Refract Requests

Refract Requests turns externally initiated business requests into governed REFRACT workflows - a secure public request URL, email verification, and domain restriction in front of an existing RefractWorkflow definition, without building or deploying a custom web form.

Roadmap Capability — Not Yet Available

Refract Requests is a planned capability. It is not currently available and is not part of any supported REFRACT PLATFORM release. This page describes design intent, not a commitment to a delivery date.

Refract Requests™ extends the REFRACT PLATFORM™ document-processing model to externally initiated business requests.

It is designed for scenarios where an organization needs to let customers, vendors, partners, or other external participants start a governed business process - without designing, building, and maintaining a custom public-facing web form.

Rather than standing up a separate intake application, Refract Requests is designed to let an organization publish an existing RefractWorkflow™ definition through a secure REFRACT URL, then route submissions through the same validation, approval, and sealing model used throughout REFRACT.

When to Use Refract Requests

Refract Requests is intended for externally initiated business processes that should result in a governed, auditable record, such as:

Warranty claims
Service requests
Customer applications
Supplier requests
Product registrations
Other externally initiated business processes

Refract Requests is not intended to replace lightweight, anonymous public forms where no downstream review, approval, or governed document is required.

What Refract Requests Is Designed to Do

Secure Public Request URLs

Organizations publish an existing RefractWorkflow definition as a secure, shareable REFRACT link for their website, portal, or other digital experience.

Email-Verified Access

External participants verify a working email address before a request can be started, establishing an authenticated identity for the submission.

Domain-Restricted Initiation

Published links can be restricted to approved email domains, limiting who is able to initiate a request.

YAML-Driven Dynamic Forms

The same YAML-defined schema used by RefractWorkflow drives the data collection form presented to the external participant.

Existing Workflow Review & Approval

Submissions route into the organization's existing RefractWorkflow review and approval process alongside internally initiated workflows.

Sealed Document Output

On approval, REFRACT seals the final PDF using the same governed sealing process used throughout REFRACT PLATFORM.

How It Works

Refract Requests follows the same governed processing model used throughout REFRACT PLATFORM, with an additional public-facing entry point in front of an existing RefractWorkflow definition.

flowchart LR
    Ext["External Participant"] --> Pub["Public Request URL"]
    Pub --> Verify["Verify"]
    Verify --> Collect["Collect"]
    Collect --> Review["Review"]
    Review --> Approve["Approve"]
    Approve --> Seal["Seal"]

Concept: Configure → Publish → Verify → Collect → Review → Approve → Seal

Configure & Publish

An administrator selects an existing RefractWorkflow definition and publishes it as a public request link, optionally requiring email verification and restricting initiation to approved domains.

Verify & Collect

The external participant opens the published link, completes email verification (and any configured domain check), and completes the YAML-driven dynamic form.

Review & Approve

The submission enters the standard RefractWorkflow review and approval process, alongside workflow instances initiated internally.

Seal

On approval, REFRACT seals the final PDF using the existing REFRACT Workflow sealing process.

Access Controls

Refract Requests is designed to support layered access controls appropriate for a public-facing entry point:

Email verification - a participant confirms a working email address before a request can be started.
Domain restriction - a published link can be limited to approved email domains, such as a vendor or partner domain.
Existing RefractWorkflow validation - once a request is started, the same schema-defined validation rules used by RefractWorkflow apply to the collected data.

These controls sit in front of the RefractWorkflow lifecycle rather than replacing it, so a Refract Requests submission is subject to the same governance as any other workflow instance.

Relationship to REFRACT Workflow

Refract Requests is designed to reuse the existing RefractWorkflow lifecycle rather than introduce a parallel one. Planned reuse includes:

YAML-driven data collection
Schema validation
Conditional approval routing
Review and change requests
Governed PDF sealing

Same Lifecycle, Different Entry Point

Refract Requests does not change how a RefractWorkflow definition is reviewed, approved, or sealed. It changes how a workflow instance can be started - by a verified external participant through a public link, rather than only by an internal user.

Design Principle

Refract Requests and RefractExport extend REFRACT PLATFORM in opposite directions, using the same underlying infrastructure:

Two Directions, One Platform

Refract Requests brings externally initiated information into a governed business process. RefractExport moves structured information out of business systems in a governed, packaged way.

Both are designed around the same core principle that runs through REFRACT PLATFORM: every governed process produces a sealed document of record.

Availability

Refract Requests is a roadmap capability. It is planned but not currently available, and no timeline for general availability has been committed.

Interested in Refract Requests?

If publishing governed workflows for external participants would help your organization, let Refract Logic know. Roadmap priority is shaped by what customers actually need.

Talk to Refract Logic Explore REFRACT Workflow