We&#39;re always striving to make the job of the developer and content editor faster and easier. &nbsp;With this in mind, we&#39;ve just released the ability to add thumbnail images to your Bucket.To add a thumbnail image to your Bucket simply go to your Bucket media area and select the settings button on your media row, then click Set as Bucket Thumbnail.<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/a886b2f0-e9d3-11e6-9628-83477a068e37-cosmicjs-thumbnail.gif" style="width: 100%;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">For our users with a growing list of Buckets, this small change really makes it easier to spot the Bucket that you want to edit.If you have any questions, please reach out to us in <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community">our Slack channel</a>, or on <a href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.

Now Add Your Bucket Thumbnail

We&#39;ve just rolled out a feature for Admins and Developers to be able to preview the Object editing experience for Editors. To use the new feature, simply navigate to your Cosmic Dashboard and click to edit any existing Object. &nbsp;You will notice that you now have a toggle switch to switch between Developer and Editor views. Simply toggle the switch from Developer to Editor to view the Object through the eyes of the Editor Role. You&#39;ll notice items such as the API endpoint and Metafields options disappear, allowing Editors to remain focused on content management.&nbsp;<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/637b2af0-e713-11e6-be97-77f6c79ba651-6eRFLE7CPJ.gif" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Toggling between Developer and Editor can help you visualize what your team members will see in the Cosmic Dashboard once they receive access to your bucket. You can easily set up User Roles within the Users Tab, and now you can even see User Roles Previews from the Object Toggle.&nbsp;<section><article><a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a> is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. If you have questions about the Cosmic API, please reach out to the founders on <a data-href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a> or <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack</a>.<a data-href="https://twitter.com/carsoncgibbons" href="https://twitter.com/carsoncgibbons" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Carson Gibbons</a> is the Co-Founder &amp; CMO of <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a>, an API-first Cloud-based <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Content Management Platform</a> that decouples content from code, allowing devs to build slick apps and websites in any programming language they want.</article></section>

Developer and Editor Toggle Views Now Available

Cosmic, an API-first cloud-based CMS API, is debuting its <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/pricing" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">new pricing and service tiers</a> for Enterprise teams. Built for the speed of business, the new tier combines all of the great <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/features" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">features</a> found on paid tiers within the platform plus enterprise-level features such as Automatic Backups, Dedicated Infrastructure and coverage by our <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/service-level-agreement" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Enterprise-class SLA</a>. <img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/bd2b61f0-e34e-11e6-ab4d-a938dc04426d-cosmicjs-enterprise.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable"> <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a> is debuting the new product tier at the request of corporations and government agencies looking to transition their content management stacks from legacy installed systems to cloud-based content delivery via <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CMS API</a>.&nbsp;Enterprise plans remain flexible for a la carte additions to be scoped on an individual basis. Clients will have expanded use of the CMS API and data storage, plus premium support from the Cosmic Enterprise Team. For more information on Enterprise Plans with Cosmic, <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/contact?subject=Enterprise%20Pricing" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">contact us today</a>.&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a> is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. If you have questions about the Cosmic API, please reach out to the founders on <a data-href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a> or <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack</a>.

Introducing Cosmic Enterprise: Built for Business

<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://cosmicjs.imgix.net/da1c3f60-d826-11e6-b099-e138cf5cca95-shutterstock_503352379.jpg?w=1200" style="width: 100%;">This week <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/apps/email-capture/demo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a> debuted its 4th User Type: Contributor. We wrote about it in <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/contributor-role-now-available" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">yesterday&#39;s blog</a> and are now publishing this blog to detail all four role types within the Cosmic Dashboard: Admin | Developer | Editor | Contributor.&nbsp;User types is a crucial feature set for any cloud-based CMS, and we have accrued these role types based on our &quot;Build | Measure | Learn&quot; approach to our iterative feedback loop when talking to users who have signed up for the platform. We originally
presented the platform with three options (Admin, Developer, Editor). We heard many use case scenarios in which an Admin or Editor would want to extend a Contributor role to someone simply for drafting purposes.&nbsp;Admin You own it, you&#39;re probably paying for it, and you have the ultimate control. Add a Bucket, Delete a Bucket, Add Users, Download Buckets, you get the keys to the kingdom. This role type is generally an Agency Principal, Project Manager Lead, Lead
Developer and similar role types that would oversee a web application build.Adding an Admin<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/40bce460-d816-11e6-b1e2-9d75e802ed6b-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%209.52.31%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Admin CMS View<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/4372f4f0-d81c-11e6-b078-535e435f4ad7-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%2010.37.22%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Developer The keys to the API kingdom are yours. Build applications, upgrade buckets and track usage. The developer has access to everything that an Admin does, with the exception of access to Settings.&nbsp;Add a Developer<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/460ff5b0-d816-11e6-b1e2-9d75e802ed6b-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%209.52.15%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Developer CMS View<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/5f1179c0-d821-11e6-a98f-d5b9b9535728-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%2011.13.13%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Editor The Editor Role is similar to a Contributor Role in that you can add and draft content, but also have authorization to publish content, delete content and oversee the bucket&#39;s content as a whole. As a frame of reference, I am an Editor for Cosmic
JS and can easily login, draft and publish blog posts without the confusion of Admin and Developer features being present.Add an Editor<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/49c77f70-d816-11e6-b1e2-9d75e802ed6b-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%209.52.47%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Editor CMS View<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/07b90a30-d81c-11e6-b078-535e435f4ad7-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%2010.35.42%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Contributor Feel free to contribute, but that&#39;s about it. Once you&#39;ve been granted access to a bucket, you can draft content for review by an Editor, Admin or Developer on your Bucket.Add a Contributor<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/4e5ff350-d816-11e6-b1e2-9d75e802ed6b-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%209.53.04%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Contributor CMS View<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/39ffdea0-d81d-11e6-a98f-d5b9b9535728-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%2010.43.36%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Bucket Users Overview<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/dafe5870-d81a-11e6-8041-6d95c1ba5322-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%2010.27.03%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable">Editing a Bucket User&#39;s Contributor Role<img src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/bb10a420-d81d-11e6-8041-6d95c1ba5322-Screen%20Shot%202017-01-11%20at%2010.47.36%20AM.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable"><a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a> makes it easy to clarify even which portions of your bucket are applicable for Contributor access and viewing. If I am a Bucket Admin and have a freelance writer on assignment for a blog, I can extend a Contributor Role to said person for the &quot;Posts&quot; within my Bucket so that he or she can draft blog posts for my review.&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a> is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. If you have questions about the Cosmic API, please reach out to the founders on <a data-href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a> or <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack</a>.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/carsoncgibbons" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Carson Gibbons</a> is the Co-Founder &amp; CMO of <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a>, an API-first Cloud-based <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Content Management Platform</a> that decouples content from code, allowing devs to build slick apps and websites in any programming language they want.

Managing Users Who Manage Content

<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/e3ea31b0-d73a-11e6-b1e2-9d75e802ed6b-collaborators.jpg" style="width: 100%;">Today we are announcing a new role, Contributor, which gives you the power to collaborate on content in an entirely new way.An admin can invite contributors to do the following:<ol><li>Add content to a specific Object Type.</li><li>Add and edit their own content within a&nbsp;specific Object Type.</li><li>Save own content as Draft.</li></ol>This allows admins the ability to create publications with featured authors and control what content gets published. &nbsp;We&rsquo;re really excited to announce this new feature and hope you enjoy the added collaboration power it offers.<h3>Try it Out</h3>1. <a href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/login">Login to your Cosmic account</a> 2. Select Your Bucket and go to Your Bucket &gt; Users 3. Add a user with the Contributor role (You must have at least one Object Type added to your Bucket)<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/adb90530-d5f0-11e6-a387-116b3bc64660-Screen Shot 2017-01-08 at 4.11.52 PM.png" style="width: 600px;"> What the new contributor sees:<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/0e5f71b0-d607-11e6-a571-1b2cfa88b795-contributor-view.png" style="width: 100%;">If you have any questions, please reach out to us on&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" target="_blank">our Slack Channel</a>&nbsp;or <a data-href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">on Twitter</a>.

Contributor Role Now Available

<h3 name="2e47"><img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://cosmicjs.imgix.net/a8c94f80-d672-11e6-aaa6-adf5ed44fea0-api-cms-agencies.jpeg" style="width: 100%;"></h3><h3 name="2e47">Age Old Issue: Speed | Quality | Cost</h3>The golden triangle of project success or failure rests on the three angles of A) Speed B) Quality C) Cost. When it comes to interactive agencies, they may be promising (at best) two of the three triangle points, but how likely are they to fulfill that promise? Speed + Cost naturally rules out Quality, right? And Quality naturally rules out cost if speed is at all involved. In my former life of scoping projects for an interactive agency, clients who had hard deadlines for app launches would be charged more. Clients whose websites served as their brick and mortar needed extremely high-quality work, which affected speed and cost. This is true in at least the old working model of installed content management systems, but the Golden Triangle doesn&rsquo;t take into account agencies that are managing websites and applications using a <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CMS API</a>.We wrote a blog awhile back titled&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/the-cosmic-stack" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/the-cosmic-stack" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Cosmic Stack</a>. The article details how developers bypass the installed Content Management System + Web Hosting process for the apps and websites they are building. When you use <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a>&nbsp;as your CMS API, your application stack is simplified down to the <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic CMS API</a>&nbsp;and a code repository.<figure name="8cd0"><img data-src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*wr81QlzrxTio4ud_.jpg" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*wr81QlzrxTio4ud_.jpg" class="fr-dii fr-draggable"></figure><h3 name="5d58">Speed</h3>By removing the client-side server from the application stack, speed is &lsquo;sped up&rsquo; immensely simply from the dynamics of your new content management stack. Depending on how you decide to build your new application, speed has been seen to almost double in certain cases (according to <a data-href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/" href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PageSpeed Insights</a>&nbsp;from
Google Dev). Recently we measured a legacy WordPress website on its installed content management system. It ranked at a 50 on a scale of 100 when summoned from its content box and myriad of servers. That same website built on Cosmic ended up being
ranked at a 94.<h3 name="ec27">Quality</h3>Quality isn&rsquo;t compromised! Because Cosmic works by decoupling content from code, you don&rsquo;t sacrifice on either side. A CMS API simply saves time and bandwidth by delivering content seamlessly through the powerful Cosmic CMS API, which
delivers JSON particles to any web-connected device, regardless of your application&rsquo;s programming language. Your pages are rendered with the original code and the updated content, but never compromises the quality of the interactive application
you have built.<h3 name="5aeb">Cost</h3>Agencies typically bill out on either a project basis (total # of estimated hours X billable rate) or retainer basis (total # of agreed monthly hours X discounted billable rate). Because developers no longer have to build out a backend Content Management System on top of an antiquated installed legacy system, many devs report a time savings of up to 75% of their original project timeline estimates. That saves the client money, which saves the agency money. As far as the cost of using a CMS API, billing is largely a la carte. Cosmic costs on a usage basis, as well as a la carte add-on items that devs can use if needed. For a full view of Cosmic pricing, visit our <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/pricing" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/pricing" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pricing Page</a>.<h3 name="c414">Helpful Resources</h3><a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cosmic</a>&nbsp;is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. If you have questions about the Cosmic API, please reach out to the founders on <a data-href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>&nbsp;or <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slack</a>.To read more about how developers are using the Cosmic CMS API to build slicks apps and websites, read our Developer Spotlight Series with 1)&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/developer-spotlight-jon-bloomer" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/developer-spotlight-jon-bloomer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jon Bloomer</a> 2)&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/developer-spotlight-simple-media" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/developer-spotlight-simple-media" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Simple Media</a>.

Three Reasons Why Agencies Should be Using a CMS API

<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://cosmicjs.imgix.net/60773620-d672-11e6-ac82-ab09b95743ae-coding-dojo.jpg" style="width: 100%;">We&rsquo;ve recently been publishing articles in our Cosmic <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/developer-spotlight-joe-tuson" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog/developer-spotlight-joe-tuson" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Developer Spotlight Series</a>, the series that documents how developers are using the&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Cosmic CMS API</a> all around the world.&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Cosmic</a> has one main goal through the use of its JSON API: to make the developer Hero. In that effort, Cosmic is announcing its partnership with the Dallas branch of the developer bootcamp&nbsp;<a data-href="http://www.codingdojo.com/" href="http://www.codingdojo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Coding Dojo</a>, a 14-week program that educates a class of Dallas-based developers in three development stacks. <figure name="5bed"><img data-src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*bpBkLJQNTiHP4Jnk.png" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/0*bpBkLJQNTiHP4Jnk.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable"></figure><figure name="5bed"> </figure><figure name="5bed">Coding Dojo provides curriculum, software, hardware, instructors, class sessions, conference rooms, thought-leadership and networking events as part of its added-value to its students and community. They also partner with organizations that would hire
its students upon graduation. Coding Dojo boasts a 94% placement of its trained developers within 6 months of graduation, and feeds talent into programs like Amazon, Chase, Disney, Microsoft, Google and Expedia through its alumni partnerships.</figure> <figure data-scroll="native" name="8e9d"><img data-src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*qpoC0u1kdTqJkhDr.png" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*qpoC0u1kdTqJkhDr.png" class="fr-dii fr-draggable"></figure> Coding Dojo and Cosmic are partnering initially to present Cosmic co-founder &amp; CEO <a data-href="https://twitter.com/tonyspiro" href="https://twitter.com/tonyspiro" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Tony Spiro</a>&nbsp;as a thought leader host at an upcoming <a data-href="https://www.meetup.com/codingdojo-dallas/events/236267338/?fromJoin=236267338" href="https://www.meetup.com/codingdojo-dallas/events/236267338/?fromJoin=236267338" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Javascript in the Wild Meetup</a>.
Coding Dojo participants will get to network with Cosmic as well as other local thought leaders, and will then be invited to use a promo code to unlock Cosmic Credits as they start developing test buckets. Students will be encouraged to utilize
the&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Cosmic CMS API&nbsp;</a>to satisfy coursework, as well as for personal use and exploration as individual and
group projects take shape throughout the 14-week program. A month after the initial networking session, the Cosmic team will return to Coding Dojo to follow up on all students that have taken advantage of the promo code to further explore the Cosmic
JS CMS API, provide an in-depth demo and facilitate a Q/A session. The event, promo code and subsequent demo is delivered to Coding Dojo students in the MEAN Stack section of their course.We will continue to document this partnership in our&nbsp;<a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/blog" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Developer Spotlight Series</a>, and are looking forward
to providing real-world use-case scenarios faced by junior developers today.

Developer Spotlight: Coding Dojo

<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://cosmicjs.imgix.net/e7b97b80-d671-11e6-ac82-ab09b95743ae-joe-tuson.jpg" style="width: 100%;">Developers are the star of the show when it comes to building great apps using <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cosmic</a>. Like every great musician, each developer is different in their approach and style. In our Developer Spotlight Series we shine a light on the creative process of a developer using
Cosmic to create content-powered apps. This spotlight features&nbsp;<a data-href="http://www.tuson.co/#/" href="http://www.tuson.co/#/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Joe Tuson</a>, a front-end web developer out of the UK.Cosmic: How long have you been building software? Joe: Around 5 and a half years. I took a leap of faith and transitioned into web-dev/software from Architecture/Design Engineering in 2011. I learned to code on the job pulling my weight as a graphic designer until I could take on client projects with a LAMP stack.What is your preferred development stack? Nooo! Don&rsquo;t make me pick one&hellip;!&nbsp;:P I love different stacks for different reasons, and I just get a deep visceral satisfaction when matching projects with the most appropriate stack. Fundamentally, I do tend to gravitate towards Ruby on
Rails for the heavier, more complex projects, and Node.js for the punchier, lightweight ones. However, common threads will always be:<ul><li name="a69e">Trello (Project &amp; task management)</li><li name="82f2">Sublime Text (IDE)</li><li name="2c1a">SASS</li><li name="8d35">ES6</li><li name="5a2a">Git</li></ul>If I were ninja enough I would probably add React/Redux to this list, as I love how it works and what it can do, but as yet I have not cut my teeth using them on any real projects to include it among my core skills.Tony&rsquo;s noticed that a lot of software developers are musicians (like him). You are musician as well, correct? What do you think the correlation is between music and software? How do you know?? Have you been following me? It&rsquo;s an interesting one, because having asked other musician/devs I get a different answer every time. Both pursuits are fundamentally creative, therefore I think for me it&rsquo;s having the power to
create something from nothing, and&nbsp;always having something to work towards. If there is one thing I&rsquo;m sure about, with development I will never be satisfied, and will always be inspired to learn something new. The feeling of overcoming a problem or mastering a riff &mdash; that moment of realisation when it clicks is addictive as heck.Can you talk a little about why you chose Cosmic as your CMS and how it fits into your development process? Cosmic really is a breath of fresh air &mdash; both for me and my clients. One thing I hate most is opinionated tools; ones that refuse to let you work how you want. Developers themselves are inherently opinionated creatures anyway, so I don&rsquo;t want
to have to butt-heads with a CMS that promises the world&hellip; but only if you know *this* funky language, and conform to *that* framework, and oh, your app is failing because the CMS can&rsquo;t find some illegible config file in some deep dark directory &mdash; &mdash;
oh but guess what &mdash; not the one you&rsquo;re thinking, that would be way too easy. By the way, you just broke something else because you updated your DB software&hellip; *sigh. Ok &mdash; but surely it will be worth it in the end because although
the learning curve is steep, there will be performance gains..?? Erm&hellip; not always.I found Cosmic removes those, and many other headaches by *just working*, right out the box. Plus, it is blazingly fast. The sheer relief I felt when I realised I could just get on with coding my clients&rsquo; app the way I wanted to, without making
compromises, with a bespoke stack tailored to the use case &mdash; &mdash; pure catharsis. I was like a kid in a sweet shop (or a guitarist in a guitar shop&nbsp;;) )How could it not fit into my development process? &mdash; it&rsquo;s a simple API-driven content delivery service that is as powerful and flexible as you need it to be. Sure &mdash; when you begin a project you&rsquo;re probably not going to end up using
it exactly the way you initially intended, but what project *ever* doesn&rsquo;t evolve and grow to fit the clients&rsquo; changing needs? I found that every time the goal posts changed, Cosmic was able to respond gracefully in a way that didn&rsquo;t
compromise best-practice, while still having satisfied my client.Can you talk a little about how you think Cosmic helps your team and your clients? As a freelancer, my team is just me. However, using Cosmic helps me by providing the muscle power of a full-stack team covering all bases; databasing, hosting, content/asset delivery, as well as the CMS. This allows me to focus on front-end, spending
more time polishing my speciality and less time scratching my head while chewing up budget with config, backend, and working out how the heck I&rsquo;m going to reliably deliver complex asset resources for todays multi-platform web.From a client&rsquo;s point of view it has a very intuitive UI with all the familiarity of most common CMS tools, but without the huge learning curve or set up cost. When there was confusion, I found I never had to explain anything twice. Plus &mdash; Tony
and the Cosmic team provide absolutely *sterling* technical help. Furthermore, it&rsquo;s incredibly priced, so it&rsquo;s a no-brainer and an easy sell when pitching to the client.What are some technologies you are excited about that you are using today, or want to learn more about? Gosh &mdash; I suppose I ought to say WebGL, virtual reality, machine learning, and some sort of big data web-universe. But to be honest I&rsquo;m not, as clever as they are. I still get most excited about clever tools that solve simple problems well.
I believe React.js and its peripheral technologies have some serious legs and I&rsquo;m looking forward to mastering them. I&rsquo;ve also heard whispers about terms like &ldquo;Universal Apps&rdquo; where a single code base, probably HTML5, serves all
platforms and can take advantage of native services &amp; hardware acceleration; build something once and watch it flourish on any &amp; every device. Unfortunately I don&rsquo;t see this gaining real traction for a while yet. I also get excited about
the Internet of Things and would love to spend some real time getting to grips with the crossover between mechatronics, UI and real-time. More simply &mdash; I am excited to see what the advent of HTTP/2 brings, and how that will further catalyse the
single-page app movement.

Developer Spotlight: Joe Tuson

<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://www.cosmicjs.com/uploads/88f2bdb0-c603-11e6-90d5-47a447a38682-meta-laptop.jpg" style="width: 100%;">Extendible Objects is one of the most powerful features of Cosmic. &nbsp;And this powerful feature just became more intuitive with a new property added to all endpoint responses: Metadata.The new Metadata property provides you with the quickest way to get the value from your Metafields. &nbsp;It gives you the key / value pair for the extended data on your Object. &nbsp;For example, before you had to go into Metafields to get values, and this required you to sort through the array of Metafields. Now you would simply go into Metadata to get the value.<h3>Metafields = Form Building, Metadata = Value Fetching</h3>Metafields is the way the form is rendered in the Cosmic Dashboard and includes <code>title</code>, <code>key</code> and <code>type</code>. &nbsp;Metadata extracts only the value of the data that you need. &nbsp;Metafields are still available on every endpoint, but now you can hide them by adding <code>hide_metafields=true</code> to the end of your endpoint URL. &nbsp;This will be the default behavior for future major API releases.<img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://cosmicjs.imgix.net/51c9e1e0-c605-11e6-90d5-47a447a38682-meta-display.jpg?w=2000" style="width: 100%;"><img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://cosmicjs.imgix.net/ac70ab60-c605-11e6-90d5-47a447a38682-metadata.jpg?w=1200" style="width: 600px;"><h3>Benefits</h3>With Metadata available on all Cosmic API endpoints, building and extending your content is faster and easier than ever before. Plus each endpoint has a much smaller data payload with Metafields hidden. If you have any questions, please reach out to us on <a data-href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" href="https://www.cosmicjs.com/community" target="_blank">our Slack Channel</a> or <a data-href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" href="https://twitter.com/cosmic_js" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">on Twitter</a>.

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