Release Notes for Enterprise Control Center Version 11

Logging to ECC has been greatly improved. Now, entries in the log files include information on the user session that produced them as well as the user name.

This enhancement includes important changes in the logback.xml file. Therefore, it is important that you DO NOT overwrite the new logback.xml delivered with this release with the old one.

ECC in French

You can now log into a French version of the ECC interface. Supporting documentation and webhelp will be available in French with the next ECC service pack.

Starting with 11.2.1, both the ECC user interface and the documentation is available in French.

Client 0 available in ECC

Administrators can now log into the system client (Client 0) in ECC and perform system-wide tasks, such as defining agent connections, which they could previously do only in the AE Rich Client.

New Release Automation perspective embeds ARA in ECC

ARA is now integrated in the ECC framework as the Release Automation perspective. With one login you can work with ARA and the previously separate ECC perspectives. The embedded functions, such as workflow design and execution are now fully integrated with identical handling without losing any ARA functionality or capabilities.

Global search of objects and folders

From the search field in the ECC menu bar, you can search all objects and folders in the Automation Engine that you are connected to. The search checks all object names and titles as you type, and accepts standard wildcards.

New Automic Compatibility Checker

This is not only an ECC-specific product. The Automic Compatibility Checker provides a list of required products and their compatible versions for every Automic product. There, you can find the latest information about version requirements. Nevertheless, before installing or upgrading ECC, see System Requirements for ECC 11.2with the ECC installation instructions for additional recommendations and considerations.

Enablement for future Zero Downtime Upgrade

Before upgrading ECC to a new version, you have always had to first install the compatible Automation Engine and Application Release Automation versions. This has meant that you had to shut down your system during the upgrade. With version 11.2 the infrastructures of ECC, AE and ARA have all been modified to make upgrading to the following release possible without any downtime in your processing. This is an important step to enable you to upgrade your Automic systems without interrupting daily processing.

Interface design modifications

The look of ECC 11.2 has been modified for a more consistent appearance.

Agent Tracing

You can start agent tracing from the list of agents in the System section in Process Monitoring.

Prompt set validation option

As of 11.2.1 ECC can be configured to allow all users who define workflows (JOBP objects) to save workflows even without providing values in all required prompt set fields. This would allow intermediate saves when building large workflows. For details, see the description of the configuration.properties file in the installation information.

New PERIOD object

A period object (PERIOD) has been introduced to both the Automation Engine and ECC. With this object, you can define parameters that you can use when you run an object in the Automation Engine (AE) with the "Execute recurring" option.

Additional fully-editable objects to ECC

You can now add and fully edit objects of the following object types in ECC:

• File Transfer (JOBF)
• Include (JOBI)
• Jobs (JOBS) - UNIX, Windows and Generic object types only
• Notification (CALL)
• Schedule (JSCH)
• Storage (STORE)

This is the continuation of steps to make all object types fully editable in ECC.

Partially editable objects added to ECC

Although you cannot yet completely edit the following object types, you can add an object definition in ECC and then edit it further in Automation Engine (AE).

• Agent Group (HOSTG)
• Calendar (CALE)
• Cockpit (CPIT)
  A Process page was added, so you can write a script for the object behavior.
• Code Table (CODE)
• Connection (CONN) 
• Dashboard (DASH)
• Event (EVNT)
• Filter (FILTER) 
• Group (JOBG)
• Jobs (JOBS)
• Login (LOGIN)
• PromptSet (PRPT)
• Queue (QUEUE)
• Remote Task Manager (JOBQ)
• Stylesheet (XSL)
• Sync (SYNC)
• Time Zone (TZ)

This is a continuation of steps to make all object types fully editable in ECC.

Enhanced and expanded task properties

The properties that you can define for a workflow task have been extended and enhanced to allow you to build more specific behaviors into tasks when you need it. The following table describes the task properties that are now available.

ABORT as a final post-condition action

You can now build workflows that end in an ABORT action and status when certain post-conditions exist.

Java 8 support

Starting with version 11.1 ECC supports both Oracle JRE 7 and 8.

Interface design enhancements

The ECC 11 user interface has been redesigned for more intuitive handling, more consistent navigation, optimal use of the screen space that also adapts to smaller browser windows.

Push technology (new)

ECC now runs with push communication. This enables faster interaction with the user interface.

Login via Single Sign-On (new)

You can now choose to log in to ECC without having to enter your user data (user, department, password).

If you select the new option Use integrated authentication in the login dialog, then, the next time you log in, the fields for the user name, department and password are hidden.

Required setup: The Automation Engine (AE) authentication must have been selected, and Single Sign-On must have been configured for the selected AE system.

Select a session color

When logging into ECC, you can optionally choose a session color that appears as a horizontal bar across the top of the page. When you have multiple ECC sessions open, using a session color helps you keep track of where you are. You can also change the session color from the open session.

Full-page mode for widgets

You can now switch to a full-page view of the widgets on a dashboard to see more data per widget.

User Activities widget

This new Process Automation widget shows a real time log of user activities that are related to object manipulations. With filters, you can define which users, objects, activity types are included in the widget window.

Process Monitoring widget

The widget has been redesigned to offer:

• Two views of tasks, hierarchical or flat list, as you also find in the task list in Process Monitoring
• Extended filter options

Interface design

The look and feel of Process Monitoring has been revised as part of the ECC user interface redesign.

Extended grouping criteria for activities

Previously, in the navigator pane, you saw a list of all activities grouped by the queues they belonged to. Now, you can choose how you want to see the total number of activities grouped:

• By queue
• By agent
• By status
• By a custom grouping criteria defined by your company

List view for workflow monitoring

You can toggle between the graphical view of the workflow monitor view and a new list view. The list view shows you all subordinate tasks in a hierarchical list so that you have the complete overview of even deeply structured workflows.

Interface design

The look and feel of Process Assembly has been revised as part of the ECC user interface redesign.

Custom grouping criteria values for objects (new)

When defining the attributes for workflow objects, you can now specify the group that the object belongs to from a list of custom grouping attributes. For example, you can assign objects to the Business Unit called Finance, Operations or Sales, and so on. Later, you can group objects in the Process Monitoring task list based on Business Unit, to see how each group is performing. Prior to this capability, you could only group objects by the standard criteria, Queue, Status, and Agent.

Editable objects (new)

You can now edit objects of the following object types in Process Assembly:

• User (USER)
• UserGroup (USERG)
• Workflow (JOBP)
• Windows Job (JOBS.WIN)
• Unix Job (JOBS.UNIX)
• Generic Job (JOBS.GENERIC)
• Script (SCRI)
• Static Variables (VARA.STATIC)

This is the first phase of a plan to make all object types fully editable in ECC.

Prompts for long, multi-line text available

The length limit for the script variables in AE has been removed (previously 1024 characters). This allows you to create prompts for large multi-line text data, such as XML code.

Prompt set dependency checks

ECC dynamically checks that the data is valid across the prompt set. As you enter and change values in a prompt set, ECC checks the dependency rules of the other fields. If a new field value contradicts another entered value, ECC automatically changes and marks the previous field accordingly.

Open objects in a new window (new with ECC 11.1)

From the list of objects in the main pane, you can now open objects in a new browser window or, as previously in a new tab page in the same window as the workflow. If the initiating window has a session color, the new window will have the same color bar at the top of the page.