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Finally, the first component reached the magical one point oh. It is the command line version of our archive tool, which now covers all planed features. Work on the GUI version, names wxArchive, already started and will be finished hopefully soon, too. Minor works have been done with translating the internal pages into english, as they were available in german due to development reasons only.

A next sub system is working, this time it is the archive management. With this addition, a mandantor can upload a new revision of an archive via ftp. The web interface recognices the new revision and allows the mandantor to add this to the database. With this, the file is automatically distributed to all connected file servers, which can be followed in the revision overview. After a suitable count of servers are hosting the file, the archive can be switched to this new revision, automatically updating all connected clients, who are owning this archive. Pretty easy to use, damn powerful in action. I'm very happy with this feature yet.

Finally, it's done, the core system itself is completed and we are very happy about that. But sadly, that doesn't mean, that the system is operational yet, still, there is a lot of work to be done. At least, we're having a proof of concept now, which needs to be extended into the direction of a market ready product.
With this milestone reached, the system now is able to deliver archives to the customer client, which now is able to handle these changes and to keep several revisions in one cache, which is an important core feature for us. With this, an update can be delivered to the customer without the need of blocking the customers product on his computer. Another nice feature now is, that the extension of an archive with a new revision can be populated to all connected customer clients immediately. With these features, the prototype client for linux, which is purely command line orientated, is finished.
So what is next? A lot, as we're getting visual now. We need a GUI based archive tool, which will be most likely based upon wxWindows. Work on the windows client will start this weekend. Several extionsions concerning the management of archives and revisions will be added to the web interface, work on this has already started. So, due to the huge amount of work, I resist to give a real time estimation about the next steps, but I hope to get some rough working results in late February.

We are one giant step ahead. The linux test client is now able to update itself via the jade system. This means, that the basic components of the system are at least working on a prototype level. From here, everything else are extensions and improvements, as the basic design is working. We're cheering up and I think this is worth a bottle of champagne or fine wine tonight!

Finally, the client is now able to login to the file server with the ticket create by the main server. With this, the basic connection layout of the system is complete, from here, everything is "only" addition to the basic functionality. Said easy, this still will cover some hard tasks, but a very promising fundament is now built.
Now, some polishing is needed, like fixing the bug, which currently prevents to send data size bigger than one network package and some other things. With these done, nothing stands in the way to implement the data transfer from the server hosted archives into the local cache of the client. I'm really excited about this, because it is the basic functionality of the whole system...