Dominik Schadow

Category: JCrypTool

  • JCrypTool running for Best RCP Application

    JCrypTool is running for the Best RCP Application with the Eclipse Technology Awards again. The finalists will be announced on March 1st, the winner on EclipseCon 2010.

  • Refreshed JCrypTool Release Candidate 1a

    We released a refreshed JCrypTool Release Candidate 1a for download today. This releases fixes the not working language switch via the preferences and the not working Algorithms view on Linux (other systems were not affected). The clean up of the internal package usage in the Algorithms view is a positive side affect of this bugfix. The new FlexiProvider version 1.6.0p6 is available in this release too.

    Release Candidate 2 is scheduled for April. The reason for this long time is that we want to extend the documentation (online and context help) and provide the a complete theoretical part for this release. And end user documentation requires a lot of time. At the moment we expect the final version to be released sometime in summer this year.

  • The first release candidate for JCrypTool is finally here

    JCrypTool 1.0.0 Release Candidate 1 is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. For the first time we released versions for 32bit and 64bit for all supported operating systems. Download the new release today!. This release does not contain any new features but does complete and enhance the features from previous milestone releases and fixes different bugs.

    This is the first release candidate as we are getting closer to the final version. There will be at least two more release candidates until the final release will be available. As always we are interested in any feedback and bug reports, so feel free to get in touch with us via our forum or the mailing list.

  • JCrypTool 1.0.0 Milestone 6 available

    JCrypTool 1.0.0 Milestone 6 is available for Linux, Mac and Windows systems on our download page.

    There are again plenty of changes and updates, see the JCrypTool 1.0.0 Milestone 6 – New and Noteworthy page for the new features.

    This is the last milestone release, JCrypTool is more or less feature complete. We are now entering the end game and will publish some release candidates at irregular intervals. So the next weeks will complete the online/ context help and as well as some missing details in the UI. Get ready for the final version…

    Your feedback, ideas, wishes and bug reports are as always welcome, so feel free to contact me or use the forum/ mailing lists on our home page.

  • JCrypTool 1.0.0 Milestone 5 available

    JCrypTool 1.0.0 Milestone 5 is finally available for Linux, Mac and Windows systems on our download page. Be aware that it is not possible to use the update manager in Milestone 4a or older to update to the new version. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but there are more changes included in Milestone 5 than the update manager can handle (mostly p2 related). So please download the complete archive ones more.

    See the JCrypTool 1.0.0 Milestone 5 – New and Noteworthy page for an overview of the new features and updates.

    Reasons for the delay? Well, it took us much more time than expected to include p2. There were a lot of pitfalls, and we jumped from one to another.

    But nevertheless, this milestone moves us really close to the final version 1.0.0, only one more milestone should follow the next months. Milestone 6 is already scheduled for November, depending on the time we are feature complete. There are some open tasks so far: Actions View is incomplete, Command Line is completely missing and the online help is not as complete as it is supposed to be. The first steps Cheat Sheet is not completed yet too. Those tasks must be contained in milestone 6, before we enter the endgame and release our first release candidate. So there is still enough to do.

    Your feedback, ideas, wishes and bug reports are as always welcome, so feel free to contact me or use the forum on our home page.

  • Using Eclipse SWT.SEARCH

    After reading Prakash G.R. great blog posts (here and here) about the Eclipse search field I have submitted some updates to the algorithm search in JCrypTool. And noticed some additional things which are in my eyes quite important when using SWT.SEARCH.

    What happens in JCrypTool when using the algorithm search is that the Algorithm view gets updated in real time, so the search works as a filter. When clicking the x icon the filter should be set to empty, and the view must display all elements again. But the default clear action is to empty only the search field. Fortunately this is as easy to extend as mentioned in Eclipse Javadoc:


    Text search = new Text(parent, SWT.SEARCH | SWT.CANCEL);
    search.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
     public void widgetDefaultSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
      if (e.detail == SWT.CANCEL) {
        // action when clicking on the x icon
      }
     }
    });

    You have to use the widgetDefaultSelected method in case you need to do more than just clearing the user input. Remember that the SWT.CANCEL check is only possible when using SWT.SEARCH | SWT.CANCEL as options for the text field.

    The really sad thing is (at least for Windows users), such a stylish text field is only available on Mac, but not on Windows (at least Windows XP does not support it). Since I am a happy Mac user I have no idea about Linux. At least the search text field is shown as a normal text field when it comes to Windows (better than being invisible or unusable at all). So it is necessary to provide an additional clear icon when the operating system does not support the clear action inside the text field. Simply implement the following check after creating the search text field:

    if ((search.getStyle() && SWT.CANCEL) == 0) { }

    Put all actions and GUI elements for antiquated operating systems in this block and you are done. Since the return code on Mac is different this part won't be executed on Mac systems and therefore only the stylish text field is visible.

    Update, 2009-07-19:
    With Eclipse 3.5 you should initialize the search text field in this way:

    Text search = new Text(parent, SWT.SEARCH | SWT.ICON_CANCEL | SWT.ICON_SEARCH);

    On Mac this offers an additional search icon in the text field. The Eclipse 3.5 M6 News contain the information, that this style is now available on all platforms. I wasn't able to confirm this with JCrypTool, the only supported platform I'm aware of is the Mac.

  • JCrypTool milestone 5 development update

    It’s been a while since I last blogged about the upcoming JCrypTool milestone 5. Time for an update.

    Milestone 5 is still scheduled for end of July/ beginning August. No exact date yet, still too far away. New implemented features up to today are a web browser plug-in and a lot of extensions to existing plug-ins: The File Explorer view provides more file operations, the Algorithms view offers drag&drop and some other improvements and the overall extensibility of JCrypTool has been enhanced. And yes, there is more documentation available, for end users and for developers (still more to come). Welcome Page and sample files are updated and provide a much better first impression of JCrypTool now.

    On the other side we fixed a lot of bugs and improved the overall performance. There are still some bugs open, which must be fixed for the next milestone (see our bug tracker).

    Ongoing work at the moment affects the new Action view, which is only partly implemented so far. This view will be finished for milestone 5. As well as the upgrade to Eclipse 3.5 and the switch from the old update manager to p2. Other features may be rescheduled to milestone 6.

  • Nominate JCrypTool for the SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards

    Another year, another try: nominate JCrypTool for the SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards 2009! Simply visit our home page and follow the Nominate for the 2009 Community Choice Awards on the right side. The most suitable category for JCrypTool is Best Project for Academia, but Best Project is welcome too. So there is nothing left to do for you but to rock the vote!

  • Getting started with JCrypTool

    A new version of Getting started with JCrypTool (pdf, 1.5 MB) is available for download on our home page. The intention of this presentation is to get you started with JCrypTool as a normal user and to give you some ideas and hints about how you can extend JCrypTool with your own crypto plug-ins.

  • (J)CrypTool in the news

    The German magazine Datenschutz und Datensicherheit is publishing an article (in the March 2009 edition) about the most famous e-learning tool on cryptography and cryptanalysis: CrypTool. Yes, the J is missing here on purpose so far, JCrypTool still needs some time to grow and mature. The article is named CrypTool – Ein Open-Source-Projekt in der Praxis. Beside the original CrypTool it covers CrypTool 2.0 (the .net variant) and of course JCrypTool too. I was interviewed for this part, so the article contains a lot of my thoughts, views and ideas about the JCrypTool open source project.

    There is no online version available yet, but the CrypTool home page will provide a pdf as soon as the team is allowed to do so.