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Release Notes

4.3.0

Breaking:

  • With this version, the Elastic Stack configuration ships with Digital Process Factory, refer to Configure SEAL Elastic Stack on Windows or Linux. (DPF-2072)

  • If you are using DPF with Elastic Stack, the Filebeat configuration file has to be adapted after the update manually, refer to After the Update (4.3.0) for Windows or Linux. As of version 8.0.0, the Filebeat log files are in JSON format and contain the date and a rotation ID in their names. The old service seal-filebeat is replaced by the new service seal-dpf-filebeat. (DPF-2238)

  • DPF 4.3.0 ships with Filebeat 8.19.22, which supports Elastic Stack 8.x and 9.x. Elastic Stack 7.x is no longer supported. (DPF-2316, DPF-2320)

New Features:

  • Workflow and working unit configurations are stored in the database for SaaS operation and can be loaded by the services without restarting the system. (DPF-1758, DPF-2124, DPF-2130, DPF-2139)

  • For container installations, DPF Tracker is available as a distroless image. (DPF-1954)

  • Access to the Jobclient API can be restricted via OIDC. DPF Batch Client (dpfclient) supports authentication via OIDC accordingly. For more information, refer to Restrict Access to the Jobclient API via OIDC. (DPF-1999, DPF-2253)

  • The new service dpf-workingunit-hdm-checkin checks documents into SAP via the HDM interface, as an alternative to RFC connectivity. For more information, refer to Connect to SAP via the HDM Interface (OData). (DPF-2002)

  • Node.js has been updated to version 22.22.2. (DPF-2119)

  • The SaaS configuration of a DPF system can be administrated by DPF CLI using the dpf saas command. (DPF-2126)

  • In a SaaS environment, the system configuration is stored in the database and retrieved from there. (DPF-2137)

  • File storage via S3 is supported. For more information, refer to Output Files to an S3 Bucket. (DPF-2151)

  • As of DPF 4.3.0, working units can be written in Node.js. A working example WU, nodeexample.xml, ships with Digital Process Factory. Node working units can be used with DPF Director. (DPF-2152)

  • The new service dpf-sap-connect receives SAP fax orders via RFC, forwards them as raw jobs to the DPF REST API, and reports the results back to SAP. For more information, refer to Connect to SAP via SAPconnect Interface (BC-CON). (DPF-2154)

  • The tracker URL can be configured using the new environment key TRACKER_URL. The default is http://localhost:4343. (DPF-2186)

  • Custom Prometheus metrics are available for all WU services and the seal-dpf-process-manager service. For more information, refer to Metrics. (DPF-2195)

  • With each installation or update, a file named filebeat-dpf.yml.<version>.delivery containing the default configuration is stored in the configuration directory. That way, customer specific changes can easily be identified. (DPF-2230)

  • Consul has been updated to version 2.0.1. (DPF-2242)

  • DPF CLI can encrypt passwords using the new dpf security command. (DPF-2251)

  • seal-dpf-jobclient-api provides the panels route, so DPF 4 works with the DPF4Convert panel of SEAL Operator. For more information refer to Connect a DPF System on Windows or on Linux in the SEAL Operator documentation. (DPF-2256)

  • The new service dpf-workingunit-hdm-checkout checks documents out of SAP via the HDM interface, as an alternative to RFC connectivity. For more information, refer to Connect to SAP via the HDM Interface (OData). (DPF-2265)

  • The new service dpf-workingunit-odata-notify sends job status notifications back to SAP via OData, as an alternative to RFC connectivity. For more information, refer to Connect to SAP via the HDM Interface (OData). (SDWU-3)

Bug-Fixes:

  • dpf clearjobs -h shows the help for the dpf clearjobs command. (DPF-1757)

  • The environment key SEAL_CUSTOMDIR is evaluated by DPF 4. (DPF-1802)

  • The output of DPF CLI has been aligned with that of PLOSSYS CLI. (DPF-1879)

  • When resuming jobs from the database, the process manager checks whether the job directory exists. If the job directory no longer exists, the status values job.current.jobState = 'ERROR' and job.current.exitStatus = 'ERR_DIR_NOT_FOUND' are set. (DPF-1893)

  • Visiting the root URL of DPF Tracker in a container installation redirects to DPF Tracker, instead of returning a 404 error. (DPF-1900)

  • The lifebelt shortcut in DPF Tracker to contact support works with DPF 4 on premise and in a SaaS environment. (DPF-1993)

  • job parameters and result parameters specified in main.customer.xml are evaluated by jobclient-api. (Previously, they were ignored.) (DPF-1997)

  • In container installations, the job list display in DPF Tracker has been sped up. (DPF-1998)

  • If files are added to a job that is already being processed, the corresponding REST routes return a 412 error. (DPF-2018)

  • jobclient-api parses RLIs correctly. Field names are case-insensitive. (DPF-2019)

  • Log entries of Rest WUs are labeled correctly. (Previously: info was always used.) (DPF-2044)

  • seal-dpf-process-manager has access to environment variables from setenv in the distroless container. (DPF-2073)

  • The sendback working unit evaluates the job parameter TargetFile if set. (Previously, the working unit default was used instead.) (DPF-2141)

  • Security issues have been fixed. (DPF-2161, DPF-2187, DPF-2233, DPF-2234, DPF-2235, DPF-2236, DPF-2257, DPF-2263, DPF-2264, DPF-2267, DPF-2268, DPF-2297)

  • A Perl working unit can no longer overwrite the JobID in seal-dpf-wusystemcall. (DPF-2189)

  • seal-dpf-jobcleaner deletes outdated lock entries from the database. (DPF-2202)

  • At the end of a workflow, the job's exitStatus is set to the correct value. (Previously, a successful workflow set the status automatically to "OK".) (DPF-2203)

  • Recursion detection has been improved. (DPF-2205)

  • In the DPF_Admin dashboard, the filter for the timeline widget has been fixed. (DPF-2207)

  • If a job is sent via REST interface, the name of the responsible user is shown in DPF Tracker. (DPF-2218)

  • seal-dpf-filebeat works on SLES 15.6 and sends data to Kibana. (DPF-2239)

Known Issues:

  • The SOAP interface and thus SOAP Web Service, Mail Service and DPF SAP Retriever are not working with DPF 4.0.0. (DPF-1726)

  • DPF Gate ist not working with DPF 4.0.0. (DPF-1744)

  • As of DPF 4.0.0, DPF Batch Client does not support the option -f to provide a directory or multiple files with a job. (DPF-1768)

  • If a sendback workflow is started by the DPF Batch Client via REST interface and the return files are to be placed in a subdirectory, the DPF Batch Client does not create this subdirectory. (DPF-1813)

  • The job type PDFLLSJob is currently not supported. (DPF-1853)

  • dpf service status does not show the status of the infrastructure services seal-consul-agent, seal-mongodb, seal-nats, seal-elasticsearch, seal-dpf-filebeat, and seal-kibana. (DPF-1912)

  • For the DPF Batch Client to work with the -local parameter, the dpfclient.xml has to be changed. Refer to Installation and Configuration of DPF Batch Client. (DPF-1959)

  • In a non-container on-premise installation, the JavaWU does not work, because javawu-cli.jar is not part of the on-premise installation package. (DPF-1960)

  • When running DPF 4.0.0 in a container based installation, the workflow dpf4convert.net_convert_native exits with an error because of missing 64-bit libraries. (DPF-1972)

  • Regarding parameter processing for generic jobs, DPF 4 does not follow the approach of DPF 3. DPF 4 evaluates parameters passed in the general dpfParameter field, for example uppercase parameter names as used by SAP, which DPF 3 ignores for generic jobs. (DPF-2105)

  • DPF Tracker does not show which parameters a Node working unit has changed. Only the resulting overall parameter set is stored in MongoDB. (DPF-2241)

  • The Online Documentation generated by generate_doku.pl does not include Node working units, only classic Perl working units. (DPF-2244)

4.1.0

New Features:

  • The environment variable DPFSRVCUSTOMER is obsolete. The directory for customer-specific working units can be specified using SEAL_CUSTOMDIR. (DPF-1716)

  • seal-dpf-accounting service has been added to write cluster compliant log files. By default, seal-dpf-process-manager is still writing the accounting.log. In cluster mode, you have to change this behavior by setting USE_ACCOUNTING_SERVICE to true. (DPF-1829)

  • The DPF command line client supports the option --full for the dpf service stop command, which stops the full system including the infrastructure services. Without the --full option only the DPF services are stopped. (DPF-1918)

  • For container based installations, distroless images are available via Github. (DPF-1956)

  • Node.js has been updated to version 22.16.0 due to security reasons. (DPF-2007)

Bug-Fixes:

  • When sending a job to a remote DPF host via DPF Batch Client, the TARGETFILE parameter is transmitted and evaluated. (DPF-1864)

  • The REST route /jobs/{jobID}/result always returns the TargetDir and JobStatus parameters. (DPF-1990)

  • The workflow mapping of conversion jobs, as defined in main.customer.xml, has been fixed. (DPF-1991)

  • seal-dpf-wusystemcall service takes into account the THREADS entry of the individual working units so that the system does not freeze in the event of sub-workflows. (DPF-2036)

Known Issues:

  • The SOAP interface and thus SOAP Web Service, Mail Service and DPF SAP Retriever are not working with DPF 4.0.0. (DPF-1726)

  • DPF Gate ist not working with DPF 4.0.0. (DPF-1744)

  • As of DPF 4.0.0, DPF Batch Client does not support the option -f to provide a directory or multiple files with a job. (DPF-1768)

  • The environment key SEAL_CUSTOMDIR is not evaluated by the DPF. (DPF-1802)

  • If a sendback workflow is started by the DPF Batch Client via REST interface and the return files are to be placed in a subdirectory, the DPF Batch Client does not create this subdirectory. (DPF-1813)

  • The job type PDFLLSJob is currently not supported. (DPF-1853)

  • Visiting the root URL of DPF Tracker in a container installation returns a 404 error, instead of redirecting to DPF Tracker. (DPF-1900)

  • dpf service status does not show the status of the infrastructure services seal-consul-agent, seal-mongodb, seal-nats, seal-elasticsearch, seal-filebeat, and seal-kibana. (DPF-1912)

  • If a job was sent via REST interface, the name of the responsible user is not shown in DPF Tracker. This Bug is fixed with the DPF Tracker shipped in FM 2025 respective DPF 3.3.1. (DPF-1949)

  • For the DPF Batch Client to work with the -local parameter, the dpfclient.xml has to be changed. Refer to Installation and Configuration of DPF Batch Client. (DPF-1959)

  • In a non-container on-premise installation, the JavaWU does not work, because javawu-cli.jar is not part of the on-premise installation package. (DPF-1960)

  • When running DPF 4.0.0 in a container based installation, the workflow dpf4convert.net_convert_native exits with an error because of missing 64-bit libraries. (DPF-1972)

  • In rare cases, a job is started before all job data is transmitted when sending jobs via SEAL Operator or PLOSSYS Output Engine. (DPF-2018)

  • On SLES 15.6, the seal-dpf-filebeat service does not send any data to Kibana. (DPF-2239)

  • Regarding parameter processing for generic jobs, DPF 4 does not follow the approach of DPF 3. DPF 4 evaluates parameters passed in the general dpfParameter field, for example uppercase parameter names as used by SAP, which DPF 3 ignores for generic jobs. (DPF-2105)

4.0.0

New Features:

  • With DPF 4.0.0, the internal architecture of Digital Process Factory has been changed to a microservice architecture, thus making it clusterable and faster. For this, the installation of MongoDB, SEAL NATS and SEAL Logrotate are required prior to the installation of Digital Process Factory. The list of services contained in DPF is available in the reference section of this documentation.

  • When installed on the same server as PLOSSYS Output Engine, Digital Process Factory will use the same infrastructure.

  • DPF Tracker reads the job list and history from MongoDB. (DPF-1680, DPF-1681)

  • The sysinit script is used to transfer the old environment settings for the new microservice architecture to Consul, refer to Update for on-premise Windows or Update for on-premise Linux. (DPF-1683)

  • DPF CLI is the command line tool for administrating Digital Process Factory. It is used for managing the system configuration and the services. (DPF-1692)

  • The JobID of a job is unique for the whole cluster. It is built of date, time and a four-digit sequential number. (DPF-1707)

  • Digital Process Factory uses the new SEAL Systems product icon. (DPF-1711, DPF-1761)

  • For the communication between DPF Tracker and MongoDB, a REST API is used. You can find the API specification in the reference section of this documentation. (DPF-1728)

  • As of DPF 4.0.0, folder service is no longer supported. (DPF-1742)

  • DPF Tracker uses the Management API to communicate with DPF. (DPF-1748)

  • jDPFClient and SOAP API are no longer supported as of DPF 4.0.0. (DPF-1753)

  • The new DPF bundle contains an install and a firewall script, refer to Installation for on-premise Windows and Installation for on-premise Linux. (DPF-1760)

  • When the LOG_LEVEL for dpf-process-manager service is set to info, the first line of job.log states if the new microservice environment was used for the job. (DPF-1762)

  • Parameter changes made by Modify working units are listed in the job history in MongoDB. (DPF-1788)

  • The following settings in the jobcleaner section of main(.customer).xml are obsolet: INSTANCES, KEEPUNTILFORGET, LOGLEVEL, LOGZISE, SLEEP_MILLI_SECONDS, VERSION. (DPF-1801)

  • For the deployment on Kubernetes clusters Helm charts are available. (DPF-1803)

  • A firewall script is available to open the necessary firewall ports. The list of ports used by Digital Process Factory is available in the reference section of this documentation. (DPF-1808)

  • Standard Prometheus metrics are available to analyze the general health of the DPF server. (DPF-1841)

  • For Linux on premise, the required Frozen Master Convert has to run under the service user seal. (DPF-1842)

  • Service log files are provided in machine-readable JSON format. Use Elastic Stack for a human-readable view. For how to install and configure Elastic Stack, refer to SEAL Elastic Stack documentation. (DPF-1877)

  • DPF Admin Client has been replaced by DPF CLI. It is used outside of the DPF environment in a PowerShell or command line. The old function names like dpfclearjobs are implemented as aliases for the new DPF CLI commands.

  • Node.js version 20.16.0 is used. (DPF-1885)

  • The is true operator returns true for all all numeric values not equal 0 and these case-insensitive strings: true, t, yes, y, ja, j, x. (DPF-1908)

Bug-Fixes:

  • The bug has been fixed, that prevented the creation of a result file when calling DPF Batch Client via REST route with the -result option. (DPF-1892)

Known Issues:

  • The SOAP interface and thus SOAP Web Service, Mail Service and DPF SAP Retriever are not working with DPF 4.0.0. (DPF-1726)

  • DPF Gate ist not working with DPF 4.0.0. (DPF-1744)

  • As of DPF 4.0.0, DPF Batch Client does not support the option -f to provide a directory or multiple files with a job. (DPF-1768)

  • The environment key SEAL_CUSTOMDIR is not evaluated by the DPF. (DPF-1802)

  • If a sendback workflow is started by the DPF Batch Client via REST interface and the return files are to be placed in a subdirectory, the DPF Batch Client does not create this subdirectory. (DPF-1813)

  • The job type PDFLLSJob is currently not supported. (DPF-1853)

  • When sending a job to a remote DPF host via DPF Batch Client, the TARGETFILE parameter is not transmitted. (DPF-1864)

  • Visiting the root URL of DPF Tracker in a container installation returns a 404 error, instead of redirecting to DPF Tracker. (DPF-1900)

  • dpf service status does not show the status of the infrastructure services seal-consul-agent, seal-mongodb, seal-nats, seal-elasticsearch, seal-filebeat, and seal-kibana. (DPF-1912)

  • If a job was sent via REST interface, the name of the responsible user is not shown in DPF Tracker. This Bug is fixed with the DPF Tracker shipped in FM 2025 respective DPF 3.3.1. (DPF-1949)

  • For the DPF Batch Client to work with the -local parameter, the dpfclient.xml has to be changed. Refer to Installation and Configuration of DPF Batch Client. (DPF-1959)

  • In a non-container on-premise installation, the JavaWU does not work, because javawu-cli.jar is not part of the on-premise installation package. (DPF-1960)

  • When running DPF 4.0.0 in a container based installation, the workflow dpf4convert.net_convert_native exits with an error because of missing 64-bit libraries. (DPF-1972)

  • In rare cases, a job is started before all job data is transmitted when sending jobs via SEAL Operator or PLOSSYS Output Engine. (DPF-2018)

  • Regarding parameter processing for generic jobs, DPF 4 does not follow the approach of DPF 3. DPF 4 evaluates parameters passed in the general dpfParameter field, for example uppercase parameter names as used by SAP, which DPF 3 ignores for generic jobs. (DPF-2105)

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