jeylabs

Oh yeah, now we have an official name for what was code named “090x”. It is K2 4.5 and, we will have K2 blackpearl 4.5, K2 blackpoint 4.5 and K2 connect for SAP 4.5 entering beta cycles shortly. This release is a major milestone for K2 as the fourth generation K2 technology released in August 2007 now matures into the next level.

One of my favourite features of K2 to look forward to in this release is called the “Inline Functions”. With Inline Functions, one can construct complex rule evaluations very easily without writing code. There is an impressive array of pre-built functions made available. There are things like GetXmlValue() for working with Infopath content, PadLeft() and other string manipulation functions, Conversion functions for type casting and your standard logical functions.

In the screen shots below you will see the inline functions in action:

Inline functions can be called everywhere within a K2 process. Combining them with smart objects will open up interesting scenarios. There is also an API made available for extending these out-of-the-box functions with your own custom goodies.

UPDATE: Ruben wrote some detailed posts on Smart functions recently, worth the read.