For some reason, Beta 3 might have gotten “stuck” on the server. I re-uploaded the file and just downloaded Beta 4 this time – if you downloaded this last night, please check your about box for the Beta 4 version!

Feature updates for this Beta, this time, but there’s been a couple of bug fixes as would be expected for a project that’s still in Beta. New stuff includes a tracing window for debugging purposes, a new way to set some default values for new posts, and a new registry location. More details below; download it here.

Feature updates for this Beta, this time, but there’s been a couple of bug fixes as would be expected for a project that’s still in Beta. New stuff includes a tracing window for debugging purposes, a new way to set some default values for new posts, and a new registry location. More details below; download it here.

Tracing. I was on the fence with this one and quite frankly I’m still undecided about it, so don’t expect to always see this. The reason for it going into Beta 4 is because there are some users that are having issues with some servers. I know I’ve personally yet to experience any issues with the features – I wouldn’t have released the code otherwise – but I need to point out that this is not a product… it’s a project. If it was a product a) I would have a testing team looking at it full time before releases, b) I would have a QA lab with at least six versions of Windows running for testing instead of three machines that all run XP-SP1, and c) I would be charging money for it, which I’m not going to do (or plan to at any rate). So… Given the limited testing that I can do – and the fact that some servers are causing trouble – I wanted to get this tracing thing out there. [Besides, some people have been curious about how XML-RPC looked and worked, so this is a great way to have the examples that I was dying for last week and couldn’t find.] If you need tracing turned on, there’s a new check box on the Options dialog; it opens a non-closeable window the captures the XML being sent upstream and downstream and will only disappear when Tracing is turned off.

Defaults. This is one of Doc‘s requested features. The four “selectable” Advanced settings used to save their last state to the registry when SharpMT closed. This was showing unpredictable results particularly if you saved drafts with different states, which I agree was a problem. There’s a new button on the Options dialog that will allow you to set Default settings for Post Status, Comments, Text Formatting, and Allow Pings. Whatever selections you make here, as a default, will automatically be set when you start a new draft; saved drafts will still save their individual settings and are not changed by this new setting.

What else is going on? Some people are reporting issues with the registry. I’m aware of it but I don’t know what I can do for it, until I can duplicate it here, so I ask for your understanding and help in trying to troubleshoot it – just email me your information about your server type, MT version, PC OS and Framework version. Also, if you had installed Beta 1, 2 or 3, you will lose your old settings because the storage location has changed – this is normal!

There’s also something going on with posting new entries to some MT servers. I don’t know if it’s a MT thing (i.e. less than 2.63) or a web server thing (I’ve gotten the complaint from Apache users) or a SharpMT thing (it is my application that

‘s yonking, but I don’t know that it’s my fault, yet). I have a theory, however. For posts I’ve been leaving out the “Creation Date” because I’d rather have the server decide the time/date of the posting, just as it would if I did it via the web. This is OK on my IIS/MT 2.63 server, but it might not be OK for others. I’m still gnawing on this.

What’s coming? The FurryGoat is working with me on the possibility for some new UI bang. Spell Checking can be turned on with four mouse clicks, but it needs cash that I can’t spare right now. I’ve also gotten a request for other Blog engines – that’s something I never thought of doing before, but it’s something that has piqued my interest.

And of course, more bug fixes as the days go by!

Download Beta 4 here!