rBuilder Online maintenance is complete, and the following features and bug fixes are now available.

• rBuilder now presents two viewing options for appliance search results: a "Brief" view which is the browser view from previous versions, and a "Detailed" view as a new sortable grid, with rows that can be expanded or collapsed to show descriptions.
• When you are searching for items in the rPath Management Console, you must now enter at least three characters before the list items are filtered. This speeds up search responsiveness dramatically with large data sets, such as those found on Amazon EC2, which is the rPath Management Console target supported on rBuilder Online.
• You can now report a bug from the rBuilder Web interface, automatically creating an issue in the rPath Issue Tracking System (rITS). To access the new feature, right-click anywhere in the interface, click "About rBuilder," and click "Report bug" button. Use the guide text and help in the bug dialog to complete the form and file the bug report.
• The new bug filing dialog includes a checkbox to specify whether you are an rPath customer with a support agreement. When a customer files a bug using this form, rBuilder automatically files it as a support issue so that rPath can follow up appropriately in accordance with customer's support agreement.
• Many right-click context menus provide a "Show Log" option; this has been expanded to allow you to record HTTP traffic by pressing the round red "record" button above the log data.

Your continued feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Wednesday October 14 at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available.

• rBuilder now presents two viewing options for appliance search results: a "Brief" view which is the browser view from previous versions, and a "Detailed" view as a new sortable grid, with rows that can be expanded or collapsed to show descriptions.
• When you are searching for items in the rPath Management Console, you must now enter at least three characters before the list items are filtered. This speeds up search responsiveness dramatically with large data sets, such as those found on Amazon EC2, which is the rPath Management Console target supported on rBuilder Online.
• You can now report a bug from the rBuilder Web interface, automatically creating an issue in the rPath Issue Tracking System (rITS). To access the new feature, right-click anywhere in the interface, click "About rBuilder," and click "Report bug" button. Use the guide text and help in the bug dialog to complete the form and file the bug report.
• The new bug filing dialog includes a checkbox to specify whether you are an rPath customer with a support agreement. When a customer files a bug using this form, rBuilder automatically files it as a support issue so that rPath can follow up appropriately in accordance with customer's support agreement.

Your continued feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online has been updated to feature-and-bug-fix parity with rBuilder 5.2.3. The rBuilder 5.2.3 release notes have many specific details about issues that were fixed, most of which are relevant to rBuilder Online, primarily most of those summarized as "Inline Help", "User Interface and Usability Improvements", and "Introductory Deep-linking/API Feature Developments".

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Thursday September 10 at 20:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 23:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. Additionally, as previously posted, we may be briefly disabling many rpath.com services including the conary.rpath.com, products.rpath.com, and rap.rpath.com repositories. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

This maintenance window will bring rBuilder Online into parity with the upcoming release of rBuilder Appliance 5.2.3. This includes many updates to rBuilder's new UI, adding new features and fixing bugs. In particular, UI enhancements include easier navigation, additional context-senstive help, and "deep linking" support in which the URL the browser displays changes in different parts of the UI; these URLs are stable and can be bookmarked, exchanged with other users, and used to communicate with more precision when requesting support.

Your continued feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

Since our most recent upgrade of rBuilder Online, the rBuilder Online web site has occasionally stopped responding to your requests. In two non-service-interrupting minor updates this week, we believe that we have resolved the two main causes. Sorry for the inconvenience!

We are aware of one more issue that in a few rare circumstances has caused an rBuilder Online service interruption. In order to address this issue, we may be briefly disabling many rpath.com services including the conary.rpath.com, products.rpath.com, and rap.rpath.com repositories. This upcoming service interruption is currently planned to occur sometime during the week of September 7, 2009. (We will post again later with more precise timing.)

Today, we updated rBuilder Online to bring it in line with the rBuilder 5.2.2 feature set. This update includes the following major improvements:

• Initial support for a new platform: Scientific Linux
• Numerous bug fixes and improvements to the user interface

Although not every issue in the rBuilder 5.2.2 release notes is relevant to rBuilder Online, it is a good place to get an idea of the scope of the changes we've made. You can view the rBuilder 5.2.2 release notes here.

Note that Scientific Linux should be considered beta quality; please give it a try and file issues in our issue tracking system in the Platforms component for any bugs you may find.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder!

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Wednesday August 5 at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 23:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

This maintenance window will bring rBuilder Online into parity with rBuilder Appliance 5.2.2. This includes many updates to rBuilder's new UI, adding new features and fixing bugs. Your continued feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

Today, we updated rBuilder Online with a non-service-interrupting update that improves a number of features.

RESTful API Improvements

As part of the process toward improved API access, we have added HTTP Basic Authentication support to the REST API. (It was already available for the XML-RPC API.) This allows authenticated access to privileged API functions without requiring client cookie suport.

We have not at this time published API documentation for rBuilder Online and have not committed to maintaining a stable API, but calling the API is acceptable use. We are currently developing some initial documentation for getting started using the REST API.

Appliance Content Editing

Unfortunately, our last update broke the appliance editing interface for newly-created appliances. This affected only appliances created after the update. We have now fixed this for all new appliances.

Finding things

The Find feature has been improved somewhat with better search response times once your search has narrowed to less than 100 items. However, there are still further improvements we need to make here to better support find-by-title and find-by-description.

Scrolling

Scrolling behavior in the various list views has been improved.

Thank you!

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please click the "Provide Feedback" link at the top of your rBuilder pages for the quickest route to ensuring that we hear you! Alternatively, you are still welcome, as always, to tell us about bugs by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

Today, we updated rBuilder Online with a non-service-interrupting update that fixes an important bug. Previously, using the new flex-based UI, if you had defined your own group manually by editing a group recipe and then tried to use the web interface to manage the contents of your appliance, rBuilder would overwrite your group recipe file with an essentially blank template, and then you could use the UI to re-populate the group. Now, instead of overwriting the group recipe, rBuilder will disable the UI components for adding packages to the group.

If the flex UI does not allow you to add packages, and you have an older group built with the group-appliance superclass and implementing the addPackages() method, you can enable adding packages in the flex UI with the following steps. (Note that these steps are specific to the rPath Linux 2 platform; if you need to apply these steps on another platform and are unsure how, please feel free to file an issue in the Bugs component.)

1. If the file appliance-manifest.xml does not exist, create and add it with the contents (modified for your appliance):
   

   <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
   <manifest xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.rpath.org/permanent/appmanifest-1.0.xsd appmanifest-1.0.xsd">
     <troveName>group-YOURAPPLIANCENAMEHERE-appliance</troveName>
     <troveVersion>1</troveVersion>
     <searchPaths>
       <searchPath>group-os=conary.rpath.com@rpl:2</searchPath>
       <searchPath>group-rapa=raa.rpath.org@rpath:rapa-3</searchPath>
     </searchPaths>
     <explicitTroves/>
     <implicitTroves/>
   </manifest>
   

2. Change your recipe to derive from FactoryRecipeClass if it does not do so already.
3. Change any definition of the addPackages() method to addRecipePackages()
4. Run the command cvc factory factory-group-base=conary.rpath.com@rpl:2 if the recipe did not already derive from FactoryRecipeClass.
5. Check in your changes with cvc commit

If you have a group that rBuilder Online replaced with an empty group in the past few weeks before we fixed this issue, it is possible to merge the contents of your pre-existing group by checking out the previous version of your group and copying the group recipe to a current checkout, and then following the simple conversion steps above. This will work only if you were already using the group-appliance superclass and defining the addPackages() method. If you instead define the setup()> method, conversion requires more work; please see the migration guide for more detailed information on the process. (Be aware that the migration guide was written for rBuilder Appliance rather than rBuilder Online, so some of the description involves a local installation of rBuilder Appliance. This is not important to the migration process.)

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. rBuilder Online is now synchronized with rBuilder Appliance 5.2.

The new flash-based UI, which requires Adobe Flash 10, is now the default; the old HTML UI will still be available for a limited time, as a fall back. The old HTML UI is no longer actively maintained and will eventually be decommissioned. If you find areas in which the new UI does not work for you, please file an issue or talk to us on irc.freenode.net in the #conary channel.

The new UI is designed to streamline rPath's best practices for using our tools. We have written a migration guide to help existing rBuilder Appliance customers migrate to using the new UI to take advantage of the improvements it offers; this document also applies to using rBuilder Online.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online. As usual, if you find additional bugs, please tell us about them by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Thursday June 11 at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 23:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

This maintenance window will bring rBuilder Online into parity with rBuilder Appliance 5.2. This includes many updates to the new, flash-based UI, adding new features and fixing bugs. Thank you for your feedback, which has helped us improve the new UI, bringing it out of beta test and into general availability!

With this update, the new UI will be the default; the old HTML UI will still be available for a limited time, as a fall back. The old HTML UI is no longer actively maintained and will eventually be decommissioned. If you find areas in which the new UI does not work for you, please file an issue or talk to us on irc.freenode.net in the #conary channel.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. rBuilder Online has been updated for a few important enhancments and bug fixes.

• VMware ESX image builds now contain the build in two formats: the older ESX format and the newer OVF 0.9 format. Users can choose which of the two builds to download. (RBL-4651)
• Deleting EC2 AMIs works, and removes the AMI from S3 as well.

Various smaller issues have also been fixed.

If you find additional bugs, please tell us about them by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Wednesday May 20th at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. rBuilder Online has been updated for a few important bug fixes.

• During the past week, VMware images for Workstation and Fusion did not work correctly, due to a bug introduced in the process of working on OVF 0.9 support for VMware. This bug did not affect VMware ESX images.
• Support for building arbitrary recipes was previously not included in the new Flash-based UI as it has been in the HTML UI; this support has now been added.

Various smaller issues have been fixed as well.

If you find additional bugs, please tell us about them by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Thursday April 7th at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

We have mentioned a few times that the old Group Builder interface is going away.

Today, it's gone.

We listened when you asked for a way to add more packages from the GUI without having to build packages from source. You can now add additional packages to the search path in the GUI — that can be a reference to a group (like the elements already included in the search path as part of the platform your product is based on), a label such as contrib.rpath.org@rpl:2, or even an individual package. (rBuilder will trust that you are adding only elements that are compatible — if you add Ubuntu Hardy delivered by rPath groups or labels to an rPath Linux 2-based product, it's unlikely to work well.)

If you have bookmarked Group Builder, you will now be given a link to the new interface. As previously mentioned, this requires Adobe Flash 10 or later. To add arbitrary packages:

1. Follow the link to the new UI (later, this will become the default or only UI).
2. Click the browse appliance button at the upper right hand corner of the screen.
3. Click on the tile for the appliance you want to work with.
4. Click on the appliance contents icon to add/remove packages and
   search paths.
5. Click the expander icon next to "Search Paths" to add/remove search paths.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Wednesday April 29th at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

See that "BETA" in the rBuilder Online logo? Well, we're asking for your help testing some new features. Not esoteric, arcane features. In fact, that's the reason we're making these changes! We are building a new interface that is more streamlined and consistent, in response to your feedback. Is it easier to use?

Right now, this new user interface is available via a link at the top right side of the page; you have to click on that link to test the interface. After sufficient testing, it will replace the main page, so we would like to encourage everyone to test it.

How is this interface different?

1. Streamlined workflow: It takes fewer pages (generally reduced by half or more) and fewer clicks to get things done.
2. Direct manipulation: Instead of (say), selecting an item, then clicking a link that takes you to a series of pages that guide you through performing an action, you can perform the actions more directly, using mechanisms like drag-and-drop and context-sensitive menus. (This contributes to the streamlined workflow.)
3. Consistency: The current rBuilder Online interface grew some features somewhat organically, leading to inconsistencies between features. These inconsistencies make rBuilder Online harder to use than we would like.
4. Technology: The new rBuilder Online interface, like the rPath Management Console, is implemented using Flex Builder as an Adobe Flash application. (Parts of the new interface will continue to be implemented using HTML for some undetermined time.) Behind the curtains, more of the capability behind the interface is being implemented using a REST API, which means that rBuilder interactions will become easier to script and automate.

We expect to do frequent updates to the new user interface as we develop new features and respond to your feedback. Some of these changes will require that we take rBuilder Online down for maintenance, but most of them will not. This means that your continued feedback will be valuable. We will announce significant changes to the new user interface from time to time as we make them.

The new interface requires Adobe Flash 10 or later.

A relevant reminder: Part of the new user interface changes are to make the new interface an even better replacement for Group Builder, which will be going away soon.

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. rBuilder Online has been updated to include bug fixes and prepare to launch new features, but the visible changes are currently limited.

If you find any bugs, please tell us about them by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Wednesday March 25th at 21:00 EDT (-0400) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rPath is fixing a lot of bugs by replacing the old "Group Builder" web interface in rBuilder Online with a new feature: Products. The new Product feature solves similar problem in a different way. It is a better way, but since it's different, anyone who has used Group Builder and become accustomed to it will have a few changes to make. We have written a document called "Group Builder Reinvented: Products" that describes the reasons for the change and documents how to adjust.

If you use Group Builder on rBuilder Online, it is still there to allow you some time to transition to the new Product model. We would like to encourage you to take advantage of the benefits of this new way of doing things even before we remove the old Group Builder feature, because it simply works better.

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. rBuilder Online has been updated to reflect the changes included in the recent rBuilder Appliance 5 release. The changes since the previous update to rBuilder Online are mainly bug fixes. As part of deploying this update to rBuilder Online, several infrastructure changes were made, but the visible changes are limited.

If you find any bugs, please tell us about them by filing issues in our issue tracking system.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Thursday February 5th at 21:00 EST (-0500) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. Maintenance was performed on site infrastructure and has no visible impact.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Wednesday January 28th at 21:00 EST (-0500) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

The rBuilder Online scheduled maintenance is complete. Maintenance was performed on site infrastructure and has no visible impact.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Thursday January 15th at 21:00 EST (-0500) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.

rBuilder Online will undergo scheduled maintenance starting Wednesday January 7th at 21:00 EST (-0500) and ending at 22:00. During this time, rBuilder Online and all rpath.org repositories will not be available. A message will be posted when the scheduled maintenance period has been completed.

Thank you for your interest in rBuilder Online.