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New beta version available

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

You can download a new beta version of Diving Log 5.0 with several new features:

Full Setup (26 MB)
Update from 5.0.0 (19 MB)

In the main toolbar you will find a new “Web” dropdown button, which is now the central location for cloud services like online logbooks. Currently there are 4 online logbooks included:

Dilogs.com – already included with the Dilogs manager, but the new sync interface offers a lightweight and easier sync experience
Divelogs.de – was only available in the export menu, but now you can upload and download your dives in the new sync dialog
Yourdivebook.com – completely new integrated with upload and download
Divelogpool.com – new beta portal to collect dive data for the NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) in Trondheim for a research project
In future MySQL sync will be added for phpDivingLog

Dilogs Sync

Divelogs Sync

YourDiveBook Sync

Great news for all Android users out there: there is now a sync function from Diving Log 5.0 to the already available Android Dive Log (Dive Log Key) from Rob Knapen. It is included in the sync menu in the main toolbar of Diving Log. The sync is done at the moment only via the sdcard. Diving Log saves the file to the sdcard, Android Dive Log reads this file from the card when you use the restore function. To sync back to the desktop you must create a backup in the Android DL to the storage card, Diving Log will import that and merge the changes into the desktop logbook.

Android Sync

Main Screen

Dive List

Dive Site Map

The ribbon in the logbook window could now be displayed also in the Windows 7 ribbon style:

Windows 7 Ribbon Style

Other new features in this beta:

Import from JDiveLog
French localization completed
Many small improvements and bug fixes

Tags: Android, Beta, Export, Import, Online Logbook, Ribbon, Sync
Posted in Android, Diving Log 5.0, Updates | No Comments »

Diving Log 5.0 Service Release

Monday, April 26th, 2010

A service release which fixes some bugs in Diving Log 5.0 is now available. Download this setup and install it into the Diving Log program folder. Here are some of the fixed issues and new features:

Print function and PDF export crash fixed
Statistics.crd report file for printing statistics data
Several issues with saving dives in the logbook window were fixed
New import Poseidon MkVI
Improved OSTC download function
Enter key in details comments box works now
New Diving Log Viewer integration
New read-only field “Exit Time” in logbook window (included in the extended layout)

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Diving Log Viewer Update

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Diving Log Viewer is not only a free tool to view Diving Log logbook files which you can give to your friends and buddies – it offers some unique features currently not available in Diving Log 5.0. It is build using the latest UI technology WPF and is for me a good way to learn this technology. It will be included in the upcoming Diving Log 5.0.1, but is also available as standalone Download. On Windows XP and Vista the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 must be installed. After downloading, extract it into the 5.0 program folder and start it one time manually, then you can launch it also from Diving Log. Today I’ve updated the application a bit to make it more compatible with Diving Log 5.0, but I’ve also included some nice new features:

Fixed columns. Now you can pin any column to the left side so it doesn’t get out of view when you scroll horizontally. Either drag the splitter to the right or drag and drop any column header on the left side of the splitter.

Fixed Columns

Statistics and Summarize. You can display several calculated statistics for the numeric columns. In combination with grouping or filtering you can calculate statistics for only a subset of your dives, answering questions like “How long was I diving last year?” or “What was the deepest and shallowest and coldest and warmest dive at a particular dive site?”.

Stats for the year 2008

Stats combined with grouping by site

Column Reorder. You can drag and drop any column header to any position to reorder the columns:

Column Reorder

Image and profile pan works now also with the left mouse button, which is great if you have a multitouch monitor. If you have not used yet the Diving Log Viewer application, make sure to check out this tutorial page which shows all other features, like profile zoom and pan, image viewer and grouping.

Tags: Diving Log Viewer
Posted in Diving Log 5.0 | 2 Comments »

Diving Log 5.0 Launch Recap

Monday, April 12th, 2010

When I launched Diving Log 5.0 two weeks ago I knew that the following days will be a tough time for me, and as things turned out, I proved to be right.

During the past two weeks I had 37 GB of traffic (split onto 2 servers). On the peak April 9 – April 11 there were 18 GB of traffic. I’m really surprised that the server didn’t went down, kudos to my Hoster. Within those two weeks, I received and answered 380 emails (not including spam, notifications and forum posts). During the 3 day peak I got 160 emails and answered every single one. I still get a lot of questions which are answered in the FAQ. If you’ve lost your unlock keys, please make use of this automatic tool, even though this works not in every case: your email could have changed, some email providers block those automatic emails from the server and new keys will take up to 4 weeks to appear in the online tool. In this case, just write me an email as usual.

I didn’t have expected that everything will run smoothly, even after a half year long beta test. Overall it was not too bad – the two major problems (crashing print function and an issue with the installer) are both 3rd party components. The installer issue disappeared after I obtained the latest version. For the print crash there is a workaround by downloading this zip file and extracting it into the 5.0 program folder. You should do this only when the print function currently crashes on your computer, because the profile draw quality is not so good in this workaround.

I already bought the latest version of the print engine which hopefully fixes the issue completely. I’ll test this within the next few days and provide an update as soon as possible. Version 5.0.1 should be also appearing in the near future. Most localization is now also completed. Here you can download an update for Catalan, Dutch, Italian and Russian. French is in the works. For Czech, Finnish and Polish I still need translators.

Tags: Diving Log 5.0, Website
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Diving Log 5.0 released

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Yes, it’s finally done! After rewriting Diving Log from scratch – which was necessary but also a risk – I think the time has come to release it. After more than 1 year of development and 6 month of beta testing it should be stable enough for everyone. Sure, there are minor issues and a few things are still missing from version 4.0, but the advantages outweigh in general. After you’ve installed the final version and a 4.0 key is found, you will be asked during the first program start to open the update website and your 4.0 key will be automatically inserted.

Here are the most important links:

Download full setup
Download update setup (only possible from 5.0 RC2 (version 4.9.2)
Update your 4.0 license key
Lost your license key?
Changelog
List of blog posts about the new features

Diving Log 5.0 is fully localized in these languages:

Danish
English
German
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish

The other languages are partly translated. If you want to help to complete the translation for Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Italian, Finnish, French, Polish or Russian, please contact me (Update: Strikethrough = done). As soon as new languages were completed, I’ll provide a small update zip file which you can download and extract into the 5.0 program folder. If you are using one of these languages, please follow me on Twitter, the blog or the news section to stay informed about updates.

So now after the final version is out, what’s going to happen next? I’m already planning on version 5.0.1. Depending on how stable 5.0.0 is, 5.0.1 is either a quick bug fix release or a more feature rich release. In my previous blog post I’ve also written about my plans for the Windows Mobile version.

So now please download version 5.0, update your license keys and thank you in advance for your donations if you like this update or just want to say thank you in general

Tags: Diving Log 5.0
Posted in Diving Log 5.0 | 1 Comment »

Diving Log 5.0 Release Candidate 2

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Today I’ve released the 2nd and last release candidate of Diving Log 5.0. This version is identical with the final release and gives some time to…

update the website
localize the languages other than English and German
fix possible last minute bugs
prepare the update process

Please download the RC 2 and test everything and report any bugs. The beta portal is no longer required and this version is available as setup only. It will run until end of April, the final version should be released in March, if everything goes well.

I’ve got a lot of questions about the update price for existing customers. I’ve thought about this for a long time and decided that this update will be for free for all existing Diving Log users who have an official license key. But I’ll ask for a PayPal donation during the update process, so you can decide yourself if you want to pay something for this update and how much. And users who have bought version 4.0 recently can update for free, of course. I think this is fair for everyone.

Some things have changed in this version, most notable the location of some files. Report, template and layout files are now stored in your Windows personal folder, sub folder “Diving Log” right beside the default logbook file. This makes it easier to backup all files. The other reason is, that there is no write access into the program folder on Vista or Windows 7. You should copy your modified or downloaded report, template and layout files into the new location. I’ve also changed the location of the program settings, which means that some settings will be lost and you have to setup them again (mostly download and export settings).

Tags: Diving Log 5.0, Release Candidate
Posted in Diving Log 5.0 | 1 Comment »

Diving Log 5.0 RC2 is near

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

So, I’m a little bit behind my schedule – normally the release candidate 2 should be already released – but I’m very close. I uploaded new zip files and uploaded also an updated setup, both are almost RC 2, but I want to fine tune some more things first. German users will notice that the latest version is almost completely localized, which means that I can soon send the localization file to the other translators and those languages will be hopefully finish in the near future.

If you are still running RC1 bits, I highly recommend that you update to the latest version, because RC1 will stop running end of this month. The current build will run until end of March.

Other new features in the latest update are the update check function and the compass display in the logbook window. You must currently drag the compass from the layout toolbox, because there is no finish layout yet included in the setup. The compass will work at the moment only for Uwatec Galileo users, because you can’t yet set the course manually. Please note also that the update check does not show you every minor update during this time. It is more intended for the final release, not for the beta period.

Update Check

Compass Display

Tags: Diving Log 5.0, Logbook, Release Candidate, Update Check
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Diving Log 5.0 – Latest Updates

Monday, February 8th, 2010

I want to give you a quick overview about the recent updates of the current version 5.0:

Backup function added
External tools management added
UDDF Import improved for DR5 dive computer
UDDF Export improved for DR5 dive computer
Support for Mares Icon HD (Import DiveOrganizer)
GUI Improvements when Windows runs in classic style

The backup function has been improved a bit since version 4.0 and is able to maintain several different logbook files. The backup files can also be zipped.

Backup Function

The external tools function is now also included. With this function, you can add a shortcut to any file or program to the “Tools” menu.

External Tools

External Tools Manager

If you own a DR5 dive computer from HeinrichsWeikamp, you can use the new improved UDDF export to upload any dive from any dive computer to your DR5. Make sure to set in the export settings the “DR5 Compatibility” option to “True”. With the improved UDDF import you can select now several UDDF files and import them at once. This makes it much easier to import from the DR5 where every dive is stored in a single file.

UDDF Export

If you own a Mares Icon HD dive computer, please write me an email. I need some dive data from the Icon HD in order to test the import function a bit more (I had no real data during the development of the importer). Thank you!

Tags: Backup, Diving Log 5.0, Export, Import
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Template Manager and Equipment Revision

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

In the latest update I’ve finally included the Template Manager. It enables you to quickly update several dives at once, even though this is now also possible using the new table editor. If you are not familiar with the template function, I recommend you watch this video tutorial from the support website. To access the template manager, you can click in the “Logbook” menu the “Template Manager” item, or in the logbook window, the small dialog launcher button in the Ribbon.

Template Manager

In this update I’ve fixed also a bug which could crash the application on Windows XP, when interacting with the dive profile. The equipment service reminder is now also included. To activate it, check the box in the equipment dialog. As soon as the revision date for one or more items is within the time span you have set, the Welcome Center will pop up during startup and the equipment items were displayed. When you click an item it will be shown in the equipment dialog.

Welcome Center

Equipment

Tags: Diving Log 5.0, Equipment, Templates, Welcomecenter
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