Hey everyone. I've been wondering what you guys are thinking about PD, but you haven't been to vocal in the forums. I've allowed anonymous users to post comments so that you don't have to hassle with registering.

I'd like to know what you think about PD. What could be improved? What makes it awesome? What killer feature do you need, but we don't have yet?

I'd especially like to know what you guys think about the documentation. It's a work in progress, but it's coming out pretty nicely.

It'll be too late to get your suggestions into 1.0, but they will definitely be taken into consideration when we plan the 1.1 release.

I'll also be reading anything you say with the #lucid tag on both Twitter and identi.ca.

You're input is appreciated!

We've found a security problem that affects all versions of Psych Desktop. The problem involves the public/ directory, which was not protected by a .htaccess file, allowing an attacker to upload a PHP script and execute it. The file for beta3 has been patched to prevent this from happening, however, the new package still has to be copied to the mirrors, which will take a few minutes.

The fix does not require you to re-install anything, all you need to do is copy the '.htaccess' file from files/ to public/. All users of Psych Desktop are encouraged to fix this immediately.

We try our best to keep Psych Desktop as secure as possible, but sometimes things like this slip. We've notified everyone we could find who had a Psych Desktop installation about this issue, and they have hopefully fixed the problem.

We finally got sphinx set up on the server to automatically build the documentation. You can access it here:
http://www.psychdesktop.net/docs/index.html

When we get the new site setup, it will be presented inside of the site itself, but for now this will do.

This release contains a bunch of bug fixes since beta2, as well as some polishing. Some of the changes include:

• A new Flash-based uploader
• New contacts app (import/export vcard still temperamental)
• Updated to Dojo 1.2.0
• Namespace changes (api.* and login.* merged into desktop.*, see this for more details)
• Context menu for window titles and taskbar items (allows you to float windows on top, among other things)
• Word processor has more formating options
• Packages now have version compatibility metadata
• Update manager (won't work until the new site is finished)
• Theme polishing
• Apps now show currently opened file in their window title
• Various fixes to Katana IDE

Also, we've written some new documentation, including an installation guide. Documentation is still a work-in-progress, but things are moving steadily.

Download

• .tar.gz archive (17.1mb)
• .zip archive (21.5mb)

Full change list
Known issues

Recently, we've been migrating our documentation over to sphinx. We've also written a few pages of documentation that cover some of the components of the desktop. You can take a look at what's being done on the documentation page. Unfortunately it looks like we won't be able to use the Api Reference tool until the Dojo guys have gotten the performance kinks out of it. The documentation comments are still inline with the apis, however, so you can just look at the source if you wish.

Also, I'm glad to say that the desktop is only using one namespace now. api.* and login.* have moved to the desktop namespace. Any widgets were moved to desktop.widget.* (including api.Window), and api.ui.* is now in desktop.dialog.* (drop the last 'Dialog' off of the method and you'll have the new method's name). login.* is now in desktop.login.*. We're considering renaming 'desktop' to 'lucid' to save some typing, but the decision isn't final yet.

Oh, and maybe you've noticed that http://www.lucid-desktop.org/ is showing a 403 error, that's going to be like that until we get everything set up there, which will (hopefully) be pretty soon.

We've upgraded our Trac installation to 0.11, and it's now being hosted on the Dojo Foundation's servers. Source browsing is back again, which we couldn't do while we hosted Trac, and they hosted the SVN repository. The only thing we're using our servers for now is the website. Once we finish the new website, we'll be using their servers completely. This is good, because now we can focus on development, and we don't need to worry about implementation at all.

Also, the 1.1 release that we were planning on starting after 1.0 has been broken up into smaller releases, so we can get the improved backends out in the wild ASAP. In 1.0, the backends are not very maintainable, and break easily. The new backends will be completely rewritten using the Zend Framework, and will be faster as well as more maintainable.

The initial 1.1 release will just feature the improved backends, along with some new developer APIs. In the next two releases, 1.1.2 and 1.1.4, we will work on polishing the core, and adding some new features and apps. This way, developers won't have to worry about compatibility between 1.1 and the two later releases, we can get the better backends out there, and we can still add in all the features planned for 1.1.

The new website's code portion is now complete. Now, all that's holding us back from releasing the new site is the design, and the deployment. If things go as planned, it will be up in a week or two.

As I have said before, the new site is a dramatic improvement compared to the current site. Here's some things in the site:

• Download page that auto-generates md5sums, and separates stable releases from unstable releases. (Makes the release process on our end easier)
• REST interface to fetch the latest version (will be implemented in #178)
• Package repository, where users can upload, rate, and comment on apps and themes (Will be integrated with the desktop in a package manager app later)
• Better forums, similar to Lussumo Vanilla
• (Hopefully) Shared accounts across Trac and the website itself
• Overview page, which walks through various features of the desktop
• Dojo being used in various places (TabContainers, TitlePanes, etc.)
• Better site navigation

I feel the website was one of our biggest weak points, and I'm excited to see that they will finally be fixed.

As for the desktop itself, there have been various things put into it this week. The biggest change is the new flash uploader, which addresses the usability problems of the old uploader. The old uploader took three clicks in order to upload a file, and this one only takes two. It will auto-select between flash and the traditional method, based on if flash is available. This way, the user doesn't need to make an unnecessary choice between the two. Upload progress is shown in a statusbar widget, so there aren't any extra windows being shown.

Lastly, we're now in a feature freeze for the 1.0 release. No additional features may be put in, and the only thing we will accept is bug reports.

We're coming very close to getting a release candidate out, and we're looking forward to finally releasing a stable version after two years of work.

Beta2 has less major changes since the last beta, but we've ironed out most of the kinks. The biggest fix was #161, the first one on the change list. This prevented the installer from working correctly on some PHP configurations. If you had problems with installation before, it is recommended that you try it again in 1.0beta2.

Here's the full change list:

• #161 Installer no longer fails during app installation, after table creation in some PHP configurations
• #148 Minesweeper app now resizes the window properly
• #151 Window maximize fixed in fx < extra
• #150 Calculator now has correct button size
• #152 Replaced dojox.Grid with dojox.grid.DataGrid
• #155 Better error handling on the installer implemented
• #156 Package installer no longer raises notices when reading metadata
• #157 Feed reader works again
• #158 Task manager less temperamental
• #149 Extra editor plugins added to the Word Processor

Please report bugs! If you are sure you found a bug, make a new ticket. If you're not sure, ask in our support forum. Be sure to search in both places for an identical issue before making a new topic. Expect a quick response if you do.

Download

• .tar.gz archive (16.6mb)
• .zip archive (20.8mb)

I'm proud to announce that Psych Desktop 1.0 Beta1 is finished! The desktop has gone through some major changes since 1.0 alpha2, including RSS reader improvements, enhanced xsite security, bug fixes to the installer, improvements to the window widget (now uses BorderContainer), and other small improvements.

As I've said before, this is a huge landmark for us, and there is very little that has to be done before we start spitting out release candidates. The final 1.0 release will be launched in conjunction with our new site, which should be finished in a few weeks.

Developers: Please note that we're using Dojo from trunk, and not Dojo 1.1.1. Also note that the window widget has changed dramatically, so instead of treating it as a LayoutContainer, treat it as if it were a BorderContainer.

Lastly, please report bugs! If you are sure you found a bug, make a new ticket. If you're not sure, ask in our support forum. Be sure to search in both places for an identical issue before making a new topic. Expect a quick response if you do.

Download

• .tar.gz archive (17.0mb)
• .zip archive (21.1mb)

I'm happy to announce that we're almost ready to release 1.0-Beta1. This is a huge milestone for us, and almost all of the features that will be in 1.0-Final will be in Beta1. There are a lot of changes since alpha1, and you'll find that there are many more features and improvements. The only thing preventing the release is a minor problem with the build system, but expect it soon, most likely by the end of the week. Once we close #99 and #77, we'll release a release candidate. We will continue to release the release candidates as we get bug reports. During this time we'll also focus on the new website, since bugs aren't too difficult to fix. As I said before, we're not releasing 1.0 until the new site is finished, which won't be for a while (but probably before the end of the month).

We really would appreciate it if you reported bugs. I check the forums on a regular basis now, and I have our bug tracker's RSS feed in my feed reader, so expect a quick response. If you are sure you found a bug, make a new ticket. If you're not sure, ask in our support forum (and be sure to search before making a new ticket/post).