Category Archives: Release History

Release 2.7.0

We’re happy to present brainCloud 2.7 – Easter Bunny Edition! 🙂

It’s been a busy couple of weeks as we prepare brainCloud for some pretty significant updates.  In the meantime, we’re delivering some smaller easter eggs of goodness just in time for the holidays.

Highlights

  • External Web Services – Cloud Code scripts can now call external web services.  This greatly opens up the power of Cloud Code – allowing your apps to securely integrate with your own custom servers and/or third party services.  More details, including a tutorial.
  • Leaderboard API changes – in release 2.6 we introduced paging and relative views to our global leaderboards. The response was very favourable (some of you have already live with the new APIs!) – but alas we believe we missed a feature or two – like returning the total number of entries. We’ve addressed this, and restructured the APIs a bit to allow even more features in the future!
  • Reset User Stats – another popular request – it is now possible to reset a stat to its original value for the entire population of your app! Just click on the lightning bolt!

Reset User Stat

Portal Changes

  • [New] Cloud Code Web Services Page – located under Design | Cloud Code | Web Services, this page is used to construct a whitelist of services that can be called from your Cloud Code scripts.
  • [Updated] User Stats Page – new <Lightning Bolt> button allows you to reset a stat across all users
  • [Updated] Apps Management Page – redesigned to allow us to add additional features/functions in the future.  As a bonus, now includes a count of the number of users your app has…  (calculated nightly)
  • [Redesigned] User Monitor Page – redesigned user monitoring page, with a new [Log In As User] button at the bottom.

Updated User Summary Page

API Changes / Additions

  • New HttpProxyService – called from Cloud Code to allow calls to external web services.  Developers must create an entry in the web services whitelist first. [Go to Design | Cloud Code | Web Services ].  For more details, see the API Docs.
  • Leaderboard API changes – Based on developer feedback, we’ve made some modifications to the Leaderboard APIs introduced in Release 2.6.  The updated APIs can be viewed on the API Docs page.  Important Note – Release 2.7 still supports the 2.6 parameters, but that support will be removed in 2.8 (targeted for April 15th) – so upgrade to the new APIs now!

Misc Changes

  • [Updated] API Explorer – Authenticate service  – E-mail authentication is now the default authentication type. We’ve also changed the system defaults so that e-mail validation is *not* required for users to log in…  (a friendlier default for most apps)
  • Misc Improvements / Updates to the API Docs

 

Release 2.6.0

Fresh from GDC – it’s release 2.6 – Con Plague edition!

(Just kidding – other than lack of sleep, we’re good.)

In addition to the GDC rush of new game devs, over the past few months, we’ve had a surprising number of developers sign-up to use brainCloud for apps *other* than games. They’ve wisely recognized that gaming (and brainCloud in particular) is ahead-of-the-curve in terms of engaging and monetizing users – and want to take advantage of brainCloud’s advanced features (like push notifications, pricing controls, receipt validation and promotions) in a non-gaming context.

Hey, who are we to argue – the more the merrier!  So, to make them feel more welcome, we’ve combined some work we were already doing (to better standardize our usage of terms throughout the portal) with the ability to hide confusing gaming-related features from the non-initiated.  We hope you agree that the result is more consistent, and more welcoming to developers of all types of apps.

For the full details on this week’s update, keep reading! 🙂

Highlights

  • New Global Leaderboard APIs – quickly view the leaderboard around the player’s score, plus paging support
  • Portal Polish – we’ve taken a pass over the terminology used in the portal to make it more consistent, as well as more understandable by all types of developers

Portal Changes

  • Show/hide Game Features – To make things less confusing for the folks building non-game apps on top of brainCloud, we’ve added an ability to hide the gaming features (such as Leaderboards, Achievements, Multiplayer, etc.)
  • Create app flow – improved flow for creating new apps, with more consistent usage of terms throughout the portal.
  • Consistent terms – more consistent usage of terms throughout the portal.
  • End-User Forgotten Password – You can now trigger the Forgotten Password feature for any end user that is using E-mail authentication.  Just click the [envelope] icon next to any Email-authentication type credential at the bottom of the User Summary page.
  • The Versioning page has been renamed to Platforms

API Changes / Additions

  • (New) Paged Leaderboards – call GetGlobalLeaderboardPage() to get a subset of the leaderboard, starting at a specified entry
  • (New) Relative Leaderboards – call GetGlobalLeaderboardView() to get a view of the leaderboard centered around a player
  • (Updated) Authenticate*() API methods – now return complete Player State information – eliminating the need for a redundant ReadPlayerState() call when apps first start

Misc Changes

  • You can now send Events from the S2S interface
  • Exporting and Importing of metadata files now uses consistent, lower-case filename extensions
  • Improvements / updates to the API docs
  • Mix fixes and performance updates

 

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

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)

Release 2.3.0

We’re pleased to announce the full public availability of brainCloud 2.3.0!

New features in this release include:

Highlights

  • E-mail Identity improvements – you asked, we delivered – brainCloud now supports E-mail Validation for those of you using our E-mail + Password Identity Authentication.  We’ve added Forgotten Password flows as well – all customizable with your own text and branding.
  • Segment Definitions – we’ve completely re-done our Segment design screens, made them simpler and more flexible, while vastly improving the underlying data structures that represent segment criteria.  This was necessary work to support new segment features to come.

Note – the new segment data structures aren’t compatible with how things were being defined in 2.2.X and previous.  As a result, we’ve disabled any previously defined Segments – apologies about that.  You’ll need to select each of your segments, quickly recreate the criteria, and save them.  Once again, apologies, but this was a one-time situation that couldn’t be helped (and it’s honestly very quick to fix).

 

Portal Changes

  • Design | Core Game Info | E-mail Authentication – options for customizing the e-mails sent for validation and forgotten passwords.  Includes a [Test] button to send a test e-mail to validate (note that the test e-mails don’t actually contain the URL links)
  • Design | Segments – screens have been completely redone

VIPs Leaving Segment

API Changes

  • New Forgotten Password API for EmailPassword Authentication

Misc Fixes

  • Fixes to Import Configuration to properly re-evaluate level caps if new XP levels have been added
  • Misc fixes and performance improvements

 

Release 2.2.0

We’re pleased to announce the full public availability of brainCloud 2.2.0!

New features in this release include:

API & Client Features:

  • Promotions can now replace products in the active store. This allows swapping in new products during a promotion that pay out extra currency etc
  • C++ library now includes easier Facebook authentication using the BrainCloudWrapper class
  • Cocos 2d-x example upgraded to Cocos 2d-x 3.3 which includes Facebook support from C++
  • Cocos 2d-x example allows user to choose between three types of authentication now: Universal, Anonymous, and Facebook
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Portal/Server Features:

  • Segments – Now you can target only test users to be included in a segment. This allows for segments to be more easily tested before they’re launched
  • Misc fixes and improvements

We’ve continued to improve the documentation in our Apidocs portal. As usual, you can check it out by visiting:
http://apidocs.braincloudservers.com/

Release 2.1.0

We’re pleased to announce the full public availability of brainCloud 2.1.0!

New features in this release include:

API Features:

  • Client library version and game version verification is now working properly
  • Platform constants changed for Windows Phone and Mac – removed versioning
  • C++ library now easier to integrate into your project (fixed 64 bit iOS targets and upgraded jsoncpp to 1.0.0)
  • C++ and C# client libraries improved to use additional enums/structures for certain method calls
  • Cocos 2d-x example posted to tutorials section
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Portal/Server Features:

  • Player monitoring – can now reset player’s segments, promotions, and associated criteria data to facilitate easier testing
  • Request / Response log now includes inner status codes
  • Cloud code logger object added to allow easier debugging of scripts
  • Authentication exceptions now log the profile id
  • Anonymous identity segment criteria now applies to users who *only* have an anonymous identity
  • Automated promotions improved
  • Javascript/image/page caching issues fixed
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Plus we’ve refreshed the look of our Apidocs portal, and continue to add new content.

Check it out at http://apidocs.braincloudservers.com/

Release 2.0.0

We’re pleased to announce the full public availability of brainCloud 2.0.0!

New features in this release include:

API Features:

  • Global Properties – now sends user language, region, and timezone to brainCloud server on login.
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Portal Features:

  • Automated Promotions – promotions can now be automated (ie when a user joins a target segment).
  • Segments – further refinements to criteria
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Release 1.9.0

We’re pleased to announce the availability of brainCloud 1.9.0!

New features in this release include:

API Features:

  • Unity Client – now sends user language, region, and timezone to brainCloud server on login.
  • Windows Phone IAP support – now able to verify windows phone IAP receipts
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Portal Features:

  • Multiple Language Notifications – notifications will now be sent according to the user’s language preference
  • Scheduled Promotions – promotions can be scheduled for a specific time range and can apply based on user segments. Allows dynamic pricing adjustments to be made.
  • Segments – new criteria added to segments
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Release 1.8.3

We’re pleased to announce the availability of brainCloud 1.8.3!

New features in this release include:

API Features:

  • Google Play Store IAP Receipt Validation – clients can now validate IAP receipts from the Google Play Store.
  • Misc fixes and improvements

Portal Features:

  • One Way Match Multiplayer Monitoring – new page to view the multiplayer match state and logs. Super useful for debugging!
  • Global Monitoring – added a number of handy ways to sort/filter logs.
  • Import/Export – now includes all cloud scripts and S3 files for the game.
  • Cloud Scripts – can now define test parameters per script
  • Player Monitoring Log – got a facelift!
  • Game Config – added a max concurrent sessions parameter to control how many concurrent sessions a user can have running
  • Notifications – now able to define templates and send to users
  • Segments – added additional criteria
  • Misc fixes and improvements