The Chandler Project Blog

If you’ve been tracking our download page, you certainly noticed that we uploaded last week a brand new 0.7.0-rc1 to replace 0.6.1 as the default download. This is because we are very confident that this new release is already way better and more stable than the older version and, though we haven’t yet completed the whole suite of tests, we prefer having new users installing and using that newer version rather than the old one.

For one thing, this new version is fully exploiting the new capabilities of the newly released Chandler Server 0.7.0 now deployed on Chandler Hub (see Jared’s post). The new protocol (Morse Code) used by 0.7.0-rc1 is much faster than what we used before so sharing is really improved. Also the level of interoperability between the Desktop client and the new Web UI client is way better.

Second, having new users starting with the new Dashboard and Triage workflow is more in tune with what Chandler is all about now. It’s not your old “Calendar Application” anymore…

And last, the new version supports an “export/reload” feature so schema changes in the repository database do not become migration headaches and data loss is non existent. This is pretty important for users in general and new users in particular.

So, what’s separating us from a formal release announcement? Well, tests, tests and more tests. We’re currently getting through the complete list of test scenarios and test plans and we’re creating a new RC (Release Candidate) every other day or so. RC 2 is now up for download and we’re expecting another couple of RC to crop up between now and the final release, the one with the QA stamp of approval. When’s that? ETA is Monday September 10th. Considering the current rather low rate of bugs logged, we’re pretty confident we’ll make that date. After all, we’ve been in debug mode since 3 months now so super-scary-blow-up-the-house bugs are unlikely to crop up now. It’s more about corner scenarios and making sure we’re really complete in our assessment of the product quality before putting it in everyone’s hands.

In the meantime, if you’re daring enough and not afraid of a couple of bugs that could hide here and there, take a spin at the new Chandler Desktop 0.7.0-rc2 and help us make the wait even shorter by testing it in your own environment.

To all users of the osaf.us sharing service:

Thank you for using the free OSAF sharing service, osaf.us. As the August 2007 release of Chandler Preview approaches, the official OSAF sharing service will move to hub.chandlerproject.org.

Please help us by moving your data from osaf.us to hub.chandlerproject.org. We have written instructions for doing this using Chandler Desktop here:

http://chandlerproject.org/Projects/DavToEimMigrationUserDoc

Chandler Preview uses a faster and more capable sharing system named EIM, available for free on hub.chandlerproject.org. So you’ll need to move your data to the new server to use all the features of Chandler Preview.

Going forward, only hub.chandlerproject.org will receive software updates and our fastest servers. Eventually osaf.us will be turned off, so please help us by moving your data when you get a chance.

Moving your data is not difficult to do. You’ll need to create a new account on hub.chandlerproject.org and update your application configuration to publish to the new server. Your sharing URLs will also change so you might need to contact you’re sharing collections with and give them updated info.

If you need any assistance, you can get help by sending a question to the chandler-users mailing list. We really want this move to go smoothly for you and would like to hear your feedback.

Thank you!

– Jared Rhine, OSAF sharing service manager

Chandler 0.7alpha5 has the ability to encrypt the email and sharing account passwords. To encrypt the account passwords, you need to go to File menu and select Protect Passwords… and set a master password. From then on, whenever Chandler needs to use an email or sharing account password, it will ask you for the master password in order to decrypt the protected account password(s). A word of warning though: if you forget the master password you will need to reset all passwords and set new values before email and sharing will work again. By default Chandler remembers the master password for 15 minutes, but you can change the time. The full specification for this feature is described in the Passwords spec.

We’re getting close to our “Preview” release of Chandler and Cosmo. (We’re shooting for April 2007). The Preview release will be the first release that is polished enough for people outside of OSAF to try out and use. We’re very interested in feedback from daily usage to guide us as we move towards a final 1.0 release.

The desktop application provides users with an integrated Dashboard for managing tasks, notes, communications and events and a Calendar for scheduling. Chandler users can share with other desktop users and on the web using our free service (built on our Cosmo server). Collaborators can view or edit calendars and task lists. For more details about what we’ve been up to, check out our recent blog post.

We’ve created a new mailing list for users. A few people are trying out the applications even before Preview, and are giving us great feedback on bugs and problems. We are also using the list to answer questions and take suggestions for future features. We hope to see you on the list!

Our goal for our most recent release, 0.7alpha4, is to give a rough sketch of what Chandler will be by our first Preview release (Spring 2007). This release introduces the Dashboard, which gives users a runway view of all of their information. Users can try creating a simple task list, and can share that list with others just as they can share calendars. Users can also experiment with sending notes, tasks and invitations to others via email.

For further details go to http://chandler.osafoundation.org/newinalpha4.php.

You can download the latest milestone at…
http://downloads.osafoundation.org/chandler/milestones/0.7alpha4/

Our goal for our most recent release, 0.7alpha4, is to give a rough sketch of what Chandler will be by our first Preview release (Spring 2007). This release introduces the Dashboard, which gives users a runway view of all of their information. Users can try creating a simple task list, and can share that list with others just as they can share calendars. Users can also experiment with sending notes, tasks and invitations to others via email.

For further details go to http://chandler.osafoundation.org/newinalpha4.php
You can download the latest milestone at…
http://downloads.osafoundation.org/chandler/milestones/0.7alpha4/

As of version 0.7 alpha3 of Chandler, OSAF is changing the license for the Chandler desktop product to the Apache 2.0 License (our Cosmo and Scooby codebases are already Apache Licensed). Previous versions of Chandler were licensed under the GNU GPL because we thought that we would pursue a MySQL style dual licensing scheme as part of the sustainability plans for the Foundation. We no longer plan to pursue this kind of scheme in order to acheive our sustainability goals, and we want to reduce the number of open source licenses in use at OSAF.
Those interested in the complete discussion on this topic can look at the archives of the OSAF ‘general’ mailing list: <http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/general/2006-May/000248.html>

We have just released our latest milestone 0.7alpha3, which builds further on the calendar we released in 0.6 by providing a sneak preview of some of the new features we are implementing for 0.7. With the new features and performance improvements we suggest that 0.6 and 0.6.1 users switch to using the calendar with 0.7alpha3. For further details go to http://chandler.osafoundation.org/newinalpha3.php.

You can download the latest milestone at…
http://downloads.osafoundation.org/chandler/milestones/

For data migration instructions see…
http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/ChandlerZeroSevenAlpha3DataMigration

We have just released our latest milestone, Chandler 0.7alpha3, which you can download at http://downloads.osafoundation.org/chandler/milestones/.

Highlights for this release are – background sync, Intel Mac support and a handfull of performance improvements. We suggest that 0.6 and 0.6.1 users switch to using the calendar with 0.7alpha3. For further details on all the new features go to http://chandler.osafoundation.org/newinalpha3.php

As with our previous milestone, you will need to migrate your data from the previous release.
http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/ChandlerZeroSevenAlpha3DataMigration

For those interested in a following our progress on Chandler 0.7, we released our latest milestone, Alpha2 on May 26th. You can download this at http://downloads.osafoundation.org/chandler/milestones/

This milestone features some enhancements to the calendar and a number of bugs fixes reported from our users. We also have the beginnings of some lightweight scheduling workflows and have started to build out other areas of the app such as the table view. For all the details and known bugs go to http://chandler.osafoundation.org/newinalpha2.php

We have already started working on our next milestone Alpha3 which focuses on peformance. For more details about Alpha3 and future milestones, refer to our 0.7 planning page at http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/ZeroPointSevenPlanning