ConsultComm Project Timekeeper / News: Recent posts

First off, my apologies for such an enormous delay in posting the Windows 3.1.2 version. I would recommend that Windows users continue to use the 3.1.1 version, and those *nix users that were bitten by earlier bugs try out 3.1.2.

Since I'm doing this project in my off time it has been increasingly more difficult to dedicate focus to ConsultComm. Recently I've had to move to a job where 80+ hours a week is the norm, and what precious time I have left is usually spent on a) eating or b) sleeping.... read more

I've posted a preliminary release of 3.1.2. There's a Windows bug dealing with the system tray icon that I haven't been able to figure out for a while, but given how late the release is I wanted to post the source and other platform binaries.

As soon as the Windows bug is ironed out, I'll release the Windows installer. In the interim you may notice that the version is listed as "CVS Version," this is intentional until I post the final release.... read more

Thanks to cristianaguila and marcpawl for their bug reports, a 3.1.2 maintenance release should be out end of this week. Since the Java 6 version of ConsultComm 4 is taking longer than expected (real life shielding me from the bliss of hacking), I figured I would clear out the ole bug queue and push out a maintenace release.

Thanks again for all the forum posts and bug posts!

My pre-alpha design prototypes are now being released via Java WebStart for interested parties. Visit http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/consultcomm/ConsultComm.jnlp and open the corresponding file with Java WebStart - this should allow you to launch my early design prototypes for ConsultComm 4. Feel free to leave feedback in the Forums!

Yes, it's true, I'm behind on the next ConsultComm release. Life being what it is, my spare-time OSS schedule has shrunk to nil. I'm hoping for a reprieve soon, but in the interim I've posted a job opening on the SourceForge jobs page ( https://sourceforge.net/people/viewjob.php?group_id=34622&job_id=27486 ). If you or someone you know needs to beef up their Java resume, have 'em apply! I'd love to have some extra hands!

ConsultComm is currently being built for Java 6 - so you'll need Sun's current beta JVM to run the builds that are going into SVN right now. Feel free to download the latest at http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/ea.jsp

I'm in the middle of destroying the Subversion repository - I'm clearing out old code to get ready for the brand-spankin' new 4.0 codebase. Current beta code for the 3.1.2 release is in the branches/ directory of SVN, so if you need a stable build grab everything from branches/3.1.2/

3.2 beta 2 is released and ready for testing. There is a small bug with the Windows system tray icon... should be squashed by the next beta release.

Also, Debian packages have been released for this beta. If you notice any issues with them during installation, feel free to submit a bug report with the details.

I'm currently migrating the old CVS repository to Subversion - it should be up shortly. The new point release is still coming out shortly... I finally got my grubby hands on (someone else's) OS X machine, so I'm going to test ConsultComm on it.

NetBeans 5 support is also forthcoming...

I'm working on resolving all of the outstanding bugs listed on the project page & porting the source to Java 5. There will be a new point release coming soon!

ConsultComm 3.2 is still on its way... currently I'm working on moving code from the TimeOut plugin to the JDesktop Integration Components API ( https://jdic.dev.java.net/incubator/systeminfo/index.html ). Once the API gets solidified, it will be merged into a single JDIC release. ConsultComm will then have a JDIC dependancy instead of the klunky native code.

Soooo... current development for 3.2 is underway. Most of the bugfixes are now present in the beta release available off the project page, the next stable release will be out once the JDIC stuff is finished.

With the help of the lovely people at http://www.izforge.com I've built GUI installers to help make ConsultComm 3.1 easier to install and upgrade.

There is now a native Windows installer - just grab ConsultComm_WinInstall.zip, extract the files to your desktop and run Setup.exe. If you don't have a Java Runtime Environment installed, it will help you find one.

There are also installers for OSX, Linux, Solaris and other distributions that have Java 1.4 installed - just download CosultComm_Installer.jar and run the file directly. If you're having problems getting it to launch, just invoke `java -jar ConsultComm_Installer.jar` from your command line.... read more

The 3.0.5 installation in Windows isn't very intuitive for those who aren't accustomed to using Java's JVM, so I thought I'd post some general pointers until the new GUI installer comes out with ConsultComm 3.1:

To launch ConsultComm you have a few options:

1) Double-click on CsltComm.jar. This should work if you have Java2 installed on your system using Sun's Runtime Environment. Plugins using system libraries (i.e. the TimeOut plugin) may not work correctly.... read more

It appears that SourceForge is having a few problems lately. CVS doesn't appear to be working correctly (see https://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=2352&group_id=1 for details) and I've been having problems lately sending replies to people who submit messages to me via the SourceForge mail interface. It seems that either many people are using invalid e-mail addresses for their SourceForge account or the SourceForge alias-to-real address translation isn't working.... read more

Better windows packages are also being developed. I'm a WinXP user at work now, so I've definitely come to understand how ConsultComm can be a little weird to set up initially. Will be changing soon.

So... things have been quiet 'round here on the SourceForge site. But I wanted to let everyone know what's currently in progress with ConsultComm:

1) The TableTree Swing layout (which keeps things under a group->task hierarchy) is still being rewritten. The big problem is that I still don't have any good OSX platforms to try things on. I thought the compile farm on SourceForge would work, but alas I can't run GUI Java apps (security restrictions)... read more

ConsultComm has been highlighted at L2FProd as one of the skinned apps using SkinLF! Check out http://www.l2fprod.com/poweredbyskinlf.php to see the lil' listing. I'm just happy that they noticed;)

For those who haven't seen SkinLF - be sure and check it out for all your GUI Java apps!

WinXP and the TimeOut/TotalTimes plugins have been fixed in CVS and will be released soon. If you've had problems with running ConsultComm in Windows, try out the new release coming out in a few days!

After a long testing cycle, ConsultComm 3.0 has been released! It's pretty much been rewritten from the ground up and takes advantage of some great Java 1.4.1 features.

If you've been using ConsultComm 2.3.2 (or *gasp* 1.0.3) you'll notice a huge difference with 3.0. Items can be grouped/expanded/collapsed by category. A new plugin architecture allows for easy expandibility. Documentation has moved to JavaHelp. A whole new GUI. Better JDBC and database functionality and compatibility.... read more

First, I'd like to thank all those who have formally & informally submitted bugs for ConsultComm. I try to catch what I can, but the well documented and helpful bug reports I've been receiving have caught nearly everything else. The most obvious was the Windows installer bug - sorry 'bout that.

Anywho, here's what I test ConsultComm on:
1) P4 2.4 GHz 512MB SuSE 8.2 Linux laptop
2) AthlonXP 2100+ 512MB WinXP SP2 Desktop
Both running Java 1.4.1... read more

Although ConsultComm has had OS X installers for a while now, a definite need has arisen to start building native OS X installers.

The Java Developer's Journal just wrote a very nice article on building native installers in OS X by Ian McFarland. Be sure and check out this month's JDJ for details - it gives step-by-step instructions for building a package.

E-mail me at https://sourceforge.net/sendmessage.php?touser=159859 if you use OS X and are interested in making the whole install process better. Hopefully we can get a slew of install options together, includuing building from source, ZIP files, InstallAnywhere binaries, RPMs and native OS X installer packages.

Sorry... fell behind on a few support requests. Evidentally the auto-notification that notifies me when bugs or support requests are submitted got toasted.

If you have problems you should get a _much_ more timely response now.

Lots of new features in the new 2.2beta1 release:
- Skinnable interface using SkinLF from L2FProd.com - use GTK and KDE themes to give ConsultComm a new look!
- Improved JDBC support for more types and the ability to add projects that don't already exist
- Ability to pause after your session has been idle for x number of seconds (*nix/X11 users only)

Try it out!

I'm trying to figure out how to implement a oft-requested feature: enabling ConsultComm to automatically switch projects or pause the timer after a user's session has been idle for x number of seconds. This has been requested by both Windows and Linux users alike, and since Java does not have this feature, native code will need to be written for it.

If anyone cares to submit a simple code snippet (incl. a list of all libraries and headers needed) in C that will detect how long a user's session has been idle, I'll work on adding the functionality into ConsultComm's next release.