Changes and Updates

A changelog of Materials Project (MP) updates to the website, documentation, database, and API.

The Materials Project is an active, academic research project. Changes are common as new research methods become available, and the quality and kind of data we present changes, and also as a result of organizational needs. This page summarizes major changes in different aspects of the Materials Project.

Upcoming Changes

This documentation will continue to be improved. New documentation is currently being written for each of the Materials Project "apps". Some pages may be blank until this is completed.

Previous Changes

Database

The Materials Project database is constantly evolving as new and better calculations become available, both as a result of new features and better methods, and also as errors or problems are identified and fixed.

See the following documentation page for a list of changes to the Materials Project database:

Database Versions

API

The Materials Project API has recently undergone a significant modernization effort. The new Materials Project website is exclusively powered by this API.

See the following documentation page for more information:

Differences between new and legacy API

Website

The Materials Project has recently undergone a major change in its website architecture. More information on this can be seen in the release announcement.

It is recommended that the URL https://materialsproject.org is used as the primary location of the Materials Project website, however a specific website version can be visited via the following links:

• https://next-gen.materialsproject.org will always take visitors to the latest Materials Project website with the newest database version available.

• https://legacy.materialsproject.org will take visitors to a frozen snapshot of the older Materials Project website. This is powered by an older version of the database with known issues. The legacy website is being left online for some time as we fully transition to the next-gen website, and to allow users time to make any adjustments as necessary for features that may only be available on the legacy website, however the legacy website will be taken offline in due course.

See the website changelog for a detailed list of recent changes:

Website Changelog

Documentation

The Materials Project documentation has gone through several iterations, powered previously by MediaWiki and MkDocs software. The current version is powered by GitBook. This switch was made to allow more easy and rapid changes to the documentation, in the hopes of ensuring documentation is maintained at a consistent, high quality.

The current documentation is also available via GitHub at https://github.com/materialsproject/public-docs. Edits and improvements from external users are very welcome, please submit a "pull request" with any suggest change or use the "Edit in GitHub" button on the relevant page.

The previous MkDocs documentation is still available for the historical record, and the older MediaWiki documentation are currently offline but available on request. However, the current version of the documentation should contain all necessary information including historical information. An effort has been made to ensure URLs remain the same during the transition from the previous MkDocs-powered documentation to the new GitBook-powered documentation.