Data Digester Release Notes

Changes in version Data Digester 2.17.6 Build 1082 (2024-10-22)
Changes in version Data Digester 2.17.5 Build 1078 (2024-10-16)
Changes in version Data Digester 2.17.4 Build 1033 (2024-09-26)
Changes in version Data Digester 2.17.3 Build 1030 (2024-09-15)
Changes in version Data Digester 2.17.2 Build 1028 (2024-08-11)
Changes in version Data Digester 2.17.1 Build 1022 (2024-05-19)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.15 Build 967 (2015-04-15)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.14 Build 960 (2014-06-26)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.13 Build 955 (2014-06-23)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.12 Build 948 (2014-04-17)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.11 Build 942 (2014-03-19)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.10 Build 941 (2014-02-05)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.9 Build 930 (2014-01-13)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.8 Build 913 (2013-11-28)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.7 Build 907 (2013-09-12)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.6 Build 823 (2013-04-13)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.5 Build 819 (2013-04-01)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.4 Build 799 (2013-03-23)
Changes in version Data Digester 1.6.3 Build 793 (2013-03-14)

 

Data Digester 2.17.6 Build 1082 (2024-10-22)

  Data Digester V2 Available In Microsoft Store

Starting from version 2.17.6, the Data Digester V2 EXE is now available for download in the Microsoft Store. By default, the Community Edition is active, the license can be upgraded to the commercial Enterprise Edition by obtaining an EE software license via the Leisenfels shop. The maximum trial period is 30 days.

  Default Update Check Schedule Now MONTHLY

The Data Digester installers check for updates on a regular basis. The default schedule has now been increased to MONTHLY which better fits to the update roadmap of the software.

Users can set the schedule via the Setup > Installer > "Update Check Schedule" menu items.

  Extended EXE Code Signing And Notarizing For macOS DMGs

The Windows EXE installers for Data Digester are now signed using an EV Code Signing Certificate for secure download and installation of the software on Windows systems.

The macOS DMGs are now notarized by Apple for secure download and installation of the software on macOS systems.

Data Digester 2.17.5 Build 1078 (2024-10-16)

  digestercli Now Processes Non-network URLs Like file://

Local file URLs like "file:///C:/testdata/zerolength.txt" can now be specified as parameter for the command line option "-targets". Previous digestercli versions were limited to real network URLs starting with http:// or https://

  Windows Installer Creates .vmoptions Files For Each Launcher

The Windows installer for Data Digester now creates a separate .vmoptions file for each of the launchers. Thus, it is possible to use different setups e.g. more memory for the GUI launchers and less for the CLI launcher. The access rights for the installation directory has been adapted so that all Windows users can edit these .vmoptions files.

Data Digester 2.17.4 Build 1033 (2024-09-26)

  Windows Installer Creates Registry Entry

The Windows installer for Data Digester now creates a Windows registry entry, so that the software can be easily uninstalled from the Windows programs management app.

  Signature Generation Exception Fixed

Due to an error in the code to generate OpenPGP signatures, no PGP signature files could be created resulting in an exception in the Data Digester log.

This has now been fixed.

  Look & Feel Exception Fixed

Due to a missing condition in the code to initialize the CLI application, the pluggable look and feels were initialized resulting in an exception in the Data Digester log.

This has now been fixed.

  Auto-save Preferences

It is possible that applications need to be restarted although tasks are running. A restart is necessary also if the operating system like Windows decides to restart the system e.g. after the installation of updates. In all these cases, some of the configured preferences were lost and had to be recreated manually.

To acoid data loss, the new option "Automatically save the preferences" has been added to the preferences. It can be found in the "Miscellaneous" section of the preferences. The default setting depends on the application, the default interval is 60 minutes.

  Docking Windows Properly Restored After Restart

Due to an error in the code to restore the docking windows, the overall open/close state of the windows were not properly set after application restart.

This has now been fixed.

Data Digester 2.17.3 Build 1030 (2024-09-15)

  Only Installers With Included Java Available

The installer variants for Data Digester without Java have now been removed. All installers for the Data Digester software now include a suitable Java environment and thus do not need any additional installations.

  Nimbus Look & Feel Usable Again

The Nimbus look & feel was not available for Commons Framework based applications. This was due to an error while determining the currently used Java version 6, 7, 17 etc. for the latest Java environments like Amazon Corretto 17.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the Nimbus look & feel is available.

  Display Hints For The User Via Balloon Tips

Especially for first time users of an application it is useful to display some hints on how to use the software. Therefore, the new option "Display balloon tips" has been added to the preferences. It can be found in the "Miscellaneous" section of the preferences. The default setting is ON, please turn the option OFF if you find the tips annoying.

  Bring Separate Docking Windows To Front Automatically

If the user focuses the main application main window, then it might be useful that also separate docking windows are being brought to front. In order to achieve this, a new option "Automatically bring separate windows to front" has been added to the preferences. It can be found in the "Docking Windows" section of the preferences.

Data Digester 2.17.2 Build 1028 (2024-08-11)

  Clicking Order of Docking Windows Properly Restored

If the user activated certain sequences of docking windows in the docking manager, these docking windows have not been restored correctly. In extreme case, all windows were hidden after an application was started and had to be reactivated manually.

This behaviour has been fixed so that docking windows are restored properly.

  Added Support For New Google Drive API v3 Library Versions

The new library versions are:

groupId=com.google.apis artifactId=google-api-services-drive version=v3-rev20240628-2.0.0

groupId=com.google.api-client artifactId=google-api-client version=2.6.0

groupId=com.google.oauth-client artifactId=google-oauth-client-jetty version=1.36.0

  Added Support For New AWS SDK S3 Library Version 2.26.25

The new library version is:

groupId=software.amazon.awssdk artifactId=s3 version=2.26.25

  Support For Latest Dropbox SDK To Fix Outdated Certificate Trust Store

As reported by the Dropbox maintainers an update is required to not run into issues with an outdated certificate trust store. The Dropbox SDK version used by VFSLib has therefore been updated.

All VFSLib users are strongly recommended to update to VFSLib version 2.8.3 ASAP, since the used certificates will stop working in many web browsers and devices in 2026.

Dropbox states: "On or after January 1, 2026, the Dropbox API servers will be updated to use new root certificates, so you’ll need to update the version of the SDK used in your app before then."

Data Digester 2.17.1 Build 1022 (2024-05-19)

  German Language No Longer Supported And Reduced Set Of Documentation

The Data Digester Version 2 software is only available with English texts and messages, the German battManLocalization is no longer supported. Same goes for the embedded help system.

The documentation has been reduced to the embedded help system, there are no PDF documents available any longer e.g. the PDF user manual. The installation instructions can now be found online, please visit the Leisenfels homepage.

  End Of Life Support For 32-bit Installers And Java Web Start

Starting from Data Digester Version 2 the Java Web Start deployment via web browser are not available any longer. The software is shipped exclusively as installers for the supported platforms and systems (currently only Windows 64-bit).

The Data Digester Version 2 installers are only available for 64-bit target platforms, the 32-bit installers are not available any longer due to the technical progress.

  Additional Command Line Arguments Required For Look & Feels (OpenJDK 17)

The following arguments need to be specified to run the Data Digester GUI application with all installed Look & Feel implementations:

--add-exports java.desktop/com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports java.desktop/com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif=ALL-UNNAMED

  New Convenience Getter for VFSFileSystemManager With Full Protocol Support

The new VFSLibSettings.getManagerAllProtocols() method provides a file system manager with support for all available protocols including the file based protocols like "jar" and "file". These are useful to access classpath resources via VFSLib.

The existing VFSLibSettings.getManagerNetwork() removes the file based protocols and should therefore be used for 'real' network protocols like "http" and "sftp".

  Fix for Obsolete FileObject's from Internal Cache

During intensive module tests an error occurred for remote folders created and deleted multiple times. In certain situations the previous file/folder IDs have been re-used. This led to runtime errors e.g. if obsolete files/folders should be removed by their IDs.

This behaviour has now been fixed so that IDs of files/folders are freshly resolved.

  Adjusted Capabilities of Amazon S3 Provider (No Renaming Support)

Since also the latest AWS API version 2 does not provide support for renaming files or folders (as well as the AWS S3 Console), the Capability.RENAME in S3FileProvider has now been removed. If the doRename() method is called for S3FileObject objects, a FileSystemException is thrown.

  New Google Drive Provider Options to Avoid SocketTimeoutException's During Download

When downloading larger files e.g. 30 MB via the Google Drive provider took more than the default 20 seconds, then "java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out" was thrown.

To give the connections more time to process, two new file system options have been added: GDriveFileSystemConfigBuilder.CONNECT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (Integer, default: 20 seconds) GDriveFileSystemConfigBuilder.READ_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (Integer, default: 20 seconds)

Reasonable values are CONNECT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 30s and READ_TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 600s Even large file downloads should be possible depending on your Internet speed.

  Fix For Delete Non-empty Folder Issue of Examples

When non-empty folders were deleted, then all providers ignored this request (kept). For non-empty folders the deleteAll() method needs to be called instead of delete().

The examples have now been fixed.

  Fix For Dropbox doListChildrenResolved() Lower-case Issue

When Dropbox folders were listed, then the DbxFileObject returned a list with entry names in lower-case.

This behaviour has now been fixed so that children are listed with their original names.

  VFSLib Now Published to Maven Central Repository

The VFSLib library can now be easily included in own projects by adding the Maven dependency. The JAR files may also be downloaded directly from the Leisenfels homepage.

  Added Support For New AWS SDK For Java Version 2 (S3)

The Amazon S3 component of VFSLib now exclusively supports the new AWS API version 2 provided by Amazon. Required JAR libraries are being referenced by the Maven pom.xml build resources.

groupId=software.amazon.awssdk artifactId=s3 version=2.25.7

The new AWS API version 2 is based on classes in the 'software.amazon.awssdk' package.

  Protected Instead of Private Class Access

All private access declarations of the class fields, methods etc. have been changed from private to protected. This allows developers to easily extend the existing VFSLib classes without unnecessary re-coding or access via reflection.

  Network Connections Restored

In certain situations configured network connections have not been restored after an application restart. This error occurred due an erroneous connection list copy procedure.

This behaviour has been fixed so that network connections are restored properly.

  New Data Digester Version 2 Available As Community Edition (CE)

Data Digester may now be used without license costs for non-commercial use. This includes private use at home, the academic use as well as the deployment for evaluation purposes. The Community Edition may functionally differ from the Enterprise Edition (EE).

For commercial use please visit our website to obtain licenses.

  Release Notes Categories Sorted Alphabetically

The categories found in the application release notes dialog are now sorted alphabetically in order to provide the user a better overview. This is useful if multiple release notes e.g. from different libraries are being merged together.

  Reduced Language Support to English (U.S.)

In order to minimize development overhead due to translations, VFSLib now provides exclusive support for English user texts and message codes. The same applies for the VFSLib documentation in any form.

  Added Support For New Google Drive API v3

The Google Drive component of VFSLib now exclusively supports the new v3 API version provided by Google. Required JAR libraries are being referenced by the Maven pom.xml build resources.

groupId=com.google.apis artifactId=google-api-services-drive version=v3-rev20240123-2.0.0

The new v3 API version is based on classes in the 'com.google.api.services.drive' package.

  Added Support For New Dropbox Core SDK v6

The Dropbox component of VFSLib now exclusively supports the new v6 Core SDK version provided by Dropbox. Required JAR libraries are being referenced by the Maven pom.xml build resources.

groupId=com.dropbox.core artifactId=dropbox-core-sdk version=6.0.0

The new v6 Dropbox SDK version is based on classes in the 'com.dropbox.core' package.

  Minimum Java Version for VFSLib Raised From 1.6 to 1.8

The minimum Java version for VFSLib is now 1.8. The Java version 1.8 is required for all supported platforms.

  Private Key File Support For SFTP Network Connections

Connecting to SFTP servers is now possible also if a private key file is specified for the network connection. This allows for connecting to protected SFTP servers like EC2 instances by Amazon AWS which do not allow direct login using user name and password.

In general SFTP servers must support the KexAlgorithms +diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 due to the used library.

  VFSLib Moved to Leisenfels Tech Zone Under BSD license

The VFSLib may now be used without license costs under a BSD-style license. The commercial licensing model is no longer supported for VFSLib. In order to deploy VFSLib for your own projects just download the source code archive, configure and run the Maven build. Add the VFSLib dependency to your own projects and checkout the examples.

The new and only edition for VFSLib is the Community Edition (CE).

  Support For 2K/4K/8K Resolutions

New predefined resolutions have been added to the "Resolutions" menu in order to support latest graphical devices.

  Digester Ant Library Fixed

Due to a JAR archive bug the Digester Ant library digester-ant.jar could not be used. This has now been fixed.

  Minimum Java Version for Data Digester Raised From 1.6 to 17

The minimum Java version for Data Digester is now 17. This applies to the GUI as well as the CLI version of the application and the provided Ant tasks. The Java version 17 is required for all supported platforms.

The installer of Data Digester comes in versions with built-in Java environment >= 17 that meet the new requirements already.

Commercial licenses for the previous 1.6.x versions of Data Digester become obsolete and cannot be used for the new Data Digester release 2.x.x.

  Easier Deployment of VFSLib Examples

The VFSLib may now be executed much easier. Additional resources have been added to the "example" subdirectory of the ZIP/TGZ library archives. This includes an Ant environment so that there is no need to install Ant separately on your system. Two separate scripts "runexamples.bat" for Windows and "runexamples.sh" for Linux/UNIX systems have been added. The necessary steps to run the examples are documented in the new "example/README.txt" file.

Please keep in mind that Java 1.6 or newer must be installed and available in the execution PATH to run the examples.

Due to a bug reported for Ant (see NetBeans [Bug 200790]) the VFSLib examples have been modified so that this issue can be circumvented.

  Database Connections Optimized

The database functionality of applications have been optimized from the ground. Whenever possible the programs use database connections from the pool instead of creating new ones. This saves costly authentication with database servers and reduces bandwidth consumption.

Data Digester 1.6.15 Build 967 (2015-04-15)

  Added Connect/Disconnect Toolbar Icons

Two new toolbar icons have been added for the connect/disconnect functions of the network files docking window. If a connection is currently established the disconnect icon becomes active. If a connection is currently disconnected than the connect icon becomes active. Both buttons exactly follow the states of the corresponding menu item found in the Network menu.

  Connect/Disconnect Menu Items Work Properly

The menu items in the Network menu to connect/disconnect a remote file system from within the network files window did not work in previous version of the software. This was due to an internal bug introduced unintendedly when the new (quite similar) database functionality was added.

This behaviour has been fixed so that network connections may be connected/disconnected properly.

  Applied Patch For Bug In Commons VFS [VFS-228]

Previous versions of VFSLib were shipped with the original Commons VFS JAR library named commons-vfs-2.0.jar. VFSLib is now packaged with a substitute file named vfs-2.0.jar indicating that it's not the original Commons library but a self-compiled one.

The original Commons VFS library threw ClassNotFoundException's for DefaultLocalFileProvider which could cause a program based on VFS to crash. For example this happened often if VFS was used by Ant tasks which perform a specific class loading internally. In order to solve this VFS bug a patch had to be applied. Then the patched library had to be compiled freshly.

All developers using VFSLib up to version 1.6.5 and planning to update to 1.6.6 or later should also remove the old commons-vfs-2.0.jar and add the new vfs-2.0.jar library instead.

  Installers For Windows/Mac OS X Now Signed

As required since Mac OS X 10.8 the DMG installers now are signed with an official certificate from COMODO. Also the Windows installer executables are now signed with this certificate so that annoying messages do not appear any longer during installation.

The JAR/WAR resources e.g. used for the Web Start software versions are now signed, too. Former security warnings generated by the Java platform may thus be avoided.

  Uninstall From Running Program

If the Data Digester software has been installed using an installer (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) then it may be directly uninstalled from the running program. There is no need to use the operating system specific function for deinstallations like the Windows Control Panel to do this.

Since the Web Start versions of the software already provided support for this feature you can simply open the Setup -> Web Start -> Uninstall menu item for installed versions, too.

  Separate Docking Windows Restored In Dock

If a docking window of an application has been closed using the window decoration function (e.g. red X under Windows) it had been restored into the dock afterwards. This was not OK since the user specified within the preferences that closing a separate window shall close it completely. For the options to move closed separate windows into the dock this behaviour would be OK.

This behaviour has been fixed so that closed separate docking windows are restore properly as separate windows again if the preferences are configured to close separate windows completely.

  Managing Database Sequences

In addition to the new function to manage the tables of a database another similar feature to manage also the sequences has been introduced. Database applications like Battery Manager provide a special submenu to launch the new function (e.g. "Database" -> "Manage Sequences").

The dialog shows the current connection data for the selected session tab on top. The list in den center position displays the sequences found in the database. The "Current Value" column shows the current sequence value used to create new datasets while the "Max. Value" column denotes the maximum value used in the associated database table.

Main goal of the new management function is to detect errors that may arise due to unproper sequences. Invalid sequences are highlighted with a special red background. Such sequences may then be repaired by setting proper current sequence values. Invalid sequences may be generated if backups are being restored from file. If a current sequence value is smaller than the maximum value used in the associated database then no new datasets can be created.

  Network URL Address Parsing Not Functional

The network connections dialog provides the functionality to specify network connections to reach servers via protocols like FTP/SFTP. Due to a bug in the standard Java API (URI class!) the parsing of fully specified URLs like ftp://kernel.org:21/pub went wrong. The port (here: ":21") was not recognized properly as separate part of the URL address but as part of the server name (here: "kernel.org:21"). This caused the other methods like getPort() returning false values, of course also components like the connection dialog then displayed these wrong values.

This behaviour has been fixed so that network URI addresses may be edited properly.

  Exceptions After ComboBoxes Have Been Populated

In rare cases the program raised ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException's e.g. if a print preview was created the second time. The reason could be found in the code responsible for loading values into JComboBox components. This has to be done using the Java event dispatch thread. Afterwards the program must wait before any action on the new items could be performed.

This behaviour has been fixed so that such exceptions will not be raised any longer.

  Closing And Restoring Separate Docking Windows

If docking windows in separate windows were closed using the "Close windows completely" setting and the windows were restored into the dock then an inconsistent configuration has been generated. The windows could then not be closed from the dock again but had to be set into separate window mode again to be closed properly.

This behaviour has been fixed so that closing and restoring separate docking window works.

  Sync: Digest Files Not Transferred For New Source Files

If a directory e.g. on the local computer were defined as source for a sync template and a new file was added to that directory, then the source digest files in this directory have not been transferred as well. Although the synchronization was successful since all source files (except the digest files) have been transferred properly, this behaviour caused the new files to be transferred again during the next synchronization action.

This behaviour has been fixed so that digest files are being transferred also if new source files are added.

  Remove Incomplete Files After Sync Interruptions

If files/directories were synchronized with Data Digester and the action was interrupted for example due to a lost network connection then the transferred target file could not be deleted afterwards. It worked again if the software was closed and started again.

This behaviour has been fixed so that any data streams are closed properly here.

  Task Dialog While Deleting Files/Folders

Local files and directories may be deleted using the file system window, while network files and directories can be deleted using the network files window. If large files have been deleted then the application freezed for some seconds in earlier versions. This behaviour has now been fixed by utilizing the task dialog which shows the current operation and progress. Also, the deletion process may be cancelled from here.

  Sync Of Multiple Directories Functional Again

If multiple source/target directories were specified to be synchronized then an error was reported saying "Source/target entries are invalid". This message was displayed due to an error in the parameter checking routine also, if the chosen directories were valid.

This behaviour has been fixed so that multiple directories can be snchronized properly.

  Directly Execute Energy Saving System Commands

The system commands to be executed if background tasks like copying files have been finished may now be directly executed for test purposes. The software preferences provide support for various system commands like log-off, standby, or system shutdown. If the appropriate button to the right of the respective preference setting is clicked, then a dialog appears where the selected action can be cancelled for a certain time period.

The new execute buttons should be used with care since the user is logged-off or the computer is turned off!

  New Option To Control Scrolling Behaviour Of Lists

Data lists like the files table found in the file system docking window can be refreshed. Previous software versions set the scroll position of the knob on the right side automatically to the top position. Especially for large lists with many entries it is useful that the list be scrolled to the previous position again, so that renamed files can be identified quickly.

In order to support this requirement, a new preference setting for data lists has been added. You can find the setting on the Miscellaneous main entry. In addition to the "Always scroll to top of lists" mode the setting "Restore previous scroll position" can be deposited here. Currently, the file system window, the network files window, and the database session tab provide support for this new setting (additional lists may follow).

  Setting Default Number Of List Items

The number of items shown by new database session lists can now be configured globally for all sessions. The Preferences -> Session Window options unit provides the new setting "Default number of list entries" which can be set to the same values as the navigations at the bottom left corner of the database lists.

Still, each table stores its item count separately and can hence to configured individually. If a new item count is configured manually using the table navigation the user is asked to transfer the new setting to other lists. If this is accepted here then also the new global option "Default number of list entries" is overridden here, too, so that new lists will display the item count automatically.

  Improved Support For Oracle DBMS Including Express Edition (XE)

In order to support the Oracle DBMS optimally some new connection settings have been added. The Oracle connection now provides support for the "Connect As" feature where the specified user (e.g. SYS) can login to the Oracle DBMS using a certain role such as SYSDBA or SYSOPER. This is especially useful for the Express Edition (XE) if only the default user SYSTEM has been configured with a password. One can connect easily with the logon user SYS and the new feature "Connect As" = SYSDBA here. For Oracle 11 XE connections also the schema mapping needs to be changed here to SYSTEM (e.g. for both BATTMANDATA and BATTMANSYS application schemas used by the Battery Manager software).

If a concrete Oracle server uses a service instead of a SID then the new "Service" connection setting can be used here. You can specify either a SID or a service identifier, but not both.

Another interesting Oracle specific setting is the new "Encryption" connection setting. Here, the supported encryption algorithms like SSL or AES256 can be specified. The data transferred to the Oracle DBMS and back is then encrypted using this algorithm so that eavesdropping by third parties is very unlikely to happen. Remember that only a few algorithms can be used here out of the box (e.g. RC4_256) while others have to be setup on the server side first (e.g. AES256).

Data Digester 1.6.14 Build 960 (2014-06-26)

  Expanding File System Directories With Handles

Due to to an internal issue during file resolving the file system window did not list subdirectories in the overview tree on the left side properly. This behaviour could be seen if a directory in the tree was expanded using the entry handle (plus symbol under Windows, arrow symbol under Mac OS etc.).

This behaviour has been fixed so that expanding directories works properly this way again. For older application versions it is possible to circumvent this situation by navigating into subdirectories with the double-click mechanism instead of clicking the handle.

  License Not Valid

Due to a timezone issue found in the license engine used by Leisenfels both license types for evaluation and commercial have been rejected in certain situations. For example if a U.S. customer obtained a license at 10 p.m. then the license was generated being valid from the next day. The license could not be used immediately in these rare cases.

This behaviour has been fixed so that licenses are valid from one day before the license is obtained.

Data Digester 1.6.13 Build 955 (2014-06-23)

  License Not Valid

Due to a timezone issue found in the license engine used by Leisenfels both license types for evaluation and commercial have been rejected in certain situations. For example if a U.S. customer obtained a license at 10 p.m. then the license was generated being valid from the next day. The license could not be used immediately in these rare cases.

This behaviour has been fixed so that licenses are valid from one day before the license is obtained.

  Rarely Occurring GUI Hangs Avoided

If dialogs were displayed right after the application main window showed up on the screen the program got stuck in rare cases. This was due to an internal calling scheme for dialogs. The program had to be terminated by the Windows Task Manager to solve this situation.

This behaviour has been fixed so that such hangs should not take place any longer.

  Connection Combo Properly Displayed

Sometimes the connection combo box in the toolbar has been displayed too small so that the item texts couls not be read properly. This behaviour has been corrected so that the items are readable.

  Setting Upload Content Length Only When Required

Some time ago a new method for setting the S3 upload content length has been introduced to VFSLib (see release note #11 written 2014-02-03). As this works perfectly for the Amazon S3 provider this settings MUST NOT be used for SFTP connections when large files are being transferred. For example if a 2 GB video file is to be transferred via SFTP then a 2 GB array is allocated internally by the SFTP driver. Normally this leads to OutOfMemoryErrors of the Java VM which then has to be terminated by force (e.g. using the Windows Task Manager).

To avoid this unwanted side effect programmatically the method VFSUtils.isContentLengthRequired() has been added to VFSLib. It checks if the VFSLibConstants.ATTR_CONTENT_LENGTH attribute is required for a given VFS network file. Currently only the Amazon S3 provider requires this attribute.

Programmers should modify existing code using the FileObject.getContent().setAttribute() method as follows:

if (VFSUtils.isContentLengthRequired(url)) { url.getContent().setAttribute(VFSLibConstants.ATTR_CONTENT_LENGTH, len); }

  Subdirectories Not Listed

Due to unnecessarily raised internal exceptions during file resolving the file system window did not show subdirectories in the overview tree on the left side under Linux. Changing into a subdirectory was not possible with previous program versions.

This behaviour has been fixed so that listing and changing into subdirectories works properly.

  Help System Callable From Window Tabs

Docking windows like the new database session window are capable of displaying multiple tabs. Previous versions of the so-called tabbed windows were limited to display context sensitive help only if a reference was deposited for each tab which was never the case.

This behaviour has been precised by implementing a failsafe structure now. If a help system reference is set for the surrounding tabbed window then this is used instead. This works for the many tabbed windows like output window, search result window, or database session window.

  Dummy URL Adresses Suppressed

Applications based on the Commons framework often use hyperlinks to navigate to certain program features like a certain configuration. If the hyperlink target is not a real Internet address often "dummy://test" is used as placeholder. This worked out with most operating systems on the market.

Windows 8 opens a dialog to specify an app in such cases. It has been reported that also some Linux/UNIX systems create unwanted dialogs here, too. This behaviour has now been fixed by a code modification so that such placeholder URLs are not browsed by the operating system any longer.

Data Digester 1.6.12 Build 948 (2014-04-17)

  Adjusting Memory Size Under Windows 7

The memory size to consume can be adjusted comfortably from the running program. Under Windows 7 operating systems this could fail due to erroneous file names used by the program. If the memory size has been changed with previous program versions under Windows 7 then a message was displayed on the status line but the application has not been restarted. This behaviour has been observed for the installer variants only.

Due to restrictive file permissions under Windows 7 the vmoptions file may not be editable by the users. Please edit the file manually in these cases or ask your administrator.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the memory size can be adjusted properly under Windows 7. Thanks to T. Mehring for his excellent bug report.

  Window Buttons Automatically Updated

The Generate and Refresh buttons of the Generate docking window and the Check button of the Check docking window are automatically updated (enabled/disabled) when the window gets the active docking window. For example if a file has been deleted with the file system window and the generate options become active then the buttons are enabled now so that the generate and/or refresh functions can be called straight away.

With previous versions the selected folder had to be deselected and selected again to get these buttons enabled again.

  Network Session Not Updated After Refresh

If checksums have been refreshed for a directory selected on the network session window then the session was not updated automatically afterwards as expected.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the network session is automatically updated.

  Checksums Not Written In Refresh Mode

Checksums have been generated for a directory, a summary.digest file for all files in this directory has been written. If a new file has been added to this directory and the refresh functionality has been called then only the checksums for the new file were written into the updated summary.digest file. The expected behaviour is that both the existing and the new checksums are contained in the updated summary.digest file.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the refresh functionality can be used properly again. Thanks to T. Mehring for his excellent bug report.

  Docking Framework: Separate Windows Revised

Some unexpected behaviour of docking windows displayed by separate windows has now been fixed. In rare cases separate windows could have been displayed twice due to incorrect code found in the core components of the docking framework.

Users who have experienced unexpected behaviour of docking windows in separate windows could do the following:

1. Install the most recent version of your software 2. Call the Window -> Reset Windows menu entry

The application will then reset all docking windows to their initial states. Please remember that the settings used by the docking windows may be reset, too. For example the Data Digester generate options including the managed templates will be lost. If this might turn out to become a problem for you then do not reset the windows.

  Hex Editor Exception With Nimbus Look & Feel

The hex editor component shipped with the Commons framework raised an exception in combination with the Nimbus look & feel. This was due to a missing font reference which is not available for Nimbus.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the hex editor component is properly initialized.

Data Digester 1.6.11 Build 942 (2014-03-19)

  Preferences Dialog Did Not Show Up

Previous application versions had a problem showing the preferences dialog multiple times. This was due to an internal problem which appeared when the preferences dialog has been called twice or more times and the release timeout had been reached. In order to save memory space many application dialogs are cached and released automatically after a certain period of time that the dialog has not been used.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the preferences dialog may be called again properly.

  Out Of Memory Due To Large Clipboard Data

Previous application versions based on the Leisenfels Commons Framework sometimes hung without an obvious reason. This behaviour may have been caused by large data portions on the clipboard of the operating system. For example if a full screen shot is taken the image data is large especially for dual (or more) screen displays. Applications regularly access the clipboard data to show an indicator icon whether the clipboard is filled or not.

This behaviour has been fixed so that large clipboard data is not a problem any longer.

  Improved Database Connection Dialog

The dialog to configure database connections now checks edition specific requirements. Underlying applications will show some indicator that unallowed connections cannot be used. In general the dialog has been restructured so that any database connection for the available drivers may be setup. If the application edition is switched then the previous connections are being kept.

Like invalid network connections also invalid database connections are shown with indicator now instead of hiding them completely.

  Saving Digester XML Manually Does Not Work

If hashes or signatures have been generated for a whole directory including subdirectories then the values could not be stored into a file with previous versions. This is due to an internal error. Thanks to R. Flickinger for his excellent bug report.

This behaviour has now been fixed so that Digester XML files can be stored properly.

  Generate Wizard Without Function

The generate wizard dialog which is presented at the very first start of the Data Digester software produced an internal error (NullPointerException). Creating checksum files did not work then. This behaviour has now been fixed. Thanks to A. Sapru for his excellent bug report.

Please keep in mind that the generate options of the current template are used for the wizard.

  Install Updates For Java Web Start Applications

Applications like Data Digester provide a new menu item Setup -> Web Start -> "Check for Updates...". This new function is only available if the application has been started using Web Start (JNLP). If the new menu item is clicked a dialog checks for newer application version compared to the running application. One or multiple update candidates can then be selected for update.

The button "Update" can be used to install the selected version(s) while the current version is kept on the system. The other button "Update & Remove" can be used if the current version shall be replaced by the newer version. The configuration directory is not deleted by default.

This new feature allows for an easy update of Web Start based applications and replaces the always problematic auto-update feature of Web Start.

  Table Selection For Nimbus Look & Feel Displayed Properly

If the Nimbus look & feel was active and a table row has been selected then the white background color was displayed instead of the green Nimbus selection color. This has been fixed so that selected rows are displayed properly now.

  GUI Hangs Avoided

In certain situations the window of an application may freeze due to resources being accessed by multiple programs simultaneously. This behaviour has been straighened out by implementing a more lax internal synchronization.

Data Digester 1.6.10 Build 941 (2014-02-05)

  Network Check Context Menus Optimized

Especially for slow network connections like DSL/ISDN a convenience feature has been disabled in order to get a better performance for context menu display (right mouse button). For the file system window it is possible to select a regular file e.g. sample.txt. The context menu to check digests/signatures checks for any of the configured digest/signature file extensions and enables checking if at least one appropriate file is found (e.g. sample.txt.md5).

This is fast for local file systems but is not for slow network connections (may take >10 seconds). This feature has been disabled for the network files window. The check menu now is fast but has the disadvantage that a digest/signature file must be selected directly to start checking. Selecting the above mentioned sample.txt file will deactivate the check menu items no matter if a sample.txt.md5 file exists or not.

  Open Amazon S3 Object Multiple Times

Due to a limitation in the Amazon S3 API a workaround has been implemented for the S3 provider so that a S3 FileObject may be opened multiple times. This is necessary for example if digests are calculated once for MD5 and for SHA-1 using multiple threads. The S3Object.getObjectContent() method returns a previous input stream if it has not been closed in the meantime. So if it is still in use the same reference is provided which produces application errors. The workaround clones the S3Object and lets the clone open the new input stream instead.

  Data Digester Now To Support VFSLib

The Data Digester software now is shipped with the current VFSLib component and therefore supports all file systems including Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3. Currently these features are only available for the Data Digester Enterprise Edition (EE) which comes with network support. Please download an installer appropriate for your computer. The software may be evaluated for 30 days. Please request an evaluation license which is possible also directly from the running application (Internet connection required).

  Added Content Length For Uploads

As required by the Amazon S3 API the content length for uploads can now be specified. If a file is uploaded to Amazon, Dropbox, or Google this is done with web requests. This kind of transfer technique requires that prior to the transfer the overall length of the transmitted data is specified.

All current providers have been modified the way that it is now possible to set the content length easily. Before an upload output stream is requested with getContent().getOutputStream() the length should be set with getContent().setAttribute(VFSLibConstants.ATTR_CONTENT_LENGTH, length). If this attribute is not set for the cloud providers then uploading small files may work but uploading large files > 10 MB will certainly fail. Please check out the modified example classes for details.

  Improved Cloud File System Support

In order to provide optimal support for the new cloud file system providers several additions and changes have been applied to the Data Digester network functionality. The Dropbox provider now requests access to the user's Dropbox using the "Data Digester" identifier instead of "VFSLib" (underlying component).

  Improved Network Dialog

The dialog to configure network connections now checks protocol specific requirements. For Dropbox and Google Drive the access token must be configured to operate properly. For Amazon S3 the access key ID, the secret key, and the bucket name are required options now. If any of the required parameters are missing, an appropriate message is being displayed by the dialog. Underlying applications will show some indicator that such misconfigured connections cannot be used.

The Amazon protocol panel of the dialog provides a new option "Use bucket URI" to assemble the overall URI address of the connection based on the bucket name instead of the host name. See the VFSLib component for more details.

The German translation of this dialog has been completed.

  Updated To Dropbox 1.7.6

The current VFSLib is now shipped with Dropbox for Java API version 1.7.6.

The access token is now only valid for the Java session it has been requested for. For the ExampleDropbox.java and ExampleDropboxOptimized.java classes this means that the -token parameter is not longer supported. The access token MUST be requested each time the script is restarted, copied from the Dropbox website and inserted into the dialog input field. This is a little less convenient but surely the token security benefits from this change.

As for the earlier Dropbox versions also the new one has some limitations e.g. when uploading large files. Uploading files using the Java API is still slow compared to the Dropbox desktop application. According to forum posts at Dropbox this is the programmed behaviour. For large files users should use the Dropbox desktop client or switch to other cloud file system providers without this kind of limitation.

  New Option "Use bucket URI"

For the Amazon S3 provider a new protocol option has been added: "Use bucket URI". By default the host name aws.amazon.com ist used to assemble the URI for Amazon S3 connections as for the traditional file systems like FTP/SFTP. Since bucket names are globally unique IDs by design it is now possible to configure VFSLib so that URIs like s3://This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. can be used internally.

This is only a display feature which does not influence the internal behaviour of the Amazon S3 provider that comes with VFSLib. It may be changed at runtime.

  Save Token/Secret Key Feature Fixed

Like for the traditional VFSLib file systems also for the new cloud file systems Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3 it's now possible to save secret options like the access token or secret key. Applications like Data Digester provide a check box flag to configure the program behaviour for the configured network connections.

The previous version of VFSLib always stored the secret options, the flag did not work. This has now been fixed so that VFSLib applications may now "forget" about secret options. Remember that the secret options are still remembered while the application is running but not if it is restarted and the save flag has been disabled before.

  File System Options Validation

The file system options to be configured with the various FileSystemConfigBuilder classes are now checked for proper required values. For Dropbox and Google Drive the access token must be configured to operate properly. For Amazon S3 the access key ID, the secret key, and the bucket name are required options now.

Applications like Data Digester will show some indicator if one of these options are missing for the configured network connections.

  Show Files/Folders In File System Window

In many situations an application may want to display the location of a file using the file system window. For example this is a nice feature for the application log file if it shall be sent via e-mail and its exact location in the file system is not by hand. The output docking window provides a special button to display the log file location as do many of the other docking windows and dialogs.

Please remember that the file system window is only automatically shown on the screen here if the automatic mode is enabled (see the context menu by clicking the docking window button with the right mouse button).

The same functionality is implemented for the network file system.

Data Digester 1.6.9 Build 930 (2014-01-13)

  VFSLib Now to Support Amazon S3 (Amazon S3 Edition)

As third cloud file system provider the Amazon S3 Edition has been added to VFSLib. Please register a valid Amazon Web Services (AWS) account first. All necessary parameters for the Amazon S3 provider including the keys are provided by the Amazon S3 system.

Like the Dropbox provider also the Amazon S3 provider supports all standard VFS operation as there are creating files and folders, renaming, deleting, downloading, uploading etc. Remember that versioning is not supported by the original Commons VFS and so VFSLib doesn't.

  Added Google Drive To VFSLib (Google Drive Edition)

As second file system provider Google Drive has been added to VFSLib.

Developers need a Google Drive account and their application setup on the Google website. Once an application token has been generated (you must allow your application to access your Google Drive files first) then the VFSLib Google Drive provider can be configured with a few steps.

Like the Dropbox provider also the Google Drive provider supports all standard VFS operation as there are creating files and folders, renaming, deleting, downloading, uploading etc. Remember that versioning is not supported by the original Commons VFS and so VFSLib doesn't.

  First Official VFSLib (Dropbox Edition)

The release of the first official VFSLib for Dropbox (Dropbox Edition, aka DBE) is now likely to be published in the next few weeks. This initial version comes with a VFS provider implementing the functionality to access the Dropbox network file system.

Developers need a Dropbox account and their application setup on the Dropbox website. Once an application token has been generated (you must allow your application to access your Dropbox files first) then the VFSLib Dropbox provider can be configured with a few steps.

The first available VFSLib edition will be the Dropbox Edition (DBE), additional VFS providers e.g. to access Amazon S3 will be released in Q4/2013. Finally an Enterprise Edition will be published which contains all available VFSLib providers for an attractive price.

  Hint Dialog On Network Session Close

If one or multiple network session tabs shall be closed then a hint dialog is displayed now. Here the user may cancel closing the tab e.g. if the close action was performed by mistake. As usual this dialog can be disabled permanently by setting the "Do not show again" flag. The dialog may be reactivated at any time by adjusting the preferenes.

  Obfuscation Issue

If VFSLib is used as part of an obfuscated (scrambled) application then the providers for Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3 could not be activated. This happens although a proper commercial or evaluation license has been installed before.

The log file shows entries like "VFSLIB-0015: Dropbox functions require a Dropbox Edition or Enterprise Edition".

If you use ProGuard for obfuscation then add something like the following to your scripts:

  Log Messages Minimized

The Data Digester 1.6.8 produced too many log messages (exeption stack traces). If multiple network connections were opened the log file grew quickly so that the application ran out of memory in certain situations. This behaviour has been fixed so that the log file grows normally again.

Data Digester 1.6.8 Build 913 (2013-11-28)

  Faster OpenPGP Key Generation

Due to optimizations of the PGPLib library from DidiSoft Ltd. the generation of keys with size 4096 is much faster compared with the previous Data Digester versions. On a system with Intel Core2 Quad 3.0 GHz a new key is being generated in ~3.5 minutes. Key generation with smaller key sizes is much faster (few seconds).

  Generated Digest/Signature Files For Digest/Signature Files

The Data Digester 1.6.7 release generated digest/signature files for source files which are digest/signature files themselves. The generate option "Ignore digest/signature files" has not been applied in certain situations. For example it created *.digest.digest files and so on. This behaviour has been corrected so that digest/signature are properly recognized again.

  Enterprise Edition Available

While all VFSLib providers can be obtained separately the Enterprise Edition has now been released. The Enterprise Edition includes all providers currently available (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3). Please check out the attractive license pricing and volume discount offers.

  VFSLib Now to Support Amazon S3 (Amazon S3 Edition)

As third cloud file system provider the Amazon S3 Edition has been added to VFSLib. Please register a valid Amazon Web Services (AWS) account first. All necessary parameters for the Amazon S3 provider including the keys are provided by the Amazon S3 system.

Like the Dropbox provider also the Amazon S3 provider supports all standard VFS operation as there are creating files and folders, renaming, deleting, downloading, uploading etc. Remember that versioning is not supported by the original Commons VFS and so VFSLib doesn't.

  Added Google Drive To VFSLib (Google Drive Edition)

As second file system provider Google Drive has been added to VFSLib.

Developers need a Google Drive account and their application setup on the Google website. Once an application token has been generated (you must allow your application to access your Google Drive files first) then the VFSLib Google Drive provider can be configured with a few steps.

Like the Dropbox provider also the Google Drive provider supports all standard VFS operation as there are creating files and folders, renaming, deleting, downloading, uploading etc. Remember that versioning is not supported by the original Commons VFS and so VFSLib doesn't.

  Bugs in Java Examples Fixed

Some minor bugs found in the VFSLib Java examples have been fixed for the current release:

* ExampleDropbox: for loop uses iterated variable instead of fileobj (List a Dropbox folder)

  Reconnect to Servers Properly

The "Connect" menu item did not reconnect the network connection properly. This behaviour has been fixed so that restored connections at startup time can be reconnected properly. Keep in mind that a valid password may be required for the connection which must be edited manually for each connect or stored permanently for the connection.

  First Official VFSLib (Dropbox Edition)

The release of the first official VFSLib for Dropbox (Dropbox Edition, aka DBE) is now likely to be published in the next few weeks. This initial version comes with a VFS provider implementing the functionality to access the Dropbox network file system.

Developers need a Dropbox account and their application setup on the Dropbox website. Once an application token has been generated (you must allow your application to access your Dropbox files first) then the VFSLib Dropbox provider can be configured with a few steps.

The first available VFSLib edition will be the Dropbox Edition (DBE), additional VFS providers e.g. to access Amazon S3 will be released in Q4/2013. Finally an Enterprise Edition will be published which contains all available VFSLib providers for an attractive price.

  Connections to Empty Root Directories

For network connections an empty root directory may be the case. The previous versions of the Data Digester connected properly but could not list the root properly. Instead of showing the single "/" root node, the network files window displayed the "Reading..." placeholder entry indicating that the directory on the left side is currently being listed. This bug has been fixed so that empty root directories like Dropbox may be listed properly.

Data Digester 1.6.7 Build 907 (2013-09-12)

  Support For Multi OpenPGP Keys Files

A library has been updated to a newer version so that it is now possible to import key files with multiple OpenPGP keys. Such key files are used e.g. by Apache Software Foundation to bundle their many OpenPGP keys. You can find an example key file by clicking the link below.

  Better Network Performance: Connection Pools

Connections for stateful protocols as there are FTP, FTPS, and SFTP are now managed by pools. Existing idle connections from the pool are automatically reused. This may increase the performance for accessing server systems significantly since new connections have to be created only if there are no idle connections available.

By default the connection pool function is enabled for FTP/FTPS/SFTP connections. A new menu item to release unused connections from the pool has been added.

  Direct Checking of Network Files Deleted Contents

If digests or signatures were being checked directly on a network server using the network files window the target file contents have been deleted in some situations. The target files had zero-length afterwards. This behaviour has been fixed so that network files are left untouched during checking.

  Network Expert Setting Removed

The network expert setting "Automatically reconnect to dead peers" has been removed. Lost connections must be reconnected manually.

  Network Files May Be Moved On The Server

Previous version of the Data Digester software provided a copy & paste function to copy files and directories locally or from one server to another. This works well for small files but is too time consuming for large files like backups since the whole file must be transferred first. Network files may now be moved directly using the FTP/SFTP connection features (please check support). Like pasting entries from clipboard also the new "Move" feature has been integrated into the context menues of the file system and the network files docking windows. Just copy the source entries into clipboard, then select the target directory and call the new "Move" context menu. The optimizations described above are applied where possible, in all other situations the files are copied and the sources deleted afterwards.

  Network Connections Optimized

The network functionality of the Enterprise Edition has been optimized in several ways. Now the user's home directory is not longer the root directory by default which means that any absolute path on the connected system may be used as server path as long it may be accessed by the user (please check permissions). This modification is valid for FTP, FTPS, and SFTP network connections.

Especially on systems with slow connection like ISDN only the current folder may be refreshed instead of refreshing the whole folder tree. To achieve this an arbitrary entry shown by the table on the right side if the network file system window can be selected, then press F5.

After refreshing the network file system window the tree showed truncated entries sometimes ("..."). This behaviour has been cured so that the full folder names are always being displayed.

A new option has been added for the configuration of FTP connections: passive or active mode.

Command line URL addresses to be checked, generated etc. may be processed now also if username and password are omitted (like sftp://teiresias.company.com:22/home/user/steps.png.md5). This works if an appropriate network connection including the required credentials (username and password) has been setup with the GUI version of Data Digester. Missing credentials for command line URL arguments are automatically applied if available.

  Auto-update Web Start Version No Longer Available

Due to problems with Oracle's Java Web Start technology shipped with their runtime environments Data Digester is not longer available as auto-update version. Customers wishing to use Web Start must use the fixed versions now which are never updated automatically like the installer versions.

One of main problems of Java Web Start is that new libraries cannot be added without a complete reinstall and this makes the auto-update version obsolete. Adding new libraries or even updating to the latest library versions from time to time is common business for software developers and necessary e.g. to workaround security issues.

  Find File and URL Duplicates

Especially for collectors of audio files like MP3 or AAC it is a useful for Data Digester to scan directories for duplicates. These can be deleted in order to save storage space. This can be easily done with message digests since digests are fingerprints of files and every file maps to exactly one digest value per algorithm.

The Data Digester context menu found in both the file system and network file system window can be used to identify duplicate files. You simply can select one or more files or directories and let the program generate SHA-512 (or one of the other algorithms) in the calculate-only mode. The tab showing the calculation results (message digests) has a new context menu "Find Duplicates...". The duplicates are finally shown by a tab where you can easily delete unwanted duplicates directly.

  Shutdown Computer After Tasks Have Been Finished (Auto-off)

In order to implement as many green features as possible the auto-off functionality has been added. Once time consuming tasks like generating message digests for whole directory trees have been finished it is now possible to do the following actions afterwards:

* Exit program * Standby mode * Log off user * Reboot computer * Shutdown computer

While tasks are being executed the new status bar icon (I/O symbol) is enabled. When clicked with the left or right mouse button an context menu with the options listed above is presented. The "Normal Operation" item may be used to reset a previous setting. If all tasks have been finished regularly (not cancelled) then the chosen action is being executed automatically. If the user is logged off or if the computer is hibernated, rebooted or turned off (shutdown) then a dialog is displayed where the user may cancel the auto-off function within a number of seconds.

For the log off, standby, reboot, and shutdown functions the system runs special commands which may be configured from within the options dialog. The new "Energy Saving" unit has been added to achieve this. Here you can enter the various commands which strongly depend on the used operating system. Commonly used commands for major platforms have been preset. The dialog to cancel the chosen auto-off feature may be configured here by setting the number of seconds to wait (countdown).

The dialog to inform the user that tasks are being executed if the program is up to be closed also displays the new functions listed above to be called directly from here.

  External Help System Links Opened With System Browser

The external links to http:// addresses are now displayed by the default browser of the operating system. Earlier versions of the help system opened such links directly which resulted in poor display quality due to the limited HTML capabilities of the used Java components. Normally, external links are indicated with a special trailing icon to be recognized easily.

  Default Window Size Now 1024 x 768 Pixels

The default size of the main window has been raised to 1024 x 768 pixels (was 800 x 600) due to bigger screens available for the mass market. The application may still be operated with 800 x 600 pixel resolution.

The new menu item Windows -> Resolutions has been added to adjust the main window size.

  Performance Improved

When the GUI application was started sometimes the application seemed to be frozen if time consuming tasks like listing large directories in the file system window were executed. This behaviour has been improved so that the GUI is being created more fluently. It can be easily recognized by watching the digitial clock on the right side of the status bar: in earlier versions the clock was not updated for seconds, now it is in sync.

  Window Check/Generate/Refresh Callable from Context Menues

The context menues of both the file system and network file system window allow users to check, and generate digests or signatures for single selected files. Three new menues have been added to allow for checking, generating, and refreshing on a per directory basis. Now it is possible to select local directories or network folders and process them recursively. The new generate and refresh functionality starts its work on basis of the template that is currently being selected in the generate options window. You'll find the template name displayed in round braces.

  Data Digester Now Shipped With Java 1.7

The installer versions if the Data Digester software are now shipped with the JRE 1.7 instead of the JRE 1.6. The main advantages of the current JRE 1.7 are the improved web security and the better performance especially of the GUI components.

  Displaying Nimbus Under Java 1.7

Since Java 1.7 the Nimbus look & feel is official part of the Swing packages of Java. The class path switched from com.sun.java.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel to the new value javax.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel. The application checks for Java since 1.7 and uses the new package automatically then.

If you are switching from Java 1.6 to Java 1.7 to run the Data Digester software and if you have the Nimbus look & feel activated then it may be necessary to activate Nimbus again when the application is started using Java 1.7 the first time.

  Calculate-only Required PGP Key Selection

If message digests should be calculated only (no file generation) then a PGP key had to be selected in the list, too, if one of the PGP enabling options had been selected. In other words, it was not possible to calculate-only MD5, SHA-1 etc. without selecting a PGP key in such cases. This behaviour has been fixed.

  Write Digester XML For Read-only Files

If checksums for files on read-only mediums like CD or DVD have been generated it was not possible to write the data as Digester XML to a writable directory. This has been fixed so also digests/signatures for files on read-only file systems may be stored now.

  Restoring Docking Windows

Due to missing internal configuration some docking windows (e.g. text editor window) could not be restored properly. If the docking window had been closed the last time this window were being displayed again the next time the application has been started. This works fine now.

  Preferences Import

Preferences of the Data Digester software may be exported from one instance and then imported also on other platforms to move the configuration. The target directory had been cleared before the import and some or all extracted files from the export ZIP were removed, too. This was due to a timing behaviour in the directory clearing routine. Some or all extracted resources were missing then including the license file etc. This behaviour has been fixed so that the target import directory is not cleared before the ZIP import. Existing files are simply overwritten by the ZIP resources while additional resources created by the user are kept now.

  Docking Windows Under Linux With KDE

Some of the Data Digester docking windows (file eystem, network file system) were not displayed on some Linux platforms using the KDE desktop. The initialization went wrong due to a missing Java Desktop reference. This problem has been fixed so that all windows are being created properly.

Data Digester 1.6.6 Build 823 (2013-04-13)

  Additional Mac OS Installer Including JRE for 64-bit

On newer Mac OS systems (formerly Mac OS X) with 64-bit support Java is not installed automatically by the operating system any longer. Oracle has released Java 1.7.0 for Mac OS systems which is now bundled with Data Digester as a separate DMG archive.

All other archives of the Data Digester software are still limited to Java 1.6.0 in order to provide a well-tested environment for the software.

  OpenPGP Signatures And Intermediate Digests

Until version 1.6.5 the Data Digester software miscalculated OpenPGP signatures if XML files including intermediate digests had been generated simultaneously. The data blocks where the intermediate digests were generated were ignored for signature calculation.

The OpenPGP signatures generated with Data Digester until version 1.6.5 must be recalculated if the signatures were generated under the conditions described above.

Data Digester 1.6.5 Build 819 (2013-04-01)

  Web Start Error

The first two Web Start releases of Data Digester were based on changing resource names. This caused the application not to start if the auto-update version has been installed and the application was updated from version 1.6.3 to 1.6.4.

Users with auto-update versions 1.6.3 or 1.6.4 are recommended to manually uninstall the Web Start version of Data Digester and relaunch the application version 1.6.5 or newer.

  Get Evaluation License Directly From Application

Evaluation licenses can be easily requested with the online web form. The license key is sent via e-mail immediately. This procedure requires some steps to perform.

In order to make the evaluation process more convenient a new dialog has been added to the software. If the program is started the first time then an "Evaluate..." link is being displayed at the bottom of the register dialog. The program opens a dialog where the required personal data can be edited. With the "Submit" button the Leisenfels server is requested which then sends a new evaluation license directly to the application.

You will need an Internet connection for this new functionality.

  File Chooser Lists Directories

The operation system specific file chooser component lists directories properly now if a specific file filter is selected in the combo box at the bottom. This was only possible before the fix if the "*" file filter had been selected.

Data Digester 1.6.4 Build 799 (2013-03-23)

  Maintenance Release for Basic Edition

We fixed some bugs related to checking functionality of the Basic Edition which lacks the network file system window. Both the Quick Check and the checking functionality from the file chooser window have been fixed and should work properly again.

Added some missing German dialog localizations. The button and menu item starting the sync wizard functionality are now deactivated for the Basic Edition as expected.

Data Digester 1.6.3 Build 793 (2013-03-14)

  Additional Linux Installer Including JRE for 32-bit/64-bit

It has been announced by leading Linux distributors that future Linux versions will not include an Oracle Java runtime environment (JRE) any longer. JREs must then be downloaded and installed manually by the system administrators as it is common practice already on Mac OS X systems.

In order to keep the Data Digester installation as easy as possible a new installer including JRE version 1.6.0_32 has been added for Linux systems. The previous installer without JRE to be used on UNIX systems in general (including Linux) is still supported. The new installer is available in two versions for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux systems.

  Generate Hexadecimal Digests with Upper-case Letters

By default, hexadecimal digests produced by the Data Digester software were limited to lower-case. A new generate option has been added to support also upper-case letters in hexadecimal digests. Internally, the Data Digester software normalizes digests before they are compared, checked etc. so it does not matter which case the hexadecimal digests are based on. Digest files from the Internet may use both formats. The new setting is applied to written GNU/BSD/XML files, OpenPGP signatures are not affected.

  Switched to Bouncy Castle Crypto Library

In the past the Data Digester software utilized the Hush cryptographic library which has been replaced by the Bouncy Castle crypto library now. The main reason for the switch was the license politics of Hush Communications Canada Inc. providing their library with focus on open source projects. Unclear license terms and an unappropriate license model made it impossible to continue working with this library as part of the Data Digester software.

Being an alternative for the encryption based on the OpenPGP standard the Bounce Castle library is used now, enhanced by the commercial add-on PGPLib from DidiSoft Ltd. In addition to the OpenPGP functionality this library provides support for other cryptographic algorithms like AES which may be deployed by the Data Digester software e.g. for safe password encryption.

The Bouncy Castle library implements strict checking for maximum key lengths which may be considered a disadvantage. In some countries like China and Russia the maximum key length of cryptographic algorithms is limited to 128 Bits. Bigger key lengths as they are required for the use of OpenPGP can be achieved by modifying the Java enviroment (if allowed).

  New Docking Mode: Separate Window

Docking windows can be displayed as separate windows now. In the past, docking windows could only be displayed in one of the four main window positions left, right, top, or bottom. Now the docking windows may be displayed outside of the main window as separate windows. The separate window mode can be activated via the context menu (right mouse button) of the window buttons or alternatively by simply dragging the window buttons on the desktop. The separate window mode can be terminated by clicking the X window decoration button as usual. The docking windows are then displayed in their previous locations.

Messages generated by the docking windows are displayed by the main window. The menu shortcuts supported by the docking windows can be used also when in separate window mode. The separate docking window must be the active window here.

  Display of Messages During Task Processing

In the past only one single message could be displayed generated by tasks such as the download of an Internet URL. Since some of the available tasks of the Data Digester software produce many messages which could only be seen for a short time on the screen, an additional text area has been integrated at the bottom of the message line of the dialog. Here, all task messages are displayed in the order they have been generated.

As the first task the Synchronize provided by the Sync Window shows the new text area (EE only). Additional tasks will follow that use the new text area if appropriate.

  New XML Feature: Network References (URLs)

Files based on the Digester XML format may contain relative and absolute paths. Now, also network references for arbitrary protocols can be included. It is then possible for the Data Digester software to resolve the original network paths and download additional target files right after such XML files have been downloaded from either the filesystem or from the network. If network references are available (URLs = Uniform Resource Locators) then digest files can be downloaded and processed by the Data Digester by simply clicking a link in your web browser. This is not possible with classic digest formats like GNU/BSD: here, all resources (target and digest files) must be downloaded and then checked in the second step.

URL references can be added dynamically using SSI (Server Side Includes). The fixed references are appropriately replaced by the Internet server (e.g. Apache) when the XML resource is downloaded. This allows to move the network resources on the server.

  New Quick Check Field

At the top of the Data Digester main window a new input field has been added: the Quick Check. Here, either local or network files can be specified which are then analyzed for available digest files. If digest files do exist the desired files can be chosen from a list presented by a download dialog. The selected files (target or digest files) are then downloaded from the server or the filesystem, calculated, and optionally checked. If there are no digest files available on the remote servers, the files are simply downloaded. You can specify the algorithms for arbitrary checksums to be calculated while the files are being downloaded. The calculated values can then be compared with values found on Internet sites.

The supported network protocols are the same as for the new -urls parameter.

  Download and Check Network Resources

With the new Data Digester version you can check and generate checksums for local files/directories or on connected network drives as usual. In addition to that the tool has been made capable of downloading and checking files from remote servers. Access is possible using various protocols like HTTP, FTP, SFTP etc.

The new command line parameter -urls can be used to specify arbitrary network addresses to process (URLs = Uniform Resource Locators). If available, remote digest files on the server are located and downloaded automatically to validate the downloaded target files. The checksums to validate the downloaded files are calculated while the files are being downloaded into a directory of your choice. Network resources can therefore be downloaded securely with a single step. If no digest files can be found on the remote server, then arbitrary checksums can be calculated during download by specifying the desired algorithms which can then be checked directly.

  Directly Compare Digests with Dialog

The Data Digester software has been enhanced by a new dialog to directly compare calculated hexadecimal digests with values found on Internet sites. The digests can be calculated as usual. After selceting the desired digest from the list shown by the results window the dialog allows to compare the hexadecimal values by either direct input or paste from the clipboard. This approach makes sense if remote servers lack digest files but the checksums have been published on the Internet sites to be compared directly.

  Take Screen Shots With Timeout

Screen shots can be created by configuring a certain timeout. While the timeout is active the user may configure the shown windows as desired. The timeout can be adjusted in the range from 1 to 60 seconds. The capture tool can be hidden while the screen shot is captured.

  Added Preferences

The Data Digester application now provides support for an enhanced configuration by setting certain preferences. By clicking Setup -> Preferences the preferences dialog is displayed. The view can be toggled between symbol list and options tree as the user likes.

The five option units shown by the current Data Digester version provide options for file types, the file system window, dialogs, suppressed dialogs, and miscellaneous. For the file types supported by Data Digester users can setup the file extensions and especially the extension type (simple extension or regular expression).

The settings of the file system window currently includes the directory that this docking windows shows when it is initialized. It may be configured to navigate to the user's home or to restore the previously selected directory.

File chooser dialogs may be displayed using the Java style or the native style of the operating system. For example many Mac OS X users prefer using the Aqua look and feel for file choosing instead of the Java default. Suppressed dialogs can be reactivated with the Suppressed Dialogs tab. This feature is often not supported by other applications so that such dialogs cannot be enabled again.

The Miscellaneous tab let users configure the memory controller which helps to avoid situations where the program cannot continue because the amount of free memory is low. A very useful setting is to detect hanging applications und unlock them automatically after some time. For example, hangs may be caused by unreachable network drives scanned by the file system window.

Here, you can set the maximum number of files to be processed as well as the maximum amount of data to be checked or generated by the Data Digester. These thresholds can be very helpful to avoid unnecessary operations due to wrong target file selection.

  Added Support for Apache Ant Build Scripts

The new digestercli command line application can be executed by Apache Ant build scripts using the Exec task. In order to provide a more convenient way for developers to integrate Data Digester with the Apache Ant build system, the new digestercli task has been added to the installer versions of the software. This Ant task supports the full range of flags and options supported by the digestercli tool. The XML fragments for the digestercli task can be easily generated by the Data Digester GUI based on the current settings of the Check and Generate docking windows. The digestercli Ant task can be used for both checking an generating.

The digestercli task is declared with the Taskdef task specifying a JAR archive located in the 'ant' subdirectory of the installed software version. The name of the task is configurable, normally it's . All command line flags and options supported by the digestercli application can be written as separate subelements of the element. Files and directories can be specified using the Fileset and Dirset tasks.

Like the digestercli command line tool also the new digestercli Ant task is available only for the installed versions of the Data Digester software (not for Web Start). You will at least need a Standard Edition license to use it, the Basic Edition is not supported.

  New Command Line Application digestercli

While the Data Digester software needs a graphical user environment like Windows or X Windows the new command line tool named digestercli does not. It can be executed from a command line interface like MS-DOS or Linux shell. It can therefore be executed from scripts run as regular tasks like cron jobs on UNIX machines. The arguments for the digestercli command line tool can be easily generated by the Data Digester GUI based on the current settings of the Check and Generate docking windows.

The digestercli application can used for both checking and generating checksums. The default mode is to generate checksums while all options of the GUI-based Data Digester is also available for the command line version. Files and directories can be passed as trailing arguments like for other command line applications. The new verbose mode can be used to generate detailed messages on what the program's currently doing.

The digestercli application is included in the installer versions of the Data Digester software. It cannot be run as Web Start application since this deployment system is designed for GUI applications loaded from the Internet. To run the digestercli application you will need at least a Standard Edition license for the Data Digester software. In order to keep the Basic Edition's licensing costs as low as possible the digestercli application is not included here.

  Support for Apple Mac OS X

To deliver a solution for the growing Apple Mac market the Data Digester software has been intensively tested under Apple Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). This platform is the first with integrated Java 1.6 support necessary to run the current Data Digester releases. Aqua is now an officially supported look and feel for Leisenfels applications. Remember that the Aqua look and feel is only available for Mac OS X platforms.

The software can either be deployed using Java Web Start or using the new installer archives based on the DMG format. The DMG folder archive installation is very easy. Simply download the DMG archive from the Leisenfels web site and Mac OS X opens a window for installation automatically. The application is normally installed in the "Applications" folder where the program launchers, the PDF documentation, and the uninstaller can be started.

  PDF Manual Available

In addition to the new help system current Data Digester versions are shipped including a printable PDF manual. To use this manual, a pre-installed viewer like the Adobe Acrobat Reader is required. You can open the manual either directly from the running application using the "Help" menu or via the appropriate entries of the program group (only possible with installer versions for Windows).

The PDF manual is available in English and German language at the moment.

  Searchable Help System and Context Help

The current Data Digester version ist now shipped with a comprehensive help system to be called directly from the running application. The "Help" menu provides the items "Context Help" and "Help Topics". The "Help Topics" menu item opens the previously displayed help page or the start page when the help system has been opened initially. The context help directly guides you to the appropriate help pages within the help system. If the search window is active for example, then the section for this docking windows will be displayed.

The new help system allows the text pages to be searched by specifying a search pattern. The found text pages are presented by a separate list and can be displayed with a simple mouse click.

The help system is available in English and German language at the moment.

  Fully Configurable

All GUI components and many of the algorithmic components are fully configurable now. This means that the configuration of virtually any dialog, window etc. is restored when the application is executed again. This includes checkbox states, table column widths, window sizes and positions, history items and many more.

Together with the preferences import/export functionalities of Data Digester it is now possible to configure the application once (which is done on-the-fly without any interaction in most cases) and restore the settings on different target systems.

  Exponential Mode for Intermediate Digests

While the older versions of Data Digester provide support only for the linear intermediate generation (create checksums every n bytes) the new version additionally supports the exponential mode.

Running in this mode the intermediate digests are generated every 2 pow (s+n), n=0,1,2,... bytes. Starting let's say with s=13 (8K) the first intermediate is created at the position 8192 (1-based), the second at the position 16384 and so on. It is useful to have many intermediate digests at the beginning of the file in order to detect mismatches as early as possible so that no data must be processed unnecessarily.

By utilizing the intermediate digests together with the Digester XML format leads to better performance when examining checksums even for large files (e.g. backups) since mismatches (changes files) can be detected as early as possible.

  New Multiplatform Installer Releases

The upcoming Data Digester releases are generated with install4j developed by ej-technologies GmbH in addition to the Web Start releases. While Web Start is the ideal deployment solution for those users working on multiple machines, the new installer releases offer a comfortable and platform-specific way to deploy the Data Digester. Initially the supported platforms for the installer variant are Windows (32 Bit) optionally including a Java Runtime Environment, UNIX/Linux (GUI and console installation), and a UNIX/Linux TGZ archive. All installers except the archives can be installed by using a GUI running with every installed Java 1.3+ or the console.

The installers include all mandatory and optional packages like additional Look & Feel libraries which can be installed in standard, minimum, full, or customized installations. The language packs (currently English and German) are embedded and can be installed in any combination so that installations on terminal servers with international users can be easily implemented. Additional installers e.g. for the Apple Mac OS X are planned for 2009.

  Web Start Uninstallation From the Running Application

The Web Start release of the Data Digester can now be directly uninstalled from the running application without calling the Java Control Panel. While the normal uninstallation mode simply removes the Web Start cache files from the user's home directory, the "Clean Uninstall" feature allows for removing also the local configuration files and directories. Uninstalling the Web Start release of the Data Digester is now as simple as installing in a single step. The Web Start release is intended for roaming users that work on different computers with Internet connection. Installation and uninstallation of the Data Digester is now only a task of seconds.

  Successfully Tested Under Windows, Linux, and Solaris

Comprehensive testing has been done with the initial Data Digester release in order to make sure the program runs on any of the wide-spread platforms. The Data Digester has been successfully tested on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP Tablet PC, Windows Vista, SuSE Linux 8.2, SuSE Linux 9.3, openSUSE 10.3, and OpenSolaris 2008.11 (32 bit editions only).

Since Apple does not offer a standalone version of Mac OS X for common PCs but only bundled with Apple hardware we cannot test our software on their platform at the moment.

  Data Digester Now Compatible With Tablet PCs

The main well-known issue using Tablet PCs with Java applications is that it is not possible to navigate properly into a subdirectory by double-clicking the entry. SUN changed the behaviour of the JFileChooser class with Java 1.6 but it turned out to be no real improvement.

The full compatibility of Data Digester on stylus-based Tablet PCs has been reached by adding some additional functionality to the file system dialog and file system docking window. While still keeping the compatibility with the Java standard file chooser (look and behaviour) it us now possible to deploy the Data Digester application on stylus-based tablet PCs without drawbacks.

  Support for Multiple Application Editions

As common for most desktop applications also the Data Digester now supports multiple editions by simply changing the license key. We are starting with the Standard Edition, the Enterprise Edition is scheduled to be released in Q4/2009. The Basic Edition represents the entry-level edition of Data Digester with support for examining checksums only (no generating functionality).

  New File and Directory Choosing Component

Introduced new file chooser with detailed info listing based on the file and directory choosing functionlity of the file system docking window. It is now fully compatible with stylus-based tablet PCs which had problems using the Java default file choosing mechanism. All parameters like sizes, positions, previous directory, and table column widths are stored persistently so that users can do their work based on the previous settings.

  Structured Release Notes

The release notes are presented in a structured form instead of plain text. In earlier version of the Data Digester application release notes have been edited as plain text as it is common for most applications. Now users are able to categorize and filter the notes by type (new feature, enhancement etc.), category (e.g. GUI, digest checking), and current edition (Standard, Basic).

Also links to the Internet or the online help systems can be specified to be able to make more detailed pieces of information available to the user.

  Generate Wizard Support

Added support for new generate wizard based on the commons wizard engine. Based on a small set of common options the user can easily generate checksums with or without creating files. Designed for the very first generation ops and for those users using the Data Digester only for generating checksums.

Besides the context menu (right mouse button) the wizard is the fastest way to generate digests with the Data Digester application.

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