Top 10 Coolest Features of AutoMate BPA Server 7
AutoMate BPA Server is more than just a multi-machine version of AutoMate! With the Public Preview release just a few days away, now is a good time to demonstrate this by revealing my 10 favorite new features. I hope this list will help to give you an understanding into what makes AutoMate BPA Server such a huge leap forward for the AutoMate franchise. Take a look and see if any of these features appeal to you.
1) Workflows
Real-world business processes are most often comprised of multiple tasks and resources. In previous versions of AutoMate, multiple tasks could be constructed as separate objects and coupled together only loosely (via Start Task, etc.). In AutoMate BPA Server, rather than starting with tasks, first a workflow is created. Tasks, conditions and other objects can then be added to the workflow via drag and drop. Connectors are used between the objects to show the relationship and flow, giving an excellent visual overview of the business process that is being automated. For users of previous versions of AutoMate, it is not uncommon to get a feeling that this is the way things should have been all along owing largely to the increased flexibility that is afforded. For example: tasks can now be chained together; different paths can be taken at each stage depending on the success, failure or result of the prior task; two tasks can be run as a result of one condition (formerly called a trigger) and so much more. Best of all, staff at all levels of the organization should be able to open a workflow and quickly asses the basic structure and flow of the automated business process.
2) Multi-Machine Execution
This feature has been requested by many current AutoMate users. We have implemented AutoMate's multi-machine capabilities in a very unique manner. Unlike some competing systems which may allow you to assign a whole workflow or job to run on a remote agent (if you can even do that), BPA Server takes the approach of allowing each distinct task or condition to run on different agents within the same workflow. The workflow itself is always orchestrated by the server but the objects inside the workflow are each assigned to run on an agent, which could be the same machine as the sever, or a machine on the other side of the world. This allows a single workflow to execute tasks in different physical locations, passing data between one another while all being a part of the same business process.
3) Push Deployment of Agents
Part of allowing execution on different agents involves first getting the agents on the remote machine. We have added capability to make this process much easier. Instead of running from machine to machine on your network manually installing the agent software, we have made push deployment possible on Windows Server domains from within the AutoMate BPA Server Management Console. While logged into Windows as a domain administrator, simply switch to the agent tab in the BPA Server Management Console and hit the Deploy button. A wizard will be displayed that shows all the machines that are online in the domain. Select the machines to deploy to and the agent software will then be "pushed" onto the selected machines and installed silently. For machines outside of the domain, the bundled MSI installation file may be used either manually or with the software deployment tool of your choice.
4) Users
Previous versions of AutoMate had no concept of "users", instead relying on a single layer of password protection to prevent unauthorized changes. The Enterprise Version of AutoMate BPA Server includes a user access system which includes the ability to set Roles for each user. Certain users can be set to have access to build tasks but not to put them into production, others can be Managers or Developers, each with their own set of abilities. Passwords may either be maintained by BPA Server or authenticate to Windows/Active Directory.
5) Repository
Anytime an object is created in AutoMate BPA Server, such as a task, it is automatically added to the Repository. Using that same task in another workflow is as easy as clicking the repository button and dragging the existing object into the workflow. Should a change need to be made to a task that is used by multiple workflows, that change will apply to all the workflows that use it. Besides tasks, conditions and events (formerly known as triggers) can also be reused in this way, making global changes to objects used by multiple workflows effortless. Imagine maintaining a schedule called "every business day of the year" which is used to start 25 different workflows. If those business days were to change, now the change could be made to a single schedule object in the repository and all workflows which use it would now reflect the change immediately.
6) Server Management Console
Although the Server Management Console (SMC) replaces the Task Administrator found in previous versions of AutoMate, they look nothing alike. With the SMC, we have completely rethought the concept of a centralized management of automation in an organization. Featuring a modern and ultra-intuitive interface, capabilities include: Management of workflows, repository objects, users and agents, reporting, real-time execution status and history, and settings and properties for the server including an object inheritance engine. The SMC connects to the desired server via TCP/IP so that the server can be managed locally or remotely.
7) Property Inheritance
In most cases, when we create new tasks or workflows we leave most of the default properties alone. AutoMate BPA Server introduces a new inheritance engine for properties management which makes some very interesting things possible. In this system, rather than replicating common defaults for each object, new objects simply inherit their properties from their parent object. Tasks inherit from the workflows they are contained in, which in turn inherit from the default Properties as specified on the server. These inherited properties can be easily managed centrally or overridden on a case-by-case basis. For example, if you want all tasks by default to follow a certain error notification process, simply set the property in the "Default Properties" section of the SMC and leave the Error Notification property set to "Inherited" (which is the default). This way, any future change to this setting can be performed centrally instead of on a task by task basis. For objects where different behavior is desired, the property can be set to "override" at the workflow or task level and custom settings can be applied.
8) Task Builder Improvements
The new Task Builder supports a customizable Available Actions list, multiple document support, find and replace, stack viewer and improve action search with filtering for quickly finding the action you want.
9) New Actions
AutoMate BPA Server 7 features 65 new actions including: XML, Active Directory, WMI, Cryptography, Timer, Execute DLL function, Environment Variable and Concatenate/Split/Join/Checksum File. In addition to the new actions, hundreds of improvements were made to existing actions including persistent connection SQL instructions, and a new FTP engine with support for the Tumbleweed security standard,
10) Conditions
Conditions replace triggers in BPA Server. The reason for this name change is simple. These objects are much more powerful in BPA Server. They can be used at the beginning of a workflow as a "triggering condition" (a condition which starts a workflow), but also at any point inside the workflow to cause either a wait or evaluation of a condition to take place before proceeding. The result of a wait or evaluation can also impact the flow of a workflow affecting which connector will be traversed next.
11) WMI Condition
The full power of Windows Management Instrumentation is now available to trigger workflows or to be checked as a condition during execution. Although you will need to know how to use WQL to use this feature, any system administrator who is familiar with this technology will recognize that it opens up an enormous range of events and status checks that will now be available for use in your automated processes.
Well, I guess those are the Top 11 Coolest Features, but who's counting. There is much more in the product that I haven't covered here, so the best thing to do is to download the trial version and start automating. The first public preview of AutoMate BPA Server 7 will be available for download on October 1st 2007. Good luck, and please let us know what you think - good and not so good - about the product on our forums. Our goal is to make this our best and most comprehensive product ever.
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