v10.0.0

Highlights

• nflow-explorer
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: uses hash (#) instead of hashbang (#!) as web path prefix (react-router no longer supports hashType)
  • Improved responsiveness on smaller displays

Details

• nflow-explorer
  • Setup demo deployment
  • Support Azure AD authentication in Explorer (see nflow-explorer/src/config.js for configuration options)
  • Improve REST API error response handling
  • Sort state variables by name
  • indicate workflow states used in graph and show active state in graph
  • Use ReactJS 18.x, material UI 5.x
  • Replace Create React App -build by Vite
• nflow-engine
  • Update postgres db schema table id's to bigserial instead of serial
• Dependency updates
  • Jetty 11.0.20
  • Apache CFX 4.0.4
  • Dropwizard metrics 4.2.19
  • logback 1.5.4
  • jackson 2.17.0
  • h2 2.2.224
  • protobuf 3.25.1
  • db2 jcc 11.5.9.0
  • mssql-jdbc 12.6.1
  • mysql-connector 8.3.0
  • ojdbc11 23.2.0.0
  • postgresql 42.7.3
  • mariadb-java-client 3.3.3
  • HikariCP 5.1.0
  • netty 4.1.107
  • joda-time 2.12.5
  • commons-lang3 3.14.0
  • slf4j 2.0.12
  • spring 6.0.23
  • reactor-netty 1.1.18
  • reactor-core 3.6.5

v9.0.0

Highlights

• Update to Spring Framework 6
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Support for Java 11 is dropped
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Migrated from javax namespace to jakarta namespace
  • Lot of dependency updates/changes related to jakarta changes
    • Guice 7.0.0
    • Jersey 3.1.3
    • Jetty 11.0.15
    • Apache CFX 4.0.2
    • Dropwizard metrics 4.2.19 and switch to jakarta servlets
    • Jackson jaxrs to jakarta-rs
    • Switch swagger jaxrs2 to jaxrs2-jakarta
    • Hibernate validator 8.0.1.Final
    • Annotation API to jakarta version 2.1.1
    • Servlet API to jakarta version 6.0.0
    • Glassfish EL to jakarta version 4.0.2
    • Inject API to jakarta version 2.0.1
    • Jaxb API to jakarta bind-api 4.0.0
    • WS RS API to jakarta 3.1.0
• nflow-engine
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: Add support to manage workflow instances without having the workflow implementation classes in the classpath.
  • Clean up old workflow executors that have expired configured time ago (default 1 year).
  • Optimize SQL queries used for dead node detection and workflow instance recovery.
  • Add recovered timestamp to executor info (database, Java API and REST API).
  • Remove obsolete mysql legacy ddl sql scripts.
  • Include generated mariadb.create.ddl.sql in sources.jar.
• nflow-metrics
  • export the nflow.database.type as a metric
• nflow-netty
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: Netty configuration might need Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder to have findModulesViaServiceLoader enabled as joda time module is not in wellknown modules anymore
• nflow-explorer
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: old nflow-explorer was removed and nflow-explorer-ng was renamed to nflow-explorer

Details

• nflow-engine
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: Add support to manage (create, update and read, but not execute) workflow instances without having the workflow implementation classes in the classpath.
    • Implemented in #53.
    • If a workflow definition is not found from the classpath, it is loaded from the database and stored in memory.
    • Workflow definitions that are loaded from the database are refreshed at most at configured interval (nflow.definition.refreshStoredFromDatabase.interval.seconds, default 60).
    • This change enables managing workflows that have been removed from the classpath. You can disable this (potentially backwards incompatible) functionality by setting the refresh interval to -1.
    • Potential use cases:
      • Creating workflow instances in a separate application that does not need to be updated when the workflow implementations are changed
      • Generic nFlow REST service that does not need to be updated when the workflow implementations or definitions are changed
      • Having a cluster of nFlow executors that just execute the workflows and have no other business logic
  • Improve shutdown sequence.
    • Workflows that were acquired from the database but have not started executing can now be resumed immediately by another executor.
    • Executing workflows are interrupted 5 seconds before shutdown timeout so that they get a chance to persist their state to the database. This also allows other executors to immediately resume the processing of the successfully interrupted workflows. The interrupting can be disabled by setting nflow.executor.interrupt to false.
    • Log a warning if updating workflow instance to the database fails because the instance has been recovered by another executor. Also avoid modifying state variables, adding new workflows and adding new child workflows if the workflow instance update fails.
  • Add support to MaintenanceWorkflow for cleaning up old workflow executors that have expired configured time ago (default 1 year).
    • On the first startup, time period is read from nflow.maintenance.executors.initial.deleteExpiredExecutors.olderThan configuration option and stored in the config state variable of the created maintenance workflow instance.
    • If the maintenance workflow instance has already been created, cleanup can be enabled by adding "deleteExpiredExecutorsOlderThan": "P1Y" to the JSON value of the config state variable of the instance.
  • Optimize SQL queries used for dead node detection and workflow instance recovery.
    • Find only dead nodes that have not been recovered yet.
    • Update current timestamp to nflow_executor.recovered after the workflow instances of the dead node have been recovered.
  • Add recovered timestamp to executor info (database, Java API and REST API).
  • Fix bug archiving when bigserial and bigint id types are used (on some databases)
  • Remove obsolete mysql legacy ddl sql scripts.
  • Include generated mariadb.create.ddl.sql in sources.jar.
  • Added tests against Oracle now that there is a working docker image of Oracle XE
• nflow-rest-api
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: Remove @Primary annotation from nflowRestObjectMapper in RestConfiguration to allow overriding default mapper. Spring Boot applications may need to define the mapper explicitly now.
• nflow-metrics
  • export the nflow.database.type as a metric
• nflow-netty
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: Jackson2ObjectMapperBuilder might need configuration for jodatime
    • Spring Framework 6 doesn't have Joda time module in wellknown anymore, so might need to configure findModulesViaServiceLoader to enable it (or some other way)
• nflow-explorer
  • POTENTIALLY BREAKING CHANGE: old nflow-explorer was removed and nflow-explorer-ng was renamed to nflow-explorer
  • Improved formatting timestamps
  • Fix retry on endpoint change
  • Fix querying with parent instance id
  • Fix loading custom instance content for child workflow
  • Fix state variables showing false values
• Dependency updates
  • Guice 7.0.0
  • Jersey 3.1.3
  • Jetty 11.0.15
  • Apache CFX 4.0.2
  • Dropwizard metrics 4.2.19
  • Hibernate validator 8.0.1.Final
  • Annotation API to jakarta version 2.1.1
  • Servlet API to jakarta version 6.0.0
  • Glassfish EL to jakarta version 4.0.2
  • Inject API to jakarta version 2.0.1
  • Jaxb API to jakarta bind-api 4.0.0
  • WS RS API to jakarta 3.1.0
  • javassit 3.29.2
  • logback-classic 1.4.6
  • Commons lang3 3.13.0
  • H2 2.2.220
  • Jackson 2.15.2
  • Joda-time 2.12.5
  • Junit5 5.10.0
  • MariaDB 3.1.2
  • Mockito 5.4.0
  • MSSQL 12.4.0-jre11
  • MySQL 8.1.0
  • OJDBC 23.2.0.0
  • PostgreSQL 42.6.0
  • Reactor core 3.5.9
  • Reactor netty 1.1.10
  • SLF4J 2.0.7
  • Swagger 2.2.15
• Maven build plugin updates
  • Assembly plugin 3.6.0
  • Clean plugin 3.3.1
  • Deploy plugin 3.1.1
  • Download plugin 1.7.1
  • Enforcer plugin 3.3.0
  • Frontend plugin 1.13.4
  • GPG plugin 3.1.0
  • Install plugin 3.1.1
  • Jacoco plugin 0.8.10
  • PMD plugin 3.21.0
  • Project info plugin 3.4.5
  • Release plugin 3.0.1
  • Resources plugin 3.3.1
  • Shade plugin 3.5.0
  • Site plugin 4.0.0-M9
  • Source plugin 3.3.0
  • Surefire plugin 3.1.2
  • Spotbugs plugin 4.7.3.5
  • Versions plugin 2.16.0

v8.0.0

Highlights

• Add support for Java 17.
• Add new user interface nflow-explorer-ng deprecating nflow-explorer see migration instructions
  • implemented using modern Javascript libraries (e.g. ReactJS instead of AngularJS)
  • only minor changes changes to functionality (e.g. create workflow instance added, much improved workflow instance search, removed radiator graph)
• BREAKING CHANGE: Remove support for Java 8.
• nflow-engine
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Replace old WorkflowDefinition and AbstractWorkflowDefinition with a new WorkflowDefinition.
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Remove deprecated WorkflowState.isRetryAllowed, set exception analyzer for workflow definition instead (if needed).
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Change transition delay fields data types in WorkflowSettings and remove unused immediateTransitionDelay setting.
• nflow-rest-api
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Remove ListWorkflowDefinitionResponse.TransitionDelays.immediate field, it is not used by nFlow anymore.
  • Deprecate include query parameter (fetch / list workflow instances).
  • Add includes query parameter (fetch / list workflow instances).
  • Enable maintenance (archiving and deleting old workflow instances) by default.
  • Enable workflow instance history clean-up (deleting old actions and state variables) by default.
  • Add support to query also archived workflow instances.
  • Define maven.compiler.release = 11

Details

• Add support for Java 17, keep support for Java 11 and remove support for Java 8.
  • Supported Java and database engine combinations are documented in SUPPORT_MATRIX.
• Minimum supported Maven version for building is 3.6.
• nflow-engine
  • All workflow definitions should now extend the new WorkflowDefinition class.
    • Workflow state type does not need to be defined as a generic type parameter anymore. The states can now be any classes that implement WorkflowState.
    • It is not recommended to define the workflow states as an enum anymore. This makes extending workflows definition classes and reusing states across different workflows easier.
    • You can define the states as instances of io.nflow.engine.workflow.curated.State or anything else that implements the required WorkflowState interface.
    • The workflow definitions must now register all possible states as described in io.nflow.engine.workflow.definition.WorkflowDefinition.
  • WorkflowState.isRetryAllowed was removed. If it was overridden, you can use new WorkflowSettings.Builder().setExceptionAnalyzer(...) to change the behavior. The default behavior was not changed.
  • WorkflowSettings
    • Change WorkflowSettings.Builder.setShortTransitionDelay, WorkflowSettings.Builder.setMinErrorTransitionDelay and WorkflowSettings.Builder.setMaxErrorTransitionDelay parameter type from int to org.joda.time.Duration.
    • Remove WorkflowSettings.Builder.setImmediateTransitionDelay method.
    • Change WorkflowSettings.shortTransitionDelay, WorkflowSettings.minErrorTransitionDelay and WorkflowSettings.maxErrorTransitionDelay field type from int to long.
    • Remove WorkflowSettings.immediateTransitionDelay field. It is not used by nFlow.
  • Maintenance workflow instance is added to nFlow database by default in startup. Instances that have been in final state longer than 45 days are archived. Archived instances that have been in final state longer than one year are deleted. Maintenance is run every night. Use nflow.maintenance configuration options to change the defaults before startup, or update the maintenance workflow instance state variables after the instance has been created.
  • Workflow instance actions and state variables that are older than 45 days are automatically cleaned up occasionally when the instance is processed. Use workflow settings to change the default time period (setHistoryDeletableAfter) and condition (setDeleteHistoryCondition) of the clean-up.
  • Add support to query also archived workflow instances when not enough non-archived matches are found.
  • Add WorkflowInstance.Builder.setState(WorkflowState) convenience method.
  • Detect state methods with duplicate @StateVar names
  • Allow simple generics objects in Mutable state variables
  • Support instantiating Collection,List and Map interfaces to empty in state variables
  • Dependency updates
    • logback-classic update to version 1.2.11
      • http://mailman.qos.ch/pipermail/announce/2021/000164.html
      • https://jira.qos.ch/browse/LOGBACK-1591
    • apache cxf 3.5.2
    • commons.lang3 3.12.0
    • guice 5.1.0
    • hibernate validator 6.2.3
    • hikaricp 5.0.1
    • jackson 2.13.3
    • jackson-databind 2.13.3
    • javassist 3.29.0
    • jodatime 2.10.14
    • slf4j 1.7.36
    • spring 5.3.18
• nflow-rest-api
  • BREAKING CHANGE: Remove ListWorkflowDefinitionResponse.TransitionDelays.immediate field, it is not used by nFlow.
  • Deprecate include query parameter (fetch / list workflow instances) that supported multiple values provided as comma separated string, i.e. like include=actions,childWorkflows.
  • Add includes query parameter (fetch / list workflow instances) that supports multiple query parameters, i.e. like include=actions&include=childWorkflows.
  • Add queryArchive query parameter. If set to true, also archived workflow instances are searched when not enough non-archived matches are found. Default value is false.
  • Dependency updates
    • swagger 2.2.0
    • jersey 2.35
• nflow-jetty
  • Dependency updates
    • jetty 10.0.9
    • reflections 0.10.2
• nflow-netty
  • Dependency updates
    • reactor-core 3.4.18
    • reactor-netty 1.0.19
• nflow-metrics
  • Dependency updates
    • metrics 4.2.9
• nflow-explorer
  • Query and show also archived workflow instances when not enough non-archived matches are found. Querying and showing archived instances can be disabled in config.js.
  • Dependency updates
    • nodejs 16.15.1
    • npm 8.11.0
    • lodash 4.17.21
    • momentjs 2.29.1
    • removed IE browser support
• nflow-tests
  • Dependency updates
    • h2 2.1.212
      • Note: If you have persisted any h2 databases you must take a backup and restore. Also the nFlow h2 schema changed to work with 2.x release of h2.
    • mssql 10.2.1
    • mysql 8.0.29
    • mariadb 3.0.5
    • postgresql 42.3.6

v7.4.0

Highlights

• nflow-explorer
  • Customizable workflow search result table columns

Details

• nflow-engine
  • logback-classic update to version 1.2.9
    • http://mailman.qos.ch/pipermail/announce/2021/000164.html
    • https://jira.qos.ch/browse/LOGBACK-1591
• nflow-explorer
  • Make some external urls https instead of http

v7.3.1

Highlights

• nflow-engine
  • Optimize fetching workflow with large action history with many modified state variables.

Details

• nflow-jetty
  • Explicitly depend on jackson-databind so that projects including the nflow-jetty do not have to specify the version explicitly
  • Dependency updates:
    • jetty 9.4.41.v20210516
• nflow-engine
  • Improve SQL performance by using workflowId in the query which fetches the state of actions from nflow_workflow_state
• nflow-explorer
  • Disable karma tests

v7.3.0

Highlights

• nflow-explorer
  • Sortable workflow definitions, workflow instance search result and executors tables
  • Persist workflow instance query parameters to URL
  • Support wildcard characters when searching workflow instances by business key or external id
• Database scripts
  • Fix issues in Oracle scripts

Details

• nflow-jetty
  • Dependency updates:
    • jetty 9.4.38.v20210224
• nflow-explorer
  • Added missing executing status to workflow instance search criteria
  • Included child workflows when auto-refreshing workflow instance actions table
  • Added more child workflow details to workflow instance actions
  • Dependency updates:
    • urijs 1.19.6
    • is-svg 4.3.1
    • y18n 4.0.1
• nflow-engine
  • Support SQL wildcards in workflow instance queries by business key or external id
• Database scripts
  • Disable cache for Oracle sequences
  • Fix nflow_workflow_action_insert trigger in Oracle database scripts
  • Fix syntax error in create table nflow_workflow statement in oracle.create.ddl.sql

v7.2.4

Highlights

• Support disabling CronWorkflows.

Details

• nflow-engine
  • Add disabled state (type manual) to CronWorkflow to support disabling the work. By default there is no state method for the disabled state, but it can added in your workflow definition that extends CronWorkflow to execute custom logic when the workflow enters the disabled state.
• nflow-rest-api-common and nflow-rest-api-spring-web
  • Fix exception to HTTP status conversion issue when using Netty

v7.2.3

Highlights

• Support updating workflow instance business key.
• Support for searching workflow instances by state variable key and value.
• Added optional properties for tuning parts of nFlow Explorer
• Facelift for workflow instance properties in nFlow Explorer
• Control retryable exception handling via WorkflowSettings (replaces deprecated WorkflowState.isRetryAllowed(...))
• Control retrying and logging of an exception thrown by a state method via WorkflowSettings (replaces deprecated WorkflowState.isRetryAllowed(...))
• Control retrying and logging of an exception thrown by a state method via WorkflowSettings (replaces deprecated WorkflowState.isRetryAllowed(...)).
• Control logging and sleeping after exceptions in WorkflowDispatcher.
• Control logging and sleeping after a failure to save workflow instance state.
• Support in CronWorkflow to wait for created child workflow instances to finish before scheduling the next work.

Details

• nflow-engine
  • Use WorkflowInstanceService.updateWorkflowInstance to update the business key of the workflow instance.
  • Use StateExecution.setBusinessKey to update the business key of the workflow instance after processing a state.
  • Use QueryWorkflowInstances.setStateVariable to limit search query by state variable name and key. Only the latest value of the state variable of the workflow instance is used.
  • Control retrying and logging of an exception thrown by a state method via WorkflowSettings.Builder.setExceptionAnalyzer(...) / ExceptionHandling:
    • Control whether the exception is considered retryable or not (replaces deprecated WorkflowState.isRetryAllowed(...)).
    • Control which log level is used to log the retryable exception.
    • Control whether the stack trace of the retryable exception is logged or not.
  • Control logging and sleeping after exceptions in WorkflowDispatcher by providing a DispatcherExceptionHandler that returns DispatcherExceptionHandling objects:
    • Control whether the exception is logged or not.
    • Control which log level is used to log the exception.
    • Control whether the stack trace of the exception is logged or not.
    • Control whether dispatcher should sleep after the exception or not.
    • Control whether the sleep time should be randomized or not.
  • Control logging after a failure to save workflow instance state by providing a StateSaveExceptionHandler that returns StateSaveExceptionHandling objects:
    • Control which log level is used to log the exception.
    • Control whether the stack trace of the exception is logged or not.
    • Control how long the WorkflowStateProcessor should sleep before retrying.
  • Support in CronWorkflow to wait for child workflow instances created in doWork state method to finish before scheduling the next work. Return NextAction.moveToStateAfter(waitForWorkToFinish, ...) with some fail-safe waiting time instead of NextAction.moveToState(schedule, ...) to avoid immediate re-scheduling. When child workflows finish, they will wake up the parent workflow automatically, if it is still in the waiting state. Default implementation will check if any child workflows are still running, and keep waiting until they are all finished. Override CronWorkflow.waitForWorkToFinishImpl for custom logic.
  • Add hasUnfinishedChildWorkflows helper in StateExecution and WorkflowInstanceService to check if the workflow instance has any child workflow instances with any other status than WorkflowInstanceStatus.finished.
• nflow-rest-api-common, nflow-rest-api-jax-rs, nflow-rest-api-spring-web
  • UpdateWorkflowInstanceRequest.businessKey field was added to support updating workflow instance business key via REST API.
  • Added support for new query parameters stateVariableKey and stateVariableValue to GET /v1/workflow-instance to limit search query by state variable name and key. Only the latest value of the state variable of the workflow instance is used.
  • Fix REST API serialization of state variable values that are not valid JSON by failing the serialization on trailing tokens and resorting to string representation as expected.
• nflow-explorer
  • Added optional config.js properties (htmlTitle, nflowLogoFile, hideFooter)
  • Facelift for workflow instance properties
  • Dependency updates:
    • urijs 1.19.5
    • socket.io 2.4.1
• Database
  • Change text data types to varchar(max) for MS SQL Server

v7.2.2

Highlights

• nflow-engine
  • Handle exceptions if waking up parent workflow fails after updating workflow instance state.
• nflow-explorer
  • Remove "Save as PNG" button as it produced empty images. PR to restore functionality would be appreciated.

Details

• nflow-engine
  • Catch and log error when waking up parent workflow fails after updating workflow instance state. Failure in waking up parent workflow should not trigger a retry for the workflow instance update, as the update has already been done. As the parent is expected to handle situations where child workflow does not explicitly wake up the parent, it is ok to just log this error and continue.

v7.2.1

Highlights

• nflow-engine

  • Optimize fetching workflow instance with large history with many modified state variables.

• nflow-rest-api-spring-web and nflow-netty

  • Change REST API calls to use a dedicated thread pool for all blocking database operations to avoid blocking the netty EventLoop thread.

Details

• nflow-engine
  • Fix SQL performance / memory issue when getting single workflow instance with action state variables, when the instance has lots of actions with lots of state variables. The old code fetched all state variables of all actions of the instance, the new code only fetches the state variables for the actions that will be returned.
  • Fix instantiation of @StateVar(instantiateIfNotExists=true) Mutable - the result was incorrectly a Mutable wrapped in Mutable.
  • Fix potential resource leaks
  • Dependency updates:
    • spring 5.2.8
    • jackson 2.12.0
    • hikaricp 3.4.5
    • jodatime 2.10.8
    • mysql 8.0.20
    • node 12.16.2
    • netty 0.9.11
    • apache cxf 3.4.1
    • commons-lang3 3.11
    • hibernate validator 6.1.7.Final
    • mariadb 2.7.1
    • metrics 4.1.16
    • mssql 8.4.1.jre8
    • mysql 8.0.22
    • postgresql 42.2.18
    • swagger 1.6.2
    • jetty 9.4.35.v20201120
    • mockito 3.6.28
    • spotbugs 4.2.0
• nflow-explorer
  • Dependency updates:
    • autoprefixer 9.7.6
    • node-sass 4.14.1
    • http-proxy 1.18.1
    • ini 1.3.7
    • bl 1.2.3
• nflow-rest-api-spring-web
  • Change deendency from spring-web to spring-webflux to be able to use Project Reactor's types.
  • Introduce a thread pool in SchedulerService and wrap all blocking database calls in the REST API to it.