So here we are, punctual as ever, for our half-yearly appointment: the release of Instant Developer Cloud. This year however, the occasion is especially heartfelt: a bit because with the arrival of a new decade, this release bears a round number, that like all round numbers, it arouses a bit of expectation. And a bit because this year, Instant Developer Cloud is turning five. We’ve decided to celebrate this milestone with important changes and many improvements (and of course, some fixes too). Let’s have a look.
Instant Developer Cloud 20.0: the biggest new features
The biggest news probably has to do with letting clients use new library functions and components. These implementations are the result of many requests we’ve received through our CRM directly from you, the users of Instant Developer. They are functionalities that were not present in previous versions, and which offer new pathways and new development options for all our customers:
- Team Works: The Team Works module is used for projects that require multiple people for development. In version 20.0, various improvements have been made to the algorithms that the Team Works module uses to make it even faster and more secure. In particular, improvements have been made to the COMMIT algorithm to make it faster, and reduce to a minimum the information the system requires to historicize information. The algorithm used to display differences between branches has also been improved. There are now two algorithms that make it possible to see which changes will be made in the active branch if another branch is merged, and what differences are in a given branch with respect to the active one.
- Analytics: In this version, the Analytics module has been extended and improved. The improvements concern the gathering and display of exceptions, offering an application error analysis tool that is more precise and effective. In fact, while before, exceptions were displayed in an aggregate fashion in terms of text of the error and stack trace, now it’s possible to view all the details for each individual occurrence of a certain exception, and therefore to find out which application session generated it, who was the user involved, and what build it was. Analytics was also extended to work with the synchronization module. When devices synchronize with the server, Analytics (if active) gathers synchronization performance data in terms of the volume of data exchanged and the connection and data transfer speed, in order to provide a precise picture of synchronization efficiency so that any problems can be highlighted.
- Let’s encrypt: Automatic HTTPS certificates can now be activated on our servers without needing to buy them from third-party suppliers. In fact, beginning with version 20.0, servers are created without certificates, and during the initial configuration HTTPS certificates are auto-generated, which are then automatically updated when they expire. This makes it much easier for end-users to support HTTPS without needing to purchase certificates from third-parties, load and configure the HTTPS layer on servers, and maintain certificates upon expiration.
In addition to all these important updates, we have optimized the system components and made more than 100 improvements to the functionalities of the IDE, which you’ll find described in detail in the release notes.
What do you think? As always, we look forward to seeing you on the forum to hear your opinions and comments!
