Software Changes

• Adding support for authenticating users defined in a local accounts database against accounts on a POP mail server
• Adding "logout" link for users logged in via a local accounts database

• Fixing problems with copying and pasting linked figures on the whiteboard.
• Fixing problems with initial window size being too small when an object is opened via invitation. (You can invite somebody to share an object by dragging it from the explorer window onto a name in the users list.)

• Another attempt at fixing problems with disappearing text on the drawing tool.

• Fixing problem with text duplication when editing pages via the text editor. The root of the problem was curly ("smart") quotes in text, typically in cases where text was pasted from Microsoft Word or some other external program. Such quotes are now automatically "dumbed down" to normal (straight) quotes.

• Another attempt at fixing startup map size on MOO objects

• Adding a first attempt at indicating when users are typing a chat message
• Disabling auto-scroll on chat transcripts unless the transcript is already scrolled to the end. This should allow you to review a "live" transcript without having it jump to the end when new messages arrive.
• Ignoring the return (or enter) key when entering a chat message unless it occurs at the end of the message.

• Fixing repaint glitches on startup unser OSX 10.3
• Updating user list more quickly when status or idle times change
• Fixing Calendar font problems
• Fixing intermmitant problem with chat invitations not being delivered

• Fixing problem with idle time not being updated for users logged into Workspace objects
• Making data table (and related object) column headings visible under OSX 10.3
• Adding the ability to initiate chats with users who are just logged into Workspaces or MOOs
• Fixing problem with idle status changing to "active" when a chat invitation is received (and a chat window opened)
• Updating items under the Explorer's File menu when objects are renamed
• Adding syntax highlighting to calendar fields. Wiki-style tags will now be highlighted as they would be in a text object.

• Fixing problem with old versions of chat transcripts having incorrect dates
• Fixing problem with launching full editor from site contents listing on the Mac

• Adding idle time and status indication to the user list. You can use the "Status..." button on the user list to enter a status message that will appear with your name in the user list, e.g., "in class", "be right back", etc...
• Adding "Disable 'Site contents' listing" option to the "Folder Options" tab. If this is turned on, users will not be able to get a listing of objects by clicking on the "Site contents" link at the bottom of a web page. (You can still see the list of objects in the full editor, and can get to any object on the web in you enter its URL. This option simply prevents web users from discovering objects by browsing site contents.)

• Fixing problem with editing "all day" events in the calendar from the web editor
• Fixing problem with "continue editing" checkbox in calendar web editor not working
• Adding support for making timelines, moos, and other "large" objects open to near-full-screen size by default
• Fixing problem with timeline announcments not showing up at full size
• Fixing problem with timeline icons not showing up until a different week is selected

• Fixing problem with multi-line captions in Object Albums

• Adding support for shorthand tags in Object Album captions

• Adding support for "direct editing" of parts of various objects. For example, text fields in page format objects can now be edited directly, without a modal dialog being opened.
• Fixing problem with adjusting the divider between folder tree and object list on the "Exploring..." window.

• Fixing problem with cut/copy/paste not working on calendar item dialog.

• Fixing problem with web page background images.
• Fixing intermittant problems with setting permissions from the Exploring window
• Numerous map updates. (More info on this coming soon.)

• Adding ".jnlp" extension to the name of the file that gets downloaded when you click the "Full Editor" link. This should help out some browsers (like Safari on the Mac) that don't recognize these files without an extension.
• Fixing various small file upload issues (incorrect timestamps, intermittant problems when uploading a folder)
• Fixing problem that prevented windows from being resized to a width smaller than the URL at the bottom of the window

• Field checking added to the calendar web editor. Invalid dates and empty fields will prevent a calendar object from being updated.

• Fixing intermitant web editor failures
• Reloading editor after converting an uploaded file

• Changing template objects to use the correct header/footer/sidebar objects when used in remote directories
• Fixing problem with converting uploaded text files

• Fixing problem with links to external sites with URLs that include ?'s
• Fixing various problems with editing calendars on the web
• Adding option on the data table to set the number of digits to display on cells with computed values
• Fixing problem with computed cells in data tables not updating immediately when dependent cells change

• Fixing problems with editing calendars from the web. Morning hours are correct now, and an error is shown on attempts to edit calendars that a given user does not have write permissions for. (The latter fix was also made for the data table web editor.)
• Adding popup menu to the URL label at the bottom of each editor window in the Full Editor. From this menu you can open the url in a web browser or copy it to the clipboard.

• Adding more functions to the data table: AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, POWER, PI, E, LOG, LOG10, IF, TRUE, FALSE, NOT, AND, and OR. These should work the same way they do in Excel.
• Adding support for subscribing to calendar objects from Apple's iCal calendar software, and in theory, similar calendar tools from Netscape and Microsoft. Only iCal has been tested so far. To subscribe to a calendar (in iCal), choose "Subscribe" from iCal's "Calendar" menu, then enter the URL for your calendar object, e.g. "http://teacherbridge.cs.vt.edu/public/Calendar". We will post more detailed instructions after we have tested this feature with other calendar tools.

• First draft of support for formulas in the Data Table tool. Any cell with a value that starts with "=" will be evaluated as a formula. The following functions are supported: SIN, COS, TAN, ASIN, ACOS, ATAN, SINH, COSH, TANH, ASINH, ACOSH, ATANH, LOG, LN, SQRT, ABS, and SUM, along with the +, *, -, /, and ^ operators. If other functions are needed please let us know.

• Adding support for editing Calendar objects from the web. You can either follow the "Web Editor" link at the bottom of the full-window view of a calendard, or follow the "Site contents" link from any page in the same site as the calendar and then click the "Edit" link next to the name of the Calendar object.

• Fixing problem with v's and c's intermittantly appearing when pasting into and copying from data tables
• Fixing problem with editing empty tables from the web
• Adding support for editing formula objects from the web

• Adding progress window on file upload.
• Adding "Drawing Palette" menu item to whiteboard tool.

• Switching to a multi-column view in the "Exploring" window. Objects can be sorted by clicking on the column header.
• Fixing drag problems on the Mac. Dragging an object no longer results in a huge image being generated.

• First draft of support for editing tables from the web. To do this, click the "Site contents" link at the bottom a page in the same site as the table, then click the "Edit" link next to the name of the table. We will be adding an easier way to get to this, and will also give more control over how what part of the table is editable. (Currently the entire table is editable, with 2 rows and 2 columns added to the edges.)

• Versioning fixes:
  • Fixing problem with changes being incorrected attributed to "guest"
  • Adding "Last modified at ... by ..." to the bottom of each web page
  • Minor user interface fixes to the version browser in the full editor. (Choose "Version history..." from the "File" menu of any open object in the full editor to browse old versions.)
• Drawing tool fixes:
  • Fixed connected text tool
  • Fixed problem with drawings that are embedded in themselves. (Doing this -- adding an image of the drawing itself -- is still a bad idea, but it will no longer take down the server.)
  • Fixed problem with editable text field not going away when editing a text object

• Fixing problem with discussion auto-logout on Internet Explorer

• Fixing reset password link
• Adding check to ensure that windows opened on a workspace are actually visible. (This can be a problem if a user with a large monitor opens a workspace and moves windows to a corner where it would not be visible to a user with a smaller monitor.)
• Adding option to automatically log users out from a discussion after they have posted a message. [Note: This feature does not appear to work on all browsers. Specifically, it does not work on some version of Internet Explorer. We'll get this fixed shortly.]
• Adding option for using short dates on calendars embedded in web pages. This should make it easier to fit event lists in sidebars.

• Adding "Version history..." menu item under the File menu in the full editor. This will let you browse old versions of an object.
• Keyboard shortcuts for "Delete" and "Edit Permissions..."
• Adding support for selecting and deleting multiple objects at the same time
• Fixing problem with uploading directories under Windows
• Adding option to calendar to show all events on the large grid view on the web

• Better support for letting web browsers cache content from the teacherbridge server. For example, pages with uploaded images should now reload more quickly.

• Fixing problem with "page contains no data" errors when editing pages (using the "Web Editor" link) from Netscape on Windows.

• Adding support for logging out from the web editor. This is still a little clunky, but should work on most browsers. "Logout" links now appear on text pages and chats.
• Fixing problem with chats not reloading properly when edited from the web.
• Moving "Send" button on wide chats in the full editor.

• Fixing various problems with editing repeating calendar events

• Adding support for specifying a "Repeat Until" date on calendar items. (This has not yet been thoroughly tested.)
• Fixing layout problems with concept map tools.

• Adding first draft of enhanced support for font control in template objects. You can now specify "hover" and "active" color for links. The hover color is used when the mouse is over a link, and the active color is used when the mouse has been pressed but not released. Experimental options for default font size and family have also been added, though these will be enhanced in the near future to allow selection from a set of standard font groups that are likely to work on a wide range of browsers.

• Fixing problems with uploading files from student accounts.
• Fixing problem with versioning of uploaded files. If you replace the content of an uploaded file, the old content is saved as a version.
• Adding support for viewing old versions of objects other than text pages. You can now view old versions of drawings, files, and other objects from the web by clicking on "Site Contents" at the bottom of a web page and then choosing the "History" link for the object you are interested in.
• Minor calendar changes. (Fixed problem with viewing December events on the web, and adding support for using shorthand tags in item names.)

• Added chat configuration options (in the full editor, go to "Chat Configuration..." under the "Chat" menu) to give more control over how chats appear on the web. You can now set the number of messages that are visible in the center panel of an ongoing chat, and can also choose to show part or all of the chat transcript when a chat is embedded in another page.
• Fixed support for retrieving old versions of chats from the web. When you clear a chat, the old contents are saved before the transcript is cleared. To get to these you can click on the "Site contents" link of a page in the same site as the chat, find the chat object in the listing, and then click the "History" link for the chat. (More ways to get to old versions of objects will be added in the future.)
• Fixed various problems with links and templates in the threaded Discussion objects
• Added the option (in the full editor) to hide a message and its responses when a discussion is viewed from the web.
• Added configuration options to the discussion tool (in the full editor, go to "Discussion Configuration..." under the "Discussion" menu) that allow you to specify how much of the discussion is shown on the web view. You can also turn off the header information on the top-level message when the discussion is embedded in another page.

• Numerous changes (e.g., compression) to try to reduce bandwidth use.

• Fixed problem with accounts in accounts object inside a folder with restricted read permissions.

• First draft of support for undo/redo operations. These menu items (under the "Edit" menu) should now work for text documents.

• Attempted to fix problem with last chat message intermittantly not appearing when chat opens.
• Fixed problem with "Create new page..." buttons not appearing on unwritable directories.
• Added warning on web editor to discourage use of the browser's Back button to return to the form.

• First draft of support for merging text added through the web editor. This means that if you edit a page from the web while another user is editing the page (either in the web editor or the full editor), your changes will be merged with the other user's changes to the extent possible.
• Fixed problem with extra line being added to text objects embedded with backslashes.

• Fixed problem with blank/unclosable chat windows
• Fixed history problems on workspace objects

• Fixing problems with web view of chats:
  • Message list formatting is more compact
  • Chats which are readable (but not writable) by guests include a "login" link
  • It should no longer be necessary to repeatedly login when viewing a chat from a web brower under windows.

• Fixed problem with cursor offset issues and other problems when editing text on the drawing tool under windows
• Fixed various moo object problems (size problems at startup, starting location, resize behavior)
• Added login link on discussion web page

• Fixed problem with squished polygons in the drawing tool.
• Fixed problem with links to moo objects.
• Fixed various minor problems with editing discussions from the web.
• Added option to clear chat sessions.

• Added clipboard support to the data table object. It should be possible to copy and paste to and from Excel, though this probably needs more testing under Windows.
• Fixed various versioning problems.
• Added support for entering a path to an object to be linked or embedded on the drawing tool.
• Fixed problem with not being able to move to the next or previous year on the web version of the calendar.
• First drafts of simple "moo" object and student accounts object. Examples of these will be added soon.
• Fixed problems with copying discussion objects.

• Fixed support for converting restricted uploaded html files to editable text
• Fixed problem with not being able to change linked whiteboard objects. (Unfortunately this will only work for new objects.)
• Added "Open in web browser" menu item, as an alternative to double-clicking the url label.

• Fixed support for repeated items in the calendar tools
• Fixed problem with viewing calendar objects in Netscape

• Adding minimally usable version of a calendar object. An example is available that demonstrates the current functionality and describes some of the limitations of and problems with the initial version of the tool.

• Fixing several minor discussion problems (e.g., dates being improperly reset)
• Adding field for entering a name when adding a comment as a guest from the web. This is intended to give users of "public" discussions an easy way to identify themselves.
• Adding the ability to edit discussion messages from the web (previously you could add messages from the web, but could only edit existing messages in the Full Editor). You must be logged in to do this. Messages that have been modified include a link that says "This page was modified after creation". Clicking the link shows a list of previous versions.

• Adding a web counter object. See this examples/web counter for more details.

• Another attempt at Full Editor support behind the MCPS firewall
• Fixing problems with #'s in page names
• Adding more detail to permissions editor

• First attempt at supporting the Full Editor behind the MCPS firewall. More testing is needed and there are almost certainly still problems with this that we'll need to work out. We will be adding support in the near future for a more efficient mechanism that will cache data behind the firewall to improve performance.

• Log in window is now visible and accesible even when running behind other programs

• Fixed problem with OK and Cancel buttons not appearing on chart configuration dialog
• Fixed several obscure drawing tool bugs
• Added option for opening Workspace objects in separate windows

• More drawing tool changes (to better support annotation tasks):
  • Line width, cap, and joint style can now be set from a popup on the toolbar. Arrows will eventually appear in this popup, as well. (Currently arrows will not work properly if the line width is increased.)
  • Transparency of pen and fill colors can be adjusted.

• Several drawing tool changes:
  • Pen and fill colors can now be selected from the toolbar.
  • Added support for picking arbitrary colors (swatches for standard colors are still available).
  • Pen and fill colors are now remembered, so you can set the colors and then create multiple shapes with the same colors.
  • If you double-click on a tool, it will stay selected after you create a shape. This allows you to create multiple shapes of the same type without having to re-select the tool. A small green square will appear on the tool button when a tool is in this mode.

• Fixed problem with background image setting being lost.
• Trimming spaces from object names.

• Added first draft of a new "workspace" object. This will let users share a set of objects in such a way that they all see the same windows at the same positions, can easily tell who else is working in the workspace, and can chat with each other. Examples of using this object will appear on the examples page shortly.

• Fixed problem with web images of whiteboards, equations, and charts appearing "fuzzy"
• Fixed several data table and chart problems: Chart labels are now shown properly; if populated, column "A" now appears in web representation of tables; and table cells whose contents are numbers that start with "." or "-" are now aligned properly. See the table and chart examples for more details.

• Fixed problem with text in drawings intermittantly disappearing when viewed on the web.

• Fixed problem with broken links on embedded image maps from other sites. You should be able to embed an image like \/examples/map images/map sketch\ and the links will work properly.
• Added support for using backquotes (`) to make links that will open the named object in the full editor. Examples of how you might want to use this will appear shortly.
• (Hopefully) Fixed problem with files dragged into the full editor from the desktop not being closed properly, causing problems when the files are accessed from other programs.
• Added support for labelling axes on charts. Legend support will be added soon...

• Fixed problem with urls on chat windows
• Added "Last modified..." to popup on links. For some existing content in the system this will show creation date until the next modification.
• Added support for updating modification time and user on web edits

• Added support for automatically creating versions of pages or other objects created in the full editor. Old versions are still only available from the "History" link on each web page.
• Several chat and conference updates:
  • Beeping when new messages arrive if the chat window is not active
  • Adding URL to conference objects. (A "conference object" is an object that is shared by dragging it onto another user's name in the user list. More on this kind of sharing coming soon...)
  • Intermittant problems with duplicate chat entries should be fixed
  • New message formatting mechanism. Different users' messages are shaded differently.
  • Closed chats are re-opened when new messages arrive
• Added menu item for opening new "Exploring..." windows from the "Users" window
• Fixed problem with guests (un-logged-in users) appearing to be able to edit pages in restricted directories. Such changes were not actually being saved, but now the edit operation is correctly restricted.

• Fixed a number of problems with highlighting in the web page editor in the full client. Links that wrap lines, links to objects in other sites, and links to email addresses should no longer show up as errors -- they should only appear in red if there is really a problem with the link.

• Updated icons
• Fixed problem with relative links (e.g. *users/Home*)

• Added support for specifying whether page header and footer elements should appear inside of or on top/bottom of the sidebars.
• Fixed problem with conversion options being disabled for uploaded files. You should now be able to open text or html files that are uploaded into the full editor and convert them to be editable.

• Added support for using browser defaults for text colors
• Fixed problem with not being able to delete a folder selected in the "Folders" tree
• Fixed several threaded discussion problems:
  • Titles appear on discussion web pages
  • Dates are formatted more compactly
  • Links on embedded discussions work properly
  • "Last reply" date now appears on parent messages when a reply is added
• Fixed problem with not being able to make transparent triangles or diamonds on the whiteboard. This will only affect new triangles and diamonds.

• First attempt at eliminating extra logins when you click "Full Editor" and the editor is already running.

• Fixed problems with embedding images with restricted permissions in web pages and drawings
• Fixed several problems with object copying (broken copies and permissions)

• Added minimal coloring of text in the web page editor in the Full Editor.
• Fixed problem with spaces in the names of images on the whiteboard.

• Added support for double-clicking whiteboard tools to make them stay selected after an object is created
• Numerous chart and table changes:
  • Added support for creating a chart that isn't attached to a table. (This will be the default for new charts)
  • Added support for choosing columns, rows, and data source
  • Fixed web rendering of pie charts
  • Added chart name to web view
• Sped up equation rendering

• Added minimal equation editor (currently available under "Experimental Objects")
• Added support for specifying a background image in the template editor
• Added support for clearing the background color of sidebars in the template editor
• Fixed problem with rename/delete/etc... not working on selections in the Explorer tree
• Added "Select All" to whiteboard

• Fixed problem with imagemaps not working in Netscape
• Added support for constraining whiteboard figure creation and resizing by holding down the shift key

• Numerous whiteboard changes:
  • Fixed pen color and arrows on lines and scribbles
  • Adding diamond, triangle, and connected text tools
  • Adding image tool (for adding other objects in the site or external images)
  • Adding support for attaching URLs to whiteboard objects. If any objects have attached URLs, the whiteboard will include imagemap navigation code when embedded in a web page.

• More updated icons in the Full Editor
• Fixed order of "OK" and "Cancel" buttons in several dialogs
• Numerous Drawing tool fixes: text editing under Mac OSX, intermittent line "flipping", connector support, copy and paste of text objects

• Updating icons in the Full Editor
• Fixing problem with extra spaces intermitently being added to each line when pages edited in the Web Editor

• Fixing problem with sidebar, header, footer, template, and default page settings being intermittently lost when objects are moved around inside a folder
• Adding confirmation prompt when quiting the Full Editor
• Making Web Editor link active even when not logged in. It will prompt for login if necessary.

• Changing navigation window in the Full Editor. It now:
  • Shows only folders in the "tree" view on left
  • Shows the contents of the currently selected folder on the right
• Adding support for opening objects in separate windows by double-clicking. Using separate windows for this will hopefully eliminate some ambiguities.

• Adding new Site Template object that gives more control over element sizes
• Added "Edit" and "History" links on the directory listing view that you see when you click the "Site Contents" at the bottom of a page
• Fixed problem with intermittent extra linefeeds inserted when Full editor used on Windows

• Added "Page" -> "Set Page Title..." menu item on web pages in Full Editor. You can use this to set the title of a page to something other than the name of the page.
• Added editor for folders in the full client. If you click on a folder you can now control the default page and template for a site.

• Fixed support for dropping folders of files into the full editor.
• Added "Convert..." option to uploaded files. For now, this will let you change a text file into an editable object.