What is Unitraverse?

Unitraverse is a web platform that focuses on enabling a number of different but aligned application types. It is unique in that it promotes data traversal and navigaton as top-level priorities. (Navigation can provide context and facilitate learning through linked data). It also provides developers with the potential for maximizing data reuse and implementing workflows based on flexible and interoperable data models. The following web application types can be thought of as a kind of development roadmap:

The philosophy behind a 'product meld'

A sensible desire to create 'fit-for-purpose' applications does not mean it's a bad thing to reach for homogenaity between applications. The benefits of behind-the-scenes reuse are well understood and often exploited by large established software companies. They don't always let you see that what is running under the hood is shared across a wide range of products.

A product meld is a term that could be used to describe software that not only exploits a shared underlying component base, but also takes advantage of the similiarities between related workflows and tasks that happen across different products, even ones addressing the needs of very separate and distinct markets. It can even be a good thing if certain conventions, look and feel, and user commands and interfaces are used to provide consistency across the batch of products, so that it is not painful to learn the different tools, and see that learning transfer readily between the range of products.

What this strategy embraces is the idea that, to a high degree, different products can be intentionally made to belong together in previously unexplored ways. They have been designed to use the same paradigm in many respects, and to belong to a single over-arching system. This can maximize interoperability and minimize costs of data flow and exchange.

Getting more done with fewer lines of code leads to fewer bugs and fewer internal and external dependencies. One of the most important benefits for system admins, IT departments and all types of users, including developers, is the dramatic reduction in dependencies that this platform allows. It is a radical departure that leaves behind a sluggish reliance on external teams and companies, when their contribution to the infrastructure breaks because of constant changes being made to an overgrown technology stack.

The efficiencies coming from extreme reuse that result when a batch of products behave in a similar way can be a revenue booster, or the value and savings can be passed along to your customers.

Platform basics

The Unitraverse web platform is a foundation for building custom applications that integrate and interoperate inside the browser. It uses conventional and familiar web technologies, that have been around for decades, essentially HTML, CSS and JavaScript plus well established vanilla standards such as JSON. Most edge devices will support such web applications and therefore be able to automatically setup and run the Unitraverse client and web applications built on top of the client core platform, just by hitting your web URL.

The core module 'unitrav.js' along with 'unitrav.css' provides a foundation for uniform manipulation and exchange of in-memory data, serialization, optional interaction with the Web Helper browser extension and communication with a very simple back-end Python or PHP agent.

The core group consists of the following items:

NAME	DESCRIPTION
unitrav.js	core client-side JavaScript file, provides menus, navigation, componentization, and windowing
unitrav.css	core CSS, provides the styles for menus, windowing and some common starter elements

There are also extended capabilities that do require some additional setup by end users. These optional parts of the stack can enable local interactions in Windows and Mac devices, such as file system access, launching of applications, and they provide easy access URL information from browser tabs.

The extended group consists of the following items:

NAME	DESCRIPTION
udagent.py	Python local agent for desktop coordinations and interaction
Web Helper	browser extension for either Chrome or FireFox

Shared capabilities of fully-extended apps

The core module provides built-in views and capabilities. It also:

• integrates all resources, whether online pages or file system items & documents, into a workflow, minimizing and even eliminating the time spent looking for some item among many tabs, many open docs, many open applications
• allows wrapping of all resources in customized workflows or investigation contexts that are intuitive and easily organized as the user wishes.
• allows tracking of browser tab locations and capturing of urls to an organized lattice for later access.
• allows browser tabs to be managed in groups. You can open groups of tabs and close groups of tabs with one click, which not only provides the filtering that enables the first bullet (above), it can now happen quickly and automatically.
• allows all documents to be managed in groups. You can open groups of docs and close groups of docs with a single click, which not only provides the filtering that enables the first bullet (above), but it now happens quickly and automatically. Close each document group automatically with a single operation when you are done, knowing that you are now ceasing work on a particular investigation, synthesis, or workflow. You know that you can easily get back to the same group of docs. This will enable you to have some important documents which are part of a reference library remain open while you move around to different workflows.
• Build and permute a customized organizational lattice quickly and easily. Because the organizational scheme is simple to generate, you can change the scheme as needed so that you will be able to remember more easily and quite reliably where the workflow and its important resources are.
• allows organizational schemes to be quickly created for
  1. workflows
  2. investigations and syntheses
  3. job responsibilities
• allows context modality, specifically the formatting, to be quickly (with only a couple clicks) applied to entire branches of the organizational lattice.
• allows fast creation of a new text document from the location you are already working from, and brings it to the front inside an editor, complete with a filename, file system location and document title header already in place
• export all resources, links and structural lattice to target locations on the file system

Basic description and screen shots

Have a first look at a Unitraverse client application, and it's main features here: Client App intro page

System requirements

In order to use the Unitraverse Desktop app, you must have the following:

On Windows

• Windows 7, 8.1, or 10
• Python 2.7, 3.10
• Chrome browser 49 (or later) or FireFox 60 (or later)

On Mac

• Mac Mountain Lion (later OS X versions probably work, but not tested)
• Python 2.7, 3.10
• Chrome browser 49 (or later) or FireFox 60 (or later)

Test drive the demo app online!

You can try the online demo version of the UD App right now! The UI and some of it's functionality is available with this online version, but saving data is currently unsupported. The demo was intended for systems that meet the prereq requrements above. The online demo app will also be limited further until the Web Helper browser extension is installed.

To test drive UD App online go here: test-drive

To install the Web Helper browser extension for Chrome, visit the UD app Chrome extension Google Web Store listing:
Google Web Store link

To install the Web Helper extension for Firefox, follow these instructions: Installing Web Helper for Firefox

Malware concerns

Malware is a real issue these days and because it is impossible to know who the bad actors are and often difficult to determine what code is malicious, it has become necessary for a software company without an established reputation that seeks a wider adoption, to make their products available as human readable source code. That is the approach we have taken ... Read more...

Warning about unencrypted data and the Web Helper browser extension

Installing and running a Unitraverse Web Helper browser extension is not private and can be associated with risks of eavesdropping and data theft. If you are not operating behind a firewall, (in other words if you are not using the Web Helper and udagent or cloundagent in a secure network where all endpoints are protected by a fire wall), then anyone can potentially see your data. The Web Helper extensions for FireFox® and Chrome currently do not use data encryption, and both your stored vault items and any internet activity happening via the browser client is available to anyone who has the ability to sniff packets that you send and recieve

Please do not keep passwords or login credentials in a vault. Also, it is not recommended to keep sensitive or confidential information in a vault.

Whereas most desktop implementations will not route data packets to 'localhost' in such a way that they are visible externally, we recommend an overabundance of caution when it comes to your confidential and sensitive data.

Data loss prevention

The issue of data loss concerns both individuals and corporate users who invest time and money into the systems and data content they depend on. It is critically important that backup versions of your vault data is created and stored, so that you can roll back unwanted changes in case something goes wrong. Catastrophic data loss might conceivably occur if backup copies of your data are not continuously generated for each edition of a vault.

To highlight the importance of this issue, some examples of real-world data loss can be found here: https://hctechguys.com/3-examples-data-loss-will-make-sweat/

While currently the UD App does not provide automatic data backups, a developer can easily add a line to the python udagent.py file that will kick off a git command from python to automatically save the various copies of your data vault at the time of each edit. No data can be saved without using the udagent, so this auto-backup strategy would go a long way toward mitigating human error and natural disasters that can lead to data loss.

To learn more about data safety strategies used in the UD Application read the Unitraverse Client Application Data Safety white paper.

Privacy policy

To view the privacy policy go here: Privacy policy page

Free Trial Period (payment reminders after the trial)

You will have a 45-day evaluation period to make sure it is working on your system, and that it is valuable to you. During this time the usage of the application will be without cost, and will not come with any pay reminders. After the trial period, there will be occasional reminders that the trial period is over and that it is time to register your instance of the UD App.

Purchasing

Current 3-month subscription price: .$6.00
To make 8 quarterly payments toward full ownership, register your account key and select the "3-Month Subscription" option. You can pay with a credit card or using your PayPal account.

Current 1-Month subscription price: .$2.00
To make 24 monthly payments toward full ownership, register your account key and select the "1-Month Subscription" option. You can pay with a credit card or using your PayPal account.

Current buying price: .$48.00
To make a one-time payment to buy the UD Application, you can pay with a credit card or using your PayPal account. Simply register your key. The easiest time to do this is when you see a payment reminder while using the application, when the account key is filled in automatically, otherwise you will need to follow instructions to manually discover and copy and paste your key.

License Agreement

To view the end user licensing agreement here: License (v 1.4)

Quick & easy set-up scripts

For both Windows and the Mac there are interactive set-up scripts that help you with the entire end-to-end set-up process... downloading and installing prereqs (the Chrome browser, Python and the Chrome extension for tab tracking), downloading, installing and starting the desktop app in Chrome.

To get started, read more info about using the setup scripts.

Downloads

To get the convenient set-up scripts for your platform, go to this Download page

Documentation

For more in-depth documentation click here: Documentation
This will cover how to download and install, how to use the UD App, and even some suggestions about how to organize your computer resources in a vault workflow context.

FAQs

Q: What information about me or my system will be uploaded and shared?

A: Usage data is collected to show what features you are using. When this information gets uploaded to our server, no personal information about you is included. The information is linked to your account key. This usage may be used to compile an overall usage database that will be completely anonymous. We never share your identity publicly unless you provide consent to share this information in a separate agreement or contract. There are more details provided in the privacy policy.

Register your account key

Register your copy here: Register my app

Get a replacement key

A replacement key is free of charge, and the process to get a new account key is intended to be as painless as possible.

Each registered app will have an account key that can be replaced if the key has been stolen or even shared inadvertently. Keys are not meant to be shared, as payment for a single key only covers one user on machines belonging to that single user (see License agreement for details on this). When account keys are shared, they become immediately invalid. This means that you will begin to see the payment reminders again, and if the key is not replaced, it could mean, at some point, you will start to lose important functionality

The usage data that is reported to the website will allow us to detect overlaps in reporting time-spans. When an overlap happens, the account key involved will be revoked, and the owner of the account key will need to request a new account key.

Get a replacement key here (email verification will be required): Replace my account key

Becoming a test partner

There is currently a need for testers to look things over from a customer point of view, assess the user experience and the type of productivity gains you see and also to report on any bugs that you might find.

If you would be interested in contributing to the quality of the UD App, and would like to know how to obtain free access to the beta version and also to the first major release, then please contact us at support@unitraverse.com. The tester account key will be available as long as the need for help continues. This notice will be updated when enough testers have signed up.

Support

For help or support please send questions and/or correspondence to support@unitraverse.com

email: support@unitraverse.com

Our company was founded in July 2017 by Bradley Pliam.

The headquarters is currently in Austin, Texas.

Bradley earned his B.S. degree from the University of Minnesota in 2014 and worked for IBM for 3 years, mostly as a system test developer inside the WebSphere organization in Austin, Texas. Ideas that were on the back-burner since the early 2000s have now started to become the focus of Unitraverse.

The mission of the company is to deliver happiness in the form of value and great user experience via high quality software, being honest about what is being delivered, and up-front about any current limitations. The world of software has some great things, along with some not so great things. We intend to be a positive influence.

Meet our current staff...