Battery Manager Release Notes

Changes in version Battery Manager 2.17.1 Build 198 (2026-03-24)
Changes in version Battery Manager 1.6.3 Build 138 (2015-05-06)
Changes in version Battery Manager 1.6.2 Build 89 (2014-06-20)
Changes in version Battery Manager 1.6.1 Build 82 (2014-05-26)

 

Battery Manager 2.17.1 Build 198 (2026-03-24)

  Clean Uninstallation Fixed

Previous versions of Battery Manager did not properly remove the configuration subdirectory of the application in the user's home directory. If the user selected the "Remove local configuration files (clean uninstall)" option shown by the uninstaller, then the configuration subdirectory (currently '.battman-2.x.x') was not removed.

This behaviour has now been fixed.

  Battery Manager V2 Available In Microsoft Store

From version 2.17.1, the Battery Manager V2 EXE is now available for download in the Microsoft Store. By default, the Community Edition is active, the license can be upgraded to the commercial Enterprise Edition by obtaining an EE software license via the Leisenfels shop. The maximum trial period is 30 days.

  Installer DMG For macOS Now For Both Intel And Apple Processors

Previous macOS installers provided support for Intel processors only. Starting from Battery Manager version 2.17.1 the macOS DMG can also be installed on systems with Apple processors (M1 with ARM64 architecture).

  Sporadic GUI Locks For SFTP Connections Fixed

If a SFTP connection for a connection with activated keepalive was opened and a remote folder was expanded using the + symbol (plus) in the navigation on the left side, in rare cases the GUI was blocked due to internal locking.

This behaviour has now been fixed.

  Linux Installer Executable Fixed

Due to inappropriate VM options the installed Battery Manager GUI executable could not be started on Linux systems. This behaviour has now been fixed.

If you are still not able to start Battery Manager after updating to the latest version, please uninstall the installed version and then install the latest version again. Sorry for any inconvenience. After re-installation everything should be fine.

Alternatively pls adjust the 'BattMan.vmoptions' file in the installation folder like so:

-Xmx1024M -XX:+IgnoreUnrecognizedVMOptions --add-exports java.desktop/com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports java.desktop/com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports=java.desktop/com.apple.laf=ALL-UNNAMED -Dapple.laf.useScreenMenuBar=true -Dapple.laf.useNativeFileChooser=true

  Application Restart Fixed

The application restart using the File > Restart menu entry was not working in previous versions of the Battery Manager. Now, Battery Manager calls the install4j API instead, which starts a new restarter executable waiting for the application to exit and then restarts it.

This behaviour has now been fixed.

  Added Support For New Apache Derby Version

The new library version is:

groupId=org.apache.derby artifactId=derby version=10.16.1.1

  Import of Exported Preferences Fixed

Due to an error in the code to re-import application preferences, such ZIP files could not be imported resulting in a warning dialog displayed by Battery Manager.

This has now been fixed. Please keep in mind that preferences can only be restored within the same Battery Manager major version. For example preferences archives created with Battery Manager V1 cannot be imported into Battery Manager V2.

  Added Support For New JSch Library Version

The new library version is:

groupId=com.github.mwiede artifactId=jsch version=0.2.26

  Added Support For New Google Drive API v3 Library Versions

The new library versions are:

groupId=com.google.apis artifactId=google-api-services-drive version=v3-rev20251210-2.0.0

groupId=com.google.api-client artifactId=google-api-client version=2.8.1

groupId=com.google.oauth-client artifactId=google-oauth-client-jetty version=1.39.0

  Added Support For New AWS SDK S3 Library Version

The new library version is:

groupId=software.amazon.awssdk artifactId=s3 version=2.41.5

  Added Support For New Commons Library Versions

The new library versions are:

groupId=org.apache.commons artifactId=commons-vfs2 version=2.10.0

groupId=commons-io artifactId=commons-io version=2.18.0

groupId=commons-net artifactId=commons-net version=3.11.0

  Support For Reloading Editor Documents

The various editor components shipped with the Commons framework now provide support for reloading the current document from local or network files. If there are pending document changes then the user is asked on how to proceed (save file, reject changes). Reloading is also possible via the Window > Refresh action from the application menu.

  Configurable Warning If VFSUtils Methods Are Called From EDT

VFS massively uses the Java synchronized feature e.g. for file systems and file objects. This could pose a problem for Swing applications where such objects get locked by separate threads and then called by the AWT Event Dispatch Thread (aka EDT). This sometimes leads to hanging applications where only a restart helps.

To avoid such problems for GUI applications, the new flag VFSUtils.WARN_FOR_EVENT_DISPATCH_THREAD has been introduced. If set to true, a warning log message and the current stack trace is printed whenever a problematic call by the EDT is performed. By default, this flag is turned off. Developers should turn this flag on in the development environment and for tests.

  Displayed Logs By Output Window Now Limited

The output window displays various logs for GUI applications like Data Digester. Depending on the configured log level, these logs can grow quite large. This has the effect, that the application responsiveness suffers or the application runs into an out of memory situation.

To avoid issues with large logs, the new option "Maximum characters to display" has been added to the output window preferences. It can be found in the "Docking Windows" section. The default setting depends on the application e.g. 50,000 (fifty thousand) characters. The application may set additional restrictions on the valid range e.g. 1,000 to 500,000 characters.

  Spanish Language Support For GUI/CLI

The Battery Manager software now supports Spanish language. Spanish can be chosen during installation via installer. Feel free to install multiple language packs to switch the language at runtime e.g. useful for international teams.

The help system is still available exclusively in English since it contains many, many screenshots which cannot be translated easily. Some of the texts like these release notes and the license texts are available exclusively in English, too.

The Spanish translation is done by OpenAI/ChatGPT (blame them for funny terms).

  Portuguese Language Support For GUI/CLI

The Battery Manager software now supports Portuguese language. Portuguese can be chosen during installation via installer. Feel free to install multiple language packs to switch the language at runtime e.g. useful for international teams.

The help system is still available exclusively in English since it contains many, many screenshots which cannot be translated easily. Some of the texts like these release notes and the license texts are available exclusively in English, too.

The Portuguese translation is done by OpenAI/ChatGPT (blame them for funny terms).

  French Language Support For GUI/CLI

The Battery Manager software now supports French language. French can be chosen during installation via installer. Feel free to install multiple language packs to switch the language at runtime e.g. useful for international teams.

The help system is still available exclusively in English since it contains many, many screenshots which cannot be translated easily. Some of the texts like these release notes and the license texts are available exclusively in English, too.

The French translation is done by OpenAI/ChatGPT (blame them for funny terms).

  Added Support For New Google Drive API v3 Library Versions

The new library versions are:

groupId=com.google.apis artifactId=google-api-services-drive version=v3-rev20241206-2.0.0

groupId=com.google.api-client artifactId=google-api-client version=2.7.1

groupId=com.google.oauth-client artifactId=google-oauth-client-jetty version=1.37.0

  Added Support For New AWS SDK S3 Library Version 2.29.45

The new library version is:

groupId=software.amazon.awssdk artifactId=s3 version=2.29.45

  Switched From com.jcraft.jsch To com.github.mwiede.jsch

There is currently no active development for the original JCraft JSch library, so VFSLib switched to Matthias Wiedemann's fork of JSch-0.1.55 named com.github.mwiede.jsch. JSch is the core library used by the SFTP file system provider of VFS2.

The new library version is:

groupId=com.github.mwiede artifactId=jsch version=0.2.21

  Service Configuration For Global Settings

While most settings in Battery Manager are local for each user, some settings should be globally configured globally for all users. For example writing changelogs is required to be enabled or disabled for all users globally in the database.

The Battery Manager GUI has been extended by a new dialog to manage service configuration keys and values. With the "Update" button, new/missing keys can be added automatically without the need to add keys manually. The "Restore Defaults" button removed the existing keys and values from the list and adds the supported keys with their default values. Each key can be edited using a custom editor for the given type, e.g. true/false can be set as value for boolean keys.

The service configuration can be configured by admins only. The target table is BATTMANSYS.SYSCONFIG.

  Support For Changelogs

All INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations in Battery Manager can now be tracked. As being part of the new service configuration, a new flag can be enabled for the three change types INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE. By default, changelogs are disabled since this feature requires additional database queries which can slow down the overall system performance significantly. Changelogs make sense in environments with multiple users.

The new changelog feature can be configured by admins only. The target table is BATTMANSYS.SYSCHANGELOG.

  Access Level Control For Application Users

Users can be categorized in at least administrators, users with read-write access, and users with read-only access. These access levels have now been implemented for the Battery Manager software. Application users can be maintained with the Database > Manage Database > Manage Users menu. This functionality is restricted to application administrators.

Initially, if no application user is defined, the user has full access to the application based on the configured database user (which is separated from application users). The database user for each connection always requires full access to the database. If at least one application user exists, then access control is active and users must authenticate with their application user login and perhaps a password (optional). Each user has a certain access level (administrator, read-write, or read-only) so that the application knows which functions to enable for the current user.

The application users can be configured by admins only. The target table is BATTMANSYS.SYSUSER.

  Charging History For Batteries

The "My Battery" tab of the session window now provides a new icon and context menu to visualize the charging history for the selected battery. The new dialog shows the history as a chart with date and time on the x-axis and the percentage of the nominal capacity of the battery on the y-axis calculated right after the measurements of the past. The second tab "Datasets" displays the detail data of the available measurements as table.

The charging history requires that the "Analyze States of Charge" report has been executed so that the measurements have been analyzed. If necessary, the measurements for a single battery can be analyzed by clicking the "Update" button provided by the dialog.

  Support For Charts To Display Measurement Data

The measurement data from charger devices like the SkyRC MC300 can now be displayed graphically as line charts. On the 'Measurements' tab of the session window, a new button has been added to display the charts for the selected measurements in the list.

Depending on the measurement data of the used charger, the dialog provides multiple buttons to choose the desired data type like voltage, current, and temperature. The charged/discharged capacities are displayed as separate data series with different colors together in one chart to easily identify the charge/discharge steps of a program. The x-axis shows the timeline of the measurement in minutes, the y-axis shows the unit of the data type like Volts or mA. The data values collected during discharging steps are displayed as negative numbers.

The charts can be printed using the printer button on the right side of the type buttons. The charts can also be directly opened for the running or completed charge program by clicking the new chart button provided by the device windows. This button can be found in the 'Live Data' area of the charger device window besides the logging button for each slot.

  Cancel Selected Slot Battery And Choose Another One

If the wrong battery was selected for a charger slot, then this association can now be cancelled by clicking the same button again. The charger slot is then reset to zero and another (the correct) battery may be selected instead.

  Reconnect For Devices Which Are Currently Not Available

Devices like chargers connected via USB may become n/a for various reasons. For example the USB plug may have been accidentally removed from the computer. The Battery Manager software now provides mechanisms to restore such disconnected devices easily. If a device has been detected being not available, then a balloon tip is displayed with a hint text what to do next to solve the situation. A 'Reconnect' link is displayed which can be clicked after the device has been physically reconnected e.g. by plugging the USB connector into the computer USB port again.

Disconnected devices are detected now for these two common cases: 1. Device becomes n/a during operation 2. Device is n/a right from the start of the software In both cases, the device window can be reconnected using the new 'Reconnect' link.

  Device Windows Display Settings In Tabs

The settings for serial, USB, and custom devices are now displayed on a separate tab at the top of each device window. Previous Battery Manager versions displayed a collapsible panel like the figure and live data panels leading to layout issues. Now the device settings are vertically scrollable so that the device window size can be minimized e.g. for barcode scanners.

In most cases the device settings are only modified once when the device is added, while the figure and live data panels are used frequently and therefore deserve a more prominent position in the graphical user interface.

  Added Support For SkyRC MC3000

Battery Manager now supports the SkyRC MC3000 device with native USB interface. This charging device provides 4 charging slots for round cell rechargeable batteries. It comes with a USB port to read the current measurement data for the loaded batteries. The USB device window displays some live device settings like the UI mode (Advanced, Simple, Dummy), the temperature unit (°C or °F), and the firmware and hardware versions.

The MC3000 has a silent cooling ventilator kicking in only if needed. It provides support for NiMH, NiCd, NiZn, Eneloop, Lithium-Ion, LiIo4.35, LiFePO4, RAM, LTO chemistry types. The MC3000 is highly configurable, solid and precise, which makes it a good choice as charger for Battery Manager.

  Windows Driver Installation For USB Charge Manager Devices

The VOLTCRAFT Charge Manager 2016/2024 devices come with a USB interface which needs to be mapped internally as a serial port (COMx under Windows). If a CP210x UART Bridge USB device is detected, a download link for the Windows driver is presented by the device wizard.

By clicking this link, the Windows driver archive is downloaded from the Internet and presented to the user in the Windows Explorer. The INF file can then be installed manually. Windows driver installation requires local admin rights, ask your system administrator for support if you do not have the required permissions.

After successful driver installation, a new COM port is visible in the device wizard. Select this COM port and choose your charging device in the next wizard step. The driver needs to be installed only once on your system. Just ignore the link if you already installed the CP210x UART Bridge driver.

  Windows Installer Creates .vmoptions Files For Each Launcher

The Windows installer for Battery Manager now creates a separate .vmoptions file for each of the launchers. Thus, it is possible to use different setups e.g. more memory for the GUI launchers and less for the CLI launcher. The access rights for the installation directory has been adapted so that all Windows users can edit these .vmoptions files.

  Restore Associated Charger Batteries On Application Restart

It is possible that the Battery Manager needs to be restarted although batteries are being charged. A restart is necessary also if the operating system like Windows decides to restart the system e.g. after the installation of updates. In all these cases the battery associations within the docking windows were lost and had to be recreated manually.

Now the previous batteries used for charging are stored along with the preferences. If the configuration of the batteries in a charger matches the previous configuration (same exact slots execute the same exact programs), then a dialog is displayed to decide whether the previous batteries shall be restored. If the user agrees, then the batteries are restored while logging is continued if activated, and the previous measurement is also continued. So there is no need to manually assemble multiple measurements.

This new functionality is available for all supported battery chargers.

  Auto-save Preferences

It is possible that applications need to be restarted although tasks are running. A restart is necessary also if the operating system like Windows decides to restart the system e.g. after the installation of updates. In all these cases, some of the configured preferences were lost and had to be recreated manually.

To avoid data loss, the new option "Automatically save the preferences" has been added to the preferences. It can be found in the "Miscellaneous" section of the preferences. The default setting depends on the application, the default interval is 60 minutes.

  Added Support For Delock WLAN Power Socket Switches (Tasmoda)

Besides the devices that are connected to USB computer ports (e.g. SkyRC chargers), custom devices are typically connected over LAN or WLAN connections. Now the Battery Manager provides support for the Delock WLAN Power Socket Switch MQTT (11826) and Delock WLAN Power Socket Switch MQTT with energy monitoring (11827).

These devices may be used to turn on other devices like chargers on program start and turn them off automatically if the program is exited. This helps to reduce unnecessary power consumption in idle time periods.

New custom devices may be added using the Device Wizard from the 'Devices' menu. Like serial and USB devices also custom devices may be used only with an existing concrete device from a connected database. Please create additional database devices if you plan to deploy multiple power socket switches.

  Simplified Device Window Management

There are three type of devices currently supported by Battery Manager: serial devices, USB devices, and custom devices without serial/USB. New devices of any type can now be added easily by using the Device Wizard from the 'Devices' menu. New devices are always bound to a certain database connection, thus a database session needs to be established prior to adding new devices.

New device windows are now being added to the list at the bottom of the 'Devices' menu. A device window can be opened or closed by hitting the menu item. The window management can be done via the 'Docking' -> 'Docking Windows' menu as for the other docking windows. If a device window becomes obsolete then it may be removed with the new close button (red X symbol) on the right side of the menu item.

  Docking Windows Properly Restored After Restart

Due to an error in the code to restore the docking windows, the overall open/close state of the windows were not properly set after application restart.

This has now been fixed.

  Batteries Of Any State Recognized By Barcode Scanners

If a barcode is scanned, then the connected barcode scanner window queries for the barcode. Previously, only batteries in ACTIVE state have been found. This behaviour has been fixed so that also batteries in other states like INACTIVE or EOL are now recognized.

  Added Barcode Printing Support For Labeler Devices

Battery Manager now supports printing barcodes via labelers such as the Brother PT-P700. By default, a set of barcodes can be printed on A4/Letter paper on regular printers. This requires a lot of manual work to get the barcodes onto the batteries. From the barcode printing button of the 'My Batteries' tab you can now choose from additional menus to print barcodes on 12 mm tape, 18 mm tape, or 24 mm tape (TZe).

In the Battery Manager preferences under 'Printing', a default labeler device can be set which is used automatically if the tape printing is started. Otherwise, the labeler needs to be selected everytime a new print job is created. By adjusting the module width (default value is 5), the printing width can be finetuned if necessary. A value of 6 increases the width of the overall graphical barcode and may lead to better recognition by barcode scanners.

Additionally to printing barcodes, new menus have been added to print the battery names only instead of printing the graphical barcodes. Future Battery Manager versions may provide support for battery identification by using cameras.

  Only Installers With Included Java Available

The installer variants for Battery Manager without Java have now been removed. All installers for the Battery Manager software now include a suitable Java environment and thus do not need any additional installations.

  New Barcode Library OkapiBarcode

The previously used Barbecue library has been replaced by OkapiBarcode mainly because it is actively maintained.

  Nimbus Look & Feel Usable Again

The Nimbus look & feel was not available for Commons Framework based applications. This was due to an error while determining the currently used Java version 6, 7, 17 etc. for the latest Java environments like Amazon Corretto 17.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the Nimbus look & feel is available.

  System USB Devices Now Probed By Device Wizard

The Device Wizard displays the available serial (COM) ports as well as the USB devices. Since each USB device provides certain information like vendor and product ids, it is often possible to identify the connected USB devices e.g. a SkyRC MC3000 USB charger.

If a connected USB device has been identified as a certain product supported by Battery Manager, then this USB device is now highlighted in a special color by the device chooser page of the Device Wizard. This facilitates the device selection.

  Choosable Charging Time Unit And Current Unit For Battery Datasets

For both battery and my battery datasets the time unit for charging was statically "hours" and the current unit was statically "mA". These units can now be chosen from a list, the selected values are stored into the database along with the other battery data. The new combo boxes have been added for both the normal charging as well as for fast charging. Available time units are "seconds", "minutes", and "hours", available current units are "mA" and "A".

This was necessary to reflect the capabilities of recent battery chemistry like LiIon which can be charged at higher current rates and in shorter time compared to the classic NiMH rechargeable batteries.

  Access To Embedded Database On Port 1527

If the embedded database (Apache Derby) is used for the application, then access with one of the widespread tools like Aqua Data Studio or DBeaver would be useful. If the embedded database is running, then access on port 1527 can be activated by clicking the new menu item Database -> Embedded Database -> Allow Access On Port 1527

Once access is activated, then please set a password for the default user. This is necessary to access the embedded database from tools like DBeaver. Please note that this password must also be entered everytime a new database session is being created in Battery Manager.

The JDBC URL for Battery Manager 2.17.x then looks as follows: jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/battman-2.x.x;create=false

Caution: please DO NOT modify table data or the schema from outside the application! This may damage the database and cause the application to become unusable! It is best practice to create a database backup to be able to restore it later.

  New Quick Filter For Device Battery Chooser

If a battery for a charger slot is selected from the list of available batteries in the database, the new filter field can be used to quickly identify the desired battery. Just type a search pattern like "my" into the filter field, the list is immediately reduced to the matching items. The filter is not case sensitive, so patterns in either lowercase or uppercase can be used. The pattern can be reset by clicking the button laterally to the filter field.

  Display Hints For The User Via Balloon Tips

Especially for first time users of an application it is useful to display some hints on how to use the software. Therefore, the new option "Display balloon tips" has been added to the preferences. It can be found in the "Miscellaneous" section of the preferences. The default setting is ON, please turn the option OFF if you find the tips annoying.

  Bring Separate Docking Windows To Front Automatically

If the user focuses the main application main window, then it might be useful that also separate docking windows are being brought to front. In order to achieve this, a new option "Automatically bring separate windows to front" has been added to the preferences. It can be found in the "Docking Windows" section of the preferences.

  Charging Device Window Displays Program Sequences Like (DIS, CHA)

Now the device window for chargers shows the sequence of charging and discharging in the slot area title. For example the PROCHARGE (PCH) program of the Voltcraft CM2024 device consists of the sequence discharging and charging (DIS, CHA). The current step is displayed in bold text if this information is available from the device.

  Official Support For The Embedded Database (Derby) And MySQL

The two officially supported databases for Battery Manager are the embedded database (aka Derby) and MySQL. While the embedded database is for single-user environments, the MySQL database can be configured for environments with multiple users.

Please check out our MySQL database services for Battery Manager.

  New Column For Latest Charging And View Measurements For Single Battery

The "My Battery" tab of the session window now provides a new "Charged" column displaying the number of days since the latest measurement for this battery. This allows for checking those batteries in the list which have not been charged for a longer time e.g. 1 year.

It is now possible to display all available measurements for a single battery by using the "Show Measurements..." context menu (right mouse button) or the respective toolbar button. If activated then the "Measurements" tab is selected and the search for the battery name is automatically executed. After a while, all measurements for the battery are listed.

  Clicking Order of Docking Windows Properly Restored

If the user activated certain sequences of docking windows in the docking manager, these docking windows have not been restored correctly. In extreme case, all windows were hidden after an application was started and had to be reactivated manually.

This behaviour has been fixed so that docking windows are restored properly.

  Automatic Reconnect For The Embedded Database

If the embedded database was terminated from Battery Manager for some reason, then all open sessions are disconnected.

The sessions are reconnected automatically now when the embedded database is started again. So it is not required any longer to manually reconnect such sessions.

  Added Support For New Google Drive API v3 Library Versions

The new library versions are:

groupId=com.google.apis artifactId=google-api-services-drive version=v3-rev20240628-2.0.0

groupId=com.google.api-client artifactId=google-api-client version=2.6.0

groupId=com.google.oauth-client artifactId=google-oauth-client-jetty version=1.36.0

  Added Support For New AWS SDK S3 Library Version 2.26.25

The new library version is:

groupId=software.amazon.awssdk artifactId=s3 version=2.26.25

  Support For Latest Dropbox SDK To Fix Outdated Certificate Trust Store

As reported by the Dropbox maintainers an update is required to not run into issues with an outdated certificate trust store. The Dropbox SDK version used by VFSLib has therefore been updated.

All VFSLib users are strongly recommended to update to VFSLib version 2.8.3 ASAP, since the used certificates will stop working in many web browsers and devices in 2026.

Dropbox states: "On or after January 1, 2026, the Dropbox API servers will be updated to use new root certificates, so you’ll need to update the version of the SDK used in your app before then."

  Additional Command Line Arguments Required For Look & Feels (OpenJDK 17)

The following arguments need to be specified to run the Battery Manager GUI application with all installed Look & Feel implementations:

--add-exports java.desktop/com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows=ALL-UNNAMED --add-exports java.desktop/com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif=ALL-UNNAMED

  New Convenience Getter for VFSFileSystemManager With Full Protocol Support

The new VFSLibSettings.getManagerAllProtocols() method provides a file system manager with support for all available protocols including the file based protocols like "jar" and "file". These are useful to access classpath resources via VFSLib.

The existing VFSLibSettings.getManagerNetwork() removes the file based protocols and should therefore be used for 'real' network protocols like "http" and "sftp".

  Fix for Obsolete FileObject's from Internal Cache

During intensive integration tests an error occurred for remote folders created and deleted multiple times. In certain situations the previous file/folder IDs have been re-used. This led to runtime errors e.g. if obsolete files/folders should be removed by their IDs.

This behaviour has now been fixed so that IDs of files/folders are freshly resolved.

  Adjusted Capabilities of Amazon S3 Provider (No Renaming Support)

Since also the latest AWS API version 2 does not provide support for renaming files or folders (as well as the AWS S3 Console), the Capability.RENAME in S3FileProvider has now been removed. If the doRename() method is called for S3FileObject objects, a FileSystemException is thrown.

  New Google Drive Provider Options to Avoid SocketTimeoutException's During Download

When downloading larger files e.g. 30 MB via the Google Drive provider took more than the default 20 seconds, then "java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out" was thrown.

To give the connections more time to process, two new file system options have been added: GDriveFileSystemConfigBuilder.CONNECT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (Integer, default: 20 seconds) GDriveFileSystemConfigBuilder.READ_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (Integer, default: 20 seconds)

Reasonable values are CONNECT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 30s and READ_TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 600s Even large file downloads should be possible depending on your Internet speed.

  Fix For Delete Non-empty Folder Issue of Examples

When non-empty folders were deleted, then all providers ignored this request (kept). For non-empty folders the deleteAll() method needs to be called instead of delete().

The examples have now been fixed.

  Fix For Dropbox doListChildrenResolved() Lower-case Issue

When Dropbox folders were listed, then the DbxFileObject returned a list with entry names in lower-case.

This behaviour has now been fixed so that children are listed with their original names.

  VFSLib Now Published to Maven Central Repository

The VFSLib library can now be easily included in own projects by adding the Maven dependency. The JAR files may also be downloaded directly from the Leisenfels homepage.

  Added Support For New AWS SDK For Java Version 2 (S3)

The Amazon S3 component of VFSLib now exclusively supports the new AWS API version 2 provided by Amazon. Required JAR libraries are being referenced by the Maven pom.xml build resources.

groupId=software.amazon.awssdk artifactId=s3 version=2.25.7

The new AWS API version 2 is based on classes in the 'software.amazon.awssdk' package.

  Protected Instead of Private Class Access

All private access declarations of the class fields, methods etc. have been changed from private to protected. This allows developers to easily extend the existing VFSLib classes without unnecessary re-coding or access via reflection.

  Network Connections Restored

In certain situations configured network connections have not been restored after an application restart. This error occurred due an erroneous connection list copy procedure.

This behaviour has been fixed so that network connections are restored properly.

  Release Notes Categories Sorted Alphabetically

The categories found in the application release notes dialog are now sorted alphabetically in order to provide the user a better overview. This is useful if multiple release notes e.g. from different libraries are being merged together.

  Reduced Language Support to English (U.S.)

In order to minimize development overhead due to translations, VFSLib now provides exclusive support for English user texts and message codes. The same applies for the VFSLib documentation in any form.

  Added Support For New Google Drive API v3

The Google Drive component of VFSLib now exclusively supports the new v3 API version provided by Google. Required JAR libraries are being referenced by the Maven pom.xml build resources.

groupId=com.google.apis artifactId=google-api-services-drive version=v3-rev20240123-2.0.0

The new v3 API version is based on classes in the 'com.google.api.services.drive' package.

  Added Support For Datalogic Gryphon Barcode Scanners

Battery Manager now supports the Datalogic Gryphon GFS4450 RS232 device with RS-232 interface for an easy battery detection. It comes with a RS-232 cable, a power supply has to be purchased separately. Barcode scanners with RS-232 interface should be preferred since these devices are likely to be supported by new operating systems while USB requires separate drivers which may not be available in the future.

The Gryphon GFS4450 RS232 device requires the following barcode settings: Barcode format: Generic Format Expression: ^([^\r]+)([\r])$ Group: 1

  Added Support For Charge Manager 2024

Battery Manager now supports the VOLTCRAFT Charge Manager 2024 device with USB interface. This charging device provides 10 charging slots for round cell and 9 Volt rechargeable batteries. It comes with a USB port to read the current measurement data for the loaded batteries. Internally the USB connection is mapped by the driver as COM port (RS-232) operated at 19200 baud. The Charge Manager 2024 has no cooling ventilator and is therefore silent compared to other chargers.

  End of Support For RFID And Other Devices

Battery Manager does not provide support for the following devices any longer: -A30A-RS232 by I-KEYS RFID-Technik (Germany) -HYA-02 by Shanghai HuaYuan Electronic Co. Ltd. (China) -RFID Scanner 125Khz by Shanghai Sumlung Information Technology Co. Ltd. (China) -UniControl 4.36 Power Switch by CL SYSTEMS (Germany)

  New Serial Communications Library jSerialComm

The previously used jSSC library has been replaced by jSerialComm due to issues with the latest Java OpenJDK's. running on Windows machines

  Added Support For New Dropbox Core SDK v6

The Dropbox component of VFSLib now exclusively supports the new v6 Core SDK version provided by Dropbox. Required JAR libraries are being referenced by the Maven pom.xml build resources.

groupId=com.dropbox.core artifactId=dropbox-core-sdk version=6.0.0

The new v6 Dropbox SDK version is based on classes in the 'com.dropbox.core' package.

  Minimum Java Version for VFSLib Raised From 1.6 to 1.8

The minimum Java version for VFSLib is now 1.8. The Java version 1.8 is required for all supported platforms.

  Private Key File Support For SFTP Network Connections

Connecting to SFTP servers is now possible also if a private key file is specified for the network connection. This allows for connecting to protected SFTP servers like EC2 instances by Amazon AWS which do not allow direct login using user name and password.

In general SFTP servers must support the KexAlgorithms +diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 due to the used library.

  VFSLib Moved to Leisenfels Tech Zone Under BSD license

The VFSLib may now be used without license costs under a BSD-style license. The commercial licensing model is no longer supported for VFSLib. In order to deploy VFSLib for your own projects just download the source code archive, configure and run the Maven build. Add the VFSLib dependency to your own projects and checkout the examples.

The new and only edition for VFSLib is the Community Edition (CE).

  Support For 2K/4K/8K Resolutions

New predefined resolutions have been added to the "Resolutions" menu in order to support latest graphical devices.

For large resolutions the installer automatically inserts the -Dsun.java2d.uiScale=2.0 command line argument so that normal viewing of the graphical UI is ensured. This setting can be adjusted later by simply modifying a configuration file.

  Minimum Java Version for Battery Manager Raised From 1.6 to 17

The minimum Java version for Battery Manager is now 17. This applies to the GUI as well as the CLI version of the application and the provided Ant tasks. The Java version 17 is required for all supported platforms.

The installer of Battery Manager comes in versions with built-in Java environment >= 17 that meet the new requirements already.

Commercial licenses for the previous 1.6.x versions of Battery Manager become obsolete and cannot be used for the new Battery Manager release 2.17.x.

  Easier Deployment of VFSLib Examples

The VFSLib may now be executed much easier. Additional resources have been added to the "example" subdirectory of the ZIP/TGZ library archives. This includes an Ant environment so that there is no need to install Ant separately on your system. Two separate scripts "runexamples.bat" for Windows and "runexamples.sh" for Linux/UNIX systems have been added. The necessary steps to run the examples are documented in the new "example/README.txt" file.

Please keep in mind that Java 1.6 or newer must be installed and available in the execution PATH to run the examples.

Due to a bug reported for Ant (see NetBeans [Bug 200790]) the VFSLib examples have been modified so that this issue can be circumvented.

Battery Manager 1.6.3 Build 138 (2015-05-06)

  Locale Specific Number Formatting

Floating point numbers like the battery voltage or price are now being displayed and may be edited specific for the current locale. For example it is possible for German customers to edit "9,6" as voltage value instead of the English default "9.6".

  Database Connections Optimized

The database functionality of applications have been optimized from the ground. Whenever possible the programs use database connections from the pool instead of creating new ones. This saves costly authentication with database servers and reduces bandwidth consumption.

  Connect/Disconnect Menu Items Work Properly

The menu items in the Network menu to connect/disconnect a remote file system from within the network files window did not work in previous version of the software. This was due to an internal bug introduced unintendedly when the new (quite similar) database functionality was added.

This behaviour has been fixed so that network connections may be connected/disconnected properly.

  Applied Patch For Bug In Commons VFS [VFS-228]

Previous versions of VFSLib were shipped with the original Commons VFS JAR library named commons-vfs-2.0.jar. VFSLib is now packaged with a substitute file named vfs-2.0.jar indicating that it's not the original Commons library but a self-compiled one.

The original Commons VFS library threw ClassNotFoundException's for DefaultLocalFileProvider which could cause a program based on VFS to crash. For example this happened often if VFS was used by Ant tasks which perform a specific class loading internally. In order to solve this VFS bug a patch had to be applied. Then the patched library had to be compiled freshly.

All developers using VFSLib up to version 1.6.5 and planning to update to 1.6.6 or later should also remove the old commons-vfs-2.0.jar and add the new vfs-2.0.jar library instead.

  Installers For Windows/Mac OS X Now Signed

As required since Mac OS X 10.8 the DMG installers now are signed with an official certificate from COMODO. Also the Windows installer executables are now signed with this certificate so that annoying messages do not appear any longer during installation.

The JAR/WAR resources e.g. used for the Web Start software versions are now signed, too. Former security warnings generated by the Java platform may thus be avoided.

  Uninstall From Running Program

If the Battery Manager software has been installed using an installer (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) then it may be directly uninstalled from the running program. There is no need to use the operating system specific function for deinstallations like the Windows Control Panel to do this.

Since the Web Start versions of the software already provided support for this feature you can simply open the Setup -> Web Start -> Uninstall menu item for installed versions, too.

  Support For Barcode Scanners (USB)

Battery Manager now supports the widely used Honeywell Voyager 9520 USB laser barcode scanner. Honeywell recommends to use its Voyager 9520 USB device in so-called "Serial Emulation Mode".

This means that the device must be configured for this mode by scanning a certain config barcode. Then a special USB driver must be installed which emulates a regular COM port on the computer. Battery Manager can then be configured the same way as the Honeywell Voyager 9520 RS232 device.

Both the configuration barcode and the serial USB driver may be downloaded from the Honeywell website.

The Voyager 9520 device requires the following barcode settings: Barcode format: Default (TEXT/CRLF) Expression: (implicit) Group: (implicit)

  Separate Docking Windows Restored In Dock

If a docking window of an application has been closed using the window decoration function (e.g. red X under Windows) it had been restored into the dock afterward. This was not OK since the user specified within the preferences that closing a separate window shall close it completely. For the options to move closed separate windows into the dock this behaviour would be OK.

This behaviour has been fixed so that closed separate docking windows are restore properly as separate windows again if the preferences are configured to close separate windows completely.

  Managing Database Sequences

In addition to the new function to manage the tables of a database another similar feature to manage also the sequences has been introduced. Database applications like Battery Manager provide a special submenu to launch the new function (e.g. "Database" -> "Manage Sequences").

The dialog shows the current connection data for the selected session tab on top. The list in den center position displays the sequences found in the database. The "Current Value" column shows the current sequence value used to create new datasets while the "Max. Value" column denotes the maximum value used in the associated database table.

Main goal of the new management function is to detect errors that may arise due to unproper sequences. Invalid sequences are highlighted with a special red background. Such sequences may then be repaired by setting proper current sequence values. Invalid sequences may be generated if backups are being restored from file. If a current sequence value is smaller than the maximum value used in the associated database then no new datasets can be created.

  Added Support For Charge Manager 2016

Battery Manager now supports the VOLTCRAFT Charge Manager 2016 device with USB interface. This charging device provides 6 charging slots for round cell and 9 Volt rechargeable batteries. It comes with a USB port to read the current measurement data for the loaded batteries. Internally the USB connection is mapped by the driver as COM port (RS-232) operated at 19200 baud. The Charge Manager 2016 has no cooling ventilator and is therefore silent compared to other chargers.

  Network URL Address Parsing Not Functional

The network connections dialog provides the functionality to specify network connections to reach servers via protocols like FTP/SFTP. Due to a bug in the standard Java API (URI class!) the parsing of fully specified URLs like ftp://kernel.org:21/pub went wrong. The port (here: ":21") was not recognized properly as separate part of the URL address but as part of the server name (here: "kernel.org:21"). This caused the other methods like getPort() returning false values, of course also components like the connection dialog then displayed these wrong values.

This behaviour has been fixed so that network URI addresses may be edited properly.

  Waste Prevention By Recharging

The newly integrated Database submenu named "Reports & Statistics" contains a new item "Calculate Waste Prevention". Like the function for the state of charge prediction also the waste prevention functionality can be controlled with a special dialog.

When rechargeable batteries are being charged, a certain capacity amount is restored which can be used by the deployed device again. If conventional primary batteries were used instead of rechargeable batteries then these had to be replaced here. This means polluting the environment with additional toxic waste.

If charging devices with programs like CHK (Check) or ALV (Alive) are used for recharging and if the produced measurement data is recorded, then the amount of restored capacity may be calculated. On the basis of average capacities and weights of primary batteries the software calculates how many primary batteries with a certain total weight have been prevented. The total weight can be set in relation to the overall weight of the rechargeables in the database.

The calculation results are displayed by a special button on the right side of the program's tool bar.

  Analyzing Measurements For Current State Of Charge (Prediction)

Two new functions have been added to Battery Manager. For each measurement type (manual or series from device) a state of charge for the time after measurement can be calculated. These percent values are displayed by a special column found on the Measurements tab. In order to get reliable results one of the programs CHK (check), CYC (cycle), or ALV (alive) must have been executed. Also the program must have terminated properly with a RDY (ready) or TRI (trickle) status from the device. Also manually edited measurements are recognized as long as the conditions mentioned above are being matched here, too.

The post-measurement states of charge can be easily used to get an overview your secondary battery's capacity over time. If a battery loses more and more of its nominal capacity then it should be replaced by a fresh new battery.

Based on the calculations of the post-measurement states of charge the Battery Manager may now be configured to calculate the estimated current states of charge. This is useful for critical battery-driven devices like smoke detectors. If such a battery is predicted to currently have only let's say 20% of its nominal capacity left then it should be recharged or replaced.

The new state of charge functions can be configured for each database session with the new Database -> Analyze States of Charge menu item. Here you can configure which batteries to use (all or certain lifecycle phases only) as well as the automatisms provided by the software. States of charge may be calculated automatically for the first database session opened or automatically if measurements are changed.

  Filter Window Follows Session State

The filter window shows the filters for the selected session tab. If the database connection was disconnected then previous software versions kept the depending filters on the screen.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the filters are not shown if the connection of the session window has been disconnected or interrupted. If the connection becomes reestablished then also the filters become active again.

  Support For Barcode Scanners (RS-232)

While RFID tags have a limited usability for battery identification new devices have been added to Battery Manager capable of reading barcodes. Barcodes can be printed easily directly from within the Battery Manager software and can then be attached to the managed batteries.

Currently Battery Manager supports the widely used Honeywell Voyager 9520 RS232 laser and Glancetron 2009 RS232 CCD barcode scanners. The Battery Manager software can be configured so that you will simply have to scan the barcode on the next battery to be charged, then the name or its unique database ID is recognized. If the battery is then inserted into a slot of a connected charger like Charge Manager 2010 the measurement data is automatically logged into the database.

Life can be so easy.

  Exceptions After ComboBoxes Have Been Populated

In rare cases the program raised ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException's e.g. if a print preview was created the second time. The reason could be found in the code responsible for loading values into JComboBox components. This has to be done using the Java event dispatch thread. afterward the program must wait before any action on the new items could be performed.

This behaviour has been fixed so that such exceptions will not be raised any longer.

  Support For New Custom Devices

Besides the devices that are connected to serial computer ports (e.g. VOLTCRAFT chargers) a new device type has been introduced: custom devices. Custom devices are arbitrary devices typically connected over LAN or WLAN connections. Currently the Battery Manager provides support for the Gembird EnerGenie EG-PM2-LAN, EnerGenie EG-PMS2-LAN, and EnerGenie EG-PMS2-WLAN power management units. These devices may be used to turn on other devices like chargers on program start and turn them off automatically if the program is exited. This helps reducing unnecessary power consumption.

New custom devices may be added using the device wizard or the new "Open Custom Device" menu. Like serial devices also custom devices may be used by their type only or may be associated with an existing concrete device from a connected database.

  Closing And Restoring Separate Docking Windows

If docking windows in separate windows were closed using the "Close windows completely" setting and the windows were restored into the dock then an inconsistent configuration has been generated. The windows could then not be closed from the dock again but had to be set into separate window mode again to be closed properly.

This behaviour has been fixed so that closing and restoring separate docking window works.

  Task Dialog While Deleting Files/Folders

Local files and directories may be deleted using the file system window, while network files and directories can be deleted using the network files window. If large files have been deleted then the application freezed for some seconds in earlier versions. This behaviour has now been fixed by utilizing the task dialog which shows the current operation and progress. Also, the deletion process may be cancelled from here.

  Directly Execute Energy Saving System Commands

The system commands to be executed if background tasks like copying files have been finished may now be directly executed for test purposes. The software preferences provide support for various system commands like log-off, standby, or system shutdown. If the appropriate button to the right of the respective preference setting is clicked, then a dialog appears where the selected action can be cancelled for a certain time period.

The new execute buttons should be used with care since the user is logged-off or the computer is turned off!

  New Option To Control Scrolling Behaviour Of Lists

Data lists like the files table found in the file system docking window can be refreshed. Previous software versions set the scroll position of the knob on the right side automatically to the top position. Especially for large lists with many entries it is useful that the list be scrolled to the previous position again, so that renamed files can be identified quickly.

In order to support this requirement, a new preference setting for data lists has been added. You can find the setting on the Miscellaneous main entry. In addition to the "Always scroll to top of lists" mode the setting "Restore previous scroll position" can be deposited here. Currently, the file system window, the network files window, and the database session tab provide support for this new setting (additional lists may follow).

  Assembling Of Measurement Series

If a device-based measurement is interrupted e.g. due to a power failure, such series can only be captured in multiple series. Such measurement series can now be put together again with the Battery Manager software. This function is only possible for device generated measurements which really belong together (same battery, same device/type, same slot and program etc.).

Associated measurement series can be selected using the Measurements session tab. The context menu (right mouse button) provides the new menu "Assemble Series..." which opens a dialog where the required data from the first and last datasets of the series are displayed by a list. Here you can choose the appropriate series to be assembled finally. The latest series are concatenated to the oldest series automatically.

  Setting Default Number Of List Items

The number of items shown by new database session lists can now be configured globally for all sessions. The Preferences -> Session Window options unit provides the new setting "Default number of list entries" which can be set to the same values as the navigations at the bottom left corner of the database lists.

Still, each table stores its item count separately and can hence to configured individually. If a new item count is configured manually using the table navigation the user is asked to transfer the new setting to other lists. If this is accepted here then also the new global option "Default number of list entries" is overridden here, too, so that new lists will display the item count automatically.

  New Quick Start Document (PDF)

The user manual contained a section titled "Quick Start". This manual section has now been extracted into a separate PDF document titled "Battery Manager Quick Start". This new document can be downloaded from the Battery Manager web site, it is not available from within the software. The user manual section has been removed to avoid unnecessary redundancies.

The new Quick Start guide allows for a quick setup of the Battery Manager software in 4 steps.

  Improved Support For Oracle DBMS Including Express Edition (XE)

In order to support the Oracle DBMS optimally some new connection settings have been added. The Oracle connection now provides support for the "Connect As" feature where the specified user (e.g. SYS) can login to the Oracle DBMS using a certain role such as SYSDBA or SYSOPER. This is especially useful for the Express Edition (XE) if only the default user SYSTEM has been configured with a password. One can connect easily with the logon user SYS and the new feature "Connect As" = SYSDBA here. For Oracle 11 XE connections also the schema mapping needs to be changed here to SYSTEM (e.g. for both BATTMANDATA and BATTMANSYS application schemas used by the Battery Manager software).

If a concrete Oracle server uses a service instead of a SID then the new "Service" connection setting can be used here. You can specify either a SID or a service identifier, but not both.

Another interesting Oracle specific setting is the new "Encryption" connection setting. Here, the supported encryption algorithms like SSL or AES256 can be specified. The data transferred to the Oracle DBMS and back is then encrypted using this algorithm so that eavesdropping by third parties is very unlikely to happen. Remember that only a few algorithms can be used here out of the box (e.g. RC4_256) while others have to be setup on the server side first (e.g. AES256).

  Expanding File System Directories With Handles

Due to to an internal issue during file resolving the file system window did not list subdirectories in the overview tree on the left side properly. This behaviour could be seen if a directory in the tree was expanded using the entry handle (plus symbol under Windows, arrow symbol under Mac OS etc.).

This behaviour has been fixed so that expanding directories works properly this way again. For older application versions it is possible to circumvent this situation by navigating into subdirectories with the double-click mechanism instead of clicking the handle.

  License Not Valid

Due to a timezone issue found in the license engine used by Leisenfels both license types for evaluation and commercial have been rejected in certain situations. For example if a U.S. customer obtained a license at 10 p.m. then the license was generated being valid from the next day. The license could not be used immediately in these rare cases.

This behaviour has been fixed so that licenses are valid from one day before the license is obtained.

  License Not Valid

Due to a timezone issue found in the license engine used by Leisenfels both license types for evaluation and commercial have been rejected in certain situations. For example if a U.S. customer obtained a license at 10 p.m. then the license was generated being valid from the next day. The license could not be used immediately in these rare cases.

This behaviour has been fixed so that licenses are valid from one day before the license is obtained.

Battery Manager 1.6.2 Build 89 (2014-06-20)

  Import Of Database Connections

Database connections can now be imported from local files so that a manual editing is not necessary here. The database dialog has two new buttons to export the selected connection into a local file and a second to import existing definitions from local files. This allows for an easy transfer of connections between multiple Battery Manager installations.

The database wizard has been added a connection import function, too. It is now possible to configure the database connection directly from a connection definition file. If you registered for the commercially available Leisenfels database hosting then appropriate definition files will be emailed to you so that you can easily add new connections.

  Battery Manager Supports User Roles

Like other database applications also Battery Manager now provides support for user roles. A role is a special user group with specific access permissions for the software functions. Currently the database users can be assigned the following roles:

Administrator User (read-write) User (read-only)

With the new menu entry Database -> Manage Database -> Manage Users an administrator may add arbitrary users for the current database. The login depends on the user name each user logs into the database. Each database user can be assigned to one single role as listed above. If there are no roles defined by the database then each user is treated as an administrator with full access to the database. If at least one user has been assigned a role then the defined users and roles are automatically activated. While administrators have full access to database functions, read-only users may only view datasets (no write access).

The new role concept is used for external databases like Oracle or MySQL only, not for the embedded database since this has only one single user which is always an administrator.

Please take a look at the manual of the Battery Manager software for details on roles.

  Added Support For Charge Manager 2015

Battery Manager now supports the VOLTCRAFT Charge Manager 2015 device (not sold any more). This charging device provides 6 charging slots for round cell and 9 Volt rechargeable batteries. It comes with a RS-232 port to read the current measurement data for the loaded batteries.

  Change Password Also For External Databases

While previous versions of Battery Manager supported only changing the password for the embedded database this is now possible also for external databases like MySQL or Oracle. Each user with permissions to access a Battery Manager database may now use the new main menu function "Set/Change Password" to alter her own password. It is required that the current/old password is specified first, then the new password must be edited twice in order to avoid errors here. Once the password has been changed successfully the current connection is reconnected automatically based on the new settings.

If the password for an external database is "changeme" then the user is automatically asked for a password change if a new session is created. This automatism allows for an easy first login and ensures that simple user passwords are changed to more secure values.

  Transfer Visible Item Count To Other Tabs

As a convenience function the Battery Manager software now supports transferring an item count value from one database session tab to the other tabs. If the visible item count (e.g. 10, 25, all) is changed by the user for one single tab a dialog appears where the new setting can be transferred to the other tabs of the same database session.

You can set the "Do not show again" flag at the bottom of this dialog and you will be not asked again. This dialog may be reactivated at any time from within the options (Disabled Dialogs section).

  Form Editor Opened Twice

The form editors for devices etc. after clicking one of the table hyperlinks were displayed twice due to an internal misconfiguration.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the form dialogs are displayed only once as expected.

  MySQL Stores Current Date And Time By Mistake

Each database has its own specialties. The MySQL database for example automatically stores the current date and time for fields allowed to carry no values at all (NULL). Since other databases like Java DB or Oracle store NULL values here by default, the MySQL engine of the Battery Manager has been modified appropriately. Now also the MySQL database stores proper NULL dates and timestamps by default so that it can interoperate with other supported databases.

  Rarely Occurring GUI Hangs Avoided

If dialogs were displayed right after the application main window showed up on the screen the program got stuck in rare cases. This was due to an internal calling scheme for dialogs. The program had to be terminated by the Windows Task Manager to solve this situation.

This behaviour has been fixed so that such hangs should not take place any longer.

  Connection Combo Properly Displayed

Sometimes the connection combo box in the toolbar has been displayed too small so that the item texts couls not be read properly. This behaviour has been corrected so that the items are readable.

  Setting Upload Content Length Only When Required

Some time ago a new method for setting the S3 upload content length has been introduced to VFSLib (see release note #11 written 2014-02-03). As this works perfectly for the Amazon S3 provider this settings MUST NOT be used for SFTP connections when large files are being transferred. For example if a 2 GB video file is to be transferred via SFTP then a 2 GB array is allocated internally by the SFTP driver. Normally this leads to OutOfMemoryErrors of the Java VM which then has to be terminated by force (e.g. using the Windows Task Manager).

To avoid this unwanted side effect programmatically the method VFSUtils.isContentLengthRequired() has been added to VFSLib. It checks if the VFSLibConstants.ATTR_CONTENT_LENGTH attribute is required for a given VFS network file. Currently only the Amazon S3 provider requires this attribute.

Programmers should modify existing code using the FileObject.getContent().setAttribute() method as follows:

if (VFSUtils.isContentLengthRequired(url)) { url.getContent().setAttribute(VFSLibConstants.ATTR_CONTENT_LENGTH, len); }

Battery Manager 1.6.1 Build 82 (2014-05-26)

  Collapsible States Restored

The SerialPortWindow shows three areas with device options, figure, and live data. Previous versions of Battery Manager did not properly restore the expanded/collapsed states of these areas so that both the figure and the live data panel were automatically expanded by default.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the three areas are expanded/collapsed based on the state the application was exited the last time.

  Added Support For UniControl 4.36 Power Switch

Battery Manager now supports the UniControl 4.36 produced by CL SYSTEMS (Germany). This device allows to toggle the state of 4 programmable power plugs (on/off). The connected devices may be switched on or off directly from the running program. Like for the Charge Manager devices a figure is displayed where the states of the 4 plugs can be set using buttons.

Power switches can be used for other device like chargers in order to turn these devices automatically on when the Battery Manager software starts and off again if the program is exited. This is another feature to reduce energy consumption and help to protect the environment.

  Serial Settings For New RFID Scanners

If a new RFID scanner was configured with the previous version its serial settings could be modified only if the form has been closed and opened again. This behaviour has been fixed so that the serial settings of RFID devices can be modified right after the type was selected.

  Subdirectories Not Listed

Due to unnecessarily raised internal exceptions during file resolving the file system window did not show subdirectories in the overview tree on the left side under Linux. Changing into a subdirectory was not possible with previous program versions.

This behaviour has been fixed so that listing and changing into subdirectories works properly.

  Help System Callable From Window Tabs

Docking windows like the new database session window are capable of displaying multiple tabs. Previous versions of the so-called tabbed windows were limited to display context-sensitive help only if a reference was deposited for each tab which was never the case.

This behaviour has been precised by implementing a failsafe structure now. If a help system reference is set for the surrounding tabbed window then this is used instead. This works for the many tabbed windows like output window, search result window, or database session window.

  Dummy URL Adresses Suppressed

Applications based on the Commons framework often use hyperlinks to navigate to certain program features like a certain configuration. If the hyperlink target is not a real Internet address often "dummy://test" is used as placeholder. This worked out with most operating systems on the market.

Windows 8 opens a dialog to specify an app in such cases. It has been reported that also some Linux/UNIX systems create unwanted dialogs here, too. This behaviour has now been fixed by a code modification so that such placeholder URLs are not browsed by the operating system any longer.

  Adjusting Memory Size Under Windows 7

The memory size to consume can be adjusted comfortably from the running program. Under Windows 7 operating systems this could fail due to erroneous file names used by the program. If the memory size has been changed with previous program versions under Windows 7 then a message was displayed on the status line but the application has not been restarted. This behaviour has been observed for the installer variants only.

Due to restrictive file permissions under Windows 7 the vmoptions file may not be editable by the users. Please edit the file manually in these cases or ask your administrator.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the memory size can be adjusted properly under Windows 7. Thanks to T. Mehring for his excellent bug report.

  Docking Framework: Separate Windows Revised

Some unexpected behaviour of docking windows displayed by separate windows has now been fixed. In rare cases separate windows could have been displayed twice due to incorrect code found in the core components of the docking framework.

Users who have experienced unexpected behaviour of docking windows in separate windows could do the following:

1. Install the most recent version of your software 2. Call the Window -> Reset Windows menu entry

The application will then reset all docking windows to their initial states. Please remember that the settings used by the docking windows may be reset, too. For example the Data Digester generate options including the managed templates will be lost. If this might turn out to become a problem for you then do not reset the windows.

  Hex Editor Exception With Nimbus Look & Feel

The hex editor component shipped with the Commons framework raised an exception in combination with the Nimbus look & feel. This was due to a missing font reference which is not available for Nimbus.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the hex editor component is properly initialized.

  Preferences Dialog Did Not Show Up

Previous application versions had a problem showing the preferences dialog multiple times. This was due to an internal problem which appeared when the preferences dialog has been called twice or more times and the release timeout had been reached. In order to save memory space many application dialogs are cached and released automatically after a certain period of time that the dialog has not been used.

This behaviour has been fixed so that the preferences dialog may be called again properly.

  Out Of Memory Due To Large Clipboard Data

Previous application versions based on the Leisenfels Commons Framework sometimes hung without an obvious reason. This behaviour may have been caused by large data portions on the clipboard of the operating system. For example if a full screen shot is taken the image data is large especially for dual (or more) screen displays. Applications regularly access the clipboard data to show an indicator icon whether the clipboard is filled or not.

This behaviour has been fixed so that large clipboard data is not a problem any longer.

  Improved Database Connection Dialog

The dialog to configure database connections now checks edition specific requirements. Underlying applications will show some indicator that unallowed connections cannot be used. In general the dialog has been restructured so that any database connection for the available drivers may be setup. If the application edition is switched then the previous connections are being kept.

Like invalid network connections also invalid database connections are shown with indicator now instead of hiding them completely.

  Added Support For MySQL Databases

The Battery Manager Professional (single-client) and Enterprise (multi-client) now provide support for MySQL databases.

The setup is quite simple. Add a new database (default name: BATTMAN) and grant permissions for the database user (CREATE,SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE). Since MySQL does not know about schemas you can simply map the BATTMANDATA and BATTMANSYS schemas to the database (e.g. BATTMAN).

By default MySQL allows for packet sizes of max. 1M to be transferred (e.g. battery photos). You may want to increase this size by modifying the my.cnf file: max_allowed_packet = 16M

  Install Updates For Java Web Start Applications

Applications like Data Digester provide a new menu item Setup -> Web Start -> "Check for Updates...". This new function is only available if the application has been started using Web Start (JNLP). If the new menu item is clicked a dialog checks for newer application version compared to the running application. One or multiple update candidates can then be selected for update.

The button "Update" can be used to install the selected version(s) while the current version is kept on the system. The other button "Update & Remove" can be used if the current version shall be replaced by the newer version. The configuration directory is not deleted by default.

This new feature allows for an easy update of Web Start based applications and replaces the always problematic auto-update feature of Web Start.

  Session Tabs Optimized

The database queries for populating the session tabs (My Batteries, Measurements etc.) have been optimized for all supported databases (Oracle and Derby at the moment). While testing with larger sets of datasets in the underlying tables and views it came clear that especially for Derby the existing SQL queries were too slow. Like all IBM-based databases (e.g. DB2) also Derby lacks appropriate support for sub-query optimizations. Former sub-queries have been replaced by views or other optimization techniques so that the session tabs are now populated much faster.

  Table Selection For Nimbus Look & Feel Displayed Properly

If the Nimbus look & feel was active and a table row has been selected then the white background color was displayed instead of the green Nimbus selection color. This has been fixed so that selected rows are displayed properly now.

  GUI Hangs Avoided

In certain situations the window of an application may freeze due to resources being accessed by multiple programs simultaneously. This behaviour has been straighened out by implementing a more lax internal synchronization.

  Open Amazon S3 Object Multiple Times

Due to a limitation in the Amazon S3 API a workaround has been implemented for the S3 provider so that a S3 FileObject may be opened multiple times. This is necessary for example if digests are calculated once for MD5 and for SHA-1 using multiple threads. The S3Object.getObjectContent() method returns a previous input stream if it has not been closed in the meantime. So if it is still in use the same reference is provided which produces application errors. The workaround clones the S3Object and lets the clone open the new input stream instead.

  Data Digester Now To Support VFSLib

The Data Digester software now is shipped with the current VFSLib component and therefore supports all file systems including Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3. Currently these features are only available for the Data Digester Enterprise Edition (EE) which comes with network support. Please download an installer appropriate for your computer. The software may be evaluated for 30 days. Please request an evaluation license which is possible also directly from the running application (Internet connection required).

  Added Content Length For Uploads

As required by the Amazon S3 API the content length for uploads can now be specified. If a file is uploaded to Amazon, Dropbox, or Google this is done with web requests. This kind of transfer technique requires that prior to the transfer the overall length of the transmitted data is specified.

All current providers have been modified the way that it is now possible to set the content length easily. Before an upload output stream is requested with getContent().getOutputStream() the length should be set with getContent().setAttribute(VFSLibConstants.ATTR_CONTENT_LENGTH, length). If this attribute is not set for the cloud providers then uploading small files may work but uploading large files > 10 MB will certainly fail. Please check out the modified example classes for details.

  Improved Network Dialog

The dialog to configure network connections now checks protocol specific requirements. For Dropbox and Google Drive the access token must be configured to operate properly. For Amazon S3 the access key ID, the secret key, and the bucket name are required options now. If any of the required parameters are missing, an appropriate message is being displayed by the dialog. Underlying applications will show some indicator that such misconfigured connections cannot be used.

The Amazon protocol panel of the dialog provides a new option "Use bucket URI" to assemble the overall URI address of the connection based on the bucket name instead of the host name. See the VFSLib component for more details.

The German translation of this dialog has been completed.

  Updated To Dropbox 1.7.6

The current VFSLib is now shipped with Dropbox for Java API version 1.7.6.

The access token is now only valid for the Java session it has been requested for. For the ExampleDropbox.java and ExampleDropboxOptimized.java classes this means that the -token parameter is no longer supported. The access token MUST be requested each time the script is restarted, copied from the Dropbox website and inserted into the dialog input field. This is a little less convenient but surely the token security benefits from this change.

As for the earlier Dropbox versions also the new one has some limitations e.g. when uploading large files. Uploading files using the Java API is still slow compared to the Dropbox desktop application. According to forum posts at Dropbox this is the programmed behaviour. For large files users should use the Dropbox desktop client or switch to other cloud file system providers without this kind of limitation.

  New Option "Use bucket URI"

For the Amazon S3 provider a new protocol option has been added: "Use bucket URI". By default the host name aws.amazon.com ist used to assemble the URI for Amazon S3 connections as for the traditional file systems like FTP/SFTP. Since bucket names are globally unique IDs by design it is now possible to configure VFSLib so that URIs like s3://This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. can be used internally.

This is only a display feature which does not influence the internal behaviour of the Amazon S3 provider that comes with VFSLib. It may be changed at runtime.

  Save Token/Secret Key Feature Fixed

Like for the traditional VFSLib file systems also for the new cloud file systems Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3 it's now possible to save secret options like the access token or secret key. Applications like Data Digester provide a check box flag to configure the program behaviour for the configured network connections.

The previous version of VFSLib always stored the secret options, the flag did not work. This has now been fixed so that VFSLib applications may now "forget" about secret options. Remember that the secret options are still remembered while the application is running but not if it is restarted and the save flag has been disabled before.

  File System Options Validation

The file system options to be configured with the various FileSystemConfigBuilder classes are now checked for proper required values. For Dropbox and Google Drive the access token must be configured to operate properly. For Amazon S3 the access key ID, the secret key, and the bucket name are required options now.

Applications like Data Digester will show some indicator if one of these options are missing for the configured network connections.

  Show Files/Folders In File System Window

In many situations an application may want to display the location of a file using the file system window. For example this is a nice feature for the application log file if it shall be sent via e-mail and its exact location in the file system is not by hand. The output docking window provides a special button to display the log file location as do many of the other docking windows and dialogs.

Please remember that the file system window is only automatically shown on the screen here if the automatic mode is enabled (see the context menu by clicking the docking window button with the right mouse button).

The same functionality is implemented for the network file system.

  Obfuscation Issue

If VFSLib is used as part of an obfuscated (scrambled) application then the providers for Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3 could not be activated. This happens although a proper commercial or evaluation license has been installed before.

The log file shows entries like "VFSLIB-0015: Dropbox functions require a Dropbox Edition or Enterprise Edition".

If you use ProGuard for obfuscation then add something like the following to your scripts:

  Started Development

Started development of the new Battery Manager (BattMan for short).

  Enterprise Edition Available

While all VFSLib providers can be obtained separately the Enterprise Edition has now been released. The Enterprise Edition includes all providers currently available (Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3). Please check out the attractive license pricing and volume discount offers.

  VFSLib Now to Support Amazon S3 (Amazon S3 Edition)

As third cloud file system provider the Amazon S3 Edition has been added to VFSLib. Please register a valid Amazon Web Services (AWS) account first. All necessary parameters for the Amazon S3 provider including the keys are provided by the Amazon S3 system.

Like the Dropbox provider also the Amazon S3 provider supports all standard VFS operation as there are creating files and folders, renaming, deleting, downloading, uploading etc. Remember that versioning is not supported by the original Commons VFS and so VFSLib doesn't.

  Added Google Drive To VFSLib (Google Drive Edition)

As second file system provider Google Drive has been added to VFSLib.

Developers need a Google Drive account and their application setup on the Google website. Once an application token has been generated (you must allow your application to access your Google Drive files first) then the VFSLib Google Drive provider can be configured with a few steps.

Like the Dropbox provider also the Google Drive provider supports all standard VFS operation as there are creating files and folders, renaming, deleting, downloading, uploading etc. Remember that versioning is not supported by the original Commons VFS and so VFSLib doesn't.

  Bugs in Java Examples Fixed

Some minor bugs found in the VFSLib Java examples have been fixed for the current release:

* ExampleDropbox: for loop uses iterated variable instead of fileobj (List a Dropbox folder)

  First Official VFSLib (Dropbox Edition)

The release of the first official VFSLib for Dropbox (Dropbox Edition, aka DBE) is now likely to be published in the next few weeks. This initial version comes with a VFS provider implementing the functionality to access the Dropbox network file system.

Developers need a Dropbox account and their application setup on the Dropbox website. Once an application token has been generated (you must allow your application to access your Dropbox files first) then the VFSLib Dropbox provider can be configured with a few steps.

The first available VFSLib edition will be the Dropbox Edition (DBE), additional VFS providers e.g. to access Amazon S3 will be released in Q4/2013. Finally an Enterprise Edition will be published which contains all available VFSLib providers for an attractive price.

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