Thanks to patch by Xerox, SharePoint LogViewer now supports SharePoint 2013.

You can get the version 2.6.2 from the downloads page.

At Hyves, we wanted to re-write a legacy web application in python Flask. I was in charge of setting up the boiler plate code that would be necessary to get a skeleton app, up and running.

For writing large application it is helpful to separate the concerns in different components and MVC pattern serves that purpose quite well. However Flask is a micro framework and doesn’t give you patterns or APIs to do MVC like application. You have to write all the code to make routing with controllers and actions work.

So I chose to write a small MVC application on top of flask that can be used as a starting point for writing controllers, views, etc while leveraging the power of flask and its plugins. A design decision I made was to make the framework object oriented and avoid any top level (free flowing) functions and global state. The code is now available on github as pyMVC.

If you know python and object oriented programming and you’ve worked in any MVC framework before then you’ll be able to find similar patterns in this skeleton. Feel free to fork it, make pull requests and leave comments and suggestions.

Squiggle 3.2 has finally reached the point where I can release it as beta version.

I will not be adding any more features to 3.2 until the final release. From this point onward only bugs will be fixed. I encourage you to download the beta and try out its different features.

Squiggle 3.2 has multiple extensibility points. You can write communication plugin, extension, authentication provider, message filter and message parser. I will blog about each of these in coming days.

You can find a complete list of features on the release page. Give it a try and if you find any bugs please report them on codeplex issue tracker.

Squiggle 3.2 has major changes in underlying communication layer. It is important that this release is tested longer before declared final therefore I’m announcing today the development release of Squiggle 3.2 to get the early feedback on bugs and issues.

Squiggle communication layer has been re-written to be platform agnostic. You can now write Squiggle client on Android, IOS, Mac and Linux by implementing the protocol using ZeroMQ and Protocol Buffers. You can also write extensions and plugins to add functionality to the client. Following are some of the features added in 3.2:

• Support for plugins (Almost complete)
• Support for extensions
• Communication layer and protocol is platform independent (ZeroMQ, ProtocolBuffers)
• Bug fixes
• New /invite command
• Edit the sent message
• Disable update check
• MSI installer for the client

NOTE: This is development release and not recommended for production use.

I highly recommend you to download this release and test it out in a staging environment to spot the issues and problems that may occur when you roll out next update in your home or office. Your help in making Squiggle a stable product is highly appreciated.

You can download Squiggle 3.2 (Development) from http://squiggle.codeplex.com/releases/view/96232

As promised the new feature of posting items that you need is now available on LetsDonateStuff.com.

Often people are reluctant in posting the items that they don’t need because they’re not sure if anyone will need them. Also it takes extra motivation to post something before someone actually asks for it. Therefore if there is something missing in your home that you could use second hand from someone who has spare lying around the house, then you can post it here.

Also requesting an item here doesn’t necessarily mean that you yourself need the item. If you know someone who is in need of something but doesn’t have access to this site, you can post on their behalf and explain it in the post description that you know someone who needs it. Its up to you and the people responding to your post, to collaborate and decide how and when the item is transferred to the deserving person.

This is a platform to allow people to exchange things for free, to get rid of clutter from home, to help one another, to save the environment by re-using stuff rather than buying new ones and to prevent land-fill. If you have something to offer or there is something you (or someone you know) need then go ahead and post it on LetsDonateStuff.com.

This is just to update you guys about what is going on with Squiggle. Currently I’m working on version 3.2 as I write this. So far I’ve been working on re-writing the core communication components to enable writing of Squiggle client for other platforms easier i.e. Android, Linux, iOS, Mac, etc.

I don’t know if I’ll be adding more features to the actual client so there is no commitment there. However the communication core is going to be scalable and portable. In 3.2 release I also plan on adding extensibility points details of which I’ve not finalized yet. Maybe you’ll be able to download the client and then add voice chat feature or write your plugin to add support for custom applications e.g. games, screen sharing, e.t.c.

I’m also improving naming of configuration settings and adding a few more settings on my way. Keep an eye on commit log to stay updated with the development.

Finally if you find Squiggle useful and would like to support its development, you can donate a small amount as a token of encouragement.

Squiggle used to be in SVN before and anyone who wanted to contribute a fix would have to upload a diff file as a patch. Yesterday I requested CodePlex to change my repository to Git and they were very quick in their response. Today Squiggle has been migrated to Git repository. This means you can now make pull requests and fork squiggle if you want.

The clone url for Squiggle is: https://git01.codeplex.com/squiggle

For the last two days I’ve been working on adding OpenID support on LetsDonateStuff.com. There has been substantial amount of code change under the hood. For the end user it means they’re going to have a simpler experience for offering items.

Now when you go to offer item page, you have to login with your google, yahoo, etc account. The benefit of this is that you don’t have to specify your email and name multiple times if you offer multiple items. Also you now don’t have to click on the verification link in confirmation email. There is still a confirmation email sent to you on offering an item but it is only for letting you know that your item has been queued and also to give you that special link with which you can remove the offer.

Since underlying code of the site had changed quite a bit and migrating data was difficult therefore all existing donations have been removed. They already had out lived their validity period so there was nothing to lose. If you still have the item you offered before then you can post it again on the site.

If you have trouble using the new site, please report it on the feed back page on the site.

Today I’ve released revision 5 of Squiggle 3.1. This is primarily a maintenance release since the only difference between this and the previous release is that

• It is now built against .NET 4.0.
• It doesn’t have dependency on WpfToolkit
• It uses .NET Tasks instead of ThreadPool
• It uses SqlServer CE 4 for saving history

The change in Sql Server CE version means that if you upgrade to revision 5, your old history will be lost so its better to backup your old history before upgrading. And of course you also have to install .NET Framework 4.0 if it wasn’t installed already.

With this release I no longer support Windows XP operating system since I do not have sufficient time and resources to support 11 year old operating system. Also from this release onward I will not be uploading translations. Users can still generate translation themselves using the tool provided in source or by translating strings manually.

From end user perspective you have no reason to upgrade if the revision 4 or earlier is working fine for you unless the next major release comes.

I’ve just finished applying the new layout on LetsDonateStuff.com. The core website features are still the same. Its still a website where you can post your spare stuff that your friends, neighbors, family or anyone else can make good use of.

Checkout the new look and see if you have something to share with the world :)

Help me spread the love.

Thanks