Frequently Asked Questions - Autonomy Process Automation (LiquidOffice) V7 Features

Autonomy have announced V7 for LiquidOffice. In line with their branding and signifying the adoption of LiquidOffice in to their existing products, it has now been re-branded as Autonomy Process Automation (APA).

Below is a breakdown of the new features within APA V7.

• Product name. LiquidOffice has been rebranded as Autonomy Process Automation.
• Portal. A modern web application intended to eventually replace the Web Desktop. It provides many usability improvements including tree-based navigation, unified assignments area replacing inbox and work queues and the ability to hide and reorganise columns.
• Web BAM. The Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) dashboard and key performance indicators are provided via a web interface and are integrated into the Analytics tab in Portal.
• Dynamic forms. Forms can be designed with third-party web development tools, providing unlimited flexibility to create native web forms without the paper-like constraints of traditional forms created with Form Designer. Dynamic forms are integrated using a new Eclipse plug-in.
• Cross-platform installer. A single Java-based cross-platform installer; now requires that Java be pre-installed for both the server and Form Designer.
• Form Designer installer downloaded from URL. Form Designer can be installed by an end user from the Web Desktop or Portal. The Form Designer installer is included in a server installation.
• Derby database. The Java-based, Apache Derby DBMS is included in the server installation and configured by default. This makes it easy to get up and running quickly, although Oracle or SQL Server is still recommended for a production server.
• Silent installation. Silent installation can now be configured with all the settings that are entered manually through a GUI installation.
• OEM rebranding. OEM customers can rebrand the installer with their own product name, version, license agreement, service name and installation path.
• Form packet validation. Forms in form packets are now validated before being submitted. A new Submit action is in the form packet nodes and the current Save command displays as Save For Later. Selecting Submit triggers client-side validation, while Save For Later does not. Submitted nodes display with a check mark in the table of contents. Attempting to submit the entire packet when any non-hidden form nodes are un-submitted results in an “incomplete packet error” message.
• Form packet node initialisation. Previously, initialisation semantics differed between forms inside of form packets and forms outside of form packets. The "First Use" initialisation option for form packets initialised on the first use per task, instead of the first use per process. The "Always" initialisation option for form packets is always initialised, instead of only until the form is saved. The form packet task initialisation options now match the behaviour for form tasks. Refer to the Process Studio documentation for details on form and form packet tasks.
• Work queue lock timeout. The work queue lock timeout interval can be configured in minutes rather than hours.
• eMail resend interval. The interval between eMail resend attempts is configurable.
• Secure eMail. Secure eMail over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) is supported.
• Log access for designers. Users with form or process publishing roles can view the server log in the Management Console.
• API to retrieve assigned tasks. Added API to retrieve a list of tasks from an assignment list (AssignmentList.getItems).
• Multiple form submissions. After an end user selects a form submit button, it is now unavailable for 5 seconds to prevent the user from selecting it again and causing multiple submissions. Forms must be republished to take advantage of this feature.
• Accessibility. Added an accessibility option to the HTML publish settings to allow not setting the focus to the first field. This allows for some screen readers to begin reading from the top of the form rather than the first focused field.
• Page breaking in flattened PDF. Introduced a flag (CSForm.kHTMLStylePageBreakFlag) to make page breaks in flattened PDFs similar to their HTML counterparts.
• Dynamic tables. Improved the handling of dynamic tables in HTML and flattened PDF.
• Code signing certificate. The certificate used to sign the Management Console and Process Studio clients has been updated. To ensure client machines running these applications can verify their digital signatures, the machines need to be updated to Java 6u19 or later, which includes the latest root certificates.
• Platform support. The following platforms are now supported:
  • Tomcat 6.0.29 is included.
  • Java 1.6 or above is required to run all Java-based components.
  • JavaScript 1.5 is used for server-side execution.
  • AIX is supported by the server.