We are currently investigating an issue that appears to have been caused by the latest Java update for OS X. This update has broken many popular Java applications, apparently because of a new way the JavaApplicationStub obtains it’s environment information. Our QA team is trying to replicate this issue, but have been unsuccessful so far.

However, we believe executing the following commands from a Terminal window (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) should resolve the issue.

For XC Connect for OS X:


sudo rm -f "/Applications/XC Connect for OS X.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub"
sudo cp "/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A/Resources/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub" "/Applications/XC Connect for OS X.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub"
sudo chmod a+x "/Applications/XC Connect for OS X.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub"


For XC Connect for Entourage:


sudo rm -f "/Applications/XC Connect for Entourage.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub"
sudo cp "/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A/Resources/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub" "/Applications/XC Connect for Entourage.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub"
sudo chmod a+x "/Applications/XC Connect for Entourage.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub"


If you would like to know what these commands do, they remove the symbolic we create to the JavaApplicationStub binary and replace it with an actual copy of the file. This should resolve the environment issue upon startup fixing the issue.

Once we have a fix that we know works we will provide updated connector versions that resolve the issue.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and are working hard to find a solution.

There is a fix !
If you are using Vista and like using WebDav, heretofore you have been unable to do so. But now you can.

If you are an XC Vault user and don’t know what WebDav is, read on…. WebDav allows you to view and manage folders in XC Vault just as you would in Windows Explorer. Better yet, WebDav allows you to copy multiple files or folders by simply dragging and dropping. It is an essential tool.

Oh and by the way – XC Vault is one of the very few file sharing solutions out there that supports WebDav.

If you have been a Vista user, WebDav has been a no-show. Vista has simply not supported WebDav. Note also that we did not say “upgraded to Vista”, since that would be a mis-nomer –it’s hard to say that by running Vista that you have “UP-graded your operating system, but that’s another story and worthy of another discussion.

Back to the subject at hand: There is a way to “hotfix” Vista so that you can use WebDav:

1. Install the following Vista hotpatch : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?familyId=17c36612-632e-4c04-9382-987622ed1d64&displayLang=en
2. Open Windows Explorer (right-click on “Start” and navigate your way to “Computer”
3. Right-click on “Computer” and select “Add Network Location”
4. A “Wizard” will pop up and you’ll hit “next” a few time until you get to a screen that says “Where do you want to create this network location” – select “Choose a custom network location”.
5. The next page asks you to enter the “internet or network address”. In the case of XC Vault, this will be http://(ip_address)/xcnetwork/webdav (where “(ip address) is the IP Address of the computer on which the XCN Server is installed.
6. You will be asked to enter your username (email address in the case of XC Vault) and password – you may be asked that a couple of times.
7. The next screen will allow you to create a “name” for your WebDav location – for example you could just call it “XC Vault” or “Vault on Server”.
8. Click through the next couple of screens and you are done!
9. The next time that you open Windows Explorer, click on “Computer” you will note your WebDav folder available for you under “Network Location”.

If you have any questions please let us know! Either comment to this article or email us at info@xcnetwork.com. We promise to reply.

We recently had a prospect from a “large Fortune 1000” firm contact us looking for a way to allow their executives in separate offices, each with their own instance of Microsoft Exchange, to have access to each others calendars. Obviously it’s much more subtle than that: their respective admin assistants are doing all the work, but apparently it requires each of the various admin assistants calling the other to check availability and location of their respective executive(s). Then of course they individually update their executives’ calendar and viola, they are up-to-date until the next event occurs. And apparently this happens all day long…

The awkward part occurs when they are scattered across the globe and in different time zones and they want to have this data available to them via their wireless pda asap, preferably immediately.

This is actually a very simple, but common, example of standard usage of our wireless pda’s. We use them to make phone calls, check emails, and manage our calendar. And of course with the release of the iPhone, everything is supposed to be possible, right? But it is the challenge of allowing data to go across different collaboration servers that is exactly the challenge that XC Bridge (Xchange Network’s solution) is resolving.

The trick of course is to get access to the various collaboration servers, access the data in the context that it is presented, and then allow that data to be made available to another user in the context of their own collaboration server – which is exactly what XC Bridge does.

But wait, it got better – This prospect also bemoaned the fact that the “calendar thing” was really just a minor problem. The bigger issue was how much it was costing his company to build unique data pipes to allow different servers to push their data to and fro. Remember the concept of “stove-pipe data” and “data silos” back in the 1990’s? Well, it still exists with not much resolution – at least (we hope) until now with the advent of XC Bridge.

XC Bridge allows that connectivity between different servers and their various different user interfaces. Its purpose is to eliminate the data silos and the custom data pipes that allow the transfer of data. More importantly, it’s purpose is to enable it quickly.

We’ll keep posting interesting stuff as it happens. These are exciting times at Xchange Network! If you are interested in more information, pop us a note to info@xcnetwork.com and mention this article. We promise to reply.

Almost all of our customers and users have a need to synchronize data while they are out of the office. Not surprisingly, this is when the ability to have current data is usually the most valuable.

If you are network savy and already know how to configure your router and firewall for remote access, then read no more… but for those of you that are curious, read on…

The first thing that you are going to need is a “Static” IP address, that is to say, an IP address that will not be changing, otherwise known as a “Dynamic” IP address. Your Internet service provider will be able to tell you what class of service it is that you have.

The reason you want a “Static” IP address is so that when you are off site you will be able to reliably access the XCN Server without having to call the office and ask what the “IP address of the day” is.

Secondly, you will need to configure your router to “port forward” ports 80 and 10001 to the “internal” (LAN) IP address of the computer on which you have installed the XCN Server. Think of it this way: the router is acting sort of like your telephone switchboard. When you are remote and want to synchronize, XC Connect will be doing so using ports 80 and 10001, very similar to that of a phone extension. The router will recognize the incoming authentication request from your remote computer and will look to transfer that incoming request to ports 80 and/or 10001. And since you probably have more than one computer attached to this router, you will need to tell it where to send the request so that it gets responded to appropriately. In this particular case it will be the IP address of the computer on which the XCN Server is installed.

Thirdly, if you have any additional firewalls, you will need to allow access through those two ports (80 and 10001). The additional firewalls may exists as a separate “Firewall” box that is on your network, or more typically as a software firewall that might exist on the server itself.

Security: Data that is transmitted on port 10001 is 128 bit encrypted, as is the data on the XCN Server. Data on port 80, which is the port used for standard web-browser access, can be encrypted should you choose to have it so. If you do, just use “https” for full SSL encryption. In most cases you can do so without having to have a signed “certificate”. In addition, access to the XCN Server requires authentication by username and password. If the XCN server does not receive the proper authentication and if the data is not formatted along the anticipated encryption rules, the connection is dropped.

So the bottom line is that Yes, you can securely create, modify, and synchronize data between all of your users, remote or not so remote. You just need to 1) have a Static IP address, 2) port forward your router, 3) modify your firewall to allow the data. And that’s it!

If you have any questions, please let us know – contact us at info@xcnetwork.com. Thanks!

As a follow-up to Patrick’s post, we thought we would discuss a bit about Entourage and “Categories”….

If you’ve ever used Outlook or Mac OSX Address Book/iCal you are familiar with the way data is separated according to “folder”, “group”, or “calendar”. Entourage on the other hand, approaches things a little different – it uses “categories” and that is what becomes the discriminating factor between records.

If you are used to working with Entourage, you may have setup for yourself a process for working with Categories, and it actually works quite nicely. Categories allow you to organize your records, calendar, address book, tasks (and even email) and then enable you to filter a view on just what you want to see – it’s pretty handy.

The challenge comes when wanting to share your Entourage calendar, address book, and/or tasks – To our knowledge there aren’t that many sharing/synchronization solutions out there that synchronize categories. In fact, we are told by users that XC Connect is the *only* solution they have found that synchronizes categories, period.

To take it a step further, XC Connect allows an Entourage user to apply more than one category to a record and synchronize those multiple categories. To make it even a bit more tantalizing, XC Connect allows you to create what we call a “folder” (aka a “data container”) on the XCN Server with the same name as your Category, and it allows XC Connect to synchronize that data on your computer that is tagged with that Category – and if you have other Categories attached to it, it will sync those as well! And this is not limited to just “one” Category – you can share multiple Categories – there is no limit!

Apparently no other sharing/synchronization solution allows that – we’re not sure why.

And if you have other users on Outlook, yes, those categories will synchronize to the “category” field in Outlook.

Bear in mind that there are almost endless ways for users to manage their data and almost certainly XC Connect will not satisfy every single method – but we try hard to make XC Connect a flexible solution in order to provide you with a solution that helps you share your data.

If you have any questions, please let us know – contact us at info@xcnetwork.com. Thanks!

First, I’ll introduce myself. My name is Patrick Gerzanics and I’m the Chief Software Engineer here at XC. My team and I are responsible for the development of XC Connect and XC Vault.

I just thought I’d share a bit about what my team and I are currently working on getting out to you fine people…

1. Our primary focus at the moment is making our connector for Microsoft Entourage faster and more efficient. This involves a number of things, some of which we are currently putting the finishing touches on while others are still in the Development queue. Unfortunately, the way in which we are forced to interact with Entourage (Applescript scripting interface), is not very efficient for pushing large amounts of data. To address that, we are currently implementing the following:
   • In the next version of the XC Connect for Entourage connector you will be able to choose the category of your personal items in regards to what is synchronized to XC Connect. As any of our Entourage users know, currently anything that is not categorized as being in a shared XC Connect folder is considered personal for XC Connect purposes. By allowing the user to specify what category contains their personal items it allows the user to restrict the amount of data involved in the synchronization process. This will speed up average synchronization times significantly as the primary bottleneck for synchronization with Entourage is the speed in which it processes requests; the less items for Entourage to process the better.For users that would still like to have all of their items considered personal, this is still available by selecting the ‘(All Categories)’ option when prompted.
   • The second, and more time consuming, of the things we are doing to improve Entourage efficiency is to process items in a batched state with an intermediate data store. While testing approaches to interacting with Entourage we discovered that one of the slowest aspects of synchronization was waiting for Entourage to find an item by ID, with the time to find an item growing linearly with the number of items in the repository. Our current synchronization model processes each change as a separate request causing Entourage to find the item to modify/retrieve/delete each time.The new architecture will have an intermediate repository/cache that it stores and retrieves data from. The connector will then keep the cache in synch with Entourage as needed and communicate with Entourage via batches. This will greatly improve the efficiency of the interactions with Entourage when large numbers of items are being processed in one synchronization cycle.
   • The last thing we want to address is the stability and handling of errors while interacting with Entourage. As our Entourage users know, it is not uncommon to receive the dreaded message ‘An unexpected error occurred while communicating with Microsoft Entourage…’. This was intended to be a catch-all for uncommon scenarios that have not occurred in our test environment so that we can diagnose the problem. However, our Support group has reported that the most common cause of these errors is simply that Entourage stops responding to scripting requests until it is restarted or it becomes stable. As part of the changes in item (b), the cache will allow us to handle these situations far more cleanly as they will not require the server side to recover as the cache and Entourage just need to be reconciled.

   Our overall goal is to allow our Entourage users to have as seamless of a synchronization experience as our Outlook, AddressBook/iCal and Evolution users and we believe these changes will achieve that.

Unfortunately, this has run on longer then intended so I will have to post about our other upcoming feature enhancements in my next post.

Cheers.

The ability to share Calendars and Address Books with fellow computer users would seem like such a trivial thing, but in fact, it is not readily available, and it’s not easy. You would think that Microsoft, Apple, and the Linux community would enable such a feature. And interestingly enough, they “sort of” do, but not really….. and until XC Connect from Xchange Network was released, there has been no easy way for a PC user to share a Calendar or an Address Book with a Mac user… XC Connect allows users to create, modify, and share (synchronize) data between any combination of Microsoft Outlook, Mac Entourage, Mac Address Book/iCal, and Novell Evolution.

The “Why can’t we be friends” line was actually the headline used for an article written a while back about Xchange Network in the Ann Arbor News, our local newspaper. The reporter, Scott Anderson, was very quick to pick up on the fact that there was no other application out there, other than XC Connect, that allowed users to share data across the disparate operating systems and desktop applications. He was actually very surprised that there was none other – it seemed like such a logical thing to have. After all, the computer world consists of different types of computers, so it would make sense that there would be a mechanism to allow these computers and their desktop applications to share data amongst themselves. But alas, there really was not, save XC Connect.

XC Connect is really an initial implementation of a larger solution. As I stated above, XC Connect allows users to create modify, and share (synchronize) data between any combination of Microsoft Outlook, Mac Entourage, Mac Address Book/iCal, and Novell Evolution. But it’s not limited to just those four applications – we have a number of “alpha” and “beta” versions of connectors for other applications – we have simply chosen not to release them. For example, we have a connector for Word Perfect Mail, Corel’s email client. (If you are a Word Perfect Mail user and are interested in being able to synchronize Calendar and Address Book to/from WP Mail, let us know… info@xcnetwork.com.)

The point here is that XC Connect can, by virtue of its very flexible and powerful server architecture, synchronize data (the key word here is “synchronize”, not ‘move’, or ‘push’….there IS a difference) between virtually ANY application. In other words the structure is there for you to be able to synchronize Address Book data between, for example, QuickBooks and Outlook, or calendar data between Google Calendar and Mac Entourage and Outlook, or, or, or….. you get the drift. And thus the byline “Why can’t we be friends?” is a good one – because we can make it so… allowing users to do what they do best on their desktop applications and still allow the data to flow to other users on different desktop applications…. (now I have that song stuck in my head….)

If you’d like some more info – let us know… info@xcnetwork.com

In case you have not noticed, the latest Daylight Saving Time (DST) change has had the virtual equivalent effect of Y2K, if not more so. The US Governments’ decision to change the dates for DST (Energy Policy Act of 2005) have had an enormous effect on everything from general productivity to huge IT department headaches to get various devices (computers, peripherals, etc) updated. Theoretically this is intended to save energy, but we believe that it really is an economic initiative in disguise. There are huge statistics that show that consumers spend more money when the sun is still up…. When the sun sets, people tend to go home…. Please excuse the editorial – there is actually a point to all this.

The DST change affects everyone’s calendar. Specifically, Calendar events created to occur within the window of time that was effected by the DST rule changes may be off by an hour when synched to other clients IF the operating systems AND the XC ‘connector’ version of the event creator has not been updated with the new time zone rules.

For the US and Canada, this means events with start or end dates between March 11 and April 1, 2007, will show up on other clients one hour earlier than specified and events with start or end dates between October 29 through November 4, 2007, will show up one hour later then specified.

For our European and Australian customers in time zones that have extended daylight saving time this year, any events with a start date between the original DST start date and the new, extended, one will synch events to other clients one hour earlier. This is also true for events with start dates that are after the original DST end date, as they will be one hour later then intended. Again, this only applies to events in the above date ranges that were created by a computer that had not been updated with the DST rule changes.

Some background: Our research indicated that the required operating system updates (Windows and OSX) would be available in the 4th quarter of 2006 meaning only events scheduled more then 4 months in advance would be effected. However, in actuality both Microsoft and Apple did not release their final updates until very recently causing a trickle down effect. To further complicate things, in Microsoft’s case, the initial updates contained some of the rule changes but not all.

The obvious question that arises is: ‘Why can’t Xchange Network just fix this?’. The reason we cannot automatically fix this problem is that all communication with the Xchange Network Server is done using UTC (GMT time without DST rules) times. When the client synchronizes events to the server it converts the event to UTC time using the time zone rules and methods provided by the operating system. The same process occurs in reverse when a client receives a calendar event as it translates the UTC times of the event to the local time, again using the operating system to perform the conversion. As a result, events created prior to the operating system or the XC connector being updated are not converted to the correct UTC time during the effected date ranges resulting in incorrect start and end times when synchronized to other clients.

If both clients have not been updated yet, then the translation occurs the same and the event appears properly on both clients. However, if one of the two clients has been updated and the other has not, then a discrepancy will appear which is why the core of the problem is the originator of an event.

For users that use the XC Connect web interface, if the server operating system has not been updated with the necessary changes, then events will be created and displayed one hour off during the effected date range as well. This is due to the web interface relying on the operating system for it’s time zone conversion rules like the clients do.

Due to the number of variables involved, we cannot simply provide a script to update all events to fix this problem since:

1. We do not know if the event was created by a client set to a time zone that had a rule change.
2. We do not know at what point the user’s operating system was updated to know whether any events that user created were translated to UTC time properly or not.

So, the next question obvious question is, ‘How can we fix this?’.

1. The first thing to do is ensure that you have installed the appropriate operating system updates on all of your clients:
For Windows, please see: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst
For OS X, please see: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056
- for OSX 10.4: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304586
- for OSX 10.3: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304585

For our 10.2 users, the latest version of our OS X and Entourage connectors update the Java time zone settings as part of the installation process.

2. Secondly, make sure that your server has been updated to version 3.2.010 (the one referred to in our update e-mails). This server version includes the connectors required for step 3.

3. Next, please ensure that you are running the latest version of our connector software:
Outlook: 3.2.082
Entourage: 3.2.018
OS X: 3.2.021
Evolution: 3.2.003

4. Once the connectors and operating system are up to date, the last step is to investigate if you have any events that are incorrect, and if so, correct them.

There is a process for that, and we’d be happy to share it… contact us at support@xcnetwork.com if you need some help with it.

A recurring question that we are constantly being asked is “Is XC Connect an alternative to Microsoft Exchange?” The short answer is “yes, but no….”

To elaborate:

Yes, XC Connect is an alternative to Microsoft Exchange in that it enables group collaboration and allows users to create, modify, and share Calendar, Contacts, and/or Task information, from both “personal” and “public” folders.

But No, XC Connect is “not” an alternative to Microsoft Exchange in that it does not provide the email server capability that Microsoft Exchange does, and neither does it allow the sharing of other elements within Outlook, such as “Journal” and “Notes”.

Why didn’t Xchange Network go down that route and make XC Connect a true replacement for MS Exchange? The reasons are simple:

All of our users already have an email server/system in place… so there was no point in re-creating that wheel.
When polling users, we found that Journal and Notes sharing is a very low priority…. Calendars, Contacts, and finally Tasks data were at the very top.

However…. there are things that make XC Connect very unique, and things that that Microsoft Exchange does not even attempt to do. For example, XC Connect:

allows users to share data across virtually any desktop application (all you need is an XC ‘connector’ to that application).
allows users to install the software server component on almost any operating system (just has to support the Java Virtual Machine). We provide install packages for Windows, Linux, and OSX.
allows users to use whatever email server/system that they wish.
allows users on different email domains to still share data (for example users with an email domain “(name)@company.com” can still share data with other non-company users at for example, (name)@yahoo.com).
is simpler and way less expensive to install and manage….

There are more subtle differences, but those are the highlights….

We’ve gotten a lot of requests for information relative to how the Xchange Network Synchronization Platform works (the core of XC Connect), so we thought that we would post the following document… hope that it’s helpful to you!

Summary

Xchange Network provides a “best of breed” data synchronization platform that allows arbitrary data to be synchronized between any client application. The current implementation of this data synchronization platform is in the form a product called XC Connect.

Description:

The Xchange Network synchronization platform approach is simple:

1. treat all data objects as xml blobs which the software server will pass to client connectors that understand the context and usage of the data.
2. do not modify or reformat the data.

There are two basic components:

the software server, (also called (XC Bridge”) and
the “client connector”

The software server’s purpose is to act as a data repository and to handle the bilateral synchronization logic. The software server determines and controls what data needs to be provided to a given “client” each time each individual client synchronizes.

The client connectors process the xml data by interacting with the client application and the software server. Its purpose is simply to apply the data in the context of the client application when data is received from the software server, or if data is created, modified, or deleted by the client application, to wrap the data object into the xml blob and send it to the software server.

As a result, the software server has no need to “understand” the data as it is simply passed along to other client connectors as needed, thereby eliminating any possibility of data loss during synchronization. Data transfer is secure and access to the data is based upon a permissions model.

Since most client applications are closed source, but have external access API’s (COM, CORBA, AppleEvents, JDBC/ODBC, etc.), Xchange Network has designed the connector framework with those implementation details in mind. New client connectors for currently unsupported applications can be implemented within a very short period since the connector framework itself does the majority of the work.

Both the software server and the client connector framework are written in Java to allow as much flexibility as possible with regards to deployment requirements. This allows both to run on any operating system that supports Java Virtual Machine resulting in unparalleled flexibility.

Current Platform Usage:

The synchronization platform is currently being implemented within a product called XC Connect, which allows Calendar, Contact, and Task data to be shared (synchronized) across any combination of Outlook (COM), Entourage (AppleEvents), Apple iCal/Address Book (combination of AppleEvents and JNI) and Evolution (CORBA).

None of the applications require modification in any way, or are affected in any way, since the data interaction is treated in the same manner as user input.

In addition, the software server contains add-on modules to expose the Calendar, Contact, and Task XML data via a web-browser interface providing yet additional flexibility to data access.

XC Connect is currently a deployed solution with an active and growing customer base across virtually every vertical market segment. Customers range from financial institutions, legal offices, schools and universities, and many more.

No Client Data Loss:

One of the huge problems with supporting multiple client applications is that each application has its own list of supported data fields. As a point of reference, in the current implementation of the XC Connect collaboration server, one example is the calendar data that is synchronized between the Outlook Calendar and Apple iCal calendar.

Outlook has a very large list of fields that it supports, while iCal supports a limited number of fields.
In most implementations, this would mean that when an iCal user modifies an item, any unsupported fields would be lost.
However, the connector framework has seamless support for this scenario, and as a result, no data is lost. The changes are simply merged to the existing xml and sent to the server ensuring that everything is still present when synchronized to Outlook.

Other Possibilities:

Due to the flexibility afforded by the architecture, the specific items within a record can be easily extended since the software server does not have to individually manipulate or modify the data record that it is managing. One can easily see adding, CRM, or ERP, or any other specific application type to the mix of implementations and all that would be required are the client connectors to support it (them). This yields the ability to support data synchronization for example, between conflicting client or server applications within a matter of weeks with neither application requiring modification of any kind.

Conclusion:

The Xchange Network synchronization platform is both very powerful and very flexible. It enables data to be synchronized between multiple disparate client applications with little development time and without affecting the existing user application.

For further information, please contact us at info@xcnetwork.com !

Posted in data synchronization