VCOrganizer Version 8 New Features

VCOrganizer/vcCalendar version 8 has been published to Play Store.

Remark: vcCalendar and VCOrganizer have the same functions and features except that vcCalendar doesn't sync with Outlook.


Here is the summary of the major new features in this release:

1. Built-in Social Network
2. Share Items between multiple devices
3. Remote Outlook Sync (Online/Offline)
4. Multi-select in Notes, Tasks, and Contacts App (you can delete, categorize, add to favourite...etc.)
5. Auto Snooze (In VCO Settings), keep sending reminder notification until user open it from notification bar. You can set the Snooze minutes, start/end time of the day. If the snoozed time is smaller than the start time it will be scheduled to the start time of that day. If the snoozed time is larger than the end time of that day, it will be scheduled to the start time of tomorrow.
6. Notifications, you can now set LED indicator, and vibration.
7. Allow users to change the system default category colors (In VCO Category -> Settings). You can also configure to display the category colors in full-row mode.
8. When you search items, you can include the filter in your search. For example, search notes in category "A" or "B" and with keyword "ABC". By default, it doesn't include category, you can enable this option in Search Settings.  

Please also download the latest SyncCenter 8 from our website.

Latest Maintenance Release for Version 8: 

Build (343)
For VCOrganizer Pro only. The other versions such as VCO Pro+, VCO Tab ... will be published soon.

New Features

1. Allow users to configure other XMPP server in SyncCenter (e.g Openfire).  You need to update SyncCenter to 8.1.323 or above.
2. In Notes App, you can group items by categories when in Grid mode.
3. In Notes List Widget, you can select to sort by "Title" or "Last Modification Time"
4. Multi-select allows user to set tasks due date.
5. VCO DatePicker swipe horizontally.

Bug Fixes

1. When using Advanced Filter to filter items (e.g: "not in categories"), it shows completed tasks even you have selected not to display completed tasks.
2. If AutoSnooze is enabled, manual snooze doesn't work.
3. When sycn with Outlook, in some situation, the Calendar doesn't refresh after sync
4. In VCO -> Contacts, when select to import "Phone-Only" contacts from Android, contacts from other accounts also imported..

VCOrganizer 8 New Features Highlights

VCOrganizer 8 New Features Highlights

Social Network

Build-in Chat App () , which allows user to easily send messages (including Voices, Images, Texts, ..etc to your friends).  You can also encrypt these data before sending to internet.  Not only the communication channel is secured, the data which sends to the server is also encrypted.  

Collaboration

The New Chat App is fully integrated the Notes, Tasks, Contacts and Calendar Apps. That's means you can share your tasks, events, notes or contacts to your friends or partners (in Read-Only mode or Read-Write mode).  For the items you have shared (even in Read-Only mode),  the recipients can also add comments which can be viewed by all other recipients.

For example, if you have an event in your VCOrganizer Calendar which links to a few tasks in VCOrganizer Tasks app using SmartLink. These tasks need to be completed by different people before the start of the event. You can assign these tasks to different people. When they complete the tasks on their devices, it will also update the corresponding tasks on your device. If they have any questions, they can also add comments to the tasks.

Real-Time / Remote Outlook Sync

Sync with remote Outlook client over internet in Real-Time. With the Real-Time sync enabled, when you insert/update/delete items in VCO, it will update to your Outlook clients (at home or office) immediately. You don't need any public IP address. Of course,  the data can also be encrypted before sending.

Share Data with Multiple Devices

You can selectively sync items in VCOrganizer on one device to the other devices.  For example, you have a phone and two tablets devices. When you sync items from Outlook to your phone, these items will be synced to these two tablets. When you update the items in these tablets, they can be synced back to your phone and Outlook also. These two tablets need to run either VCOrganizer App or vcCalendar App.

Chat - Connection
Chat - Friends
Chat - Groups
Chat - Settings (Preferences)
Chat - Send Text Messages, Voice Messages and VCO Items
Chat - Sync Outlook Setup
Chat - Sync with Outlook

Chat - Secure Outlook Sync
Chat - Outlook Real-Time Sync
Chat - Share VCO Items
Chat - Share VCO Items by Categories


More information will be provided soon ....

Best Regards,
David Tin,
Product Manager
Vecal.biz
VCOrganizer syncs Outlook (notes, tasks, events and contacts) to your Android phone and tablet.

Chat - Share VCO Items by Categories

Instead of sharing items one by one, you can share item at categories level.

1) Open a category in VCO Category app, and click the "Share" () button to open the "Share to Friends" dialog. 

For example, for any item assigned with this category, it will be shared as "Allow Update" mode to your friend Anderson and Billy. Also, when you, Billy or Anderson add any comments to the shared items, it will be broadcast to all the members in the group.

For example, if you have assigned the category "K2 Project" to a task, it should show the member list that inherit from the category. If the share is inherited from category, you will see the category icon () in the Member title bar.

If there are more than one categories of the item which have configured share properties, they will be combined. However, the "Read Only" will always come first. 

For example 

Category A - share with Read-Only,  and with member Anderson and Billy

Category B - share with Allow-Update, and with member Anderson and Sophia

If you have a task with Category A and Category B, the effective share mode will be:

Anderson  - Read-Only

Billy - Read-Only

Sophia - Allow-Update

Note:

• When you assign/update share properties to a category, it will take effect when you start updating the items with that category. For example, if you have a task with category "K2 Project". If you set the category "K2 Project" to share with your friends, the task will not share to your friend until you update the task again.
• The item level sharing will overwrite the category level sharing. If you have set the task to share with our friends, it will ignore any share properties that inherit  from category level.

Avoid Duplicates of Records When You Share Items

Share data is designed to share your VCO items with your friends. If you want to share the items with your other devices (for example, from VCOrganizer on your Phone to vcCalendar on your tablet ..etc), please note:

Since you can sync contacts or events to/from different sources on your Android devices, please try not to create a loop when you share items. 

Example 1:

You sync items from Outlook to Phone A, and then share items from Phone A to Phone B, and then sync Phone B with the same Outlook client. This is very likely to end up with duplicates.

If both Phone A or Phone B are going to sync with the same Outlook client, you don't need to share data. The data will eventually be synced to both Phone A and Phone B from Outlook.

Example 2:

On Phone A, you have configured to sync contacts or events to your Gmail account on the Cloud. On Phone B you have also configured to sync contacts or events to the same Gmail account.  If you have create an events on Phone A, and then share to Phone B, you will end up create two events on the Cloud. It's because Gmail doesn't check for duplicates.

If you want to share events or contacts from Phone A to Phone B, please make sure you don't configure them to sync with the same Gmail account. For example, on Phone B, you can configure VCO not to sync events to your Gmail account (In VCOrganizer -> Calendar -> Settings, "Sync with Mobile Calendar").

At any time, VCOrganizer will try to check for duplicates when you share items or sync with Outlook. It's suggested to avoid these loop situations.

Chat - Share VCO Items

With the built-in chat feature, you can easily share any VCO items to your friends or colleagues which include notes, tasks, events and contacts.

For the items that you have shared, any members in the shared group can add any comments to that item.
You can share the item in "Read Only" () mode or "Allow Update" () mode.

• For "Read Only" mode, your friends can update the items on their device, but it will not update the items on your device.
• For "Allow Update" mode, when your friends update the item, it will also update the item on your device.
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In the following example, we are going to show you how to share a task in VCOrganizer. For events, notes or contacts, they are similar.

1) Open the task that you would like to share. Select "Share to Friends" from the menu.

2)  In the "Share to Friends" dialog, you can select any groups or friends you would like to share. After that, in the Task screen, you should see the members of this task.

3) Now, Billy and Sophia should have received this shared task. Since the task is shared as Read-Only, even they have updated the task on their device, it won't update the task on your device.  

4) For all the shared items, members can add any comments they want which includes text messages, photos or voice messages. To add comment, click the comment icon () to go to the Item Comments screen. You can type text message, send photos or voice. Just like what you can do when you chat with friends.

Item Comments Screen

Comments displays in Task screen

5) All the items or comments that you have sent to or received from your friends, you can see these items in your friend's chat screen. In VCOrganizer -> Chat -> Friends, for example, click Anderson KK to open the chat screen. 

In the following example, it shows a task and a comment that you had sent to Anderson. Anderson had sent you an event and a contact.

- This icon indicates that you have received the item, but it's not been imported to VCO App.

- This icon indicates that you have received the item, and it's been imported to VCO App.

- This icon indicates that your have sent the item to your friend and he/she has received it.

- This icon indicates that the item is still in your local queue and will be sent when your friend is online.

Note:

• By default, the comments added by the item owner (who share this item) will be broadcast to all members. However, the comments sent from members will not be broadcast to other members. If you have selected "Auto Forward Comments" option when you share the item, all the comments sent from members will be forwarded to other members automatically.
• You can use "Share to Friends" option at any time to change the share settings of that item such as change from "Allow Update" to "Read-Only", or add/delete members, or change the "Auto Forward Comments" option.
• When you share any recurring event instances, the whole recurring series will be shared.  

Chat - Outlook Real-Time Sync

Outlook Real-Time Sync (for VCOrganizer)

Once you have configured the communication channel between VCOrganizer and Outlook, you can enable the Outlook Real-Time Sync.

• Go to  VCOrganizer Chat App -> Friends list.
• Select "Outlook Real-time Sync" from the dropdown menu
• Then, select the option "Outlook Real-time Sync" and click OK in the popup dialog box.

What data will be synced depends on what you have configured in SyncCenter -> Sync Options screen. For example, if you configure to sync Notes only in SyncCenter, when you create/update/delete any notes in VCOrganizer, it will sync to your Outlook.

If VCOrganizer Chat app and Outlook are connected to Gmail Talk Server, the items will be sync to Outlook immediately.

If either one of them is not connected, VCOrganizer will store the updates in the local queue and will send it when SyncCenter is connected to Gmail Talk Sever again.

For example, you can update the records in VCOrganizer when you are in office. When you are home and start the SyncCenter, as long as the Chat app in VCOrganizer is also connected to Gmail Talk Server, the updates will be synced to Outlook automatically.

- This icon indicates that the Outlook has received and processed it.

- This icon indicates that the message is still in your local queue and waiting for deliver.

This is an example:

Remark:

• At this moment, only items create/update/delete in VCOrganizer will be synced to Outlook with Real-time Sync. For the items that you have created/updated/deleted in Outlook, you need to use the Outlook Full Sync or the traditional WiFi, Bluetooth and USB to sync to VCOrganizer.
• Real-time sync and full sync can be used together. You can do the Outlook Full sync any time you want even you have enabled the Real-time sync.

Chat - Secure Outlook Sync

Even the communication channel is secured, the data store on the server are not encrypted. You can enable Messages Encryption in VCOrganizer so that the messages will be encrypted before sending to internet. The message will only be decrypted when SyncCenter receive the message and with the correct password.

You need to set the encryption password in both SyncCenter and VCOrganizer. The password must be the same.

Set Password in SyncCenter

• In SyncCenter -> Chat tab, make sure you have signed in.
• Double click on the user in the listbox on the right "Friends to sync with this Outlook client". You will see the Encryption Password popup window. 
• Enter the password and click the "Save" button.

 - This icon indicates that message encryption is enabled for this client.

 - This icon indicates that message encryption is not enabled for this client.

Set Password in VCOrganizer

• Go to  VCOrganizer Chat App -> Friends list.
• Tap on the Outlook client in Friends list to open the Chat screen.
• Select "Settings" from the menu
• You can then specific the Encryption Password in the Preferences screen.

- This icon indicates that Message Encryption is enabled for this Outlook client.

Chat - Sync with Outlook

Sync with Outlook - (VCOrganizer Version 8 Preview)

Note: Please be reminded that the online sync is designed for real-time sync. It uses to sync your daily updates on your devices. If this is a new installation of VCOrganizer or you haven't completed a full sync with Outlook, please use the traditional way to sync with your Outlook first (using WiFi, Bluetooth or USB). Otherwise, it may take a very long time to sync thousands of records using this chat client. (about 2 ~3 seconds per record)

Prerequisites

• Assume you have already setup the communication channel between SyncCenter and VCOrganizer, please see the "Chat - Sync Outlook Setup"
• The Outlook Sync (Full Sync) is a synchronized XMPP process, both SyncCenter on your PC and VCOrganizer Chat on your phone must be online and they are connected to Google Talk Server.

You can start the sync process from your Phone or your PC.

1. Start Sync from Phone

You can either start from the Chat screen or the traditional Sync screen.

a) Start from Chat Screen

To start the sync, you can select "Outlook Sync (Full Sync)" from the dropdown menu from the friends list in Chat app.

Start Outlook Sync from Chat screen

b)  Start from Sync Screen

If both of your VCOrganizer Chat and SyncCenter are connected to Google Talk Server, in VCOrganizer Sync screen, you should see the registered Outlook client. You can select that Outlook client and click the "Start" button to start the sync process.

Start Outlook Sync from Sync screen

2. Start Sync from PC

To start the sync from PC, 

• In SyncCenter -> Chat, in the listbox under the "Friends to Sync with this Outlook client",  select the Gmail account you would like to sync with.
• Click the "Send Sync Request to VCOrganizer".
• Once VCOrganizer has received the sync request, it will start the sync process. By default it syncs with express mode. If you want to sync with full mode, please uncheck the "Express Sync" checkbox.

Express Sync

When you start the sync, by default, it starts with a "Express Sync" mode (the first time is always full sync mode). You can un-check the "Express Sync" checkbox to do a full sync.  For the express sync, it only syncs the new items or updated items in VCOrganizer and Outlook. It won't check for deleted items or items (events or contacts) that you have created/modified in Android. It's very fast. So, if possible, we recommend you to modify the items in VCOrganizer instead on Android native app. 

If you know that you have deleted any items or you have created some items (events or contacts) in Android native apps, you can uncheck the option "Express Sync" to do a full sync. You can do the full sync any time you want. Even you have forgot to do a full sync after you have deleted some records, the next time you do the full sync, the records will be deleted any way. 

Remark: 

To protect your Outlook data, by default, we won't delete any record in Outlook. To allow SyncCenter to delete records from Outlook, you need to enable this option in SyncCenter -> Sync Options.

Detailed Sync Log

Once the sync is completed, you should see a reminder in your Android Notification Task bar. Click on the reminder in the Task bar will take you to the detail sync log. The log shows you every single items that have been created/updated/deleted in Outlook or VCOrganizer. You can also click on the Outlook client in the Friends list in VCOrganizer Chat app to go to this sync log screen.

Chat - Sync Outlook Setup

Setup  - (for VCOrganizer)

To sync with Outlook, you need an extra Gmail account.

• The VCOrganizer on your phone/tablet needs one Gmail account. This is the one that you use to chat with your friend.
• On your PC, in SyncCenter, you need another Gmail account. VCOrganizer on your phone/tablet will communicate with your PC using this Gmail account.
• For security reason, you need to do the setup on your PC and your Phone:
• On your PC, you need to grant the permission to allow your phone to access data on your PC.
• On your Phone, you need to confirm in VCOrganizer to allow your PC to access data on your phone.

In the follow examples, we are going to use these two Gmail accounts.

• On your phone/tablet (VCOrganizer):  pedron.chat@gmail.com
• On your PC (SyncCenter): pedro.synccenter@gmail.com
  
  Remark: If you need to sync with more than one devices, you need a separated gmail account for each device. 

To setup the connection, your phone/tablet must be online and VCOrganizer Chat app on your phone/tablet must have signed in to Gmail Talk Server. See Chat - Connection for details.

SyncCenter Setup

Please make sure you have installed SyncCenter version 8 or above.

• In SyncCenter -> Chat, enter the User Name (e.g: pedro.synccenter@gmail.com) and the password.
• Click the "Sign In" button to connect to server.
• After signing in, you should see a list of friends on the listbox on the left. 
• If this is a new Gmail account or your the Gmail account (e.g:  pedron.chat@gmail.com) that you use in VCOrganizer is not in your friends list, you can click the "Invite Friend" button to add the account. Then, VCOrganizer on your phone/tablet (must be online) will receive a subscription request. Please confirm it in VCOrganizer Chat app. Once the subscription is confirmed, you will see that Gmail account in your friend list.
• In order for VCOrganizer (pedron.chat@gmail.com) to sync with this Outlook client, we need to add this Gmail account to the "Friend to sync with this Outlook client" listbox. 
• Select pedron.chat@gmail.com in the "Friends" listbox and click the ">>" button to add pedron.chat@gmail.com to the listbox on the right.
• The SyncCenter setup is completed.

VCOrganizer Setup

• In the steps above, if you have confirmed the subscription of pedro.synccenter@gmail.com, you should see this Gmail account in your Friends list in VCOrganizer - Chat.

The icon at the bottom left of the profile image indicates the type of this client:

 - This icon indicates that this is a SyncCenter client (you can sync with this client)

 - This icon indicates that this is a VCOrganizer client (you can chat with this client)

• To sync with SyncCenter, please select "Sync with this Outlook client" option from the dropdown menu on the right.

• Then, you can select whether to enable "Real-time sync" (we will discuss this in another section). Click OK button. You should see the profile image has changed to a Outlook icon and the name title will display the machine name instead of the username of the Gmail account.

• Done. If you click the dropdown menu again on the right again, you should see more options. You can select "Outlook Sync (Full Sync)" to start the sync process.

Chat - Send Text Messages, Voice Messages and VCO Items

Chat - (VCOrganizer Version 8 Preview)

The Chat app is a very powerful app that integrates with all the other build-in apps in VCOrganizer such as Tasks App, Notes App, Calendar App and Contacts App. You cannot only send text messages and files, but also send voices, photos, VCOrganizer Items (such as tasks, notes, events and contacts).

If you have enabled message encryption, any messages (including texts, voices, photos, files ..etc) will be encrypted before sending to the server. The message will be decrypted when your friends receive it.

The title bar not only shows the status of your friend, but also shows the connection type.

 - This icon indicates that you have enabled message encryption for this friend.

 - This icon indicates that your friend is connected to the server using VCOganizer Chat app.

For example, the following image shows that Anderson is connected to the server using VCOganizer Chat app, but you have not enabled message encryption with Anderson.

Send Text Message

Type message in the textbox and click the enter button in the keyboard when the cursor is at the end of the message or click the "Send" () button. If you want to send message with multiple lines, just click enter button in the keyboard when the cursor is not at the end of the message.

You can also click the "Smile" () icon on the left to add image icons to your message.

Send/Receive Voice Message

To send voice message, press on the "Record" () button to start your recording. When you finish the recording, just release the button and it will be sent immediately. (By default, it sends the voice message when you release the "Record" button. But you can also configure it not to send automatically in Settings).

Click the "Play" () button to play the voice messages 

This icon indicates that the message has been played before.

This icon indicates that this is a new voice message and haven't been played yet.

Send Text Message with Voice

You can send a text message with voice attached. To send a text message with voice, type your text in the text box and then press the "Record" button to record the voice. When you finish, the text and voice will be sent together automatically.

Send Text Message with Photo

You can also send a text message with photo attached. To send a text message with photo , type your text in the text box and then select the photo from the Attach button. After you have selected the photo, the text and photo will be sent together automatically.

Send Photo/Video/Files

Click the "Attach" () button to select photo/video/file to send. 

Send Task/Note/Contact/Calendar

Click the  "Attach" button to select what type of VCO item you would like to send. Then, pick the item from the popup window.

Send VCO item is different from Share VCO item.

When you send an item, it just sends the item to your friends device. There is no any linkage between the sender and the receiver.

When you share an item (it will be discussed in another post), your friends can add comments to the item. If you update the item, it will also update the item on your friends device. If you share the item as "Allow Update" mode, when your friends update that item, it will also update the corresponding item on your device.

When you or your friend receive the VCO item, by default, it keeps in their message queue and will not be imported to their VCO App. They need to open the item from the message queue and click the "Import" button to import the message to their VCO apps. You can set to automatically import to VCO App when receive the VCO items from your friends in Chat - Settings.

- This icon indicates that the item has been imported to your VCO App

- This icon indicates that the item has been received but it's have not been imported.

You can click on the VCO Item to view the item details.

Remark:

• When you send any recurring instance of a recurring event, the whole recurring series will be sent.
• The Chat app is designed to allow users to chat with a VCOrganizer compatible clients (VCOrganizer and vcCalendar). You can still use it to chat with other normal chat clients, but you won't be able to send VCO items or voice to these non-VCOrganizer compatible clients.
• You can only send voice recording to VCOrganizer compatible clients (such as VCOrganizer and vcCalendar). If your friend is not using the VCOrganizer compatible client when you send the message, the message will be kept in your local queue and will be sent when your friend is connected using VCOrganizer compatible client.