Owl

One the goals for this next version of Owl was to have better error reporting when things went wrong after submitting a post of a thread. For example, one problem discovered during testing was that if the user created a post whose text length did not meet the minimum text length requirement of the board, the error would get captured and the user’s post would never get posted. Our objective is display these errors to the user in the individual Thread/Post Composition windows such as:

While investigating the work involved with this, it was discovered that the level of effort for this feature is much higher than originally anticipated. There is a significant refactoring effort involved. Hopefully this feature and the associated work will be completed by May.

This feature is being tracked on our bug system here: http://www.owlclient.com/bugs/view.php?id=166

We will keep you up to date!

Progress continues on the next version of Owl.

The spellchecker has been implemented and functions properly. The next version of Owl will only support “American English” and “UK English”.

The remaining issues we want to fix before the next release are:

* Tapatalk parser will timeout
* Multiple forum structure changed notification locks UI
* Submitting Post/Thread should not close the dialog

We hope to release the next version around the end of March.

The next version of Owl is already under development. It will be version 0.7.4. As with all of our pre-1.0 versions, each version will include just one additional major feature.

The feature presented with version 0.7.4 is spell-checking in the Post Text Editor. This is a common feature available in any text editor today and we believe it is an essential feature for an application like Owl.

In addition, some of the bugs we’ve noticed in 0.7.3 will be fixed in 0.7.4. These include:

[ ] Tapatalk parser will timeout
[ ] Large images do not resize
[ ] Submitting Post/Thread should not close the dialog
[ ] UserAgent option in settings should have a dropdown with more options
[ ] Rearranging board order in Preferences/Settings can be slow at times
[ ] Support for HTTP authentication
[ ] Importing board file with bad XML silently fails
[ ] Multiple forum structure changed notification locks UI

We anticipate the new version to be ready by the end of March! Please check this blog periodically for updates! Or follow us on Twitter!

Updates in this version includes:

• BBcode rendering
• HTTPS support
• various ui changes/improvements
• improved stability

The updated version of Owl is available on the Mac App Store.

We have a long overdue update “Pending” in the Mac App Store. This version will include improved BBcode rendering, improved stability and a number of bug fixes. A new version for Windows will follow.

Updates in this version includes:

• improved stability
• improved the pane re-sizing in the UI
• no longer needs to log back in after being idle, if the site’s cookies haven’t expired

The updated version of Owl is available on the Mac App Store.

The updated version of Owl is available on the Mac App Store.

Even though Apple does not allow us to call Owl a Beta, the version of Owl released on the Mac App Store (and currently available for download here on the website) is not a feature-complete version of our 1.0 release. Version 1.0 will have two different versions, a Premium paid version (the price is still undetermined but expect it to be in the $4.99 – $9.99 range) and a Free version with ads and fewer features.

These are some of the features we are working to include in version 1.0:

Features in the Free and Full versions:

• Spell Check – Users will get a visual indication of incorrectly spelled words (red line drawn under the word) and will be given a list of replacement options when right-mouse clicking on the word.
• New Posts – Users will be able to view a list of threads with New Posts in a single list. The current view will still be accessible and will exist alongside a “New Posts” view.
• Private Messages – Reading and Composing PMs will be supported in version 1.0.

Features in Full versions only:

• Save Thread – This will allow users to save a threads to a local HTML, XML or text file with out having to do so manually.
• Drafts – Partially composed messages can be saved in “Drafts” that can later be retrieved and completed. Drafts will save the message board and thread in which the user created the message.
• Moderate Tools (Tapatalk only) – Moderation tools will be available on boards connected to Owl via Tapatalk. This will include: Approve/Reject Posts, Edit Posts, Delete Posts, Move Posts.

The updated version of Owl is available on the Mac App Store.

The current release of Owl requires that users have an existing user at the message boards they are adding to Owl. If you do not have a valid username with a message board then there is currently no way to add it.

Future releases of Owl will support Guest Viewing and New User Registration.