We have concentrated again of resolving usability issues. We have simplified the post-installation wizard, and repaired bugs within the Note Editing and Tags Entry tools. We have also resolved more minor issues surrounding "Clickability".
This release includes some noticable improvements and bug fixes to the User Interface. In particular we've resolved a number of drawing problems, and we have also repaired a number of bugs that affected reliability.
As an aside, we have improved the Network Menus Toolkit slightly, allowing for bug reporting to work once again.
We have now devised a number of solutions to the problem of Network Menus™ consuming larger amounts of memory. By implementing loading in a lazy manner, approximately 50% of the memory used previously by Network Menus™ is now avoided, thus improving performance.
Network Menus' interface has also been further streamlined so that many more of the dialogues feature the contemporary house style. This should assist in improving user familiarity with the software.
This release delivers some important technological changes, including changes to the manner in which Internet connexions are established to workaround problems with firewalls.
As part of a reliability initiative, we have resolved a number of more serious scenarioes in which Network Menus™ would fail. We have altered the manner in which a number of user interface elements function to improve stability.
We have made further significant changes to the User Interface. We have moved the buttons from the bottom of each menu to the top to improve visibility. These now behave in a similar manner to the ribbons within Office 2007. They reduce the number of dialogues that appear, making the software significantly easier to use.
This release also includes the usual array of stability improvements.
Further improvements to the speed and memory usage have been implemented for this release. In addition we have fixed a number of bugs, in particular we have resolved drag and drop, and desynchronisation issues.
We have improved a number of speed and memory issues for this release. Following release version 0.76 which included multi-line tool tips, we have streamlined the code, improving performance to make the interface more slick. We strongly recommend users upgrade to this release.
We have now repaired a significant number of problems within Network Menus™. We have streamlined the user interface, including numerous minor fixes in addition to the overhaul of the Save/Edit Menus boxes.
More significantly, we have introduced Search and tag search features, which will be fleshed out further in future releases. Currently these only work on "My Menus" - we will be moving this technology onto our servers for future releases.
This release introduces in-menu sorting. It allows you to sort each menu alphabetically, a useful feature for users with huge menus.
We have also altered the semantics of the "Pin Open" operation. Firstly there is now a pretty picture shewing you what's happening, and secondly now when you click in the same menu again, the lock is released.
This release includes a small number of minor bug fixes and improvements.
Improved the post-installation wizard.
We have now added initial support for tagging into this release. This allows you to add "Tags" to individual menus to help you find them again later. We're working on the retrieval perspective, but by adding tags in this initial release, you can build up your collection of tagged menus in eager readiness for search functionality which we're currently building.
There's now a simpler way to add menus too. Simply clicking "Add Page" opens up a dialogue facilitating the quick and easy addition of notes and tags to the menu.
We also repaired a severe crash on no Internet connexion. This should now solve a lot of head aches; sorry about that.
These intermediate releases include important stability fixes, in addition to improvements with usability. We have removed several bugs, added a number of safety checks, and improved the "clickiness" of certain buttons.
In addition to the above, we have added multi-line tooltips to menus to make longer tips easier to read.
We have concentrated on improving stability in this release. We discovered that other toolbars were causing havoc for Network Menus™ as they adopt unscrupulous techniques to gain prime position. Network Menus™, being a more conservative well-behaved toolbar, does not adopt such techniques, but was unfortunately crashing out. We have now fixed these bugs, and you should find that Network Menus™ is much more reliable.
We have also returned Network Browser to this release. This is a tool we use in development for testing purposes, however if you experience problems using Network Menus™ please try Network Browser to see if it works there. Any information you provide through Bug Reports would be really useful, and will help us to continue to improve Network Menus™.
Finally, we have fixed a couple of glitches in the User Interface, which should make your lives much better!
This release primarily contains minor bug fixes and improvements targeted at tracking down some more serious problems in certain environments. We have yet to get to the bottom of the problems, but we hope to improve in them for the next version. Please do send copious bug reports to us in order that we can resolve these problems to make Network Menus™ better for others to enjoy!
This release has a significantly improved installer that detects previous versions and upgrades automatically. This should also resolve many installation issues with previous releases.
In addition, we have fixed a small number of minor bugs. Please note that the bug reporting tool doesn't work in this release, but will be repaired for the next version.
Following success with architectural improvements in recent releases, we have transformed the User Interface into a somewhat more slick design.
Our users commented that whilst Network Menus™ was an excellent product, there were some issues within the User Interface that were a cause for concern, and we have addressed a number of these. Firstly, we have reduced the height of the toolbar by moving everything onto one row. Secondly, we placed all of "My Menus" into a single master menu, and added an additional "Add Page" button to make bookmarking much simpler. Finally, we have moved Groups to a more obvious location (with further work pending in this area).
Overall Network Menus™ is now a new beast - please give it a good testing on our behalf, and please do tell us what you think - good and bad - about Network Menus™.
This release involves further architectural improvements to increase Network Menus' performance. Further, we have reduced the number of components employed by Network Menus™, which has further reduced the download size.
In order to allow for major improvements to Network Menus™ in the future, the architecture of this release is significantly different from previous versions. These changes should have minor impact on the tool itself, however certain operations should now execute much more quickly, particularly when it comes to refreshing menus.
We have cleaned up a couple of minor problems with the interface. This release also contains a little test code in preparation for a large under-the-hood change.
We have looked at improving reliability for this release, and also resolving a number of technical problems. This build addresses problems with focus changes, and fixes more significant problems with the search box.
For this release, we have made some minor changes to the user interface to make things more slick.
This release features major improvements to the Post-installation wizard, with the ability to join up from within the wizard. In addition, there is the ability to request a password reminder.
Further, the toolbar has had some more significant user interface tweaks, with the "Look Up" and "News" buttons being moved down into the "Network Menu™", which has been confusingly renamed as "Network Menus™". We are now looking to improve the interface somewhat, and any feedback as to the nature of the interface would be most appreciated.
We have made significant improvements to the User Interface within this release. Aside some minor improvements to the scrolling of buttons, we have re-organised the Common Menus area. Now our core feature of menus related to the current page are delivered into a single menu called "Related Menus"; similarly other search results are each stored in their own separate menus. We appreciate that at first this may seem a little confusing, however it has been designed to reduce clutter - especially when one considers smaller resolution displays.
In addition, we have made further improvements to stability and security, and in particular Network Menusâ„¢' handling of broken Internet connexions has been improved to degrade more gracefully. We hope that this can help users with more difficult problems.
This release includes a roll-up of minor improvements, and represents a concerted effort to deliver a stable release intended for wider-than-usual release. Some more serious bugs have been fixed within this release, and users of previous versions are strongly recommended to upgrade.
This quick-fire release builds on the improved stability and security of previous versions. We have repaired some minor problems surrounding authentication, including automated session re-authentication. We have also resolved an issue surrounding the imporing of Favourites from Internet Explorer®.
We feel that this release works significantly better than previous ones, and urge users to upgrade if possible. Users still using legacy versions of Network Menus (Versions earlier than 0.60.0780) need to upgrade as a matter of priority as this version of Network Menus will expire on 4th September.
We have now added additional corporate-ready features including improved handling of corporate branding, and the ability to add users to sub-groups.
In order to improve stability and security, we have added some experimental features surrounding authentication to remove problems with session tracking. Please report any problems you experience with this new functionality.
This release adds some significant improvements to menu layout and design. Menus now behave in a much improved manner.
Also, within a corporate intranet, you can specify a default look-up, which will automatically look up your default group. This means that whenever you open up a new window, your corporate links will always be there. You can also make this a collaborative group, so several people can add easy-access look-up menus.
Finally, we have implemented session keep-alive, so if you don't use the computer for more than 60 minutes, the session will now not time out. This will reduce effort in some rare cases (such as going to lunch).
We have made numerous minor usability improvements to increase the effectiveness of our software. There is still a lot of work to be completed, and this will be added to coming releases.
This release is the first to adopt the new Network Menus Security model. This has been designed to prevent unauthorised access to the system. Previous versions of Network Menus will cease to function as of the 1st September 2006.
This most recent release builds on the stability and reliability of previous releases with addition bug fixes which should improve certain situations.
We have added some major improvements to the installer to improve reliability. Now, when upgrading Network Menus, the installer can detect any open copies of Internet Explorer, and close them automatically. Further, it can detect instances where Internet Explorer has failed (crashed) which has left zombie Network Menus processes running. Either of these scenarioes can cause problems with the installation process as the installer could be unable to update files as they may be considered to be "in use" by Windows®.
There are also a number of feature improvements. We have cleaned up the in-menu menu for "My Menus", and we have added a bibliography feature. This compiles a document from the menu, allowing you to attach all the links to a document on which you are working, and wish to include your on-line research.
Finally we have added a number of bug fixes to improve the quality and feel of the product.
This release includes some significant under-the-hood changes that significantly improve the User Interface. The toolbar should now have a much better look and feel, with Windows XP-styled controls (for users thereof) and improved responsiveness.
There have also been a number of bug fixes, and there is now the option of selecting which organisation one invites a user to join.
The horizontal scrollers now function much better than before. Their Drag 'n' Drop capability is vastly improved, and clicking on each has the effect of scrolling one menu at a time.
In addition, there are now scrollers on the "Common Menus" bar.
This release adds a number of user interface improvements, notably when the "My Menus" bar overspills, there are now scrollers to handle this. Further, the scroll wheel on the mouse works within menus.
Some more minor changes have been built into this release, generally cleaning up the interface. The Network Assistant has been substantially improved with the addition of sections; the assistant's content will be improved in the coming weeks.
A number of minor bug fixes are included, such as the ability to drop an object at the bottom of a menu when hovering over the buttons, and the initialisation of the groups list within the post-installation wizard.
A more serious bug has been fixed, whereby several error messages may be displayed when the toolbar is first installed. Our experience has revealed that on slower computers, or where there are a large number of programmes running, the Core of Network Menus isn't registered in time for when it is required. As a result, it had a tendency to crash - now these exceptions are caught and dealt with in the appropriate manner. The software may take slightly longer to start up, but once it does it will now succeed whereas previously the user would need to restart the browser.
From this release onwards, compatability is tested with Internet Explorer 7. Whilst full functionality isn't guaranteed, we endeavour to ensure that in general the toolbar works well without causing too many problems. Please see this page for more information regarding issues with Internet Explorer 7.
A new feature has been added which allows you to suggest a web site to be added to another user's menu. Simply click the new "Suggest Page" button at the bottom of a dynamic menu to suggest a page to be added to that menu. That page can either be the current page, or one that has been recently visited from within the current window (or tab).
With this release the new user interface design has been thoroughly applied to more objects to deliver a consistent style. Several new shortcuts have been added, including the buttons on the bottom of common menus, and the recent searches menu. The release also brings vastly improved stability, in addition the installer has been simplified.
This release picks up on a number of issues introduced in the previous release. It is now much more stable; please report any errors you receive hereinafter in the usual manner - we are aware of a number of irritating little bugs that are hard to track down and really value your feedback.
We have finally resolved a number of large issues within this release. Notably we have resolved the problem where Internet Explorer crashes when closed.
Further, the User Interface has been refreshed, with design expert Tom Owen of Photografic providing our new imagery.
We appreciate that whilst we have resolved larger issues this release may introduce new instabilities - please report all faults using the Bug Tracking tool as usual. Thank you.
This release restores the Import from Favourites wizard, which was unavailable in the previous release.
Further, the code has been completely refactored in readiness for a large change to prevent Internet Explorer from crashing.
This release adds further durability features in order to prevent users from unwittingly attempting to perform multiple contradictory operations that could cause the server and client copies of the menus to lose synchronisation.
There are also some minor bug fixes and a number of drawing issues have been resolved. These include making parts of the display "flicker" less often.
Resolved a few minor tuits including feedback after a user has been created, improved icons and the password is now requested when creating a second user.
We have now introduced administration tools, which may have one or two minor bugs initially. Please do test these tools and report any issues with them to us.
Further, we have now added a feedback notification area, and dialogue boxes will not be displayed for username/password if there is a network connexion problem. We hope this reduces your annoyance somewhat.
Finally some irritating bugs have been fixed, so the application shouldn't bomb out in esoteric conditions.
This release includes some massive improvements in terms of functionality.
The Network Menus search engine is now integrated into the new find facility, so results are delivered as standard Network Menus, which means you can search Network Menus in place without the need to navigate away to another page. In addition, we have turned the major search engines (e.g. Yahoo!) into "Magic URLs". When you search one of these sites, Network Menus is additionally searched in the background, thus you are delivered with both sets of search results simultaneously. (Spec 5.6, 5.8)
When one imports favourites from Internet Explorer, they are automatically sorted into separate menus, and separately copied to the server hence improving performance and reliability. In addition they are added to your default group now instead of "Private". (Spec 5.1, 5.7)
As you walk through Network Menus search, individual menus from the previous level are maintaned to assist in working backwards. (Spec 5.5)
(Impl. Spec 5)
Some fixes have been included surrounding the new "Find" facility.
This release includes some more significant alterations to the User Interface, as well as some deeper bug fixes. The software is now more reliable, and includes alterations to reduce the chance of loss of synchronisation occurring.
Following last week's developments, we spent this week rounding off the new features in order that they work in all parts of the toolbar.
Find has been added to this latest release. Find icons now appear next to each group in "My Groups" allowing you to search for another person's menus within each group.
Further, group knowledge experts can now attach menus of their own to be fixed to the group; these appear when you perform the find operation for that group.
Work has begun to clean up much of the code to increase performance. This has revealed a number of minor issues which have been repaired in this release.
Some bug fixes have gone into this release, such as the appearance of duplicate menus, the "Change Group" option now works with sub-menu elements, and a small bug fix in the File Upload area.
We have been begun developing our back-end administration tools in order to allow users not familiar with our database format to make changes easily. Part of this tooling has been implemented and embedded with the User Interface for Network Menus, and this will become more extensive in future versions.
Some curious bugs have arisen during user testing and been repaired in this release. An encoding issue in the cache led users with usernames beginning with a lower-case c, n or q to lose all their pagemarks from the cache, and required regular synchronisation with the server.
We have also tested our software with more Operating Systems, and discovered that Network Menus works perfectly well in Windows 2000 and XP. We have resolved issues to make the software work better with Windows 98, although this work is in progress. It is thought that one concern may be that Network Menus requires Internet Explorer 5.x and later, and so will not work with a standard Windows 98 installation which includes Internet Exlplorer 4.x. We will be testing Network Menus with a patched version of Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition in due course.
The installer now contains further options allowing the selection of either a "Default" or "Full" installation. The former does not include the Network Browser, but only the Internet Explorer toolbar.
We have added a Post-installation wizard in order to help you get into Network Menus more easily. The wizard logs you in automatically, and imports your "Favourites" from Internet Explorer™.
To make things better, we have added a "Help" menu to the toolbar so help is more easily to hand.
We have also resolved a number of issues with the software, and improved the Menus Explorer slightly.
Much of the development effort is now focused on rounding off the edges to the application. There have been subtle changes to the way the local cache format is structure.
Offline mode now allows you to log back on as a different user with no problems.
This release includes further stability improvements and minor user interface tweaks.
The Menu Explorer has been redesigned slightly to improve ease-of-use. Nodes are now updated when changes are applied to eliminate confusion.
When synchronising, there were times when the interface would inadvertantly come back to life, causing problems. This has now been improved.
It is now possible to change the group of top-level menu items via a right-click menu.
Following changes to our web service to work better across server farms, this release contains new data to allow it to connect to our new web service; no previous release will work.
The search box now has selectable search engines.
Our first Beta release includes minor bug fixes contained within our final Alpha.
In addition, a number of small User Interface features have been included in order to improve ease-of-use. Of particular note are the increased number of right-click menus, and a Groups' selection box at the top of the Menu Explorer.
This build primarily contains late-breaking changes prior to our first Beta release scheduled for Friday 5th August. It builds on the stability of the previous build, and introduces a number of minor features, in addition to eliminating a number of outstanding issues, to help gel the interface together.
The Server Synchronisation code has received Groups' support which eliminates many of the problems and confusion surrounding the use of the method.
We have re-introduced "Advanced Mode" for Groups in order to alleviate confusion between the "My Groups" and "Common Groups" menus, since they are subtly different concepts. "My Groups" refers to the Groups one can edit on the top bar; this is the most common use of groups. "Common Groups" can be used to restrict which groups menus are returned from into the Common Menus' bar.
New menus are now created on the left-hand side of the toolbar (the "top-most" position) in order that they are immediately visible. They can still be dragged where one desires at a later time.
We have toiled to vastly imrpove the User Interface for this release. We have changed icons and altered the location of several buttons to make things easier to use.
It is now possible to log in and out from the server; whilst you are not logged onto the server you can still access your own pagemarks, but you are unable to make any changes to them.
The Groups' menu, which caused confusion before, has now been seperated into two. The "My Groups" menu refers to the groups displayed in the top bar; the groups you can edit. Meanwhile the "Common Groups" menu refers to the groups from which common menus are returned. For the most part, you'll not need the latter of these, other than to verify that all such gorups have been selected.
We've integrated our new search facility right into the Network Menus toolbar. Simply type a search term, and press enter to search the Network Menus database for related links. If that's not enough, you can even click to search other search engines for the same query from that page.
We've altered the way in which the old "Frequented" and "Most Recent" menus are displayed. These have been simplyfied into one menu entitled "Network Menus". This contains both, with separators and titles to label each.
This release also contains support for future features, including News items, which we will be adding to our server technology in due course. This will remove the need to upgrade later to add support for such things.
This release adds File Upload support. It allows users to copy a file from their computer to the Network Menus server, and add it to the menu. All the user needs to do is drag a file from anywhere within Windows® to a Network Menu in a similar manner to links, and the system will, following confirmation, upload the file and add a link to it into the menu.
For security reasons, the file is renamed into a long hexadecimal string on the server. Further, most users are only able to upload certain types of documents (see Permitted Document Types) or sometimes not at all.
Our main aim with this release has been the implementation of Groups. Groups implement Network Menus' mandatory security model, and can be used to limit access to Menus within the system to certain individuals. From now on, every individual menu element (such as a pagemark or sub-menu within a menu) can be added to one of several Groups; different people have different access rights to different Groups.
The main changes you will notice throughout the interface are several references to Groups. The Groups menu allows you to select which of your Groups are on display. Using advanced selection mode, it is possible to display any possible combination of these Groups, limited to between 666 and 2000 for your Common Menus' selection.
When creating a menu, one has the option to add it into any of the Groups to which you have write access. Most users have write access to the Public and Private Groups. All your existing menus exist within the Public Group. Menus created within the Private Group will not be returned into anyone's Common Menus, so you can use this as a convenient store for regularly-accessed links, which have no particular correlation.
Use the Menu Explorer to move existing menus into a different Group. If you choose the menu at the top, all sub-menus will be moved too.
Further, we have added the toolbar library to Internet Explorer. It is now possible to add Network Menus as a toolbar
in Internet Explorer by selecting "Network Menus" from View -> Toolbars.
[Note: this has been tested in Internet Explorer 6 only; please report any problems you experience in earlier versions.]
Other features include user detail support: you can now enter your personal information into the database.
There has also been further work rectifying issues and improving stability.
