Infolog version 4.0 is released! The communication between the client and the server now uses a Rest webservice. This enabled me to write an Android client as wel. When upgrading, please note that data is now stored in json format. Before upgrading, make sure all your notes are on the server. See Infolog page for details about the program.
Egroupware
Infolog version 3.1 released
Infolog version 3.1 is released! Egroupware added support for more sophisticated types of encryption of the passwords in the database. Infolog client now has an extra configuration option to support the following encryption types: MD5, MD5_Crypt, SHA256_Crypt and SHA512_Crypt.
Infolog desktop client and Egroupware 1.8004
I recently upgraded my Egroupware installation to version 1.8004 and noticed my Infolog desktop client did not function anymore. After a little research I found out that Egroupware upgraded the way passwords are stored in the database. Infolog desktop client is only capable of calculating md5 hashes and send these to the server. The program is still usable but the passwords should be stored as md5 hashes instead of the improved crypted password Egroupware is using nowadays. To do this go to http://yourserver/egroupware/setup and edit the current configuration. Set the encryption type of your passwords to md5 and remove other types from the allowed migration types. Now all users should store their passwords again to make Egroupware store them as md5 hash. I plan to support the improved encryption types egroupware uses in future releases.
Infolog version 3.0 released
Infolog version 3.0 is released! The communication between the client and the server now uses Jax-ws. By using a webservice it is much easier for system administrators to setup secure communication over https. By using existing infrastructure already available on your webserver, you can put the Infolog server behind it without the need to create an extra certificate.
Infolog version 2.2 released
I released Infolog version 2.2. Main change to preceding versions is that changes to title and description are stored whenever they change. Preceding versions stored changes when the focus on a particular sticky note was lost. Furthermore this version contain some bugfixes, e.g. when no notification area is available previous versions would crash.
I spend some time investigating if it is possible to create a more generic client using protocols offered by Egroupware (and other groupware suites). This approach however, proved to be a dead end. Two protocols can be used:
- Carddav/Groupdav – Egroupware offers Infolog as a carddav webservice. However, only tasks are offered this way. Most calendar software (e.g. Thunderbird/Lightning) can subscribe to these resulting in no further improvement by using Infolog desktop client over such software. Note that I started the project specifically to gain desktop access to my notes.
- Syncml – The only usable implementation I found was Funambols syncml. However, Egroupware does not play nice with Funambol. For insiders: the alert response is completely empty, even if you start a fresh sync. I filed a bug report (#3025) about this.
I realize that it is inconvenient to start a separate service and that configuration of the service is pretty hard, but I see no alternative.
Mount real filesystem in Egroupware filemanager
This is a really cool feature of the Egroupware filemanager. When you are running Egroupware on a system where you want to access the files of a particular system user, you can mount the real filesystem in the Egroupware filemanager. On a command line type:
{path to Egroupware filemanager/cli.php} mount ‘filesystem://root_{username of Egroupware header manager}:{password of Egroupware header manager}@default{directory on real filesystem}?user={Egroupware username}’ {path in Egroupware filemanager}
E.g. on a Linux system with a Egroupware header manager named admin and a password set to adminpassword, a system user named raging and a Egroupware user named goblin, the following command will mount a (read-only) directory in the filesystem under /home/goblin/raging:
/srv/www/htdocs/egroupware/filemanager/cli.php mount ‘filesystem://root_admin:adminpassword@default/home/raging?user=goblin’ /home/raging/raging
See this thread for more info about it.
edit 19-05-2012 The command for Egw 1.8004 should be:
/srv/www/htdocs/egroupware/filemanager/cli.php mount –user root_admin –password adminpassword ‘filesystem://:@default/home/raging?user=goblin’ /home/raging/raging
Infolog version 2.1 released
Recently I have been fooling around with the Google WindowBuilder Pro. This is the best GUI builder for Java I have used so far. My only complaint: it is quite unstable! For the rest, it is very easy to use, especially support for LayoutManagers is superb. I used it to create some configuration dialogs for the Infolog Desktop application and today I released Infolog version 2.1. Configuration of the look and feel and the synchronization is now much easier through these dialogs:
Systray not supported with OpenJDK and Compiz
Yesterday I stumbled upon a bug in the the OpenJDK. A system tray icon is not supported while using Compiz. I found out about this because I was playing around with the Google WindowBuilder. It kept freezing while using the Sun-JDK. With the OpenJDK it only freezes with opening a separate preview window. Then I noticed that my Infolog program wouldn’t start anymore. So when you are using the particular combination of Compiz and OpenJDK you won’t be able to use a system tray icon with Java. These options are open to you:
- Install Sun-JDK and don’t use the Google WindowBuilder.
- Install both JDK’s and use the Sun-JDK with programs that need a system tray icon, and the OpenJDK with Eclipse and the Google WindowBuilder.
- Install the OpenJDK en don’t bother with a system tray Icon.
- Stop using Compiz.
- Install Sun-JDK and use Windho$e in a virtual box.
The last one is not a real option of course, I only mentioned it to be complete ;-).
Infolog version 2.0 released
Yesterday I released Infolog version 2.0. With version 2.0 I took a different approach how to communicate with the server. Instead of updating items on the server directly and communicating this to all connected clients, a client is now completely independent. A client is capable of synchronizing with the server on regular intervals. By making the client completely independent of the server it is now much easier to run it as a standalone application when someone does not want to use it in conjunction with Egroupware.
Further enhancements include:
– Better readable README with explanation about using the application over ssh.
– Small improvements such as nicer icons to be used on the taskbar.
– Several bugfixes, e.g. using non-standard ports for Java RMI did not work in version 1.0.
Infolog upload refreshed
Due to a bug the program was not able to handle empty properties. Therefore a new download is set on launchpad with dummy values for ip, username and password. To get the program running just make sure every key has a value e.g. password = a.