I am happy to announce that PainlessSVN 1.0.1 is now ready for general consumption. Here is a list of what is in this update:

NEW

• Payment is now done by FastSpring
• Global configuration file support
• The new information panel for the Subversion server
• Realms - View Only

FIX

• Bugfixes for a few UI issues
• Fixed licensing to support new scheme

Please uninstall version 1.0.0 before installing this update.

I have reset the 30 day trial, so everybody that had 1.0.0 can test this for another 30 days.

I'm holding a sale until January 31, 2009. PainlessSVN will be 50% off until then. That means that you can get buy it for $24.97. International customers should now be able to use their own currency.

There's a small issue on Vista 64, where the installation will not use the C:\Program Files (x86)\SystemWidgets folder. It will install on C:\Program Files. I tested this on Windows Vista Ultimate 64, and on Windows 2008 Server 64 and it is working fine. Apparently, Vista is doing some dodgy stuff. This is non-standard behavior, and Microsoft is aware of it.

I decided to release an interim version before 1.1 so that I can push something out to the community. I'm going to release version 1.0.1, hopefully no later than Monday the 5th of January. This will include the following:

• New licensing
• Global configuration file support
• Bugfixes for a few UI issues
• The new information panel for the Subversion server
• Realms - View Only

I'm going to be conducting a sale for the whole month of January. You won't need a coupon for this sale. I'm going to be cutting the price to $24.97, which is 50% off. This sale will last until January 31, 2009. Then the price will revert back to $49.95

One thing that I'm very excited about is that customers will be able to pay using their own currency. Look for this graphic on the top right of the store/purchase pages:

Click on the down arrow image to see the available currencies:

I have been working with Ken White over at FastSpring to setup a payment gateway and online store. I'm happy to say that this is finally done. I just finished the last bit on their side and hooked it up with my site today.

I'm hoping to have the part on my website done by Monday. The store link is already wired up, but I will not show it to the public until I get PainlessSVN working with the new license settings. The only thing left on my site is to wire up the buy buttons to the new URLs.

My current eCommerce system has been a total failure. I've been watching it with Clicky, and noticed that a lot of people were trying to buy, but couldn't. This is no good, so I decided to take it down today.

This was basically a half-assed system. I took a DNN module and integrated the licensing system with custom code. The main issues that I had were that I could not change the fields that were requested to something more reasonable. Also a lot of people were confused by its navigation. I'm yanking it today, rather than allow it to create even more frustration for me and potential customer.

I'm going to try my hand with FastSpring. Hopefully, this will allow me to outsource this part of my business. This will allow me to concentrate on making my products better, and not having to fiddle with stuff that I'm not familiar with. One feature that I'm looking forward to, is the ability to allow potential customers to pay in their own currency.

I'm going to be resetting the 30 day trial for PainlessSVN 1.1, so everybody will get another 30 days to play with it.

Frustrating, but good learning experience.

I had an interesting day yesterday. I had a bad migraine that lasted until around 7 PM, and that was after taking 6 Excedrin Migraine during the day. I was wide awake by the time the pills took effect, so I just went and worked on furthering PainlessSVN along.

I got the realms working at the level I want at this stage. This version is taking a lot longer than I expected, so I'm only going to show what realms are available. I'll add editing in the next version or so. Here's what I got:

The most interesting part of the night was when I was tracking down a bug when deleting a repository. It appears that some hook scripts try to fire when the repository gets created, or when it gets deleted. On top of that, the hook scripts that fire are different with different versions of Subversion. I ended up just showing a dialog, when one of the hook scripts is locked by another process. Here's the dialog:

In order to get this to work, I had to go and refactor SVNManagerLib, which is basically the "kernel" for a lot of my Subversion related utilities.

I've extended the 50% off sale for PainlessSVN until December 6, 2008. Use the code "black_friday_2008", without quotes, at checkout to get your discount.

Just wanted to let everybody know what I've been working on...

I'm almost done with Realms. A repository uses its Unique IDentifier when there is not an explicit realm. The UUID is basically a GUID.

I've also done some prettifieying of the server info view. Just some subtle UI touches, nothing fancy.

I'm also adding a new action to the server node. I'm adding the ability to set svnserve.exe as a Windows Service.

These things will be released with version 1.1. I just wish I could work on this full time, but PainlessSVN doesn't pay for bills just yet. This means that I have to keep my day job for a while longer. ;)

I've been a little bit peeved at the so called discounts that retailers have been hawking. They have been complaining about bad sales, but have not really done much to get the shoppers' attention. Their Black Friday sales are pathetic, at least to me.

In order to let out some of my frustration, I thought I give everybody a 50% off deal for the rest of the month. Enter "black_friday_2008", without quotes, at checkout to get half-off on PainlessSVN Professional. That's right, it will be $24.98 until November 30.

I'm currently working on 1.1, which will be a free update to anybody who purchases PainlessSVN now.

UPDATE
This offer has been extended until December 6. Enjoy!

The integration that I had with my ecommerce DNN module (ActivePurchase) broke when I moved the site to PowerDNN. I have been fighting with this for a couple weeks now.

Here's what happened:
The part that sends the serial number did not work anymore, because the SMTP server was not on the same network. Changing the settings did not work at first. I went googling for sending emails from DNN. I got some good hits for sending email from inside DNN modules.

The API for this is fairly simple (relatively). You first make a reference to DotNetNuke.Services.Mail. Then you make a call to the Mail.SendMail() method, with the appropriate parameters. There are 5 overloads. The call from a module would look like this:

DotNetNuke.Services.Mail.Mail.SendMail(FromAddress, SendTo, "", Subject, Body, "", "", "", "", "", "")

Well, that didn't work. So now I was scratching my head.

I am using a special type of integration called a custom step, which is just an assembly in the bin directory for the DotNetNuke install. I had to go and dig into the event log that DNN keeps. There were several exceptions there. The message was that the SMTP connection needed to be authenticated. WTF??

Custom DNN modules use the SMTP settings that the administrator has setup. However, the custom step does not get treated as a module. So I had to do this:

DotNetNuke.Services.Mail.Mail.SendMail(FromAddress, SendTo, "", Subject, Body, "", "", "", "", UserName, Password)

Once I did that, the custom step started sending emails like before. YES!

Now that this is fixed, I can get my undivided attention back to PainlessSVN and SVN Backup Widget stuff.

My grandma died at 4:30 AM this morning. It wasn't unexpected, but it is still leaves me feeling sad. I got a call from my father this morning letting me know that it happened. I talked with my mom afterwards, and she seemed quite upbeat.

Grandma Petra had a stroke a while back, and my mom has been taken care of her (Petra is my mom's mother). My mom was really sad that her mom was in such condition. I think we all feel a sense of relief that she's not suffering anymore.

I did get to talk to Abuelita last week on the phone. That was the first time since her stroke that she sounded lucid. I knew that was going to be the last time I would be talking to her.

I did not want to hold this in, and talking about it here gives me a sense of closure. I hope that Abuelita finds Braulio, her husband, soon on the other side.

One good thing that I got as her legacy is a warm feeling towards blonds. She was naturally blond, so that's where I get that. ;) It took me a long time to figure that out. Thanks Abulelita!