Data Crow / News: Recent posts

This version brings the old web module back to live. There are no major adjustments since the 4.2.2 version as the goal was to get it back in, running on the latest libraries available. This means the web module can now be fully supported again and makes it possible to extend the web module in the (near) future. One of the main things to change after this release is to make sure the UI also shows nicely on mobile devices; it is currently not optimized for this.... read more

Happy New Year!

Progress has been next to none during the Holidays. These last few days I have been making progress though;
I have a running web module in dev; I can search, open and save items through the web interfaces. The layout was (and still partially is) in shambles but with my last updates its definitely heading in the right direction. Many things have changed between PrimeFaces 6 and Primefaces 12, that's unsurprising I guess :-)
I remember that all those years ago I was quite pleased to have stumbled upon PrimeFaces as it has many controls that I thought would be needed for Data Crow. Even now, where many developers have moved on to JavaScript based solutions, I am still glad that I am using PrimeFaces. I really don't fancy learning the ins and outs of a new-to-me framework or learning JavaScript in detail. I'll stick to this.... read more

The year 2022 saw the return of Data Crow. I have put in quite a bit of work to bring it back; a lot of tinkering and dusting off.

But here we are - Data Crow is back and I have released two versions since my return. There are still things missing when you compare it with Data Crow from years ago. But ultimately everything has been planned; the web module and the Discogs online search will be added to version 4.5. Once implemented I can confidently say Data Crow is in a good place and all if is missing feathers are, well, no longer missing.... read more

Version 1.2.0 contains the following fixes / minor changes:
- Searching for games for a specific platform was not working
- API key for the details retrieval was hardcoded by accident. I have since invalidated this hardcoded API key and the search now uses your API code for all requests as it should be.
- The versioning of the Jar file is now independent of the Data Crow version (hence the 1.2.0 version).

Work on version 4.5 has just begun. I have been busy looking at the web module and the new versions of the components it is / was using.
I updated PrimeFaces from version 6 to version 12. In doing so, I saw that all dependencies were of course also obsolete. Updating these components took some time. I'll spare you the details on the specific components but I will say that getting a web server running again was not easy at all. Java always throws you some curveballs. ... read more

I have just released Data Crow 4.4 and that means it is now time to look at what you can expect version 4.5 to bring to the table.
Data Crow 4.5 will bring back all of the lost functionality that was working in the old version but has been removed from the current version.
That's a clear no for the online searches that were already broken as these have become either paid for services or have been abandoned. For these I will add alternatives where possible, such as I did with releasing the Mobygames.com online search in 4.4.... read more

Thanks to all contributors! Ariel Chyłek, iro-de and anyone who took the time to log
issues and feauture requests.

[New]
- Added MobyGames online search for games (see https://mobygames.com).
- Added a new setting to regional setting: date format.
- Press F5 to insert a time stamp into a text field. The time stamp is based on the date format setting + HH:mm:ss
- Added a preview pane when selecting images... read more

I am getting very close to releasing a new version of Data Crow.
Will be testing some more and I need to update some of the translations still.
If all is well I will release Data Crow 4.4 early next week.

Highlights:
- Mobygames.com online search added
- Issues fixed introduced by 4.3 as I unlearned some of the skills to create a good release package ;)
- Issues fixed as present in Data Crow before the 4.3 release.... read more

I have been working on Data Crow 4.4 over the past few weeks;
1) The auto update for online services has been completed. Data Crow will ask you if it is OK to check and automatically download new versions of the online services package.
2) Once a new version has been downloaded Data Crow will let you know and tell what has been changed.
3) Because Data Crow needs to be able to download the file, the service package has been move to the user folder. Typically Data Crow can't make changes to the installation folder but can make changes to the user folder where all changeable data resides (your data).
4) I finalized the amazing MobyGames.com online search for games.
5) I fixed an issue where the scrolling in the card view is sometimes reversed.... read more

I was working on a small service to store the keys for online services centrally. And then I thought, there must be something already out there. In short I have installed Vault by HashiCorp on my server and will use this to store keys required to access some of the online servers used by Data Crow. It’s a bit daunting at first to get it set up but I think I have a good base now. Now it’s onto consuming the information from my own Vault server… I really want to get this sorted first so I can then move on to more interesting stuff.... read more

I have finalized the mobygames search. It's really nice to see the sheer amount of information they offer on games for any platform. I did post some pictures of the online search on datacrow.org.

The main thing now is to implement the small server that will sign requests to other (to be implemented) online services. I have an instance running now and am working on creating the service/software. I will use Data Crow Server edition as a base to create quick responding simple sign service. One that I can tinker with without having to release new updates for the core Data Crow product.... read more

Currently I am working on version 4.4. The focus is on online services. Many of the old ones had to be removed as they either no longer existed, did become paid services or their structure had been changed completely.

I have implemented a first version of MobyGames (excellent for english information on games) which I'll continue to test and update. After that I will move on to Discogs for audio.

Additionally I will implement a simple Data Crow service to sign requests. Many online services provide a developer with a single key. This key is then unique to the product and should not be shared. Given that Data Crow open source I currently only have the choice to put the key in the code, somewhere. Not ideal, at all. To overcome this issue I will implement a small server to which you send your initial request. This service will add the (my) API key, signing your request. Your Data Crow installation will then execute the actual query to the 3rd party service. ... read more

I have worked hard to create this release. It was fun going through all my own code. Still all very oddly familiar.
Flag-courier, many thanks again for changing the build system over to Maven. Ariel Chylek, many thanks to you for sticking around to help users.

Data Crow version 4.3

This version is a first after many years. Data Crow is Java based application and it has moved on since 2019. With this release I have updated all 3rd party libraries
to their latest available version (where possible). The code itself has been first tested against Java 18 (latest version at the moment). The release itself however
has been made compatible with Java 11. ... read more

Server to client communication has been completed.

I will test it further, but everything works again and the speed is much, much better when compared to the old version.
Probably not many persons will be / are using the server edition but I wanted to keep this functionality in.
It was quite a milestone when Data Crow 4.0 allowed for this type of set up.
Additionally I am planning on using this myself for my own purposes so, yeah, quite important to get it fixed :-)... read more

I have progressed a fair bit. Worked mainly on fixing the image support which was tied to an old version of Apache Batik and had weird code attached to deal with SVG images specifically. I upgraded Batik and added the Twelve Monkeys library for ImageIO. This library adds seamless support for other image types in Java, without having to do any special coding. With that, the supported image types has increased significantly. I have also fixed the e-Book import; it uses the latest Apache Tika and Apache PDF Box libraries. Additionally I have replaced an old library used to find ISBN numbers in PDF files; this has been replaced by my own custom code. Onwards...... read more

The backup and restore process has been fixed and the old library has been dropped. I am trying to get rid off as many of the dependencies as possible as this will make maintenance easier and I don't run into compatibility issues in the future. Of course I will keep on using 3rd party libraries where necessary.

With that in mind... Jasper Reports. Jasper reports has progressed so much since the last version of Data Crow. So much so that I think rewriting the existing reports is a necessity. I am hoping to release a small set of reports. It will mean, as far as I can see now, that if you created custom reports yourself that you will have to recreate these with the new version of Jasper Reports. More on this later..... read more

Whilst I have set the webapp module aside for now, I have been focussing my efforts in rewriting the data crow server version for "thick client" connections. I have it working again, but I need to change the way data is send between the server and the client. This for performance and security reasons. Still quite a bit of work..

I am also focussing on the backup and restore process which uses a very old library. I have removed this dependency and implementing it in Java itself, without relying on a 3rd party library. The backup side is finished, now onto the restore process. I will make sure that backups from 4.2.2 can be restored with the new version.... read more

I have gone through the whole code base and updated libraries where need be.
Some features will have to be reimplemented entirely. The biggest problem is the web module;
I have removed it for now as the code obsolete.
An entire rewrite is required to bring this module back into 2022. It will happen, but not with 4.3 version.
I have no release date to share yet but I will post every now and then where I'm at.... read more

I am going to clear the Code - yes everything - from Sourceforge on October 30th, 2022.
Please make backups in case you have an active fork of the Data Crow code before that time.
The new code will be hosted from bitbucket.org.

In the meantime, feel free to access the new repository:
https://bitbucket.org/vanderwaalsbv/datacrow/src/master/

Warning: the code in the new repository is undergoing major changes;
because I am uplifting the code to the latest version of Java, things will drop of the wagon, things will have to be rewritten and things will have to be minorly adjusted.... read more

I have taken the existing code and am currently working on:
* Updating existing libraries
* Migrating to Maven for better dependency management
* Setting up Git

Hi,

I have decided to pick up on Data Crow development again.
Unfortunately the transfer of the project has not been successful and the project is now pretty much abandoned.
I just can't let the project go to waste... and also, I want to dive into Java development again.

I'm facing one issue; DataCrow.net is no longer under my control.
I'd might to keep the name Data Crow but without the original domain it feels a bit messy (datacrow.com is also no longer available).
I might just choose to start fresh, under a new project name... that's a wait and see.... read more

Hi folks,

Happy times! The Git repository for all of Robert's source code and releases since v3.0.0 in 2007, is labeled and complete up to 4.2.2's release base, and is ready for use.

So, now I can finally finish up my code fixing for the broken Amazon and IMDb online searchers and get out that planned 4.2.3 maintenance release soon.

I know it's been slow for you to watch me get all this administrative stuff in place, and there was pain on my side, for me to do it <laugh>, but I have a handle on most of the support for all 3 sites now. Site backups, admin and all that stuff.... read more

Hi,

Quick status on the Git repository setup/import/conversion effort.

In order to get my planned 4.2.3 release done - the one with the promised fixed Amazon/IMDb online searchers <smile> - I was hoping to get the codebase into the Git repository here at SourceForge, so that I could start in an organized fashion. So, I spent some time over the last week, working out how to convert the old archived, read-only Data Crow repository, with all Robert's work, up until CVS was mothballed in 2017. And about how to get his later SVN controlled changes into the newly converted Git repo here, since he moved from CVS, and had his repository locally working on his own machines.... read more

The transfer of the www.datacrow.net website and domain has completed successfully to my hoster.

The FossHub and SourceForge project site admin roles have also been reassigned now.

The work is still proceeding on my code stabilization for the broken searchers and my proposed minor 4.2.3 release, to bring over all Robert's work and get my build environment configured. Finding room and hardware for my test beds (Windows 7 and Linux) is taking some time while I re-shuffle my lab around.... read more

Robert is working with me to transfer the www.datacrow.net website and domain to my hoster so this here is a notice that the website may be unstable or unreachable for a period, while the DNS nameservers reconfig and I get my side working. It can take up to 5 days for the registrars to transfer the domain so it is unclear exactly when it will be moved and alive on my side.

We are also arranging for the FossHub site transfer but that should be less problematic and impacting to the community. More likely just admin stuff behind the scenes, I think.... read more