K2 4.6 Deprecated Components and Supporting Technology Changes

KB001282

Summary

The K2 4.6 minor update to K2 blackpearl and K2 blackpoint removes support for outdated Microsoft supporting technologies, such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It also removes support for deprecated K2 features such as the K2 Web Designer (the browser-based designer released before the Silverlight-based K2 Designer for SharePoint) and the K2 Designer for Visio. Find out more about these changes and workarounds for processes designed with the now-deprecated design environments.

For more information about how K2 releases software and begins and ends support for supporting technologies, see the K2 Product Release Strategy.

Supporting Technology Changes

The following supporting technologies are no longer supported as of K2 4.6. This list is divided into two categories, Required and Optional supporting technologies. Required means that if a newer version of the supporting technology is not present, you will not be able to install the K2 componenet that depends on this technology. 

Required

The following supporting technologies are no longer supported and must be replaced with newer versions:

• Windows Server 2003 (RTM and R2): Must be replaced with a newer version of Windows Server. Until this requirement is met you will not be able to install or upgrade the K2 Server and related server components.
• Visual Studio 2005 and 2008: Must be replaced with Visual Studio 2010 or greater. Until this requirement is met you will not be able to install the K2 for Visual Studio component.
• SQL Server 2005: Must be replaced with SQL Server 2008 SP1 or greater. Until this requirement is met you will not be able to install or upgrade K2 Server and related server components.
• Windows XP: Must be replaced with Windows Vista or greater. Until this requirement is met you will not be able to install K2 client tools.

Optional

The following optional technologies are no longer supported and should be replaced with newer versions. The integration and functionality with K2 is no longer tested or supported with K2 4.6, and in some cases the integration is blocked. If you require support for these components, you must remain on K2 4.5 or, in the case of Internet Explorer 7, you may continue to use it with K2 4.6 but the K2 Support team will ask you to test the scenario on a later version of IE:

• SharePoint Portal Server 2003/Windows SharePoint Server 2.0: As of K2 4.6 these platforms are no longer supported for new processes; existing, interop-based processes will continue to work on 4.6. However, if you need to make changes to those processes and redeploy them, you must make the changes with a 4.5 or earlier installation of K2 client tools and server, so you should not upgrade to 4.6 at this time. If you are running K2 processes on these platforms it is recommended that you upgrade SharePoint, upgrade to K2 4.6, and rebuild your processes. Future minor releases of K2 blackpearl may not support running existing interop processes.
• InfoPath 2003: If you use InfoPath you will be able to continue using deployed forms but you cannot create new forms for process integration with InfoPath 2003. It is recommended that you upgrade to InfoPath 2007 or greater.
• Internet Explorer 7: Upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer if you notice errors or loss of functionality.
• Visio 2007: If you have previously used the K2 for Visio component, this will be uninstalled with K2 4.6. You can still edit these processes in K2 for Visual Studio. See below for more information.
• Silverlight 3.0: Upgrade to the latest version of Silverlight.

For more information about supported technologies, see the K2 blackpearl and K2 blackpoint compatibility matrices.

Workarounds for Deprecated Components

There are a few components which are no longer supported by K2 4.6 and are uninstalled.

Important: These components are uninstalled on upgrade to 4.6. If you need to continue using these components you should not upgrade to K2 4.6.

K2 Web Designer

The K2 Web Designer is an AJAX-based workflow design environment hosted in SharePoint. This designer is superceded by the K2 Designer for SharePoint, a Silverlight-based designer which has greater ease of use and more powerful functionality. If you have processes running that are designed by the K2 Web Designer you will no longer be able to edit them; however, these processes will continue to run. It is recommended that you rebuild these processes using the K2 Designer for SharePoint, K2 Studio or K2 for Visual Studio.

K2 for Visio

The Visio plug-in extends the Visio design canvas in order to create workflows based on drawings. Once you install K2 4.6 you will no longer have this capability. To edit a Visio-designed K2 workflow, navigate to the Management Console in K2 Workspace and download the source of the latest version of the process. You can find this at Management Console > Workflow Server > Processes > sProcess Project > Process Name] > Versions. Once downloaded, extract the process by double-clicking it and choosing a folder to store the process, and then open the project (.kprx) file using the K2 Designer for Visual Studio.

K2 View Flow (ActiveX)

The ActiveX version of the K2 View Flow component is uninstalled when K2 4.6 is installed. The Silverlight-based K2 View Flow component will continue to function. If you do not have Silverlight installed you will not be able to graphically view running instances.