Commandeer Changelog

What's new in Commandeer 2.4.3

Jan 26, 2022
  • LocalStack Dashboard:
  • The dashboard for LocalStack will now show you errors associated with your instances.
  • The 3 types of errors are:
  • No Container - this means a Docker container does not currently exist for the instance. To fix this, you can simply start a new instance
  • No Commandeer Account - to view all the resources of your LocalStack instance within Commandeer, you will need to associate the instance to the account. This can be done when editing your accounts, or via the Link Accounts button on the Localstack page.
  • Incorrect CORS - for months we have been wrestling with the CORS issues associated with Commandeer communicating over http with LocalStack. We have it resolved, and the error messaging should not succinctly direct you to how to fix it.
  • Below you can see that there are 4 instances running. 2 are on, 1 is off, and 1 is off because of CORS issues.
  • Accounts Dashboard:
  • By tightening up how we handle errors with LocalStack, and making it truly push button to start new instances on different ports, we were able to more clearly see the system from the higher level. If you recall, just 2 months ago, you could not actually see more than one running instance of LocalStack within Commandeer in a clear way.
  • Now that you can, we have also gone further in simplifying accounts within Commandeer. Now you will see that we show accounts in tabs for Localstack and AWS Cloud.
  • You can also see that there is now a status bar at the top to help remedy issues. In the example above, one of the accounts does not have an associated LocalStack Docker container associated with it. In the error message, you can also see that there is 1 instance of LocalStack running on the system not tied to an account. Pressing the Link Accounts button brings up the following dialog.
  • Once this is linked, you will see that there are no longer errors on the dashboard.
  • Current Account Status:
  • Because you can have multiple accounts in Commandeer, we are also working on making errors happening in your current account a bit easier to detect. In the example below, I have created a new local account called new-test-account. I made it a local account, but have not assigned an instance of LocalStack to it yet.
  • In prior releases you would have just seen the red LocalStack indicator on the status bar. And then would have to dive in and figure out what the issue it. Now, we tell you the issue, and also provide remedies. Start new instance, will bring up the Start dialog that allows you to set the port you want to connect to. If you already have a running LocalStack instance that is not associated with a Commandeer account, then you will be able to again use the Link Existing Instance button.
  • Cleaner Onboarding Experience:
  • The main purpose of Commandeer is to be able to view your system on both AWS and LocalStack in a simple and unified manner. We have also updated our onboarding experience, to make the first account you use work right out of the gate.
  • The entire onboarding experience is based just on getting this first account ready for you. We will detect if you already have running LocalStack instances. It also allows you to import in your .aws/credentials profile to that first account.
  • Starting LocalStack Instances:
  • We would add on certain environment variables when starting a LocalStack instance for you in Commandeer. We have moved this logic to the UI now though, so you have a bit more control. Clicking the Start new instance button will bring up this dialog.
  • As you can see, there are 4 environment variables that we put in there, and you can add in any others that you want. This should make it a bit easier to debug issues, as we aren't magically putting anything in when starting it anymore, we let you explicitly handle it, but still do the helpful initial setup of it.
  • Also, if you edit environment variables on a running container, we will handle stopping the container, so that the new environment variables take effect.

New in Commandeer 2.4.1 (Jan 4, 2022)

  • LocalStack Dashboard:
  • There is now a new page in the LocalStack section that shows you every instance you have running in Docker containers on your local computer. Previously, you could have multiple instances running on your computer with different ports, and it worked just fine. But you could only switch to them by switching the account you are connected to at the top of the app. Now you can see all your instances, and start instances up easier than ever. Below you can see that there are 3 instances of LocalStack running in docker on my computer. Also note that it will show you if the container is connected to a Commandeer account. This means that you can view things like S3, DynamoDB, SQS etc. from within Commandeer.
  • Connect LocalStack Instance to a Commandeer Account:
  • To connect another account to let's say the 4567 instance, simply click the top left + icon and select, 'Create account...' from the dropdown menu.
  • The Create account dialog is simplified a bit now for LocalStack in that you are only able to select a running instance rather than start a new instance. Below you can see the dialog, where you can select the container that is attached to the account.
  • Once you click save, you will see that the instance within the LocalStack dashboard now shows that there is a connected account.
  • Once this is setup, you can then easily switch between accounts in the top of the app, and you will see resources for that particular instance. For example, you could run a dev and staging version of your system on LocalStack, and each one could have it's own set of S3 Buckets, or DynamoDB tables, and the accompanying data.
  • Starting a new instance of LocalStack:
  • To start a new instance of LocalStack running on a new port, you can simply press the 'Start New Instance' button on the LocalStack dashboard. This will bring up a dialog that allows you to select the image to use, the url, and set any environment variables you want. Below you can see the button on the dashboard.
  • Onboarding Experience:
  • If you are new to Commandeer, you will be presented with a 3 step onboarding experience to setup your first account on Commandeer. This will allow you to either connect to an already running instance of LocalStack or add your credentials to connect to your AWS account. After this initial account, you can always create more accounts to connect to multiple LocalStack instances, or the same AWS accounts but in different regions, or to multiple AWS accounts. This makes switching between your different systems trivial.

New in Commandeer 2.3.0 (Sep 24, 2021)

  • In this release we are introducing Workspaces. This gives you the ability to organize all your resources and pages into whatever sort of grouping you would like. For instance, if you want to create a workspace to organize things at the microservice level, this is now easy to do

New in Commandeer 2.1.1 (Aug 1, 2021)

  • Hotfix release to better style the new/edit account modal to switch between AWS and LocalStack.

New in Commandeer 2.0.0 (Jul 1, 2021)

  • The time has come, we have now been building Commandeer for over 2 years and are thrilled to announce the release of version 20! You will notice a lot of refinements in the UI/UX in this installment
  • General styling:
  • You will see a lot more consistency in styling throughout the app You can now also minimize the side navigation and the stats on the pages to help while doing tasks on smaller laptop screens Also, you will notice that the tabs at the top of the page no longer scrolls with the page Below you can see the side navigation and the stats sections both collapsed
  • Account Management:
  • You can now import your aws/credentials directly into Commandeer, making it easier than ever to get up and running Simply right-click the Commandeer section in the side navigation, and select the 'Import from aws/credentials profiles' menu item
  • Then, choose the ones you want to import in the dialog
  • CloudFront:
  • We have support for CloudFront in Commandeer You can now view all your distributions, and what they are connected to Below you can see an example of them in the side navigation
  • You can also see the breakdown on the CloudFront System Diagram page
  • DynamoDB:
  • We have added the ability to add and delete Global Secondary Indexes directly from the UI
  • You can also now view backups for your tables
  • On the data page of a table, you can now quickly edit, copy, share, or delete records without having to go into the record We also fixed a bug when querying by an index as well as a bug for scanning number and boolean fields
  • Last but not least, we have added in a DynamoDB Seeder that allows you to quickly and easily seed your DynamoDB tables with fake data
  • S3:
  • In S3, we have added the ability to drag and drop files from your desktop or finder windows directly into S3 buckets
  • And for buckets with large numbers of records, we now limit them to the first 100 on the treeviews so that the UI no longer hangs You can easily filter them in the table view on the Bucket dashboard then

New in Commandeer 1.8.1 (Apr 16, 2021)

  • Hotfix that fixed a nagging issue for some people where the 'Refreshing Data...' would not go away when switching accounts or starting up the app.