Eton Mess API changes

A large portion of our time is spent writing applications that use LDC Via as a back-end. As we do more and more development, we identify improvements to the API that will make our lives (and, therefore, the lives of our customers) easier.

In our most recent “Eton Mess” release there have been several changes to the API, but we thought we’d concentrate on just two key updates for now:

The first is a completely new API method dbacl, which returns a list of all people in your organisation who have access to a specific database. By way of example, this method recently proved useful in determining to whom new document notifications should be sent.

The second change we want to highlight is an update to the API methods which allow the storage of unstructured metadata.

Eh? What? Why?

We’re currently writing a new application and we needed to store various settings for the application somewhere, but didn’t really want to create a new database just for this. We can now store those little switches and bits of information about the app in the database details and cache them as required. Handy!

If you want to make use of this new feature, we’ve updated the API documentation to tell you how: set database details.

We’ve said this many times, but it still holds true: we don’t have any hidden APIs. If we discover something that we need then we’ll create a new API and publish it for everyone to use. So, whatever we can do with the LDC Via platform, anyone else can as well. And we’re always looking for ways to improve things: if you have any ideas, please let us know.

Eton Mess was released on June 8th. A full list of all the lovely functionality in this version can be found in our release notes.

LDC Via and SAML

Last month we announced the release of “Eton Mess” which includes a number of nifty features and general improvements for the platform. One of the features which Eton Mess brings to the table actually dates back to one of our “Forced Rhubarb” point releases, and the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed it in the associated release notes:

Feature: SAML is now an option for organisations wanting to use it. Whoop!

Huge fanfare eh? :-) SAML stands for “Security Assertion Markup Language”, and we use it to provide Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality between an authentication service of your choice, and LDC Via.

Authentication services are known as “Identity Providers” (IdP) in the SAML world. The applications and platforms like LDC Via which take this authentication information and make use of it are known as “Service Providers” (SP).

In practical terms, this means that once the appropriate configuration has happened, an organisation can have its authenticated users proceed directly to LDC Via from their intranet or other corporate systems without a pesky log-in screen getting in the way.

SAML doesn’t mandate the method of authentication used, so Identity Providers just need to support the protocol (as do downstream Service Providers of course). This means that all manner of centralised identity stores can be used as IdPs; for example, Microsoft Active Directory and Google can both act as IdPs.

The good news is that with “Eton Mess”, if you have a SAML environment in mind for integration with LDC Via, we can work with you to make that a reality.

Eton Mess was released on June 8th. A full list of all the lovely functionality in this version can be found in our release notes.

'Eton Mess' has arrived

We are delighted to announce the availability of our ‘Eton Mess’ release, as of Wednesday 8th June, nearly two years to the day since we first started creating LDC Via.

In case you’re wondering about the curious naming of our releases, we’ll let you into that secret in a separate blog post. Instead, for now let’s concentrate on a couple of the big headlines from this release.

Performance: the API now allows arrays of multiple documents to be ‘put’ in one call. This allows for much more efficient and performant applications.

Account limits: we have increased the account limits across all (well, all but one) of our tiers. The pricing has been tweaked too, to match. Overall, the new structure seems to fit our customers’ needs better, and that’s what it’s all about.

For a full list of all the lovely goodies we’re sending your way in this release, take a look at our hand-crafted artisanal release notes.

Developers, Developers, Developers!

Software developers are always seeking to take advantage of the best of new approaches, tools, techniques and languages. Many come and go, but some have a lengthy lifespan. Domino’s built-in languages of @Formula and LotusScript are pretty obscure these days, mainly because they only exist in the Domino world. Yes, Domino has Java too, but even with that there are some hoops to jump through and some non-standard techniques to grapple with.

Modern environments, in particular the MEAN stack, are taking over as mainstream and very popular tools. Why not take advantage of these skills and opportunities? Moving your Domino data to LDC Via will open it up to all these new worlds, and grant access to a new generation of developers.

Tell us what your organisation’s development strategy is: if we don’t already have sample code for you, we’ll write some.

(And if you’re writing your own apps for Via, don’t forget our API documentation!)

Free full-text search for all!

We’ve mentioned before how important we think full-text search is as a feature. Well, we’re happy to announce that even free accounts can now make use of our full-text search functionality.

Once you’ve imported or created a database in Via, it’s simply a case of going to the Database Settings screen and ticking the “Indexed” check-box.

If you’re writing your own applications to access data in Via, then our API documentation is invaluable for putting together those powerful full-text queries.

Also, bear in mind that for maximum flexibility you can combine full-text queries with our pre-existing structured query syntax. Happy searching!