Previous Next Contents Index


Appendix B Migrating from Previous Releases

This appendix describes how to run or edit Process Manager 1.x applications in the PAE 4.0.

This appendix contains the following topics:


Getting Started
Before users can begin working with a Process Manager 1.x application, you must first import the application into PAE 4.0's Process Builder, then deploy that application to a cluster. The major steps are as follows:

  1. Import the application to Process Builder.

  2. Run Check Errors on the application.

  3. Add an exception node, if necessary.

  4. If the application uses SSJS-specific objects, you must perform the recommended migration action specified in Migrating SSJS-specific Objects.

  5. Deploy the application as usual.
Importing an Application to Process Builder
To begin migrating an application to PAE 4.0, you must import the Process Manager 1.x application to Process Builder by performing the following steps:

  1. From the Application menu of Process Builder, choose Import from ZIP.

    2. The Import Application from Zip File dialog box appears.

  2. Using the Browse button, navigate to the Applications folder where your Process Manager 1.x files are stored.

  3. Select the application you want to open.

    4. The application file name should begin with wf and end with .zip.

  4. From the Application Folder drop-down menu, choose the folder where you want Process Builder to extract the application files.

  5. Click OK.

    6. Process Builder expands the .zip file into the selected folder.

Assigning Exception Nodes
In Process Manager 1.x, exception nodes were required when your application used subprocesses. However, in PAE 4.0, these nodes are assigned to every step in the process. Therefore, an exception node must be assigned to each step in your imported process. When you import a Process Manager 1.x application, Process Builder detects that the application is lacking exception nodes and will automatically create a default exception and assign each step to this exception node for you.

The application is now in PAE 4.0 format and you can open it as usual.

Checking for Errors
Now that your Process Manager 1.x application has been imported to PAE 4.0, you must run Check Errors before you can deploy the application for use. To run Check Error, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the application in Process Builder.

  2. From the Application menu of Process Builder, choose Check Errors.

    3. The Checking Application dialog box appears.

  3. The Messages window appears, displaying any errors, warnings, or information pertaining to the application.
You may see exceptions for JavaScript errors in the Messages window. Previous versions of Process Manager did not perform automatic syntax checking.

If JavaScript errors appear regarding email notification, be sure you have selected both a Content Type (text/html or text/plain) and a Character Set (e.g., us-ascii) in the Inspector window for the notification.

If a "No exception node" exception appears in the Messages window, you must manually assign an exception node to each step in your imported process (see Assigning Exception Nodes). To do so, perform the following steps:

  1. Drag an exception node from the Palette to your process map.

  2. Double-click or right-click the new node and enter a name for the node.

  3. Right-click an action in your process map to bring up the Properties window.

  4. From the Exception Manager drop-down menu, choose the new exception node.

    5. The action is now assigned to the exception node you created in Step 1.

  5. Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 for each action in your process map that is not assigned to an exception node.

  6. Assign a form to the new exception node.

    7. This process is described in Setting Access to Forms.

  7. Click Save to save the changes to your application.
Deploying the Application
When you have successfully imported your Process Manager 1.x application, checked for errors, and assigned exception nodes as necessary, and if your application does not use SSJS-specific objects or custom fields written in JavaScript, you are ready to deploy your application as usual. See Deploying an Application for instructions.

If your application does use SSJS-specific objects or custom fields written in Java, see the following sections, Migrating SSJS-specific Objects and Migrating Custom Fields for more information.


Migrating SSJS-specific Objects
Server Side JavaScript (SSJS) is no longer supported by PAE. You can still use standard JavaScript in your applications, but if you imported an application developed with SSJS-specific objects, you must rewrite those portions of your application. The following table describes the recommended migration path from SSJS-specific objects to code compatible with PAE 4.0:

SSJS object
Recommended migration
Database
DbPool
Connection
ResultSet
StoredProc
Cursor
Each of these objects relates to database access. In PAE 4.0, you should access the database with Java DB access methods (JDBC) using the Custom Activity or Custom Fields features or using JavaScript to access the JDBC methods using Live Connect. For more information on Live Connect, see

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/js/core/ jsguide


Note that this does not concern access to the main process instance database in the course of normal process development or operation. PAE handles this access transparently. Rather, the SSJS objects listed in the left column were occasionally used in Process Manager 1.x to access databases external to PAE or in other extraordinary circumstances.

File
Use Custom Activities to mimic the File Object functionality. You can also use java.io.file.
SendMail
Use Custom Activities to mimic the SendMail functionality. You can also use the SMTP SDK.
Project
Server
Request
Client
These objects were often used to store data for server-side information. You can now store information in the Process Instance data or in a Custom Field.

More information, see Creating Custom Activities.


Migrating Custom Fields
Developers should note that Custom Fields in PAE 4.0 are different than those in Process Manager 1.x. If your imported application uses Custom Fields, you may have to rewrite portions of code.

In Process Manager 1.x, Custom Fields were written in JavaScript. In PAE 4.0, they are written in Java. There are two parts of a Custom Field: a .jsb file, also called a properties file, that contains information about a field, and a .js file, also called an implementation file. The .jsp or properties file remains the same in PAE 4.0 as in Process Manager 1.x, but you must substitute the content of the .js file with a Java implementation.

 

Copyright © 1999 Netscape Communications Corp. All rights reserved.