Frends Roadmap

Passthrough APIs provide a way of more easily configure API calls to be forwarded to backend system and ways of monitoring these calls

• Passthrough API functionality to enable users to easily configure existing API’s to be governed by Frends API Management without having to have an underlining Frends process attached to the API.

  • The passthrough API will have simplified configuration capabilities to modify:

    • HTTP Headers

    • Authentication methods

    • URL paths and parts

• Improved API Monitoring capabilities

  • Introduce new API Monitoring views to show more API relevant data such as HTTP response codes as well as better ways to view the overall API health and execution statistics

API Policies

We are introducing Unified API Policies, designed to centralize and streamline access management for all API’s while preparing for the upcoming release of the Frends API Portal.

Key Enhancements:

• Unified Policy Configuration: With Unified API Policies, you can easily configure access restrictions and throttling for all your APIs through a single, user-friendly mechanism.

• Throttling and Access Control: Tailor API Policies to meet your specific needs. Define access limits and throttling rules to ensure optimal API usage and prevent abuse.

• Adaptable to Any Authentication Method: API Policies are versatile and can be applied to APIs regardless of the authentication method used, providing consistent control and management.

New Authentication Method: Private Application Registration

Additionally we are introducing a new authentication method to work with the reworked API Policies: Private Application Registrations.

Key Enhancements:

• Secure Authentication: Private Application Registrations supersede API Keys, offering a more secure and modern authentication solution.

• Static JWT Tokens: These tokens are essentially static JSON Web Tokens (JWT) containing user-provided data about the API consumer, alongside digital signatures to ensure data integrity.

We are introducing an advanced feature within Frends that enables users to create Code shapes efficiently through natural language prompts. This enhancement streamlines the process of writing C# code to perform complex integration tasks within your integration processes.

Key Enhancements:

• Contextual Information: System prompts are integrated to provide contextual details for process configuration, including environment variable names, process variables, trigger variables, and access to task results.

• Seamless Integration: When opted in the Process Editor seamlessly connects to our LLM service (Azure Open AI) for effortless use.

• Tenant-Specific Configuration: For security and flexibility, each Frends tenant will utilize it’s own dedicated instance of the LLM model for context and session security.

Building on the previous feature of LLM Code Generation we are also introducing a feature that allows users to configure Tasks seamlessly through natural language prompts. This simplifies the process of configuring Task parameters, creating low-code mapping configurations and utilizing Task results and other variables when configuring Frends tasks.

Key Highlights:

• Effortless Task Configuration: Users can effortlessly configure Tasks by describing the required functionality for the task using plain language, eliminating the need for manual configuration.

• Contextual Continuity: This feature retains the chat context, enabling users to iteratively enhance Task configurations within the same conversation as well as test out their configuration at any time.

• Tenant-Specific Configuration: For security and flexibility, each Frends tenant will utilize it’s own dedicated instance of the LLM model for context and session security.

A completely new Frends web application that is deployed alongside the main Frends User Interface that is meant to provide a unified API Developer on-boarding and discoverability experience to both internal and external API consumers.

The API portal will support the following use cases and features:

• API Consumer registration and on-boarding

  • Utilizing an identity management system chosen by the customer

• API Products

  • Create and manage API Products in the API Portal that are available to be consumed by the API users

  • API Products are a combination of existing API’s either directly in Frends or managed as passthrough API’s using the Frends Passthrough API Management functionality

• API Discoverability

  • Publish API Products you have configured using the API Portal

• Lightweight CMS

  • Create API marketing and help content using markdown to publish on the API Portal

• Whitelabeling

  • Enable customers and partners to provide lightweight whitelabelling customizations to change for eg. fonts, colors, logos and so on.

We are introducing a valuable enhancement to the Frends Process Editor by incorporating Decision Model and Notation (DMN) functionality. DMN provides an efficient means of mapping data and decision-making, as described in detail here.

Key Enhancements:

• DMN Shape Integration: With this feature, we are introducing a dedicated DMN shape within the Frends Process Editor. This shape will allow users to create input maps following the table structure outlined in the Wikipedia article.

• Mapping to Frends Variables: Users can easily associate DMN inputs with various Frends variables, streamlining the data mapping process.

• Output Generation: The result of the DMN shape will provide corresponding outputs based on the input configurations ready to be used in following integration tasks and steps.

An extension to the current Unit Testing features of Frends which enables users to create, configure, save and manage integration test scenarios that are attached to a specific integration process.

From a practical perspective this would mean that the User can “paint” a section of an integration process and select to create a test scenario based on the selection by providing the needed variables and test messages as well as the end result assertion for the test scenario.

The E2E Integration Test Automation would include the following features:

• Select which parts of the process are to be utilized in the test scenario

• Provide values for needed variables within the selected scope of the test

• Attach an assertion mechanic in the end to determine if the test is successful or not

• Create multiple tests on the same process

• Attach descriptions and other metadata to the test scenarios

• Execute the tests manually or with automated rules

• View the test execution history and statistics

We are excited to introduce an AI assistant, powered by the Frends Large Language Model (LLM), to enhance the ease of operating Frends. This AI assistant is designed to access Frends APIs, streamlining various operational tasks as well as providing an intuitive natural language interface for data inquiries.

Key Highlights:

• Administrative Automation: The AI assistant is tailored to simplify administrative tasks within Frends. It can be configured to be accessible exclusively to administrators or have the capability to impersonate users when making requests, if feasible.

• Scheduled Actions: Users can leverage the AI assistant to schedule specific actions, for example activating or deactivating a Process within an Agent Group at predefined times. This feature adds a layer of automation to routine tasks you perform in Frends.

• Tenant Queries: Users can also utilize the AI assistant to obtain information and answers related to their Tenant, enhancing their ability to manage and understand the platform.

We are introducing a powerful new capability within Frends that enables users to generate process descriptions and documentation with ease, using the Frends Large Language Model (LLM). This feature simplifies the process of creating detailed descriptions for your Processes.

Key Highlights:

• Description Creation: Users can initiate the process by simply clicking a button to have the Frends LLM generate an initial Process description and documentation based on the BPMN Process designed, variables and Tasks used as well as any user provided documentation.

• Fine-Tuning with Additional Prompts: After receiving the initial response, users have the flexibility to provide additional prompts to further refine and customize the generated description.

An extension to current Frends functionality which allows multiple Frends processes to be chained together in the same process definition by configuring an identification or correlation variables that links the independent process parts together.

An example long-running process functional description:

Process Part 1:

• Triggered with a schedule

• Retrieve a file from an SFTP server

• Write file to a local folder

• Save OrderID to be the correlation ID of the long-running process

• OrderID is parsed from the file name transferred with the SFTP transfer

Process Part 2:

• Establish a file trigger that looks for a fille with the same OrderID present in a different folder

• Read in the new file and transfer it to a separate SFTP server

• Any amount of time can pass between Process Parts 1 and 2.