What's New?

Revision Date: February 23, 1999

Thanks to my dedicated beta testers (props to Craig, esp.) and brainstormers, some really COOL features have been added and some annoying/embarassing bugs have been squashed.

nHTTPd

1. Bugs Fixed:
   1. Dog-Slow Server Side Include functions replaced/recoded
      1. The Caveat is that some SSI like username and address (ones I predicted to be fairly static anyway) are determined at Server Startup and are not re-evaluated until the NEXT Server Startup
2. Features Added:
   1. Support for logging of HTTP Requests
      1. Logging is configurable and can track either IP or Hostname
      2. Log is accessible via WWW interface in the /cfg/ directory (Password Protected)
      3. Status field of nHTTPd UI is a pop-up button showing last 10 unique hostnames to visit your Newton
   2. Optional Randomly Generated Administrator and Client Password
   3. Support for remote configuration removed.
      1. (Remote shutdown remains supported)
   4. Simple Scripting Architecture Implemented
      1. Users can write their own Server Side Includes in Newtonscript using the "Script Editor" applet. Text up to 1000 bytes can be returned from these functions. In addition, scripts can take actions on the user's Newton (Notification, Writing to a Note, Sending an email, etc)
   5. Brand-new NPDS Config panel
   6. NPDS recognizes Newton browsers as such and subtly alters its HTTP Header and HTML output. This feature will be exploited more later...

Notepad Server (NoteServ)

1. Bugs fixed:
   1. Physical location of served data is now noted and checked in the virtual filesystem URL scheme (Internal Store vs Card Store)
      1. 2/23/99 Update: Support for signed store sigs implemented
         1. NoteServ no longer dies on NULL search results
         2. Multiple index pages no longer cause general funkiness
   2. A Redundant loop in the caching scheme caused a slowdown and eventual server crash from Heap oveflow.
   3. Cache entries now expire properly when the parent note is changed at all
2. Features Added:
   1. 2/23/99 Added a Flush Cache Button to UI to empty cache after you switch folders
   2. Enhanced speed of service of dynamically generated Notes
      1. SSI functions are re-encoded to use less RAM and do less un-needed work
      2. Faster Note Retrieval function
      3. Improved service of default page (was very slow before)
         1. Functions are pre-called to establish lookups in heap
   3. Items in Checklist Notes are coded Bold or Plain to denote whether they have been checked
   4. Adding support (gradually) for Query-based Note Retrieval for sorting by time, date, folder, length, size, content, etc. Early implementation available as new SSI tags to allow table views of Note Lists.

Datebook Server (DateServ)

1. Bugs Fixed:
   1. 2/23/99 Update: Support for signed store sigs implemented
   2. 2/23/99 Update: Javascript Window works again.
   3. Physical location of served data is now noted and checked in the virtual filesystem URL scheme (Internal Store vs Card Store)
   4. Bug in Javascript pop-up windows fixed (Didn't work with user-made index pages in NoteServ)
2. Features Added:
   1. New Web UI resembles a PIM interface instead of the previous cluttered list-like interface
   2. Option to turn OFF pre-cacheing of Day and Week views.
   3. Load and Unload DateServ from active service with a checkbox (instead of freezing/unfreezing)

CardFile Server (CardServ)

1. Bugs Fixed
   1. 2/23/99 Update: Support for signed store sigs implemented
   2. Physical location of served data is now noted and checked in the virtual filesystem URL scheme (Internal Store vs Card Store)
   3. vCard encoder is recoded for speed and compliance with RFC standard
      1. Null fields are not encoded
      2. Recursive encoding is improved
2. Features Added:
   1. Load and Unload CardServ from active service with a checkbox (instead of freezing/unfreezing)
   2. Birthday and Anniversary are now sent in Notes field of vCard

BitGrabber

1. Removed offical support for BitGrabber from this release

Web*Pager

1. Bugs Fixed:
   1. Added support for Nethopper 2.x
2. Features Added:
   1. Two way paging between Newtons provided they are both running NPDS
      1. (Requires urlCop)
   2. Scrolling of Pager window
   3. Can now select and copy text from Pager window
   4. Speech support seems finalized.

NPDS Tracker

1. Bugs Fixed:
2. Features Added:
   1. NPDS Tracker will support separate ports for Traq and HTTP protocols (when I get the server finished). Underlying code reflects this but not the UI.
   2. Support for firewalled Newtons. If HTTP port is set to other than 80, Tracker Client transmits this to the Tracker Server
   3. Save Prefs button now reminds you to do so
   4. Activate/Deactivate Tracker Client with a Checkbox