Merge pull request #924 from flowforge/release-1.9-blog-post

Release 1.9 blog post

src/blog/2023/07/flowforge-1-9-release.md

@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+---
+title: FlowForge now offers API Documentation with Swagger UI
+subtitle: FlowForge 1.9 adds new features to make it easier to administer FlowForge
+description: The new release of FlowForge 1.9 adds new API Swagger documentation and the ability to customize Node-RED pallettes.
+date: 2023-07-06 
+authors: ["ian-skerrett"]
+image: /blog/2023/07/images/release-1.9.0.png
+tags:
+    - posts
+    - flowforge
+    - releases
+---
+
+FlowForge 1.9 adds new features to make it easier to administer FlowForge platform deployments, including new API documentation and the ability to create customized Node-RED palettes.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## API Documentation
+FlowForge API allows developers to programmatically interact with the FlowForge platform. This makes it possible to integrate FlowForge into different infrastructure technologies, create scripts to automate specific FlowForge tasks and embed FlowForge into other applications.
+
+In the 1.9 release we are now publishing our [API documentation](https://flowforge.com/docs/api/) using the [OpenAPI specification](https://swagger.io/specification/) and making it viewable with the Swagger UI. Both these industrial standards will make using the FlowForge API easier to use and understand.
+
+
+## Customize Node-RED Palettes  [#2002](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2002)
+
+FlowForge platform adminstrators are now able to create customized Node-RED palettes that will be used when a Node-RED instance is created. An adminstator can create pre-defined templates to specify the nodes that should be included in the palette. This makes it easier for FlowForge teams to standardized on Node-RED usage across an organization.
+
+Note: this feature is not available for FlowForge cloud users since they do not have administrator access.
+
+
+## New RBAC Role for Dashboard users [#2292](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/1924)
+A new FlowForge user role has been created to view Node-RED dashboards. This allows for users to view Nod-RED dashboards without access to the Node-RED editor or requiring separate login credentials.
+
+## Other New Features
+
+- FlowForge device agent is now supported on Windows [#78](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge-device-agent/issues/78)
+- Allow local configuration of https/httpStatic on a device [#110](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge-device-agent/issues/110)
+- Implementing custom certificate settings for device configuration [#2257](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2257)
+- Allow devices to access the "Snapshot ID" and the "Snapshot Name" running on them [#94](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge-device-agent/issues/94)
+- High Availability logging enhanced: Individual Node-RED Instance replica querying and filtering [#2260](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2260)
+- High Availability is now generally available [#2414](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2412)
+
+## Bug Fixes
+
+- Can not promote NR instance in DevOps Pipeline  [#2363](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2363)
+- Billing team menu item missing on first page load [#2398](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2398)
+- Duplicate labels in Instance Import dialog [#2200](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2200)
+- Broken littie animations [#2354](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2354)
+- Instance Logs page doesn't handle errors well [#1083](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/1083)
+- Device continues to run edited flows once taken out of dev mode [#2323](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/2323)
+- Device Editor cannot pickup FF theme [#89](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge-device-agent/issues/89)
+
+## Community Contributions
+
+Thanks to our community members for their contributions to this release.
+
+- sumitshinde-84 - make Instance and application names in delete popup easily selectable [#2291](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/pull/2291)
+- biancode - Fixed typo in doc  [#2327](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/pull/2327)
+
+## What's next?
+
+We're always working to enhance your experience with FlowForge. Here's how you can stay informed and contribute:
+
+- **Roadmap Overview**: Check out our [Product Roadmap Page](https://flowforge.com/product/roadmap/) to see what we're planning for future updates.
+- **Entire Roadmap**: Visit our [Roadmap on GitHub](https://github.com/orgs/flowforge/projects/5) to follow our progress and contribute your ideas.
+- **Feedback**: We're interested in your thoughts about FlowForge. Your feedback is crucial to us, and we'd love to hear about your experiences with the new features and improvements. Please share your thoughts, suggestions, or report any [issues on GitHub](https://github.com/flowforge/flowforge/issues/new/choose). 
+
+Together, we can make FlowForge better with each release!
+
+## Try it out
+
+We're confident you can have self managed FlowForge running locally in under 30 minutes.
+You can install our [local build](https://flowforge.com/docs/install/local/), use [Docker](https://flowforge.com/docs/install/docker/), or [Kubernetes](https://flowforge.com/docs/install/kubernetes/).
+
+If you'd rather use our hosted offering: [Get started for free](https://app.flowforge.com/account/create) on FlowForge Cloud.
+
+## Upgrading FlowForge
+
+[FlowForge Cloud](https://app.flowforge.com) is already running 1.9.
+
+If you installed a previous version of FlowForge and want to upgrade, our documentation provides a
+guide for [upgrading your FlowForge instance](https://flowforge.com/docs/upgrade/).
+
+## Getting help
+
+Please check FlowForge's [documentation](https://flowforge.com/docs/) as the answers to many questions are covered there. Additionally you can go the the [community forum](https://community.flowforge.com) if you have
+any feedback or feature requests.