Collanos Blog

We are constantly being asked about new features, if and when they would be incorporated into the solution offering. Additionally, we are getting also many great suggestions and features requests, posted directly to the user forum.

In the hope of relieving you at least partly from your anxiety, we decided to compile a “short list” of areas that we will very likely address in the next one or two Collanos Workplace releases.

• Calendar, including simple synchronization with popular web calendar(s)
• File system integration (synchronizing folders of the operating system)
• Search functionality across all your workspaces
• Organizing and grouping of all your workspaces with keywords-based tagging or categories
• Saving objects like Emails, Contacts and Calendar Events from popular Groupware applications
• More transparent synchronization, show content replication details and new options to influence
• Support of multiple devices with only one unique Collanos Name
• Workspace templates, incl. template Web publishing to exchange with others
• Further improvements in task and project management
• Additional contact management and user profile improvements
• Expand historical change logs, to include all system objects and user actions

Please continue to tell us what you would like to see incorporated next in our releases. Feature requests stemming from real, daily, and intensive practical use take precedence from long theoretical “wish lists” of possible features. In any case, any and all ideas, suggestions and votes are welcome. Please post directly to the feature request section on Collanos Forum. Thank you for your contributions.

Today we have released a small maintenance patch that fixes a memory problem that could happen in some circumstances.

For instance, during intensive content replication situations, the internal Java memory management (so called Heap memory) would not be cleaned out properly from old transport-route related information, and would gradually fill up, which would in turn lead to slow response or stalled situations. Again, this would occur only occasionally for users with many active members and ongoing replication processes.

This patch fixes this problem. The patch is being provided via the auto-update mechanism. Existing users simply need to restart Collanos Workplace to trigger the automatic update process.

Note for Vista users: On a Windows Vista with the UAC (User Access Control) activated, if Workplace is installed in Program Files, the software update does not work unless you start Workplace with the ‘Run as administrator’ option.

Collanos Workplace 1.3.0.3 contains some new features, many improvements to existing functionality, as well as various minor enhancements and bug fixes. The focus of this release was to further improve the day-to-day work of users by filling in small but essential capabilities, as well as to lay the groundwork for supporting additional language translations.

New language translations can now be deployed independently from product releases in form of download-able language packs.

Workplace now supports external Hyperlinks and Emoticons (Smilies) in Chats and  Discussions. Hyperlinks are also supported in the text areas of Note, Task and Link objects.

Existing contacts in popular social networks can be invited directly to join Collanos.

Many enhancements have been implemented and existing functions polished. See the illustrated Release Notes (PDF format) for more details.

As always, Collanos Workplace 1.3.0.3 is available in versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The software ships with built-in English, German and Chinese languages. Additional languages will be rolled out in the coming months, using the new language pack delivery mechanism.

The current version 1.3.0.3 is compatible with all previous 1.3 versions, and to a lesser extent to version 1.2, giving teams with mixed installations a smoother transition. The new release is available both as installer from Collanos’ web site and as automatic update process for existing users (Vista users see note below).

Collanos continues to improve the free version of Workplace. Our gratification is a steadily growing, active and vibrant user community. As always, we look forward to your feedbacks! Please help us by spreading the good news, for instance, by inviting your friends and business contacts to join Collanos as well. Thank you!

Release Highlights
This Workplace release contains a number of important improvements and new features:

• New delivery mechanism and simplified support for new languages
• Hyperlinks supported in Chats, Discussions and text areas of Notes, Tasks and Links
• Emoticons (Smilies) added to Chats and Discussions
• Invite contacts from social networks (Orkut, Friendster, MySpace, Hi5, Facebook, Xing, BlackPlanet)
• Improved usability of “Invite to Collanos” dialog
• Functions “Open With…” and “Save as…” added to Conflict Bin (for File objects)
• Central users directory now supports full name search; plus empty searches more meaningful
• Web page names fetched and filled-in automatically in Link objects
• Plus many more enhancements and over 80 issues resolved…

Compatibility
The current version 1.3.0.3 is protocol-compatible with all previous 1.3 versions, and to a lesser extent to version 1.2, giving teams with mixed installations a smoother transition. Users with older versions will obviously not benefit from new features. For example, a 1.3.0.2 user won’t see Hyperlinks or Emoticos in Chats or Discussions, but only plain text representations.

Automatic Update
We strongly recommend upgrading to the latest version. Existing Workplace 1.3 users will benefit from an automated upgrade process. All you need to do is restart your application to trigger the auto-update process. Note for Vista users: On a Windows Vista with the UAC (User Access Control) activated, if Workplace is installed in Program Files, the automatic software update does not work unless you start Workplace with the ‘Run as administrator‘ option.

Download Collanos Workplace 1.3.0.3
Just click to download Collanos Workplace now!

User Forum
We always like hearing from you! Feel free to share your feedback, post your questions and engage in discussions right here or – even better – on our Community Forum. Thank you.