Update for the last five months until October 15th, 2012
Releases:
- OpenPetra Alpha 0.2.22 was released on October 15th, 2012.
The release contains a lot of new functionality and bug fixes! It can be downloaded from here.
Packages for Windows, Linux and MacOS are available.
The main goal for this release was to improve the stability of the application. There were two main topics that needed to be dealt with in order to achieve that goal. On the one hand we increased the use of the validation framework throughout the application and that way made data entry more safe. On the other hand we were facing major problems in the grid handling that we’ve now overcome to a large extent. The overall look and feel has improved, too and – most of all – this new version of OpenPetra is much more stable than the previous one. Furthermore we’ve added new functions to almost every module and have been fixing a number of bugs that have been reported in various areas. Apart from the obvious change in the user interface, quite some effort has been put into the architecture and standardizing use of underlying code. This significantly reduces complexity and helps to maintain OpenPetra long term.
The current version still is in alpha state. We therefore missed the goal of having a feature complete version by the end of this year, but we continue working on it.
The OpenPetra Team meetings in June went very well. Apart from discussing the achievements and struggles we were facing, the main focus was on testing. We discussed our testing strategy again and seek to involve key users more. Meanwhile we have a Windows machine that can be used for that purpose and is available to selected users within the company.
AlanP was deeply involved with the daily exchange rates screen, when he figured out that the issues he discovered there were part of system wide problems. He therefore put very much effort into fixing grid issues. The grid now shows a consistent behaviour throughout the application and drastically improved event handling. Since the work on the grid was more essential, his changes to the daily exchange rates did not make it into this realease, but will follow soon.
TimotheusP: in the past months, the major change from on his side was the change to single port remoting. This allows the server to run just on one port, which is good for firewall security. Previously, a special port was opened for every connecting client. He also prepared for the next generation of the webbased interface which is currently used for TeenStreet, just using ext.js instead of ext.net. To provide relevant test data two better demo databases have been added, at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openpetraorg/files/openpetraorg/demodata/. One contains 3500 participants from 20 countries for a conference, another contains two ledgers with invoices and donations. Additionally he worked on the bank interface dealing with importing bank files and matching the gifts to donors in the database.
ChrisT worked extensively and mainly on the Gift Batch and GL Batch related screens, fixing numerous bugs in relation to basic form and tab control and introducing business and accounting logic to the form’s functionality to ensure OM’s financial requirements and working practice are met. This basically meant a re-write of those screens to meet current programming standards. Additionally ChrisT worked alongside Alan on fixing the problems in the grid.
ChristianK provided a ‘facelift’ for the Main Menu– the right hand side of the Main Menu now looks like it contains tasks that one can do and one can click on. It is visually more pleasing than before, uses icons and provides better usability as well. ChristianK was one of the developers who was involved in fixing several problems with the Grid (List/Detail views). He fixed many bugs in the Partner Find screen, in the Partner Edit screen and in many other areas.
WolfgangB introduced a number of new screens to create extracts, taking the available number up to 17. It is now also possible to purge extracts depending on date and add/delete subscriptions or update other information for all partners in an extract in one go. Finding existing extracts is now also easier with the help of a new find screen. He also introduced functionality to enter both event and field applications in Personnel data and improved the underlying database structure. Apart from that various improvements and bugfixes were made to the Partner Edit screen in the Partner and the Personnel data part.