Monthly Archives: February 2015

Release History

Release 2.5.0

Just in time for GDC – it’s brainCloud 2.5!

Okay, truthfully this is more of a housekeeping update as we prep some bigger features for releases to come.

Speaking of housekeeping – we notice that some of you may have inadvertently created multiple company accounts. This can happen when multiple team members register for brainCloud independently, instead of inviting additional members to their account.

In hindsight, the old process was clunky.  You needed to first add the user, including picking a password for them, and then separately communicate with them their account information so that they could log in (whereupon they’d want to change their password).

You’ll be happy to know that we’ve cleaned that up.  Now you only need to enter a name and e-mail, and we’ll handle the e-mailing for you – including prompting the team member to pick their own password.  Easy peasy!

inviting_new_team_members

If any of you with multiple accounts would like to merge them, just hit the green Chat button and we’ll help you out.  It’s pretty simple to do, but the tools are only available to us super-users right now.

Anyway, check out the release details below – and remember, if you’re going to GDC be sure to look us up – we’d love to meet you!

Highlights

  • Google Play Services Authentication added.  Great for your Android games!
  • Updated Java Library.  We’ve done a major update to our Java library – you’ll find it on the Client Libs download page
  • Updated Javascript Library.  We’ve updated our Javascript library – you’ll find it on the Client Libs download page.
  • Updated Javascript Example.  In case you missed it, we introduced a Javascript Example Game last week – Acey Deucey!

Portal Changes

  • New invite team member flow – now just type in their name and e-mail address, and brainCloud sends the invite for you.  [Yeah, we know, it always should have been that way!]
  • Improved [Select Players] screen – now finding players to view and debug in Player Monitoring is easier than ever!
  • (Minor) Versioning tab under Design | Core Game Info has been renamed to Platforms.

API Changes

  • AuthenticateGoogle() added to the brainCloud client APIs.
  • Android libs now support capturing of region, timezone and language during authentication. [Note – requires some custom client configuration – instructions coming soon!]

Misc Fixes

  • S2S Improvements – we’ve added access to more services and APIs, and squashed a few bugs!
  • Google Play Purchases – we’ve streamlined our implementation to make it more compatible with 3rd party libraries (like Prime31)
  • Javascript documentation – we’ve updated much of the documentation with the lastest JavaScript APIs. We still have a bit further to go – bear with us!

BC_TwitterPromo_18

Posted February 26, 2015
Blog

brainCloud at GDC!

brainCloud at GDC!

It’s our favorite time of the year. No, not because of the refreshing -40 degree temperatures of Canada’s Capital – though that’s swell – but rather because we can escape the cold for a week of fun in San Francisco!

So, if you’re going to be at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco March 2nd – 6th, be sure to drop by and say “Hello”.  We’d love to meet, discuss your game, get feedback on the platform — maybe even share a drink or two!

We are there for the whole week – but the easiest places to find us will be:

  • Wednesday – Friday – we’ll be at Booth 2444 on the GDC Expo Floor.  We will be easy to find – we are way, way back in the far right-hand corner! Best booth in the house – ulp! 🙂
  • Thursday 4pm-5pm – we’ll be in Room 302, South Hall, giving a session on Juicing F2P Revenue Using Cloud Tech – be sure to check it out!

We’re also out and about the rest of the week. Some of the events we’re attending include the Vesuvio Party on Monday Night and the Ontario Social on Thursday Night.  Drop us a note at “sales at getbraincloud.com” to meet up.

Hope to see you there!

 

Posted February 19, 2015
Release History

Release 2.4.0

Just in time for Valentine’s Day – brainCloud 2.4!

In this release, we’ve greatly improved our Cloud Code system.  We’ve expanded upon what can be done, and improved our documentation on how to do it.  That said, Cloud Code is a big area, and it’s difficult to anticipate every possible usage of the system.  If you have questions, just hit the green Chat button and we’ll help!

Highlights

  • New Cloud Code Features!  We’ve greatly expanded our Cloud Code feature set.
    • API Hooks – cloud code scripts can now be configured to run automatically before or after (pre or post) core API methods
    • New Security – cloud code scripts must now be specifically enabled to be callable from the client – ensures that your most sensitive scripts are only invokable server-side (note – existing scripts default to client-callable)
    • Server-to-server (S2S) Scripts  – our new S2S feature allows you to call your scripts from custom servers and tools.  Unlike client callable scripts, S2S scripts don’t require the context of an end-user session to run.
    • S2S Server configuration – to safeguard S2S scripts you must declare the servers that they will be called from.  Each server has it’s own secret, and you can even specify a set of ip ranges that will be used to validate requests.  The new S2S Config screen can be found in Design | Core Game Info | S2S Config.
    • S2S Explorer – Of course, you need to be able to test your S2S scripts – so we’ve added a new S2S Explorer for just that purpose.  You’ll find it at Design | Cloud Code | S2S Explorer.
    • Updated Clode Code documentation – cloud-callable APIs are now documented in the reference in the “CC” (i.e. “Cloud Code”) tabs of methods. We’ve also got more information on how scripts and the service bridges work.
  • Updated Javascript Library.  We’ve updated our Javascript library – you’ll find it on the Client Libs download page.
  • Updated C++ for Android Library.  Includes all the functionality present in the iOS C++ library. We’ve also upgraded our Cocos2d-x example project and tutorial to use it.  You’ll find the library in the Client Libs download page.
brainCloud S2S API
brainCloud S2S API

 

Portal Changes

  • (New) Ability to edit player [user] entities – now not only can you view player entities, you can actually edit them straight from the portal and save the updates.  Great for debugging and user support.
  • (New) Ability to edit global entities – like player entities, you can now edit and save global entities.  Note – we plan to further add the ability to create global entities from the editor in the future (think by end-of-March).
  • (New) Newly added players screen – super handy during development and testing – you’ll see it when you first select Player Monitoring.  We’ll be further adding new player search features in the next release.
  • (New) User Platforms – The Player Summary screen now shows what platforms a user has logged in from.
Window
Newly added players screen

 

API Changes

  • Javascript library now available for download
  • C++ for Android library now available for download
  • AuthenticateFacebook added to the brainCloud Wrapper class for Unity/C#
  • New client-callable permission is configurable for cloud scripts.  By default (for best security), all new cloud scripts will have client-callable set to false.

 

Misc Fixes

  • Recent Logs screen now only selects Sys Error and App Error filters by default – App Warning and App Info messages are by default suppressed
  • Server version has been added to the detailed Stack Info page of Recent Logs.  Helps to diagnose if an error might be related to a specific release of the software.
  • Cloud Code APIs have now been documented
  • Supported Localization languages has been expanded to 32 – go to Design | Core Game Info | Localization for the full list.
  • All client libs (except Android) are now capturing region, timezone and language during authentication (useful for segments)
Posted February 13, 2015