Strengthening Bookvar

We are proud to introduce you to the new version of Bookvar. The quality is still alpheta (beyond alpha, but not still beta), but we tried very hard to introduce some features that will greatly improve the way you interact with the application. We have received great feedback about Bookvar with suggestions for improvements as well as comments that pointed out the pain zones with the current version. Most problems came out from that Bookvar was not stable enough and the users were constantly pressing the save button. Let me show you what we have done:

New features

Here are the new features that we introduced in this release:

• Undo/Redo - previously it was impossible to undo your actions. With this release we introduce this functionality, so it will be easier for you to manage your mind maps and undo or redo your changes. The standard keyboard commands (Undo-Ctrl+Z and Redo-Ctrl+Y) can be used as well.
• Auto Update - from now on Bookvar will ping our servers for a new version whenever you start it (this is configurable from the options window). If a new version is available you will be available to download and install it immediately. This will allow you to stay in touch with the updates that we are going to push these months.
• Auto Save and Crash Recovery - by popular demand we are introducing this feature. It will allow you to set interval at which your open mind maps will be saved to a temporary file. If the system crashes on next start a window with all recovered maps will be presented to you. You will have a different options how to act upon the maps, but the most important is that your time is not lost and your work is destroyed.
• Some smaller improvements include:
  • Curved lines for connection between topics.
  • Standard save as functionality
  • Full screen mode for video player when you add a movie to a topic.
  • Other minor cosmetic changes.

Bug fixes

We have fixed a bunch of bugs in these release (as well as introduced a dozen new ones :) )

• Map Layout Persistence - there were some nasty problems when you try to rearrange the map and then save it. We have tried hard to fix this and believe that the current release is much more better in this direction. There are still some problems to nail down, but we will address them in the future releases.
• Topic Buttons Not Visible - when you hide and then show (using the +/- button) some topic that have notes, attachments or link the button which are displayed around the topic were not visible any more. This is now fixed.
• Long Content in Notes - If you put long text in the notes the buttons for save and cancel were not visible. It is OK now.
• Some other ones we have encountered while we were using Bookvar

You can find the new version on its usual place here. From now on it will automatically inform you about the new updates, so this will be the last release that you have to download manually.

Have fun and Feel Free To Mind.

Bookvar on final .NET 3.5 Framework

Great news: We have released a new version of Bookvar - alpheta 2. (alpheta = post alpha before beta version, in maths' terms alpha < alpheta < beta). Here are the improvements:

Final .NET 3.5 integration

This version is built against the final version of the .NET 3.5 framework, no more betas. If you have already installed Bookvar it's preferred first to uninstall it, then to uninstall .NET 3.5 beta 2. After that just run the new setup file. It will install the new framework first, unless you already have it installed.

Multilingual support

We have added localization infrastructure that will allow Bookvar to have multilingual support. Currently we have two languages - English and Bulgarian. They can be toggled from the options window. If you're interested in localizing Bookvar into your language drop us a line from the contact form.

Media (image, movies, attachments) improvements

There are two main improvements in the media aspect of Bookvar:

• Inserting Image/File to selected topic. Currently if you want to add an image to a particular topic you should click the image button in the ribbon. For example adding a web (live) image to selected topic was impossible, because a new child topic was created with the image. This is now changed and the default behavior is the image to be added to the topic on which you drop it. This also applies for images/files that you drag from the file system directly on the mind map. If you however want to create a subtopic you should press the Ctrl key before dropping the item .
• Resizing of images or videos is persisted. In the previous version it was very annoying that the resizing of image (or video) added to a topic was not persisted in the file. This lead to a lot of manual work if you want the added image to be smaller for example. All this is now working as expected and the dimensions are stored in the .bmm file.

Other improvements and bug fixes

There are a lot of little improvements and fixes. Here is a list of some of them:

• Vista dialog boxes added. The new vista based dialog boxes are added when it is required to browse the files system. What is cool about them is that they have the search box in the top right corner.
• Presentation Exit button. Till now the only way to exit from presentation mode was to press Backspace. We have so used to this that did not noticed that there are no button for the operation. A couple of user's send us feedback about it and now we have a exit button in presentation mode.
• Multiple subtopics copy problem. When you try to copy a topic with multiple subtopics an error occurred, that is now fixed. By the way the only way to copy topics now is to start drag an existing topic in the same time if you hold down the Ctrl key the topics will not be moved, but copied.
• Recent files locked problem. If you try to open two Bookvar instances at same time, sometimes you get an error because the file where store your recent files get's locked. This is fixed now.
• Some inconsistencies in windows' icons and labels.

That's all for this month's release. Go download Bookvar and have fun with it. And don't remember to send us your feedback.

P.S.: We have over 1300 downloads just for one month in the wild. Thanks to all guys that have installed and tried Bookvar. We have some great feedback from people all over the world. This will keep us motivated to continue to innovate in the mind mapping space. So stay tuned, because great things are about to happen.

Bookvar shortcuts

There have been a lot of questions about Bookvar shortcuts and documentation. We are planning to setup wiki for documentation. But now I will give you shortcuts we have so far.

General

Ctrl+N	Create new mindmap
Ctrl+O	Open existing mindmap
Ctrl+S	Save mindmap
Ctrl+Tab	Switch between mindmaps
Alt+N	Show notes

Mind Map

Enter	Add new topic
Insert	Add new subtopic
Delete	Delete topic
F3	Focus selected topic and move it to the center of the screen

Presentation - works with presenter devices

PageUp	Move to previous topic
Next	Move to next topic
Backsapce	Exit from presentation mode

Bookvar available for free download

Today is a big day for us - guys behind Bookvar. We have released our first publicly available for download version of Bookvar. It is available from it's web site - http://bookvar.net. Note that this version is an alpha quality and requires .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2.

Bookvar site

As you can see the design of this blog has changed (if you are reading this from feed reader please visit the original url :) to match the design of Bookvar's site. Still the site is not full of information, but this will be fixed in the upcoming months. However we have created some eye candy stuff - Silverlight based features viewer on the home page and also a Silverlight based mind map viewer - check the site map page. You can also participate in Bookvar forums. There you can tell us your opinion about Bookvar and what features you want to see in the future. We are eager to hear from you and shape Bookvar as the next generation tool for mind mapping.

1st of November

You maybe thinking that we've picked up 1st of November as release day for some reason and yes you think right :) First of November is a national holiday here in Bulgaria - Day of the leaders of the Bulgarian National Revival. Educational institutions celebrate this holiday and this is why we pick up this day. Because we believe that Bookvar can improve the way we currently do education in school and university. We are currently in the process of integrating Bookvar into Bulgarian education - both in university and school. Stay tuned for more information about this.

What's next

We highly encourage you to download Bookvar right away. Play with it and send us your feedback and issues. Because this release is an alpha it is highly possible bug submission window to show from time to time :) Don't be afraid to send us these defects. We will hunt them down and fix them.

We plan to release a new version of Bookvar at least once per month. In the next couple of months we will focus on stabilizing what we currently have, but also has the plans for a couple of must have features. We are also listing to your feedback and suggestions.

If you have created interesting mind maps please shared them with us.

Happy mind mapping to all.

P.S.: You can also check the Facebook group about Bookvar.

Bookvar at DevReach, .NET Rocks! and Tim Huckaby Wowed

Today we (Bookvar Team - including Dido, Jordan and me, Ivo was unable to come) attended DevReach.

DevReach

DevReach is an annual conference about Microsoft technologies. Actually it is the biggest event of this kind on Balkans and the region. It attracts one of the most impressive speakers in the .NET community. Just look at the list of sessions and figure it out for yourself. This year's keynote was presented by Tim Huckaby. This guy is doing phenomenal things with his company Interknowlogy. Tim presented for the first time their heart surgery app, as well as their other brilliant WPF based applications. You can check them here. After the keynote Tim gave a session about the way they built their cool apps. When the session ended the Bookvar's moment came. We (Deyan and I) sneak next to Tim and showed him Bookvar. He was showing his great application for about 2 hours and now he was the spectator of WPF goodness. I can explain his reaction with only one word. He was wowed. He immediately wanted to show off the application to other speakers as well and propose to demo the app at WPF panel at the end of the day. And guess what the WPF panel was actually a .NET Rocks! show.

.NET Rocks!

For those of you who did not know what is .NET Rocks! is
an audio podcast about .NET technologies. It is hosted by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell and is absolute must listen for every .NET developer. So before the actual recording I was able to demonstrate Bookvar in front of about 50 developers & speakers. Perfect audience to show all the cool stuff that we have built. Unfortunately this cannot be recorded on podcast, but here is a picture of the .NET Rocks mind map I have done for the event.

So man when we can actually download Bookvar and explore it?

We are officially announcing that Bookvar will be available for free download on 1st of November here. The version that we will release can be called post Alfa and pre Beta, but we will call it beta 1. It will allow you to start creating mind maps right away and what is most important submit bugs and request so we will be able to improve it on the next release.

So until then keep listing to the great .NET Rocks! podcasts and have fun.

Bookvar meets Facebook. Introducing FaceBookvar ;)

What I really like about our mind mapping tool Bookvar is its high extensibility model. You can not only create your own custom skin, but you can develop custom functionality using our add-in model.

Bookvar add-ins

Bookvar's add-ins model is build on newly created (and not yet released) .NET Framework 3.5 Add-in model. You can read more about it on the MSDN Magazine (1, 2) or on the add-ins team blog. Basically the idea is that the whole add-in lifecycle is managed by the framework and only you have to provide is hook where add-in developers can put their custom, domain specific logic. In our case this is done by deriving from our base view classes (more on add-ins views and adapters here) and marking the class with the AddIn attribute.

 [AddIn("Bookvar Facebook AddIn", Version = "1.0.0.0")]

 public class FacebookAddin : EditableBookvarAddinView

 {

   public override Topic Execute(Topic topic)

   {

Building sample add-in - The Idea

Recently I'm spending more and more time on Facebook. You may be familiar that Facebook is not only a social networking site, but it is also a platform. So what that this means? It means that your whole social network that you have build in Facebook can be access programmatically. Did you figure out my idea yet? Yes that's right. I have decided to create an add-in that will visualize your friends in the form of mind map with you at the center.

Time estimate

My initial estimate for the add-in was 2 hours and I hope will finish within maximum of 3 hours. As it always happens in software industry I finished it within 6 hours ;) But if it straight forward what why it took me so long to do this? Let me explain you.

Facebook.NET

I have previously research about .NET libraries build for Facebook and have found these two - Facebook Developer's Toolkit and Facebook.NET both open source and hosted on CodePlex. The first one is build by Clarity Consulting for the Microsoft Visual Studio Express Team. The second is build by Nikhil Kothari. Knowing that Nikhil is an architect at ASP.NET team I was pretty sure that I will use his stuff. I did look at both libraries source codes and after reading this one I was convinced I will use Facebook.NET (more info about it here).

Sometimes shit happens, sometimes more frequently

So far so good. But then the problems occurred. As one of my colleagues used to say: Sometimes shit happens, sometimes more frequently. First the Facebook.NET library comes with a windows forms control that you can use in your project to log into Facebook (Facebook did not have an authentication API). This is good, but Bookvar is build on WPF and it is not trivial to integrate windows form control in WPF app that is using the new add-in model. So what I first did is extending Nikhil's code with a WPF control that has the same functionality. It worked (Nikhil I can send you the sources), but I decide to try using his windows forms control. I first try to use WindowsFormsHost, but then figure it out it want to the job, because I needed to host user control. Googling around I find this solution that did the job the way I needed. Another problem came out when I tried to play smart and reuse the application ID and secret key of Facebook Developer's toolkit library for interfacing with Facebook. These keys are given to you when you register your application at Facebook. Apparently I receive some problems with logging into the system using Nikhil's control. After some debugging the problem was found and I registered Bookvar as an application in Facebook. Conclusion: Don't try to play smart when you are interacting with third parties. Play by their rules and execute each step in their guides.

Result - demo of the add-in

You can see the final result in this short screencast:

Next steps: source code and custom add-in development

Are you interested in the source code? It will be publicly available when we launch our site and the first public release of Bookvar. If you are eager to look at it you can drop me an email or face

book me :)

Are you interested in creating your own custom add-ins? If you want to try the new .NET add-in model and build the best of breed Bookvar add-ins again you have to wait for our site to become live, where we will have a whole section for dedicated to developers.

While you are waiting for the public beta release of Bookvar my suggestion is to have fun in Facebook and expand your network.

Conclusion - better together

Facebook is a great platform that offers new kind of applications and distribution channel. Stay tuned to see what ideas we have in this space.

Bookvar is a interactive tool that allow you to express your thoughts and data in a way you have never used before.

Channel 9 interview and how much is 2+2*2 ?

At the show case day of the Imagine Cup finals we were able to drag Charles from Channel 9 and present Bookvar in front of his camera. The interview went great and Charles was astonished by the features of the Bookvar - wpf, animations, live search, test creation, collaboration, DLR console, ...

Take a look at the interview:

You can download the video from Channel 8 page here.

P.S. Apparently Charles remembers basic arithmetic rules and gives the right answer to the question in the title of the post? Can you answer without watching the video or asking Google :)

Bookvar presentation at ImagineCup

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3