News (from Dec 8th, 2003)

This section contains information which is mainly important for customers or prospective customers. We will keep this up- to- date regularly. Entries are ordered by date, descending, so the newest information is always on top.

Good things need some time: Version 2.05 released!

Some folks were already asking us if we would still exist - ok, we were not very busy on the homepage; instead, development took place together with some of our customers, leading to a very interesting new version of SW-Lookup® which covers many of the requests which came up during the last year.

Currently, version 3.1 of the Smallworld® GIS is supported; former version 2.2x may be supported on request, but we guess no one will use this version anymore. Version 3.2 and 4.0 are coming up next year (2004), probably at the end of the first quarter. This will meet the requirements of most clients currently moving their data models to the new versions.

SIAS support (which would replace the dispatcher) is still not available, because no one requested it and our talks with Smallworld® (GENS) lead to nothing due to the vast reorganisation taking place there. We are still ready to provide such a version, in case anyone requests it, in the frame of a project.

For infos about the new version, refer to New features in version 2.0x!

September 30th, 2002: Version 1.30 released.

Today, the new version 1.30 has been released, currently only for the GIS 3.1(0). This is because no more people seem to use the GIS Version 2.2(x). If somebody should need it, please let us know, we will provide a version on request.

May 6th, 2002: Intermediate Information

For a longer period of time, nothing had moved on this site. This was due to the fact that it took us more than a year to get in touch with GE Network Solutions to discuss the additional realisation of SW-Lookup as an IAS Service: Smallworld became GE Smallworld became GE Network Solutions (hope it stops now), and anything was always nobody's business.

Now, at last, it is sure that Smallworld® will not be included in the GENS-Portfolio (which we didn't want, however) and that friendlyGIS® may and will develop its own service.

For the development of Smallworld® this meant a lot of lost time, but there are good sides of this situation. With some delay, we will release the new version with the following improvements:

• Incremental indexing: Create the whole index once, and update it ligthning-fast by only indexing new or changed objects.
• Drawings and internal worlds may be displayed.
• Installation will be even simplier, just load a script from the installation directory.

Everyone who has downloaded Smallworld® in the past will be informed by Email when the new release is available!

July 2nd, 2001: Release 1.21 available for GIS 3.1(0)

A new version with minor bug fixes and some enhancements has not been released. Release is currently done for GIS 3.1(0), the version for GIS 2.2(x) will be released soon. Please refer to Enhancements & bugfixes to check what has been changed.

To download this release, go to the download page!

We now provide a programmer's manual, which helps especially partner companies to provide their clients with individual configuration. Currently, this is preliminary. The manual is also included in the version 1.21 distribution (subdirectory data/doc/programmers_manual), and can be downloaded here.

Conferences in Constance and Paris

Conference reports

The conferences are done - and have been, especially in Constance, where friendlyGIS® is more well-known, a great success. Please read our conference reports!

01.05.2001 - Fairs and conferences

friendlyGIS® will present SW-Lookup® during the following conferences at the accompanying exhibition:

• GE Smallworld 2001, Paris / France, 4th to 6th June 2001. More details here: GE Smallworld 2001
• SWUG-Tagung, Konstanz / Germany, 18th to 20th June 2001. More details here: SWUG Tagung

On both conferences, you will have the opportunity to see SW-Lookup® in action and even buy licenses with attractive conference offers.

April 30th, 2001 - New version 1.2 has been released!

After a lot of testing, our new version has been released.

Have a look at the manual pages or download the PDF manual from PDF-Manual in english and read it offline or print it (format is DIN A4).

April 3rd, 2001 - New version will be released on May 2nd, 2001

Our new version, which was originally to be called SW-Lookup® Pro, will now be released on May 2nd, 2001.

We decided to cancel the delivery of two different versions of SW-Lookup®. Therefore, only one version of SW-Lookup® will exist which covers the features originally planned for SW-Lookup® Pro. The reason is that our clients did not like the restricted features of SW-Lookup® and it is not useful to maintain two different versions.

The new version will offer the following benefits:

• Zooming is done by simply clicking on the main image. The user simply clicks on the region where he wants to see more.
• The system offers an overview image which is used to pan the main image. This variant of the pan function seemed to be the most simple one (and can be done without scripting). The image can be configured as a view called "overview" or it will be derived from the main image's configuration.
• It is now possible to handle user defined visibilities when using the "from GIS" configuration. This makes it easy to individually control all visible objects independent from the ACE.
• SW-Lookup® now has an own ACE alternative, so its ACEs can be independent from the GIS. The alternative is also used to store the user defined visibilities.
• SW-Lookup® now uses HTML templates which reside on the dispatcher's home directory. Therefore, it is very simple to configure the layout to your own needs.
• There is a new function called "list of objects" which delivers a list of all objects on the main graphics, as long as they are indexed. This provides an easy way of navigating from one object to its neighbours.

Additionally, we have further increased the handling of multiple PeerServers and the stability of the system. The version is ready and is currently being tested. After the test and the writing of the documentation the new version will be released on time.

Dec. 11th, 2000 - Internationally usable version

Nobody's perfect - in our first revision we had overseen a problem which arises from the layout of the module.def which is common in germany. Since SW-Lookup® is targeted to the international market, we have taken a lot of care not to use any extensions of the GIS which are specific to the so-called "German Base Model".

However, due to an error from our side we shipped module.def's which included comments - which is not accepted by the software_component_manager in its international version.

Since we had a lot of international downloads (about 80%), we decided to hurry up with a version that not only fixes this error, but also provides full internationalization (except the config menus, which are always in english), so that the product may be used by international customers more easily.

HTML documentation is now included in the HOME subdirectory of the SW-Lookup® dispatcher as a single file, in German and English. So, you just have to unpack this directory, click on the file you want, and have the whole manual available.

Dec. 4th, 2000 - First version published

We have published the existence of SW-Lookup® today, first to the developer's community.