Version 5.0.3 Released: Locally Installable Executables Now Available!

[Bill Longabaugh]

Version 5.0.3 has just been released.  It only fixes one bug, but it was a painful one: you couldn't edit slash node properties without going through a painful workaround.

But more significantly, 5.0.3 incorporates a couple tweaks that were needed to support the release of locally installable BioTapestry Editor executables.

Up until now, as everybody is probably aware, BioTapestry has only been available through Java Web Start.  That made it easy to control the versioning of the program, and it emphasized how the program is intended to be used, which is to create web-shared network models through the browser-launched BioTapestry Viewer.  But in the last year, Java in the web browser has been the target of some serious security bugs, and some vendors (e.g. Apple) have been disabling Java in the browser on older OS versions (e.g. 10.5) instead of actually fixing the security bugs.  In addition, Java Web Start has faced nagging problems while trying to operate it through wireless proxy routers.  The fact is, we need to move away from Java Web Start for deploying BioTapestry.

So you can now download and locally install your own copy of the BioTapestry Editor.  The program is still written in Java, and runs on all platforms, but now it needs to be wrapped up in a different form depending on what type of computer you have.  These various incarnations are all available from the BioTapestry.org home page.  They should be pretty simple to get running, but let me know if you have any problems.  Since Java Web Start will no longer be managing your versions automatically, please keep BioTapestry up to date and make sure you are using the latest version before reporting a bug.  If you choose to keep using the Web Start link on the BioTapestry.org home page, you will need to be vigilant about keeping your Java version up to date and closely follow the ongoing saga of Java security issues in the browser.

For the time being, the BioTapestry Viewer (not the Editor) that is used to share interactive models online is still tied to Java Web Start.  But we now have just started a new effort to bring the Viewer directly into the web browser using new technologies like HTML5 Canvas.  I'll keep you posted as that effort progresses.

Also, version 6 is almost ready to go out the door with some nice new features, so keep an eye out for that as well.

Thanks for using BioTapestry!

Bill