If there is one thing true about software technology it must be that it continues to be ever-evolving.
All versions:
- Breaking-change: As previously discussed, on closing the app, the Sleep (in Windows, Quit) function creates a full, encrypted backup of all data to allow later versions to update the database scheme without data loss. Over time the old backup scheme started failing as needs became more complex; it has now been re-written using different, incompatible methods. So, if any earlier user desires to update to releases from August 2011 on, he should first externally backup all data for later re-importation.
- As discussed in the next section, all versions now have a means to convert some Office-style documents into PDFs.
- Simultaneous BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) emailing of all or selected members of most groups, including members of a project’s group, is now provided. Number of BCCs to include in an otherwise identical series can be specified. Ex: Zoom Invitation sent to 100s individually, by 20s.
- Limited support added for use of a commercial texting service to individually send all members of a group an identical private text. One such service is supported; others perhaps could be added at user request. This provision must NOT be interpreted as a recommendation or advertisement of any texting product, commercial or otherwise.
Windows Desktop: The new WPF (Windows Presentation Framework) version, JwContactsUD (JwcU), is complete except for editing a newer User Guide. Microsoft Store now supports distribution of WPF apps in addition to their original UWP. JwcU passes all Store pre-submission tests and, once the Guide is written, I will seek to have it offered via the MS Store.
- If that occurs, the previous Windows JwContacts offerings will be withdrawn since both offered users difficulties JwcU does not. The existing Jwc UWP version in the Store could not support internal emailing due to a peculiar limitation in Microsoft’s preparation software; the Jwc UWP version on this web site requires users to alter Windows defaults. JwcU does not suffer from either problem.
- Two new office-style features are now on the start-up page: Conversion to (and viewing of existing) and from PDFs for Document, Presentation (“to” only), and Spreadsheet files. ”From” conversion involved a substantial investment; “to” required only using more fully 3rd-party software already included and has been added into the mobile versions as well.
Justification for these additions is to more fully free users from dependence on expensive office software just to make JwC use more convenient. For example, in JwcU I expect in time to include importing Congregation data from other sources that has been furnished in a PDF; converting them to searchable Documents should allow for that.
Converting a PDF representing a Spreadsheet (as in the PDF JwC can send the service overseer of a group’s monthly report) back to a Spreadsheet produces uneven results; some conversions will be easily usable, others not. A very thorough search for 3rd-party software that produced better results showed such exist only at prices well beyond my means as a retired developer of free software.The name, JwContacts Universal Desktop, was chosen due to enthusiasm over its backbone, Microsoft’s new WPF support in this year’s groundbreaking release of .Net Core 3.1, to be followed at the end of the year by .Net 5 and annual successors afterward. The .Net series goal is to offer compatible functionality across many Operating Systems. Now it is apparent such WPF apps will remain limited to Windows for the foreseeable future; however they can be run on some older Windows systems, not just the newest. So “Universal” is not quite Universal, but it does imply a larger range of supported systems.
3. Most Notes are editable as full-fledged .docx Documents with a Word-like Interface. They can be saved / imported from elsewhere in the User’s file system. Similar Spreadsheet functionality also exists.
4. Assignments implements a full-fledged Assignment Calendar for editing, including creating new repeating assignments.
5. The Export function mentioned below for Mobile Versions has presented WPF implementation issues and is not present. At any rate, since File importing / exporting is already provided, it would seem of only slight value on Windows.
Windows UWP: All JwC Windows versions will be withdrawn once JwContactsUD becomes available in the Microsoft Store. Meanwhile the version on this web site will be updated to maintain consistency with the Mobile versions.
Mobile versions: The primary reason no Jwc iOS version has yet been released has been the desire to support iCloud and iCloud Drive, Apple’s remote file system, for backing up data. iOS devices do not have an on-device user-accessible file system similar to those in other Operating Systems. Although apps can store files in highly-restricted local areas, the iOS user is largely required to use iOS’ Files app to directly work with iCloud Drive and local downloads. One workaround is the common Share function in iOS and other systems. JwC for Android and iOS now have Export choices in backing up data. An iOS user can choose to perform an Export and use the Files app to place the result into iCloud Drive. JwC iOS’ Import functions already had a Files choice that allowed re-importing from iCloud, now it has the Export function to help put it there for later use.
Android: Google, as always, keeps advancing Android with new major versions 10 and 11. Perhaps they’ve also stopped giving them cute dessert names, as the only names I’ve seen for these last two are “Q” and “R”. For those Google issued an entire new set of programming libraries named AndroidX.
One of my largest visual control vendors is yet to support AndroidX usage in Android 10 and 11; for now I’ve had to restrict JwContacts Android to device versions 5 (partial) thru 9. There is a known workaround which would have the unfortunate effect of increasing installation download size. I am weighing whether I want to release such a version or just wait for the vendor to catch up.
iOS: I have been using this JwC version on my iPad daily for years and am anxious to release it to you. Every feature in JwC Android and side-loaded UWP is present. What remains lacking is full iCloud Drive support, vital since local storage of files outside JwC itself is difficult in iOS and most users would want to use iCloud instead. (Of course Dropbox, etc., are already supported for backups). As noted in Mobile Versions above, this has been alleviated with new Export (Share) functionality. However the intent remains to provide direct inherent, automatic saving to Cloud Drive. Already many days have been spent in research of what I’ve come to regard as a poorly-documented ability of iOS apps. Nonetheless I will go forward with requesting an App Store release once a similar request has been sent Microsoft for the JwcU release discussed above.
MAC: I have long wanted to furnish a JwC MAC version. In theory this has been possible for years; Xamarin.Forms does include Xamarin.Mac. Unfortunately no provider of the graphical controls that make JwC possible has shown interest in providing Mac versions. Doubtless the market has not been there for them. I would have had to recreate them all from scratch, out of the question!
Please note: There are 3rd-party software that allow Windows programs like JwC to run on a MAC inside a simulated Windows environment. For instance I have just tried installing Parallels Desktop (available only by subscription) on my Mac Mini; it seems to run the latest Windows 10 easily. Earlier I tried Crossover, but it seems to only accept a known set of Windows programs. And Mac does come with a Windows emulator, although I have never tried it.
The arrival of Microsoft’s .Net Core 3.1 sparked my hope that JwContactsUD could become a basis for a MAC version (the technology does allow defining different target OS); it now seems Microsoft has decided against implementing 3.1 in a way that would allow graphical Desktop targets. There is a 3rd-party effort to supply the missing piece, but it seems to be in too early a stage. So I had been looking into actually taking on the difficult project of recreating JwC using entirely MAC tools. That had become less challenging last summer when Apple released a new way of programming, SwiftUI, still evolving. I had begun taking SwiftUI courses in preparation.
In May, though, Microsoft announced a new initiative to finally allow true cross-platform Mobile AND Desktop versions to be prepared using the next evolutions of .Net Core and Xamarin.Forms. In the next year and a half both will be replaced with .Net 6 (which includes all the underlying Xamarin support Microsoft code) and a new graphical programming language, MAUI (Multi-platform Application User Interface), promised to allow a single graphical codebase to work in Android, iOS, Windows, iPadOS, MacOS, etc. MAUI will feature a choice between two ways to write Interface code: just like current Xamarin.Forms or a new unreleased style that looks a lot like SwiftUI.
Encouragingly one of my two major 3rd-party vendors of graphical controls then announced it will fully support both of these upcoming technologies. I can get by with just that vendor if necessary. So, if that promise is kept, late 2021 should finally see arrival of the MAC-compatible controls long awaited.
A year and a half seems a long way off, especially during a pandemic. Meanwhile, if you are a MAC user and would like to try JwC, you might consider doing a free trial install of something like Parallels Desktop just to give JwContactsUD a spin. Should you elect to keep using that setup, hopefully by 2022 there will be a true JwC MAC version.
