How to update recompiled actor filter on the platform in the already existing process after Java 11 upgrade?

Q&A
1

Hi, 

We are planning our upgrade from 7.10.0 to 2022.1-u0, and we must upgrade from java 8 to java 11. However, one question we have is regarding how to recompile our custom actor filters (jars) and redeploy the java 11 compiled versions to our already existing processes. We are able to update custom connectors via the portal web interface, but do not see a way to update the actor filter jars.

This part is not explained in the documentation: https://documentation.bonitasoft.com/bonita/2022.1/version-update/update-with-update-tool#_updating_to_java_11_in_bonita_7_9_or_a_greater_version

What are the recommended actions to successfully update our actor filters? 

Thank you!

2

Hello,

Thanks to the binary compatibility, the jars compiled in java 8 will works also in 11. So normally the actor filter compiled with java 8  should work fine with java 11. No recompilation is needed. But  ir's recommended to run the migration on a dedicated environment like a pre production to check if everything is good.

 Regards

3

My recommendation will be to test first and react later. Most actor filters will work as expected but as stated in the documentation, it can be some issues with dependencies.

Custom connectors, actor filers, data types, custom pages, RestAPI extensions: will for sure continue to work in the new version if no custom code has been added, default Bonita code. If you did add custom code, before starting the update, check in the release notes for any breaking changes and test them thoroughly after the update

There is no supported way to change the implementation of an Actor Filter once the process is deployed. You should deploy a new version of the process with the corrected actor filter and handle the current cases before migrating

4

Thank you for your answer, Pascal.

You say:

So normally the actor filter compiled with java 8 should work fine with java 11. No recompilation is needed.

However, this is what the documentation says:

(...)
Also, custom connectors, groovy scripts, REST API extensions etc. are not migrated and might not work as expected in Java 11.

Special attention has to be given to custom code dependencies, as they might:
* either not work in Java 11,
* work fine but be in conflict with Bonita dependencies
* the script might use dependencies previously included in Bonita, but accessible in a different version.

(...)

So, should we need to update the actor filter,

  • how can we proceed?
  • is it possible at all?

Or,

  • is there no other way out than deploying new versions of our processes?
  • but then, what about the on-going cases?

 

Regards,

     Unai