Crust releases Corteza 2021.3, including a new visual workflow builder

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Cork, Ireland, 6 April 2021.

Crust Technology, the driving force behind the open-source low-code platform Corteza, is excited to announce a new major release: Corteza 2021.3. The highlights of this release are a visual drag-and-drop workflow editor, a new UI, a template editor and authentication improvement.

New features and improvement in Corteza 2021.3

Corteza Workflow

The new workflow editor enables users to automate simple and complex processes, without the need for programming knowledge. It’s based on BPMN 2.0 standards, and easy and fast to use. Simply drag and drop the elements you need on the canvas, configure and connect them. Main features include:

  • Unlimited workflows anywhere in Corteza
  • Drag-and-drop editor
  • Zoom in, zoom out and move the canvas
  • Single or multiple start points (triggers)
    • On create, update or delete
    • On a manual interaction (a click on a button, such as “Covert this lead”)
    • On a scheduled interval (for example, every day at 1 am)
    • On a set date and time (you can define multiple “timestamps” for the same trigger)
  • Expressions (interact with values in your workflow. For example: calculate the grand total of a quote)
  • Functions (list of predefined functions, such as find records create a new record, find a template, send an email etc)
  • Iterators (loop through a list of records)
  • Error-handling
  • Gateways (check a value and continue with the workflow in the desired path)
  • Delay (pause the workflow at a certain point for a set time)
  • User interactions:
    • Alerts (for example, a confirmation message on the screen)
    • Choice prompt (select one of the two buttons. For example, yes and no)
    • Single input (ask the user for a value that the user can type in)
    • Option select (ask the user to select a value from a list)
  • Testing and debugging tools

Extensive documentation on workflows has been created, explaining each feature in great detail. This documentation also provides useful examples.

New UI

In collaboration with experts from the Dutch Accessibility Foundation, significant changes have been made to the UI. The fully responsive design follows the WCAG standard compliance (World Content Accessibility Guidelines), which makes Crust the leading innovator in accessibility in the Low-Code sector.

Template Editor

The new template editor allows you to define the generic document structure (such as a welcome email message or a quote PDF), which is then converted into an actual document based on the provided data. Templates are written in HTML and allow placeholders, functions and conditional rendering. After creating templates they can be rendered in Corteza workflow.

Authentication

This release comes with an OAuth2 server with Authorization code and client credentials flows. All authentication interfaces used by Corteza can now fully be modified and styled to your needs. Personalization is performed by defining a series of templates and assets (e.g. images and JavaScript code). This allows you to make the authentication screen match the company style guide.

Messaging Changes

Support for a Matrix-based federated messaging solution will be provided as of Corteza version 2021.6. The goal is to align with Corteza Record Federation, ensuring that using organisations can create richer, federated relationships, not limited to static records only. In preparation for this, the legacy Corteza Messaging solution has now been deprecated.

Other changes

  • Upgraded to Go 1.16
  • Removed obsolete asset embedding and move to //go:embed
  • Messaging code and endpoints removed
  • OAuth2 server with Authorization code and client credentials flows
  • Compose record federation now supports Activity Stream protocol
  • Codebase cleanup and removed With(ctx) anti-pattern
  • Added Envoy file encoders (export support)
  • Fixed UserBeforeUpdate/UserBeforeDelete
  • Auth web application is now deprecated

View the full changelog.

How to install Corteza

You can follow the local setup instructions for a local development or demonstration instance of Corteza. If you are looking for setting up a live deployment, check out the extensive production setup instructions. If you have questions, you can engage with other community members on the Corteza forum.

How to upgrade your Corteza instance

To upgrade your instance to the latest version of Corteza, please check out our Upgrade Guide.

Online demo

Crust Technology has an online demo available of this latest release. In it, you can try out the Low-Code platform, build your own apps, try out the existing apps (such as the CRM or Service Solution)  and much more.

Screenshots

 

Corteza Discovery – UI Prototype

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Crust Technology, the leading open-source Low-Code Development platform and Salesforce alternative, is being funded through the NGI0 Discovery Fund to deliver Corteza Discovery. The objective of Corteza Discovery is to add the three pillars of local search, federated data search and global federated search to the Corteza user features in a seamless and familiar manner to users. The NGI0 Discovery Fund is a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No 825322.

In this post the UI prototype you can find the UI Prototype, which includes high-fidelity wireframes of all user interface changes, within the new Corteza design.

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What is the definition of a Smart City?

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Over the past few years, smart cities have dominated conversations revolving around revolutionizing economic growth, local geographical development accessibility. But even with global spendings on smart cities exceeding massive figures like 608 billion USD, the exact meaning of smart cities is still unknown to many.

A smart city is a regional area that uses electronic and technology-based infrastructure such as information and communication technology (ICT) to collect real-time data and insights, provide certain important services, and solve city problems.

Smart cities are also used to improve the city’s day to day operations, such as public transportation, power and water supply, and sanitation systems. Using this data, the local government can then make informed decisions on creating effective solutions to rectify these prevailing city problems. Read more

Crust Technology releases the first Low-Code Platform with Federated Cloud capabilities

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Cork, Ireland, 22 December 2020.

Crust Technology, the leading open-source Low-Code Development platform and Salesforce alternative and the driving force behind the free and open-source project Corteza, is excited to announce a new major release: Corteza 2020.12. This release comes with many new features and improvements, and includes experimental support for record federation. As a result, this makes the Corteza platform the first open-source federated cloud solution for record sharing in the world.

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What is a Software Release?

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Software is always changing. There would always be a scope for improvement or some bugs and issues that would affect the performance of the software, and indirectly the hassle-free experience that every end-user wants. And that’s why in agile software development, there are always software releases before the end of every iteration. Read more

Corteza Releases 2020.09 Stability Patches

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Today a new Corteza version has been released. In this minor release there are patches that improve stability and security. Crust, the driving force behind the Corteza Project, is the principal contributor of this release.

Corteza version 2020.09.4 includes:

  • Improved boolean field type value handling
  • Record list prefilter is now properly applied when exporting
  • RTE field now properly triggers the required flag when empty
  • Prevent possible double record submit when double-clicking the ‘Save’ button
  • Closed a potential SQL injection attack vector

To upgrade your Corteza instance to this latest version, please check out the Corteza documentation.

Later this month Corteza 2020.12 is expected to be releases, bringing many new features and updates. So, keep an eye out on upcoming posts!

 

European Commission Funding for Open-Source Federated Cloud Platform

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Cork/Amsterdam
10 September 2020

Crust Technology, the leading open-source Low-Code Development platform and Salesforce alternative, is being funded by the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet initiative to deliver the Corteza platform as a federated cloud solution for record sharing. Crust, the founder and full-time maintainer of the Corteza Project, will enable the platform to share select components of data layer or entire data models, on a one-to-many or many-to-many basis. The new features will allow business data, but also open data sets created by public sector organisations and academia to be shared more easily.

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Which of the Following Statements is True of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems?

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  • CRM is Expensive
  • Open-source CRM is all just old forks of SugarCRM
  • Open-source CRM doesn’t scale
  • A great CRM allows your organisation to concentrate on a customer-focused approach
  • An Open-Source Low-Code Development Platform gives your CRM more flexibility
  • The best free CRM uses standardised technology
  • A real open-source Salesforce alternative exists

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Why Are Standards In Technology Important?

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As the world simultaneously tackles health crises, social crises and economic crises, this might seem an impossible question to answer. I would argue that a major priority is to stay informed about the facts and different points of view with respect to the facts.

However, even this is hard to do when standards of reporting and journalism often seem non-existent. That word “standards” is really important. Without standards, everything becomes messy. We need to hold our governments to high standards just like we need to ensure the quality of our food and water reach hygiene standards.

In this regard, technology is no different. It too needs to be standards-centric. We also need to know that the right experts have inspected the quality of the source code. This means independent experts, not just those chosen and paid by the authors to assure the quality, security and reliability of the execution. So technology being open source helps a lot too. Read more

Crust Releases version 2020.06 and Removes Paywall for All Products

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Cork, Ireland, 30 June 2020

Crust Technology is excited to announce its latest major release, version 2020.06. Along with significant feature and functionality upgrades, Crust is also delighted to announce the removal of the paywall for all products in its portfolio. This means that the open-source Crust products are now free:

“We’re thrilled with the latest features improvements and the expression of commercial confidence to remove the paywall on our product portfolio” says Niall McCarthy, CEO of Crust Technology. “Crust is growing quickly and, with much innovation to come in 2020 and beyond, we’re proving we can adapt to fast-changing market realities effectively and aggressively”.

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