Simon, my website and server monitoring tool, has been updated to version 2.4.1.

This is a bug-fix release, with a few important fixes to the Port service and notifier plug-in, among other changes.

• Fixed a bug with building the session script for the Port plug-in.
• Fixed a bug where a server that returns binary data could cause a Port-based test to fail, with an exception logged in the Console. The binary data is now correctly recorded as hex values.
• Added a hidden preference to output debug information from the helper for the Port plug-in. It can be activated by entering "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 PortDebugMode YES" in Terminal.
• Also added a similar hidden preference for the Ping plug-in. Activate via "defaults write com.dejal.simon2 PingDebugMode YES" in Terminal.

Download now!

Dejal Simon version 2.4 was recently released, and a few of the changes in this version related to the Preview window. This window may not get much love, so I thought I'd devote a tip blog post to it.

As you know, Simon is a website and server monitoring tool. This mouthful is to try to describe two of the levels that Simon operates at. At the very basic level, Simon is a very simple utility to watch web sites, and let you know when they change or go down. But Simon has much more depth to it — it enables you to monitor all sorts of internet servers and services, local applications, local and remote disk volumes, and more.

The Preview window has this duality, too. When used with a web-based test (i.e. one using the Web (HTTP) service), it displays the HTML source at the top of the window, and the rendered web page and graphics in the bottom, with a URL field, Back/Forward buttons, and more, and links etc are fully functional:

This is really handy, both to quickly see the page while in Simon, without having to switch to a web browser (which is easy too, via the Visit Site command), and when setting up the test in the first place.

One of Simon's key features is the Smart Change Detection function. This is a section of the Edit Test window, where you can tell Simon to only look at the HTML source between two blocks of text. This enables you to focus on the part of the page you care about, and avoid dynamic portions like banner ads etc. You can easily set this up via the Preview window. With the Edit Test window open, after entering the URL, click the Preview button to display the preview of the page. Then search through the HTML source for the start text, select it, and click the Copy to Test toolbar button. This will copy that selected text to the Start field in the Edit Test window. Then you can find and select the end text, click the button again, and it's copied to the End text field. Easy!

As useful as this is, it's not done yet. The Preview window is also supported by many other services, in a slightly different way. For non-web services, the Preview window looks a little different. Instead of the HTML source, it displays a summary of the service operation at the top (e.g. the script), and the output at the bottom. This is all plain text, since that's what these services deal with:

These services support the Smart Change Detection feature, too: just like with web pages, you can select text and click Copy to Test (or copy manually) to set up the Start and End text blocks. Unlike web, you can do it from either the source or output areas (and choose those as options in the Smart Change Detection section).

The Script- and Port-based services already supported this mode, but version 2.4 extended it to include the Application and Ping services, too, along with the new Twitter service. So you can now see more information about exactly what's going on with the Ping checks, and more information about the other services. Version 2.4 also made the Preview window more responsive for this mode, showing the source script immediately, instead of after the check is complete, so you can see what it's doing.

I hope you'll use the Preview window to good advantage when configuring and using Simon.

Since a few people have asked, regarding my announcement yesterday that Simon version 2.4 now requires a minimum of Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), here's the current breakdown of OS versions for Simon:

• 63% are on 10.5.2
• 30% are on 10.4.11
• 3% are on 10.3.9
• 4% are on other OS versions (10.4.x or 10.5.x)

So a few people will be affected by this change, but a relatively small number. And that's always dropping, as more people buy new machines or get around to upgrading their OS.

For people stuck on 10.3.9, I'm sorry for the inconvenience... but it had to happen eventually, and Simon 2.3.5 is a fine version.

Interestingly, Simon is a little ahead of the curve when it comes to Leopard adoption. For my other products (excluding Narrator 2, which requires Leopard), the percentage averages to about 56% on 10.5.2, 40% on 10.4.11, 3% on 10.3.9, and 1% on others. So I could drop 10.3.9 support for those too, though I won't until necessary. It'll definitely happen eventually, but not for a while.

One of my customers alerted me this morning that the just-released version 2.4 of Simon no longer works on Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther). I keep an old clamshell iBook on 10.3.9 for testing purposes, and just confirmed that this was the case. It seems that the framework used for the new Calendar plug-in, which caused hassles when building, also precludes running on 10.3.9. Even removing the framework and the plug-in from the built app didn't help.

I have been planning on dropping 10.3.9 support sometime this year anyway, but have been delaying that as long as possible. It no longer seems possible... so version 2.4 now officially requires a minimum of Tiger, i.e. Mac OS X 10.4 or later. (It works great on Leopard, too.)

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. I have updated the Simon site, release notes, and software listings accordingly. I've also added a link to Simon 2.3.5, the last 10.3.9-compatible release, on the Simon site.

If you are still using Mac OS X 10.3.9, I really recommend upgrading to 10.4 or 10.5. Tiger and Leopard include many great enhancements, and almost all software nowadays requires at least 10.4, and more and more are requiring 10.5.

I read a nice review of Dejal Simon today on the Pixo Bebo blog:

On the surface, Simon is a simple Mac utility which runs all the time, checks web pages, sends out notifications when things are not as they should be. Behind the scenes, Simon is a top-notch server monitoring system with bells and whistles, and each of them have bells and whistles.

and:

All this extra effort on Simon’s part sounds as if it should be ultra complicated, yet, step by step, I found I could fill in the blanks in the Edit Test window, and get Simon to do more. I especially appreciated the notifiers, email messages to tell me what was happening. Cool.

Read the review.

I also signed up to sponsor three sites today:

• Desktop Vibes, a Mac-focused blog that recently reviewed Time Out.
• The Glenn Wolsey Show, a Mac software video blog by a 16-year-old in New Zealand.
• Paid By Pixels, the pixel-block page (similar to Joy of Tech's which I also support) supporting Geek Brief's Big Trip project. I enjoy watching the Geek Brief videocast, and even provided content for one of the episodes.

Check out the sites and support them!

Simon version 2.4 is now in general release!

This update has a focus on service and notifier enhancements, though it also has a number of other improvements. On the service front, it adds a fantastic new Twitter plug-in, enabling you to monitor a number of aspects of the great Twitter service. You can have Simon watch Twitter updates, direct messages, friends, followers, and more for changes and/or failures. For example, have Simon notify you when someone follows or un-follows you, or someone posts an update (even if you don't follow them), among other possibilities.

The Twitter plug-in also works as a notifier. You can use this to send updates or direct messages to yourself or others via the popular Twitter service when a test has an event. View Simon notifications anywhere you can see tweets! See my Simon Twitter page.

Another handy new notifier plug-in is the Calendar one. This enables you to add events or tasks to iCal, or events to Google Calendar. Failure and recovery events even cover the actual downtime range. This plug-in is only available when Simon is running under Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later.

The Twitter and Calendar plug-ins were kindly written by Daniel Ellis. Thank you for your efforts!

The existing Port plug-in has had some bug fixes, plus has been extended to work as a notifier. So you can now create port sessions as notifications: have Simon open a connection to a server on a specific port, and send it commands to perform some action. Like the existing Script notifier, this opens up infinite possibilities!

Version 2.4 also bundles several services and notifiers that were only available as separate downloads on the Simon Extras page before, including the Incoming Mail (POP) via SSL, Outgoing Mail (SMTP) via SSL, Mount Volume, Network Time (NTP), Port Available, SNMP Status, and TCP Port Scanner services, and the APC Masterswitch and Growl Change notifiers.

It also includes an iPhone report template, kindly created by Joe Savelberg. This is a simple iPhone web app to allow browsing the Simon monitoring from your iPhone or iPod touch. See a live demo.

But wait, there's more! This release also enhances other existing plug-ins to work better with the Smart Change Detection and Preview features, adds several handy service and notifier variables, and fixes several bugs.

Finally, it also adds a new preference, allowing simplified status icons, by popular request. Normally, Simon displays a green upwards triangle icon when there is a new change, and the green slowly fades to grey as time goes by. Similarly, it shows a red downwards triangle for a failure, which changes to an orange upwards triangle when it recovers, and that fades over time. With this preference, you can choose to have it simply use red for a failure, bright green for a new change, and a lighter green for success (older change or recovery).

Read the release notes for full details.

Simon 2.4 is a free update for licensed Simon 2 customers.

Download now!

Another day, another beta release! Simon version 2.4b3 is now available. Unless any issues are reported, this will be the last beta for version 2.4:

• Added a preference to use simplified status triangles, by popular request. Normally, Simon displays a green upwards triangle icon when there is a new change, and the green slowly fades to grey as time goes by. Similarly, it shows a red downwards triangle for a failure, which changes to an orange upwards triangle when it recovers, and that fades over time. With this preference enabled, it uses red for a failure, bright green for a new change, and a lighter green for success (older change or recovery).
• Fixed a long-standing issue with the Port plug-in's helper, where it could get impatient while receiving text from a slow server. It now waits for a little while if it doesn't receive what it wants, in case the desired text is on its way.
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with paused tests. If a test was paused for a specified time interval, and it was due to resume while Simon wasn't running, the status icon was being left in the paused state until the test was next checked. It's now set appropriately.
• Fixed a crasher when previewing a Port-based test. (beta fix)

Download now!

Simon version 2.4b2 is now available:

• Extended the Port service plug-in to operate as a notifier plug-in too. It is the same as for services, but includes fields for the domain, username and password.
• The Ping service plug-in now supports the Smart Change Detection and Preview features. So you can now look for changes in parts of the ping output, if desired, and preview the ping session to see what is received.
• The Application service plug-in also now supports the Preview function.
• The Preview window for non-web services now displays the source text while performing the check, instead of waiting till done, so you can see what it's doing.
• Fixed a bug with the Speech notifier plug-in, where the volume slider was only accepting zero and full volumes.
• Now uses plurals for Checks and Failures units except for values of exactly 1.0. (beta change)
• Updated the French and German localizations.

Download now!

The first beta release of Simon version 2.4 is now available.

This release adds two major plug-ins, written by Daniel Ellis:

• Calendar, a notifier plug-in, which enables you to add events or tasks to iCal, or events to Google Calendar. Failure and recovery events even cover the actual downtime range. This plug-in is only available when Simon is running under Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later.
• Twitter, a service plug-in, that enables you to monitor Twitter updates, direct messages, friends, followers, and more for changes and/or failures. For example, have Simon notify you when someone follows or un-follows you, or someone posts an update (even if you don't follow them), among other possibilities.
• Twitter is also available as a notifier plug-in; use it to send updates or direct messages to yourself or others via the popular Twitter service. View Simon notifications anywhere you can see tweets -- on the web, in Twitterrific, or on your cellphone.

Version 2.4b1 also bundles several services and notifiers that were previously only available via the Simon Extras page, including:

• Incoming Mail (POP) via SSL
• Outgoing Mail (SMTP) via SSL
• Mount Volume
• Network Time (NTP)
• Port Available
• SNMP Status
• TCP Port Scanner
• APC Masterswitch
• Growl Change

And unlike previous versions, people already using Simon will now automatically get these additions, unless you've already added them.

A couple of report templates from the Extras page are now also bundled: the iPhone and Variable Test templates, kindly created by Joe Savelberg. The iPhone template is a simple iPhone web app to allow browsing the Simon monitoring from your iPhone or iPod touch. The Variable Test template shows all of the report variables and what they output, to assist in creating or customizing templates.

The test scheduler was also updated, to better queue the checks. When multiple tests are to be checked at once, they are added to a queue, and checked at the interval specified in the Advanced preferences (one per second by default — set to zero to always check immediately). This helps spread out the load, and provides more accurate results. The Next Check column in the tests table shows "queued manually" when multiple tests are queued via a Check Now command, or "queued" and a time interval if queued automatically when due.

A bunch of new service and notifier variables were also added. Plus several other improvements. See the release notes for the full list of changes.

Download version 2.4b1 now! This is a free update for licensed Simon 2 customers. It is a beta release, so please provide feedback if you find any issues, or have any suggestions for improvements.

One of the nice things about Dejal Simon is its flexibility. Not just in the wide range of website, server, application, etc monitoring services and notifiers, but that it can be extended by anyone, not just me.

As you may know, I have a page on the Dejal site devoted to such extensions, the Simon Extras page. Newly contributed services, notifiers, and reports tend to get bundled into the application in the next feature release, but you don't have to wait — you can download the new goodies now. In fact, existing customers need to do so to get them, as the bundled ones are only visible with the default data install for people first trying Simon (I have plans to improve that situation in the future via an enhanced update mechanism).

Here are some of the recent offerings:

• iPhone: A report template to display reports on an iPhone or iPod touch (try it yourself with a live demo: point your iPhone at www.dejal.com/simon/iphonedemo):

  

• APC Masterswitch: A notifier script to restart an outlet on an APC Masterswitch with Network Management Card v2.6.1. This has been requested by many others, so I'm sure will be much appreciated.
• TCP Port Scanner: A service script to check all TCP ports on a server, to identify which are open.
• Network Time (NTP): A service script test that an NTP server is responding.
• Incoming Mail (POP) via SSL: A service script test that a POP3/SSL server is responding.
• Port Available: A service script like the Port services, but simply checks if a specified port is open, without actually communicating on it.

Visit the Simon Extras page to download these and other handy goodies.

Simon version 2.3.5 is now available.

This update includes lots of changes, as follows. I considered calling it version 2.4, but strictly speaking all of the changes are improvements or fixes, not new features, which is my rule for bumping the second digit:

• Improved the notifications to avoid notifying again if the test is already failing; it used to notify again if the error was slightly different, but that's usually just annoying. You can turn off the "Only notify once for each failure" checkbox to get repeatedly notified until recovery.
• Improved the SSH service to avoid protocol identification warnings in the Console.
• Fixed an issue with the FTP service where it had the wrong default protocol, which caused the incorrect Edit Test view to be displayed.
• Improved the FTP service to work with the Security section of the Edit Test window, allowing checking secure FTP sites (without having to prepend the username and password to the URL).
• Fixed a bug with the Basic service plug-in where it would mistakenly look for cookies for FTP services, which while harmless most of the time, can cause crashes in some situations.
• Fixed a bug in the MySQL notifier plug-in where the Password field wasn't enabled correctly when using notifier-specific authentication.
• Fixed a minor typo in a couple of report templates.
• Fixed the tooltip for the "keep backup" checkbox in the Advanced preferences.
• Enhanced the URLs for the Help menu to better support localization.
• Updated the built-in Kagi purchasing tool to the latest version, which fixes some issues with Leopard.
• Updated the French localization.

Download now!

All the cool kids are doing it, so it must be my turn....

Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" is available tomorrow. It's a great update, that I've mostly enjoyed using for the past few months, so I highly recommend it to everyone. But an important consideration is always: will my existing software run on the new OS version? So here's a summary of the Leopard compatibility status of Dejal products, as far as I'm aware.

I should point out that this is based on a recent seed (pre-release version): Mac developers don't get the final version of Leopard any sooner than you do... and in fact get it later if they wait for the copy Apple sends as part of the Apple Developer Connection membership. There's been a bit of an uproar about that, but it was the same with Tiger, and will probably be the same again with the next big cat. Such is life.

Simon: My website and server monitoring tool runs fine under Leopard. It has been updated to use Leopard's window style for the Monitor window when running under 10.5, or the custom window style under 10.4 or 10.3.9. I plan on making several more Leopard improvements in a future version.

Time Out: Version 1.5 of this break reminder app was released not long ago, which added Leopard compatibility. It has no known issues with 10.5. Work on version 2 is underway (though currently paused); you can expect that in Q1 2008. It will require a minimum of 10.5, as it leverages several Leopard technologies.

Caboodle: This handy snippet-keeper app is also Leopard-ready as of the current release, version 1.1.2. I have big plans for Caboodle over the coming year, once I've done the other updates.

Narrator: My fun speech synthesis app hasn't been updated for a number of years, but appears to run okay under Leopard. I am currently working on a long-overdue new version of it -- actually a complete rewrite. The new version requires a minimum of Leopard. Watch the Dejal blog for more information about that as it progresses.

BlogAssist: This useful HTML markup tool is Leopard-ready as of the current release, version 2.1.1. It will also see some improvements in 2008, using technology being developed for Time Out.

Macfilink: My affiliate link cloaking app hasn't had an update for Leopard yet, but it seems to work okay. I haven't decided what to do for its next update, but it's possible I'll replace the data storage with Core Data for the Leopard update. It's the lowest priority, as this app does one job and does it very well as-is, so it doesn't need much tinkering.

So there you go. I hope you enjoy Leopard as much as I do. Please let me know if you discover any compatibility issues, but as far as Dejal products are concerned, you should be good to go!

Just a couple of days after version 2.3.3, here's another bug-fix update for Simon.

I really don't like doing releases so close together, and apologize for any inconvenience... but I figured that it was soon enough that many people wouldn't have got the weekly update notification yet. And the issue this update fixes affected a reasonable number of people, so was important to address quickly.

The main point of this update is to fix Mac OS X 10.3.9 compatibility, which was broken in the 2.3.3 release. It also fixes a minor bug with the status menu, that nobody has reported (or probably noticed), but was worth fixing regardless.

So, how was 10.3.9 compatibility broken, you may ask? Well, I develop on my MacBook Pro under Leopard, but it doesn't have the compiler for 10.3.9 installed. So to do a release I open the project on my PowerMac G5 running Tiger, do a clean build there, plus update the localization, then package the release up in a disk image and upload it back on the MBP. It's a little convoluted, but doesn't really take much longer than just using one machine, since both computers are on my desk, and I can open the project via file sharing.

Anyway, the important part there is a "clean" build -- if I forget to clean the code (i.e. throw away already-compiled binaries and re-compile it), the app won't work on 10.3.9. This has bitten me a few times, though I usually catch it quickly.

Of course, this issue will go away in due course, as each app is upgraded to require a minimum of Leopard -- which will happen over the next year or so.

So, sorry again if you upgraded to Simon 2.3.3 and have to upgrade again. Only about 5% of Simon customers are using 10.3.9 still, but that's enough people to make this quick update worth doing. If you are using Tiger or Leopard, you could skip this update... but there's no harm in updating, too, especially if you didn't already update to 2.3.3.

Download now!

Version 2.3.3 of Simon, the website and server monitoring tool, has now been released.

It is an important update, recommended for all Simon customers. Apart from some minor updates to the German localization and Growl support, it also includes three important changes:

Firstly, the way the test scheduling works has changed. In recent previous versions, I had added a "secret" preference called overlap prevention, which was on by default. This prevented more than one test from being automatically checked at once, as a way to reduce the load on the machine and ensure accurate checking times. The problem with this, though, is it could cause some tests to never get checked if the tests table is sorted by Next Check date and there are lots of tests, as they become queued but are never reached. This was because it scans for candidates to start in the sort order, and always found another queued one before the earlier queued one. Kinda convoluted, and only affecting a few people, but there it is.

This release goes back to allowing multiple tests to be checked at once, but changes things so they are started at least one second apart, even if they fall due at the same time. It uses the same checking interval as set in the Advanced preferences for checking all or multiple selected tests. It still scans in sort order, but it adds all due tests to a queue and starts them one second apart, ensuring that the computer isn't overloaded.

Another important change is to fix a bug in the Edit Test window. I spent a couple of vexing days tracing this, with the most valuable help of a customer. The mystery was that Simon seemed to be forgetting about notifiers assigned to tests in some random conditions. I couldn't recreate it, and added logging to trace what was happening to the data, and nothing seemed missing. Yet when the customer viewed the test configs, sometimes it'd only list one notifier when there should be three or so assigned to the test. Yet if he added the notifiers back, the next time he checked the missing ones would be back, along with the new ones. Wacky!

It turned out that this mysterious situation was just a cosmetic issue. No notifiers were being lost. What was happening was the disclosure triangles were interfering with the loading of the lists of notifiers (and auto-pause and reports). If the disclosure was in a collapsed state when the window was opened, the notifiers list UI wouldn't be visible, so wouldn't be resized to show more than one notifier. If it was in an expanded state, all worked as expected. So the fix was simply to set the disclosure triangle state (and thus UI visibility) after loading the lists, rather than before. An easy oversight, but and important one!

Lastly, this update has several report enhancements. One is to allow digits in test short names (as used for URLs in reports), to allow for people who name tests like "UL102", "UL104", etc, i.e. differing only by digits. Another report change is to handle the file:// protocol better. When saving a report locally to the Desktop or some other location that isn't in the global or user-specific web sharing folders, the report is accessed via the file:// protocol rather than http://. That's all fine and dandy, but several report templates use directories for detail pages to provide tidy URLs, which doesn't work so well with the file:// protocol, as it opens directories as folders in the Finder. So this version solves that by adding the detail page (e.g. index.html) to the end of the URL. As part of that, it also adds a new report variable, SummaryPath, which is like BasePath but includes the index in the URL of the Summary page when saving to a file:// URL - useful for links from the detail pages back to the summary page.

Lots of good fixes and improvements. Download now!

One "hidden" feature of Simon is how it handles the situation when your computer loses its internet connection.

People sometimes ask me what Simon does in this situation, concerned that it would count as a failure for tests. Simon is smarter than that, though. Every time it starts a check, it first checks if the computer has a current internet connection, and only then performs the check.

If it determines that your internet connection has been disrupted, it places the test in an "offline" state, where it shows a blinking "lightning bolt" for the status icon until the connection is restored. This offline state doesn't count as a failure (or success).

Simon works out if you have a connection by seeing if it can resolve one of two popular domain names; if either work, your connection is probably fine, but if both fail, it is likely disconnected. Using two domains avoids a temporary outage of either one.

From version 2.3 onwards, you can disable this internet connection check on a per-test basis via the new Can check when offline checkbox in the Edit Test Checking Options. This is useful if you want to create a test to notify you when your connection goes down, or for tests that don't require an internet connection (e.g. using the Application or Script service plug-ins).

The Web (HTTP) service is the most popular one for tests. So I thought I'd share a helpful tip with adding them.

When entering the URL, you can use very minimal text, and Simon will fill in the remainder when you click OK. It automatically adds the default protocol ("http://") and the "www." and ".com" if necessary.

For example, if you type "apple" (without the quotes), it will be saved as "http://www.apple.com/". Similarly, entering "dejal/simon" will end up as "http://www.dejal.com/simon/".

I just found a bug that was inadvertently added in the previous release of SImon, where the License or Setup Assistant windows might not display. This was an unintended side effect of the change in 2.3.1 to avoid reusing the editor windows - as they and the license windows share some common code, but work in very different ways.

This was previously reported in the forums, but I couldn't recreate it till today, when I was testing something else in Simon. There were workarounds, but I felt that it was important enough to warrant a special bug-fix release. Particularly as the Simon Enterprise license will be featured on MacZOT tomorrow! (There's a tip for anyone wanting a cheap license.)

If your copy of Simon is already licensed, you could skip this update if you wish... but there's no harm in updating. For anyone who has experienced this issue, I apologize for the inconvenience.

Download Simon 2.3.2 now!

I recently received a question from a potential customer, asking whether Simon has the ability to send a notification via email.

Although I do mention it in a number of places, this wasn't an unreasonable question, particularly if you just download Simon and start playing with it, as no email options appear in the list of available notifiers in the Edit Test window by default.

Why is this? Because unlike the Speech and Sound notifier plug-ins, the Email one requires some configuration before it can be used, so it can't be offered by default.

The way notifiers work is (I hope) pretty intuitive, but a little indirect. Simon provides a number of notifier plug-ins that do the work of notifications, and you configure notifiers to use those plug-ins, then choose notifiers for each test.

These levels of abstraction allow easy re-use of notifiers: a single plug-in can be used by multiple notifiers, and a single notifier can be used by multiple tests, without having to set up the same things over and over again.

For example, you can add an email notifier to yourself for some failures, another email notifier to your clients for other failures, another one for recoveries, and so on, and use whichever ones of those are desired in tens or hundreds of tests, as required, as simply as choosing them from a pop-up menu.

So, as I said, there is no email notifier set up by default, since it needs configuration, but you can easily add one. If you're editing a test and realize that you want to receive an email or SMS when this test changes, fails, and/or recovers, you can click the New Notifier... button in the Notifiers section of the Edit Test window, which will open the New Notifier window. You can then choose E-mail from the Notifier Kind pop-up menu, and the controls below will change to those for the email plug-in:

You can then configure the email, and save the notifier, which will be available for that test and any others you want to use it in. Easy!

Simon version 2.3.1 is now available. This release is a bug-fix version, with just a few changes:

• Rewrote the Port service plug-in to use a helper app to do the work, to avoid instability caused by multithreading and resource usage issues.
• Added support for the Preview function for the Port service plug-in. It displays the session script at the top, and the actual transcript of the check at the bottom.
• Changed editor windows to not reuse the window instances, to avoid issues with windows appears incorrectly in some circumstances.
• Added German localization, thanks to Manfred Brandstater.
• Updated French localization, thanks as always to Philippe Bonnaure.

I'd like to give special thanks to Manfred for his hard work in getting the German localization done, and also to the couple of German Simon customers who provided feedback on pre-release builds. If you have any feedback on the localization (issues, suggestions for improvements, compliments for Manfred, general comments), please let me know.

Also of note in this version is the rewrite of the Port service plug-in. I've had several reports of crashes and other issues with SImon, which on investigation all traced back to the Port services. There was definitely something NQR there. It's a complex plug-in, though not the most complex. I've tried patching it a couple of times in the past, without complete success, so the time had come to refactor it more significantly. I moved the checking work out into a separate helper app (aka an "agent"). The plug-in launches the background-only helper when starting the check, which does the work, then quits itself when done. This allows avoiding multithreading, which I believe was a factor in the problems, along with some other optimizations that will make it more reliable. And worst case, if it does crash, it won't take out Simon in the process. The crashes do seem to be a thing of the past, though, which is great. Thanks also to the customers who tested pre-release builds with this change.

Another benefit of this refactoring is that it has allowed adding Preview functionality. The Port plug-in did allow previewing in an older version, but I had to disable it when I changed the way the plug-ins worked (from keeping an instance around for the life of the app, to using a separate one for each check). But now I've re-enabled this functionality, and improved it. The Preview window for Port-based services now displays the session script at the top of the window, and the resulting transcript of the check at the bottom (much like for Scripts). This is very handy for ensuring that the test is doing the right thing, or seeing more detail about why it is failing - e.g. whether the session script is incorrect, or the server is misbehaving.

Download Simon now!

Simon version 2.3 is now in general release!

As previously discussed, this release includes a new Mount plug-in, that works both as a service and notifier, and allows mounting and unmounting local, AFP, and SMB volumes. It also extends the Script plug-in to act as a notifier too, allowing great flexibility in notifications. Plus many other enhancements and fixes. See the release notes for more information, or download now!