Unitraverse Desktop Productivity App
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Section 8
Unitraverse Desktop Productivity Application - Version 1.2

Application settings
The file 'settings.json' contains application settings that you can change. You will need to manually open this file and edit the values that you would like to change, and then save the file. You will then need to restart the udagent, and finally you must also reload the UD App page in your browser. Look for a more user-friendly method of making settings changes in a future release!

The application settings you can change are:

SETTINGS VARIABLEDEFAULT VALUEALTERNATIVE VALUES
save-warningsonoff
warning-unsaved-change-threshold5any number in the range of
[1 - 9,007,199,254,740,991]
max-saved-navigation-history200any number in the range of
[1 - 9,007,199,254,740,991]

Creating a new vault
Sometimes we will want to keep things in entirely separate places, for example, maybe we want to share some of the links and resources we have, but not share everything. For this we might want to create an entirely new vault and point to it. Here are the steps for creating a new vault:

  1. Copy an existing vault and vault wrapper. So, for example, in the directory where the UD App was installed, make a copy of 'practice-only.html' and give it a different name, one that you think would work. The vault file that 'practice-only.html' points to is 'Adam.js', in the 'js' directory. So make a copy of 'Adam.js' and rename that as well, but do save it to the same 'js' directory.

    It is a hard requirement that wrapper files be located in the same directory that the udagent.py file resides in, and that vault .js files be placed in the 'js' directory which lives in this selfsame udagent directory. At this time, providing a 'src' location that has '../' for the vault's script tag, in the wrapper html, is not supported.

  2. Edit the vault file. When you open the vault file, there will be JSON information that has the following key and value:
    "treeGuid":"Adam"
    Change the identifier "Adam" to something that is unique. IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU MAKE THE NAME OF THE VAULT UNIQUE FOR WHICHEVER UD APP INSTALL DIRECTORY IT RESIDES AT OR UNDER. No two vaults should have the same 'treeGUID' value for any udagent directory, also known as the UD APP 'install directory'.
  3. Make the new HTML wrapper point to the new JavaScript vault. This is done by opening the wrapper file and finding the 'script' tag which has the 'defaultDataSrc' id. In the image below, the 'js/Adam.js' part of the link is what you will edit to point to your new vault file:

    BE CAREFUL NOT TO START USING THE NEW WRAPPER BEFORE REDIRECTING IT TO POINT TO THE NEW VAULT!! If you forget this step, you will probably not notice the problem until you run the reset script for 'practice-only.html' (called 'resetAdam') which wipes the entire vault clean...thus the name 'practice-only.html'... or you may get lucky and go back and forth in your browser between your new and old wrapper and see that they are both picking up the same changes!

Manually editing the vault
Generally you should never have to do this, but if something gets mucked up in the vault, it might be necessary to view the JSON code and make changes to that code directly.

To do this first click on 'view JSON' to bring up the JSON view dialog box. Closing this box does not change the vault. To make changes follow the steps outlined at the top of this dialog box.

Resetting the practice vault
To reset the vault that is associated with 'practice-only.html', you will need to run the script 'resetAdam.sh' (for Mac) or 'resetAdam.bat' for windows.

For Mac

Open a Terminal and go to the UD app install directory.

Then run the reset script:

./resetAdam.sh

For Windows

Open a PowerShell or CommandPrompt window and change to the UD app install directory.

cd C:\<path_to_install_directory>

Then run the reset script:

.\resetAdam.bat

Upgrade to a newer version
To upgrade to a new level of the application it is recommended that you follow these steps:

  1. Download the new version's zip file
  2. extract that file to a new directory, preferably next to the most recent install directory where you have your most recent files and data.
  3. copy each of the following from your recent install directory to the newly created directory:
    • vault (.js) files
    • vault-specific directory holding the internal resources
    • 'acct-key.txt'
    • 'usage.json'
    • 'udapp' directory, (do a deep copy of this directory)
  4. for each vault that you want continued access to, make a new wrapper file (as described in the paragraphs below).

The vault wrapper files, the .html files that point to your vaults, will require special handling, but it should get easier as a better system is worked out for migration! For now, there will be some manual updates to upgrade wrapper files.

A fundamental rule here is that each vault needs to have a corresponding wrapper file. (This current design, unfortunately, places an unnecessary burden on users, so in a near future release wrapper files will have the option to point to a javascript file that contains a list of all vaults that can be wrapped automatically. However, in the mean time...). Any vault that you wish to access within an upgraded installation, will need to be wrapped with an .html file that contains all the new items (fonts, css, javascript). In other words, this means creating a copy of the latest 'practice-only.html' file, giving it a name that suits you better, and replacing the script tag pointing to 'Adam.js', and have it, instead, point to your vault.

Troubleshooting Guide

Save operation is delayed, error message warns of not being in sync with file system
When I try to save my vault, nothing happens right away, but then I see an error message... "No response from udagent after an attempt to make file system changes...." What sometimes happens is that the contents of the usage.json file get's corrupted and the result is that the JSON module in the python udagent.py chokes on a string that is not JSON.

Incorrect files and directories displayed in the FileCabinet applet
When exploring file system directories from inside the FileCabinet applet, the files and directories being displayed after clicking in the navigator path are from the previous directory and are not correct for the current directory, even though the navigator path is updated correctly.

  • Upgrade to version 1.2.23 or later of the UD App which fixes this problem.

Not able to open text documents from File Cabinet Applet on Mac
After successfully setting up a FileCabinet instance, the 'open' command tries to open a 'txt' or 'rtf' document but is blocked because of a permissions issue. Even though the permissions were set for "everyone" to read and write to the document, TextEdit does not open it.

  • You may need to edit the permissions for the file in the Finder so that it is both Read and Write enabled for "Everyone".
  • Try closing TextEdit.
  • Sometimes on the MacOS® this will happen. Quite often, after rebooting the computer, things start to work and the permissions roadblock is no longer an issue

ALT+viewJSON not working
When trying to create JSON for some branch in the vault, the JSON is very short and also "add >> 'from JSON'" does not work with the code you generated.

  • Make sure you are using version 1.2.19 or later, unless you would like to use specifically version 1.1.90 of the UD App

URL links are not updating
When you navigate to a new URL location inside a tab that is being tracked by the UD app, if the push-pin setting is at the unstuck (a.k.a. unlocked position) it should update that URL location automatically when you return to the UD app tab. If this automatic update is not happening, there are a couple things to try.

  • Make sure you are using version 1.1.12 of the UD App, or later
  • If you are trying to run the UD app in two separate tabs, this could be the cause. Only one instance of the app in one tab is currently supported.
  • Try restarting Chrome.
  • Restart the udagent

ALT+u opens a tab but cannot load the default webpage
When you use the ALT+u command to launch a new URL, the prelim page shows progress dots after this, but is not actually able to display the default webpage. In this case...

  • Restart Chrome

The 'capture URLS' command does not display URLs for open tabs
When you click on the 'capture URLs' command or CTRL+w, the dialog window is empty. This should not be empty if tabs are currently open. You will need to...

  • Make sure there is not more than one browser tab instance running the UD app at any given time. If there is, close all of the UD App tabs, then launch only one new tab for the UD App, and Capture URLs will probably start to work.
  • Otherwise, if only one UD App tab has been open, close it and open a new browser tab for the app
  • If the above steps did not fix the problem, restart Chrome

Text Edit does not have permission to open my text document
When you attempt to open either a newly created or exsting text file, a popup message says that Text Edit does not have permissions to open the file. This sometimes is seen even after having been able to open files successfully from the same directory location on earlier attempts.

  • Close and then restart the TextEdit application

The 'save' action does not save my vault, no green checkmark appears and changes are gone after reloading.
When you click save after making changes to the vault and the '*' asterisk symbol indicates that there is something that can be saved, but the app does not save the changes. There are two causes to consider,

  1. You may be using an earlier version of the UD App (older than version 1.1.24) that does not correctly handle non-standard, non-ascii characters. To see if this is the case:
    • Check the version of the UD App you are using. If necessary, upgrade to version 1.1.24 or greater, which addresses this issue of non-ascii characters
    • Scan the contents of your vault by converting the top level items to 'entire branch' as the default presentation
    • Alternatively, test sections of the vault by using the ALT+'view json' feature, and look for characters like these:
    • Remove the non-dicipherable characters by editing or deleting the item that contains them
  2. The memory limits of the browser have been exceeded. To see if this is the problem:
    • Reduce the size of the vault before adding anything more to it
    • Verify that this has solved the issue by adding more content to smaller pieces of the original vault

The 'close' action does not work when a text document resides in my Mac's Desktop folder
When you attempt to close an exsting text file (one that was not created from inside the UD App), nothing happens, and the document does not close. The output from the udagent.py says: "../action.applescript:217:224: execution error: No result was returned from some part of this expression. (-2763)"

The cause of this is unclear because the Desktop folder seems similar to other directories that don't have this same failure, with respect to permissions or extended permissions that are set.

  • Workaround #1: close the document manually
  • Workaround #2: relocate the document to a directory other than Desktop, some place where the Mac OS allows AppleScript to close a document.

email: support@unitraverse.com

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The headquarters is currently in Austin, Texas.

Ideas that have been in gestation since the early 2000s have now finally been given 'wings'.

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 insidiously bad aspects. We intend to be a positive influence.

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