That’s right, Overlord 1.0.2 is here with several new features, some bug fixes, and a few other changes for good measure. You can read the changelog on the site for a complete list of changes. If you have already bought Overlord, you can go straight to the My Account or Download page and get it now. Upgrading is as easy as uploading the new files (except for config.php) and then logging in to your site.

The new features in this version are the Search Box, which allows for full-text searching of all items. It is very basic right now, but it works. I will expand the search functions as I recieve feedback on what is wanted for searching. Also new is the enhanced bug tracker. Bugs can now be assigned a priority and deadline, be assigned to a user, and there are six status levels, rather than simply squashed or unsquashed. The main Bugs page will show a nicely formatted table of the bugs, sortable by clicking on the column headers, and with options in the sidebar to filter out resolved bugs, unresolved bugs, or to limit the list to a single user’s assigned bugs. More options will be added if there is demand for them. You can see it in action in the online demo and post feedback in the feedback forum.

A lifetime license for Overlord is still only $20, so buy now and get your minions in line today!

See http://www.phpoverlord.com for more details.

As I work on the Overlord source code, I find myself starting on one new feature, getting it mostly done, and then starting on another new feature. This cycle usually repeats itself until I have quite a few not-quite-done features, which then takes a while to work out all the bugs and get it ready to be released. This is part of the reason it took so long to get version 1.0 out the door. I really should have left the bug tracker out and released it earlier, then put in the whole bug tracker (the new version I am working on, not the woefully inadequate version in v1.0) in a later release.

So, in an effort to prevent feature creep from slowing down any future versions of Overlord, or any other projects I might work on in the future, I am going to muster every bit of self-discipline I have and finish a feature before I add a new one. So, expect Overlord 1.0.2 in the near future with the search box and new bug tracker. After that, I will add one new feature at a time, starting with an updated task tracker, then moving on to RSS feeds.

I have added a search box to the top of the sidebar on every page. It currently will do a search of tasks, checklists, bugs, milestones, and messages that match any of the terms in the search query. It does not do a great job of ranking the results; however, I feel that it does what it needs to do.

I was planning to add an advanced search function with a lot of options, but now I’m not sure if that’s really even necessary or not.

So, I am working on the new bug tracker and it’s looking good so far. It’s been a lot easier to deal with JavaScript and XML than I thought it would be. So, anyway, what I’ve got now is an AJAX call to get the bugs for the project in XML form, and then JavaScript sorts the XML, converts it to table rows, and then displays it. You can click a column header to sort by that column and click it again to reverse the sorting order. The priorty cell is color coded with higher priorities getting closer to red. The deadline cell is given a bright red background if it is overdue and a yellow background if it is due in the next 2 weeks. I’ll be tweaking the look a bit more but for now I am happy with it.

Here’s a peek:

I have updated this website to use Wordpress 2.0 as the site engine, allowing me to post random ramblings about random topics and making it easier to update my portfolio and such. I have made a custom theme based on the default theme that resembles the old look of this site. I will consider putting it up for download if anyone expresses interest in it.