Collaber Blog

We are pleased to announce that today we have successfully completed implementation of Collaber Backup Agent. This agent will enable users to backup their workspaces and restore them to any previous time.

Backup agent can also be used as a always on peer so that any workspaces in which the backup agent is a member will be always synchronized even in case of problem connecting to relay server.

We will add functionality for automatic restore point creation based on a predefined schedule. We will release alpha version on 1st Aug 2007. We are also planing to release Relay Server along with backup agent.

Rajesh Akkineni Uncategorized

“Copy As Link” is one of the main features we are going to introduce in Collaber 1.0.8

This action is available in right-click menu of any Collaber Object(Workspaces, Contacts, Members, All Tools, Files, Notes, Tasks, Calander Evets, Pictures etc etc..) Click on this action will copy a link to that object into the Clipboard.

This can be pasted in any HTML enabled component (Chat, Messages, Discussion, Notes ) or even to the external files like Ms Word etc.

When that link is clicked the corresponding object will be highlighted in its tool/view.

These links work even outside Collaber (only in windows) as long as Collaber is running. They can be sent to other users. They will work anywhere as long as the linked object is available at that user’s Collaber.

We hope this feature will reduce small gap between Collaber and Groove. We are working hard to bring all such features into Collaber. We hope all Collaber users will be happy with this feature.

Rajesh Akkineni Coming Up, New Ideas

We are currently working on relay server and backup agent for Collaber. We are planing to release the alpha version in on 1st of next month(1st Aug 2007).

Relay server will be a Java Application which users embedded HTTP Server (Jetty) and embedded Database Server ( Derby). So there will no external dependencies other than JRE 1.5+

With the alpha version we will only provide very simple user interface to manage the server. It lets the admin to create users and delete them. Once the user it created activation key will be sent to the user.

Admin can download a plugin from the interface which must be installed on every managed Collaber installation. This will enable the client to create account on the relay server.

Backup Agent will be a stand alone application based on Eclipse itself (but without GUI). It will create a Collaber account on startup and will accept invitations from other users. Admin can add authorized users by sending Collaber messages. Authorized users can use backup server to create Restore points (similar to Windows XP restore points) which can be used to restore the total workspace to any point of time.

In later versions we will add support for workspace archive and scheduler.

Rajesh Akkineni Uncategorized

Today we are able to automate Collaber installer preparation system. For this we used “wine” on linux to make Windows setups using “NSIS” installer packege.

All we need to do is to upload changed plugins to the server and run a script file. All setups will be ready for download in just 10min.

This is the first time I have used “Wine” successfully to solve a problem. We know “Wine” from last 6 years.

Rajesh Akkineni Uncategorized

We are happy to release v1.0.6 version of Collaber.
Even though there are many new features in this version, we consider it as a big fixing version. We have fixed so many bugs that our users are not able to detect yet. Mainly our focus was to make sure workspace is synchronized automatically always.

As we have announced before Collaber is now scriptable. You can write javascript to interact with Collaber.
For example you can send messages to every one in your contact list using..

var identity=collaber.account.identity;
for (int i=0;i<identity.contactsCount;i++) {
var contact=identity.getContactAtIndex(i);
var friends=new Array();
friends[0]=contact;
var msg=identity.createMessage(friends);
msg.content=”hii, how ru?”;
identity.sendMessage(msg);
}

We have done some clever way of file associations with Workspace Invitation and Contact Files with Collaber. Now you can just Double Click then in your windows explorer to open them with Collaber

We have shifted to new Eclipse RCP 3.3. It gives us new GUI layout for maximization of Views and Editors.
Due to this shifting to eclipse 3.3 we are unable to provide update from previous versions. Users are requested to install New version after un-installing the previous version.

Collaber now supports Vista. Users don’t need to be administrators. Any user can use Collaber. Installer will create Shorts for all users now.

Lot of bugs related to permission checking, data synchronization have been fixed in all the tools.

Member activity plugin will enable users to see how many members are active in a given workspace at any instance of time. This is part of our grand initiative towards real-time collaboration.

We have finished development of new voice features which will enable users to make Voice calls just like Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger. But we will be releasing it as a open-source software which can not be shipped with Collaber. It will be available(on Monday) on the website with instructions to install it.

New Features/ Enhancements:

• Scripting Support for Collaber (JavaScript)
• Native File support for Contact File, And Workspace Invitation. Double click will open in the invitation file.(on windows only)
• Member Activity display in Space View and in Start Page
• Edit support for Old Discussion Topics
• Improved Notepad View
• Support for Vista
• Improved Views and GUI Layout
• All known bugs have been fixed.

Next Step:

This version will be last beta release. There will be small minor updates depending on the bugs found and the importance of the fixes. From now onwards we will work towards first non-beta release of Collaber. This is a big task for us. We want to release non-beta version by starting of next month (Aug 2007).

We are unable to spend time in releasing Relay Server along with 1.0.6. We will be releasing it along with non-beta release of Collaber.

We thank every Collaber user for spending their time in evaluating our software. We are very thank full for those valuable users who have sent us bug reports and suggestions, specially chris, phil, ymir, bcherne, legand.

Rajesh Akkineni Coming Up, Progress