Inline Functions in K2 blackpearl and blackpoint 4.5

Inline functions are a great new addition to the K2 product lines. In short the big advantage is that Inline Functions will reduce the amount of code I add to processes making it faster to automate the processes and easier to maintain over time.

I find in most K2 engagements and in solutions I have developed that there are always business situations that the out of the box process design wizards and SmartObjects can’t handle. Often it’s pretty simple stuff like just needing to do subtract some string manipulation, data conversion or just increment a counter. These requirements would require adding a server event in blackpearl with line or two of code here and there in the process or creating a web service that I need to call from blackpoint using the Reference Event.

With the release of 4.5 that is changing since now K2 is providing a pretty comprehensive list of functions that can be basically called anywhere within the process designers whether its line rules, activities, destination rules in much the same way that SmartObjects can also be called. An unexpected bonus (at least it was for me) is that Inline functions can also be called from the new K2 Web Designer which uses Silverlight.

Functions are categorized into the following groups:

• Conversion - perform data-type conversions on input values.

• Date and Time - perform operations on date and time input values and return string, numeric, or date and time values.

• Expression - perform multiple operations based on an expression and return values.

• InfoPath - perform attachment-related operations on InfoPath documents and return arrays of bytes.

• Lists - perform calculations on lists based on input values and returns a number.

• Logical - perform Boolean operations on input values and return True or False.

• Mathematical - perform calculations based on numeric input values provided as parameters to the functions and return numeric values.

• Text - perform operations on string input values and return a string or numeric value.

One of the best things is they are extensible which I will be posting some more about.

K2 blackpoint and blackpearl 4.5 is released

K2 blackpearl and blackpoint 4.5 was released in early April 2010 and now have a unified codebase and lots of additional features and improvements. I’m excited about the new capabilities and happy I don’t have to tell customers that that functionality doesn’t currently exist in the product but wait for 4.5. No more waiting...

At a high level here are some of the major features that I’ve been waiting for in K2 blackpearl 4.5:

K2 blackpearl 4.5

•  SQL Server Service
•  Data Event Wizard
•  K2 Studio standalone designer
•  Visual Studio 2008 hosted K2 Studio designer
• Inline Functions:  This will require a separate post but a lot of the custom code which I needed to add to my K2 processes can be done using Inline functions.
•  Customizable K2 Client Event Notifications
• Process Portals in SharePoint
•  New K2 SharePoint Silverlight Web Designer
•  Improved Performance of SmartObjects and the K2 Designers
• Installation Configuration Analyzer

K2 blackpoint doesn’t have the same extent of new features because in some respects K2 blackpearl is catching up to K2 blackpoint (see note below). Here are some of the new capabilities in K2 blackpoint 4.5 :

K2 blackpoint 4.5

•  Inline Functions: This will require a separate post but a lot of the custom code which I needed to add to my K2 processes can be done using Inline functions.
• Improved K2 SharePoint Silverlight Web Designer

  

Note: Some of these new features for K2 blackpearl should also clear up a lot of confusion that existed between the differences in K2 blackpearl and the less expensive K2 blackpoint. Although K2 blackpoint was being sold as a subset of K2 blackpoint functionality that wasn’t exactly the case as blackpoint had some capabilities that blackpearl pre 4.5 didn’t have (K2 Studio standalone designer, K2 Silverlight SharePoint Designer, Process Portals) which made for confusing explanations to customers as to the differences in the product features.  Thankfully that’s now changed and hopefully the unified codebase means that updates and potentially new features can be delivered at a faster pace than the last couple years.