gAttach! On LemonTV.tv

In Spanish, after one a half minutes:

The Times, They Are a-Changing..

Just wanted to keep you posted on a couple of changes in gAttach! Land.

The first is that we have a brand-spanking new web site design, which is based upon an Open Source template by Wolfgang:

The second is that I've decided that the licensing model needs to change.

DON'T PANIC! gAttach! will always be free for individuals using the software for personal purposes!

For organisations though, I've found that the donations model just doesn't work. Larger organisations prefer to deal with a licensing model as it's what they understand best. Plus the percentage of donations to downloads currently sits at 0.03%, which isn't great.

So this will hopefully allow me to cover my costs, break into the enterprise and ensure gAttach! stays great for everyone.

New Beta Available

Just one week on from the last beta release, here's another!

This release fixes several issues around the Firefox 3 integration delivered last time. Hopefully it should now work as described in earlier posts for everyone! Note that I decided to finesse the existing "Plan A" approach rather than adopting the "Plan B" I referred to in my last post. So this means it still only works with Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 3.

I've also introduced a new feature in response to some of the feedback I received about logging in. Some people felt better about typing in their username and password into a Google web page, rather than directly into gAttach!. From this version onwards, you can choose to either:

• let gAttach! log you in automatically; or
• log in via your web browser beforehand.

Download the new beta from the Download page.

Beta Feedback: Effortless login using Firefox 3

It seems this isn't working as seamlessly as it should for many people.

The state of play seems to be that it works fine when you've not got Firefox already open, but if you've already got a browser open and you're not logged into Gmail, you get taken to the login screen.

Oh well, fear not. I have a plan "B" which I've tested tonight against all the scenarios above. It should also work in Firefox 2 and potentially other browsers (e.g. Opera, though I've yet to test this).

I'll add this into the next beta!

So remind me what the "B" is for in "BCC"?

Some of you may have received the very first gAttach! Email Newsletter yesterday. If you did, I owe you an apology! Despite the best of intentions, it seems that everybody's email addresses were still in the BCC field by the time they arrived in inboxes.

I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, so I'm a bit stumped why it happened. My only guess is that my web host's mail server forgot to strip them out when sending. I'll get on to my hosting company and figure out what's going on.

Apologies again!

UPDATE: The problem has been traced to the version of the webmail software (Round Cube) installed by my web host. Why not use Gmail? I just needed a fine level of control over the HTML used, which I can't quite get as easily with Gmail yet.

PS: The feedback is mainly good so far. All the reported glitches are in the same bit of code and are just around situations I hadn't foreseen. I'll hopefully get a new beta out any day.

Bellybuttons and Opinions on How to Log In!

The similarity? Everybody's got one.

One of the things that you'll notice in the current beta is that the pop-up web browser approach of logging in is gone.

In the beta, you enter your username and password in the Options screen and it never bothers you again.

Today, somebody wrote to me saying he doesn't like the approach used in the beta as much as the pop-up browser. The main reason is that he doesn't have the same confidence that his details are being used properly. There was something about that Google login screen that gave him reassurance.

The trouble is that the pop-up browser was glitchy on some machines (most notably those running XP with Internet Explorer 6 installed - even if it wasn't the user's default browser), so I'm reluctant to bring it back.

I'd also argue that you're still using gAttach! to log in and that if I was person of questionable morals, I could still harvest your credentials. So whilst it seems more reassuring, the potential risk is still there.

Don't worry, the only party your details are ever submitted to is Google and your password is stored in an encrypted form!

gAttach! definitely has to log in to do anything, so the question is "how?".

Before I go live with the new "release" version, what does everyone think to the following proposition? In the next beta, have a choice of two means of logging in:

1. Enter your details in the Options screen (the approach used in the current beta); or
2. Choose "I'll log in via my default web browser". This will require somebody to log in using Firefox 3 or Internet Explorer 7 and choose the "Remember me on this computer" option. If you try and send a file and you're not logged in, gAttach! will pause and ask you to log in via your web browser then click "OK" to continue.

I'm keen to know people's thoughts... what would be the best balance of functionality and reassurance that gAttach! could offer?

Let me know in the comments?

gAttach! In Your Language

One of the major parts of my day job is in the world of software localisation, so it's always been an early goal to make gAttach! available in as many languages as possible. I'm now looking for volunteers who are willing to translate the software into other languages.

Just get in touch if you're interested. A history of previous translation work (software or non-software) is desirable.

UPDATE: I've already found translators for:

• French
• Lithuanian

New Beta Version Available

Fresh out of development today is a new beta of gAttach!. This resolves the handful of reported issues that have been reported since the last version went live (7 June 2008), and also delivers one of the most requested pieces of new functionality: better support for Firefox 3 and the removal of any dependency upon Internet Explorer.

From this beta onwards, there's no need to type in a username and password at all when creating a new message. gAttach! will log into Gmail without bothering you, do its work and then launch your web browser and typically log you straight in there too. That means it should now be just as efficient to use gAttach! to send one attachment as many.

This new functionality will work with Mozilla Firefox 3 (and later) and Internet Explorer 7 (and later). This functionality won't be introduced for Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 6, so I'd urge you to upgrade to the latest version of your browser if you use one of these.

The most significant "fixes" in this release include better support for proxies requiring authentication, fewer timeout issues and hopefully the elimination of the rare situation where gAttach! is installed but seems to do nothing! x64 users should also find that this new version works fine on their systems.

Please note that this is a beta release, so it will most likely have a few bugs in it. Reporting any issues should now be easier too: you just need to click one button. I'll try to fix any reported issues as soon as possible and do a final software release in the very near future.

The full list of updates can be found on the version history page on the gAttach! site. Download the beta from this page too!

From Obscurity to Big Time!

It's been an absolutely exhilarating month for me as the gAttach! developer. In just three weeks gAttach! has had tens of thousands of downloads, has been featured on prominent blogs and sites, will be appearing on a covermount CD in Japan, and I've received bucket loads of emails from newfound fans.

One of the changes you might have noticed is that gAttach! is now hosted completely on the http://www.gattach.net/ domain. My personal site was starting to buckle under the load of all the demand, so I decided to separate gAttach! off into its own site.

I just want to thank everyone who has tried gAttach! for their time and involvement, and I'm especially grateful to those who have made donations. Keep a lookout for many more of the great ideas that have been submitted to me in future versions of the software!

gAttach!: Featuring Effortless Authentication in Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer!

One of the biggest pieces of feedback that I've received has been that Firefox users don't like having to authenticate more than once.

I fully appreciate this and I've spent the weekend perfecting something Firefox users will love: no need to type in a username and password at all. That's right, choose a file, get gAttach! to attach it and go straight to your web browser without typing a thing. Internet Explorer users will get the same deal.

OK, so it's not completely without authentication; after all, how we otherwise manage to upload the attachments? The key difference in the next version will be that the dependence on Internet Explorer will be gone. You'll need to enter your username and password in the gAttach! Options screen instead. gAttach! will log in to perform the attachment uploads, slip your browser a few cookies so it can log in automatically, and hey presto!

This change in approach will also allow me to implement another frequently requested feature in a future version: multiple accounts.

Other things on the current "to do" list include a working x64 implementation, doing some groundwork for translations of gAttach!'s user interface into other languages, and fixing some time-out issues for larger attachments. There are also a few smaller issues that will be resolved too.

I had hoped to complete all these changes by tomorrow, but work and family life have made progress a bit slower than I'd anticipated. I hope to release the new version of gAttach! as a beta very soon.

Great News, Bad Timing!

Arrived at work this morning to check my email and found tens of messages about gAttach! and yAttach! Looks like FreewareGenius did a review of the software and liked it! Hurrah! It's since been picked up by Lifehacker and other prominent bloggers.

As is probably expected with new software, there are the inevitable few bugs that have arisen. The two most common ones are for people in countries where a point is not used for a decimal (e.g. 5.1 in the UK is 5,1 in France) and an odd issue where gAttach! doesn't realise that it's logged in.

I'm working hard to resolve these, but the infuriating thing is that my home broadband is currently not working (gAttach! and yAttach! are personal projects rather than a professional venture), so I can't do any testing! Talk about really bad timing. Hopefully my ISP will get my line sorted out as soon as possible.

There have also been some really good suggestions, including the capability to have multiple accounts, to pick up signatures, etc. I'll look at including these in the near future.

So thanks to one and all for trying gAttach! and yAttach! For those of you having problems, hold tight! I'll get 'em fixed ASAP.