Cloudant Public Expiring! Need Insight into Lite Version

[Robert Battaglia]

End of March 2018, Cloudant Public is gone. They provide some options at https://console.bluemix.net/docs/services/Cloudant/offerings/bluemix.html#ibm-cloud-public I am throughly confused at this point. Seems there is a Lite (free) version for under 1Gb storage that would suit me fine. I am looking for any people that understand the IBM Cloud for guidance.They make it difficult to understand the technical aspects and how it effects function, speed and number of queries you can make.

My TF database is not that big and I really need to share it with my wife on her IOS devices. As of today, Cloudant has been very good for what I need. iCloud, on the other hand, would seem to have problems with separate cloud accounts, unless you get the 200Gb plan with Family Sharing.

Also hoping Brendan will help guide us along with this. Thanks to all in advance!

[Brendan]

Hi Robert,

There are a couple of issues right now with switching over to the IBM Cloud system.

1. They have a 10 request per second limit which Tap Forms can trigger when syncing. I think I may have this worked out though. I was able to modify the Couchbase Lite database engine framework I use to retry if this condition occurs. So this should allow Tap Forms to continue to use the free lite version.

2. IBM has reduced the request size from 64 MB previously in the old Cloudant system to just 1 MB in the new system. This means that file attachments, photos, audio recordings, drawings, etc. have to be less than 1 MB, including the actual content in your record.

I’m trying to see if there’s anything they can do about #2, but they so far seem unwilling to change this. Either that or they have a bug in their system which is preventing large file attachments from syncing with the way Couchbase Lite handles it.

In fact, I’ve just been examining IBM’s own code for syncing attachments and they’re doing the same thing that Couchbase Lite is doing. So I don’t even think their own iOS library code works with their new restrictions on request size.

So it’s still a work in progress to figure out what’s going to happen.

With my modification to the Couchbase Lite library, we should be able to get past their 10 request per second limit. It might take a little longer to sync, but probably not by much. I’ve only just made the change today, so I’m just testing it now. So far so good, as long as I don’t have images or other attachments that are too large.

So just stay with the current Cloudant system for now and if we can get this all sorted out then that’ll be great. If not, then there’s always Nearby and Apache CouchDB and iCloud.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Robert Battaglia]

Brendan,

You are fantastic! The BEST customer service ever! I’ve had to say that several times since using Tap Forms.

If I may impose, one more question. Based upon my need to have my wife access my TF db, if I upgraded to iCloud with family access, in your experience, what are the pros and cons?? Also, could I make the transition on my Mac first, then register all the iOS devices separately after a successful up and download? (I guess that is two questions. :))

Thanks again!

[Brendan]

I’m not really sure how family access works with iCloud in terms of how apps access shared data.

Do you still have your own individual iCloud Apple ID accounts? If so, then syncing still won’t work. The only way it would work is if you’re all sharing the same Apple ID.

Alternatively you could also setup your own Apache CouchDB server on your Mac or a spare Mac in your home that you could all sync to. It’s like cloud syncing, but without the cloud :)

Thanks,

Brendan

[Robert Battaglia]

Brendan,

Been looking into iCloud Family Sharing. Not sure if I have a handle on it yet. Not sure if others have a similar problem to mine either.

Apple states that many apps are certified “family sharing” and will work as such sharing data. Tap Forms is not listed as such. This might be a solution. Anyway, below are some quick reads about family sharing when you get some time. Certainly, those of us that need this ability would be wiling to pay more for such an app in this case.

Apache would not be a solution for me and I’m sure not for most others. Anyway, thank you so very much for your time and patience in this matter.

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[Brendan]

Hi Robert,

From one of the pages you sent the link for:

Family Sharing makes it easy for up to six people in your family to share iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases, an Apple Music family membership, and an iCloud storage plan, without sharing accounts.

So although you can share the purchase of Tap Forms with family members and the iCloud storage plan, you can’t share the data stored in CloudKit with family members. Tap Forms is listed for family sharing by the way. I just checked the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store and they both say Tap Forms 5 is available for Family Sharing.

I just found this blog article about wanting this very feature:

http://pablin.org/2014/10/22/an-idea-cloudkit-for-family-sharing/

So right now there’s 2 databases. A public one and a private one. Tap Forms uses only the private database, which is restricted on a per Apple ID basis.

There is a way to share an individual CloudKit record, but that doesn’t work for Tap Forms because a single database document in Tap Forms is composed of possibly thousands of CloudKit records. You wouldn’t want to have to go through the process of sharing each form, field, pick list, category, record, and attachment with another iCloud user.

I’m hoping that one day Apple will do what the above article suggests or if they could grant sharing on a per CKRecordZone basis. Tap Forms stores all its data inside your private database in a different CKRecordZone, one for each database document file. When you see that “db-….” Document ID value in Tap Forms, that’s the name of the CKRecordZone as stored in your iCloud account in CloudKit.

Sorry for getting a bit technical here.

Thanks,

Brendan

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