Archive for July, 2009

Diving Log 5.0 – Equipment

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

I’ve finished the dive equipment management window which is also the window for country, city, dive site and buddy management, so including the other data is straightforward. There are some small but nice improvements:

Equipment Management

Equipment Management

Keyboard shortcuts enable adding and editing data without ever touching the mouse. Simply press Ctrl-N for adding a new item, the cursor jumps automatically into the first field. When you’ve entered the data press Ctrl-S to save the data. With the Del key you can delete one or more items.

The new instant search field in the upper right corner (Ctrl-F put the cursor into the box) lets you filter the displayed data in the list, which is useful for long lists like dive sites.

In order to view images like the equipment photo or the dive site map properly I’ve added a new built-in lightweight image viewer. You can view any image just by clicking it with the mouse when you see the magnifier cursor.

Click to open the Image Viewer

Click to open the Image Viewer

Image Viewer

Image Viewer

The Image Viewer can be used across the whole application, e.g. by clicking the certification images, in the logbook table or from the logbook photo section. Currently it has only some basic features, but I want to add more features in future like a thumbnail view, printing and a slideshow.

Downloader Update

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

You can download updates for all dive computer downloaders in Diving Log (Uwatec Smart and Aladin, Suunto, OSTC and Sensus Ultra). There is also a new beta downloader for the Uwatec Memomouse. All downloaders contain now also the new feature to import the dive computer data into existing dives. Download this zip file and extract it into the Diving Log program folder: Downloader.zip

Memo Mouse Download

Memomouse Download

To start the Memomouse downloader you must double click the “Downloader.exe” file in the Diving Log program folder directly, because it is not yet integrated in the Diving Log user interface. You can also create a shortcut for the desktop or add the Downloader.exe in the Diving Log “Tools” menu for direct access to the Memomouse download. Please report any bugs, problems or feedback so I can fix them before including this update in the main setup.

I want to use this blog post also to say a big thank you to all the developers and participants who make these direct dive computer downloads possible. Diving Log is not only using downloads I created myself, most of the downloads are only possible because of 3rd party tools and libraries created by developers for the scuba diving community. Some of these tools are open source, some closed source, but all of them can be used by any scuba diving application and all users benefit from them. These libraries were created without any manufacturer support (except HeinrichsWeikamp and ReefNet, of course), by analyzing the protocol and trial and error. It is really a time consuming task to create these tools, but they help to be a little more independent from manufacturers and platforms. Great Job!

Big thanks to James Connell, Jef Driesen, Bill Perry, Andrew Forget, Daniel Abrahams, Teemu Tingander and all users who has tested these things and provided dump files and all who I may forgot here to mention!

Import into existing dives

Friday, July 17th, 2009

This has been requested for quite a long time now, mainly by iPhone and Window Mobile users: the ability to enter the basic information directly after the dive in the mobile application, sync this data to the desktop and download or import the dive profile and other data from the dive computer to complete the logbook data. Up to now this was some pain, because you had to copy and paste the profile data into the existing dives. To make this really work well I had to add a way to import dives not only to the end of the logbook, but also to update existing dives.

What sounds very easy at first glance was in reality some challenge if I want to do it right. I had to make sure that the import wizard GUI communicates well what will happen during the import to avoid confusion. I had to make sure that I don’t overwrite existing data (data which was already entered in the mobile application).  And last but not least I had to find an elegant way to implement this with reasonable effort for the many importers and downloaders which are included in Diving Log. Curiously it took more than half a year to find the right way and the best solution for this task, but programming and testing this feature took only 2 days. But sometimes it is worth to wait a little bit longer for the right idea.

There is now an additional step in the import wizard, nothing spectacular, but I think it communicates well the results you can expect:

Import into existing dives

Import into existing dives

This feature is now available for the existing .NET based importers, which are: BFT Tiger, HS Explorer, Liquivision X1, DAN DL7, Shearwater, APD Inspiration, UDCF, UDDF, NiTek Logic and MacDive. Next week I’ll release (Update: it is now released) an update for the downloaders Uwatec Smart, Aladin, Memomouse (new beta), Suunto, OSTC and Sensus Ultra which includes also this feature. I try to convert the most important other importers (Mares IRIS/DRAK, Oceanlog, Suunto DM,…) as soon as possible also to .NET so that most Diving Log users can make use of it.

Download this zip file and extract it into the Diving Log program folder: Importer.zip

I know this one took a while, thank you for your patience!

iPhone Dive Log demo video

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

The guys from TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) recorded a demo video at Apples WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) showing the iPhone Dive Log application. For more information about the synchronization with Diving Log click here. BTW, Greg has also a blog for the iPhone Dive Log.

Direct divelogs website upload

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Rainer Mohr from divelogs created an API plugin for Diving Log which enables direct uploading dives from Diving Log to divelogs. Up to now you had to export your dives first to UDCF and then upload the file in the divelogs web interface. But due to the UDCF format not all possible logbook data could be uploaded. The new direct upload is much more easy and quicker. Please click here  to download the new upload tool. Extract this zip file into the Diving Log program folder. To start the upload you must either click the “Exporter.exe” file (or create a shortcut on your desktop) or you can add the Exporter.exe into the Tools menu of Diving Log. With the next Diving Log update the upload will be integrated into Diving Log.

UPDATE July 6th: I’ve updated the uploader today to support multi user scenarios and fixed one possible bug. Simply uncheck the “Save Login Information” checkbox to get a login dialog each time.

divelogs.eu upload

divelogs.eu upload

Tools menu

Tools menu