New year means a new release.
If I looked 6-12 months back non of the things in the scope of this release would be possible. There is just so much that has happened in the Figaf tool to enable customers to process much more information.
I’m really looking forward to see what we will be able to create in this year. I do have a long list of improvements that will make sense.
PWA install Figaf on your laptop
PWA (Progressive Web App) is something that we have seen a few cases of. It a way to allow you to run an application direct from your desktop. So now you will get a small icon to run Figaf.
It is essential just a browser window that you will see. So nothing is installed on your desktop just some links to your browser.
It will just allow you to access Figaf easier. Let us know how it works for you.
Testing iFlows that spans multiply flows
Some people would be creating iFlows that spans multiply iFlows. Like you want to be sure you can call a separate ProcecssDirect/JMS queue and see that it is producing the correct result.
Previous you could test such cases by letting Figaf mock the external endpoints. Now we have defined it so you can create a test case that spans multiple different processes. You just define child/subsequent iFlow.
This is a bit more complicated test to run because the tool need to be able to switch iFlows into trace mode before it can send messages. So sometimes you may need to run the test case multiple times.
You need to defined subsequent processes for an iFlow.
Then on recording and test configuration use the iFlow chain setup.
If you have some processes that are long-running, you may need to poll remote messages to ensure you get all the extra messages.
In the testing result you can now see the iFlow view.
Talking abut comparing result. We have added Diff2HTML to the test case comparison. It is really useful for text comparison but can also be useful for other types of messages. Notice you cannot see ignore expressions in this.
PI to Cloud Integration migration
This is the ongoing saga about how we try to limit the requirement for manual work for PI to CPI migrations.
File Content Conversion
A few releases ago we added File Content conversion where you could convert a TXT/CSV file to XML in the same way as SAP PI/PO does it in the communication channels. We use our open source Content Converter for this.
In this release we are also adding the other direction XML to CSV/XML. For communication channels you should
Improving the test case recording. For File channels that are using File Content conversion it has not been possible to read the content. We have now added an option to fetch the payloads. You need on the test case recording select you want the original messages on the test case recording.
Then you must add the advanced property messageLog=true on the channel. It does not matter if it is a sender or a receiver.
You can then in the message monitor see the original message. Then Figaf can fetch it and use it for testing.
This simplifies the end to end scenarios of migrating SAP PI/PO File channels with content conversions. You should translate the file into SFTP/FTPS but that is a general topic.
Module and java mapping to Groovy script mapping
If you a lot of modules in your processing chains you may be able to migrate the flows to Cloud Integration.
You can setup a flow that will map a named Module to a script in a script collection. Using script collections does have the limitations that you cannot use External libraries.
If there are parameters on the module you will get a Content Modifier that will set this as properties, so you can also use them in your custom code.
You can also use the same concept to map a Java mapping to a Script collection. So here you have a new option.
Function Libraries with imported archives
If you have function libraries that are using imported archives these are now moved also added to the iFlow. Then those functions would still work.
One limitations is if local UDFs are using Imported archive then it is not supported. This is a challenge with how Cloud Integration compiles the mapping. Hopefully SAP will fix this.
B2B automations
In all TPM object you can now easily navigate to the real objects from the Object Info page. Just click on the title and you are direct to Integration Suite.
We have improved the synchronization of MIGs (Message Implementation Guidelines) in the tool.
Select all fields in fields in a MIG by using the following button on the test object. This to enable you to profess any EDI message without having to select what you want to be using for it.
Then just wait for the batch job to run and then in the MIG check the newest version. This is handy when you migrate your SAP PI/PO message mappings to Integration Suite.
Bug fixes and improvements
For comparison in the Change Tracking Tool we no also enables you to use Diff2HTML that we previously have been using to compare iFlows. It gives a much better view of text/code changes.
Test case anonymization has been improved. Now the payloads will contain a text/JSON/XML that you should update the test case. This way you can see if all messages is being created as expected. Then you just update the test case based on the new response.
We have added a lot of small bug fixes around the app that just makes your life working with Figaf and SAP Integration easier.
What’s in the next release?
Java 17
We are moving to use Java 17 to run Figaf from Java 8. Mostly because a lot of frameworks/libraries we use have form Java 8 and no new features are bing added to them. We have performed all our development for this be we are have a testing task that did not allow us to include this in this release.
For the next releases we will also support java 8 for the on-prem customers that are using the tool. Then we will start to upgrade our internal libraries Spring, Camel to use the newer versions.
The only thing you will need to do is to download a new java 17 (or higher) and then update your bat file to call this.
Custom search in SAP Integration payloads
On one project we ran in to questions like how many SFTP channels do you have that has archiving enabled. It would be something that you can perform a query in the Directory to find. But there are cases where you need to query multiply parameters or be able to label the ICOs for it.
That is why we now is adding an ability to add multiply queries to the mix via Regex or Xpath. The select objects will be tagged so you can find them in Change Tracking tool.
One of the reasons would be that we will enable auto labeling of systems. This will enable us to get a better understanding different use case for SAP PI/PO like the one above and then determinate if it makes sense to build a generic solution for it. It does not make sense to automate something in the migration tool if it is a rarely used function for the integration landscape. It can also make sense to use in Cloud Integration. Here you can ask for which iFlow is using a given role and then be able to find all the files with that role. Either that or the Groovy Scripts that uses a specific role.