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Crust releases Corteza 2021.3.7

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Crust, the driving force behind Corteza, has released Corteza 2021.3.7. This new release includes the following updates and improvements:

Corteza Server

  • Fixed record updating for modules with deleted fields
  • Fixed interaction between read-only module fields and their default values
  • Added validation for Corredor workflow steps
  • Improved record value manipulation from inside workflows
  • Improved system security

Corteza Web applications (clients)

Corteza UI libraries:

  • Added missing invoker when executing client-scripts
  • Reworked auth plugin to selectively clear localStorage

Corteza Workflow:

  • Added validation for Corredor workflow steps. Disables Corredor workflow steps if Corredor is not active; throws error if the steps are already used, but Corredor is inactive
  • Fixed input bug for deferred triggers (timestamp and interval)
  • Reordered workflow and trigger saving to conform with the back-end logic

Corteza Low Code:

  • Fixed record value validation for required, forbidden fields
  • Fixed module and chart sorting by their timestamps
  • Improved record and user selector field state management

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Crust releases Corteza 2021.3.6

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Crust, the driving force behind Corteza, has released Corteza 2021.3.6. This new release includes the following updates and improvements:

Server

  • Fixed module field default value validation with required fields
  • Temporarily reverted “fixed filtering with multi-value field”

Compose

  • Fixed the pre-filter for User module fields

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Crust releases Corteza 2021.3.5

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Crust, the driving force behind Corteza, has released Corteza 2021.3.5. This new release includes the following updates and improvements:

Server

  • Fixed federation structure sync, added a response wrapper to API response
  • Added manipulation functions for KV and KV-like types for setting values with dynamic keys
  • Fixed filtering with multi-value field
  • Improved workflow error handling
    • prevent the try-catch step from ending the exec session
    • prevent pre-run validation checks to cycle the exec

Compose

  • Fixed logout issues
  • Fixed Corredor helpers to properly use ListResponse
  • Added federation toast translations

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Crust releases Corteza 2021.3.4

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Crust, the driving force behind Corteza, has released Corteza 2021.3.4. This new release includes the following updates and improvements:

Server

  • Data import:
    • Resolved CSV size limitation issue
  • Auth:
    • Fixed session lifetime when doing external authentication
  • SCIM:
    • Improved SCIM support (removing role/group members)

Compose UI

  • Fixed error handling in namespace editor

Corteza Workflow

  • Added failsafe to prevent infinite workflows due to implicit invocations
  • Improved integration between Corteza workflow and Corredor
  • Fixed bug where workflow wasn’t being rerendered after save
  • Improved list import error reporting

Admin UI

  • Auth clients & users (impersonation on client_credentials grant type)
  • Hiding of document previews if the render driver is not available

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What Is the Future Of Automation?

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Decades ago, scientists and sci-fi authors dreamt of a technology that could understand, plan and execute tasks without any human intervention. Today that dream has turned into reality. The rapid evolution of digital technology and AI has not only enabled automation in workplaces but also significantly increased its average utility levels over the last few decades.

Mckinsey estimates that automation can boost the global economy by 1.4% annually. As automation techniques continue to be integrated into professional industries, the productivity, safety, efficiency, and overall profitability quotients of office operations have experienced overwhelming growth rates. Read more

Crust releases Corteza 2021.3.2

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Crust, the driving force behind Corteza, has released Corteza 2021.3.2. This new release includes the following updates and improvements:

  • Compose
    • Fixed field picker bug where double click didn’t add an element
    • Fixed module fields not respecting field order in module edit
  • Auth
    • Improved auth procedures
    • fixed excessive redirects
  • Workflow
    • Added workflow testing with custom initial scope; A way to test workflows directly from the Workflow builder with custom scopes
  • Admin
    • Added Sessions; a way to easily monitor workflow execution and examine failed workflows

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Crust releases Corteza 2021.3.1

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Crust, the driving force behind Corteza, has released Corteza 2021.3.1. This new release includes the following updates and improvements:

  • Envoy
    • Improved ComposeRecord cross-referencing
    • Improved ComposeRecord self-referencing
  • Compose
    • Fixed improper one-dimensional page block rescaling
    • Fixed bug where record selector default options were not displayed if query existed
  • Auth
    • Improved provisioning of auth clients
    • When possible, keep the user on the same page after auth flow is complete
  • Workflow
    • Swimlanes now need to be double-clicked to open configurator
    • Test workflow overlay is now removed after a change on workflow is made
    • Fixed a bug where stepID’s were reused
    • Improved Ctrl/CMD + S so it works from more places than before
    • Improved creating new workflow “flow”
    • Fixed Test workflow tooltips
    • Fixed typos and bugs in some default CRM workflows
  • Admin
    • Moved Corredor Scripts under Automation

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What is a Drag-and-Drop Editor?

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Visuals play a huge role in the development of the consumers’ perception of your brand. 75% of users form their opinion of a site based on its visual aesthetics. Therefore, your low-cpde app needs to have an attractive and well-designed user interface. However, traditional app design techniques rely on huge amounts of complicated code to create simple visual elements.

With the rise of low-code solutions, drag-and-drop editors have become more vital for an effective app design. Drag-and-drop editors allow programmers to simply “drag and drop” any visual design element from a given set of options, which will automatically be supported with an appropriate coding language counterpart. Read more

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

 

What Is the Total Cost of Ownership and Why Is It Important?

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Many vendors offer products that claim to give you the best products and also products: but that does not mean that you will get the best product for free. If you check the fine print, you will realise that these so-called free products can cost you more than a paid service. This is because free products generally come with limited features, and in order to use the relevant features, you end up paying a hefty amount. Or, even worse, you pay with your personal data.

The exception here is free and open-source software. Software such as LibreOffice (document editor), GIMP (image editor) or Corteza are completely open and 100% free. Costs that influence the Total Cost of Ownership here are defined by if you need professional support or, in the case of Corteza, hosting (you can host Corteza yourself, but if you don’t want to, you can outsource this). So, what is  Total Cost of Ownership? Read more