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Today we had a small but very important release. We added the auto-update feature for our most progressive framework – Ionic 4. Also, we fixed a few important and annoying bugs.

Winter has come, so it’s time for our newest release! Here are some of our new features:

New build log

We added the ability to view and download your full build log. If your app suddenly has an error that doesn’t allow app compilation, you can check the entire log to see exactly what went wrong. There’s no longer a need to ask support to find the cause. 

Bundled Projects

You can export your Appery.io project with all its dependencies, including Database, Server Code, and API Express projects. This allows you to make a full copy of an existing app in just a few clicks.

Ionic 4 Custom Components

With this release, will be able to create reusable custom components. It can be created in the Create New menu. New screen appears, where you can add predefined components and customize style and logic. And then this set is available to you on other screens in the components palette as a custom component.

New features for the Range component

We added validation of minimum, maximum, and step properties for the Ionic 4 Range component.

Return data object for update operation

Until now we only had the functionality to return the “_updatedAt” field. But since you told us that you want to receive your entire updated object, we are adding the parameter “full_object”  to make that a reality. 

Support for collections JSON 

We have added support for JSON formatting to use for file collection, which allows the following:

Bugs (Less of Them)

No update is complete without bug fixes. Just like we do on all of our updates, we’ve fixed large and small bugs to make your experience smoother. 

Easily import any Cordova plugin

You can now easily add any 3rd party Cordova plugin to your app. This has been one of the most requested features. No more sources digging and long step-by-step guides. This is how quickly you can add any Cordova plugin to your app:

1. Go to the Github page of the plugin and download the latest stable version by clicking “Download ZIP”. It’s important to download the stable or Release version.
2. Go to Resources > Cordova pluginsand click Import Cordova plugin, then: Choose file, locate the downloaded file and click Import plug-in The plug-in will appear under Cordova plug-ins

And you are done — it’s that’s easy.

Quickly add any Cordova plugin

To manage all Cordova plugins for a particular app go to Project > App settings > Cordova plugins and you’ll set the list. On this page you will also see the Core Cordova plugins – these plugins are automatically available in your app. From this page you can easily manage the plugins. You can quickly enable or disable any plugin.

We think it’s a very nice capability that you will like. To learn more, please read the documentation for more details.

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Update fast without going through the app store

Wouldn’t it be awesome to update your app without having to resubmit it to app stores? Now you can! With the new Appery.io AutoUpdate feature, you’ll only have to submit your app to the app stores once. You’ll use EXPORT > Auto update to build a new bundle with updated resources. Apps installed on devices will automatically download the updated bundle, meaning users won’t need to do anything for the update.

However, there are some restrictions due to security policies:

• Only web-resources: HTML/JS/CSS resources could be updated with this feature;
• Cordova and Cordova plugins couldn’t be updated with this feature;

The updated release bundle is the same for all platforms, so all mobile devices (Android and iOS) are updated simultaneously. See the documentation for more about this feature.

New API Express capabilities

Quickly create services with new visual builder

API Express, which allows you to use external relational databases with Appery.io, was updated with powerful visual tools. Now it’s really easy to build complex algorithms by combining multiple queries into one endpoint.

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The new update has a lot of new features. These features include:

• Social login and LDAP sign-on for apps
• Offline capability in apps using the internal database or an external one
• New Bootstrap and Ionic components
• Outline page component view

Keep reading to learn more about what’s new in Appery.io.

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Along with the warmer weather, spring has brought a sweet new upgrade to Appery.io. What have we got for you? Here are the main improvements:

1. Build Mobile and Responsive Web Apps with our New AngularJS & Bootstrap Visual Builder
2. New “App Creator Express” feature
3. Themes moved to plug-ins section in the UI
4. Server Code UI upgrade

Check out our webinar, “How to Build Responsive Web and Mobile Apps with Appery.io” to learn more!

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Happy Holidays! Before we close out 2014, we wanted to update the Appery.io platform with a number of really cool features:

• Team collaboration enhancements
• URL-based security in Secure Proxy
• Faster proxy
• Sharing with Appery.io support
• New XHR implementation

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The Appery.io team just released a number of really nice features. Learn about what’s new in this post.

App Builder improvements

New jQuery Mobile Popup component

The new jQuery Mobile Popup component gives you more power to build app UI.  The component can be used to notify the user to confirm an action, or just display any important information.

More List options

We added a number of properties to the list to simplify UI building. For instance, it is now easy to make the list read-only.

We also added the ability to manage the list items order. You can do this by using the Index property in the Properties panel:

A better way to select icons

Everyone likes icons, and there is now a better way to select one. If the component supports an icon (List, Button etc.), the Icon property will be available:

By clicking “Choose,” the icons list will appear:

This is much more fun as you can see the actual icon.

Cloud database improvements

The Appery.io cloud database got a number of very useful upgrades.

Indexes management

By adding the ability to manage database indexes, we allow you speed up the frequently used queries. It’s a good thing to use when transferring a lot of data between the devices and Appery.io backend:

To reduce data transfer and speed up the app, use the MongoDB Projection concept that the Appery.io database now supports. By using Projection, you can selectively retrieve columns from the database without the need to transfer excess data (columns). This will decrease the data being sent to the client (app), and also increase app responsiveness.

New ACL editor – for simplified database access rights

User access control is  now more flexible with the new ACL editor. You can specify access rights for each user separately, for all users at once, or just for the user that created a specific collection entry:

The Appery.io database now supports the Media Manager that helps manage files. You can upload and delete any sort of files directly from the database console by using it:

API updates

It’s now possible to get a file list based on the Files collection content and provided ACL for every file (you can of course control user access rights for files too).

Database versioning for more peace of mind

It’s always a good idea to make a backup of your database. With the new database versioning features, you can create versions (backups) of the database and restore to a particular version instantly:

Server Code improvements

To make development and testing faster, we combined the Script tab and Test tab into a single page. You can now quickly test the script and see the execution result without the need to switch tabs:

API update

The Server Code API was upgraded with a new service – multiUpdateObject. By using it, you can update multiple objects via a single REST service. See the Server Code API to learn what functionality can be used on the Appery.io server side.

Customer Console improvements

Customer Console is a great way to create a development process where a customer can manage databases and push notifications without the developer attention. The Customer Console adds the following new features:

• Export/import database data in JSON or CSV formats.
• Schedule push notifications.

Push improvements

To simplify working with Push, we have moved the Push tab together with the app. So now it’s a lot simpler; with every app, you can enable its own push capability: 

If you new to Appery.io Push Notifications, we recommend starting with this tutorial.

App exporting improvements

Now, when the app is exported from the Appery.io with “Release” checkbox checked, JavaScript files will be minified. This option works for all binary exports and reduces the final binary size. Head to the Exporting the app section if you want to know more about Appery.io app exporting possibilities.

With every new Appery.io update, our goal is to make app development faster and simpler in the cloud.

Follow us Twitter, and Facebook.  And if there is anything we can do better, let us know on the forum.

We pushed a number of really nice features over the weekend. Check out the release notes and what’s new. A full blog post is coming up shortly.

As many of you know, we attempted to upgrade our platform this past weekend and had to roll the update back because of technical issues we encountered.  We made the tough decision to roll back the upgrade because, although painful, it would be least disruptive to our customers.   What happened is not acceptable to us.  We are growing fast and many of you rely on our platform for your business.  We are conducting a review of our process to ensure we deliver with quality each time.

Is my account impacted and if so what should I do?

Fortunately, for most of you, there was no impact.  However, if you opened and modified one of your projects between the times of Sunday at 4 AM Pacific and Monday 5 PM Pacific, some of your updates may have been lost as we rolled back to the earlier release.   If you believe you may have lost some of your changes, there is a good chance we can help you recover them.   Please contact our support channels so we can help you.

I will say this again, what happened over the weekend is unacceptable. We are already looking at ways to improve new features roll out.  In addition to improving our internal process, we are also considering deploying a beta system to both get early feedback on new features and also improve the quality of our new releases.  Another idea we’re considering is enabling users to manually upgrade their apps to new versions of our App Builder, rather than automatically updating them.  This would give you more control over your projects.  I’d love to hear from you about these and other ideas you may have.  Please feel free to write to me directly at max@appery.io

Max and the Appery.io team.