Kanban board presentation enhancements
Kanban boards, widely popular in narrow circles, appeared in 11 versions of SBM and are available at WorkCenter. What appeared new:
- Backlog can now be selected as the data source for the kanban board. What is the beauty? Backlog has a sign of including / excluding a task to / from the backlog of a sprint or product. Accordingly, not all tasks will be shown on the kanban board, but only those that were included in the backlog for implementation. See the SBM Work Center Guide documentation.
- Now you can display data from relational tables associated with the main object of a kanban board (only through the relation - Single Relational). For example, you can additionally output a scrum command or a link to the environment, or a link to a global project, or a link to a Client card, etc. Moreover, the entries on the kanban board can be visually grouped and highlighted on this basis in separate lanes (swimlanes).
- The drag-n-drop function on the kanban board now correctly handles the branching of the process model (decision points diamonds).
- Added sorting of entries in kanban board columns by system attributes or kanban card attributes Card ID, Card Title or Card Status. You can also use backlog priority.
Improvements in the calendar view
Calendar reports and views appeared Work Center for a long time. As the name implies, this tool allows you to “project” entries on the calendar day / week / month, dynamically apply the system of coloring / attaching icons by field values, and also dynamically conveniently filter the display of records on the calendar according to the selected system of coloring / icons. On one calendar, you can combine data from multiple data streams simultaneously. What's new here:
- Work Center taught to take a tape of events for a calendar from external sources via JSON / REST services. This can be useful for finding conflicts / intersections when planning.
- You can now export event information in ICS format in order to import it into another calendar application like Microsoft Outlook or any other compatible format.
Tracking changes in reports. Report deletion control
Users with Global Administration privilege now have Deleted Items and Change History reports available, which will show the list of deleted reports and the SBM report change history respectively.
SBM System Analytics
Users with the Remote Administration privilege in the settings menu have access to new performance analysis reports on the SBM components, utilization of system resources, etc. SBM System Analytics includes Real-Time Monitoring and Run-Time Statistics.
Reuse nested Workflows for Orchestration scripts. BPEL language scripts and orchestration models are widely used to implement process interaction scenarios both within the SBM and with external systems. Both synchronous and asynchronous models are possible. In this version, it became possible to select frequently occurring steps or actions in separate models, and then incorporate them through the palette of orchestration elements. In general, the change is useful for large projects, where the orchestration engine is widely used, where there is a need to simplify scenarios and reduce the cost of decision support.
Secure Response Headers
In the SBM configurator, you can enable additional attack protection — Secure Response Headers. See the documentation for the SBM Installation and Configuration Guide.
UI Changes
SBM Work Center
- New actions with widgets: Copy and Save As
- In backlogs, the possibility of independent sorting lists - Accepted in backlog and Candidates in backlog.
- Information about the user who made changes to the backlog, the time of these changes, the blog entry itself was added in the backlog change history section.
New system reports
- SLA Items Panel. Predicted report after the inclusion of the SLA module in the basic delivery of SBM.
- Requests Monitor. This report is more curious. It shows a list of SBM reports currently running. From this view, reports can be stopped if you have the appropriate rights. In general, the report will be in demand in high-loaded configurations.
Query at runtime enhancements for text fields
Data selection filters in reports allow the option to specify filtering values ​​at the moment of the report execution - this is Query At Runtime. However, working with test fields is often not enough for a single conditional operator. Therefore, the logical operators “AND”, “OR”, “contains”, “like”, “not contains”, “not like” appeared. Very useful, I must say.
Administration Changes
SBM System Administrator
- Import data from ODBC sources
- Ability to specify the user on whose behalf the data will be imported
- Ability to execute pre- and post-processing scripts (AppScript / ModScript)
- The option to update the data only if any changes were detected.
But what is especially interesting is that this release included the command line utility ttadmin.exe. Thus, you can write a script of the operating system and run this script on a schedule. As a result, we obtain a fully autonomous loading of data from external sources by regular means!
SBM Composer Changes
Open Custom Popup Now a Modal Dialog Box
Added a new powerful user interface form tool - Open Custom Popup. It works simply. When the user clicks a button, link or image, an additional menu of possible options appears, which opens up a wide palette of implementations of new convenient scripts for working with the system. You can use your code in Javascript or CSS.
Here is such a release. Ask questions. Follow our news.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/332770/
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