GanttProject 2.0, The Second Preview

CRITICAL PROBLEMS DISCOVERED SO FAR

• Import from MSPDI files does not work
• Export to HTML does not work. Workaround is to edit $GP_HOME/plugins/org.ganttproject.impex.htmlpdf/plugin.xml file and append slashes to url attribute values of HTML themes, like this:

           <theme name="Default theme" url="html-export-themes/default/"/>
           <theme name="Striped Blue" url="html-export-themes/striped_blue/"/>

IMPORTANT ABOUT QUALITY

• GP 2.0 is still under development. We find this preview fairly stable and publish it to gain your feedback, but it should not be considered as release or even beta quality.
• We did not profile the code so GP may run slow or eat much memory even on quite small projects.

IMPORTANT ABOUT PACKAGING

• The absolute prerequisite is a correctly installed Java 1.4.x or 1.5.x.
• ZIP distribution includes launchers for Windows (.bat file), Linux (.sh file) and MacOSX (.app file) and is considered as the main distribution.
• We also provide an installer for those 80% of our users who run GP on Windows, we have tested it on few Windows systems (see Installation testing status below) but we do not guarantee that installer will work correctly on your Windows machine even if java is already installed. In case of any troubles, please try ZIP distribution before reporting problems.
• We do not provide installers for Linux and MacOSX in this preview because we don't want to waste the time on making installers for the alpha version. We are going to create .dmg bundle when GP 2.0 will have been released. Linux users are considered to be experienced enough to be happy with ZIP distribution

IMPORTANT ABOUT COMPATIBILITY

• We claim that GP 2.0 is compatible with GP 1.x, which means that GP 2.0 should read project files created in GP 1.x and should recognize all supported options, with few exceptions listed below.
• We don't think that GP 1.x is compatible with GP 2.0.
• The Second Preview may be incompatible with options written by the First Preview but should be compatible with project files produced by the First Preview.

Still supported but requring some handcrafting

• We do support custom stylesheets for HTML and PDF export but you need to edit some files to make them visible for GP. Please refer to custom stylesheets documentation^?.

Changes from the First Preview

Export/Import/Printing

• HTML and PDF exporting have returned renewed. Hopefully, they are more usable now. Instead of confusing "XSL file location" fields in the options dialog, use theme selector in the exporting tool. (How can I add my custom themes to this selector?!^?)
• You may upload to FTP any exported files. The checkbox "Publish files on FTP" is available on the second page of the Export Wizard.
• Long running exporting and FTP publishing operations are controlled by progress monitor.
• Task indentation in the tree view has been repaired.
• MPXJ library has been updated.

Gantt chart

• New option controlling weekend rendering style has been added. You may chose to render task bars over weekend (as in 1.10.x), weekend over task bars or something between these two extreme values. Find this option in the gantt chart option page.
• Dependencies from/to supertasks now work correctly. If you shift a predecessor of a supertask, the supertask is also shifted with all it's subtasks.
• Dependency loops are checked. It includes not only simple loops (task1 is a predecessor of task2 which in turn is a predecessor of task1) but also more complex ones.
• Property "fixed date" of a task start date has been replaced by a property "hardness" of a dependency. Find it in the task properties dialog, on Predecessors page. Projects which use this property will be automatically converted.

Options

• Option affecting gantt and resource charts have been grouped in the dedicated option pages. Now you may change chart colors and details from the single place. Option pages are also available from chart context menus.
• Option "show status bar" has been removed.
• New gantt chart options have become persistent.

Interface

• The problem of switching between tabs when running under Java 1.5 has been fixed
• New splash screen and logo images.
• Toolbar has become less crowded. Actions available from File menu were removed, task indentation, swapping and linking buttons were moved to the local gantt chart toolbar. We expect that buttons controlling project state saving and comparing will be removed as well.
• Our own home-grown date picker component has been replaced with one provided by Java Desktop Network Component project.

Installation testing status

Successfull tests:

• Windows XP Professional SP2 English, Sun Java 1.5.0_04
• Windows XP Professional SP2 French, Sun Java 1.4.2_09
• Windows XP Professional SP2 French, Sun Java 1.5.0_05
• Windows XP Professional SP2 French, Sun Java 1.4.2_08
• Windows Server 2003 English, Sun Java 1.4.2_10
• Windows 98 English, Sun Java 1.5.0_01
• Windows 2000 SP4 French, Sun Java 1.5.0_05
• Windows 2000 Server French, Sun Java 1.5.0_05
• MacOSX 10.4.3 English, Apple Java 1.5.0_05
• MacOSX 10.4.3 English, Apple Java 1.4.2_07
• Debian Sarge Linux, Sun Java 1.5.0_05, KDE 3.3.2
• Debian Sarge Linux, Sun Java 1.4.2_10, KDE 3.3.2
• Debian Sarge Linux, Blackdown Java 1.4.2_02, KDE 3.3.2
• ALT Linux, Sun Java 1.5.0-beta2
• ALT Linux, Sun Java 1.4.2_04

Pending tests:

• Windows XP Pro SP1 French, Sun Java 1.5.0_05
• Windows XP Home SP2 French, Sun Java 1.5.0_05
• Windows XP Home SP2 Russian, Sun Java 1.5
• Windows 2003 Server French, Sun Java 1.5.0_05
• MacOSX 10.3.9 English, Apple Java 1.4.2

New and noteworthy in GanttProject 2.0

• Initial support of import/export of MSProject file using MPXJ library.
• Tree view has been replaced with tree-table view and one may configure it to show task properties.
• Support for custom properties of tasks: add as many properties as you wish, see them in tree-table view.
• Hiding and unhiding tasks.
• Ability to set off days for each resource.
• Undo and redo!
• Calculation of a critical path of a project.
• Customizable rendering of a chart: select what and where to show task properties.
• Gaps between tasks connected with a dependency. You may specify that one task starts 2 days after another task finishes.
• Printing has been improved.
• Project snapshots let you track the dynamics of your project. Save a snapshot of a project, update the project and see the difference between two snapshots.
• New translations in Korean, Bulgarian and Greek.

Thanks to...

• Actimage team (Benoit Baranne, Nicolas Bohn, .... ) for development most of the features in GP 2.0
• Igor Barzilai for the artwork

-- DmitryBarashev - 12 Nov 2005