Kitegra 2.0: Autocomplete, Message Trace, iFlow Inspector and Docs for SAP CPI

Building an iFlow in the SAP Integration Suite designer means leaving it a lot: to the monitor to see what a message did, to a spreadsheet for the mapping specification, to another tool to call the endpoint, to a colleague to ask which naming rule applies. Kitegra is a Chrome and Edge extension that brings that work next to the diagram you are editing.

Version 2.0 grows from one module to five areas. This article explains what each one does, what the extension changes in your tenant and when, what it keeps and syncs, and how many iFlows each plan covers. It is one of the Kitegra.

Five areas around the iFlow designer

Open an iFlow and an Kitegra box sits in the diagram toolbar, in view and edit mode. Messages, Logs and iFlow info have a button of their own in it; every other tool is in the menu behind the last button, and Alt+Shift+P opens that menu from the keyboard. Each tool opens a panel you can move around the page. The tools belong to five areas:

• Helper (Integration Flow Helper): write iFlows faster, with suggestions and checks in the designer's own fields.
• Message Monitor: the open iFlow's messages, trace and logs, inside the designer.
• iFlow Inspector: the deployed iFlow's details, naming and design checks, and search.
• iFlow Docs: documents generated from an iFlow or a Message Mapping.
• Toolbox: free tools to compare, convert and generate payloads, snippets, notes and HTTP requests.

Each area can be switched off on the options page under Modules. Around them, a few workspace extras make the tenant easier to live in: an environment bar, tab branding, monitoring links and keyboard shortcuts.

Helper: write iFlows faster

Type ${ or $ in a designer field and a list of the names that fit at that point of the iFlow opens. The rest of the Helper builds on the same model of your iFlow:

• Suggestions: the headers and exchange properties your iFlow sets, SAP and Camel standard headers, {{…}} parameters, variables, Data Stores, and Security Material and Keystore names in credential fields.
• Expression check: unclosed expressions, stray spaces, headers that nothing sets before the current step, and OData names the EDMX does not have.
• Sources: XPath paths from a sample payload, URLs and bodies from an OpenAPI, Swagger or Postman file, and headers passed over ProcessDirect and JMS.
• Arrange diagram: tidies the diagram with one click in edit mode; Save keeps it, and the undo button next to it puts it back.

The six earlier articles go deeper into these, starting with Camel Simple expressions in SAP CPI.

Message Monitor: see what happened

• Messages: the open iFlow's last messages in a panel next to the diagram, with status, time and duration, and SAP's error explained under "What it usually means:".
• Trace: one switch sets the iFlow's log level to TRACE and keeps it on while you work.
• On diagram: the steps a traced message passed are coloured on the diagram, and a click on a step shows the body, headers and exchange properties before it.
• Message logs: a log viewer with lookup by Message ID or Correlation ID, a timeline of related messages, and step timings on the diagram.

Tracing a message step by step shows the whole flow.

iFlow Inspector and iFlow Docs: review and document

• Naming: the rules your team agrees on, checked on every step, with a proposed name and a Rename button.
• Design checks: error handling, secrets in plain text, insecure protocols, script risks and more, with a score from 0 to 100, a baseline and a report in HTML, PDF or Excel. The iFlow review checklist lists them.
• iFlow info: deployment, endpoints, Data Store entries, variables and the edit lock, with Undeploy, Unlock and Delete when you need them.
• Search the iFlow, or its whole package.
• A design document generated from the iFlow, in Word, PDF or HTML, with its diagram and a narrative of each process, or filled into your own Word template. See generating a technical design document.
• A mapping sheet in Excel for Message Mappings, and scripts explained.

Toolbox and workspace

• Payload compare, a format converter, a test payload generator with faults, Groovy snippets and a cheat sheet, and notes per iFlow, tenant or everywhere.
• An HTTP Runner for your iFlow endpoints, with OAuth from a Process Integration Runtime service key.
• An environment bar (PROD, TEST, DEV) and tab branding per tenant, monitoring links, keyboard shortcuts and the property pane's size.

The interface is available in 15 languages, in light and dark mode.

How to start, step by step

1. Add Kitegra to Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
2. Open an iFlow in the SAP Integration Suite designer on your tenant (a *.hana.ondemand.com address).
3. Click into a field such as a Content Modifier value and type ${ or $; pick a name from the list.
4. In the Kitegra box in the diagram toolbar, click Messages, Logs or iFlow info, or open its menu for the Inspector and the other tools.
5. Open the extension's popup for your tenants, packages and iFlows, and for the Tools view with the Toolbox pages.

Without an account you can use each module on 5 iFlows. To use them on more, choose Sign in with Posty5 in the extension.

Try it in your next iFlow

See Kitegra next to its modules, and compare what each plan includes.

What it changes in your tenant, and when

The extension reads the open iFlow, its messages and logs with your own SAP session. It never saves, deploys or edits an iFlow's content: Rename and snippets only type into the designer's fields, and you save. It changes your tenant only when you click one of four named actions:

One switch on the options page, "Allow actions that change the tenant", turns all four off: their buttons disappear, and the extension refuses them. The HTTP Runner sends only the requests you write and send yourself.

What it keeps, and what syncs

• Message content (bodies, headers, properties, attachments and logs) is shown in the page, never stored or sent anywhere.
• Without an account, nothing leaves your browser.
• Signed in, Kitegra keeps, for each iFlow you open, its name and id, its package, the designer link, the modules used, the dates and a one-way hash of your SAP account, to count your plan's iFlows.
• Signed in, what you wrote follows you to every computer: settings and shortcuts, notes, naming rules, design-check settings and baselines, tenant branding, snippets, and the HTTP Runner's collections with every auth value and secret variable removed. With the Kitegra dashboard switch on the options page (on by default), the names and ids of your packages and iFlows are sent too, and on a team plan the team's owner can see them and your notes.
• Never sent: message content, scripts, mappings, sample payloads, API specifications, credentials and secrets. Under Options › Sync, "Delete synced data" removes what was synced from Kitegra.

How many iFlows each plan covers

The limit counts distinct iFlows, per module, for life: opening an iFlow you have already used does not count again, and an iFlow used by one module is counted by another only when you use that module on it.

The Helper, Message Monitor, iFlow Inspector and iFlow Docs count iFlows; the Toolbox and the workspace extras count none. An iFlow past your plan's limit shows a padlock in the designer and the popup. While Kitegra launches, every tool is open to everyone signed in, on the Free plan too. When you sign in with Posty5, the iFlows you used without an account move to your account. Compare the plans.

Frequently asked questions