This release of the SaaSGrid platform introduces two major features:

  • Public Websites
  • Anonymous Concurrent User Support

Please note that a new version of the SaaSGrid SDK (Version 1.6) has been released to support these new features.

Please read on for additional information about these changes.

Public Websites

It is now possible to define an additional user interface for your SaaSGrid application that is accessible to the general public.

This web site provides a way to expose an application's information or features without having to require a login and subscription for each user. The FAQ Manager sample application demonstrates this functionality. In this sample, the tenant's user interface is responsible for maintaining a comprehensive listing of FAQ's, while the public portion simply displays the FAQ's marked as published.

Access to the public web site is limited to the number of "anonymous concurrent users" that the tenant has purchased. See the next section for additional information.

The new SaaSGrid SDK contains an updated Visual Studio template to create the public web sites. An updated SaaSGrid Mocker utility is included with the SDK as well to assist in testing access to the public web sites.

Developers can now specify and upload the public web site by including the publicinterfaces folder inside the application archive. Here is a screenshot of the application structure after the archive for the FAQ Manager sample has been uploaded:

 

Anonymous Concurrent User Support

The notion of "anonymous concurrent users" has been introduced in conjunction with the new public website feature above. This special subscription will allow limited access to a SaaSGrid application by those who don't have a regular subscription to the application.

Providers can set the price that is charged for each concurrent user to access the public portion of your application. The tenant can choose to purchase as many concurrent user subscriptions as necessary based on their customer's expected usage. We recommend providing guidance to your tenants on selecting an appropriate amount of concurrent users, as well as handling the scenario when there are no concurrent user subscriptions remaining to service requests.

The pricebook offering matrix will automatically show an option for configuring the price for anonymous concurrent users, as shown in the screenshot below:

A blog posting providing more information about these features has been published here.

Upcoming Features

The following features will be introduced in upcoming releases of the SaaSGrid platform:

  • Customization of the Login Page: providers will be able to change the appearance of the login screen to your application
  • Purchasing of Concurrent Users only: tenants will be able to purchase concurrent user subscriptions on a stand-alone basis
  • Tenant-wide Features: providers can create features that are tied to all subscriptions for the tenant (currently features are tied to a specific subscription)

Note: the next release of the SaaSGrid platform will be scheduled in advance as the date approaches to maximize system availability for our customers.

If you have a question about an upcoming feature, need additional assistance, or have any questions, please comment or post a message to our SaaSGrid Developer Center forums.

Cheers,

The Apprenda Team