Installation Issue [Windows NT only]

Platforms:

• PAE 4.0 supports the following platforms:

   Sun Solaris 2.6 and 2.7
   Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, SP3 andSP5

• PAE now has its own newsgroup. Please post questionsto snews://secnews.netscape.com/netscape.server.processmanager

• Based on Netscape Application Server 4.0.
• Lets you integrate existing enterprise applications and systems into businessprocesses. For example, CICS and SAP ERP systems.
• Provides separate administration interfaces: Process Administrator andProcess Business Manager. Network admins or other information technologypersonnel use Process Administrator, the graphical tool for managing applicationsand clusters. Business managers use Process Business Manager, the graphicaltool for monitoring statistics, process instances, and work items.

 

 
 
 

Business managers are a special type of end user, such as a human resourcesspecialist or payroll manager, who wants to track usage information aboutprocess instances.

• Improved application development environment. Process Builder, the developmenttool, includes many new features. In addition, several new JavaScript APIsare available to use in scripts. You can also use Java to create customactivities and custom fields, and incorporate them into an applicationusing Process Builder.

• Installation Guide
• Administrator's Guide
• Business Manager's Guide
• Process Express User's Guide
• Developer's Guide

For New PAE Customers If you are a newPAE customer, begin by reading the Installation Guide for installationinstructions. Read the Administrator's Guide to learn how to createor join a cluster. See the Developer's Guide to learn how to useProcess Builder and to learn more about PAE APIs.

• Installation Issues
• Process Administrator Issues
• Process Business Manager Issues
• Process Builder Issues
• Process Express Issues
• API Issues
• Sample Application Issues
• Database Issues
• Netscape Application Server Issues

Installation Issues

• "Webless" installation - when your web server runs on a different machinethan Netscape Application Server - is not supported for this release.
• 364310.  On NT, if you cannot access PAE after installing it,make sure that the PAE AppLogics and bean are registered correctly. See"Installation Troubleshooting" in the Installation Guide.
• 355674. The installer does not check to see if the LDAP URL is correctduring the installation. If you have supplied an incorrect URL, you canchange it after installation. See "Installation Troubleshooting" in theInstallationGuide.

Process Administrator Issues

• 347290. PAE 4.0 does not support the role dbo. The database userwho is creating the cluster and all the other database users for applications(if any) should be ordinary users with create table/view permissions. Noneof them should be the dbo of the database.
• 338842. Deleting the cluster will fail if the configuration directory(the directory where all the PAE configuration information is stored) isdown. Please make sure that the configuration directory is up and runningbefore attempting to delete the cluster.
• 356232 and 364089. [Internet Explorer only]  It is recommendedthat you access Process Administrator through Netscape Navigator when youwant to create, join, or delete a cluster. If you use Microsoft InternetExplorer (IE) 5.0 to create a cluster, you will not receive notificationthat cluster creation is complete. Also, IE 5.0 sometimes disconnects prematurelyfrom Enterprise Server. And if you use IE 5.0 to delete a cluster, ProcessAdministrator does not indicate that you have successfully deleted thePMExtensionManager.properties file or the events from the Netscape ApplicationServer, even though these actions are performed.
• 356236 [Internet Explorer only]  IE 5.0 does not support LDAP,so the Corporate User Directory link (from Process Administrator's "ClusterManagement" page) does not work. In other words, you cannot list LDAP informationusing IE 5.0.

Process Business Manager Issues

• 370174. In Process Business Manager, if you perform actions on workitems within a suspended process instance, then the work items are automaticallyresumed to an active state. To prevent this behavior, resume the processinstance to an active state, and then suspend it again. In this way, you'llalso suspend the work items again.
• 370181. In Process Business Manager, when you terminate a processinstance, no message appears as a confirmation of successful completion.Although there is no feedback, the process instance is terminated successfully.

Process Builder Issues

• 332787. Before you deploy an application, check the process mapto ensure that you have no "orphan activities" -- in other words, activitiesthat are not connected to any entry point or exit point. Process Builderdoes not report unconnected activities as an error. However, Process Expressusers will not be able to reach such an activity.
• 362443. When changing the name of a role or a field that is a fieldrole, you must rename the field AND the role manually.
• 366853. Do not use embedded spaces when naming a field in the InsertData Field dialog box. For example, use "emp_name" instead of "emp name".Otherwise, Process Builder adds multiple fields (such as "emp" and "name").
• 369076. In assignment scripts, each user DN that you return mustexactly match the DN as it is stored in the directory server. Note thatin LDAP, it makes no difference whether the components of a DN are separatedby spaces or not. So a particular DN might be stored either as this:

uid=fred,ou=People,o=mcom.com

or as this:

uid=fred, ou=People, o=mcom.com

The directory server considers both DNs to be equivalent. If you use built-inassignment scripts, you don't need to worry about matching the DN in thedirectory server. The matching is handled correctly. But be careful whendefining your own assignment scripts. If your assignment script uses literalDN values, the DN must match the LDAP entry (including any spaces). Toavoid trying to match a DN, use the corporate directory object to generatethe DNs. For example:

var cd= getCorporateDirectory();var u = cd.getUserByID("fred");

In addition, you can use the user object to obtain the DN for a person'smanager. For example:

var dn = u.getDN();

• 369571. In the inspector windows that are used for defining applicationgroups, corporate or dynamic groups, there appears an "Allow Cache" checkbox.Checking this box does nothing; the feature is unimplemented.
• 369835. To obtain the appropriate context-sensitive help for theprocess map or the palette, click in their respective title bars.

Process Express Issues

• 358720. If the same NT machine is used to run NAS, PAE, and a webbrowser, the class path might be affected. As a result, the XBFileAttachmentapplet incorrectly loads classes from disk rather than from the JAR file.This leads to security exceptions.
• 358886. In Process Express, the default date format is dd/mm/yyyy,rather than mm/dd/yyyy.

API Issues

• 369222. When writing code in JavaScript, you must "escape" the backslashcharacter in any string. For example: var includePath = "c:\\download\\template;c:\\temp\\templates".
• 369434. When you want to change a priority or a title, do not usesetPriority(value) or setTitle(). Instead, use setData() to change thepriority (or title) field that you chose in Process Builder.
• 369638. The contents of a signed Digital Signature field cannotbe copied to another Digital Signature field. For example, suppose thereare two Digital Signature fields, mysig and digsig. And suppose digsighas been signed. If you call setData as follows:

pi.setData(mysig, digsig)

then mysig will not be saved as you would expect.
• 368311. Do not call getData() on a Digital Signature field. PAEdoes not support the loading of this type of data.
• 370291. When you invoke a JavaScript function, be sure to includethe parentheses for the parameters, even if there are no parameters. Forexample, use getDN(), not getDN. If you omit the ()'s, the function returnsthe source code of its definition. This behavior relates specifically toJavaScript and is not caused by PAE.

Sample Application Issues

• Do not use any embedded space in the model numberfield value. Otherwise, the BuildDS script cannot create the HTML filein the content store.
• If you are testing this application, do not clickthrough the forms too quickly or you will get a Default Exception. Alwaysallow the database a few second to handle a request before launching thenext request.
• This application requires the admin userto have email. For instructions, see the section "Addingan Email Attribute for a User."

• When using the Loan Management and Credit History sample applications together,you may wish to define a trusted user for added security. This is a sometimesconfusing situation, so here's some additional information.
• There are two values that matter:
• In the child process (eg, Credit History), the members of the TrustedUsers group.
• In the Parent process  (eg, Loan Mgmt), the value of the InitiateAs field in the Properties Inspector of the subprocess activity (eg,Check Credit History) that's in the parent's process map. The default valueis admin.
• The following table may help clarify:

	Initiate As value - set by the process designer to a non-defaultvalue (wsmith)	Initiate As value - not set (or left as default: admin when the parent's creator alsoset toadmin.)
Parent's creator user ID (bbane) added as a member of thechild's Trusted User group	Child's creator is set to this value (wsmith)	Child's creator is set to the user ID of the parent's creator (bbane)
Parent's creator user ID (bbane) not in the child's TrustedUser group	Security Exception	Child's creator is set to the user ID of the parent's creator (bbane)

• On Windows NT:
• Use the Control Panel / Services to stop the NetscapeApplication Server.
• Copy the database.xml file from the <builderRoot>/Applications/Samples/Claim/Demofolder into the default directory where DOS command prompt starts up. Forexample, many Windows NT systems default to C:\. If so, then you want toput the file to c:\database.xml.
• Open a DOS prompt and enter kxs. (You mustdo this one before the kjs command.)
• Open another DOS prompt, and enter kjs.(You must do this within 2 minutes of starting the kxs.)
• You can now use the Claim Process application.
• You can continue to run PAE with these separate kxsand kjs commands. Or you can choose to revert back to the automatic servicewhen you're done with the Claim Process application.
• First stop the kjs with a Cntl-C and an Exit command.
• Then stop the kxs in the same way.
• Use the Control Panel / Services to start the NetscapeApplication Server.
• On Solaris:
• Go to the <PAE_root>/nas/bin directory. For example,the PAE root directory could be /usr/netscape/server4.
• Execute this command:
./KIVAes.sh stop
• Copy the database.xml file from the <Builder_root>/Samples/ClaimProcess/Demofolder into the default directory that contains the kjs command. For example,the Builder root directory could be /usr/netscape/server4/builder and thekjs should be in the <PAE_root>/nas/bin directory.
• Start KXS by typing kxs in a Unix shellwithin the <PAE_root>/nas/bin directory.

Start KJS by typing kjs in a Unix shellwithin the <PAE_root>/nas/bin directory.
• You can now use the Claim Process application.
• You can continue to run PAE with these separate kxsand kjs commands. Or you can choose to revert back to the automatic servicewhen you're done with the Claim Process application.
• First stop the kjs.
• Then stop the kxs.
• Go to the <PAE_root>/nas/bin directory and executethis command to start it back up again:
./KIVAes.sh start

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Adding an Email Attributefor a User

To add email for the admin user, follow these steps:

1. Launch Netscape Console. (You can use the Start/Programs menu command onWindows NT. Look for the Netscape Server Family menu item.)
2. On the authentication dialog box, enter this information:
1. administrative user name (a default is provided)
2. administrative password
3. administration URL, including the port number, for the directory server(a default is provided)
3. Click on the User and Groups tab.
4. Click Search to get a list of all users in the directory. (If you are usinga huge user diectory, enter "admin" or "adm*" in the user field beforeclicking the Select button to restrict the search.)
5. Select the admin user ID from the list of users displayed. By default,this is the NAS Administrator user.
6. Click Edit.
7. Enter an email account. If you are the administrator yourself and you arejust testing the system, enter your own email to see what email notificationsyou can receive.
8. Click OK.
9. Close the Netscape Console.

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Configuring the Time Off Application

Before you can deploy the Time Off application, you must make sure yourenvironment meets the following requirements:

• Set the corporate directory as described in "Setting Your Corporate Directory"under the section on sample applications in Chapter 3, "Creating an Application"(on page 70 of the printed book or PDF file).
• Add the email attribute to the admin user. For instructions, see the section"Adding an Email Attribute for a User."
• Add a user to the HR Dept group.
• Add the manager attribute to one or more users.

1. In the application tree view, right-click the HR Dept group and chooseProperties or highlight it and click Inspector.
2. Using the Browse option, find the user you want to add and drag him orher to the List of users. Or use the Search users, and click Add. If youare just testing the sample application and have done a default installation,you can use the admin user. Make sure this user has email. Seethe following section for instructions on how to set this attribute.
3. Close the dialog box.

Adding a Manager Attribute for a User

To indicate a user's manager, follow these steps:

1. Launch Netscape Console. (You can use the Start/Programs menu command onWindows NT. Look for the Netscape Server Family menu item.)
2. On the authentication dialog box, enter this information:
1. administrative user name (a default is provided)
2. administrative password
3. administration URL, including the port number, for the directory server(a default is provided)
3. In the right-hand pane of the Netscape Console interface, click the "+"at the <yourServerName>.mcom.com to open the entry.
4. Click the "+" at Server Group to open the entry.
5. Open the Directory Server by double-clicking the entry or by selectingthe entry and then clicking the Open button in the left pane.
6. In the Netscape Directory Server interface, click the Directory tab.
7. In the right-hand pane, click the "+" at  the mcom.com to open theentry.
8. Click the People entry.
9. Select the user ID from the list of users displayed. If you are choosingthe admin user, by default this is NAS Administrator.
10. Double-click the entry to open it.
11. Click the Advanced button at the bottom of the pane.
12. Choose Add Attribute from the Edit menu or right-clickto get a menu and choose Add Attribute.
13. In the Add Attribute dialog box, select the managerattribute and click OK.
14. Enter a dn value for the person's manager. For example,uid=bbane,ou=People, o=mcom.com. (Note: There is a space embedded betweenthe ou and o attribute-value pairs. PAE requires this for its scripts.)
15. Click OK.
16. Close the Netscape Console.

Copying the Application (using Save As...)

To change these values, you must use an external html editor and manuallychange two HTML files (InitialReq.html and clarify.html) to correct theselinks:

• InitialReq.html
• /BPM/TimeOffRequest/calendar.js needs to point to /BPM/<yourNewAppName>/calendar.js
• /BPM/TimeOffRequest/calendar.html needs to point to /BPM/<yourNewAppName>/calendar.html(There are two links to this file.)
• /BPM/TimeOffRequest/reasonHelp.html needs to point to /BPM/<yourNewAppName>/reasonHelp.html
• clarify.html:
• /BPM/TimeOffRequest/calendar.js needs to point to /BPM/<yourNewAppName>/calendar.js
• /BPM/TimeOffRequest/calendar.html needs to point to /BPM/<yourNewAppName>/calendar.html(There are two links to this file.)

Database Issues

• 369566. For both Oracle and Sybase, you can use dates only afterUNIX epoch (January 1, 1970).
• 354282. [Oracle only]See Netscape Application Server issues, below.
• 365026. [Sybase only]You cannot create a connection to a Sybasedatabase without having the DSQUERY environment variable set.  Whenyou create the DataSource, you are able to specify the server identifierin case you need to go against multiple Sybase DBs.
• 368194. [Sybase only] If you are using a Sybase database and PAEsuddenly stops functioning, check that the transaction log hasn't filledup. If it has, you need to recover space before you can use PAE. This ismore likely to occur in a development environment that doesn't have automaticbackup and maintenance procedures in place. Note that once the truncatelog option is set, there is no need for a manual dump of the transactionlog to recover space. However, the database is unrecoverable if a diskmedia failure occurs. Please refer to Sybase System Administration manualfor details. With a production deployment, the user usually creates thedatabase in advance, with explicit database devices specified for dataand log. It is then the decision of the user to set up a backup and recoverystrategy.
• 362452. [Sybase only] You cannot use digital signatures with Sybase.

Netscape Application Server Issues

354282. [Oracle only]When using Oracle 8.0.5, if the database goesdown or a connection fails, there will be errors from the connection interfacethat can be detected in the programs where errors occur and the connectionis bad. The API checks the error code and detects a bad connection. Thebad connections are cleaned up after a certain amount of time controlledby the idle time on the database server. In the NAS registry, CacheFreeSlotsand CacheMaxConn should be configured so the number of CacheFreeSlots isalways less than the CacheMaxConn so the new connections are allocatedif the application is connecting to the same database instance of the databaseserver. You must restart the server to remove dead connections.

361388. Tools that use or modify the NAS registry should be

run as the NAS user.

365026. You cannot create a connection to a Sybase database withouthaving the DSQUERY environment variable set.  When you create theDataSource, you are able to specify the server identifier in case you needto go against multiple Sybase DBs.

356231. In some cases, registering an EJB from within the NAS 4.0runtime in KJS causes the KJS to "hang" on the second registration attempt.Use exec kguidgen to get a GUID instead of calling createGUID in-process.It is recommended that createGUID NOT be called from NAS, even assumingthat createGUID waits for the process it forked. The consequences of forksfrom native code can be unpredictable.

356235. Sometimes on Solaris, the KXS does not correctly releasethe listening port. As a result, the web-connector plugin might not beable to communicate with the KXS. To fix this, you must alter the timeoutof kernel port sweeps. For example, the following UNIX command sets thetimeout to 60 seconds:

/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_close_wait_interval 60000

363869. Netscape Communicator, if installed on the same machineas a PAE server, will not work with the file upload widget.

365330. This is a Netscape Application Server bug, but it affectsPAE developers who plan to create custom fields that use JDBC. In JDBCcalls that use CHAR data, you must pad the data to the length of the databasecolumn. Padding the data allows inserts, updates, and subsequent selectsto succeed. This bug will be fixed in a future release of NAS.