UI Bakery 2024 recap

It has been a really cool tradition for me to sit and look back at what has been done during the year. 2024 is slowly coming to an end, and I’ve reflected again on how far UI Bakery has come. Thanks to your support and engagement, this year we have delivered again. I’m happy to announce the UI Bakery 2024 recap, and I’m inviting you to this journey with me! 🥂

Part 1. What has been done? New features round-up 

Actions and Logic 🪄

The Actions panel has undergone a massive redesign! The developer experience has been significantly improved by adding the ability to open actions and variables in separate tabs. The Notes panel allows developers to leave detailed notes, enhancing collaboration and clarity within projects. Additionally, the setup and finish configurations now have distinct steps.

Server actions have entered the game, enabling the creation of custom backend logic that runs entirely on the server and remains hidden from the end user.

Moreover, we’ve introduced a couple of new action types (Bulk Create/Bulk Delete rows), moved State Variables into the Actions tab, and added a JS mode for query parameters and headers in HTTP/GraphQL/Navigation action types.

AI 🤖

AI possibilities are constantly expanding within UI Bakery. AI Assistant has been evolving throughout the year, elevating your interactions with suggestions, chat context, and history, smart code generation, and more! The UI Bakery AI data source brought a more straightforward and efficient AI experience to your fingertips! More is yet to come! 

Data Sources 📀

In addition to several new data sources introduced this year, we have shipped multiple enhancements and exciting features. From a sample Postgres database to instance APIs and the UI Bakery AI data source, these updates make processing your data effortless.

For faster connections and improved performance, we’ve added the ability to set up outbound regions for data sources.

Finally, the UI Bakery Database offers a robust, fully-hosted database solution, leveraging the power and flexibility of PostgreSQL. Designed to streamline database management and integration within UI Bakery applications, this feature empowers developers to create, modify, and interact with databases directly through an intuitive interface.

Components 🏗️

The components family has welcomed 10 new members this year, expanding your UI-building possibilities. Chat components, avatars, sidebars, composite forms, and flex containers — you name it!

We’ve also focused on improving the developer experience with components. That’s why we introduced the updated App Structure menu. With a clean and intuitive tree view, the new App Structure makes it easier to find all your components.

But that’s not all! We’ve added a Usages feature for components, making it easier to track where a specific component is used—whether in other components or actions.

Security and Access Control 🔑

We value the security of your data. This year, we took significant steps to enhance security:

- MFA: Multi-factor authentication was introduced on the cloud version.

- New Permissions: To offer more flexibility in managing your team and controlling who can create new apps or data sources, we’ve added two new roles: *Can Create App* and *Can Create Data Source*.

- Redirect URL: To ensure users are guided to the right place, you can now specify an exact redirect URL for a smooth and personalized entry.

Developer Experience (DX) 💻

Developer experience is one of our top priorities. Here’s what we’ve done to take it to the next level 🚀:

- The Command Palette serves as a centralized interface for executing commands, searching for functionality, and navigating the application efficiently.

- The ability to resize the code modal window improves the overall building experience by allowing flexible resizing from any side, opening centrally with a default size for consistency, and enforcing a minimum size to prevent display issues.

- The AI Assistant has been evolving continuously, offering even more assistance possibilities.

Learning Resources 📚

We aim to make your learning journey as smooth as possible, so we’ve enhanced our learning resources! 🤓

- UI Bakery Community: We’ve launched the UI Bakery Community, and it’s thriving! Members consult each other, share ideas, and help those seeking assistance. Thank you for your contributions! If you’re not a member yet, please join us.

- Documentation Redesign: We’ve begun a major overhaul of our documentation. So far, we’ve simplified the structure, updated the Get Started guide, released a new intro video, and refreshed the content. More updates are coming, so stay tuned and let us know if any crucial information is missing.

Part 2. Who is there behind the scenes?

New team members 👨🏻‍💻👩🏼‍💻👩🏻‍💻👩🏻‍💼

This year, we welcomed four new team members! Imagine the productivity boost 🚀:

- Adam joined the development team.

- Victoria became a tech writer in the support team.

- Marie and Dora joined the marketing team.

A big round of applause for them, and here’s to seeing our team grow even more!

Team meeting 🛶

While we are all working remotely distributed across Europe, we do not ever miss a chance to meet and enjoy each other’s company offsite. This year, we had adventures rafting across a Polish river and tasting local pierogi’s. As always, I’m leaving a picture of us (not everyone’s in the photo, but you can get the idea). Wondering where the next year will take us!

Part 3. What’s coming next? 🔮

We’re thrilled to share a sneak peek into what’s coming next for our platform!  

- Module Enhancements: We’re updating our modules to make them faster, more efficient, and fully independent of iframes.  

- AI Advancements: Expect smarter and more powerful AI capabilities as we continue to push the boundaries of innovation.  

- Improved Developer Experience (DX): We’re doubling down on making development with our platform smoother, more intuitive, and enjoyable.  

- New Components & Data Sources: Fresh components and integrations with new data sources are on the way to expand what you can build with us.  

Stay tuned—exciting changes are just around the corner!