2020 release notes

This page presents all release notes for Connect during 2020, listed in reverse chronological order.

December 2020

Platform updates

Feature fields in developer mode

When working in developer mode, you now have a simpler UI driven experience for adding component metadata to the input field.

  • On the Input field choose developer mode.

  • Click the Book icon to open the Fields feature.

  • A list of fields displays. Choose Add for each field you want to add to the JSON.

Change logging levels to debug your flows

You now have the option to change the log level of an individual step in a flow for easier troubleshooting.

In the Summary step of the Flow Configuration window, open the Advanced Settings and choose one of the following flow levels. Note each of the levels builds on the previous level adding additional information to the logs.

  • Error: The logs only include errors. An error indicates that a flow has actually failed.

  • Warning: Warning level messages are logged. A warning does not indicate a flow has failed, but is indicative of a possible future issue.

  • Info: This is the default setting and is recommended for use in production flows. Info level logs are added providing information on successful executions. No confidential data is included in these logs.

  • Debug: Designates fine-grained informational events that are most useful to debug an application.

  • Trace: Outputs everything your component can show, including elements of the data passing through the component. This should be used with extreme caution and for limited periods

Warning: Debug and Trace level logs may render data passing through the component as plain text. This should be used with extreme caution and for limited periods. Always check your logging levels before moving a flow from Staging to Production.

Retry all errors

A new Retry All Errors option enables you to retry multiple errors at the same time as you troubleshoot problems with an integration step.

Old mapper UI has been deprecated

You can no longer toggle to the old mapper UI. This has been deprecated so that we can continue to advance the new version. A number of minor UI issues have been resolved in the new mapper to facilitate this.

Recipes

A number of new recipes are now visible on Marketplace with the label "Coming soon". These will go live over the course of the month. If you need to use these recipes in the meantime contact us and we’ll help you get started.

All of our recipes can be found in the Squiz Marketplace.

Component updates

The following components have been upgraded to the latest Sailor version. In some cases additional improvements were also included:

  • REST API - the component also handles network failures gracefully with enhanced retry capabilities

  • App direct - a number of new actions and object types are now supported including opportunities and leads

  • Amazon AWS Lambda

  • BazaarVoice Component

  • Channeladvisor Component

  • Dun & Bradstreet Component

  • Google translate Component

  • Keenio Component

  • LDAP Component

  • Lightspeed Ecom Component

  • Lightspeed Retail Component

  • Lionbridge-translate Component

  • Mapper Component

  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Component

  • Microsoft Dynamics NAV Component

  • Outlook Component

  • PipeDrive Component

  • SDL-translate Component

November 2020

Platform updates

New user interface for configuring integrations

For a while now, you have been able to toggle between two versions of the step configuration user interface (UI). In this release, the new version of this UI has been refined, and it is now officially the recommended option to use. (The new step configuration UI is activated when the New Mapping Experience toggle is switched on in the step configuration panel.)

Some key changes in the new version of this UI include performance improvements and enhancements to ensure the best integrator experience.

In the next release, the old version of the step configuration UI will be removed.

Debug more easily when building flows

The Logs window that opens at various stages when you build a flows now gives you the option to download or copy and paste the logs so that you can debug your flow elsewhere.

This enables integrators to more easily find and manage data problems, such as credentials and sample data that are critical for the flow to work correctly.

New components

Open API 3 component

A new Open API 3 component is now available.

This component enables easy integration to any API using the Open API 3 standard. Connect effectively "reads" the API documentation and uses this to generate a UI-driven integration experience. This new component complements the existing Open API component, which supports the Open API 2 standard.

Other Updates

  • A new 'secrets' feature has been added to the platform, which provides components that use OAuth credentials (i.e. REST API and Salesforce) with up-to-date access tokens as required. This new feature eliminates the race condition issues that could previously occur when multiple flows were using the same OAuth credentials.

    • New versions of the REST API and Salesforce components have been deployed in Connect that leverage this new secrets feature. Be aware, however, that this change is not backwards compatible, and therefore, the old/original versions of these components are still available, but marked as 'deprecated'.

    • For all new integration flows, use the new components that support this secrets feature.
      For existing flows, the old components will be supported for the foreseeable future, and so existing flows do not need to be updated with any urgency. However, if you are maintaining such an existing flow for any reason, it is advised you update the flow to use the new components that support this feature.

  • Updates have been made the the following components to upgrade the Node.js Sailor version to 2.6.18 (and any additional component updates are also indicated):

    • Batch component - The batching library was also updated and a minor bug with verifying credentials was also resolved.

    • Google spreadsheets - Deprecated functions were also removed.

    • Sugar CRM - Performance issues with large data sets have been resolved, and errors verifying credentials have been resolved. ‍

October 2020

The following updates to Connect were released in October 2020.

Components

New Datastore component

  • A new Datastore component is available in Connect. This component makes it easier to integrate Connect with Datastore:

    • Through this component’s native support for Datastore’s authentication requirements.

    • Because details of the blueprint are exposed the component’s user interface (UI), which is derived directly from your blueprint’s API specification, which provides a simple, UI-driven integration experience.

Recipes

  • Recipes using the new Datastore component are available for all Datastore blueprints in the Squiz Marketplace.

Other updates

  • The following components have been updated to Node.js Sailor version 2.6.17:

    • Code Component

    • Lookup Table Component

    • Email Component

    • Google BigQuery Component

    • Jsonata Component

    • Mapper Component

    • Pub-Sub Component

    • Request-reply Component

    • REST API Component - V1 and V2

    • Router Component

    • Simple-trigger Component

    • Splitter Component

    • Utility Component

    • WebHook Component

    • MongoDB Component

September 2020

The following updates to Connect were released in September 2020.

Platform updates

  • When a new version of a polled flow is published, the flow is no longer triggered automatically. Instead, the published polled flow will run according to its next scheduled execution time. To trigger the flow immediately, you can do so manually by clicking Start Flow.

  • The new 'recipes' feature was developed further to better enable the delivery of recipes.

Recipes

  • The new Datastore Online Form blueprint recipe allows you to quickly enable any web form to securely store submission data in Datastore, or manage all submission data via an administration service account.

Components

New Open API component

  • The Open API specification (previously known as the Swagger specification) is an API description format for REST APIs. This component enables fast and easier integrations with REST APIs that utilize this specification by reading the Open API specification file.

  • This component requires the Open API specification file to be available at a URL which is not protected by any auth.

  • Supports Open API V2.0.

Minor component updates

  • Google Sheets: Supports request rate limits.

  • Google BigQuery: Query action has been extended with additional options.