It's been a while - but we've finally added a proper forum for the brainCloud development community.

We don't do this lightly. Although we're a small team - focused, direct support is important to us - which is why our direct chat forums have been in place since day 1 of brainCloud's launch.

That said, especially in the past six months or so, the call for community forums has become deafening - and as our community of developers is rapidly growing, we're realizing that enabling the community to help support itself (in addition to our crack support team) has its appeal! (We're Canadian, not dumb!)

After a long search, we decided upon NodeBB for our forum software solution. The software is modern, nimble, and fast - with a clean look-and-feel. We were also able to integrate it with our Portal logins - so you don't need two accounts to participate (that was important to us). As a bonus, NodeBB is also built in Canada! (We honestly didn't realize that until just a few days ago!)

Now that we've got our forums in place, we're hoping that you all will visit often and contribute! It's too clean and tidy now - come on in and mess it up!

Feedback welcome!

Cheers!

Paul.

Update - we suspect that this is the same problem:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/ios-post-request-with-raw-data.690514/

Hi folks,

We've discovered what looks to be a pretty significant issue with using brainCloud for large packet requests on IOS devices. (edit: removed mention of Android as we have confirmed that it does not occur on Android devices).

The issue appears to be limited to Unity 2019.X.

More info here - https://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/warning-unity-2019-x-ios-issues/

We are constructing a minimal test app so that Unity can easily repro this issue (i.e. trying to take brainCloud out-of-the-test loop) - and then we'll submit the defect to Unity directly.

We'll keep you posted.

Paul.

Hi folks,

Our planned 4.6 release was getting too big - so we're splitting it into 4.55 and 4.6.

The 4.55 release should arrive within the next 30 days.

The big headliner feature is at long last, brainCloud will support Amazon In-app Purchases !

There are also a bunch of useful API additions. Check out the details on our Roadmap.

The bad news is that Cloud Code Folder are still planned for 4.6 - which is going to be a bit longer. That said, we're working hard to get it right!

Cheers,

Paul.

Hi guys,

The plan is to release 4.5 in April.

Cheers!

Paul.

We are pleased to announce the new brainCloud Roadmap! site.

This Roadmap gives a view of:

• what we're currently working on
• what we're planning to add to the platform
• what we're considering adding to the platform

(Note - we won't be necessarily putting everything we're working on here. We still like to surprise!)

Make yourself heard! Vote for the features that are most important to you - and submit suggestions for new features!

In the short-term, go check out the list of goodies that will be included with Release 4.1 next week!

Paul.

Good news?

Looks like Unity is aware of the defect (and working on a fix)...

From discussion here - https://forum.unity.com/threads/ios-post-request-with-raw-data.690514/

Paul.

Hi folks,

brainCloud 4.6 is now live!

The biggest change is that we've upgraded our MongoDB abstraction layers to be compatible with MongoDB 4.X going forward. All without affecting the brainCloud APIs that our customers use.

In addition, there are a few cool new features including:

• Script API Usage Stats - makes it easier to understand the performance and cost implications of your scripts
• SAML End-user authentication - for those writing apps that require SAML authentication
• Random Custom Entities API - great for those writing custom selection or matchmaking services
• API Keys System - a foundational component for our new Builder APIs, coming soon

In addition, there are mucho improvements to the client libraries including:

• Greatly improved RTT connection handling
• Removed tons of previously deprecated methods (so the client libs are now cleaner and leaner!)

For all the details, see the release notes here - https://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/release-4-6/

Feedback welcome!

Paul.
(PS - Also a reminder, anyone moving to the 4.6 libs (from libs earlier than 4.5.6)- if you are using Relay Servers, be sure to upgrade your relay servers as well - instructions in the 4.5.6 release notes - http://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/release-4-5-6/ )

As a further heads up folks - it is looking like the 4.5.6 server release may get delayed until early next week. This is to allow us to create a proper mechanism for controlling with specific versions of Lobby Services are active at a time... (right now, it is possible for both old and new lobby services to be active during an upgrade transition - and given how much lobby processing has changed in this release - that wouldn't be good).

That said - the rest of 4.5.6 is ready - so we are going to be doing a bit of an incremental roll-out...

• We are starting to release the 4.5.6 Client Libraries today
• We are also making the 4.5.6 Relay Servers available (on our existing 4.5.5 servers) <- this is a simple feature gate for us to enable.

Then, once the 4.5.6 servers (with the new Lobby Servers and a few other fixes) are available, we will release them... that should be either late this week, or more likely early next week).

Anyway, just FYI...

Paul.

Hi folks,

We've got shiny new Relay Servers coming in release 4.5.6. They work better and faster - but unfortunately aren't compatible with our old libs.

Read all the details in our release notes - together with our recommended migration approach:

https://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/release-4-5-6/

And note - the old relay servers will continue to work and be available for at least a year. We do highly recommend that you upgrade though!

Paul.
(PS - We're still in final testing, but the release should be this week...)

Hi folks,

brainCloud 4.6 is now live!

The biggest change is that we've upgraded our MongoDB abstraction layers to be compatible with MongoDB 4.X going forward. All without affecting the brainCloud APIs that our customers use.

In addition, there are a few cool new features including:

• Script API Usage Stats - makes it easier to understand the performance and cost implications of your scripts
• SAML End-user authentication - for those writing apps that require SAML authentication
• Random Custom Entities API - great for those writing custom selection or matchmaking services
• API Keys System - a foundational component for our new Builder APIs, coming soon

In addition, there are mucho improvements to the client libraries including:

• Greatly improved RTT connection handling
• Removed tons of previously deprecated methods (so the client libs are now cleaner and leaner!)

For all the details, see the release notes here - https://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/release-4-6/

Feedback welcome!

Paul.
(PS - Also a reminder, anyone moving to the 4.6 libs (from libs earlier than 4.5.6)- if you are using Relay Servers, be sure to upgrade your relay servers as well - instructions in the 4.5.6 release notes - http://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/release-4-5-6/ )

@Travis-Brown-John You can create them manually from the Monitoring menu.

Monitoring | Global Monitoring | Global Entities.

Note - if your app is live, you need to unlock it first. You'll see a bit [+] button to the right of the Bulk actions drop-down.

Good luck!

Paul.

Hi Travis,

Hmm - 100Kb is not appropriate for Global Properties. We don't recommend more than 3-4Kb of JSON in a global property, for example.

That said - you can have a bunch of global properties. Lots of folks use them for their tuning data - but more as individual key+value pairs - and smaller JSON blobs. So you can definitely store tuning data there - in more atomic form.

Global Entities are fine for tuning data - just ensure that you can look up your entities using the entityIndexedId. That id is essential for fast lookup.

Global Entities are not good for transactional data or player-owned data - cause the numbers group to large. For those, you definitely want Custom Entities. But if you are talking about reference (i.e. read-only) data with known ids for quick look-ups, then Global Entities should work fine for you.

Hope that helps!

Paul.

Hi Travis,

I can confirm that indeed there is an API call count for calling a pre/post hook script - we'll look to see if we can make that clearer in the docs.

That said, Ali is very correct, like all scripts, the next 3 API calls are free, and scripts after that are 1/2 count each.

Hope that clarifies things!

Paul.

Hi Travis,

You have a few options:

• Global Entities - simple, basic API - but not very scalable. Definitely make sure you have < 1000 entities.
• Un-owned Custom Entities - more scalable, custom indexes, etc. Requires plus plan
• Global Properties - store simple strings and smaller JSON objects

Those would be the main options. And yes - accessing them uses API calls - but remember, you get 3 free API calls in a script - and every call from then on is just 1/2 a count.

So if you have a script that makes say 5 API calls - it will actually only cost you 2 API counts: 1 to call the script, 3 are free, and the remaining 2 calls are 1/2 each.

Hope that helps!

Paul.

As a further heads up folks - it is looking like the 4.5.6 server release may get delayed until early next week. This is to allow us to create a proper mechanism for controlling with specific versions of Lobby Services are active at a time... (right now, it is possible for both old and new lobby services to be active during an upgrade transition - and given how much lobby processing has changed in this release - that wouldn't be good).

That said - the rest of 4.5.6 is ready - so we are going to be doing a bit of an incremental roll-out...

• We are starting to release the 4.5.6 Client Libraries today
• We are also making the 4.5.6 Relay Servers available (on our existing 4.5.5 servers) <- this is a simple feature gate for us to enable.

Then, once the 4.5.6 servers (with the new Lobby Servers and a few other fixes) are available, we will release them... that should be either late this week, or more likely early next week).

Anyway, just FYI...

Paul.

Hi folks,

We've got shiny new Relay Servers coming in release 4.5.6. They work better and faster - but unfortunately aren't compatible with our old libs.

Read all the details in our release notes - together with our recommended migration approach:

https://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/release-4-5-6/

And note - the old relay servers will continue to work and be available for at least a year. We do highly recommend that you upgrade though!

Paul.
(PS - We're still in final testing, but the release should be this week...)

Hi folks,

In case you didn't realize it - brainCloud 4.5.5 adds Slack Alerts (beta) to brainCloud - this allows you to connect your app to your Slack instance, and brainCloud will automatically send you alerts across a bunch of categories, including:

• hosting - alerts as servers spin up/down - can be useful for debugging room/relay servers
• purchases - see a notification for each customer purchase! (fun!)
• chat - we post the profane messages (as detected by the configured profanity filter) to create one foul-mouthed channel!
• usage - we output a daily report of you app's api usage
• integration - we let you know if your push notification certificates have expired, or are about to expire - etc...

Note - not all categories are fully populated with messages. We'll be adding more and more over time.

Anyway, give 'er a go and let us know what you think!

Paul.

And 4.5.5 is live!

Let us now if you have feedback!

Paul.

Hi folks,

The 4.5.5 release is feature-complete and set to be deployed on Tuesday, July 14th.

Important notes:

• The upgrade will happen between the hours of 8am - noon Eastern Time
• During this time the Design Portal will be disabled. Apologies for the inconvenience!
• All API Services will continue to be available throughout the upgrade
• You can subscribe to service status notifications here - https://braincloud.statuspage.io

A quick summary of 4.5.5 features:

• Amazon In-app Purchases
• Global Files V3 Portal & Deployment Support
• Slack Alerts!
• Custom Entity Singleton API
• Auto-Delete Dormant Users
• Leaderboard Deployment Options
• Custom Entity Deletion Queries
• Product & Promotion Management APIs
• Segment, Currency and Notification Queries
• RTT reliability improvements
• Relay Server client library improvements (especially in the Java libs)
• Improved Room & Relay Server launches
• Misc. fixes and performance enhancements

You will find the full details in the 4.5.5 release notes:
https://getbraincloud.com/apidocs/release-4-5-5/

Feedback welcome!

Paul.