ICE Developers

We have moved!

2007-10-18T11:01:00.000+10:00

A lot has been happening with the development of ICE lately, one being we have a new location for the blog at http://ice.usq.edu.au/blog. We have made the move for development reasons and we are still in the process of configuring the site however, new posts will be at the new location from now, including posts for:

Cycle notes
Release notes
New features
Demos
and more.

ICE 1.2.4 has been released

2007-10-15T15:16:00.001+10:00

ICE 1.2.4 is now available for download. As this is a minor release changes include mostly bug fixes however there are some new features including support for the Atom Publishing Protocol.

You can download the latest version via the ICE website from http://ice.usq.edu.au/instructions/downloads.htm.

Changes/features include:

Superscript and subscript character formatting rendered as sup and sub XHTML elements.
Main rendering improvements to conform with W3C Strict XHTML 1.0:
- Content nested within definition lists are contained within dd element.
- Target attribute on links have been replaced with javascript, i.e. for links that are set to open in a new window.
- Center and right aligned tables use only CSS.
Improved control over image alignment in the HTML within paragraphs.
“links as endnotes” feature added as a document option in the file manger (available for OpenOffice.org and Word documents).
Basic implementation of the Atom Publishing Protocol (HTML only - no objects). There is a simple demo of this here, to enable this feature add the following line to your .site/site.py file:
```
addFunction(func=publishThis, position=16, postRequired=True, label="Atom Pub", title="Publish this using AtomPub")
```

Bug fixes include:

If the li1p style is not in a list it renders with bullet decoration in the HTML.
Repair documents feature fails if the template doesn't contain the ICE styles menu.
Footnote and endnote numbers are not within the same paragraph as the text in the HTML.

more information

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-10-04

2007-09-26T14:09:00.001+10:00

Summary
Overview of completed tasks
- Components
Outstanding tasks
Overview of new tasks

Summary

In the previous cycle we added command line options for the next major release (previously 1.3 now 2.0), we started work on adding ATOM feeds and fixed up the word processor toolbars. As with the previous cycle this next cycle we will be working on the requirements for the next major release. Features for version 2.0 of ICE have been locked down in preparation for the Alpha release before the IDEA workshop in October, details listed under new tasks. It's important to note this cycle is rather ambitious and not all tasks are expected to be completed.

Predicted work units: 90

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

IDEA 2007 conference preparation – workshop outlined
Dissemination (demos)
- ATOM publishing
- ICE template updates

Application

Endnote render option in the ICE file manager
ICE 1.3 release
- Annotations interface updates
- Search interface updates
- ICE as an executable with parameters
- ATOM feeds for ICE

Bugs

Book rendering performance bottle neck – work in progress
Investigate OOo bug with MathType using OOo 2.3 – OOo 2.3 works much better with MathType

Templates

standalone 'Save as HTML' using the ICE exe from OOo – proof concept done
Add APP to OOo extension using the ICE exe – proof of concept done

Outstanding tasks

ICE 1.2.4 release with ATOM Publishing Protocol (APP) – waiting on internal feedback from testing.
Image/object support for APP from ICE – not complete as we have no way of testing

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

IDEA 2007
- ICE workshop package material
- Poster for booth
- Presentation
ICE 1.2.4 release for Windows and OS X with ATOM Publishing Protocol (APP)

Application

Restructure code for 2.0 release.
Search
- queries to run over tag, paths and content
- results to contain first paragraph
Tags
- user specific tags
- all tags
Annotations
- close
- re-open
- hide/show closed annotations
Installations
- ICE to set the OOo port
- Mac installer package
- New windows installer
  - Add ICE to windows path
  - license etc
Server version
- tighten security
- Add parameter to ICE executable to run as a server
API/Converter
- Post file for conversion and return HTML index result
- Post file for conversion publishing with ATOM
Strict XHTML rendering
- Replace link with targets attribute with javascript
- Replace align attribute for table with CSS
- Nested definition lists to be in dd element not the dl
Interface update for the file manager and browser toolbar

Bugs

Finish off changes to work around OOo indexing bug with MathType for Books

Templates

Add HTML converter dialog window using the ICE exe
Add ATOMPub dialog window using the ICE exe

About the cycle notes

The cycle notes are used to summarize the outcomes of the completed cycle and provide stake-holders with an overview of the tasks for the next cycle. They are also used to raise any issues for discussion and provide other information for those who are unable to attend the meetings. Specific information on tasks to be completed are available in the ticketing system, see below.

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Sep 26, 2007

A demo of Blogging from Word using ICE

2007-09-20T11:56:00.001+10:00

For those who have reading the ICE blog you would know about how we got ICE to work as a command line app, or in other words, as a service rather then just an application. I have taken this one step further by creating the binary version of ICE that takes parameters for rendering and publishing. By adding a macro in to my Word (that's Word 2003) I have been able to publish directly from the word processor to Blogger (the same can be done for OOo).

This has not yet been added to the toolbar as it was merely some playing around on my part to work out any issues, but is coming soon.

Here is a recoding of what what the process maybe like.

View the demo here http://ice.usq.edu.au/media/videos/app_from_word_20070919.swf

A demo of list numbering restarting in ICE toolbar

2007-09-20T11:32:00.001+10:00

A special thanks to Ian Barnes for his feedback about the ICE toolbar. Since the last announcement in August we have made quite a few minor but tricky updates, and thanks to Samuel Knipe we have implemented some of the changes from the feedback received. The most useful recent fix is the fact that if a new list is created that the numbering is restarted.

As most avid word processor users would know if you use style based lists the numbering will keep continuing unless you manually restart it. In Word this is a particular problem as restart/continuing can also affect other lists, we have fixed this and made it easier to correct numbering when the word processor get it wrong.

Changes/fixes for the ICE toolbar

Both OpenOffice.org and Word toolbars

list numbering is restarted if a new list is created (see demo below)
Short cut for list to restart/continue numbering (esc + r)
paragraph (p) demotes to blockquote (bq1)
Fixed numbering not turning off if on lists that are not li1
Fixed demote/promote failing on i-code

OpenOffice.org toolbar

List styles are created when applied if they don't exist
When generated heading sizes are relative to h1

Word toolbar

Installs if downloaded as .doc or .dot
Installs into users startup directory

Give it a go, you can download the toolbars from the ice site. and as always feedback is much appreciate.

A demo of lists restarting in Word

Here is a demo of the list numbering, a word of warning I am talking but you may need to turn your sound up as the recording volume is a bit low.

see online demo at http://ice.usq.edu.au/media/videos/icetoolbar_list_numbering_20070919.swf

A speak peak at the command line version of ICE

2007-09-10T16:39:00.001+10:00

Today Ron, Oliver and I (mainly Ron) implemented a command line version of ICE and while we were at it we also added support to use the ATOM Publishing Protocol I demoed the other day.

The first demo is of the the command line ICE renderer that takes an OpenOffice.org or Word document and generates the HTML and PDF. A user wouldn't necessarily run it as a command line but what the demo shows is that you will soon be able to use ICE as a service.

View the command line ICE demo

The second demo is a combination of the command line HTML render with command line ATOM publishing into Blogger. Note Blogger is purely used for a demo, you will be able to publish to any other location provided it supports ATOM publishing.

View the ATOM Publishing demo

The next step is to add an interface to the ICE toolbar so that you can render your Word or OpenOffice.org document into clean XHTML and publish it using ATOM directly to your Blog or institutional repository. This can all be done from the comfort of your word processor.

Publish to Blogger from ICE: A look at how you can publish using the APP from ICE

2007-09-07T16:04:00.001+10:00

In a soon to be released update of ICE you will be able to publish using the ATOM Publishing Protocol (APP) to blogger and other systems that support the APP. I (Daniel) have already been using ICE to publish directly into the developers blog and will be from now on. At the moment it only publishes HTML (no media resources), but you'll find that Blogger and other weblog services are also limited to this, for now at least.

As mentioned in the last cycle notes using the APP opens up huge potential for us to publish to institutional repositories more easily for the ICE-RS project. We have already started working on a command line version of ICE that when plugged into our ICE toolbar means you be able to publish directly from your word processor (Word, OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice) to your blog, or your local repository without all the overheads normally required with ICE. Best of all it will be nice clean and light weight XHTML with bonus PDF.

You can view a demo of how I published the ICE-RS cycle notes here.

If you are interested in finding out more please feel free to contact us

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-09-20

2007-09-06T16:17:00.001+10:00

Summary
Overview of completed tasks
- Components
Outstanding tasks
Overview of new tasks

Summary

In the previous cycle we setup a server version of ICE for the RUBRIC Toolkit, this was a rather slow and slightly painful process due to the usual problems faced in a university environment. The server version allows browsing with searching, the next step is to allow for annotations. ATOM publishing Protocol (APP) was also added to ICE (HTML only, images/objects to come), and we can now use it to publish to Blogger, such as for these cycle notes. Once we have full APP implemented we can then start work with using SWORD once it becomes available.

This cycle we will be rolling out a version of ICE with basic implementation of APP, and continue on full implementation including ATOM feeds. We are also going to work on a command line version of ICE so it can act as a service, i.e. a 'light weight' version, initially to create HTML and PDF as well as ATOM publishing. This will be incorporated into our ICE toolbar so that you don't need all the other bells and whistles (Subversion repository etc) to make use of ICE.

Predicted work units: 100

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

Support and setup of ICE-RS pilots users at Flinders University

Application

Setup server version for FOSTER toolkit
Add annotations (first)
ATOM publishing Protocol (APP)

Templates

Tweaks and bug fixes
User testing

Outstanding tasks

IDEA 2007 conference preparation
ATOM feeds for ICE
Add tagging functionality -
standalone 'Save as HTML' using ICE code in OOo

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

IDEA 2007 conference preparation
Dissemination (demos)
- ATOM publishing
- ICE template updates
- Another look at Zotero
ICE 1.2.4 release with ATOM Publishing Protocol (APP)

Application

Endnote render option in the ICE file manager
ICE as an executable with parameters
Image/object support for APP from ICE
ATOM feeds for ICE
ICE 1.3 release
- Annotations interface updates
- Search interface updates

Bugs

Book rendering performance bottle neck
Investigate OOo bug with MathType using OOo 2.3

Templates

Tweaks and bug fixes
User testing
standalone 'Save as HTML' using the ICE exe from OOo
Add APP to OOo extension using the ICE exe

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Sep 6, 2007

ICE Discussion forum available

2007-09-04T16:47:00.001+10:00

The has been a steady increase in discussions and interest on and off the mailing lists of late and the ICE application is also becoming more service orientated. To help assist with communications about these new areas and now that our version of Trac has been updated discussion forums have been setup, and include:

ICE Application: Discussions about the ICE application
ICE Server: Discussion about the ICE server side version
ICE Toolbar: Discussions about the ICE toolbar
Bugs: Reporting and discussions of bugs

There are no topics as yet so please feel free to start adding some. To use the discussion forum you'll first need to be a registered user.

If you have any problems please use the form on the contact us page.

ICE 1.2.3 has been released

2007-09-03T16:43:00.001+10:00

The next version of ICE has been made available with the following fixes and improvements. As this is a minor release changes include mostly bug fixes. You can download the latest version via the ICE website from http://ice.usq.edu.au/instructions/downloads.htm.

Bugs fixes include:

Check links reporting email address as invalid
Links on images that are anchored as characters don't work
Footnotes and endnotes are displayed in the referring paragraph instead of at the end of the page/document
Hidden items in packages appearing when loaded using the IMS manifest, such as when uploaded into Moodle.

Changes/features include:

The bold and italics character formatting is rendered using the corresponding HTML elements 'b' and 'i'.
A message is displayed when a book file is locked while trying to re-build
A new feature to add links in a document as endnotes. This is only in alpha stage, improvements to be made in future releases, to see how this works see the demo.

For more information see the full release notes at http://ice.usq.edu.au/releases/latest.htm

Regarding the Zotero OpenOffice.org and Word plugins/templates

2007-08-29T12:00:00.001+10:00

To further comment on Peters Sefton's blog posting last week, (http://ptsefton.com/blog/2007/08/17/13-27-46.445348) you no longer need to use the developers version of Zotero as the plugins for Word and OpenOffice.org developed as part of the ICE project are now are available of the Zotero website at http://www.zotero.org.

Peter also mentioned the demo of the Zotero plugins I had made, I will be adding more soon and this time I will include audio (the quality was poor last time so I left it off). If you find them useful feedback would be appreciated.

The ICE toolbar and Zotero template available for download

2007-08-09T10:54:00.000+10:00

The ICE toolbar

The ICE toolbar has been developed as an OpenOffice.org extension and a Microsoft Word add-in. The purpose of the toolbar is to apply the ICE styles quicker and easier, this has been achieved by the creation of a toolbar that not only uses identical icons in OpenOffice.org and Word but also uses the same short cuts on all operating systems and word processors. The functionality of toolbar also includes some "smarts" to assist with the creation of more structurally correct content.

The ICE toolbars are still being developed however, they are usable. Feel free to download and try them out, feedback is appreciated via the contact us page form or mailing list.

Try the ICE toolbar OpenOffice.org extension

Try the ICE toolbar MSWord Add-In

The Zotero template

A requirement of the ICE for Research and Scholarships is to identify the potential to enhance bibliographic software to complement ICE. Zotero was identified as having potential and is also an open source application. The main requirements identified were to develop an OpenOffice.org extension and Word add-on that uses an interoperable method of inserting citations and bibliographies.

"Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself."
Source: http://www.zotero.org

Installing the Zotero template

The Zotero templates developed by the ICE project are being considered for integration and are available from the Zotero.

Before you can use the Zotero templates you first need to install the developers version of the plugin, you can get it from http://www.zotero.org/download/zotero-devel.xpi

You can download the Zotero templates from https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/integration/branches/ice

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-08-09

2007-07-31T12:49:00.001+10:00

Summary

The previous cycle we finished off most of the tweaks required for the ICE word processor toolbar. We also installed the toolbar for two USQ EPS staff members and so far feedback has been very positive. There are still a few minor changes to make however, it is now ready for an Alpha release. There is also still some refactoring and more user testing to do before we can switch over to using the .ice folders and start on the server version. The half yearly DEST report was also completed last cycle.

This next cycle will start work on adding annotations and tagging, as well as a version of ICE for Apache. We will also be identifying requirements to improve the export from ICE for repository ingest. Preparation for the coming conferences and workshops a long with the toolbar v2 demo/release is to be carried out as well. The ICE team will also be moving offices this cycle (we hope), so it will be a rather busy cycle.

Note that this cycle meeting has been held on the 30th of July 2007 due to stakeholders not being available for the usual time.

Predicted work units: 100

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

DEST Report

Application

.ice folders
- remove the need for the .cache folder
- user testing
- refactoring

Templates

Style generation in OOo extension
Tweaks and bug fixes
User testing

Outstanding tasks

Zotero Template Alpha release
ICE Toolbar 2 Alpha release

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Zotero Template Alpha release
ICE Toolbar 2 Alpha release
IDEA 2007 Roadshow preparation
IDEA 2007 Conference preparation

Application

.ice folders
- continue user testing
- finish current refactoring
Create a read only server version within Apache
Add tagging
Start on annotations
Polish off the ICE Fedora module
Spec out ICE export requirements for improved repository ingest

Templates

Tweaks and bug fixes
User testing

About the cycle notes

The cycle notes are used to summarize the outcomes of the completed cycle and provide stakeholders with an overview of the tasks for the next cycle. They are also used to raise any issues for discussion and provide other information for those who are unable to attend the meetings. Specific information on tasks to be completed are available in the ticketing system, see below.

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Jul 31, 2007

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-07-26

2007-07-18T15:56:00.000+10:00

Summary

In the first half of the previous cycle we released ICE 1.2.2 containing numerous bug fixes. The second half we were going to hold the Digital Scholarship tools workshop, unfortunately Ian Barnes from APSR was not able to attend. We went ahead with a workshop and mainly worked on the templates and indexing in ICE. This cycle we will continue work on the requirements for the server version of ICE and hope to do an Alpha release of the ICE word processor toolbar 2 and the Zotero templates.

Predicted work units: 100

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

Preparation for the "Digital Scholarship Tools" workshop
Build and release ICE version with improvements since last release

Templates

ICE toolbar and cross referencing dialog box user testing
ICE Zotero user testing

Results from Digital Scholarship Tools workshop

ICE 1.3 branch
- Assigns Ids to document
- Functionality to index completed – What to be indexed needs to be worked out
Zotero template was tested with the Sun odt Word plugin ok
ICE word processor toolbar
- Framework in place for building styles in the OOo extension
- Now handles a single block of multiple selections
- Added key capture to both Word and OOo toolbars (esc + key)
  Note: A short cut to capture the key pressed needs to be manually assigned for the OOo extension
- Cross Referencing
  - Added Cross referencing to Word toolbar – tested on Windows (Word 2003) and Mac (Word 2004)
    Identified work required for linking between multiple documents.
    Doesn't work on Mac Word because of a problem assigning to a combo box

Outstanding tasks

.ice folders
- remove the need for the .cache folder
- user testing
- refactoring
Build Book and proof PHD dissertation by A. Robins (UNE) – waiting on the .ice folder support

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

DEST Report
Zotero Template Alpha release
ICE Toolbar 2 Alpha release

Application

.ice folders
- remove the need for the .cache folder
- user testing
- refactoring

Templates

Style generation in OOo extension
Teaks and bug fixes
User testing

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Jul 18, 2007

Minor update to ICE to resolve links on images released for Windows

2007-07-06T11:31:00.001+10:00

We recently found that links on images anchored as a character don't render correctly. As this will break previously rendered content we decided to release the fix as an update.

To get the changes update your ICE via Start... All Programs... ICE... Setup... Update ICE. Setup ICE, go to http://localhost:8000/edit-config The version information at the bottom page needs to state it was built from ICE trunk number 7300.

Daniel.

How to tell what version of ICE you are running

2007-07-03T13:41:00.001+10:00

A couple of people have asked how they tell what version of ICE they are running. In the past it was a little tricky and depended on you level of access however, with version 1.2.2 it has been made easy.

Start the ICE server and go to http://localhost:8000/edit-config#versionInfo at the bottom of the page you should see something like the following:

ICE version: 1.2.2<
Built from ICE trunk <Revision kind=number 7265>
SVN version (1, 4, 0, '')
pysvn version (1, 5, 0, 742)
Python: 2.4.4 (#71, Oct 18 2006, 08:34:43) [MSC v.1310 32 bit (Intel)]

If you don't see the text above then you are probably running an older version or your update hasn't worked and you may need to try re-installing.

Regards
Daniel

ICE 1.2.2 has been released

2007-07-02T15:17:00.001+10:00

Bugs fixes include:

Incorrect numbered headings after BQ or definition lists.
captions cause render to fail
organizer properties has problem with % in the title
bookmarks on text not converting in the HTML as anchors
numbered headings following a bq or bqsource style are incorrectly numbered
link target attribute missing from links on images/objects
links using protocols other than http are reported as invalid links
pre style on images/objects breaks render
li#p contains bullets if not proceeding a li#n or li#b on the same level
links don't render in footnotes
document still sync'ing when render fails
Error rendering document with unicode in a link
linked text on the last paragraph of a chapter document causes the Book not to render

Changes/features include:

display error messages when render fails in the file manager
document indexes not to render in the HTML
version information added to config editor

For more information see the full release notes at http://ice.usq.edu.au/releases/latest.htm

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-07-12

2007-06-28T14:57:00.001+10:00

Summary

The previous cycle consisted of mainly bug fixes and minor required improvements mostly to do with the rendering rather then the scheduled tasks. This next cycle we will continue with the user testing specifically for the ICE templates and the work for the .ice folders. This cycle we are also running a workshop titled "Digital Scholarship tools".

Predicted work units: 60

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

Finish converting PHD dissertation by A. Robins (UNE) – Chapters have been converted

Application

bugs fixes (bookmarks, Books: page styles, even page numbering, last paragraph of a chapter, formating stripped)

Templates

ICE toolbar user testing
ICE toolbar cross referencing made available for testing

Outstanding tasks

.ice folders
- remove the need for the .cache folder
- user testing
- refactoring
ICE toolbar and cross referencing dialog box user testing
ICE Zotero user testing

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Preparation for the "Digital Scholarship Tools" workshop
Build Book and proof PHD dissertation by A. Robins (UNE)
Build and release ICE version with improvements since last release

Application

.ice folders
- remove the need for the .cache folder
- user testing
- refactoring

Templates

ICE toolbar and cross referencing dialog box user testing
ICE Zotero user testing

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Jun 28, 2007

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-06-28

2007-06-22T16:12:00.001+10:00

Summary

By the end of the previous cycle the conversion of the dissertation by A. Robins was 60% complete. A Fedora repository was setup on a development machine and we we able to publish directly to it directly from ICE.

Dr Peter Sefton meet with Prof. Peter Murray-Rust and Jim Downing from the Unilever Center for Molecular Science Informatics while in the UK. We will be working with them to look at integrating the CML(Chemical Markup Language) into ICE as a 3D render. Peter has already done some initial work using their Crystaleye service, you can read this about on Peters blog.

On the application side work continued on removing the need for SVN properties and we are now at the start user testing and refactoring stage. After which work can continue again on the server side version.

The ICE templates are at a stage where they can be user tested and the ICE Zotero template has been relocated to the Zotero SVN repository.

Due to staff being unavailable and being a short cycle this next cycle we be mainly some user testing, bug fixes and refactoring.

Predicted work units: 25 (1 week cycle and staff resources at 60%)

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

Conversion of the PHD dissertation by A. Robins (UNE)
Investigate requirements with the RUBRIC team to publish to UNE's repository
2 additional pilot users from UK.

Application

Get ICE to use .ice folders instead of SVN properties:
- Implement unit tests for Subversion to test any assumptions about SVN behavior
- Directory and file system commands such as copy, paste etc
Continue Book fixes from feedback

Templates

Automate building the ICE OOo extension
ICE template 2 OOo extension testing, fixes and improvements
Start work on the ICE template 2 for Word
Template activity box numbering testing
Zotero template testing, fixes and improvements
Cross referencing dialog box for Word and OOo ICE templates

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Finish converting PHD dissertation by A. Robins (UNE)

Application

.ice folders
- remove the need for the .cache folder
- user testing
- refactoring
bugs fixes (bookmarks, Books: page styles, even page numbering, last paragraph of a chapter, formating stripped)

Templates

ICE toolbar and cross referencing dialog box user testing
ICE Zotero user testing

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Jun 22, 2007

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-06-21

2007-06-01T15:07:00.001+10:00

Summary

In the previous cycle we branched the trunk in order to start on the work required to create the server side version of ICE along with annotations. The new ICE template was not as finished as we originally thought and thus more work is still required this cycle to establish a working version for user testing. The ICE Zotero template being developed by Ian Laurenson has been held up by the direction that the Zotero development team have taken however, we are proceeding with the requirements for the ICE-RS project regardless. This cycle will be 3 weeks due to staff on leave and will basically be a continuation of the work carried over from last cycle. This cycle we will also be looking into the requirements to publish a PHD dissertation to UNE's test repository hosted by the RUBRIC technical team.

Predicted work units: 145 (3 week cycle)

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

Setup ICE-RS area for ICE collaborative papers
Continue with dissertation conversions

Application

Get ICE to use .ice folders instead of SVN properties – to be continued
Continue Book fixes from feedback
Branch for using .ice and server folders

Templates

OOo ICE template to be converted to an extension
Establish a testing and reporting process for ICE and Zotero templates
Continue with remaining ICE template toolbar requirements
Zotero template testing, fixes and improvements

Overview of outstanding tasks

Follow up on additional ICE-RS pilot users.

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Finish converting PHD dissertation by A. Robins (UNE)
Investigate requirements with the RUBRIC team to publish to UNE's repository

Application

Get ICE to use .ice folders instead of SVN properties:
- Implement unit tests for Subversion to test any assumptions about SVN behavior
- Directory and file system commands such as copy, paste etc
Continue Book fixes from feedback

Templates

Automate building the ICE OOo extension
ICE template 2 OOo extension testing, fixes and improvements
Start work on the ICE template 2 for Word
Cross referencing dialog box for Word and OOo ICE templates
Template activity box numbering testing
Zotero template testing, fixes and improvements

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Jun 1, 2007

ICE website and Subversion repository down for maintenance 1st June at 5pm AEST

2007-05-31T10:44:00.001+10:00

The ICE website and Subversion repository will be down while they cut power for building maintenance from 5pm on the 1st of June. It is expected to back up and running before 5pm on the 2nd of June AEST.

Cheers
Daniel

Mac version of ICE now supports Subversion 1.4

2007-05-29T11:15:00.001+10:00

It has been a little while coming but yesterday I managed to update pysvn on the build systems which means the Mac version of ICE now supports Subversion 1.4.+. The installation disk images are available in the usual place via http://ice.usq.edu.au/instructions/downloads.htm. The OS X developers installation instructions will be updated shortly.

Feedback form added to the ICE contact us page

2007-05-25T11:35:00.000+10:00

Just a short posting to advise that we now have a feedback form on the ICE website. The form is to help assist us with the logging of faults and general queries for non USQ staff. It has also been created in anticipation of releasing the new ICE template and the Zotero OOo extension and Word template. Once we have stable versions of the templates and extension an official announcement will be made.

The feedback form is available at http://ice.usq.edu.au/feedback/general/form.htm

ICE 1.2 Final is now available

2007-05-24T16:53:00.001+10:00

Source code is available from http://ice.usq.edu.au/svn/ice/trunk/ (Revision 7024)
The binaries are available from http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/browser/ice/downloads/latest/binaries

Main new features and improvements

Installation improvements

Functionality added to self update on demand (Windows only).
Config editor made simpler:
- repository configuration can be done using a URL
- help added to the editor
- ICE detects version of OpenOffice.org to use for the given operating system.
- ~ (tilde) can be used to set the users home directory.
- no need to restart ICE after saving changes.

Rendering improvements

Since ICE is now using an event-based, SAX approach in Python to render the HTML as apposed to the XSLT approach, as a result performance has improved and the following improvements have been made:

Tables on list styles supported
table following a blockquote style supported
lists inside definition lists supported
tables in slides supported
the fault with pre-formatted text not rendering return characters correctly resolved
non breaking spaces added to empty table cells as the CSS for this is not yet fully supported (this can be over written)
links to bookmark can be automatically turned into page references for Books
images are not resized if within 10% of the actual inserted image (this was implement to resolve OOo getting the image size wrong)
Book rendering copy and paste method dropped in favor of using the file insert method
MathType objects now supported in Books
low quality images are converted to jpgs for the web before being resized, this is to avoid loss of quality - NEW (1.2 RC2)
documents can start on either an odd or even page for Books - NEW (1.2 RC2)
books always end on an even page - NEW (1.2 final)
HTML render uses the native word processor bold and italic character formatting, for example bold is transformed into the HTML element b - NEW (1.2 final)

and more.

File manager improvements

Files ICE knows about are opened using the operating systems default editor.

ICE opens the directory if it doesn't know the file type.

Other changes

IMS manifest.xml file renamed to imsmanifest.xml for the zipped package export.

Files in the root media folder within a package are not added to the navigation (useful for multi-media files like Breeze).

Known resolved bugs

Fixed in ICE 1.2 RC2

Resized images not exporting.

Fixed in ICE 1.2 Final

Files with the status "added" can't be moved/renamed.

Unused images left in the Subversion properties causing documents not to sync.

Bulleted lists in Books with MS Word documents display as numbered lists in the PDF.

Every odd paragraph missing from HTML slide.

more infomation

ICE-RS notes for the cycle ending 2007-05-31

2007-05-18T11:16:00.000+10:00

Summary

In the previous cycle we reached and passed the expected number of work units. In summary we released ICE 1.2 Release Candidate 2 with fixes for images plus Books and the ICE template toolbar is approx 60% completed but not tested. We also created the server side version of ICE for browsing, with annotations still to be added. The Zotero template has been re-factored and a request to the Zotero developers about using ids has been made, thanks Ian.

This cycle we will be finishing of bugs with 1.2 RC2 so we can release 1.2 final and work is to continue on both the ICE and Zotero word processor templates. We will also be changing ICE so that it no longer uses SVN properties to store meta data, this is to not only resolve issues with using SVN properties but is also required for annotations.

Predicted work units: 100

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

Build and release ICE with the changes for Book page styles and image resizing improvements.

Application

A browse only version of ICE

Templates

rework and simplify the ICE APA Template
Continue work on the ICE word processor toolbar 2 improvements
Continue work on the Zotero templates

Overview of outstanding tasks

Add basic annotation functionality

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

setup ICE-RS area for ICE collaborative papers
follow up on additional ICE-RS pilot users
continue with dissertation conversions

Application

fix the copy/rename SVN bug (ticket #4792)
release ICE 1.2 final (dependent on ticket #4792)
get ICE to use .ice folders instead of SVN properties
continue Book fixes from feedback
branch for using .ice and server folders

Templates

OOo ICE template to be converted to an extension
establish a testing and reporting process for ICE and Zotero templates
continue with remaining ICE template toolbar requirements
Zotero template testing, fixes and improvements

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: May 18, 2007

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-05-17

2007-05-04T16:42:00.001+10:00

Summary

In the previous cycle we built ICE 1.2 release candidate 1 which uses the Python render and also uses the file insert method for creating Books. Changes were also made so that ICE will convert resized images to jpg's to improve quality and are to be release this next cycle. This cycle will be focused on finishing of Books and refactoring of new features before starting work on new tasks. The new tasks include the ICE and Zotero word processor templates as well as a basic web server version of ICE with annotations.

Predicted work units: 70

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

COP requirements – waiting on funding confirmation before proceeding (2 weeks)
Setup additional pilot users/groups as required – no additional pilot users
Release ICE 1.2 final with Python render (this is dependent on the Books feature being completed) – 1.2 RC1 release instead.

Application

Refactoring and testing MathType in Books using the file insert method - completed
start work on the requirements to improve resized images - completed

Overview of outstanding tasks

Templates

Pilot the ICE APA Template – This was reviewed and requires some reworking
continue work on the toolbar improvements
table and figure numbering interoperability testing and rendering requirements

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Build and release ICE with the changes for Book page styles and image resizing improvements.

Application

A browse only version of ICE
Add basic annotation functionality

Templates

rework and simplify the ICE APA Template
Continue work on the ICE word processor toolbar 2 improvements
Continue work on the Zotero templates

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

ICE 1.2 RC1 now available

2007-05-03T10:59:00.001+10:00

ICE-RS notes for the cycle ending 2007-04-19

2007-04-05T14:19:00.001+10:00

Summary

In the previous cycle we hired 2 new staff members on a casual basis and will start work next cycle. On the application side we added functionality to automate page references in books where a document bookmark has been used. We also began investigating saving problems with Books containing MathType. This cycle will be focused on training new staff members, and resolving the Books saving problems. We are also going to start piloting the ICE APA template as well as release ICE 1.2 final with the python render ahead of schedule, (previously we were going to release it with ICE 2.0).

Predicted work units: 50 (8 day cycle)

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

Setup ICE-RS pilot users as required (including setting up an area for the USQ FoB research clusters, Community of Practice and BOM research cluster).
Update Installation instructions for Windows and OSX for ICE 1.2

Application

Python render improvements from testing as required
MathType 'stress' testing

Templates

Modify and create ICE styles required for the APA template
Setup the ICE APA styles menu for the APA template

Overview of outstanding tasks

Application

Re-rendering issue (svn 1.4 property update issue)
Start work on a read only version of ICE for running on a server

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Setup additional pilot users/groups as required
New staff orientation and training
Release ICE 1.2 final with Python render

Application

Start work on a read only version of ICE for running on a server
Investigate issues with MathType and Books

Templates

Pilot the ICE APA Template

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

ICE 1.2 beta released

2007-03-23T16:54:00.001+10:00

ICE 1.2 beta now available

2007-03-23 ICE 1.2 beta released for OSX on Mac Pro (Intel)
2007-03-16 ICE 1.2 beta released (Windows and Power PC only)

Source code is available from http://ice.usq.edu.au/svn/ice/trunk/ (Revision 6529)
The binaries are available from http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/browser/ice/downloads/latest/binaries

Main new features and improvements

Functionality added to self update on demand
Functionality added to rollback the ICE application on demand
Config editor made simpler:
- repository configuration can be done using a URL for example:
  Start ICE then click on a configuration URL such as ICE sample content config
  http://localhost:8000/edit-config? url=http://ice-sandbox.googlecode.com/svn/sample-content &name=ice-sample
- help added to the editor
- ICE detects version of OpenOffice.org to use for the given operating system
- ~ (tilda) can be used to set the users home directory
- no need to restart ICE after saving changes

more infomation

ICE-RS cycle notes 2007-03-22

2007-03-08T15:27:00.000+10:00

Summary

In the previous cycle we were mainly focused on improvements to the installation process. This involved much more effort than originally estimated The changes are almost complete for ICE 1.2, which we have unofficially released an alpha version for windows. Work has started on updating the Word template toolbar and we almost have an APA Word template.

There we are few issues that prevented the majority of tasks being completed this cycle.

Tasks preventing the re-rendering bug being resolved:
- Unable to get pysvn 1.5 to load on the Mac. (Daniel is in contact with Barry Scott who is the developer that looks after pysvn)
- The amount of re-factoring required to implement unit tests for this was/is greater than expected.
Support for USQ staff was greater then expected with the start of Semester 1
Work for ICE-RS pilots has been minimal due to the start of semester 1 at USQ
The requirements to improve the installation process by making the config editor 'smarter' was greater than expected.
USQ EPS staff have not been able to do much testing this cycle due to courseware work loads.

This cycle we will be finishing of changes for the installation process and release an ICE 1.2 alpha version. We will be finishing off a test version of the APA Word template as well as continue with the ICE template toolbar changes. Since USQ EPS staff are rather busy we are going to use the python render for all changes to the ICE website, including the user guide as part of the testing.

Predicted work units: 60

Overview of completed tasks

Administration

Setup 2 additional pilot users

Application

Improvements to ICE configuration area
Update the default ICE site file to be more multi-purpose

Templates

Begin work on the Word template usability improvements (see specification)
Establish the additional styles required for the APA template

Additional tasks

Unofficial release of ICE 1.2 alpha for windows where the user can update the program manually using Subversion via the windows program menu.

Outstanding tasks

Administration

Scope requirements to integrate with RAMP
Setup ICE sever to authenticate with the RUBRIC LDAP (this is instead of using OpenID)
Investigate issues en-counted with using native word processor drawings

Application

Re-rendering issue (svn 1.4 property update issue)
Implement basic file/directory annotations
Python render improvements from USQ EPS testing

Templates

Modify and create ICE styles required for the APA template
Create a working/test version of the ICE APA Word template

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Scope requirements to integrate with RAMP
Setup ICE sever to authenticate with the RUBRIC LDAP (this is instead of using OpenID)
Investigate issues en-counted with using native word processor drawings
Setup ICE-RS pilot users as required (including setting up an area for the USQ FoB research clusters, Community of Practice and BOM research cluster).

Application

Implement the requirements to automate OOo 2.1 on the Mac without using OOo 2.0
Re-rendering issue (svn 1.4 property update issue)
Python render improvements from testing
Official release of ICE 1.2 alpha
- Release notes
- Windows build
- OSX builds
- Installation instruction updates

Templates

Modify and create ICE styles required for the APA template

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Mar 8, 2007

ICE-RS cycle notes 2007-03-08

2007-02-26T11:09:00.000+10:00

ICE-RS cycle 2007-03-08

Summary
Overview of completed tasks
- Additional tasks
- Outstanding tasks
Overview of new tasks
- Components
- Feedback items
About the cycle notes
- More information

Summary

In the previous cycle an additional ICE-RS pilot user was setup and 2 more have been scheduled for this cycle. Work started on annotations however it did not reach testing due to additional support required by Ron, and the discovery of an issue with Subversion (SVN) properties, resulting in documents being rendered unnecessarily. This current cycle will be focused on the SVN problem, changes for the Python render, annotations, word processor templates, setup improvements and requirements for pilot users.

Predicted work units: 60

Overview of completed tasks

Start work on annotations
Update python render from EPS feedback
setup additional pilot users
One setup, 2 scheduled

Additional tasks

spec'd out changes for the word processor template toolbar
developers blog setup
Required APA styles mapped onto ICE styles

Outstanding tasks

implement code documentation generator
Setup ICE server to use OpenID
Modules installed but the sever is not configured. It also doesn't appear to work with Subversion.

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

Scope requirements to integrate with RAMP
Setup 2 additional pilot users
Setup ICE sever to authenticate with the RUBRIC LDAP (this is instead of using OpenID)
Investigate issues en-counted with using native word processor drawings

Application

Re-rendering issue (svn 1.4 property update issue)
Implement basic file/directory annotations
Python render improvements from USQ EPS testing
Improvements to ICE configuration area
Update the default ICE site file to be more multi-purpose

Templates

Begin work on the Word template usability improvements (see specification)
Establish the additional styles required for the APA template
Modify and create ICE styles required for the APA template

Feedback items

The following items have resulted from feedback provided over the previous cycle, tickets are to be written and scheduled.

The ICE config area is to be modified to improve usability
- update terms used
- quick setup – only requires the path to the subversion repository
ICE user guide – Check if it's still applicable as the feedback was provided while the user guide was being updated.
Modify the ICE file manager so that it:
- Open files it knows using the operating systems default editor
- Open the directory if it doesn't know the file type

About the cycle notes

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Feb 26, 2007

Have your ICE repository hosted using Google Project hosting

2007-02-18T20:52:00.000+10:00

Have your ICE repository hosted using Google Project hosting

I'll start by introducing myself, my name is Daniel de Byl I have been the project officer for ICE at the University of Southern Queensland for the past 1 ½ years. It should be obvious if you are reading this that I have just setup a blog for the ICE developers using Googles blogger. However, my first post is not going to be about the blog but rather that you can use the recently released Google code project hosting as an ICE repository.

Thanks to Peter, as he mentioned the release of Google Project Hosting late on Friday afternoon, after a few clicks and a little brain strain about what to call the project we setup ice-sandbox. At the time we couldn't browse or checkout the content but that was either because we were using a proxy as it worked from home or there was another problem going by the discussion forum.

There's only the small issue of storage space as it is 100mb (which is odd considering email storage is Gbs), and your content is publicly accessible. The storage space is a little concerning as you can't technically delete content from a subversion repository, so what happens when you exceed it.

Setup an ICE repository on Google

So how do you setup a Google project repository for use with ICE? Here are a few steps.

Step 1: Setup a Google project

log into Google and goto http://code.google.com/hosting/ (if you need a gmail account let me know)
create a project
checkout out your project using Subversion (Mac users use svn 1.3), for example
svn co https://your-project.googlecode.com/svn/ your-project

Step 2: Add ICE site files

In your project directory add the .site, .skin and templates folders from the ICE sample content folder by:

cd your-project svn export http://ice-sandbox.googlecode.com/svn/sample-content content

Step 3: Configure ICE

Start ICE and goto http://localhost:8000/edit-config
Click add and enter the following:
Name: Your-Project
Path: (directory location of your-project)
URL: https://your-project.googlecode.com/svn/content
click save and restart the ICE server
then goto http://localhost:8000 (switch repositories if you have multiple)