New Version of RIPEstat Mobile

Version 1.5.0 of the free-of-charge RIPEstat mobile application for the iPad and iPhone was put in the App store .  Because of this change, we will be deprecating the backend the old version of the app relies on (any URL containing /data/ is affected).

Figure 1: RIPEstat on the iPhone

We released the first version of the RIPEstat iOS mobile application in September 2011 (see the article on RIPE Labs ), and since then it has been downloaded close to 700 times.  For more background information on the application, refer to the  9th live demo and the accompanying article on RIPE Labs.

This new release builds upon the published RIPEstat data API , which allows for greater code reuse and simplification, making the application easier to maintain and improve.  Now that the mobile application is using the standard API, we can prevent it from getting out of sync with developments in the backend by immediately noting incompatibilities instead of silently failing.

In practice, this means that, in the future, the application will be able to inform you that it is no longer up-to-date, so that you can replace it with the most recent version straight away instead of seeing features gradually stop working.

V ersion 1.4.0 of the application will no longer work at all after mid-August .  The backend on which it relies will be deprecated.  We suggest updating the mobile application immediately to fix the bugs which developed as a result of changes to the backend.  Any programmatic use of the old API should also be switched to the new interface.

In addition to these largely invisible changes, we have added a new feature: the Object Browser .  The Object Browser provides a glimpse at objects in the RIPE Database; you can read more about it in the recent article on RIPE Labs .

Figure 2: Object Browser on an iPad

The Object Browser is just a taste of the sort of functionality that it is possible for us to add now that the mobile application is aligned with the public API.  We want to add new features in future releases.  Do you have a favourite widget that you'd like to see in the iOS mobile application?  Let us know!

Contact

There are several ways in which you can get in touch about RIPEstat:

• The comment box on the RIPEstat website allows you to post comments publicly.
• The Measurement Analysis and Tools (MAT) working group mailing list allows for more in-depth discussions.
• Private messages can be sent to stat@ripe.net .
• The #ripestat tag on Twitter is used by RIPE NCC to discuss and announce RIPEstat.