Justin
02-17-2000, 06:57 PM
Around midnight tonight, the newest revision of the CNC Control Panel will go online. There are quite a few small additions:
FileQuest:
Cookies are no longer used. Your preferences are now stored in a file on the server, to prevent the need for cookies. This also allows you to use multiple computers or browsers without having to reset your preferences.
For those of you wondering "What preferences?", there are a few new options under the new "Advanced Options" dialog, in addition to the Recent Folders and FileQuest Sort Order that were stored in cookies. The new options include:
Show or Hide the "Recent Folders" list - some people may find the list annoying, and you can now get rid of it if you choose.
Recursively delete directories - this option should only be used by advanced users, as it will allow you to delete non-empty directorys. Note that, of course, this will delete everything in that directory, so use with extreme caution... I would personally recommend only enabling this option when you need to use it, then turning it off to prevent accidents...
You can also choose whether uploading a file of the same name should overwrite the previous file, rather than the CNC automatically renaming the file. This should be handy for site updates etc.
There is also a new File View option in FileQuest - this lets you view any text-based file, without having to open it in the editor. This is most handy when the file is not writable (the editor will only open a file you can write to). It also supports optional syntax highliting, though it's far from perfected at this point :)
There are also a couple of other minor prefs settings. These, as well as the Recent Folders, are all stored on-server rather than cookies, for faster loading and less dependance on browser/PC.
Troubleshooting:
Script Troubleshooter does a bit more than it used to. First, it will troubleshoot any CGI script, be it Perl, PHP (written as a CGI), bash, or anything else with a shebang line. It will determine if the specified interpreter (/usr/bin/perl, for example) actually exists and is executable, it will check all required Perl modules if it's a Perl script, and much more. It should help in pinpointing script installation problems.
The formatting of the Ping & Trace Route section has been fixed - previously it seemed the tracert was all on one line...
Email Manager:
You can now see how many messages are in each of your POP accounts, as well as how much space each account as a whole is consuming. Note that messages that have been downloaded but "Left on server" are counted as Old messages, where new one's are New. This should help in two areas - keeping you from deleting a non-empty POP box by accident, and if you have many people using POP accounts, you can see who's using too much of your space (if they are leaving mail on server, for example).
There are a few other very minor updates, tweaks, and bug fixes in the CNC Version 2.1, but the above covers the important factors I believe.
One important thing I left in before that I had not intended was the note stating that it was "Best viewed" in IE - this is completely not true, as the CNC looks identical in every respect in both IE5 and Netscape 4.7, in a side-by-side comparison. There is absolutely no difference, and I feel that the wording made it sound like IE was being prefered over other browsers. The paragraph has of course been reworded now.
Remember - the updates will be put into place sometime around Midnight EST tonight, so don't go rushing to your CNC just yet :)
Please post any problems experienced once it is in place.
------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest (http://www.FutureQuest.net/index.php) Support
FileQuest:
Cookies are no longer used. Your preferences are now stored in a file on the server, to prevent the need for cookies. This also allows you to use multiple computers or browsers without having to reset your preferences.
For those of you wondering "What preferences?", there are a few new options under the new "Advanced Options" dialog, in addition to the Recent Folders and FileQuest Sort Order that were stored in cookies. The new options include:
Show or Hide the "Recent Folders" list - some people may find the list annoying, and you can now get rid of it if you choose.
Recursively delete directories - this option should only be used by advanced users, as it will allow you to delete non-empty directorys. Note that, of course, this will delete everything in that directory, so use with extreme caution... I would personally recommend only enabling this option when you need to use it, then turning it off to prevent accidents...
You can also choose whether uploading a file of the same name should overwrite the previous file, rather than the CNC automatically renaming the file. This should be handy for site updates etc.
There is also a new File View option in FileQuest - this lets you view any text-based file, without having to open it in the editor. This is most handy when the file is not writable (the editor will only open a file you can write to). It also supports optional syntax highliting, though it's far from perfected at this point :)
There are also a couple of other minor prefs settings. These, as well as the Recent Folders, are all stored on-server rather than cookies, for faster loading and less dependance on browser/PC.
Troubleshooting:
Script Troubleshooter does a bit more than it used to. First, it will troubleshoot any CGI script, be it Perl, PHP (written as a CGI), bash, or anything else with a shebang line. It will determine if the specified interpreter (/usr/bin/perl, for example) actually exists and is executable, it will check all required Perl modules if it's a Perl script, and much more. It should help in pinpointing script installation problems.
The formatting of the Ping & Trace Route section has been fixed - previously it seemed the tracert was all on one line...
Email Manager:
You can now see how many messages are in each of your POP accounts, as well as how much space each account as a whole is consuming. Note that messages that have been downloaded but "Left on server" are counted as Old messages, where new one's are New. This should help in two areas - keeping you from deleting a non-empty POP box by accident, and if you have many people using POP accounts, you can see who's using too much of your space (if they are leaving mail on server, for example).
There are a few other very minor updates, tweaks, and bug fixes in the CNC Version 2.1, but the above covers the important factors I believe.
One important thing I left in before that I had not intended was the note stating that it was "Best viewed" in IE - this is completely not true, as the CNC looks identical in every respect in both IE5 and Netscape 4.7, in a side-by-side comparison. There is absolutely no difference, and I feel that the wording made it sound like IE was being prefered over other browsers. The paragraph has of course been reworded now.
Remember - the updates will be put into place sometime around Midnight EST tonight, so don't go rushing to your CNC just yet :)
Please post any problems experienced once it is in place.
------------------
Justin Nelson
FutureQuest (http://www.FutureQuest.net/index.php) Support