Tagging your Processes

Tags are a function which visually link Processes together in the Frends Control Panel. Tags help find Processes from the Process List view and allow you to manage user access to different Processes. Tags are also a great way to group Processes which share similar functionality or have similar output results.

Step by Step Tutorial Available

If you prefer more visual or interactive guidance on how to tag Processes with Frends, you can find a step-by-step walkthrough from your own environment's home page, under Onboarding by selecting "Tutorial 4, Step 4: Tagging your Processes" tutorial.

Requirements

In order to add tags to a Process, the Process must first have been created to be available in the Process List.

You also need to have at least Editor role in Frends, or similar permission level from custom roles.

How to tag your Processes

Navigate to the Processes view in your Frends Control Panel and find the Process you want to add tags to. Opening the Process actions from the ellipsis or Process actions button on the Process's row, select Tag to open the tagging view.

Tagging can also be done in bulk for multiple Processes at once, by selecting all the applicable Processes and then using the Actions from above the Process List to apply the Tag action to all the selected Processes.

From the modal view for adjusting tags, add, remove and create new tags by searching and selecting them from the drop down menu. To create new tags, simply write out your tag and select Create <MyTag>.

For single Processes the tag view gives you direct control to add and remove tags in "what you see is what you get" manner. Simply click on Save changes to save your selection of tags. Note that any created tags will be removed if you don't apply the changes to a Process.

If you are adjusting tags for multiple Processes at once, the tag view is slightly different. Because the chosen Processes may have different tags on them, the tag editor allows you to select to Add tags to the Processes, without replacing existing tags, or Overwrite the existing tags, replacing all existing tags with the selected tags only.

Tagging other than Processes

Tags can also be used to tag Subprocesses, APIs, API Policies, Templates and Private Applications, to name a few. Adding tags to these other elements in Frends is done in corresponding management or list view.

The usage is similar to tags in Processes as well. Searching for the tags in Home view's global search or in each element's management view allows searching by tags to find all that are of interest to your use case.

User permissions also apply to the tags defined for other elements. For example, if your solution is built as an API with Private Application authentication, you can restrict or specify access to all of its elements at once through using the same tags for all of them.

Using tags in Frends Control Panel

Tags provide added functionality to managing your Frends Tenant at a more granular elvel, by allowing you to easily search for tagged content by the tags, as well as limit access to content and elements with specific tags added.

Search by Tags

Searching for the tags in Home view's global search or in Process list view as well as in other elements' management views allows searching by tags to find all the content that is of interest to your use case.

For example, if your solution is built as an API with Private Application authentication, most of the different components of that solution can be tagged using the same tags, including the API, linked Processes and used Subprocesses, as well as the Private Application and API Policy for authentication rules. Global search can then be used to find all the content by the tag.

User Access Control by Tags

Allowing or limiting access to content can be done with tags as well. This gives more granular control over the Processes and other content in your Frends Tenant if have a need for it.

When defining a Role in your Frends Tenant, you can choose to use AllowTag and DenyTag rules in order to select what content is or is not visible for the users with that role. AllowTag specifically allows viewing only the content with the specified tag, while DenyTag specifically blocks the specified content from view.

Note that the rules are for viewing that content only. In order to edit or manage the content specified by tags the general permission to edit or manage that feature must also be present.

As an example, if you need to enable a developer to work on a specific solution while hiding everything else from him, you would start with the Editor role as the base, and add a AllowTag rule with the solution's tag. This would mean that the developer with that role can create and edit Processes, but only with the specified tag.

As a counter example, if you need to hide a solution from view from all but few, you simply need to add a DenyTag rule with the specific tag in order to hide the contents from users of that role.

Tags in database

If you are accessing the Frends Processes or Process Instances directly from the database, the tags can also be used in these instances to find and group the content you need together.