A day after launch, three releases: Old.lat 1.4.0 to 1.6.0
On October 22, Old.lat went from 1.3.0 to 1.6.0: project categories and an Agent API, automatic previews in the project list, and PHP error logs with file and line numbers. A glass-folder view was added and removed along the way. This post covers that, and what is still unfinished.
Old.lat launched on October 21 as version 1.3.0. The next day, October 22, we shipped three more: 1.4.0, 1.5.0 and 1.6.0. Their changelogs add up to nine entries. This post walks through them by what they are for, and ends with what is still not done.
If you haven't met Old.lat: it is a site publishing platform. Upload a website ZIP and get a project link on your own domain. It is quoted per project, delivered as full source or installed on your server with our help. More in the launch post.
| Version | Theme | Changelog entries |
|---|---|---|
| 1.4.0 | Project categories, auto-detection and an Agent API | 3 |
| 1.5.0 | Glass folders and automatic previews | 3 |
| 1.6.0 | PHP requests and error diagnostics | 3 |
1.4.0: sort projects before there are too many
Once you have a lot of projects, a flat list gets hard to search. 1.4.0 adds project categories, with filtering and grouping. Deleting a category does not delete its projects; they move to "Uncategorized".
On deploy, the platform now works out whether a project is PHP and whether it uses single-page-app routing. You can override both by hand. Existing projects are detected the first time you open the project list or the overview.
The same release adds an Agent API, so scripts and automation tools can call the platform. Tokens come in full-access and read-only types, can have an expiry date and can be revoked at any time. The admin panel shows call counts and when each token was last used. An administrator has to create and look after the tokens.
1.5.0: see what a site looks like right in the list
Before, the project list only had names and letter avatars. From 1.5.0, the desktop admin generates a preview image for each project: one after a new deployment, another after each version update, and you can re-capture by hand. It can also capture WebGL content.
Previews are stored on your own server and only an administrator can see them. When capture fails, the list falls back to the cover image, or to a color card with the first letter.
This release also added a "glass folder" view, where projects fan out as cards inside a folder and can be dragged into categories. We removed it in the next release. More on that in the next section.
1.6.0: when something breaks, find out where
1.6.0 is mostly about the stability of PHP projects. The changelog lists:
- Non-web responses are now streamed, and the HTML cache has a size limit.
- A POST sent to a directory endpoint no longer loses its body when the slash is added automatically.
- Routing and settings are cached to cut database reads, and a statistics failure should no longer drag down normal page views.
- The project page has an error badge and a detail view. The admin log shows project, version, file, line and request, and rotates after 2 MB.
This release also turns the project page into one list with previews, and removes the glass-folder view that 1.5.0 had just added. The drawer now also closes when you switch pages. So that view lasted less than a day. The changelog only says "removed", and we won't invent a reason here. If you got used to it in 1.5.0, that's a trade-off we made.
What these releases don't solve
The product page now lists 8 limitations. These are the ones tied to these releases:
- Previews depend on the desktop admin. After an API deployment, you need to open the admin once before a preview appears; phones don't capture. Cross-origin resources or restricted pages may not be captured fully, and then you get the cover or color card described above.
- Error logs only start from the new version. Old cPanel logs are not imported. Errors in a project's own code still have to be fixed; optimizing doesn't mean every 500 will go away, and there is no guarantee for heavy concurrent traffic.
- Project ZIP export is not fully accepted yet. The file is retrieved and passes the CRC check, but browser automation once reported the download as "cancelled", and a full restore has not been rehearsed. Keep backing up important projects.
- Still a single admin account. No team roles, approval flow or enterprise SSO, and an access code is not identity verification.
If you want it
Old.lat has no public sign-up and no free hosting. There are two ways to get it: full source delivery, or we help install it on your server. Both are quoted per project. See the Old.lat product page, the public site at old.lat, or reach us on Telegram.
