Release Notes: Mapt v0.9.1

We’re (mostly) not idiots. We know that Mapt as a product lives and dies by virtue of the learning and content that is available on the platform. We want Mapt users to have the confidence to know they will have everything they need in our library to succeed in tech, which is why this release focuses on the new Early Access feature.

New

Early Access in Mapt – Pro only

Part of the promise of Mapt is that we’ll help keep you relevant in your field of expertise. We figured the best way to do this would be to give you access to our content as it’s being developed. We are working hard to reduce the time it takes us release an eBook or video because we know that the tech world moves quickly and software can become obsolete overnight (*cough “Flash”). This is why all Pro subscribers will now be able to access our content while it’s still being written.

This feature will allow you to anticipate upcoming changes, keeping you up-to-date with cutting-edge frameworks, languages, and tools.

Authentication

We’ve been working tirelessly improving the technical infrastructure of Mapt and one of the keystones in this development process has been the release of a new authentication service. This has been a seriously chunky piece of work, but is well worth the effort as it significantly improves customer account (i.e. your) security.

We made the decision some time ago to move to a microservice-based architecture and getting the authentication service right is critical to the development of the other services we want to create. To ensure that the application is secure we’ve implemented JWTs to handle the transfer of information between services. You can read more about JWTs here, but trust us when we say they are awesome!

Most of the changes won’t affect you in any serious way, but we have now increased the session time to 30 days rather than two, so you shouldn’t find yourself needing to log in as frequently as you have in the past.

Improvements

Sidebar improvements

Ok, so let’s face some facts… we’ve had some issues with the side navigation on mobile devices. It hasn’t worked as well as we would have hoped, so we decided to invest some time into making it more intuitive and responsive. From things like animations and transition effects to touch events, we’ve reengineered the whole thing to make it super slick.

eBook + video title page improvements

The front pages of our eBooks and Videos have also undergone a facelift with this new release, partially to make it look pretty and also to make it more responsive on tablet and mobile devices.
We’re hoping it’s more substance than style, as with this new layout you’ll be able to access the information you need from an eBook or video faster than before.