We are fast approaching the end of the year, and we’ve just about closed the door on Codebook 4.3. Work is also well underway on the next feature release (5.0 - image attachments). Time to take a quick look at what we’ve been up to these last few weeks (and months!) and what’s around the corner.
Android
The 4.3.0 release of Codebook for Android on Nov 30th has gone quite well, and we’ve gotten some great feedback on the new Autofill feature. To date no major issues have been reported.
Work on the image attachments feature continues on Android! Most recently we implemented optional compression when importing from the device camera, allowing the user to choose Small, Medium, and Large variants when an image exceeds the current maximum file attachment size.
iOS
We released the iOS version of 4.3 with support for iOS 14 and new devices in September. This was also a pretty smooth update! No major issues have come up since then, but we do have a 4.3.2 update in the pipeline. Undergoing beta testing now, this version provides several nice adjustments and bug fixes, including localization corrections for displaying time in 24 hour formats, and a crash related to Accessibility usage.
There’s a new addition to the Sync view in 4.3.2: if Codebook is unable to establish a Desktop WiFi connection it will offer a “Need Help?” button. Tapping it cancels the sync operation and loads up the WiFi Sync Troubleshooting article.
In keeping with our ongoing efforts to improve the documentation, that article is being updated now and has been moved from the forum FAQ section over to the Help pages on our website.
With the holiday season upon us here in the U.S., we’re going to hold off on releasing 4.3.2 for iOS until at least the week of Dec 28th, if not early January 2021.
Up next for image attachments on iOS is implementing the compression choices for importing images like we’ve done on Android.
macOS
The 4.3 update brought new AutoFill Password support to Codebook for macOS, along with a slew of other improvements, including adapting the UI to Big Sur.
A week after the initial release we put out version 4.3.3, which makes a number of additional improvements to the AutoFill feature to make it more convenient to use, particularly via keyboard, and fixes some UI bugs.
We have another point release update on the way for macOS, version 4.3.4, currently in Beta testing. This update fixes a couple of crashes that were tricky to track down, but happily didn’t affect many customers.
We also added the Help button to the error alerts presented when there’s an error during Desktop WiFi Sync, the Sync Key is missing, or there is a Sync Key mis-match. Like the “Need Help?” button on iOS, these Help buttons link directly to relevant articles in the Help pages.
Finally, we found ourselves wanting a more flexible About window than the standard system one, so we’ve put together our first custom one in this version! Below the version number it now also displays the build variant, making it easier to check if you are running the Beta, Mac App Store, or Direct Download distribution of Codebook for macOS.
Like the next iOS update mentioned above, we expect to be holding off on releasing it until after the holidays.
On the image attachments project, we’ve added the same compression options dialog for attaching large images in Codebook for macOS.
Windows
The Codebook for Windows 4.3 update has gone quite well, so far we’ve followed up with one update in 4.3.1, to fix a bug that could prevent application termination when clicking File -> Exit.
The recent addition of the Exclude Characters feature to the Password Generator has prompted some welcome feedback here in the discussion forum about other ways we might improve the generator. In particular, how best to provide passwords that support the requirements of various websites. Please feel free to join in the discussion!
We are currently testing version 4.3.2, which makes a number of nice adjustments to Secret Agent, and fixes a crash reported to our support mailbox. Animations and responsiveness to searching-as-you-type are much smoother and we’ve fixed a bug that could cause keys to be dropped while switching from the details view back to the search results view.
We expect to release this update after the holidays as well.
We’ll be breaking ground on image attachments for Windows first thing in 2021!
Documentation
We’ve been hammering away at the Help pages! We just recently added a new series of Getting Started tutorials for new users. More articles are planned, such as setting up TOTP codes, and working with Notes. If you’ve got a suggestion for topics we should cover, please drop us a line!
Wrapping Up
That’s not an exhaustive list of everything we’re working on, but hopefully it should give you a good idea of where we’re at with the various projects and progress that we’re making. We look forward to hearing your thoughts, and a very happy holidays to you from us here at Zetetic!