I’m going to put this here to help folks that need to work with IT depts when putting new software on their machines. At this point, with the new features, the updates related to the .NET language changes, the filtering of old XP code and the updated performance code, and new installer — this will be the largest update to the application since I ported the codebase from Assembly to C#. Just looking at this past weekend, I added close to 17,000 lines of code while completing the clustering work, and removed ~3000 lines of code doing optimization work and removing redundant information.
In total, work on MarcEdit 7 has been ongoing since April 2017 (formally), and informally since Jan. 2017. However, last night, I hit a milestone of sorts — I setup the new build environment for MarcEdit 7. In fact, this morning (around 1 am), I created the first version of the new MarcEdit 7 installer that can installed without administrator permissions. I’ve heard again and again, the administrator requirements are one of the single biggest issues for users in staying up today. With MarcEdit 7, the program will provide multiple installation options that should help to alleviate these problems.
Anyway, given the pace of change and my desire to have some folks put this through its paces prior to the formal release, I’ll be making multiple versions of MarcEdit 7 available for testing using the following schedule below. Please note, the Alpha and Beta dates are soft dates (they could move up or down by a few days), but the Release Date is a hard date. Please note, unlike previous versions of MarcEdit, MarcEdit 7 will be able to be installed along-side MarcEdit 6, so both versions will be able to be installed on the same machine. To simplify this process, all test builds of MarcEdit will be released requiring non-administrator access to install as this will allow me to sandbox the software easier.
Alpha Testing
Sept. 14, 2017 — this will be the first version of MarcEdit. It won’t be feature complete, but the features included should be finished and working — but I’m expecting to hear from people that some things are broken. Really, this first version is for those waiting to get their hands on the installer and play with software that likely is a little broken.
Beta Testing:
Oct 2, 2017 — First beta build will be created. New builds will likely be made available biweekly.
MarcEdit 7 Release Date:
Nov. 25, 2017 — MarcEdit 7.0.x release date. The release will happen over the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday.
This gives users approximately 3 months to ensure that their local systems will be ready for the new update. Remember, the system requirements are changing. As of MarcEdit 7, the software will have the following system requirements on Windows (mac and linux already require these requirements):
System Requirements:
- Operating System
Windows 7-present (software may work on Windows Vista, but given the low install-base [smaller than Windows XP], Windows 7 will be the lowest version of Windows I’ll be officially testing on and supporting) - .NET Version
4.6.1+ — Version 4.6.1 is the minimal required version of the .NET platform. If you have Windows 8-10,you should be fine. If you have Windows 7, you may have to update your .NET instance (though, this will happen automatically if you accept Microsoft’s updates). If you have questions, you’ll want to contact your IT departments.
That’s it. But this does represent a very significant change for the program. For years, I’ve been limping Windows XP support along, and MarcEdit 7 does represent a break from that platform. I’ll be keeping the last version of MarcEdit 6.3.x available for users that run an unsupported operating system and cannot upgrade, though, I won’t be making any more changes to MarcEdit 6.3.x after MarcEdit 7 comes out.
If you have questions, let me know.
–tr