New Year, New Features 2022
Written by: Soracom Team
Published: January 1, 2022
Soracom releases new Quality of Life updates for 2022.
The right way to start the year
With teammates based everywhere from London and Tokyo to Seattle, Chicago, Nantes, and even Mauritius, Soracom observes a lot of holiday traditions. One of our favorites is to start each new year with Quality of Life updates that make the Soracom platform even easier and more fun to use.
We’re always hard at work on big releases like Soracom Arc, which lets you use Soracom platform services with any internet connection, or mix and match to build your own blended IoT network including cellular, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or even satellite. We’re also always listening to your feedback and suggestions, and based on over 100 requests that came in during 2021, these new features are now live for 2022!
1. Organizing cloud platform credentials by type in Soracom Funk
User suggestion:
I think it would be nice if you could select different types of authentication information in Funk. This would make it easier to see which is which. #soracom
Soracom Funk is a very handy platform feature that lets you send data directly from devices to cloud-based functions like AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, or Microsoft Azure Functions for processing. With Funk, there’s no need to use device-side resources or set up any complicated server environments to offload logic and processing from the devices to serverless cloud functions.
Direct access to cloud functions can make a big difference in an IoT deployment. But it does require storing the cloud-side authentication information used for function calls securely in the Soracom platform. And we know there can be a lot of different authorizations to keep track of.
As of today, when you enter multiple credentials you’ll be able to clearly identify each discrete authentication type, as shown below.
2. Support updates for multiple emails
User suggestion:
I would like to be able to enter my email address to receive notifications on a support ticket. Currently, I have to check the web to see if an update has been posted.
Whether you’re setting an APN for the first time, troubleshooting eDRX behavior, or implementing our comprehensive API, Soracom’s Customer Reliability Engineers are here to help you get your project up and running fast and keep you there. But we know that when you have multiple users on an account, notification management can sometimes get tricky.
We have improved the process by allowing you to specify up to five Support Email Addresses for correspondence when you file a support request. Replies from the support team will be delivered to both the primary account email and any Support Email Addresses that you have set.
This will be useful in cases where one individual administers your Soracom account but other team members or partners need to receive messages from Soracom Support. (Messages from the Soracom Support team can of course always be viewed from the Soracom Support page, but we know that notifications are usually more convenient).
For instructions on setting up Support Email Addresses as well as important precautions, please refer to the Email Settings documentation.
3. Binary Parser now supports MessagePack format
User suggestion:
I would like to see MessagePack format supported in the binary parser. If we can use MsgPack in the Arduino Library, we can concentrate on implementation rather than data serialization. #soracom
We agree! If you’re working with Arduino, the MessagePack binary serialization format (see Arduino Library) can make it easier to reduce effort related to data serialization and focus on what you actually want to build.
That alone would be a good reason for us to add MessagePack support to the Soracom Binary Parser, which already lets you convert device data from binary to JSON. Even better, MessagePack’s overall efficiency can also help reduce the total amount of data you need to transmit!
4. Old Soralet versions can now be automatically removed when uploading a new WebAssembly
User suggestion:
I want an automatic deletion feature for Soralet. It’s like deleting the version of an IAM role. You can delete the old version automatically, or you can specify the version to delete when uploading. #soracom
If you’re already using Soracom Orbit for on-the-fly data translation you probably already know that those conversions are performed by a WASM module called a “Soralet.” You may have also noticed that if you try to store more than 10 of these, you’ll see an error like this:
When uploading a WASM module on the Soralet management screen on the User Console, an error message “too many soralet versions” will be displayed if the number of uploaded WASM module versions has reached the limit. To continue uploading a new module, you’d then have to cancel the upload, delete one of the old versions, and retry the upload again.
With this update, when you reach the Soralet limit for the number of WASM module versions, you can now just delete an older version without canceling the upload:
The new “Delete and retry” button will allow you to automatically purge the oldest unused module version and re-upload the new module.
Note that to prevent accidental removal of an existing version that is still in use, this action will only delete the oldest version that is not currently referenced in any group’s SORACOM Orbit configuration. If you want to choose a specific version to delete, just click the Cancel button instead.
Happy 2022!
We’re grateful to all of our users who submitted suggestions and feature requests in 2021, and wish all of our customers, partners, friends, and teammates success in all their projects in 2022.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn about new Soracom products and services – or send a feature request of your own. (For quickest response, @SoracomIoT on Twitter with the #soracom hashtag!)
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Got a question for Soracom? Whether you’re an existing customer, interested in learning more about our product and services, or want to learn about our Partner program – we’d love to hear from you!
