Morph AppSpace PHP

We've recently released a public beta of Morph AppSpace PHP using the same technologies and process automation tools that we adopted for Morph AppSpace Rails and Java. Now, developers have more choices regarding what languages and frameworks to adopt.

View a deployment demo or read the announcement. For more information on how to deploy a PHP application to Morph AppSpace, click here.

Morph AppCloud, warm standby database, auto-install, and more!

• Morph AppCloud. Built on Morph AppSpace, Morph AppCloud gives you the ability to create a private cloud to run multiple Web applications. Using a graphical cloud designer, components of your personalized cloud may be setup and automatically provisioned within a few minutes. Morph AppCloud leverages Amazon Web Services, including Amazon EC2 and S3 to deliver on-demand compute power and storage, respectively. Learn more.


• Auto-Install. This feature allows users to instantly deploy and utilize any of the available open source applications -- El Dorado, Substruct, Tracks, Radiant CMS, and Beast -- to Morph AppSpace. To get started, click here for an introductory video.


• Warm Standby Database. We've recently gone live with our warm standby database server. The way this works is that we have another standby database server that constantly retrieves the incremental backups created from the main database. The benefits are a) there is always a complete and ready backup, and b) in case of failure, all we have to do is let the warm standby retrieve the last incremental backup and switch over to it. This should take 1-2 minutes at most, and will ensure virtually no downtime. We still keep the full and incremental backups as well so, even if both machines fail, the data is safe and the downtime is still manageable.
  Join our upcoming webinar, "Agnostic Database Replication with Binary Logs" for a demonstration of this feature.


• Push Domains to Front Balancers (FBs) on Save
  Previously, when you wanted to change your full domain name, you had to make sure to stop and then re-start your AppSpace so that the new changes will take effect in the front balancers. We've recently fixed this so that changes immediately take effect after you save your new domain name.

SSL and Data Transfer Usage

Two more additions for Morph AppSpace subscribers:

• SSL Support - Morph AppSpace now supports SSL. To apply for SSL for your application, head straight to your application's dashboard in the Morph Control Panel. You'll see an SSL section just below the settings section
• Data Transfer Usage - You can now check out the amount of data transfer that your application has consumed by the month in the Morph Control Panel. This makes it easier for you to track if your application is going beyond the allotted data transfer threshold. Please note that we charge extra for overages. For more info about overages, click here.
  

New for August

We are happy to announce the latest additions to Morph AppSpace.

• Morph Status Page. To increase your trust in Morph AppSpace subscriptions we now publish our aggregate availability for everyone to see. Each major subsystem is monitored and the results of our availability is displayed. See the status page for more information.
• Custom Maintenance Message. Developers can now customize the message that's displayed to visitors whenever their application is down for maintenance (e.g. when deploying new code). To set your maintenance message, go to your application's dashboard in the Control Panel.
  
• Run tasks on event (Rails only). Developers can now schedule their rake tasks to execute when a certain event occurs. Right now, available events are "before application starts" and "after application has started." Setting your Rake tasks to run on these events is done via the Tasks tab.
• Referrals console. Each Morph AppSpace account now has a referrals console where authorized users can see the referrals commission earned for the month. To view your commissions, login to your account in Morph Control Panel and head straight to the Account tab.
• Fixes and minor enhancements. Various fixes and enhancement were also released. While most of these are not directly visible, the overall effect is a more stable, further improved user experience.
  

New Releases for Morph helpME on June 30

We are happy to announce that we have just successfully released a number of new, helpful features and a patch to fix a critical bug.

• We added a new theme — Harriet the Gray. For those of you who want to give their readers a fresh and clean-looking UI environment, we bring you good news with the addition of Harriet the Gray. The beautiful combination of the colors gray, white, and black produces a clean and simple yet elegant user interface that provides a relaxing background, allowing your readers to focus more on what's important — your content.

• Grant user roles. With this release, you will have a more structured and a more organized collaboration with the other users, as there will now be four types of users, each with different rights and privileges. The four user roles are: Viewers, Authors, Editors, and Admins. See below for the definition of each roles.

1. Viewers - can view only the public UI of the site, whether it is set to public or private.
2. Authors - can do what viewers can do. Authors can also add and manage own pages.
3. Editors - can do what viewers and authors can do. Editors can add and manage any pages.
4. Admins - can do what viewers, authors, and editors can do. Admin can also manage user roles and can modify the site's settings, through the Settings page.
   

• Set a Morph helpME site as public or private. Morph helpME users will now have more control over their site as this release includes a mechanism that allows them to set their site as public (available to anybody who accesses the site) and private (available only to registered users).

Note: Only Admins can manage the site's settings.

• List resources in the table of contents. Users can now display their resources to the Public UI's Table of Contents, just as they would with pages. To do this, add a new or edit an existing resources and then enter the desired label under the "Table of Contents Label" field.

• Fixed the bug that prevents Morph helpME from launching when the user trying to launch the application once modified his original email address and/or username.

Java, MySQL, Scheduled Tasks, and more!

We're excited about the latest features we deployed today: MySQL, web-based DB Admin Console, and Scheduled Tasks.

• MySQL. You asked for it, you got it! Morph AppSpace now supports MySQL. To use MySQL, create a new Morph AppSpace subscription and choose MySQL for your database. Note: this is only possible for new subscriptions, if youre application is already using PostgreSQL, you'll have to manually migrate the data to another subscription.
• Scheduled Rake Tasks. We have also released a functionality that enables you to execute Rake tasks based on a schedule, eliminating the need to manually execute them. It's as easy as creating a Rake task, deploying it with your application, and scheduling it through the Morph Control Panel.
• Web-based DB Admin. If you want to manually make changes to your MySQL database, we've also provided PhpMyAdmin.
• Updated UI. In our continuous effort to improve overall user experience, we've also updated part of the user interface particularly your subscription management pages (you get there by clicking the Manage button of your application's widget). Of particular interest is the Dashboard where we'll be adding even more useful tools/widgets in the future. So watch out for that!
  

Other additions

• Java goes out of Beta. About a month ago, we announced Morph AppSpace for Java and Grails in limited developer preview. We're very excited to tell you that this major feature is now publicly available. The Java and Grails community can now take advantage of our fully managed deployment, delivery and management system to side-step time-consuming challenges such as hosting setups and deployment tasks.
• Affiliate program. Last week, Morph Labs launched its Morph Affiliate Program, a simple affiliate service that makes it very easy for developers and individuals alike to earn commissions through referrals whenever someone creates an account through the referrer's unique sign-up link. More info here.
  
• Invite a friend. In addition, you may want to simply send an email to your friends, telling them about Morph AppSpace using the Invite-a-Friend option that can be found under your Account tab and at the sidebar of the Morph Control Panel. The Invite-a-Friend feature allows you to earn referral fees as well.
  

Morph eXchange

• Morph eXchange Referrals. We've added a Referral Program which allows all Morph eXchange users to earn points whenever a friend has created an account through the Account's unique sign-up link. You can initiate this conveniently through the Invite-a-friend option (found under the Account tab and at the sidebar), which emails your friend the sign-up link. You may also opt to share the sign-up link freely by copying the URL, which is the first code provided under your Account tab, and dropping it in various social media channels such as blogs, forums, Twitter, etc. You may also post a sign-up link on your website by copying the second code provided under your Account tab and adding this to your Web page. Keep posted for future announcements on how these referral points can benefit you. In the meantime, continue inviting friends to Morph eXchange!
  

• Tracks 1.6. We've updated Tracks "Doing Things Properly", a GTD task-management application, to version 1.6. Get your FREE subscription to Tracks right in your Morph eXchange Subscriptions tab. Learn more about Tracks from the project Web site.