IMan v5.0 New Features and Improvements

The major component of version 5.0 is the new WebAPI module, providing the ability for IMan to accept inbound web requests. This adds to the core IMan product, by providing a capability for external applications to REST type requests into an integration.

Whilst the major focus of this release is WebAPI, the changes necessary to support WebAPI have resulted in a number of major enhancements to the core IMan solution.

  • Performance improvements and reduced memory usage.
  • Ability for Readers to have a Connecting to a Reader allowing Readers to be parameterised.
  • A new transaction IO Controller allows Readers to read from a field, and writers to write their output to an IMan field.
  • A new Parameters to allow you to obtain the last run date and integration id dynamically.
  • Security improvements to Lookups Setup through 'Safe' lookups. When enabled Safe lookups are designed to prevent SQL injection attacks (necessary when exposing IMan to the public).
  • Two new functions Check and HashString to provide an easy means to validate a condition and to hash a string respectively.
  • The Aggregate Functions are less strict about field types. For example the Sum function can now calculate the Sum, irrespective of the field's type. If the values are numeric the functions will complete.
  • The System Connectors setup & corresponding connectors (Concur, Sage200 Online, in the near future Shopify & Salesforce) have been extended to support platforms requiring either 3-legged OAuth and multi-factor type authentication.
  • Compliance with the latest versions of Sage200, Sage300 and SageX3.

Web API Module

The new WebAPI module allows IMan to accept incoming webcoming requests: create, host & publish APIs using IMan’s visual designer.

  • Seamless IMan API design time experience — Make a request, press Refresh, see it in IMan, construct the response, press Refresh, see the response in your client.
  • 100% configurable — Leverage IMan’s transformation and connectivity to handle any type of request.
  • World class API monitoring with Grafana.
  • Publish/describe the APIs using the OpenAPI standard.
  • Quick! — 30ms for a simple request to retrieve data, transform, and write response back to the client.

Licensing & Existing/New IMan Sites

The WebAPI module will be sold as a separate module however....

Each licensed site will be permitted to host a single WebAPI integration/endpoint and the endpoint will be throttled to accept 2 requests per second.

If you need higher throughput, or additional endpoints the WebAPI module will need to be purchased.

Performance & Memory Usage

To serve WebAPI requests efficiently improvements to performance and reduction of memory usage has been achieved. The improvements have been made possible through improved transform handling and Script evaluation improvements.

  • Overall processing speed has been improved by between 5% to 60%.
  • Memory usage has been reduced by about 10%-200% depending on transform logic.

The Boring, but Necessary Stuff

Upgrade Notice

If you are upgrading from v3.2 or earlier, you need to familiarise yourself with the V4.x Upgrade Process & Notes to note the possible breaking changes and to help plan your upgrades. We've tried to streamline this as much as possible by maintaining backwards compatibility.

License Change Notice

If you are upgrading from v3.2 or earlier there are changes to the 'Unlimited' license.

Please consult the following notification for further information.

For test licenses please consult the upgrade notice.

Previous Updates

Need to see how IMan has evolved? Check the some of the links below.