Troubleshooting

This chapter provides troubleshooting for known issues and a list of known restrictions for the usage of Stardust.

For known issues concerning upgrades from earlier version, also refer to chapter Upgrading to Later Versions.

Known Issues and Workarounds

Out of Memory Errors

Running out of PermGenSpace in Eclipse environment

A common problem in Eclipse environments is the running out of PermGenSpace. When using a Sun VM, you can increase the size of the permanent generation memory. The default maximum is 64 megabytes, but more may be needed depending on your plug-in configuration and use. The maximum permanent generation size is increased by using the -XX:MaxPermSize=<memory size> argument. Note that this argument may not be available for all VM versions and platforms, please consult your VM documentation for more details.

If an out of memory error occurs while running the modeler please increase the heap size available to Eclipse. To do this edit the eclipse.ini file, residing in your Eclipse folder.

Now set the minimal and maximal heap size, for example:

-vmargs
-Xms128m
-Xmx512m
-XX:MaxPermSize=128m

Hereby the -Xms option specifies the stack space and -Xmx the maximum heap size. MaxPermSize specifies the maximum PermGen size. PermGen means "Permanent Generation" and it is a part of memory where all permanent objects are stored.

PermGen space error while running a server

In case you got a PermGen space error while running a server, you have to assign more memory to the server itself. In the launch configuration of your server add the following VM arguments:

-Xms128m -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m

These are the minimum requirements, the values are increasable. Please test which value applies to your requirements.

To change the launch configuration accordingly perform the following steps:

  1. In the server view right-click your server and choose Open.
  2. Select Open launch configuration.

Server Launch

  1. In the Edit launch configuration properties dialog switch to the Arguments tab.
  2. In the VM arguments entry field enter the memory arguments for your server.
    For example for a Tomcat server set: -Xms128m -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m

Server Arguments
Figure: Setting Server Arguments for Tomcat

In case you run out of memory while you are working with an external server, the memory can be increased by adding some arguments in specific batch files or Java option environment variables. Please refer to the documentation of the server you are using for detailed information.

Server Issues

Server restart fails with referenced models

Failing of a server restart when working with referenced models might happen in the following case:

Stardust Rapid Application Environment

Stardust Portal is not provided in the Configuration list

If the Stardust Portal is not provided in Dynamic Web Project Dialog drop-down list in the Configuration section, check for the right setting in the Dynamic web module_version. Note that for the time being only versions 2.4 and 2.5 are supported. For details refer to chapter Creating a Dynamic Web Project in Eclipse of the Rapid Application Development guide.

Derby database creation is incomplete

Sometimes it might happen that your database created in the Rapid Application environment is incomplete. In this case try one of the following or a combination:

Content of Jackrabbit repository is corrupt

In some cases, e.g. after a non graceful shutdwon, it might occur that your Jackrabbit repository content is corrupt. If it does not contain important content to be lost, remove the complete repository to make it created newly.

Multiple Instances Activities

Process does not complete when using sequential multiple instances with limited batch size

Use muliple instances activities with sequential mode and limited batch size with care as in some cases this might lead to uncompleted processes.

Output list elements is not displayed correctly in multiple instance activities panel

The output list for multiple instance activities may not be shown correctly you don not move the mouse pointer out of the entered field.

Modeling

Imported structured data types cannot be accessed in the Eclipse modeler

Currently, imported structured data types cannot be accessed in the Eclipse modeler. Note that this also affects multiple instances activitie when trying to select list values from an imported structured data type.

Data values passed by process interface are not passed into implementing process

In case you implement a process interface in a different model, make sure to import data that is used in the process interface into the new model per reference. Creating data with the same Id is not sufficient and data values passed by the process interface will not be passed into the implementing process. Only data referenced from the model defining the process interface can be accessed correctly. No modeling validation is displayed to warn of this behavior.

Process Attachments do not work across process interface implementations and separate models

Process attachments do not work in a scenario where a subprocess is invoked that is an implementation of a process interface and was defined in a different model fragment. To avoid this problem, make sure that the model which implements the interface imports and overwrites his own process attachment data with the one of the provider model.

Audit trail is corrupted after overwriting a model

Overwriting models, where the ID of a model element having instances (i.e. an activity having activity instances) was changed may lead to corrupted (but recoverable) audit trails. Please avoid modification of element IDs in overwrite scenarios.

Facing problems with JSP Applications and shared sessions

The shared session approach is a way to let an external JSP application interact with Stardust and the process data. This is no longer a recommended approach as several standard-compliant technology stacks are provided as outlined in the Process-based UI Mashups concepts chapter.

The usage of a shared session includes leveraging of object names which might not be stable and introduces common class-loading issues. The external JSP application must not request any object which relates (either due to inheritence or member attribute) to classes from the JEE Stack (Servlets, JSF-classes etc.), otherwise CallNotFoundExceptions will occur if the libraries from the external JSP application differ from those bundled with the Stardust Portal. For example the usage of an external JSP application powered by RichFaces is not possible in shared-session mode as those JSF library classes will clash with those provided by the Stardust Portal.

Structured Data - Invocation of XSD attributes fails

In case invocation of xsd attributes fails, you can change the behavior of the xpath validation. Per default, a strict xpath validation will be performed on XSD schemas. To provide a lenient validation, you can set the property XPath.StrictEvaluation in your carnot.properties file to false. Please refer to the section XSD Schema Validation of the chapter XPDL Representation of Structured Data for detailed information.

Problems occur when using shared XSD Types

In case a model has a reference to an external structured type definition that is also referenced by other models, a change of this structured type definition can cause problems in some of these models. If you change an XSD which is referenced by multiple models, you must make sure that it is still valid for all other referencing models. We recommend to give the XSD file an unique name for every model version to prevent invalid XSDs.

Hidden Type mismatch occurs during type mapping of Structured Data

Mapping types, which are different, but which are both represented as Number in JavaScript, can cause a hidden type mismatch. This can be avoided by using the expression toFixed(0).

For example use the following expression, if you map a structured data element with type int to an element with the type double:

DemoStructType.DoubleTest = DemoStructType.IntegerTest.toFixed(0);

Please refer to the section Supported XSD Types for information on how specific XSD types are mapped to JavaScript types.

Unexpected behavior of xsd:time in Structured Data

In case of structured data type xsd:time, the date (not time) returned by the engine is relative to the current date on server and not the date which is given as input to the structured data type. For example, for structured data type xsd:time, the date/time is specified as 01-July-2012:06:20:20. If you verify the same via out data path, 02-Aug-2012:06:20:20 is returned. Here it assumes that current date is 02-Aug-2012. Thus, all times returned by the engine are relative to the start of the server current day (midnight) adjusted for the server time zone and daylight saving time.

Language bundle cannot be deleted

In case a language bundle defined in the modeler cannot be deleted, use the following workaround:

  1. Restart the Eclipse environment.
  2. Manually delete the resource bundle file from its location in the tree in the Package Explorer.

MTA - Fully-qualified class names are not accepted for Serializable Data

Pasting fully-qualified class names into text box for Serializable Data name is not possible in Message Transformation Application. It works when selecting the class via browsing.

Facing performance issues while setting Message Transformation Application properties

You may notice some performance issues while changing the properties of Message Transformation Application. This is due to the automatic validation process of JSF, JSP and JavaScript.

This issue is not related to Stardust, and it will persist even if you turn off Stardust validation. (Eclipse-> Window-> Preferences-> Stardust-> Enable auto validation). You may take following steps to resolve it:

  1. Select Window> Preferences> Validation
  2. Disable the offending validators

Validation
Figure: Setting properties of Message Transformation Application

Note that you may not get any warning or error message related to the syntax and the semantics of the model in the Problems view after disabling the Automatic validation. However, you can do a one time validation after completing the model by using following method:

  1. Enable the validation again using the same method described above
  2. Goto Eclipse > Project > Clean

Note that this solution applies to other cases also, where performance is affected by the automatic validation. (For example, in Message Parsing and Message serialization).

Importing WSDL in SOAP UI fails with formal parameter of type Java Enumeration

In case you use a formal parameter of type Java-bound Enumeration Primitive data in a Process Interface, the WSDL generator fails to create a WSDL document. Note that in general Primitive Enumeration types are not supported as formal parameters in case of SOAP and REST external process invocation. Use a structured data type embedding the required Enumeration type instead.

'Get Process Result' Request fails with Soap and Rest using formal parameter of type Primitive Enumeration

Note that Primitive Enumeration types are not supported as formal parameters in case of SOAP and REST external process invocation. Use a structured data type embedding the required Enumeration type instead.

Structured Data Type cannot be used from a Provider Model as Document Type

If a provider model has a structured data type, but no document data defining this structured data, it cannot be used in a consumer model as document type.

As a workaround, define a document data in the provider model having a metadata type defined by the structured type, which should be used as a document type in the consumer model. By doing so, during provider model deployment the structured data type will be written as a document type to the JCR repository. Hence, later the document type reference from the consumer model can be resolved.

Running Process Model Report in PDF format leads to empty page

For the time being, only the HTML format is supported for Process Model Reports. Using the PDF format leads to a blank page.

Custom Reports are not working in RAD

Due to a change introduced in this release, the default layout preference for custom reports is fixed layout. To make custom reports work in a Rapid Application Development environment, you need to change the layout preference to auto layout. Perform the following steps to change the layout preference:

  1. Create the report
  2. Open the report
  3. On the General Tab change Layout Preference from Fixed Layout to Auto Layout
  4. Save the report

Business Process Modeler Issues

Upgrade Issues

Runtime upgrade keeps grants from active model only

A runtime upgrade operation keeps only the grants of the active model, or, if no active model exists, of the last deployed model, from each partition.

Stardust Portal Issues

Advanced Document search by keywords fails in WebLogic environment

Searching for documents using the advanced search and entering keywords fails in WebLogic environments. To make advanced document search with keywords work in WebLogic environments, edit your jackrabbit-jca-2.6.1.rar file and replace the Jar files tika-core-1.3.jar and tika-parsers-1.3.jar with versions tika-core-1.1.jar and tika-parsers-1.1.jar accordingly. Refer to chapter WebLogic in the Deployment Guide for details on the mentioned Jackrabbit rar file.

JavaScript Error occurs during completion of manual activities in Internet Explorer 9

In some cases, the Stardust Portal is rendered in Quirks Document Mode and a JavaScript error occurs when you complete a manual activity. In that case do the following:

  1. Press the F12 button to open the Internet Explorer console
  2. Click the last menu item in the console for switching the Document Mode
  3. Select Internet Explorer 9 standards

    Select Standard Mode

  4. Re-login to the Portal
  5. Now you can complete your activity

Generic DMS error occurs during first login to Process Portal on WebSphere 7 environment

In case a Generic DMS error is thrown during the first login to the Process Portal in a WebSphere 7 environment, the reason might be that outer transactions cannot be resumed. Set the server-side property Stardust.DocumentManagement.Resource.Create.inNestedTx in your carnot.properties file to true to create Documents or Folders in a new nested transaction.

Changes in Text and HTML Documents are not saved correctly to server

Clicking the general Save Document button to save an edited Text or HTML document, does not send updated contents to the server. The Save icon provided in the text editing toolbar has to be used first to save to the server. Afterwards the general Save Document button will save the content correctly.

Corrupt data when using session-scoped managed beans for interactive JSF activities

Using session-scoped managed beans for interactive JSF activities might lead to corrupt process data as it is possible to open several activities of the same kind at the same time. Use Spring-based beans declared with a portalTab scope instead. For details refer to chapter Integrating JSF Applications of the System Integration.

Session Timeout occurs during principal login

In case a session timeout occurs with principal login and you are using WebLogic as application server, deactivate the keep alive option for WebLogic as described in section Deactivating the KeepAlive option of chapter WebLogic.

LDAP login provider allows login without user password

Note that in case Stardust is configured to use the LDAP Login Provider and internal security, a user is allowed to login without providing a password. You can either modify the LDAP server to disallow empty passwords or use the following code snippet to avoid the LoginFailedException, if you are using the LDAP Login Provider example. For LDAP example, please refer to the LDAP Synchronization Provider chapter of the Examples section. Modify your LDAP Login Provider class with the following code snippet.

public class LDAPLoginProvider implements ExternalLoginProvider
{
   public static final Logger trace = LogManager.getLogger(LDAPLoginProvider.class);

   public ExternalLoginResult login(String id, String password, Map properties)
   {
      if(password == null || StringUtils.isEmpty(password))
      {
         throw new LoginFailedException(
               BpmRuntimeError.LOGIN_LDAP_INVALID_USER_PASSWORD.raise(),
               LoginFailedException.AUTHORIZATION_FAILURE);
      }
      return LDAPAdapter.instance().login(id, password, properties);
   }
}

Performance decrease and timeout occurs during process search

Performance issue and timeout may occur when searching for processes that include case process instances. It happens if the All Processes option is selected and the total count is not available in the summary of the search result table. This happens in two cases:

To avoid any issues, the summary displayed at the top of the table will change as described in section Issues with pagination and records displayed for process search results including cases of chapter Searching for Processes and Activities in the End User Handbooks.

Process does not appear in startable process list

In case a specific process does not appear in your startable process list as expected, please check if a manual trigger is missing in this process to trigger the process.

Using session-scoped managed beans for interactive JSF activities might cause corrupt data

Using session-scoped managed beans for interactive JSF activities might lead to corrupt process data as it is possible to open several activities of the same kind at the same time. Use Spring-based beans declared with a view scope instead. For details refer to chapter Integrating JSF Applications of the System Integration.

Other

Deployment

Derby - Performance issues when running queries for process instances having uninitialized (structured) data values

Running process instance queries or reporting requests against an audit trail containing process instances having descriptors on uninitialized structured data values may be very slow for Derby databases. In that case we recommend to use prepared statements to improve the performance. To use prepared statements, set the property AuditTrail.UsePreparedStatements in your carnot.properties file to true. For details on using this property refer to section Using Prepared Statements of chapter Database Access Tuning of the Operation Guide.

Issues occur using WebSphere version 8

Using WebSphere 8 with versions earlier than 8.0.0.5 might cause issues. Please use version 8.0.0.5 or later.

WebLogic 12c - error occurs during Portal login when accessing a new respository

In some cases login in to the Portal is not possible when accessing a new respository with Weblogic 12c. In that case try again after a server restart.

WebLogic - NoSuchMethodError Exception occurs

In WebLogic, a version of the JavaScript library Rhino is integrated, which is not compatible with Stardust. An exception like the following occurs during model deployment resulting from this incompatibility:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.mozilla.javascript.Context.enter(Lorg/mozilla/javascript/Context;Lorg/mozilla/javascript/ContextFactory;)Lorg/mozilla/javascript/Context;

To avoid this exception perform the following steps:

  1. Download Rhino version 1.7 R1 ( ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/js/rhino1_7R1.zip).
  2. From the downloaded Rhino zip file take the js.jar file only and put it to the lib folder of the WebLogic domain (e.g. C:/appserver/bea/user_projects/domains/mydomain/lib).
  3. Change the following line in the startWebLogic.cmd, residing in the bin folder of your WebLogic domain (e.g. C:/appserver/bea/user_projects/domains/mydomain/bin/startWebLogic.cmd in case you use Windows)
    from
    set CLASSPATH=%CLASSPATH%;%MEDREC_WEBLOGIC_CLASSPATH%
    to
    set CLASSPATH=C:/appserver/bea/user_projects/domains/mydomain/lib/js.jar;%CLASSPATH%;%MEDREC_WEBLOGIC_CLASSPATH%
    .
  4. Stop and restart WebLogic using this modified script.

Now WebLogic is using the Rhino version required by Stardust.

WebLogic - connection to engine in an EJB environment with tunneling service configuration fails

If you like to connect to the engine in an EJB tunneling environment with WebLogic, use the TunnelingSessionFactory provided by Stardust to avoid connection issues. To use this session factory, set the following property in your client-side carnot.properties file:

Secure.Session.Factory = org.eclipse.stardust.engine.api.ejb2.TunnelingSessionFactory

WebLogic - unauthorized response sent while accessing dynamic Web services

WebLogic by default intercepts HTTP basic authentication calls and tries to authenticate the credentials against its own security realm. As the user and password is not configured in WebLogic, the Web service call might never reach the Stardust Web application. To avoid this, set the following parameter in the <security-configuration> section of the config.xml file of your WebLogic domain:

<enforce-valid-basic-auth-credentials>false</enforce-valid-basic-auth-credentials>

Note that if you run the WebLogic domain in production mode, you cannot start the managed server because it regards the <enforce-valid-basic-auth-credentials> tag as invalid. In that case add a WebLogic server-specific argument to get the managed server to disable the schema validation for config.xml. For example, modify the following line in bin/startweblogic.cmd of your WebLogic domain from:

set SAVE_JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTIONS%

to

set SAVE_JAVA_OPTS=%JAVA_OPTIONS% -Dweblogic.configuration.schemaValidationEnabled=false

Model cannot be deployed from Eclipse via Spring remoting on Windows 7

When deploying the model on Windows 7 via spring remoting, sometimes the localhost cannot be resolved correctly. In this case, replace the localhost from the file carnot-spring-client.properties by real host name. Also, turn-off automatic publishing of resources (ippConfigPublisher) to avoid the change overridden with each content published to the server. To do this, go to Server View > Publishing > Select Publishing Actions and clear IPPConfigPublisher checkbox.

Deployment fails in case model file name contains Japanese characters

For the time being, model names containing Japanese characters, are not supported. A deployment of such models results in an Exception. In that case rename the model file using UTF-8 encoding.

Audit Trail

Lock wait timeout occurs when synchronizing user session to disk

The BatchUpdateException occurs in case a system user is used to retrieve a Stardust service and this system user has not been excluded for session tracking. To avoid session tracking for system users, please provide the property Carnot.AuditTrail.Session.NoSessionTracking = motu within the carnot.properties file.

HeuristicMixedException occurs on WebLogic during transaction commit

This exception occurs if WebLogic's JTA transaction timeout settings are greater than the timeouts for the XA data source. This leads to the database transaction timing out before the WebLogic transaction. To resolve this, check the application server's default transaction timeout settings and server-specific deployment descriptor timeout settings. Also the standard deployment descriptor shipped with Stardust contains the settings:

<trans-timeout-seconds>600</trans-timeout-seconds>

Databases

Sybase - invocation of parallel activities fails

To avoid problems during the invocation of parallel activities in a process definition, especially after an AND-split, set the property AuditTrail.UseLockTables in your carnot.properties file to true. Please refer to the entry AuditTrail.UseLockTables in the chapter Client Side Properties, residing in the operation guide, for information on this property.

Sybase - deadlock situations

To avoid deadlock situations, set the property AuditTrail.InterceptJdbcCalls in your carnot.properties file to true. Please refer to the entry AuditTrail.InterceptJdbcCalls in the chapter Client Side Properties, residing in the operation guide, for information on this property.

MySQL - Server crash occur with some versions

Note that you might get problems when using the following MySQL versions:

All versions in between the ones mentioned above provide more stability.

MySQL - Deployment Exceptions occur in case of String Chunks ending with Backslash

During model deployment, the model is split into several chunks of Strings that are stored in the STRING_DATA table. In case such a chunk ends with a backslash, the INSERT statement fails with an SQL exception on MySQL. To avoid this problem set the property AuditTrail.UsePreparedStatements in your carnot.properties file to true to use prepared statements.

AuditTrail.UsePreparedStatements = true

Now the string chunk is added as bind value and the model can be deployed without any problem.

MySQL - Errors are not indicated correctly when mixing transactional and non-transactional behavior

MySQL does not consider (some) errors as errors, if they happen on the second or subsequent row of a multi-row insert. Only if it happens on the first row, it is an error. To change this behavior so that every error is really an error, set:

SET SQL_MODE='STRICT_ALL_TABLES'

However, after the lock folder is refreshed, locking is working without problems again.

Jackrabbit

Concurrent versioning operations fail in Jackrabbit

Concurrent versioning operations in Jackrabbit are failing sporadically and throw exceptions due to a Jackrabbit issue. For more information, please refer to https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JCR-3422.

Dirty Internal State on Transaction-Rollback during Global Transaction (container managed transaction)

If you encounter a problem as described in ticket JCR-2712 please contact Stardust Support.

Deadlock inside XASession on WebLogic

If you encounter a problem as described in ticket JCR-2554 please contact Stardust Support.

Command Tools

Inconsistencies in the audit trail after archiving via Sysconsole Command with model deletion

Note that the following archive Sysconsole commands with model deletion should only be performed in maintenance windows without workflow, otherwise this might lead to inconsistency in the audit trail:

For details on the Sysconsole archive command, refer to section Audit Trail Archive Administration of chapter The Sysconsole Command.

Maven

Maven dependencies cannot be downloaded behind a proxy when using Maven version 3.0.4

Due to a bug in Maven version 3.0.4, you might face problems using this version while downloading dependencies from behind a proxy. In this case either switch to Maven version 3.0.3 or download the following jar:
http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/wagon/wagon-http-lightweight/2.2/wagon-http-lightweight-2.2.jar
and add it to the lib/ext folder in your Maven installation.

M2Eclipse usage - problems occur using archetype catalog or building Maven projects

If you experience any problems in using the Stardust archetype catalog or in building maven projects using M2Eclipse, this might be due to the fact that your M2Eclipse is configured to use the embedded Maven version that ships with it. Unless you configured it accordingly, this Maven version uses another settings.xml which does not contain the credentials and repositories required to access the archetype catalog and the artifacts in the repository. To solve this problem, change the Maven version used by M2Eclipse to a correctly configured Maven version. To set the location of your Maven installation do the following:

  1. Select Preferences > Maven > Installations
  2. In the Installations pane, click Add
  3. Browse to the location of your Maven installation

    Select Maven Version

Known Restrictions

Stardust Rapid Application Environment

Stardust Portal is not provided for Dynamic Web module version 3.0

Stardust Portal is not provided for Dynamic Web module version 3.0. You need to use Dynamic web module_version 2.4 and 2.5. For the time being only these versions are supported. For details refer to chapter Creating a Dynamic Web Project in Eclipse of the Rapid Application Development guide.

Internal Web Browser not supported

For the time being, the internal Web browser is not supported. Use your default external Web browser, which you can set in the Windows preferences.

No automatic upgrading of libraries

Currently there is no automated facility for upgrading the libraries contained in existing Dynamic Web Projects with Stardust facets to the most recent Stardust version. In that case you have to upgrade the Stardust facets manually as described in detail in the section Upgrading Stardust Facets of the chapter Creating a Dynamic Web Project in Eclipse.

Modeling

Limitation of list size for multiple instances

The limit of the list size which can be used with the new feature without running into transactional errors or performance issues depends on the layout of the runtime environment. For the standard setup on a small machine (4 cores) list sizes up to 10000 entries have been tested before running into transactional problems.

Primitive Enumeration types are not supported for SOAP und REST external process invocation calls

Primitive Enumeration types are not supported to be used as formal parameters for SOAP und REST external process invocation calls. Use a structured data type embedding the required Enumeration type instead.

Activity State Change Event Handling not supported with source state N/A

Note that Activity State Change Event handling is not supported with a source state N/A in combination with a target state created.

Eclipse Modeler does not support Structured Type Definitions of other Models in Local Definition

The usage of structured type definitions of another model in the local definition of structured types, which is supported in the Business Modeler, is not supported yet in the Eclipse modeler. For the time being, we recommend not to use the Eclipse modeler once you are using structured data types having embedded cross-model structured data types or parameter interface definitions that use cross-model structured data types.

Known Restrictions in Business Process Modeler

The Business Process Modeler currently has the following restrictions:

Restrictions on Switching Primary Implementations for running Processes

Switching the primary implementation for a running process has the following restrictions:

Transient Processes

Support for asynchronous subprocesses

Currently, asynchronous subprocesses are not supported for transient processing. Whenever the workflow of a transient or deferred process instance reaches a subprocess activity that invokes an asynchronous sub-process, the audit trail persistence is set to Immediate for both the parent as well as the sub-process.

Pull events are ignored for transient process instance execution

As long as a process instance is executed transiently, pull events, i.e. events triggered by the event daemon, are not processed. Instead a warning is logged whenever a transient process instance having a pull trigger event bound is written to the in-memory storage. This can be the case for example if its transaction is committed. The according log message looks as follows:

Event binding 'Event binding [oid = 1, type = 2, model oid = 2, object oid = 1, handler oid = 2]' applies to a transient process instance and will therefore not be processed by the event daemon.

Using Rules

Testing a Rule Set implementation

Note that you need a lifecycle management environment to be able to run and test a Rule Task implementing a Rule Set. Please contact our Sales Support Team for details.

Technical Rules editor code restriction

For the time being, you need to append _field to each variable in the code editor of a technical rule in the Rules Management perspective. Refer to chapter Defining Technical Rules for details.

Using JPA on EJB3 Platforms

With the default configuration as shipped, the usage of JPA is supported only on JBoss.

Making the EntityManager and EntityManagerFactories available in the JNDI scope of the Stardust Process Engine for other application servers is not impossible but will impose some restrictions when packaging and configuring your enterprise application. Please contact the Stardust Support team if you have the need to integrate JPA on these application server platforms.

In JBoss, the EntityManager and EntityManagerFactories can be bound in the global JNDI by setting the following properties in the persistence.xml file:

<property name="jboss.entity.manager.jndi.name" value="java:/DemoProject_JPA" /> 
<property name="jboss.entity.manager.factory.jndi.name" value="java:/DemoProject_JPA_factory" /> 

Deprecated Primitive Data Type Calendar

The primitive data type Calendar is deprecated. Problems might occur when using this type in queries. Please use the primitive data type Timestamp instead.

Supported XSD Types

Currently the following XSD types will be converted as in the following table for the usage in Message Transformation applications or transition conditions:

XSD TypeJava typeJavaScript type
anySimpleTypejava.lang.StringString
anyURIjava.lang.StringString
base64Binaryjava.lang.StringString
booleanjava.lang.LongNumber
bytejava.lang.ByteNumber
datejava.lang.LongNumber
dateTimejava.lang.LongNumber
decimaljava.lang.StringString
doublejava.lang.DoubleNumber
durationorg.eclipse.stardust.common.PeriodString
ENTITIESjava.lang.StringString
ENTITYjava.lang.StringString
floatjava.lang.FloatNumber
gDayjava.lang.StringString
gMonthjava.lang.StringString
gMonthDayjava.lang.StringString
gYearjava.lang.StringString
gYearMonthjava.lang.StringString
hexBinaryjava.lang.StringString
IDjava.lang.StringString
IDREFjava.lang.StringString
IDREFSjava.lang.StringString
intjava.lang.IntegerNumber
integerjava.lang.IntegerNumber
languagejava.lang.StringString
longjava.lang.LongNumber
Namejava.lang.StringString
NCNamejava.lang.StringString
negativeIntegerjava.lang.IntegerNumber
NMTOKENjava.lang.StringString
NMTOKENSjava.lang.StringString
nonNegativeIntegerjava.lang.IntegerNumber
nonPositiveIntegerjava.lang.IntegerNumber
normalizedStringjava.lang.StringString
NOTATIONjava.lang.StringString
positiveIntegerjava.lang.IntegerNumber
QNamejava.lang.StringString
shortjava.lang.ShortNumber
stringjava.lang.StringString
timejava.lang.LongNumber
tokenjava.lang.StringString
unsignedBytejava.lang.ByteNumber
unsignedIntjava.lang.IntegerNumber
unsignedLongjava.lang.LongNumber
unsignedShortjava.lang.ShortNumber

Comparing Decimal XSD Types

Please note that decimal xsd types are mapped as String values and thus are compared like Strings in transition conditions. To avoid this, use a Number typecast, e.g.:

Number(StructData1.decimal) > Number(StructData.decimal2)

Structured Data List Types are not supported for Data Clusters

Note that Structured data list values are not supported for Data Clusters as they would require more than one entry in the data slot.

Restrictions on Identifiers in Message Transformations and Transition Conditions

Some identifiers, which can be used in structured data types, are not supported in JavaScript. The following identifiers are not supported:

whereby underscores, digits or dots not used as first character are supported (e.g. first_data, data1, data.dot).

In case you use identifiers containing hyphens or dots in JavaScript, like in message transformations or transition conditions, you can set the identifier in square brackets and quotation marks as a workaround. Refer to section Restrictions on identifiers of chapter Message Transformation Application Type and section Restrictions on identifiers of chapter Working with Transitions respectively for details.

Editing Stardust XPDL Models with External Tools

In general models produced or modified by the Stardust modeler can be edited with other tools that supports XPDL 1.0 standard. However, the Stardust modeler is maintaining specific information for most of the model elements in an ExtendedAttribute with the name "CarnotExt".

In certain cases, these elements may refer to standard identifiers. For example the diagram information is stored exclusively in the extended attribute, however it has references to workflow objects defined in the standard XPDL part.

A concrete example is the carnot:Symbol (Kind="ACTIVITY"). This symbol has a live reference to the actual activity, and namely the field ModelElement contains the Id of the activity that it refers to. Similarly affected are carnot:Connection (Kind="TRANSITION") that refers a transition as well as the carnot:Symbols with the kind "DATA", "ROLE", "APPLICATION" or "PROCESS".

When modifying the Id of a workflow element or deleting the element that is referenced by such a diagram symbol, please take care to synchronize the respective reference (attribute "ModelElement") in the carnot:Symbol or carnot:Connection. If such synchronization is not performed then dangling references may result or references can point to an element of a different type. In the latter case, the Stardust modeler will no longer be able to load the model due to ClassCastExceptions.

Platform Restrictions

MySQL and MSSQL - Restrictions in Case Sensitive String Comparison

As MySQL/MSSQL always performs a case insensitive String comparison, the usage of the Boolean parameter caseSensitive in a DataFilter query will have no effect when using MySQL/MSSQL.

Using Structured Data Types as Document Types

For the time being, to use a Structured Data Type as Document Type, you need to create a Structured Data Type as well as a data object for the Structured Data Type. For details refer to chapter Document Types in the Concepts section.

Document Property Map and Document Type Concept

With the implementation of Document Type concept, the document properties map is described by a schema set as DocumentType. No automatic validation is provided of the map against the schema defined by DocumentType. Therefore, when validating the schema manually against the map of meta-data; collision may occur due to the properties set by the Stardust Portal. It is recommended to not to use them in order to avoid collision.

Following is the list of document properties that Stardust Portal attaches to a document.

Document Search - fulltext Search is restricted to String meta-data Properties

Fulltext search for document meta-data properties is only possible if they are modeled as xsd:string.

Relocation of activities

The following restrictions apply to the relocation functionality:

Aborting active activities

Active activities are aborted and only one activity can be defined to be the starting activity for the new process instance.

History of original process instance in portal

The history of the original process instance is available and identifiable only indirectly via the link feature in the Stardust portal.

Importing models with intermediate events

Intermediate events can be modelled only in Web-based modeler and are not compatible with Eclispe-based modeler. However, it is possible to open the models in Eclipse and edit model elements other than intermediate events, but no change should be done to the activities with intermediate events including transitions.

Manual Activity Converted to JSF Application Activity

Following are the limitations for the manual activity converted to JSF application activity in previous versions of Stardust:

UI Restrictions with the HTML5 Framework Application Shell

The following restrictions exist in the Portal UI HTML5 Framework Application Shell:

UI Mashup Application Restrictions

UI Mashup applications have the following restrictions:

WebServices API not completely provided yet

The API for the following features is not yet available via WebServices API: