We recently released Mail & Deploy Version 3.0, and what better time than now to tell you about the upcoming plans we have for it. We would like to share with you an update on our roadmap! Enjoy!
All software development is a process. With the release of Version 3.0, we have already achieved an important milestone in 2021. Now, we are excited to share our plans for the upcoming months.
We have again listened to your feedback and established our plan based on what we have heard.
Our product commitment for 2021 is simple. It is all about giving you production-ready features, workflows, and components based on what you have told us you need in Mail & Deploy.
We consider a feature production-ready if it fully meets your needs, is fully supported from release, and has timely bug-fixing, improvements, and a clear roadmap – in other words, features you can rely on throughout your production.
To execute predictably we are also changing how we work. We will do less, we will do it better, and we will prove it works cohesively before we release it. Our focus is on supporting you with great features and commit to predictable, reliable releases.
Here are our focus areas for the near future:
REPOSITORY IMPORTER
We are working on a migration path with which old repositories can be imported automatically up to 100%. So existing 2.1 repositories can easily be imported into Release 3. Our main focus here is to make the repository importer robust and able to handle many possible scenarios.
DIRECT ACCESS TO SQL DATABASES, EXCEL, and WEB-SERVICES
Currently, Mail & Deploy can only work with (meta) data in Qlik apps. In the future, direct access to SQL databases, excel and web services will be implemented to enhance the applicability of external data for your reporting.
REPORT- & TASK-SCRIPTING
Everything that can currently be designed using the UI will be possible using scripting. This allows the fully automated creation of reports/tasks and simpler replication (e.g. for OEM applications). Mail & Deploy will serve as Reporting Engine in the background.
PARALLELIZATION OF INDIVIDUAL TASKS
At the moment, parallel execution of multiple tasks is possible in the Mail & Deploy Version 3.0. In the near future, also the parallelization of individual tasks is on the roadmap. This means a single task that creates a lot of reports can also be parallelized to speed up report creation.
EXTENDING SELF-SERVICE EXTENSION
We are working towards a „Mail & Deploy hub within Qlik Sense®“ solution. So the Self-Service Experience of your reporting out of Qlik® will be taken to the next level.
DEPLOYMENT
Mail & Deploy is supposed to support multi-tier systems (Development > Test Environment > Production Environment) without having to manually copy repositories. We are working toward a Click-One-Deployment.
MULTI-NODE ENVIRONMENTS
A multi-node deployment offers more configuration options than single node deployments. So we are working on multiple Mail & Deploy instances with load balancing to optimize scalability and performance.
MSI FOR SERVER + DOCKER IMAGE
Later in 2021, we will also ship an MSI server file and a docker image together with the setup file. This is especially for OEM partners and customers who have to perform a lot of installations and want to automate them.
We hope that this update serves to provide a useful insight into our plans for 2021, it promises to be an exciting one!
The feedback our community provides is priceless, and we want you to come on this journey with us. We will be sharing regular updates to keep you informed on the progress we are making and will provide ways for you to get in touch. As ever, you can keep appraised of our developments via our social channels on LinkedIn and Twitter!
If you have questions, we are always available at info@mail-and-deploy.com.