marc paradise

1.1.5 is now available, and it’s a big one – many fixes and some minor enhancements as well.  This download is available for OS 4.6 and later.

First, the important bit: files can be downloaded OTA here:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/bbssh/1.1.5/BBSSH.jad

Several people have reported  trouble with the sourceforge downloads — so if that doesn’t succeed, you can also grab the files here:

http://marcparadise.com/files/BBSSH.jad

Important: installing this version will require you to re-create your sessions.  Some internals for session have changed, and your sessions saved under 1.1.4 are no longer compatible.  You can expect this to have one or two more occurrences, at least until I can get versioning in place before BBSSH goes to Beta.

I’ve started using the sourceforge.net tracker for managing features and bug reports — conveniently, that also makes it easier to report on what’s changed…

• Bug Fixes
• New Features
• Several internal/cleanup changes have been made.

Here are a couple of known issues:

• A new issue has been introduced: the input window overlay now appears centered on the screen.  This is cosmetic only, and has no effect on functionality.
• Storm users will find that the default binding for the CTRL key (SYM) does not work for them, because the SYM softkey cannot be bound on the Storm.  Unfortunately, I have no workaround for this, but the key-binding customization functionality should be ready in 1.1.6.  This will allow you to re-map the CTRL key to a different hard key of your choice.

Here’s some additional info that didn’t make it into the tracker:

• Key binding configuration is still in progress.  However, you can (for the most part) now view how keys are bound.    From the main menu, chooise “Key bindings”.  Press the key or key combination that you want to view, and it will display whatever is mapped to that combination currently — along with a detailed description what the mapping means.

Here are some battery-saving hints, but first a quick comment:

• If you know that your SSH server has a SendClientKeepalive value, you can very likely set the new  “Client Keepalive Interval” in the BBSSH connection settings to 0, disabling it.
• If you have control over the server configuration, you can also change the SendClientKeepalive interval to a higher number, such as 300 seconds.   These two changes will mean that instead of 3 messages every minute of idle time, there will be one message exchanged every 5 minutes.
• Use the input window overlay as often as possible instead of typing directly — typing directly creates a lot more network traffic and causes much more frequent screen refreshes.  This does have a noticeable effect on your battery life.

A couple of notes based on feedback received:

• I do plan on making specialized builds for 4.5, 4.7 (Storm) and 5.0+ devices. However, all of the basic functionality needs to be completed first.  Based on current progress, I would expect that to be within the next few weeks. At the moment, any device running 4.6 or later should work without issues.  However, new platform features won’t be used yet.  Additionally, 4.7+ and Storm/Storm2 users will likely have some issues such as the “CTRL” key mapping problem outlined above.
• If you encounter a menu item that doesn’t work, chances are very good that it’s a placeholder for functionality that hasn’t been completed yet.  Before we get out of alpha, all such items will be fully functional.
• BBSSH can exist alongside MidpSSH without any troubles.

I think that’s all I have for tonight.  Thanks once again to those of you taking the time to test this out. Please continue to post feedback here. If you’ve got a sourceforge.net account you can also post bugs and feedback to the issue tracker and/or feature request tracker pages for the project.

BBSSH has been updated with the following changes:

• Bug fix – Telnet connection types are now properly saved, and connect correctly
• Bug fix – WiFi connections now work
• Feature – “special keys” support added, and has been bound to ALT+right-side convenience key.
• Framework – macro support is integrated and bound to ALT+mute/stdby button.(Note: macro creation screen has not been added, so this doesn’t help very much…)

You can grab the latest OTA download from this location – pick choose “BBSSH.jad” as the file to download. You may need to click the direct-link option after the next page loads.

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/bbssh/

Edit 3/4: fixed the bad link

Edit 3/4 again: REALLY fixed the bad link this time

BBSSH 1.1.3 is now available for download.  This should work with any device running BB OS 4.6 or higher. Here are some features from this alpha release:

• Public/private keypair import is now working. Imported keys can be used for authentication.  In order to be loaded, private keys must be stored at a non-password protected http/https location, in OpenSSH format.   (A wider range of import methods will be coming soon.)
• URL scraper – this will scrape phone numbers, email addresses, and web sites and display them a in list.  The context menu will give appropriate actions for each type of entry.
• Multiple concurrent connections, with quick-switch between connections.
• Integration with Blackberry notifications and alerts – you can set your alert preferences via the BB Profile settings

There is still plenty of work to be done, but this version has replaced MidpSSH as my day-to-day client.   Though some functionality is missing (namely macros and a subset of the special keystrokes), I have found it to be very stable.

Grab the latest version now OTA from the sourceforge.net project site:

BBSSH 1.1.3 OTA (Alpha)

Default Keybindings (these will be configurable and viewable in-app  in the near future):

• SYM - control key: The next key you press will be combined with the CTRL key. For example: pressing SYM , then “c” will send “CTRL+c”
• Volume Up: Show input window overlay
• Volume Down: send Tab key
• Left-side convenience key: send ESC key
• Alt+Left-side convenience key: display the URL scraper
• Right-side convenience key: show popup menu of active session, allowing you to quickly switch between them.
• Directional roller: send arrow keys
• Alt+Direction Up/Down:  Page Up/Dn
• Alt+Direction Left/Right: Home/End
• Shift+Navbutton: Paste
• Ctrl+Navbutton: Copy current terminal contents to clipboard.
• Top button (Mute/Suspend): Toggle between Hybrid and Direct Input modes.

Give it a try, and let me know of any issues.