On Friday 09/29 Automic has released the brand new version 12.1. Never before have I known as much about a version prior to release as this time, because Automic has in advance already talked about the version in numerous public and internal events.

As with the V12.0, a blog article is not enough to discuss all the new features. So with this blog post, I am starting a short series to the V12.1

In this first part, I take a look at the innovations and changes in the Automic Web Interface (AWI).

Release Highlights

In the Automic documentation, there is a very good overview page „Release Highlights“ about the most important innovations. You can find this for V12.1 under this link.

Already in V12.0, the AWI should replace the old Java user interface (JUI). In the AWI, many features have been implemented which do not exist in the JUI, e.g. Centralized Agent Upgrade, Service Level Management, or Dashboard Objects. However, for some tasks you still needed the JUI. That’s why you could still download the JUI at the Automic Download. In the Automic Community there is an attempt to list all the features that were missing in the AWI V12.0.

The AWI in V12.1 closes this gap, it now contains all the features of the Java user interface – that’s at least the official statement and the reason why the JUI is no longer available for download. It would be nice if you could also connect to the AWI V12.1 to a V12.0. Unfortunately this is not possible and not planned.

The list of AWI improvements in V12.1 is extremely long. There are many enhancements and extensions.

My Personal Highlights:

  • Drag&Drop does work now.

  • The workflow editor has been improved in some areas, for example, the „mini-map“ is now available for navigation in large workflows.

  • The detailed object search is available in the AWI – and better than ever. In the „Advanced Search“ section below, I write more about this.

  • You can open generated jobs by selecting „Open Monitor“ from the context menu of active tasks. And before you ask: Yes, in the AWI V12.1 jobs also have a „monitor.

  • The context-sensitive help is implemented. If the help is opened, for example, from the sync page (this is now called the sync tab), you get directly to the help about the sync page.
    This also works out of the script editor, but you do not land directly on the help page for the selected script statement, as was the case in the JUI. Instead, the results page of a search through help opens for the selected word. So you need at least one click more than in the JUI to find help on a script statement.

  • The script editor has been reworked and now has almost all the features of the script editor of the JUI.

    I’ve only encountered one missing feature in the new script editor: Marking a word (for example, a variable) does not highlight all other occurrences of the same word.

  • The process monitoring perspective now also has a traffic light – similar to the workflow monitor in V12.0 already had.

  • Multi-Select now works in many locations, e.g. in the Process Monitoring perspective, to end multiple activities at the same time.
    For workflows however, Multi-Select does not work in either the editor or the monitor.

  • Some missing menu items and context menu entries have been added, e.g. the license overview in the administration area, or the „Send To“ entry in the context menu.

  • In the „Settings“ you can now set the font size and refresh intervals.

In addition to these highlights, there are even more changes and improvements in the AWI – after all, it should be able to do everything the Java user interface could do. For a complete list, see Automics Release Highlights as mentioned above.

With V12.1, you have to try hard to find features from the JUI, which are still missing in the AWI, but they still exist. The JUI has developed over 20 years, this means are also some „exotic“ features that will not be implemented in the AWI.

What is missing in V12.1:

  • Key Shortcuts
    There are some key shortcuts in the AWI (for example, Ctrl-S to save objects, or Ctrl-Z in the Script Editor to undo changes).
    Key shortcuts are useful for working quickly and I would appreciate the AWI offering more shortcuts – although this is probably somewhat more difficult for web applications than for native applications.

  • CPIT
    In my opinion, the cockpit object is a bit exotic (that is, I rarely use it), but I know that not everyone sees it that way.
    Since V12.0 this object is no longer supported.
    Instead of the cockpit, since V12.1 the new „Analytics and Reporting for External Data“ feature has to be used. This is a more than just adequate replacement for the boring 80s style cockpit object, as this new Feature can do a looooot more than CPIT. It replaces the old „Predictive Analytics“ AddOn. Technically, it’s a new Widget Type for Analytics, the so called „VARA to Chart“ Widget. I will write more about this in another post in this blog.
    This new Feature is subject to license. I find it somewhat strange to replace a free feature with a paid one – but perhaps a larger set of existing CPIT objects is a good negotiation basis for a low-cost license.

  • Multi-Window Support
    If I have to use the JUI to analyze crashes in complex processes, I often open several workflow monitors, statistics windows, detail windows, and reports side by side to compare RunIds and other information.
    I never had to do this with the AWI, but I can imagine that the transition might be difficult. As workaround I would probably open several, parallel sessions – which requires several user licenses.
    The report window in the AWI – just like the message window – has the super-practical ability to „clip“ from the browser window into its own window. This is exactly what I want for almost every window. Let’s see if there are already ideas on product improvement at ideas.automic.com …

  • Used tabs
    In the JUI, only the most important tabs are displayed for an object, all others are hidden as long as they contain no data. For example, you can immediately see if a job has data in the Sync tab, as it will then be displayed by default.
    The AWI always shows all the tabs and you have to click to see if it contains data. It would be useful to flag whether or not this is the case.

  • Annoying, small details
    The AWI is relatively young, and Automic has managed to integrate ~ 99.9% of the functions of its powerful Java client into a modern web interface in a very short time. The fact that a few small but annoying details still do not fit, should not surprise anyone.
    One of them I would like to mention here: The Workflow Monitor does not show the agent anymore. There is the very practical „hierarchical view“ in the workflow monitor, but unfortunately it offers only a few columns to choose from – I am missing the agent here.

Before I get to the next topic, here is a small tip for the setup: Remember that you can no longer access your Automation Engine without the AWI. Therefore, install an emergency web server to access the AWI, preferably directly on the server with the AE. You can activate this in an emergency if the main web server fails, so that you can still access the AE as admin.

Advanced Search

One of the big features still missing in the AWI in V12.0 was the object search.

The only object search the AWI had in V12.0 was the so-called „Global Search“, whose functionality was similar to the QuickSearch of the JUI.

The advantage of the „Global Search“ in the AWI compared to the Quick Search in the JUI: a search index based on Apache Lucene is used. The disadvantage: It was so far only possible to search for object names.

So: Better technology, less functionality.

V12.1 closes the functional gap, there is now the Advanced Search. This also uses the search index, but allows a detailed filtering according to various criteria.

Unfortunately, it is not seamlessly integrated into the „Global Search“. If, for example, you are looking for all objects that contain the string „AEWIN1“ in the Archive Keys, it is not enough to enter „AEWIN1“ into the global search. The search window of the „Global Search“ still searches only object names.

To go to Advanced Search, click the global search search box. If you do not enter anything, the link to the Advanced Search appears.

If you enter a search term and click on the link with the number of found elements, you will also get to Advanced Search.

The Advanced Search is integrated into the filter bar on the right.

As in Process Monitoring perspective, you can also define filters here and save them for future use. Very cool!

The possibilities for filtering almost correspond to those of the JUI, only for RA values you can not search.

Thus, we basically have the performance scope of the object search, just much faster and better as it no longer loads the DB but uses the search index.

The Advanced Search is closely linked to another new feature of version 12.1: the REST API for the AE. You can access the Advanced Search only with the REST API, and the AWI also uses the REST API for this feature. Therefore, you can not use Advanced Search with the Java API.

Conclusion

With the Advancd Search, we now have better technology and the same functionality as in the JUI for object search in the AWI. This is great, but is it a reason to be overjoyed?

I have to confess, I am a little disappointed here, as I was never really happy with the functional scope of the object search in the JUI. I would have liked the AWI to offer more fields for the object search than the JUI. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In addition, I would have liked the „Global Search“ field to access the whole index directly. This is possible with Lucene, as Amazon proves: There, I can simply enter „Arnold Schwarzenegger“ and find all the films in which he plays, without first specifying that I am looking for films where one of the actors has this name.

But the AWI is really good in V12.1, the performance is noticeably better than in V12. Spontaneously, I can’t find a use case, which I could solve with the JUI but not with the AWI. While working with the AWI, I will probably often think: „Oh, with the JUI that would have gone faster „. But frankly, this also happens pretty often the other way around, when I have to do something on a V10 or V11 in the JUI.