What's coming in ClearContext v5.2

[deva]

Leonadial and others,

We're making great progress on 5.2 and internal testing is going well. We still hope to have something in your hands this month. Here's an update on the individual areas mentioned in the intial post based on our current testing:

Outlook 2010 64-bit support - this is looking good.

AutoAssign/Filing enhancements - this is looking good, and we're especially excited about our simpler, automated take on the concepts we previously introduced with "Notification Managers" for automated "bacn" emails.

More flexible date management - this is looking good in both sidebar and organizer.

Organizer and Dashboard filters - we'll likely do only minor tweaks to the project sidebar and task organizer functionality based on both time constraints and new feedback coming in. Once we get the 5.2 release out in the next few weeks, we will definitely make a wave of improvements based solely on feedback on the new features in 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2. So please keep suggestions coming.

Bugs - this is looking good w/ 5.1.1 fixes plus a few others in testing.

Regarding the specific list of items in Leonadial's post, we hope to address some of those in 5.2, but a lot of the challenge in those areas lies in UI and usability to make the features accessible and understandable to people. It's likely that we gradually add in some of those options rather than add a lot of complexity to the product all at once. We REALLY appreciate that kind of specific feedback and are definitely taking it into account as we prioritize how and where to make tweaks/improvements to the sidebar and dashboard functionality.

Thanks to everyone for your great feedback and patience as we get closer to the finish line for this release and begin to plan/prioritize for upcoming releases.

[Djblois2]

deva,

I thought you were supposed to post screenshots of the new features?

[deva]

Yes, have just been overwhelmed with last-minute things taking longer than expected as we push to get this release out this month. Have been hoping to wait on screenshots until the UI is pretty close to final so what we show matches expectations in the release.

We've focused our efforts on two things - the new AutoFiling functionality in 5.2 and a number of pesky bugs. Unfortunately, both of those things require extensive testing and tweaking, so we've been running a few weeks behind schedule, especially when it comes to things like tuning the UI for the new features. I'll try and get some preliminary screen shots up in the next couple of days, though.

[tonykent]

Any news of new betas?

[deva]

Bad news and good news:

Bad news - some of the testing the last few weeks required far more changes than expected, delaying us even more. Rather than let this stretch on much longer, we've removed a few of the features we were working on for this build and are pushing them to an update build. That's part of the reason why I haven't posted an update in this thread yet - I didn't want to show any features that might not make it into the 5.2 production release.

Good news - we're in final testing this week and hope to have a beta out by the end of next week. We realize we're a few weeks behind schedule on this, but we're very excited about the release. And with all the major components of the 5.x platform now in place, we'll be able to fine tune and improve various features in small update releases moving forward.

I'm going to post a more detailed list of what features made it in and what got dropped this week. If things go as planned, we'll start opening up beta access next week. Thanks everyone for your interest and patience, we're as eager as you are to get 5.2 out the door.

[Djblois2]

Does this mean there will be small 5.xx releases to make up for those features before 6.0?

[deva]

Sorry for my absence from this thread the past few days. Everyone here is heads-down on final testing. Now that we've gone through the process of testing/dropping/finalizing features, I can finally get to work compiling a full list of what will be in 5.2 release. This release will look pretty much like what I described in my Sep 10 post.

The main thing you'll notice in this release is a completely new module to automatically filter and manage all the "bacn" automated emails you receive. We learned a lot of lessons with our first try at solving this problem and have something now that we hope will really simplify your email life.

The enhancements in the sidebar and organizer will be subtle, but very important for people who use dates in ways other than our default settings and for people who want to view different sets of information than the default in the Task Organizer.

As I wrote above, we had to remove a few features we had hoped to get in 5.2 to keep the release date from slipping TOO far. Because of this, we plan to have at least one more 5.x release focused largely on enhancing Sidebar and Organizer functionality.

We're getting VERY close to having something to release. Stay tuned for more details this week.

[mmatl]

You know you have a lot of anxious followers out here, waiting to see what coming next. I'm particularly interested in seeing what new filtering is being incorporated into this next build...

Keep up the great work!

[deva]

Hi everyone,

Just finishing up a busy week of testing and fine tuning. Everything is looking good for a beta release next week. We'll post full details on the new release early next week and start sending everyone on the beta list and Connect members emails (though they might be staggered for a few days, so don't panic if you don't get yours right away). Thanks to everyone for your patience, we're very excited to get this release out the door.

[deva]

Big update time. Some of you have already received the beta as we're trickling out invites, but (barring any unexpected landmines in initial feedback) by end of day tomorrow (Thursday 10/14/10), everyone on the 5.2 beta list and all Connect subscribers should receive a beta email. Let us know (beta at clearcontext) if you don't!

The biggest new piece in 5.2 is AutoFile to automatically categorize and file automated "bacn" emails (notifications, newsletters, coupons, etc). For those of you who remember the Notification Manager functionality from 4x, this is a much more streamlined version of that (which will grow in functionality to do a lot more than the simple filing we're starting out with).



We’ve gotten AutoFile started with an initial batch of common high-volume automated email sender addresses. ClearContext automatically updates your AutoFile rules as we increase the list and shares new sender email addresses you AutoFile to help build out the list. We need your help to build as complete a list as possible – so please drag all of your automated emails into the appropriate ClearContext AutoFile groups (or create your own groups if they don't fit in the existing ones)! If you do not want to automatically share and update your AutoFile senders list, select Options >Open Rules in the AutoFile sidebar tab and uncheck “share and update new AutoFile senders” in AutoFile Rules options.

In the dashboard and task organizer, we've added support for start date based organization plus added support for entry of undated tasks. The organizer review tab has been improved with an option to include sub-projects when filtering by project. We've also added a toggle so you can view either tasks only or tasks and appointments in the Review tab. We're planning a number of other flexibility and filtering improvements in both the dashboard and task organizer for v5.3.

We've made a few other product improvements such as full Outlook 2010 x64 support, easier "Mark Important" functionality, and a number of bug fixes.

Details on everything will be available on the beta download page. If you haven't received a beta email already, keep an eye on your inbox this afternoon and evening. We can't wait to hear your feedback!

[Djblois2]

Can the autofile work with 2 exchange accounts in outlook 2010?

[ClearContext Support]

AutoFile works with the primary Inbox only.

[DerekSchauland]

How do I add autofile groups... I did not see it in the options box?

[deva]

Please see the beta forum for 5.2 questions/support.