It took us awhile, but we got there at last. We’re pleased to announce the latest API changes have been fully rolled out, and our modules and website updated accordingly.
We would also like to apologize for the large amount of downtime around this update, but that was one of the things we tackled – for good – with this update. Let’s dive right in!
What’s new, anyway?
Good question! We actually added a lot of behind the scenes features and improved, well, everything. Here’s a brief rundown.
Authentication
This has been the root of many issues in the past. Credentials were poorly implemented in the backend, and very inconsistently so. When one part of the API was updated with new credentials, sometimes not everything got updated. That would mean, for instance, the token validation endpoint would say a token was a-okay, while the Downloads endpoint would go no way.
Another inconsistency was token expiration. We get a lot of clients, each having unique access credentials, and that clutters up the database fast, slowing everything down. When we did add token expiration, tokens wouldn’t always expire due to the aforementioned inconsistency across endpoints.
All that is no more. We’ve streamlined authentication and ensured everything runs through the same endpoint on the backend. That means you’ll get authenticated faster, and get what you want done faster.
Caching
In any API, caching is essential. It means not every request has to hit a database. When implemented right, it can speed up an API by as much as 900%. That’s quite the increase.
In this update, we streamlined cache – everything should get purged when it’s supposed to, and everything gets recached when it’s supposed to. That means 0.4 second response times, not 1.9 second. We saw up to 5x speed increases in our tests!
Downloads
We tweaked our download system to ensure we can continue to serve the high volume of requests we receive daily.
Free users – aka guest users – now see consistent speeds of 1.5 megabytes a second. Users who have upgraded their account see unlimited speeds, and now have access to resumable downloads.
Other notables
The credentials location has changed. This means your old credentials will no longer work. Well have more details once we’ve finished the implementation for downloading your access credentials.
Our Patreon no longer unlocks any benefits. Existing patrons should contact @AndroidacySupport on telegram in order to migrate to the new system, located here. Discount codes will be provided for your first month. In addition, Patreon login has been disabled.
We’ve also polished up some UI on our website and in our modules. Let us know what you think!
That concludes the changelog for this update. Until next time!