I’m seeing that file/image URLs have recently changed from…
to…
https://appsubdomain.backendless.app/api/files/…
My app saves/stores file/image URLs in some cases, mostly in the old format at the moment.
Could you please share when and why the change was done and what is recommended we consider valid going forward? Will the old format become unsupported at some point?
This is a great question, @Marc_Chriqui. The “backendlessappcontent.com” is a domain we used to use for addressing entities in the file space. The URL of a file or directory includes the application ID and that is how we know what application’s file storage we should perform the operation on.
Since the domain is shared by all apps, it is prone to cause problems for everyone who uses it when a malicious user uploads some illegal content. For instance, we have had instances of “developers” uploading phishing pages to their file storage. Even though our system detects these pages rather quickly, (and subsequently blocks the content authors and deletes the entire apps), it is still possible that Internet providers may catch that content too and penalize the entire domain for hosting it. As a result, it is possible that completely innocent users may be getting the “Dangerous site ahead” warning in a browser when navigating to their files.
The “appsubdomain.backendless.app” approach removes that possibility. The subdomains create enough sandboxing where malicious actions of one will not impact many others.
We will keep the old format for some time, however, it is possible it will be going away entirely at some point.
Regards,
Mark