Calendar Talk:Release Notes

Sunbird 0.3a1 Release Notes (Draft)

On __ September 2005, the Sunbird/Calendar project announced the availability of a Sunbird 0.3a1 Release Candidate.

These release notes are intended to inform users about what they should and should not expect in the Sunbird 0.3a1 Final Release.

This is a testing release and is not production-quality. The developers desire to get their latest efforts into wide use so testers can find bugs, give usability feedback, and see all the cool new stuff! Anyone willing to bear the risks associated with technology preview software can volunteer to test Sunbird. We welcome all feedback relating to this release candidate is and will be greatly appreciated!

Those wishing to perform more rigorous testing can use the Calendar:Tests page as a guide.

On __ September 2005, the Sunbird/Calendar project released Sunbird 0.3a1. This is the first official milestone that includes the re-written backend code.

Goals of the 0.3a1 Release

The first goal of the release is to attract more testers to the Sunbird community and to test the new backend code as much as possible.

To attract testers, the project tried to get the new backend code to a level of functionality similar to that of Sunbird 0.2. Beyond that, volunteers testing this release should enjoy the following improvements:

• Better calculation of recurring events.
• Better storage capabilities for local calendars via embedded SQLite.
• Better support for normal remote calendaring via WebDAV.
• Partial support for Calendar Server Extensions for WebDAV or CalDAV.
• Hopefully, some relief for those who were experiencing bug 134432: ICAL component not registered.

Also, to reach the broadest audience of testers, the project has provided new versions of the Calendar extension for Firefox 1.5, Seamonkey 1.0, and Thunderbird 1.5.

The second goal of the release is to get feedback concerning these tasks:

• Setting up a new calendar using the wizard
• Setting or changing color preferences for categories
• Setting or changing the connection & proxy configurations

Limitations and Known Bugs

The Sunbird 0.3a1 milestone is intended only to showcase and test the new backend code and is not production-quality. Please be aware of the following limitations of Sunbird 0.3a1 before using it, and please do not file bugs on these issues.

Major:

• Windows versions of Sunbird will crash trying to handle dates after year 2037.
• Cannot set the timezone preference.
• Cannot switch from Task to Event in the 'Event' dialog.
• Cannot convert attachments to events.
• 'Tasks in view' option does not work.
• Printing does not work (but might soon).
• Email alarms do not work.
• Alarms missed while Sunbird is closed will never sound.
• Alarm 'snooze' is limited to 5 minutes.
• Support for localization is incomplete.
• Poor reporting for publishing errors.
• Support for drag-and-drop is severely limited compared to Sunbird 0.2.

Minor:

• All-day events cause the Week/Day view to start at 12:00am.
• Possible JavaScript errors in preferences when starting with a new profile.
• Possible JavaScript errors when unchecking a calendar.

The Next Step

The next step for the Sunbird/Calendar project is to implement the new UI elements designed to allow Sunbird to better integrate with Lightning. Among the new elements are:

• Calendar views that support inline editing.
• Full support for drag-and-drop.
• Improved visibility. (? - accessibility?)
• Improved 'Create Event', 'Publish', and 'Import' dialogs.
• More!

Keep up with all these new features and help us improve them by downloading nightly builds and trying them out!

==

Sunbird/Calendar 0.3a1 RC Release Notes (Draft)

What's New

Here's what's new in this release of Sunbird:

• Feature
• Feature
• BugFix
• BugFix
• And a horde of other bug fixes...

Downloading and Installing

System Requirements

Before installing, make sure your computer meets the system requirements.

Downloading Sunbird

Mozilla.org provides Sunbird for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages. To get the latest version of Sunbird, visit GetSunbird.com or browse the FTP site. For builds for other systems and languages not provided by Mozilla.org, see the Contributed Builds section at the end of this document.

Installing Sunbird

Once you have downloaded a Sunbird, follow these instructions to install:

Windows

Double click the Sunbird Setup 1.0.exe installer to start the install.

Mac OS X

Double click the Sunbird 0.3a1.dmg.gz Disk Image to uncompress and mount it. Your browser may have already done this for you. Double click the Sunbird Disk Image to open it in Finder and drag the Sunbird application onto your hard disk. Do not double click the icon in the disk image! Be sure to drag the Sunbird application out of the disk image and onto your Hard Disk before running it. Drag the icon to your Dock if you want it to appear there.

Linux/GTK2

Extract the tarball and run the installer like so:

     tar -xzvf sunbird-0.3a1-installer.tar.gz
     cd sunbird-installer
     ./sunbird-installer

If you have Nautilus set up to run Executable Text Files you can just double click sunbird-installer to run.

Other Platforms

Extract the compressed archive and run sunbird

Uninstalling Sunbird

These instructions leave your profile in place in case you install Sunbird again in the future. If you wish to remove your profile folder, remove the location described below in the "Profile Folder" section. Note that by doing this you are destroying all of your personal information and should you decide to use Sunbird again, you will be starting with a clean profile.

To uninstall Sunbird, follow these instructions:

Windows

From the Start menu, choose Control Panel. When the Control Panel appears, double click Add/Remove Programs. Find "Mozilla Sunbird (0.3a1)" in the list and click Remove to uninstall.

Mac OS X

Drag the Sunbird application to the Trash.

Others

Remove the Sunbird folder.

Other Information

Profile Folder

Sunbird stores your user data in one of the following locations:

Windows 2000, XP:
Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Mozilla\Sunbird

Windows NT:
WINNT\Profiles\<UserName>\Application Data\Mozilla\Sunbird

Windows 98, ME:
Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Sunbird

Mac OS X:
~/Library/Application Support/Sunbird

Linux and Unix systems:
~/.mozilla/sunbird

Extensions and Themes

Unsupported?

Known Issues

This list covers some of the known problems with Sunbird 0.3a1. Please read this before reporting any new bugs.

Troubleshooting

Blah...

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What can I do to help?
Test!

2. Why haven't you responded to the mail I sent you?
Use this forum. Or IRC in #sunbird.

3. Where can I get themes and add-ons (extensions)?
Unsupported?

4. Who is working on Sunbird?
Lots of people. Names...

5. Where's the Sunbird source code?
A tarball of the Sunbird 0.3a1 source code is available for download. The latest development code can be obtained by CVS. Please follow the build instructions.

6. Where is the mail client?
Blah...

Other Resources and Links

The following resources contain useful information about Sunbird:

• Resource
• Resource
• Resource