DMN Modeler 1.5.1: Now Supporting DMN 1.3

In April 2020 the Object Management Group (OMG) released the new DMN 1.3 specification. The latest update of our DMN Modeler for Confluence now supports this new version of the standard while also offering migration from earlier versions of the standard.

DMN 1.3 offers a number of new and improved features described in greater detail in a separate blog post. These features include visual grouping of DRD elements and temporal reasoning in FEEL.

DMN 1.3 Compatibility to Earlier Versions

The new version of the standard introduces some breaking changes, therefore DMN 1.3 is not entirely compatible with DMN 1.2 or lower. Tools supporting only DMN 1.2 will have some trouble processing DMN 1.3 diagrams, so you will need some DMN tool that allows you to migrate from specification 1.2 to 1.3. With our newest release, you can now version 1.5.1 of the viadee DMN Modeler for Confluence to do this!
It is important to reiterate that downward compatibility is not given - you need to be consistent in the choice of your tooling. If e.g. your DMN automation engine operates with DMN 1.3: upgrade now! If your automation engine still works only with DMN 1.2 or even 1.1 you should postpone this upgrade and upgrade all of your tools simultaneously at a later stage.

How does Migration work in DMN Modeler 1.5.1?

In general

When a Confluence page is loading, each DMN diagram on this page is checked for its DMN specification in the background. The latest version of the diagram, which is saved as an XML attachment to the Confluence page, is used for this analysis. If the specific DMN diagram has an older standard, it will be migrated to DMN 1.3. From then on, it cannnot be opened by tools not supporting DMN 1.3.

At this point it is important to understand, when a diagram is just migrated temporarily or saved additionally.

For the displaying of diagrams on Confluence pages the migration takes place, but the migrated diagrams are not saved yet.
If you want to edit a diagram in old specification in the editor, some steps are performed in the background before:

1. The selected diagram will be migrated and automatically saved as a new Confluence attachment. This new attachment is annotated with a comment about the performed migration

2. The current diagram version will be incremented by 1

3. You see a message about the performed migration and new attachments on Confluence page in the editor.

From this moment on, the diagram is ready for further editing. All further versions of this diagram are directly saved in the DMN 1.3 specification.

What happens when you import diagrams?

While importing a DMN 1.1 or DMN 1.2 diagram, your diagram is automatically migrated in the background and displayed in the editor. You see a message about the performed migration and a suggestion to save the imported diagram to apply changes related to the migration.
Importing a DMN 1.3 diagram, your diagram is displayed in the editor directly without migration. You can start modeling right away!

Try it out

The DMN Modeler for Confluence is freely available on the Atlassian Marketplace. Additionally you can try it out on our demonstration site.

We have also compiled a user manual containing many helpful instructions and explanations.