20 Oracle Business Process Management

This chapter describes issues associated with Oracle Business Process Management (BPM). It includes the following topics:

20.1 General Issues and Workarounds

This section describes general issues and workarounds. It includes the following topics:

20.1.1 Oracle BPM Studio Issues

This section describes issues and workarounds for Oracle BPM Studio. It includes the following topics:

20.1.1.1 Do Not Edit the BPMN Process WSDLs directly

You must always use the Process Editor to edit a BPMN process. Do not edit the BPMN process WSDLs directly. Doing so does not allow you to save the changes and causes multiple error messages.

20.1.1.2 Dynamic Endpoint Properties Are Not Available

Dynamic endpoint properties are not available in BPM for this release.

To set endpoint properties to an SOA component used in Oracle BPM, use a BPEL process to invoke the SOA component and invoke the BPEL process from Oracle BPM.

20.1.1.3 Cannot Edit Link Between BPMN Process and Business Rules in composite.xml

The business rules task is used to incorporate Oracle Business Rules within a BPMN process. You can specify the business rule used as part of the configuration properties for the business rules task.

However, you cannot edit this property in composite.xml. Use the Oracle BPM Studio user interface to edit or remove the reference to the business rule.

20.1.1.4 Deleting Services or References from the SOA Composite Does Not Delete the Customized Service or Reference

When you delete a customized service or a reference from the SOA Composite, Oracle BPM Studio does not delete the customized component from the business catalog. Before building the BPM project you must manually delete the customized component from the business catalog.

20.1.1.5 The XPath Data Association Editor Does Not Validate Expressions

The XPath Data Association Editor does not validate the expressions you use to assign values to arguments and data objects. You must ensure that the XPath expressions you use in an XPath data association are valid. Using invalid XPath expressions causes errors at run time.

20.1.1.6 Deleting a Reference from the SOA Composite Does Not Remove It from the Human Task Payload Configuration

Deleting a reference from the SOA Composite does not delete the reference from the payload of the Human Tasks that use the reference.

After you delete a reference, you must remove the deleted reference from the Human Tasks using it.

20.1.1.7 Data Associations for Elements of a Collection Are Not Available

Data associations for elements of a collection are not available in this release. To assign a value to an element of a collection, use XLS transformations.

20.1.1.8 Do Not Define Multiple Catch Events for the Same Error or Message

Do not define multiple catch events for the same error or message. Only the first catch event fires; the remaining catch events are ignored.

20.1.1.9 Changes to a Deployed Organizational Unit Not Supported

When a BPM Project is deployed, any organizational units that do not exist are created. However, when redeploying a project, if any existing organizational units are changed, the changes will not be updated.

These changes must be made by a business administrator using Oracle BPM Workspace as described in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Process Management.

20.1.1.10 enableAutoClaim Property Is Set to True in Human Tasks Created Using Oracle BPM Suite

When you create a Human Task using Oracle BPM Suite, the enableAutoClaim property is set to true by default.

20.1.1.11 Configuring Data Associations for XML Schema Elements Based on Simple Data Types

When configuring data associations for a flow object, you can map simple XML elements based on simple types to compatible basic data objects.

20.1.1.12 The Initiator Node List Shows the Names of the Possible Initiator Flow Objects

In the implementation properties of message events and send and receive tasks, the Initiator Node list shows the name of the initiator flow object. A BPMN process might contain multiple flow objects with the same name. It is a good practice to use a different name for all of the flow objects in the process. Not doing so causes the Initiator Node list to contain multiple items with the same name, making it difficult to identify the one you want to select.

20.1.1.13 The Pushback Task Operation Is Not Supported In an Aggregation Context

The Approval Management pushback task operation is not supported in an aggregation context. Use the request for information task operation instead.

20.1.1.14 Must Assign Application Roles from the OracleBPMProcessRolesApp Context

Using Oracle BPM Studio, you can map the roles defined in your process to application roles defined by Oracle WebLogic Server.

However, you must ensure that the application roles you use are defined as part of the OracleBPMProcessRolesApp application context. Only application roles defined in OracleBPMProcessRolesApp are used at run time.

20.1.1.15 You Must Configure the Implementation of BPMN Flow Objects in a BPM Project Created from a BPA Project

You must configure the implementation of certain BPMN flow objects, such as gateways, business rules, and human tasks, in a BPM project created from a BPA project. Not doing so causes errors when building the BPM Project.

20.1.1.16 Some List Builders Do Not Work If You Do Not Configure the Hierarchy Provider Plug-In

If you do not configure the hierarchy provider plug-in, then the following list builders do not work:

  • Job Level

  • Position

The Supervisory list builder uses the LDAP management chain if you do not configure the hierarchy plug-in.

20.1.1.17 Adding Counter Marks to Subprocesses is Not Available

Adding counter marks to subprocesses is not available for this release.

The available workaround is to add the counter mark to add an activity immediately after the start event in the subprocess and add a counter mark to this activity.

20.1.1.18 You Must Manually Remove Additional Slashes from the XSD file When Defining Human Tasks Assignments Based on Business Rules

In BPM Suite if you define a human task assignments based on Business Rules, then you must edit the XSD of the decision service to remove the additional slashes from the import statements.

For example, you must replace the following statement:

schemaLocation="oramds:///soa/shared/workflow/TaskEvidenceService.xsd"

with the following import statement:

schemaLocation="oramds:/soa/shared/workflow/TaskEvidenceService.xsd"

20.1.1.19 The Number of Business Indicators Per Project is Limited

You must not define more than twenty business indicators per project. The average length of the name of the business indicator must be 15 characters.

20.1.2 Oracle BPM Process Composer Issues

This section describes issues and workarounds for Oracle BPM Process Composer. It includes the following topics:

20.1.2.1 Deploy Option Not Available in Approval WorkFlow Browser

When you specify an approver who also has deployment permissions, the user will not initially see the deployment option. To be able to deploy the Oracle BPM project, the user must first select approve. Once the approval workflow is complete, the option to deploy the project is available.

20.1.2.2 Chinese, Korean, and Character Input Problems in Flow Object Labels

The Adobe Flash Player has a bug related to input for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese characters. This causes problems in Oracle Business Process Composer when editing flow object labels within the process editor.

For more information see: http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-501.

To resolve this issue, use Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7.

20.1.3 Oracle BPM Workspace and Process Spaces Issues

This section describes issues and workarounds for Oracle BPM Workspace and Process Spaces. It includes the following topics:

20.1.3.1 When Documentation Server is Down, Launching a Group Space for an Instance Causes Error "Instance 'null' is not available"

If you have a Process Spaces group space open and you bring down the documentation service, then, when you launch instance group space for an instance, you see that an instance group space is created. However, when you open the instance group space, you receive the error message "Instance 'null' is not available". This happens because the newly created group space does not have the custom attribute instanceId.

For the workaround, the administrator should do the following:

  1. Navigate to Settings in the process instance group space.

  2. Navigate to custom attributes.

  3. Create the custom attribute instanceId and associate the process instance identifier as the value.

20.1.3.2 File Size Limit for Process Attachment Is 2 MB

If you attach a file to a process, the file must be no larger than two megabytes.

20.1.3.3 Drilled Down Graphs Will not Honor the Filter Criterion From the Source

In a dashboard, when you are drilling down from one widget to another, the filter conditions may not all be honored.

20.1.3.4 Display of Changes to Organizational Unit Membership Requires Logging Back in Again

If you are logged into Oracle Business Process Management Workspace, and changes are made to your organizational membership, you will not see these changes reflected in the interface until you log out and log back in again. This is because, for better performance, the organizational unit information is cached when you log into Process Workspace.

20.1.3.5 Role Members Are not Removed During Process Re-Deployment

If, during design time, you update a process by removing a member from a role and then re-deploy the process, the member you removed is still listed as a member of that role. This is because permission to remove members from roles is limited to administrators during runtime.

To remove the member from the role, the administrator must use Oracle Business Process Management Workspace as described in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Process Management.

20.1.3.6 For Large Number of Users Set Timeout to 5 Minutes Maximum

If you have a large number of users, set the timeout to no more than 5 minutes. To do this, expand the BPM Workspace .ear file, open the web.xml file, and update the timeout parameter.

20.1.3.7 Possible Mixed Translation Issue when Displaying BPM Audit Trail

In BPM Workspace, when displaying the audit trail, the fallback mechanism for the BPMN flow element labels is incorrect.

When there is no label for the browser language, an element's first label—that is, the first label in the list of localized labels—is used. This can cause the translation to be mixed because the first locale for each activity is not always the same.

To work around this issue, make the first locale the same for all activities.

20.1.3.8 Task URL Attachment from Process Tracking Page Is not Supported

You cannot access the task URL attachment from Process Tracking page.

20.1.4 Oracle BPMN Administration

This section describes issues and workarounds for Oracle BPMN Administration. This section contains the following:

20.1.4.1 ORA-00001: unique constraint (SH_SOAINFRA.BPM_AUDIT_QUERY_PK) violated when exceeding the Quota

If you encounter the following error in the log file:

java.sql.SQLIntegrityConstraintViolationException: ORA-00001: unique constraint (SH_SOAINFRA.BPM_AUDIT_QUERY_PK) violated when exceeding the Quota

then increase the quota by doing the following:

  1. Run the following SQL command:

    update BPM_AUDIT_SEQUENCE set seq_count = ( select max(query_id) from bpm_audit_query) +1 where seq_name = 'AUDIT_QUERY_SEQ';

  2. Restart the server.

20.1.4.2 Integrating Oracle BPM with Oracle Business Activity Monitoring

To configure Oracle BPM for use with Oracle Business Activity Monitoring, you perform these tasks:

20.1.4.2.1 Task 1: Create Process-Specific BAM Data Objects on the Oracle Business Process Management Server

To create process-specif BAM data objects, observe these rules:

  • The name of the data object must be exactly BI_DEFAULT_<Composite Name>_<Process Name> (Composite Name is same as Project Name).

  • For every business indicator, a column needs to be created in data object

    • Column name must be exactly METRIC_RANGE_business indicator name.

    • Types must match.

  • For business indicator with ranges—that is, dimension business indicators of numerical types—an additional column needs to be created to capture the range.

    • Column name must be exactly METRIC_RANGE_business indicator name.

    • The Type must be String.

To configure standard and process-specific BAM Data Objects on BAM Server:

  1. Import template BI data object $BPM_HOME/bin/icommand -cmd import -file $BPMHOME/samples/bam/monitorexpress/data_object/MonitorExpress_Template_BI_DataObject.xml(use weblogic user)

  2. Launch the BAM Architect.

  3. Find imported template BI data object and rename it using data object naming rules.

  4. Add Business Indicators to the newly created data object using rules for creating Data Object columns.

20.1.4.2.2 Task 2: Configure the BAM Adapter on Oracle BPM Server

To do this, use the Oracle WebLogic Server Console.

To configure the BAM adapter on Oracle BPM server:

  1. In the Oracle WebLogic Server console, under Domain Structure, click Deployments.

  2. Click OracleBAMAdapter, then click Configuration, then click Outbound Connection Pools.

  3. Expand oracle.bam.adapter.adc.soap.SOAPConnectionFactory.

  4. Click eis/bam/soap.

  5. Modify properties to match the BAM Server. (Remember to press Enter after text entry).

  6. Click Save.

  7. Select the location for the deployment plan—for example, bam/Plan.xml, then complete the dialogs.

  8. Return to Deployments.

  9. Select OracleBAMAdapter.

  10. Click Update and complete the dialogs.

For more information about integrating Oracle Business Activity Monitoring with Oracle SOA Suite composite applications, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite.

20.1.4.2.3 Task 3: Enable BAM on the Oracle BPM Server

To do this, you use the Oracle Fusion Middleware Control console.

To enable BAM on the Oracle BPM server:

  1. In the Oracle Fusion Middleware Control console, under Weblogic Domain, select your domain and server.

  2. Go to System MBean Browser.

  3. Select oracle.as.soainfra.config, then Server, then BPMNConfing , then bpmn.

  4. Go to Disable Actions. If you find BAMAction there, then clear the field.

  5. Click Apply.

20.2 Configuration Issues and Workarounds

There are no known configuration issues or workarounds for Oracle Business Process Management at this time.

20.3 Documentation Errata

There are no known documentation errata for Oracle Business Process Management at this time.