openCRX - new features in openCRX v2.6

We enhanced the model so that you can capture both Work Records and Expense Records. A large (and easily expandable) set of record types is supported:

WorkAndExpenseRecord

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Wizard to create Work Records

Creating and tracking Work Records is easy with the provided wizard:

CreateWorkRecord

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Wizard to create Expense Records

Creating and tracking Expense Records is easy with the provided wizard:

CreateExpenseRecords

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Wizard to create Work/Expense Reports

With this new wizard you can create work and expense reports with a multitude of filters:

contact-based (i.e. all resources of a particular contact)
resource-based
activity-group-based (i.e. all activities assigned to a particular activity group
activity-based
billable and/or reimbursable
standard periods (full calendar month) or user-defined periods

WorkReportHTML

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Excel Account Bulk Importer

This new wizard enables you to import accounts directly from an Excel sheet (which you can either create manually or with some other application, e.g. by exporting contacts from MS Outlook). The first row contains field names, subsequent rows contain data as shown below:

ExcelSheet

The importer generates a detailed HTML report containing information down to the attribute level and clickable links that make it easy to verify imported accounts:

ExcelAccountImporterReport

Additional information, e.g. a list of supported attributes, is available in the openCRX Admin Guide.

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openCRX Application Plugin in openMDX 2 Architecture

Migrating the openCRX application plugin to the openMDX 2 architecture involved rewriting all the backend classes in the package org.opencrx.kernel.backend. The new backend will use the typed jmi1 openCRX API instead of the deprecated, generic openMDX 1 RequestCollection/DataproviderObject API.

A backend is now organized as library. The methods can be used in wizards, portal extensions, data bindings or backend extensions. backendClass.getInstance(), e.g. Accounts.getInstance(), allows an easy-to-use lookup. The standard backend classes can be overriden by user-defined implementations so that the standard openCRX business-logic can be adapted and extended very easily.

Adding a user-defined backend class

Write a class which extends one of the standard backend classes, e.g. Accounts, as follows:

package com.mycompany.opencrx.backend;
public class Accounts extends org.opencrx.kernel.backend.Accounts {
  public static void register(
  ) {
      registerImpl(new com.mycompany.opencrx.backend.Accounts());
  }
  protected Accounts(
  ) {
  }
  ...
}

Extend the standard Configuration class and register your backend class as follows:

package com.mycompany.opencrx.backend;
public class Configuration extends org.opencrx.kernel.aop2.Configuration {
  public Configuration(
  ) {
      super();
      com.mycompany.opencrx.backend.Accounts.register();
  }
}

Register the configuration class in src/ear/opencrx-core-CRX.ear/gateway.jar/META-INF/ejb-jar.xml. This can be done by adapting the entry configuration.class.name in the build.properties file.

The openCRX communication now uses the new openMDX 2 REST-based transport for internal and remote communications. The new transport is efficient and reduces both the CPU load and the memory requirements.

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Upgrade Apache OpenEJB to version 3.1.1

This is a technical upgrade "under the hood". OpenEJB 3.1.1 was released on 5 June 2009 and openCRX v2.5.0 will use this latest stable version.

Information about Apache OpenEJB is available from http://openejb.apache.org/.

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Upgrade Javascript InfoVis Toolkit to version 1.1.2

Thanks to the Javascript Information Visualization Toolkit (JIT) of Nicolas Garcia Belmonte - distributed with a BSD-license - it is possible to visualize accounts and their relationships. Even better, you can interactively navigate the graph and explore the social network of any account. openCRX v2.5.1 incorporates the latest version of JIT:

JIT

More information about the Javascript Information Visualization Toolkit (JIT) is available from http://thejit.org/.

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Upgrade WYMeditor to version 0.5 RC1

This new version of WYMeditor (http://www.wymeditor.org/) also supports Safari and Google Chrome browsers:

More information about WYMeditor is available from http://www.wymeditor.org/.

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Upgrade SIMILE Timeline to version 2.3.0

This timeline widget produces interactive timelines based on openCRX activities:

timeline

More information about SIMILE Timeline is available from http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/.

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ical Servlet supports iPhone

With the iPhone (OS3.0+) you can subscribe to any remote ICS calendar (read-only). Hence, you can also connect to your openCRX calendars:

on your iPhone home screen, tap the icon Settings
tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars
tap on Add Account...
tap on Other
tap on Add Subscribed Calendar
enter or paste the openCRX ICS URL into the field Server
tap [Next] to verify the account information
if you get a message “Cannot Connect Using SSL”, tap [No] to move on to the next screen where you can enter the connection details

verify/complete your subscription information as follows:

Name	Value / Description
Server	verify the ICS URL see the openCRX Admin Guide for additional information
Description	any text you like (default is the ICS URL)
Username	your openCRX user name
Password	your openCRX password
Use SSL	if you use SSL, set to [ON], otherwise [OFF]
Remove Alarms	as you prefer

tap [Next]
if you use SSL in combination with a self-signed certificate, you will get a message "Unable to Verify Certificate"
--> tap Accept
if everything works out, you can tap Save to store the settings and your calendar will be available in the Calendar App from the iPhone's home screen

If you need read/write access to your calendars, please scroll-down to the openCRX CalDAV Servlet.

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ical Servlet generates birthday calendar

The ical servlet supports a new calendar selector bdays. Based on an account filter and data available in the filtered accounts' attribute birthdate the ical servlet generates a birthday calendar on the fly. By default, such a calendar covers 3 years (previous, current, and next year). You can adjust the generated ICS calendar to your liking with various parameters as schon below:

The following example shows a generated VEVENT (Thunderbird/Lightning):

Now you can manage contacts and their birthdays with openCRX and then simply attach your favorite calendar application like Thunderbird/Lightning (or Sunbird), MS Outlook, or even your iPhone to openCRX and you will never again miss a birthday!

openCRX CalDAV Servlet

Manage your calendars - shared and/or private - with any CalDAV compliant client and openCRX. openCRX v2.5.2 features a native CalDAV Servlet, i.e. openCRX is a fully-fledged CalDAV Server (get more information about CalDAV from http://www.caldav.org/ or http://caldav.calconnect.org/ or read what Wikipedia is saying about CalDAV). In a nutshell, this means that you can use any CalDAV client (including the iPhone) to connect to openCRX and view, manage, and share openCRX Activities. Mozilla's Sunbird and Mozilla's Lightning, the calendaring add-on for Mozilla's Thunderbird, are not only the best-tested cross-platform CalDAV clients, they also work flawlessly with openCRX. And iPhone 3.0 also connects directly to the openCRX server:

Please refer to the openCRX FAQ for a list of tested CalDAV clients that work with openCRX.

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Wiky - a WYSIWYG Editor for Wiki-style text entry

In addition to the already supported WYMeditor, openCRX v2.6 will also feature a WYSIWYG editor for Wiki-style text entry. A big thank you to Stefan Goessner who granted us a BSD-style license to use his Wiky (a client-side bidirectional Wiki markup to HTML converter).

Click on the following image to give it a try:

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Performance Boost thanks to new openMDX Entity Manager - openCRX Application w/out EJBs

Please refer to the following Wiki Page for detailed information:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/openmdx/wiki/Introduction

openCRX v2.5.2 does not use EJBs anymore. There are a multitude of advantages, the most important ones being:

simplified and streamlined architecture ("EJB-less")
performance boost of 30% (or more) as there is no more overhead related to EJBs
easy route to deployment on a multitude of application servers as many of the difficulties and problems introduced by extensions and non-conformities of the various application servers can be ignored in the future
easy integration of third-party applications with openCRX as the new openMDX entity manager with its plugin-architecture and REST-based transport fulfills the wish list of even the most demanding developer

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openCRX PDA/MOBILE GUI - optimized for PDAs like iPhone

This new GUI is geared towards PDAs and other mobile devices with touch screens and makes the most important openCRX features available to road warriors. If there is need to access the full openCRX functionality users toggle between the MOBILE GUI and the the rich AJAX-GUI at any time (it goes without saying that you can also use the PDA/MOBILE GUI on your desktop if you prefer it to the Standard GUI...).