Migrating 8.0 Flows to 9.0

We are migrating to 9.0 in the next six months. Without having any emergency/immediate work flow needs, should we even consider building process flows using the product we have now (ProcessFlow Professional) vs. waiting until we get up and running with ProcessFlow Integrator on LSF9. I'm getting the impression from these postings that the conversion process is complicated and labor intensive. On the same token, does training new power users and end users (inbasket) on 8.0 only to migrate to 9.0 in the near future make any sense? Any opinions on this would be appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks John. So, I have to go into each AGS node and replace it with the new bpm/..  location and the function? Is this avoided if I purchase PF Integrator?

You will need to manually change the flow to convert the AGS node so that it uses WebRun to access the appropriate bpm/*.do function.

PF Integrator has nothing to do with it.

Is anyone willing to provide me with an example (screenshot?) of how/where 'they' modified there AGS that reference and WF, RD screens that no longer exist? (PF Pro 9.0.0.0.4)

Here is the Properties of a Current AGS I have going to WF21 Form - in LSF9 is this where I make the changes to reference the /bpm dir, etc? How would this look? :

_PDL=LOGAN&_TKN=WF21.1&_EVT=CHG&_RTN=DATA&_LFN=ALL&_TDS=IGNORE&FC=Change&WFF-WORKUNIT=&LINE-FCr0=C&WFF-SEQ-NBRr0=1&WFF-KEY-STRINGr0=&_DELIM=%09&_OUT=TEXT&_EOT=TRUE

 

So are you saying I replace all AGS nodes with WebRuns?

You need to replace AGS nodes which reference WF** forms with WebRuns.

/bpm/xml/folderForm.do?methodName=Change&workUnit=xxx&sequenceNumber=1&keyString=

Thanks so much John! ProcessFlow migration is a "show stopper" for our LSF9 Go-Live, so this has been stressing me big time - among other things ! Attached is a screen shot - I replaced teh AGS with a WebRun, does this look correct? See attached:

And here's the actual FLO - attached for reference

Of course this attachment is the entire flo - my questions are focussed on the WebRun node I have in place (first one after the START) - I do have other WF screen AGS nodes to correct in this flo - but, will cross that bridge when I need to...Thanks for any info John.

 

Your original AGS to WF21 would need to change to a WebRun:

When I run a webrun node for workunit folder change, _result is the whole XML DTD instead of just the return_message.  One other issue is _success  is true even when change action cannot find the record and returns a message like "Perform Inquire before Change". I got around this problem by adding a Success String in the properties. 

I have attached a document with the webrun call and results. My question is:  How would I just capture the return_message instead of the whole XML DTD in the <webrun-activity>_result variable.

Thanks

Sreeni

 

 

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I don't think there's any way around it (you're using the "success" string for how it was designed. You might be able to write some Javascript to parse the XML. . I'd suggest opening a case with Lawson and submit an enhancement request for a new node that interacts with the bpm forms that replace the WFxx forms, as a number for clients have that need as they discover that ags no longer works against WFzx forms. If you want to write an article, I could include it in the PF article series I'm publishing in the LawsonGuru Letter. 
John Henley

I would love to.  Please email me (srkomma@gmail.com) with what you want me to cover in the article.

One other question: I have found routines to update WFWORKUNIT and WFFOLDER tables. Is there anything similar to update WFMSGDTL table. I tired and tried but no luck with it yet.

/bpm/xml/workUnitBForm.do     -   Updates WFWORKUNIT table
/bpm/xml/folderForm.do             -    Updates WFFOLDER tables

Thanks

Sreeni

messageHeaderForm.do & messageDtlForm.do

Thanks John. It worked.  Why is there no documentation whatsoever on these from Lawson?  On the top of that, there is no consistency.

Some WEBRUN calls have to be called with "xml" in the path (bpm/xml/folderForm.do) and some work without it (bpm/messageDtlForm.do)

Thanks much for this site...

Sreeni

We are in the process of planning our migration and was wondering how the migration of flow from 8 - 9 has been for other companies? Smooth - I hope.

The migration of flows from 8 to 9 is pretty easy (and is part of the migration steps). You will have to review the migration logs to see what updates you may need to do and should go through the flow files to make sure they are correct. For example, in LSF9 Lawson took away the option to add criteria from related tables so if I had a DME Query against PO header and PO lines and had criteria on both the DME call might not work.

Also, if you had a AGS (Transaction) call to update WF or RD forms in 8.03 they will have to be replaced with WebRun calls.

I have a bunch of DME's with table relations... Am I going to have to move those to two different query nodes?

Check and test them first to see if they work in the API builder. If not, you will have to work around this limitation (by the way, Lawson says these types of queries didn't always work so they took away the option) by either adding a 2nd query within the first or by using a Branch.

That is interesting .... I hate it when a vendor takes away functionality. I was rather frustrated when I learned that I was being forced to upgrade Process Flow from Professional to Integrator so that I could continue my automation of WebUsers (something they should have automated already as part of the system.)

I thought the Resource Query and Resource Mgmt Update nodes were part of ProcessFlow Professional?

I was told that I would not be able to update RD and WF tables without upgrading to Integrator. Should I verify this because I really do not want to do LSF9, APP9 and Integrator at the same time... Too many moving parts.

You don't need PFI to update WF and RD tables - these are done with WebRun calls to the web based ProcessFlow Administrator tool. See my blog entries at http://consultdavidw.blog...-processflow-9x.html and http://consultdavidw.blog...r-task-setup-in.html for examples.