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June 21, 2012 – Release 2.7.1.4 is available for download today. This is a minor, bug fix, release. A problem was discovered reading back the machine settings into the application at startup. This caused the application to loose settings such as proxy server and check for updates interval. It has been fixed.

- Pete

June 19, 2012 – Release 2.7.1.2 is available for download today. This is a minor, bug fix, release with a few new features. With the fix of the drag image offset issue and updating the jxProject launcher to allow running on Java 7, jxProject now fully supports Java 7. New features include resource leveling per resource and email address for resources. The ability to quickly check for updated releases of jxProject under the help menu. The ability to see tasks that are assigned to the default resource in the schedule view. See the release notes in the “Overview” section of the user documentation for more details.

- Pete

April 12, 2012 – Release 2.7.0.2 is available for download today. This is a significant release which adds critical path/chain functionality, a full new chapter of documentation has been added to describe the new functionality. A couple alternatives to the default resource are the “myself” resource and the “assigning resource”. A file logging facility and a little more drag and drop improvements and more. See the release notes in the “Overview” section of the user documentation for more details.

- Pete

November 16, 2011 – Release 2.6.1.2 is available for download today. This is a minor, bug fix, release. The application was freezing on startup, for some users, when running on Java 7. Also, jxProject was not informing the user about the inability to save a file due to access permissions. Both of these bugs have been fixed.

- Pete

September 21, 2011 – Release 2.6.0.2 is available for download today. This release reworks the drag/drop functionality to utilize the drag/drop Java API. This allows dragging and dropping to and from applications other than jxProject and allows more drag/drop within jxProject. User feedback during drag/drop operations is improved with better visual feedback such as cursor alterations. A nasty bug is also fixed, an undetected circular constraint violation that would cause havoc with your plan if you were unfortunate enough to encounter it. Upgrading is highly recommended.

- Pete

April 11, 2011 – Release 2.5.2.4 is available for download today. This release has very minor couple of changes, there was an array bounds exception occurring on the Apple/Mac Soy Latte platform, and the word “finish” was misspelled. Both of these errors have been corrected.

I am focusing much more on jxProject recently than I have over the previous 3 years. Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems and Java and I feel very positive about this development. Sun's crazy decision making over the past several years made me wonder if Java had any future at all. As it turns out, Sun did not have any future, but Java certainly does. Oracle is a company that has always been focused on providing customer value, they are bringing this to Java and I feel confident that this is going to work out very well.

I am currently working to add drag/drop edit capabilities to the schedule view in addition to other interactive capabilities. This will be a big boost to those users that are struggling with the (rank/resource balancing) concepts.

- Pete

July 25, 2010 – Release 2.5.2.2 is available for download today. This release is compiled for Java 1.6 so if you are running an earlier version of java you will need to upgrade. Java 1.6 has improvements in start up speed and efficiency. Several support libraries of jxProject where also upgraded. There were some changes to the server side of jxProject, but it should not have any visible impact to the user. See the release notes in the “Overview” section of the user documentation for more details on changes in this release.

Two thumbs up for Oracle and their stewardship of Java. They are making things work!

- Pete

January 31, 2008 – I have added Google advertising to jxProject.com. It's somewhat interesting to see what ads they choose to show. If anyone has trouble with them, let me know. I am surprised that I have not gotten any interest in advertising in the jxProject application. Some users have sent me project plans, and many of them have significant dollars being spent on computers, construction, plant equipment, hiring people or vendors. The planners are looking at this ad window when they are doing the planning ... for all of the spending. If they like jxProject they usually purchase a license, which ends the advertising of course. But there is an opportunity there being missed and I need to start do a better job of selling that opportunity. The impression and click data that is uploaded is just sitting on my server ... I never look at it. I need to analyze it and publish the results. There is a story to tell and I need to tell it.

I am working on the next release. Should be very cool.

- Pete

September 24, 2007 – Release 2.5.1.0 is available for download today. To improve the integration with the windows desktop, jxProject preferences are now stored under the Windows AppData folder, as it should be. Some users with roaming profiles have had trouble with previous jxProject versions as their home directories were not writable. Also, the expiration date for the software has been eliminated for production software releases, it will only be used for beta software. I don't have any beta software out there yet, but probably will in the future. See the overview section of the user documentation on this site for release notes and a more detailed list of features and bug fixes.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. If you are running an activated installation of jxProject, this new version will automatically accept your previous activation without any intervention. Note: For windows users, this release moves any pre-existing application home directory to the AppData location. If there is a problem with this operation, and your activation license is not carried forward, email support and we'll get it working. We would just need to copy the license file to the new AppData location.

- Pete

September 4, 2007 – Release 2.5.0.10 is available for download today. This is a bug fix release which was caused by my previous bug fix to present a different file chooser based on the Java version number. Sun does not have a standard for their version numbering so it makes it difficult to write a routine to parse the version number correctly given the variety of formats that they use. The bug was causing an array bounds exception on Java version 1.6.0-b105 whenever the file chooser was requested by the user to open or save a file. Also, the “Load Example” button was removed from the tool bar, the example projects can now be accessed from the Help pull down menu bar.

There will likely be another release in a week or so. I want to improve integration with the windows desktop by utilizing the special folders such as AppData per Microsoft's specifications. This is to help with roaming user profiles.

- Pete

August 24, 2007 – Release 2.5.0.8 is available for download today. This is a bug fix release which implements a workaround for a problem in Oracle Java 1.6 update 2 (1.6.0_02) release. The file chooser in this Java update has BIG problems on the Windows platform when scanning directories containing zip files. It can cause the application to freeze for several minutes! For Windows user's with this version of Java, jxProject will display an alternate file choosing dialog which does not have this freezing problem.

- Pete

August 19, 2007 – Release 2.5.0.6 is available for download today. This is a bug fix release to fix several bugs with the resource optimizer. A user sent me a large project plan which exposed the problems. Note: When the optimizer works as designed, no task should EVER move forward in the project plan as a result of an optimization. If you see ANY task move forward in time as the result of an optimization, please send me an email!

Also, from working with this large plan I see several ways to improve the UI regarding optimization and I will start working on it ASAP.

- Pete

August 9, 2007 – Release 2.5.0.3 is available for download today. This is a bug fix release to fix problems with the installer/launcher. Several users informed me that they were unable to uninstall jxProject on Windows. My investigation showed the installer was incompatible with Java 1.6. I like Java 1.6, so I have gotten rid of the old installer and launcher and have integrated new ones. The new installer is “Inno Setup” and the new launcher is “launch4j”. These are both excellent technologies that greatly improve the application experience of jxProject. The version of jxProject installed is actually 2.5.0.2 (no changes were made to jxProject), but it installs as 2.5.0.3 in order to avoid conflict with the previous installer.

For Windows users I highly recommend changing to this new installation. However, if you installed against Java 1.6, you will find that you won't be able to remove the old jxProject. I have developed a couple of solutions for uninstalling it, and has been published with the user documentation under “Problems and Solutions”.

- Pete

June 24, 2007 – Release 2.5.0.2 is available for download today. The May 22 news release describes some of the feature highlights. See the overview section of the user documentation on this site for release notes and a more detailed list of features and bug fixes. The user documentation has been updated.

- Pete

May 22, 2007 – This is an update on the development progress of version 2.5.x. The release includes a File history mechanism, a dialog for editing task properties, task notes, positive and negative lag for task links, the ability to add/hide columns, a context menu for the Gantt chart, a couple of new arbitrary constraints and the ability to drag/edit items on the Gantt chart such as link lag, arbitrary constraints, and task durations. Lots and lots of new stuff. This release will be ready around June 16(best guess).

- Pete

March 4, 2007 – Release 2.4.1.2 is available for download today. A problem with “paste” was corrected. The problem was cutting/copying a single snippet of text from another application, such as a web browser, could not be pasted into the jxProject tables. The reason was because the text in this situation is not terminated with a newline or tab, which I thought all cut/copy text had a terminator - not so. A two minute fix, a two hour redeployment to the web site. Argghhhh! However, for those that use self installation with zip or tar files, Mac/Linux, you can speed up the performance of jxProject dramatically by using the launch string: “java -jar -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Xms50m -Xmx250m jxProject.jar”. I have included more explanation in the “Self Install” section of the download page. Some Mac users have reported that the application was sluggish, and it just dawned on me that they were not using these launch parameters. The installer/launcher sets these parameters but the self installers don't. At least I have the information out there now.

- Pete

March 2, 2007 – Release 2.4.0.2 is available for download today. New features are cut/copy/paste for the Gantt and Schedule tables as well as fill down and fill up. There are new table context menus and ability to define FTE work hours. Also new is middle mouse button click pan scrolling and double-click table column resizing. See the overview section of the user documentation on this site for release notes and a more detailed list of features and bug fixes. The user documentation has been updated.

- Pete

February 8, 2007 – I have completed most of the implementations of cut/copy/paste for the Gantt and Schedule work sheets as well as fill down and fill up. Also I've expanded the edit and context menus and added the ability to describe your typical full time work hours so instead of always looking at things in 24hrs/day time you can look at it in 8hrs/day 5days/week work time. I am anxious to get this out and I am targeting the end of this month. So check back then and I'll have something new for you.

- Pete

June 20, 2006 – The user documentation for Date and time line formatting has just been completed and uploaded to jxProject.com. The future plans document has also been updated.

- Pete

June 15, 2006 – Release 2.3.0.2 is available for download today. This has a lot of new features such as: Accelerator keys, Custom Date Formats, Custom TimeLine Formats, alternating table row shading, and more! ;-) See the overview section of the user documentation on this site for release notes and a more detailed list of features and bug fixes. The existing user documentation has been updated, but the new section on formating the dates and the time line headers will take another day or two.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. If you are running an activated installation of jxProject, the activation will work for this new version, after you upgrade. This release expires December 31, 2007.

- Pete

June 11, 2006 – The new release is not quite ready. The new features are complete but there is one remaining little semi-minor buggy issue that I want to examine/fix before this goes out With the new date formats and custom time line formats you can see much more scheduling detail than any previous versions. You can have tasks with durations of 1/10^th of a second and you can see tasks scheduled down to 1/1000^th of a second. All scheduling is performed in milliseconds, but there are tolerance values which keep very minor changes from causing too many calculations. In some cases, a one second change by the user does not cause the model to initiate a solve because it is below the tolerance value. This was fine in previous versions because you couldn't specify seconds, but you can specify fractional seconds the next version. I want to re-evaluate the tolerance values and how they are used. I won't spend too much time on it, I'm targeting this Wednesday or Thursday (June 14^th/ 15^th) for the software to be released.

- Pete

May 17, 2006 – Version 2.3.x.x is about half done and is targeted for release June 11, 2006. The next release is all user interface improvements. I have just finished with custom date formats and I am about half way on custom headers for the Gantt and Schedule charts. After the custom headers I'll put in dialog to allow the user to customize the Gantt and Schedule chart appearance. Check back on June 11, I'll have another news update, and hopefully some new software.

A bug has been reported where a “divide by zero” exception is thrown when using the optimizer on tasks that have zero duration. This bug does not destabilize the application, but does terminate the optimization operation. The work around is to set the task duration to any non-zero value and resume optimization. This has already been fixed for the upcoming release.

- Pete

April 18, 2006 – Release 2.2.1.2 is available for download today. This is a patch to fix some user interface “focus” problems. The biggest problem was that the user was required to mouse click the task name cell for every single task name entry. It made creating a project plan very cumbersome. A couple of other issues were addressed while I was in there, see the release notes in the user documentation “Overview” section for more details.

- Pete

April 9, 2006 – Release 2.2.0.2 is available for download today. This release has full undo/redo support as well as significant enhancements in the area of resource utilization. Users can alter the ranks of tasks to prioritize task execution without changing the table order of the tasks or inserting dependencies. A resource optimizer is part of this release which identifies gaps in available resource work schedules and moves tasks into those gaps. A new link type and a couple of pseudo link types have been added. See the “Overview” user documentation for more details. This version requires the user of Java 1.5. If you are running on Java 1.4, you should un-install it,then install Java 1.5 and then install jxProject.

- Pete

March 30, 2006 – All of the coding is complete for the next release, which will be version 2.2.0.2. I still need to do final testing, documentation, installers and web site updates. There is a 10% chance that I get it out this weekend, but most likely it will be one more week, and released on or before April 9^th, 2005. Between the new links, optimizer and undo/redo it seems every single critical piece of code had to be altered in some way. I don't want to rush this out.

- Pete

March 15, 2006 – This is a development update. The next release will include resource links and the resource optimizer and as an added bonus ... undo/redo. The cut/copy/paste functionality was ... unfortunately .... cut. ;-) Everything is working well and I am about 60% done with undo/redo which is the last remaining item for this release. Shortly after the last news release, see below, I realized that the resource links were too difficult for users to manage. Once the resource links start building up in the project plan they become too restrictive. So I implemented whole new sets of invisible functionality allowing the resources links to be deleted/added automatically when they are impeding what the user wants to do. This works very well. But then I realized that having undo/redo functionality was now very important since lots of things are going on behind the scenes that the user, for the most part, is not aware of. So undo/redo jumped from near the bottom of my todo list to the very top.

I expect to be done coding by 3/22, then lots of testing, then documentation and release. In the last week of March I'll post the either next release or a news update giving a new release date. This development cycle is going very well, but I'm putting in a lot more functionality than I had originally planned.

- Pete

January 29, 2006 – This is an update on development progress of jxProject. The resource linking capability has been fully implemented. Resource links are used during resource leveling and allow the user to have complete control over the order in which tasks/resources are scheduled, without having to put in hard links(dependencies) between task. Also, the resource optimizer is working well. The optimizer identifies gaps in the work schedules of the project resources and then identifies tasks which can be moved into those gaps while respecting all constraints; including resource availability. The tasks are then moved into these gaps by inserting resource links. This leads to a project plan that has better utilization of resources and a shorter project duration. The project resources are never over allocated but are utilized as much as possible. Because the resource links are modifiable by the user, the user is in full control of the optimization. All of this happens with the push of a single button! IT IS VERY COOL!!!!

The above described release should be out in March 2006.

- Pete

November 6, 2005 – Release 2.1.0.2 is available for download today. This release contains a new column called “span” which allows a task to be scheduled over the work schedule of a single resource regardless of how many resources are assigned to the task. Another new feature adds a “current date” line on the Gantt and schedule charts. The software expiration date has been significantly increased so I don't keep running up against the date in my release planning. I put in fewer features than I wanted for this release so I could get this out well before the previous release expires. See the “Overview” user documentation for more details. I expect the next release of jxProject will require Java 1.5 as the minimum runtime environment.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. If you are running an activated installation of jxProject, the activation will work for the old version, and the new version, after you upgrade. This release expires December 31, 2007.

- Pete

October 19, 2005 – I just added a search capability to this web site. There is a lot of documentation and it becomes cumbersome for people who just want to find out how to assign a resources to a task in jxProject. So if you search on “assign resources” and push search, a new window will appear with the search results for just this site, jxProject.com. And you can quickly get to all of the places where assigning resources is documented and discussed. The indexing and searching are performed for free by Google. They just require that their logo is “conspicuously” displayed near the search box. OK, can everyone see the Google logo? ;-) Google is cool, I use it constantly for researching everything. I think having Google search on jxProject.com greatly boosts the usability of this web site.

- Pete

October 17, 2005 – I have updated the user documentation, including the EULA, to catch up with 2.0.0.2 release. The current version of jxProject expires in about 2.5 months so I'm going to put out a new release in a few weeks with a much longer software expiration date as well as a couple of new features. I've sold several serial numbers over the past few weeks and there have been no reports of any difficulties with purchasing (paypal/esellerate) or activating the software. Onward and upward, I'll talk to y'all again soon when the new release is out.

- Pete

August 13, 2005 – The commercialization of jxProject is now complete. The free activation testing period was very successful. My thanks to all of those that tried it out. I exchanged a lot of email with users and I am always interested to hear how people are using jxProject, and just chit chatting it up in general. I only had one user report a problem with activation and it was due to their company firewall policy of stripping out the http session identifiers/cookies. I've got to think this is a very rare situation, even so, I have a work around for it should anyone encounter this problem after purchasing a “real” serial number. I have established accounts with esellerate and PayPal for money transfers, they are both leading vendors in financial transaction services. So...., whew, I'm glad to have this behind me, .. almost... , I still need to update the documentation with the new activation dialog, and I need to update the EULA to make sure it is correct regarding its reference to the commercial version of jxProject.

I expect the next couple of releases to add significant value to the product. I'm really looking forward to getting them done and released. The 2.0.0.2 version expires at the end of the year. I will have another version out well before then. I will be extending the expiration dates of the software to somewhere between 18 and 24 months from the initial release date. The only reason I have a software expiration date is to push users to keep up with the latest versions. This helps insure interoperability between users sharing jxProject files.

I have been developing on the Java 1.4.2 platform but I am going to upgrade my development environment to Java 1.5. I may have to require that users upgrade their Java installations in order to run the next version, but most of my users are already running Java 1.5.

- Pete

July 25, 2005 – Release 2.0.0.2 is available for download today. This release supports a commercial version of the software which allows you to turn off the scrolling advertising. This is done by purchasing a serial number and then activating the software using the serial number . If you go to the purchase/buy area of this web site you will find several free serial numbers that can be used for activation for the next three weeks or so. This allows you to try jxProject without the ads and gives me a chance to identify any problems with the activation system.

The commercial version is functionally the same as the free version, but it does run a little faster without the burden of the scrolling ads. Over time the commercial version will have more “power user” features such as a scheduling optimizer. However, files between free and commercial versions will always be interchangeable.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires December 31, 2005.

- Pete

July 10, 2005 – I am in the middle of deploying the next release, getting the database going all. My Internet Service Provider uses slightly different versions of software than I use in development. Plus, they use Linux and I develop on Windows, so I am having to do some tweaking here and there to get things running smoothly in both environments. I expect to have this ready for release next Sunday, July 17^th, and if not then, July 24^th. I am done coding, but the deployment/testing/tweaking/deployment/testing/tweaking may go on for a bit before I am ready to call it done.

I must say, I like using jxProject better without the scrolling advertising window. It didn't bother me that much, but when it's gone, it's really nice. ;-) Just so you all can see it, after I get the next release deployed, I'll publicly post a serial number that everyone can use to activate the software for 4 weeks. This will allow everyone to try it out, and will give me a chance to see the activation work and resolve problems before the numbers go on sale.

- Pete

June 11, 2005 – Well.... the next release (commercial, non-advertising version) is not quite ready yet. The serial number generator is done, the activation certificate generation is done, the database is done, the servlets are done, the credit card vendor selection is done, and the client side (jxProject) activation is about half done. So I'm pretty darn close to “code complete”. But moving this whole enchilada from development to production is going to have some bumps, there are just too many pieces/parts/connections for this to go smoothly. So I need a couple of more weeks of coding and a week or more for to resolve deployment issues. My apologies for the delay, I know there are a number of people anticipating this release.

The new target date for the next release is July 10, 2005.

- Pete

April 29, 2005 – The next release of jxProject will be the commercial version that allows users to purchase serial numbers and turn off the scrolling advertising. I have been making steady progress but it will be another month before it is ready for release. I was hoping to have it ready in April, but the release is now scheduled for June 5, 2005.

The licensing and activation scheme for the software will be different than most other software packages. I wanted something that was flexible and easy for companies to utilize both commercial and free/advertising versions of jxProject within their departments. It will work as follows:

Users can purchase one or more serial numbers on-line for $20.00. Each serial number allows 5 activations/installations of jxProject. Each activation is performed via an Internet activation mechanism directly from the jxProject application. The software activation license is tied to the activating user's home directory. The serial numbers can be shared among users as it is not restricted to any machine or person or company. However, once the five activations are used up, more installations would require purchasing additional serial numbers. Each activation will be active for one year from the date of the first activation for the serial number. The serial numbers will be valid for up to three years from the date of purchase, or one year after the first activation.

- Pete

December 6, 2004 – Release 1.2.0.4 is available for download today. This release is mostly to extend the expiration date of the software. One new feature is the ability to pass in a file name that will be loaded when jxProject starts up. If you associate the jxp file extension with jxProject, you can then double click a jxp file and it will start jxProject and load the file. The error reporting for file access errors had been improved.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires December 31, 2005.

- Pete

November 29, 2004 – A new release will be out by December 15^th. The current version expires at the end of this year and I've been getting some anxious email from users who are concerned about the expiration. My apologies for the lack of communication. Since the last release of jxProject, I have relocated to the State of Washington. It has taken a LOT of time to get moved and settled in. I've gotten lots of great ideas from users over the past several months and I am chomping at the bit to get back to work! I'll be coding in earnest right after Christmas.

- Pete

March 12, 2004 – Release 1.2.0.2 is available for download today. This release includes the ability to write out project plans and resource schedules as html/images. Also a popup menu was added to tree/table cells that allow nodes to be expanded/collapsed as well as all descendants of those nodes. A See the "Overview" section of the user documentation for details.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires January 1, 2005.

- Pete

November 9, 2003 – Release 1.1.0.2 is available for download today. This release includes greatly reduced print file sizes, import/export of XML, a faster/better constraint solver and more! See the "Overview" section of the user documentation for details.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires April 1, 2004.

- Pete

November 2, 2003 – The software gods are working against me I tell ya. ;-) While I was working on the drag and drop interaction, I decided to extend the existing capabilities to include move, copy and link. This turned out to be a bit more than I had anticipated so I'm going to have to push the release out a week to November 9, 2003. I think I'll be done coding tomorrow, but like the saying goes, it ain't over till it's over. But after the coding is done I still need to do full testing and update user documentation and the web site.

I've been getting some really good user feedback lately. After I get this next release out I will be going through those emails again in detail to decide on features for the following release.

- Pete

October 18, 2003 – The next version of jxProject is now targeted for release on November 2, 2003. This is later than I had planned, but several things came up over the past couple of weeks that have restricted my work time. I have two items left to complete so I am allowing myself plenty of time to get them done.

- Pete

September 26, 2003 – I've been working on the next release for the past 3 weeks. I've tuned the constraint solver so finish constraints on tasks produce consistent and accurate results. A side benefit of the tuning activity is that the solver is nearly twice as fast as the previous version. But since it already solves in the “blink of an eye”, I doubt you'll notice the difference. But if you use finish constraints, you will definitely notice an improvement in precision. I'm anxious to get this release out but I still have some other work to do which is mostly features requested by users (see “Future Plans”). I'm really happy to be at a stage of development where I can focus on user requests. My target date for the next release (version 1.1.0.1) is October 19, 2003.

I exchanged email with OS/2 JVM vendor, (http://www.goldencode.com). Their users were having trouble running jxProject, and we worked together to resolve some file locking issues that were not working correctly in their JVM. They have resolved the issue and jxProject will be running on OS/2 very soon. Oracle contacted me for permission to use jxProject as a demonstration application on their newly unveiled Java Desktop. My response was, “of course”, but I don't know if they actually demo'd it or not. Lots of companies are trying jxProject and a whole lot of Universities are using it for course instruction.

- Pete

September 1, 2003 – Release 1.0.1.2 is available for download today. This patch release allows the user to specify a network proxy to be used for downloading new advertisements. This also fixes some exceptions that were being reported to the user that were not really problems. See the "Overview" section of the user documentation for details.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires January 1, 2004.

- Pete

August 29, 2003 The next release is just about ready. It is a patch release to correct the issues outlined in the previous news update. I am debating about releasing it as a beta, or to just go straight to production with it. The most significant change was integrating the Jakarta HTTPClient package in order to support the updating of advertisements from behind proxies. I will have something out here on or before September 7, 2003.

- Pete

August 8, 2003 In July I had about 300 downloads of jxProject, and there have been 600 downloads so far this month. I've gotten some great feedback from users which I am anxious to incorporate into jxProject. One problem is that the application is reporting some exceptions to users which are not significant problems, however, it makes the application look bad. Also, firewall/proxies are preventing users from downloading the advertisements. See the Overview/Bugs/Issues section of the user documentation for more information.

- Pete

August 5, 2003 jxProject is one of the featured applications in this months Swing Sightings. Swing Sightings is an online publication produced by Oracle. I was invited to give a demonstration of jxProject by Hans Muller (CTO of Sun's Desktop Division). The demonstration took place on July 17th at Sun's Palo Alto campus. It was very nice to meet/talk with Hans and several folks there at Sun. My thanks to Blake Connell for putting jxProject into Swing Sightings.

- Pete

July 22, 2003 – Release 1.0.0.2 is available for download today. This is the first ever production release of jxProject. It has a couple of minor bug fixes which are outlined in the release notes, no new features were added. Tomorrow I will begin outlining the objectives for 1.1.0.1. If you have feature requests, send them in! My development objectives are heavily influenced by requests from users.

Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires January 1, 2004.

- Pete

June 30, 2003 – Release 1.0.0.1 is available for download today. Most of this release is about saving user preferences and being able to update the images in the advertising window. See the release notes for details. I have had hundreds of downloads of the previous release of the software with no reports of any bugs. I also have not seen any significant bugs. So everything is looking good and I would expect this release to become production with little or no changes on or before July 23, 2003. Have at it!

Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires January 1, 2004.

- Pete

June 18, 2003 – The new target release date for 1.0.0.1 is June 30, 2003. Everything is going fine, I've just had several things to do outside of development that has reduced my coding time. I purchased a new laptop and set up a wireless network. I'm also testing various Linux distributions on the laptop. SuSE 8.2 looks like the best for desktop Linux. I spent the better part of a week doing things with the laptop and just got back to coding yesterday.

- Pete

May 19, 2003 - I have decided to skip the 0.9.0.1 release and keep going to the 1.0.0.1 release. This will allow more time for testing and documentation. Most of the work for this release is to finalize installation issues, so there aren't any features that are "gotta" have features. I'll get back to more interesting stuff after 1.0 becomes production. The target date is June 16, 2003.

If you have any features you would like to see added to jxProject, let me know. After 1.0, I'll begin immediately working on 1.1.

- Pete

May 2, 2003 - Release 0.8.1.1 is available for download today. This release addresses several printing issues such as paper and printer selection as well as row/column breaking on the charts and tables. Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires July 1, 2003.

The next release will be 0.9.0.1 which will be to finalize the installation structure so I can store/retrieve user preferences and store/retrieve advertisements for the sponsor window. I'll post an update here on or before May 19, 2003.

- Pete

April 14, 2003 - Release 0.8.0.5 is available for download today. I just wasn't happy with the resource leveling so I put a few more days into it. From a user perspective you probably won't notice much difference, but it is better. :) There are a couple of bug fixes also, see the release notes. Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires June 1, 2003.

- Pete

April 9, 2003 - Release 0.8.0.3 is available for download today. I discovered a serious bug in the resource leveling when I starting working on the next release. When you install this version, the installer will still say 0.8.0.1, but when you run jxProject and see the splash screen it will tell you it is version 0.8.0.3, which is the version you want! From my web logs there were several down loads to Taiwan and Lexmark in Lexington, KY. You need to upgrade folks!

- Pete

April 7, 2003 - Release 0.8.0.1 is available for download today. I completed 7 of the 6 objectives for this release, things went so well I threw in an extra one which is the ability to assign partial resources to tasks. The major feature improvement here is resource leveling but there are significant changes to many parts of the application. If you are upgrading, be sure to review the release notes in the user documentation "Overview". Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires June 1, 2003.

The next release will be 0.8.1.1 which will be to finalize printing for the Gantt and Schedule views. Target date is April 28, 2003.

- Pete

March 24, 2003 - This is an update to let you all know how version 0.8.0.1 is coming along. I have 6 objectives for this release and 5 of them are complete. Things are going so well I've got to think something nasty is going to happen on this last one. ;-) I'm going to target April 7, 2003 for its release. If things change I'll post an update before then.

- Pete

March 1, 2003 - Release 0.7.1.1 is available for download today. jxProject takes a big step forward with the addition of "work" and % complete for tasks. Some important bug fixes are also included, see the release notes in the "Overview" section of the user documentation for more detailed information. As I said before, this is a "must have" upgrade. Files from previous versions will work in this version. This release expires June 1, 2003.

The next release should be 0.8.0.1 which is targeted for April 1, 2003. This will include resource leveling and usage reporting. I'll post an update before March 24, 2003 to let you know how things are coming along.

- Pete

February 25, 2003 - This is just a quick update to let everyone know that the 0.7.1.1 release was completed today. All of the objectives for this release have been achieved which includes work, % complete, task renumbering and several bug fixes. I will be doing testing, user documentation and web site updates over the next couple of days and it will be available for download sometime between Thursday and Monday.

The usability of the product is significantly improved, this is a "must have" upgrade.

- Pete

February 9, 2003 - Release 0.7.0.1 is available for download today. The web site has been updated with new screen shots, new user documentation and new software to download and install. If you used the "installer" for the previous version of jxProject it would probably be a good idea to un-install that version before installing this one. Files from the 0.6 will work with 0.7.

This release is all about the ability to define Resources and to build schedules of availability for those Resources. When the scheduling of tasks is performed the availability of the assigned Resource(s) is taken into account. Tasks will not start until the Resource is available to work on the task.

I am going to take Monday off and go for a walk and do a little bar-b-que'n in the coastal Redwood forests. On Tuesday I will be back at the keyboard, working on the next release of course! I will very likely release 0.7.1.1 by March 1, which will have a fix for the "date spinner bug" and hopefully introduce the concept of "Work" and percent complete for each task. I hope you enjoy working with 0.7.

- Pete

February 3, 2003 - I wanted to release 0.7 today, but I am going to hold off until Feb 10. I want to spend this week finishing the documentation and doing some additional testing. For those of you that would like to assign people to the tasks which you've defined, you'll really like it. ;) Files created using the 0.6 versions of jxProject will work with 0.7.

- Pete

January 10, 2003 - I've released version 0.6.0.5 which is just a release to cover the fact that the previous release expired. This contains a lot of the functionality that will be in 0.7 but it is not yet fully integrated into the product. The "Calendars/Resources" section of the application is the new stuff and you won't hurt anything by trying it out, but the changes you make in this area of the application will not be saved to your files. Files created using previous versions of jxProject will work with this release.

Also, jxProject only runs on the 1.4.2 or higher release of Java. There were several fixes in JRE 1.4.2 that I needed. The application will give you an error message if you attempt to run it under a previous release of Java. Have fun, 0.7 is on its way!

- Pete

January 5, 2003 - The version of jxProject that is on this web site for download expired on 1/4/2002. Do not download it, it will not run! I am putting together another release but it may be a couple of more days. Send me some email if you are depending on this software and I'll let you know as soon as I get the next build out. It will be version 0.6.0.5.

- Pete

December 27, 2002 - The good news is that release 0.7 is shaping up very nicely. The bad news is that it is not out yet. However, 0.7 will be out by the first week of February 2003 and will contain all of the functionality outlined in my previous news release. The 0.6 version of jxProject is set to expire on 1/4/2002, so I may just cobble something together before then which I'll call 0.6.1.1 or something.

It looks like there will be a newsletter article published on jxProject in February so I am going to be working very hard to get things in order before that article is made public.

Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to follow.

- Pete

Previous News:

October 23, 2002 - Well I am working every day towards release 0.7 and and it will be out in late November 2002. Release 0.7 will add the base functionality to manage and schedule resources/people which are part of the project plan. Here's a little screen shot:

jxProject will be one of the very few Project Management tools which supports the management of project teams which are working in different time zones. The top node in the table is a calendar "Zulu" which will be part of every project and it is based on Universal Coordinated Time or Greenwich Mean Time. Calendars underneath the Zulu calendar have timezones which are offset from Zulu. Here in the Silicon Valley that is GMT-08:00 which is Pacific Standard Time. Under each calendar you can add as many resources/people that you want and they inherit the timezone from thier parent calendar. Every resource has a parent calendar.

The green boxes represent scheduled work time, the green boxes with black outline represent paid time off, the gray boxes with black outlines represent time off without pay. The separation you see between the green boxes during the day is because the zulu calendar has a work time schedule set for 8am to noon and 1pm to 5pm.

Each calendar and each resource also inherits "rules" from its parent which define the work time schedule. Each rule is pattern based meaning it can define that Monday through Friday are work days from 8 to 5. Each calendar and resource can also define its own rules which override the rules of its parent. Here's a screen shot of the rules definition dialog:

The strength of a rule based scheduler is that it is very good at scheduling patterns. If you have someone that wants to burn some vacation and is going to take Thursday and Friday off for the first 3 weeks of December, this is an excellent tool for that. If you have a part time person that is working Monday/Wednesday/Friday it's good for that too. If you just want to schedule someone off for one day, this is over kill, but it still gets the job done.

At this time, I have about another week of work to get this part of the UI done. Then I will integrate this code into the release 0.6.0.1 code base. I will then work out the XML for the resources. After that I will make the resource availablity part of the calculations when solving the task constraints. I doubt that resources usage reporting will make the 0.7 release. Resource usage will definitely be in the 0.8 release as I will need that to help me test the resource balancing algorithms. Resource balancing will be a 0.8/0.9 item but at that point the tough stuff is over. I will then just need to add some project tracking capabilities and polish up the interface a little and that will be the 1.0 beta.

August 5, 2002 - jxProject 0.6.0.1 released.