MacJournal Development Blog

This blog chronicles the development of MacJournal, and other software by Dan Schimpf Software.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

MacJournal 5.1b8

Get it here.

This is the eighth beta. This contains various bug fixes, localization tweaks (including a new Italian localization), and one UI change in particular: .Mac is now MobileMe. Search is fixed, as are some issues with MetaWeblog servers. There is a fix for a crash when synchronizing Palm devices. There are some various other fixes as well that are detailed in the Version History. There aren't any new features as 5.1 is feature complete already. Providing more localizations is also a goal for this release. Please let me know if you have any problems with this beta.

posted by Dan Schimpf @ 6:51 PM  

31 Comments:

  • At 11:13 PM, July 10, 2008, Anonymous nao said…

    Thanks for the new beta.
    I am so pleased to tell you that now I can submit posts with category specification to my blog on Cocolog, a Japanese blog hosting service using TypePad as server system.

    But unfortunately, a yet another problem: timezone issue upon downloading entries from some Japanese blog hosting services.

    I am using MacJournal on Tiger (10.4.11) and the timezone setting in the "Date and Time" window of the System Preference is JST. A new post is uploaded to one of these blog servers at the correct posting date/time in JST, exactly as viewed with a WWW browser, but when downloaded with MacJounal 5.1b7 and 5.1b8 , the posting date/time is recorded 9 hours later (e.g., 10:00 is recorded as 19:00).

    To my knowledge, these blog services use their own server systems involving XML-RPC API, but none of them has a "timezone" pull-down menu on the control panel.

    What could I do, except for locally changing the downloaded posting date/time every time after downloading new entries from the server?

     

  • At 11:55 PM, July 10, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Excellent news about Cocolog; I don't think that ever worked properly until now.

    There are a few problems with posting and downloading posts based on time zone offsets. I think it's generally the case of the server misbehaving as it only happens with some servers, but there's no reason MacJournal can't compensate for you. Unfortunately, there's no way for the app to know the date is wrong, but what I can do now is add a hidden pref to do it. In the future it should probably be a per-blog setting, but that will have to wait until I can add some UI for it and 5.1 is very close to release.

     

  • At 6:11 AM, July 11, 2008, Anonymous nao said…

    Dear Dan,

    Thanks for you prompt and promising response!
    I am sure that timezone control is a functional option essential for using MacJournal as a blogging tool.
    I'll be looking forward to trying the new release compatible with timezone offsets in the future.

     

  • At 11:56 AM, July 11, 2008, Anonymous Rob said…

    Is .Mac, err MobileMe, synchronization working? I mean, not right now with the complete meltdown of Apple's infrastructure, but in general.

     

  • At 7:08 PM, July 11, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Yes, it should work. Let me know if you have any problems.

     

  • At 8:34 AM, July 14, 2008, Blogger fred said…

    Not specific to this beta, but applies to MJ in general I think:

    For import, MJ seems to need the extension to recognize the file type. Apple is confused internally on how this is supposed to work and I'm not sure what the theory du jour is, but in the olden days, the TYPE/CREATOR had precedence.

    I have a bunch of plain ASCII text files that I want to import, but they have a non-standard extension. They are identified by the OS with TextEdit as the default app, but MJ will import them as a document link (opened with TextEdit) instead of the contents as a text entry.

    Basically, suggestion is to have the documentation be a little clearer on this point.

     

  • At 9:22 AM, July 14, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    In version 5, MacJournal switched to use the new "Uniform Type Identifier" system that Apple invented in Tiger. It doesn't explicitly use the file extension, instead it asks the system for a type for the file. The system does whatever it feels necessary to divine that type; I don't have any control over that. In the future, I will probably add some control in MacJournal after the import to specify "treat this as text" or any other type.

     

  • At 1:54 PM, July 17, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    How do I get rid of the 'com.DanSchimpf.MacJournal.JournalEntries' listing in the .Mac/MobileMe preference pane? I've uninstalled MacJournal and this listing is still there and I'd like to remove it.

    Thanks.

     

  • At 2:36 PM, July 17, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    You have to throw out the Library/Application Support/SyncServices directory entirely and start over. There's nothing I can do about this.

     

  • At 10:04 AM, July 31, 2008, Blogger Frank Astier said…

    Dan - I have again an issue with the automatic backup to folders. In a case of a folder inside a folder, MJ fails to save the contents correctly. Some files are saved, but some are not. I think it's the drag and drops of .pages and .pdf files that don't get saved. If I touch them, then it seems to save correctly. Is there anything I can do to prompt MJ to save to folders all the documents it holds? - I'm relying on those folders for backups. Thanks. Frank

     

  • At 6:28 PM, August 01, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Hmm, I don't see this myself. Try trashing the whole Bookcase folder to make MacJournal rebuild it from scratch.

     

  • At 9:09 AM, August 03, 2008, Blogger Taka Iguchi said…

    any news on iPhone support?

     

  • At 4:55 PM, August 05, 2008, Blogger Frank Astier said…

    Trashing the whole bookcase folder worked, but I'm not sure it's the best way to do that... - Thanks anyway, Frank

     

  • At 4:48 PM, August 06, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Still not seeing journals and new journal entries updated between two computers via MobileMe.

    Using the latest beta on the latest release of Leopard. On machine is a G4 (laptop), the other a G5 (desktop).

    Suggestions?

     

  • At 7:42 PM, August 06, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Did you try resetting data on both matchines?

     

  • At 4:29 PM, August 07, 2008, Blogger Phil said…

    I see this beta's just a week or so from expiry. Will there be a new one soon?

     

  • At 9:44 AM, August 08, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    The hope is to get the final release out before then. I've been a little distracted with other things, but I hope to get it out early next week. Of course, having said that, I've jinxed it.

     

  • At 12:01 PM, August 08, 2008, Blogger Mathew said…

    Dan: I don't really care if it takes longer to get the final version out. However, at this point each time I start MJ I get a message saying the app will expire and a new version is at your website. So, for me, that's the annoyance. If that message can be eliminated, I don't really care if it takes another month to get the final version out!

     

  • At 12:03 PM, August 08, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    If it doesn't happen by the time it dies, I will release a new beta with a longer expiration date.

     

  • At 1:05 PM, August 09, 2008, Anonymous John Daley said…

    I'm still having mobile me sync issues with the 5.1. Some entries don't replicate, the journal templates reset and in some cases the title syncs but the content doesn't.

    I've done all the recommended steps (starting from scratch, resetting sync settings in .mac and in the library, etc.). I was syncing three machines but I've moved to two to simplify.

    This is the best note program around. I'm looking forward to fixes as the development moves forward.

     

  • At 10:21 PM, August 10, 2008, Blogger Jochen said…

    .me synchronisation.
    Funny but i have always the problem that an my macbook air i always get the error: could not be synced because the data are not consistent.... i should verify the data.... but how.
    With other words i cannot sync.
    Is there away to do it? All other apps can be synced in the meantime-
    Jochen

     

  • At 4:22 AM, August 12, 2008, Blogger Mike said…

    Hi there, just downloaded the new beta and the start-up message says it will expire in 3 days... Is that right?

     

  • At 4:22 AM, August 12, 2008, Blogger Mike said…

    Hi there, just downloaded the new beta and the start-up message says it will expire in 3 days... Is that right?

     

  • At 8:31 AM, August 12, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Yes, a new release will be out very soon.

     

  • At 8:44 AM, August 12, 2008, Blogger Mike said…

    Thanks for the speedy feedback Dan.

     

  • At 4:47 PM, August 12, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I eagerly await the new release. :-)

    However I do have a 5.1b8 problem. I checked multiple times to make sure it isn't me but it isn't saving the font color settings even when I tell it to save it as the default template.

    I like to type old-school "green screen" and whenever I open up the new Macjournal it changes to black text. Any suggestions?

    Mike Hebel

     

  • At 9:45 AM, August 13, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Is the color box at the bottom of the template window showing the correct color when you save it? If you put some text in the template and save that, does the color save then?

     

  • At 2:11 PM, August 13, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hello Dan, when may we expect the next release; today I got the message that the 5.1b8 will expire in 2 Days, Thanks for your great app.

     

  • At 2:12 PM, August 13, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    Soon. I will post a message when it is out.

     

  • At 5:13 PM, August 13, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Is the color box at the bottom of the template window showing the correct color when you save it? If you put some text in the template and save that, does the color save then?

    It doesn't seem to matter where I save it from. I've edited the templates so they are custom, tried entering text then saving it as the default format. Nothing seems to work. It saves the background color just fine but the text always comes in black on any new entry until I change it.

    Mike Hebel

     

  • At 8:15 PM, August 16, 2008, Blogger Dan Schimpf said…

    I tried this just now and it worked for me. If you open the template back up, did the color save? If you trash your prefs and try again, does it work?

     

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