What’s New for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation

Learn about the new features and enhancements of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

Note:

  • To learn about which version of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation you're using, select the About option located under the user name icon in the upper right corner of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation user interface.
  • To learn about new and changed endpoints for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation REST API, see REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

Topics:

22.12—December 2022

Feature Description
Support for multiple file uploads at a time to an external document store

In the previous version of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation, users could only upload one file at a time using the file upload control in a file manager control. Now, users can upload upto 5 files simultaneously to an external document store when the Supports multiple uploads option is selected while configuring the file upload control.

In addition, we have also improved the user experience of configuring the file upload and file list controls by grouping all connector related configurations under a new Binding tab.

See the following topics in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation:
Support for viewing only task level comments

While working on a task in Workspace, now you have the option to filter out comments posted only for that particular task by selecting the Task Comments radio button under the Comments section of the task.

See Work on Tasks in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

Access Workspace directly from Designer

You can now access Workspace (runtime environment) directly from Designer (design environment). Click the user icon on the top-right of the Designer UI, then click Workspace. The Workspace UI opens in another tab of your browser.

Key usability enhancements

  • Improved ease of use of the expression builder in Designer.

    As soon as you choose the object using which you want to build an expression, related suggestions for the next level are displayed. If a function is selected, then parentheses are automatically added and the cursor is placed between the parentheses indicating where the next expression should be entered. Thus you can take cues from the suggestions and build the required expression easily.

  • Better error messages in Designer and Workspace to help users debug and fix errors quickly.

22.08—September 2022

Feature Description
New Process Automation workshop

We now have a comprehensive workshop to learn some key Process Automation concepts. Try out the workshop in Oracle LiveLabs or navigate to it from our new Training page.

The workshop consists of two labs. In the first lab, learn how to create processes, configure forms, and dynamically populate data in forms using events and connectors. Also understand how data is stored and how data flows within a process by defining data objects and configuring data associations. In the second lab, learn about decisions including how to create a decision, model decision logic, expose decision as a service, and use it in your process. In both labs, you also get to activate, test and run your applications.
File Manager control in forms

We have introduced a new control in forms called File Manager using which users can upload files to an external document store as well as list the uploaded files. The file manager control is an enhancement of the previously available file upload control which could only upload files to an external document store. Now with the new file manager control, users can not only upload files but also list the uploaded files and optionally download or delete the listed files in forms.

See Configure File Manager Controls in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

Note:

If you had used the file upload control available in the previous version of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation in a process application, we'll continue to support it. However, the options to update the connector and resource for the control won't be available anymore.
Reminders for user tasks

We now support reminders for human tasks in structured and dynamic processes. If task assignees do not act on their assigned tasks within a specific period of time, notification emails are sent to remind them about their assigned tasks.

See Configure Task Reminders in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

New date-time operator for simple expressions

A new date-time operator toTimezone is available for simple expressions. Use the toTimezone operator to return the date-time expressed in the time offset corresponding to the timezone ID provided.

See the DateTime table in Work with Expressions in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

22.06—July 2022

Feature Description
File upload control in forms

Users can now upload files to an external document store using the File Upload control in web forms. You use a connector to configure the control's properties and allow users to upload the base64 string of the file content via a POST API call.

See Configure File Upload Controls in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

User task priority as expression

We now support the use of expressions to dynamically set a value for a task's priority while creating tasks.

See Configure the Due Date and Priority in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

Form error validation

We now eased the access to form error validation messages by displaying them on top of the form. Users can click a particular message from the error list to navigate to the specific control where the error occurs.

See the note about this in Work on Tasks and Work with Activities in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

22.04—May 2022

Feature Description
Complex business types

We now support business types and list of values that you can use to group related data types and define structure for data used in your process applications.

See Work with Business Types in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

Expiration duration in user tasks

In Designer, you can now set the expiration duration for your user tasks while configuring them in structured and dynamic processes. In Workspace, if a task hasn't been acted upon till the specified expiration duration, a notification email will be sent to the task assignee that the task has expired and the task will move to Completed state with the sub-state Expired.

See Configure Task Expiration in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

Decision modeling improvements

We have improved the user experience of modeling decision logic with the introduction of the following new features:

  • Cut, copy, and paste data at a cell level in non-tabular decisions.
  • Cut, copy, and paste rows and columns in tabular decisions. See Create Decision Tables in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

  • Use of boxed expression result in context decisions.

    Previously, context decisions contained only key-value pairs. Now, you can include a boxed expression result in the context and write any logic in it using the keys specified in the context decision. See Create Contexts in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

22.02—March 2022

Feature Description
Conditional data mapping

We now support conditions while configuring data associations. You can control data association executions in runtime by adding conditions while mapping data in the data association editor in Designer.

See Define Conditions for Data Associations in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

New functions - Identity Service and Get or Else

We have introduced two new types of function categories - Identity Service and Get or Else.

  • Identity Service: Use the getUserId function to retrieve the user id of a specific user. Use the getUserIds function if you want to retrieve a comma separated list of user ids for a comma separated list of user names.

    See the Identity Service category under Additional Functions in Work with Expressions in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

  • Get or Else: This function set is useful while dealing with an untrustworthy data source where initialization isn't guaranteed. An object property is requested along with a backup value. The backup value is used if the first argument corresponds to a missing node or an uninitialized value.

    See the Get or Else category under Additional Functions in Work with Expressions.

Dynamically assign tasks to a number of users

You can now dynamically assign a task to a number of users by using comma separated list of user Ids or by using the IdentityService.getUserIds function in an expression while assigning the task.

See Assign Human Tasks in Using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

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