PEN RELEASE NOTES

Please enter tickets, questions, and wishes (requirements) about PEN on the | PEN home page.

The authors of this wiki are Greg Rodgers, Ian Mathew, and Deb Nahlik

PEN 2.0

(Available June, 2012)

Proposed Features

• Support of new Hybrid Simulation/Experiment type
• Improved performance during project load
• Enable selection of multiple objects (Wishes 349,367,400,417,419)
• Add expand and Collapse all commands at every level (Wish 398)
• Misc. enhancements and bug fixes

PEN 1.4

UPDATE 1.4.9

(02/20/2012)

• Fixed issue causing special characters to appear as ? instead (Ticket 2620)
• Fixed issue preventing upload and editing of the Run type (Tickets 3488, 3285)
• Modified behavior of PEN to assign new local objects directory names of the pattern “Type_#” instead of “Type-#” (Ticket 3284)
• Fixed error in which certain characters could not be included as part of an object title or description on upload (Ticket 3112)
• Improved clarity in local delete dialog (Ticket 3461)
• Improved behavior for situations in which PEN tries but fails launch a web browser (Ticket 3463)
• Fixed issue causing PEN to create different “previously-open” entries for the same directory in rare situations (Ticket 3464)
• Fixed issue causing a file to be imported despite the user canceling the import (Ticket 3601)

UPDATE 1.4.8

(01/13/2012)

• Improved handling of objects with non-xml characters (Ticket 3338)
• Added recovery mechanism to auto-restart on upload failure (Ticket 3217, Wish 330)
• Added recovery mechanism to resume any previous partially-completed upload without losing upload progress (Ticket 3217, Wish 330)
• Fixed file information editor to allow removing “Opening Tool” and “Image Type” selection for files in the warehouse (Ticket 3423)
• Fixed error causing PEN to attempt upload of folders and objects which already exist in the warehouse (Ticket 3429)
• Fixed error in upload size calculations
• Miscellaneous bugfixes

UPDATE 1.4.7

(01/10/2012)

• Fixed problem in which PEN would refuse to open objects with special characters (Tickets 3057,3338)
• Fixed problem with loading objects created outside of PEN (Ticket 3392)
• Fixed issue in which files remain open after canceled upload (Ticket 3380)
• Fixed issue preventing certain types of materials from successfully uploading (required Web Services updates) (Tickets 3286,3101)
• Fixed issue preventing experiments created outside of PEN from uploading (Ticket 3332)
• Fixed problem in which editing material properties would not enable save button (Ticket 3318)
• Fixed problem with ignore feature in certain situations (Ticket 3319)
• Improved error handling in upload (Ticket 3217)
• Added support for underscore in local object name. Example: Rep-1 and Rep_1 can both correspond to local Repetition
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs

UPDATE 1.4.6

(12/09/2011)

• Allow character ‘@’ in file names (Ticket 3241)
• Allow uploads under “Analysis” directory at project level (Ticket 3263)
• No longer display a previously-opened directory if that directory has been deleted (Ticket 3120)
• Fixed issue causing a large number of metadata files to remain open after project load (Ticket 3277)
• Fixed issue causing incorrect project info to be displayed in certain circumstances (Ticket 3292)
• Added information to the upload progress bar to prevent the illusion of a frozen or failed upload (Ticket 3262)

UPDATE 1.4.5

(11/28/2011)

• Fixed issue preventing use of PEN offline (Ticket 3215)
• Improved behavior of status bar and project open page (Ticket 3120)
• Fixed error causing file import to fail (Ticket 3067)
• Fixed issue with delete and re-upload (Ticket 3220)
• Updated “Quick-Start Guide” link in About PEN page to point to new guide (Ticket 3235)
• Fixed issue causing PEN to break after failed delete (Ticket 3218)
• Improved recovery process when upload fails (Ticket 3217)
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

RELEASE 1.4.4

(11/08/2011)

• Fixed performance issue with project loading system
• Fixed issue preventing warehouse files with certain characters from appearing in PEN (Ticket 3181)
• Fixed issue causing files to be mistakenly marked as inDEED files (Ticket 3172)
• Removed opening tool selection for files under Photos and Videos directories (Ticket 3173)
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and performance enhancements

BETA 1.4.3

(10/26/2011)

• Added option to force socket buffer sizes for FTP uploads and downloads
• Added option for “debug” mode (more detailed output for certain actions)
• Fixed issue in which some buttons and links do not generate correct URLs (Ticket 3102)
• Fixed issue in which start-up would enter a loop in certain circumstances (Ticket 3096)
• Improved error message for importing files with forbidden characters (Ticket 3089)

BETA 1.4.2

(10/20/2011)

• Added “Import Selected Files” button in Import tab as an alternative to drag-and-drop importing (Wish 335)
• Fixed issue preventing files copied outside of PEN from uploading in some situations (Ticket 3031)
• Fixed issue causing missing mime type for certain files
• Fixed incorrect spelling in error message (Ticket 2990)
• Fixed error in project list (Ticket 2981)
• Changed text to improve clarity when loading projects and directories
• Improved error reporting system (Ticket 3067)
• Fixed Windows installer issues (Tickets 2966 and 2982)
• Fixed some minor bugs

BETA 1.4.1

(09/22/2011)

• Fixed issue where auto-restore would attempt to connect to a project even if login failed (Ticket 2965)
• Fixed issue where a new project would not be added to the list until PEN restart
• Fixed issue preventing save of project contact name and contact e-mail (Ticket 2972)
• Removed unused acknowledgement field from project info
• Fixed problems with changing environment
• Improved splash screen
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs

BETA 1.4.0

(09/19/2011 – Available for Testing)

• Improved user interface
  • Added login and project selection steps
  • Added Status Bar
  • Removed Start Page
  • Other minor improvements
• Added Loading screen during startup
• Added update system, alerting the user if a newer version of PEN exists
• Added transfer rate to upload and download progress dialogs (Wish 229)
• Moved thumbnail preview for image files and increased size of image display (Wish 313)
• Added ability to mark directories as “ignored” within PEN (Wish 311)
• Improved “about” dialog and eliminated “system info” dialog
• Fixed drag and drop to support dragging and dropping multiple files from “File Import” folder (Ticket 2893, Wish 334)
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs

PEN 1.3

END OF SUPPORT

(11/16/2011)

• PEN 1.3.x will no longer receive updates or support. PEN 1.3.6 will continue to work with Web Services, but should be upgraded to 1.4 as soon as possible.

UPDATE 1.3.6

(08/18/2011)

• Fixed issue in which FTP would timeout while uploading for long upload times (Tickets 2723,2757)
• Fixed cancel buttons for download and upload (Ticket 2743)
• Fixed issue preventing deletion of objects containing empty folders (Ticket 2747)
• Fixed issue in which uploading a directory would attempt to upload files already in the warehouse (Ticket 2747)
• Enabled automatic checksum for any uploading file without checksum (can be disabled in preferences dialog)
• Added Preferences dialog (Tools->Preferences)
• Added support for “Opening Tool” and “Image Type” for appropriate files (Tickets 1559,2786)
• Added option to change default projects directory (Wish 305)
• Added “duplicate” action, which copies the selected object (Wish 228)
• Improved FTP upload such that failure for one file will no longer result in failure for subsequent files

UPDATE 1.3.5

(08/05/2011)

• Fixed error in FTP for certain network connections (Tickets 2679, 2710)
• Fixed issue in Windows where project lock file would not disappear after PEN had closed
• Fixed UI issue causing errors on tree navigation
• Fixed regression of incorrect-colored files for checksums with a leading zero (Ticket 2722)
• Fixed Windows-only issue preventing users from browsing project list (Ticket 2692)
• Added release number to Windows start menu item
• Added wait cursor when loading file information (Ticket 2693)
• Modified behavior of “Browse” button on start page. It now attempts to browse the directory path shown, rather than the user’s home directory.

UPDATE 1.3.4

(07/29/2011)

• Fixed install issue for Windows XP and earlier (Ticket 2677)
• Improved font support to prevent unreadable fonts (Ticket 2675)
• Added project number after directory path when connected, to indicate connection (Ticket 2671)

RELEASE 1.3.3

(07/27/2011)

• Much faster connect and refresh
• 40% reduction in size, including elimination of perl requirement and direct Oracle connection
• Elimination of “Get file info”. File information is available when any directory is expanded.
• Ability to switch between stage and production databases without needing a different version of PEN (Warning: you can not use the same directory with multiple databases.)
• Ability to browse a list of projects and select a project based on number and description
• Restriction from using HOME directory as your pen directory
• Restriction from using HOME/projects directory. You need to select a subdirectory of HOME/projects
• Installs a shortcut for Windows users in Start -> All Programs
• Create, upload, download specimens, components, and materials
• Formatted-date button for date entries (Ticket 1512)
• Improved design of Info tab for increased functionality
• Drag & Drop from operating system file browser to PEN
• Improved logging system, including detailed messages and persistent log file
• Improved progress bars, better displaying current progress
• Tickets #1512 #1954 #1956 #2086 #2185 #2208 #2449

PEN 1.2

END OF SUPPORT

(07/28/2011)

• PEN 1.2.x is no longer supported. Please upgrade to PEN 1.3

UPDATE 1.2.9

(06/22/2011)

• Fix to allow passwords with special characters. This caused upload, download, and synchronization issues. Ticket #2298
• Fix for saving new or existing Trials. This was a serious problem introduced with web services update for Hub Release 2.5. Ticket #2395 and possibly #2470 and #2475
• Fix for getting xml information for a simulation run.

This update had a corresponding update to web services xml formats. Therefore, you must use this version of PEN when it is available on Wednesday June 22. Using an old version of PEN will fail on certain download scenarios.

UPDATE 1.2.8

(05/23/2011)

• Update to properly handle web services changes in Hub Release 2.5 (Earlier versions of PEN will not work after this release)
• Improved Perl library detection on Linux (Ticket 1630)
• Minor checksum improvements

UPDATE 1.2.7

(05/09/2011)

• Vast improvements to checksum speed
• Protections against opening wrong directory (Ticket 2184)
• Remove progress bar when success/fail message is displayed (Ticket 2184)
• Checksum command can be used on any node (Wish)
• “Tools” menu has been removed due to redundancy.
• Log viewer from lower-left corner and log messages improved (Wish)
• Bug causing incorrectly-colored files after download is fixed (Ticket 2218)
• “Report Problem” added under “Help” menu to quickly allow user to report problems (Wish)

UPDATE 1.2.6

(04/04/2011)

• Save Opening Tool on upload (Ticket 1559)
• When connecting to project, do not show non-accessible experiments in blue (Ticket 2062)
• Skip file uploads with invalid characters (Ticket 2105)
• Start PEN with larger java heap size -Xmx384m, default was 128m. (Ticket 2105)
• Saving of repetition title and description (Ticket 1506)
• Spelling of DataFile Link when using web services (Ticket 1958)

UPDATE 1.2.5

(03/01/2011)

• Improve login error messages to make issues more clear (Ticket 1969)
• Improve naming of menu items for clarity.
• Add confirmation when opening non-empty directory for the first time.
• Increased blocksize to 8MB for upload (TMM ticket)
• Do not update the old deleted flag from xml (Ticket 1975)

UPDATE 1.2.4

(02/25/2011)

• Fix to cancel download/upload to stop background perl program (Ticket 1890)
• Allow upload/download to proceed with invalid log file location (Ticket 1863)
• Remove password printing in log (security) (Ticket 1791)
• Close any spawned processes on PEN close (Ticket 1890)
• Disallow spawning of multiple warehouse actions (Ticket 1928)

RELEASE 1.2.2

(02/17/2011)

• Faster Upload with proftp
• Delete from Warehouse capability
• Password encryption
• Addition of mime-type and document format id. This will fix problem with blanking application causing failure to start indeed on certain files. This will fix ticket 1559. “PEN overwrites file information for “Opening Tool” and “Photo Type”. “
• Misc tickets

PEN 1.1

END OF LIFE

(05/23/2011)

• PEN 1.1.x is no longer supported, and has known compatibility issues with Web Services.

UPDATE 1.1.8

(01/20/2011)

• This hotfix fixes a problem where “upload” does nothing if user had created any files without using PEN drag and drop. That is, they moved the file into the PEN directory structure with another tool.
• This hotfix also fixes a problem where files that were uploaded appeared blue. Uploaded files should be black (identical) or red (missing or different checksums).
• This hotfix also color coats files that get uploaded as red or black depending on the status of the local checksum. Before this hotfix an uploaded file was always black. Then, if a checksum did NOT exist for the uploaded file, a reconnect of the project or restart of PEN would correctlyh color the file red because local checksum did not match warehouse. Now, if a local checksum does not exist the file will turn red immediately after upload. To make these red files turn black, you must checksum the local file.

PEN 1.1 Features

• Significantly faster connection time for medium to large projects. This is accomplished by not creating nodes in the tree for existing warehouse files. If you need file information for existing warehouse files, there will be a new right click action to “Get File Information”. And of course you will get all file information for any component that you download.
• We eliminate the “download project information” requirement and button. This was formerly called “download metadata”. All you need to do is connect your directory to the project warehouse and you will get all object (project/experiment/trial/repetition) and directory information.
• Help buttons for color legend and PEN documentation. The PEN documentation is the wiki located at | http://nees.org/resource/pen
• Minor performance improvement for upload by maintaining the TCP cache.
• Addition of right click action “add default directories” for all objects (project/experiment/trial/repetition).
• Elimination of ability to create directories other than default directories on all objects (project/experiment/trial/repetition). You can still drag and drop non-default directories to an object BUT they will fail to upload and remain blue (local only). This is a feature for some people who do not want certain directories uploaded.
• Native look and feel for MacOS and Windows platforms. These are most apparent when using the File Import tab to drag and drop files from your local workstation to new files in your PEN. The local File Import looks more like a native directory and file browser.
• Elimination of the menu menu. The purpose of the menu menu was for users with one button mouse that did not know how to simulation a right click. The menu menu was always a copy of the right click menu for selected objects. This menu changed to whatever the context of the selected object was. People often misunderstood what the menu menu was about.
• Mapping to recent minor updates to the NEES directory structure. This directory structure is currently available in the screenshots at | http://nees.org/resources/pen
• A new quick start guide available at | https://nees.org/topics/GetttingStartedPEN
• A number of minor issues that have been deferred till 1.1 have been resolved.

PEN 1.1 will not have “Delete from Warehouse”. This is planned for PEN 1.2 for February 2011. Warehouse delete depends on implementation of Oracle Warehouse Delete that is still in development. PEN 1.0 already has “delete” for local files, experiments, trials, repetitions, or directories that have NOT been uploaded to the warehouse.

Created on 10 Nov 2010, Last modified on 11 May 2012