Minor updates of JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum have been released.

The updates are just to include the new esellerate purchase engine. No other changes.

JPEGCleaner is an easy to use program that removes unnecessary data (meta-data, resource forks) from jpeg and gif files which results in smaller files that are quicker to send by e-mail and require less storage space. The program can also to send the files directly to your e-mail program (Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, PowerMail, and Mailsmith)!

quickWebAlbum is used to rapidly create photograph albums from a folder of JPEG files. The program can create albums that provides a page of thumbnail images linked to larger versions of the pictures, or it can produce albums that automatically changes the images to produce a ‘slideshow’. The user has control over the size and quality of the thumbnail and ‘album’ pictures produced.

JPEGCleaner (a free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 372 kb download from MMISoftware – download
quickWebAlbum (free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 404 kb download from MMISoftware – download

Work has continued on updating MMISoftware programs…

This time it was the turn of JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum to be updated.

Again, as with iCalMaker, it was decided that the best thing to do was to move all the code to a ‘fresh’ project. This way I could be sure all the project settings were correct to allow a universal build and I could use some of the new xcode features. Again, the migration was very easy, I created a new project, closed it down, moved in the nib files from the old project, used ‘Add to project’ to move over the code files, help system, toolbar images etc., I then reset the program details, turned on powerpc and intel compiling, and I was done.

Both programs have had the new esellerate sales engine added so they use the new ‘embedded-web’ system. This also meant that new ‘integrated stores’ had to be produced, again fairly straight forward.

JPEGCleaner is an easy to use program that removes unnecessary data (meta-data, resource forks) from jpeg and gif files which results in smaller files that are quicker to send by e-mail and require less storage space. The program can also to send the files directly to your e-mail program (Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, PowerMail, and Mailsmith)!

quickWebAlbum is used to rapidly create photograph albums from a folder of JPEG files. The program can create albums that provides a page of thumbnail images linked to larger versions of the pictures, or it can produce albums that automatically changes the images to produce a ‘slideshow’. The user has control over the size and quality of the thumbnail and ‘album’ pictures produced.

JPEGCleaner (a free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 292 kb download from MMISoftware – download
quickWebAlbum (free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 328 kb download from MMISoftware – download

Work has continued on updating MMISoftware programs…

This time it was the turn of JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum to be updated.

Again, as with iCalMaker, it was decided that the best thing to do was to move all the code to a ‘fresh’ project. This way I could be sure all the project settings were correct to allow a universal build and I could use some of the new xcode features. Again, the migration was very easy, I created a new project, closed it down, moved in the nib files from the old project, used ‘Add to project’ to move over the code files, help system, toolbar images etc., I then reset the program details, turned on powerpc and intel compiling, and I was done.

Both programs have had the new esellerate sales engine added so they use the new ‘embedded-web’ system. This also meant that new ‘integrated stores’ had to be produced, again fairly straight forward.

JPEGCleaner is an easy to use program that removes unnecessary data (meta-data, resource forks) from jpeg and gif files which results in smaller files that are quicker to send by e-mail and require less storage space. The program can also to send the files directly to your e-mail program (Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, PowerMail, and Mailsmith)!

quickWebAlbum is used to rapidly create photograph albums from a folder of JPEG files. The program can create albums that provides a page of thumbnail images linked to larger versions of the pictures, or it can produce albums that automatically changes the images to produce a ‘slideshow’. The user has control over the size and quality of the thumbnail and ‘album’ pictures produced.

JPEGCleaner (a free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 292 kb download from MMISoftware – download
quickWebAlbum (free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 328 kb download from MMISoftware – download

I have just spent the last 15 hours making iCalMaker ‘universal’.

On one hand the process, as Apple promised, has been easy. If your code-base is up to date, and doesn’t use any ‘old’ calls, then it is literally a case of clicking a few buttons.

However, things for me were not so easy, it took more than a few clicks…..

iCalMaker dates all the way back to Mac OS X 10.1, although support for 10.1 was dropped a few years ago. Since iCalMaker had been created in the 10.1 days it meant that it used the old xcode settings/features. Although this wasn’t necessarily a problem it did mean that some of the new features of xcode 2 (such as fix and test) couldn’t be used.

Having looked at the problem I decided the best thing to do was to move all the code to a ‘fresh’ project. This way I could be sure all the project settings were correct to allow a universal build and I could use some of the new xcode features. I was surprised how easy this migration was. I created a new project. Closed it down, moved in the nib files from the old project, used ‘Add to project’ to move over the code files, help system, toolbar images etc. I then reset the program details, turned on powerpc and intel compiling, and I was done.

Whilst I was doing all this ‘fiddling’ I decided to change over the esellerate sales engine to their recently released ‘web-based’ system. Three reasons for this:

1. The new ‘web-based’ system looks more Mac like.
2. The new system is a ‘binary’.
3. PayPal has now been added as a payment option.

This was fairly straight forward and just required the removal of the old code, libraries and header files, and a swap over to the new system files. One wrinkle was I had to create an ‘embedded web’ store for the ‘seller’ to use. This took some time, but was reasonably painless.

The first re-compile flagged a few problems in the code. These were mainly due to ‘old’ code from 10.1 days, which made some ‘low-level’ system calls. This was easily fixed.

The new ‘binary’ of iCalMaker is surprisingly faster than the ‘old’ powerpc version. This was noticeable when loading some rather large (several thousand entries) iCal calendars and the exporting to vcal (Palm) or text-based files.

The new version of iCalMaker also includes a number of minor fixes to iCal import and vcal export. I would like to thank users Ashley Ward, Jorge de Sousa Pires and Robert Aucoin for sharing their iCal and vcal files, which greatly helped with tracking and solving the problems.

iCalMaker is available from MMISoftware (http://www.mmisoftware.co.uk) and is a 720 kb download (http://www.mmisoftware.co.uk/downloads/icalmaker.dmg.sit) and can be bought at the MMISoftware Store. A fully functional trail version of the software is available, and an activation code can be purchased for $34.95.

MMISoftware has released a minor update to iCalMaker (1.8.7). The update includes:

• Very minor update to fix a small bug introduced in 1.8.5
• Added a new build of the esellerate sales engine
• Finally cornered a rare (small) memory leak
• A few internal code ‘tweaks’ for 10.4.3

iCalMaker is available from MMISoftware (http://www.mmisoftware.co.uk) and is a 548 kb download (http://www.mmisoftware.co.uk/downloads/icalmaker.dmg.sit). A fully functional trail version of the software is available, and an activation code can be purchased for $34.95.

Well, the blog is looking and feeling a little neglected of late. Several reasons for this but the main one is I have been very busy on a number of projects.

1. Work for Quartz

Quartz (http://www.qrtz.co.uk) is a company founded in the UK about a year ago. They provide highly specialised financing to industry (I won’t even beginning to explain how what they do as I don’t understand it – have a look at their website). Anyway, for the past 10 months or so (see an earlier blog entry) I have been designing and coding their website. The website has been through three or four different designs and I think they are now happy with the final version. With luck the site should go live in a week or so.

In addition, I have been doing some php work for Quartz. At this stage I can’t say what, exactly, as it is still not ready to go live. However, I can say that I have had to learn some rather interesting financial calculation methods. Some of these may appear in future MMISoftware products (see note on ‘widgets’ below).

2. MMISoftware program updates

iCalMaker: Work is still continuing on version 2 of iCalMaker. However, because of the ongoing work for Quartz and some of the work below, progress has slowed. Mind you, this has not prevented the list of suggestions and requests from users growing – thanks for the input, it should make version 2 a great release. Version 1.8 iCalMaker download.

It is anticipated that there will be one or two more releases of iCalMaker before version 2. One of the releases will address any ‘late issues’ with Tiger (see below) and add a new esellerate engine, the other will be a general maintenance release to address a couple of known, but rare, bugs I am currently working on.

Web Photos: Version 2 of Web Photos has been on hold for some time. This was mainly because of a bug/problem that could not be solved. It now looks as though I have a solution to the problem, although it may mean the program requires 10.4 or greater. Also, the addition of the esellerate sales engine still needs to be completed.

‘The new program’: There is a new program in the works. The original release date was planned for March. However, due to the work for Quartz, and impending release of Tiger, work has slowed.

3. Tiger, tiger, burning bright….

As you may be aware (!) version 10.4 of Mac OS X is due for release on 29th April 2005. At present all of MMISoftware programs (iCalMaker,Web Photos, Power on X, mailMaker, Tunes Menu, BMI Calculator, quickWebAlbum, JPEGCleaner and webSiteCleaner) function with Tiger. However, until 10.4 hits the stores, and some final testing is carried out, the new versions will not be released.

Four interesting things are in Tiger, from a developers point of view:

• Widgets – not sure what to make of these. They look useful although I haven’t spent enough time with them to be sure. MMISoftware will certainly be developing a few Widgets which will complement existing products
• ‘Core graphics/image‘ – This will have some profound effects on the development of Web Photos, JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum. Time will tell….
• WebKit.framework – This framework is used in a number of MMISoftware programs and basically provides ‘web browser like’ properties to the programs. The recent changes introduced by Apple, as part of the new Safari in 10.4, may have some interesting ‘knock-on’ effects for MMISoftware development. Watch this space!
• xcode version 2 – All programs produced by MMISoftware are written in cocoa using xcode. The new version of xcode in 10.4 will make life a lot easier.

JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum and WebsiteCleaner updates released

JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum and WebsiteCleaner have been updated to use the new esellerate sales engine (this means the programs can now be purchased using JCB cards).

All the programs are available for download from the ‘One Trick Ponies‘ page at MMISoftware or from these download links – download JPEGCleaner, download quickWebAlbum and download WebsiteCleaner.

iCalMaker updated to 1.6.5

iCalMaker has been updated to 1.6.5

The update includes a number of bug fixes and a few new features.

New Features:

• Added the option to allow the expansion of repeating events in tab- and comma-delimited export
• Major improvement to the help system – searching (10.2 and greater) and context-specific (10.3 and greater) help now works correctly

Bug Fixes:

A number of minor bug fixes

• Recompiled using Xcode 1.2
• Updated the eSellerate integrated purchase engine

Minor update to iCalMaker released

A minor update of iCalMaker has been released.

The update addresses a bug which was causing some problems with the appointment format in iCal files (this was causing the appointments not to be displayed correctly in iCal – this problem only occurred with direct exports to iCal but not if the appointments were saved to file first) [Thanks to Peter Hamburger for the report of this bug.]

The update also includes an update of the eSellerate integrated purchase engine.

iCalMaker 1.6 is finally released!

After some delay version 1.6 of iCalMaker has been released.

The program contains a number of new features:

New Features:

• Improved the handling of poorly formatted iCal (ics) files upon import
• Removed the ‘five-event-limit’ on the import of iCal appointments from iCal (ics) files and direct from iCal
• Improved error message reporting
• Added additional help information on error messages
• Added an updated eSellerate integrated purchase engine

Bug Fixes:

• Dealt with a 10.2/10.3 specific bug which was causing some problems with the import of comma/tab delimited data
• Complete re-write of the iCal (ics) import method (now has better error reporting and conforms more closely to the vcal version 2 standard format)
• Dealt with a rare bug that would cause some iCal file output to be incorrectly formatted
• Fixed a bug that was causing problems when importing some short duration events
• Minor correction to text export so that ‘shifted-repeats’ (repeating events where one or more of the events have been moved to a different date/time) are now correctly handled
• Fixed a bug that was causing occasional crashes on the export of events to vCal (vcal version 1) format (thanks to Martin Haas and Joshua M. Whitman for finding that one!)
• Solved a problem with the import of iCalMaker generated vCal files that would not import correctly in to iCal (thanks to Martin Haas for providing calendars that demonstrated this really weird bug!)

The program can be downloaded here and purchased using either the integrated eseller or at the secure MMISoftware webstore.