BlueMix UI: Check out the April Updates!

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Earlier this week, several new features went live in the BlueMix UI. With IBM Impact 2014 rapidly approaching, you can expect to see more about these enhancements in the next few days. But, here’s a high-level overview:

• Simplified registration and login flow. If you haven’t tried BlueMix yet, now’s the perfect time to sign up for the free beta!
• Support for add-ons. Add-ons are specially designated services to manage and monitor your applications. More add-ons are coming, but we’re kicking it off with the Auto-Scaling add-on. This add-on can automatically increase or decrease the number of application instances based on a customized policy.
• Organization of services in the catalog by category. As the number of BlueMix services continues to grow, we’ve made it easier to browse the list. The new categories include:
• Web and Application
• Mobile
• Data Management
• Big Data
• DevOps
• Add-Ons
• Ability to link an app to a Git repository. This feature allows you to leverage IBM DevOps Services (IDS) to edit your app’s code in the browser and push updates without using the command line. To get started:
1. Go to App Details for a particular app and look for the Add Git Repository button in the newly streamlined header area.
   

   App Details — Add Git Repository Button

2. Click the button and a pop-up will be shown allowing you to authenticate to IDS and create a new repository. If you created the app from one of the BlueMix boilerplates or runtimes, then the new project can be populated with the app’s starter code.
3. When that process is complete and you dismiss the dialog, the URL for your new Git repository will be shown in the App Details header. In addition, you should now see a Code button which you can use to launch IDS in a new browser tab. 
   

   App Details — View Code Button

4. From IDS, you can edit your code in the browser, and deploy/push your updates directly to BlueMix.

• Getting Started with BlueMix and DevOps Services using Node.js
  
• Getting Started with BlueMix and DevOps Services using Java
• View account and usage data. The resources used by your apps (represented in GB-Hours) can now be visualized over time. To do so, you can: 
1. Click on the “robot” icon in upper right hand corner of the BlueMix UI and click on the Account link.
   

   View Account Details

2. Select the organization you’re interested in, and you will be presented with a view of your usage data.
   

   App Usage Data

• Implementation of many usability improvements and bug fixes.

We hope you enjoy this latest round of updates. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding the UI or BlueMix in general please let us know.