IPSConnect end of life

[HelloWorld]

Hi all,

I did not see any mention of IPSConnect being removed from IPS in 4.3.x release notes.

Yet, once I did my upgrade, my Symfony website, which used IPSConnect as a login handler, could not login anymore. And IPSConnect has completely disappeared from the PC Admin.

So, is IPSConnect dead? If so, when/where was it announced?

[Misi]

 

19 minutes ago, HelloWorld said:

Hi all,

I did not see any mention of IPSConnect being removed from IPS in 4.3.x release notes.

Yet, once I did my upgrade, my Symfony website, which used IPSConnect as a login handler, could not login anymore. And IPSConnect has completely disappeared from the PC Admin.

So, is IPSConnect dead? If so, when/where was it announced?

 

On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 10:57 PM, bfarber said:

4.3.0 removes ipsconnect in favor of built in oAuth 2 support, where indeed the REST API adapts based upon the authenticated member's permission levels.

https://invisioncommunity.com/developers/rest-api?endpoint=forums/topics/GETindex

You'll notice at the top of this article, for instance

 

 

[HelloWorld]

Hi Misi,

Thank you for answering. I am not sure what you do mean by this post though – I understand that some people were aware that this was going to happen, but was an official announcement made, in a dedicated article or in the release notes?

This is a quite important feature for some communities such as mine, so I guess that it deserves more than just a quote in some topic, in terms of communication.

[Nathan Explosion]

Quote

With the ability for Invision Community to serve as both an OAuth server and client, this now provides standard integration for multiple Invision Communities together, which will now replace the old IPS Connect feature.

 

[HelloWorld]

Thank you Nathan.

Please allow me to make a point then – this kind of information should really be in the release notes. I do not read IPS blog entries or forum topics, I spend enough time on my own community already.

Before launching the upgrade, I made sure that I read the release notes, as always, in order to make sure that I would not be surprised (in a bad way) by this kind of misadventures. Still, it proved not to be enough in this case.

My mistake – I did not take the time for a proper testing phase on my testing environment before upgrading my production environment. I will not make that mistake twice, believe me. But please, hear me when I tell you that this should definitely be included in the release notes, for the people who will come next.

[Nathan Explosion]

5 minutes ago, HelloWorld said:

Before launching the upgrade, I made sure that I read the release notes, as always, in order to make sure that I would not be surprised (in a bad way) by this kind of misadventures. Still, it proved not to be enough in this case.

The above items are sourced via links in the release notes for 4.3.0: be sure to read our announcement for everything new! then leads to the items I linked previously.

I understand your annoyance, but the information is available from the release notes.

You will learn from this, just as you state - take advantage of the ability to run a test site under your existing license, and play there before jumping in. It helps massively in the long run.

 

[HelloWorld]

You can be sure that I am angry at myself rather than anyone else, but still, I beg you/IPS to learn from this as well.

The release notes link that point to this blog post you shared read like that:

• Ability to join any OAuth service for login management.
• Invision Community can now be an OAuth endpoint.
• Wordpress OAuth login method built in.

Which is why I did not find it necessary to read them, as for me, it did not imply an IPSConnect end of life. If anyone understands from the three bullet points above that IPSConnect is going to be removed in IPS 4.3, then they are really clever.

I mean, this kind of important information should be written in a more explicit way, I am even surprised that this is not part of the highlights part at the start of the release note! Is this not as/more important than custom email footers?

Do not misunderstand me, I like the product, I think that IPS does a great job, and the fact that you reacted in half an hour to my post shows that the contribution is a quality one. But I still think that you should take my remark into account for the future. 

[Joel R]

You posted in Peer to Peer Technical, literally the last place for IPS to look for suggestions in this forum.  

I agree with you.  IPS removed Sparkpost and IP.Connect, and any services that are no longer supported should explicitly be stated in the release notes as a warning to users, not obliquely referenced in a link.  

[HelloWorld]

You are right Joel. I could have posted in "Feedback & Ideas", as this is more of a feedback topic.

Maybe a moderator could move it to the right place?

[taz.de]

hi, i just upgraded 4.2.9 -> 4.4.7. we are using the 3rd party application IPBWI which we will remove stepwise. IPBWI is using ipsconnect to authenticate ipb against our own scripts which are using IPBWI. so we ran into exact the same problems. and i am completely with @HelloWorld in this point. if a integrated technique which is essential for some users is being removed it should has been communicated explicitly in the release notes or even better via email. in big letters. good communication helps to avoid unsatisfied customers.

since we didn't notice this change instantly we upgraded and had some problems with our productive system when it comes to commujication IPB -> our scripts. i recognized that the upgrade deleted the table pb_core_ipsconnect_slaves and restored it from our database backup. now ipsconnect is running again and i have some time to remove/replace it before the next upgrade.