The text editor component has long been perceived as something of a risk, as there seemed to be no newer version coming from its developer, even though it had been promised several years ago. Version 1.3.7 was released in September 2019 and the first beta version of the next version was not released until December 2023. From then on, it was another six months and many additional changes and bug fixes before it could be perceived as stable upgrade that might be worth trying.
One of long-standing problems was the Undo/Redo function causing the text editor content to become disordered and the cursor to jump oddly to wrong places. That seems be fixed. Fortunately, there are not many other software components like this, so switch to another one wasn't made.
The text editor component has been used, among other things, for its extensibility, as it is convenient to prepare new elements for it to use in writings (e.g. placeholders) and the well-functioning Undo/Redo are very important when there are many different styles in a writing.
KotvaWrite Stories and KotvaWrite Explanations (2017)
The main purpose of the KotvaWrite has been to make it possible to carry out a large number of layout experiments and adjustments to literary works in a short enough time so that the time spent waiting does not feel long and meaningful results can be reached effortlessly. However, the typesetting system (XeTeX) does not keep up with such a fast pace and that significantly guided the product development and thus it was decided to split it into two different product lines, one (KotvaWrite Stories) producing HTML-based works with a wider range of style options and the other (KotvaWrite Explanations) producing both PDF- and HTML-based works, but with slightly more limited layout and adjustment options.
JDK 1.8, JPA, REST, EclipseLink, Eclipse, Visual Paradigm for UML, Foundation, Backgrid, Backbone, Underscore.js, SASS, jQuery, HTML5, CSS 2.1/3, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, JavaScript, NoSQL, JNDI, Tomcat 8, Digital Ocean, Putty, Linux command line tools, TeX, LaTeX, XeLaTeX, Loadster, NeoLoad, New Relic, Datadog, Nginx, HAProxy, Parse API, UML, Git, JUnit, Photoshop, MySQL Workbench
Process for generating preview images for a single writing
Java-based code generates a .tex file on the server side and then calls xelatex.exe or pdflatex.exe to produce a .pdf file having its structure and styling mostly affected by the settings made in the web interface. The XeTeX typesetting system makes its best effort to compile the final results on one run, but sometimes it needs to be instructed make another set of calculations after first run. Apache PDFBox is used to generate thumbnails of individual pages for viewing in the web interface.
KotvaWrite 2
It is still a web application for producing book-length, online readable works. The application consists of four parts that can be used for these:
- Importing of material to be used in writings from multitude of sources.
- Arranging material and writings.
- Text writing and editing, compiling writings into a literary work that gets generated on the basis of parameters that affect layout, styling and presentation.
The most significant renovation compared to the previous version has happened at the interface level as it has been completely redesigned. The application has been designed using responsive design to substantially improve the user experience. Some additional features have been added since then (including an automatically generated PDF file and fine-tuning of the print version of the HTML version).
Java EE 6, JPA, REST, EclipseLink, Eclipse, Oxygen XML, Visual Paradigm for UML, Foundation, Backgrid, Backbone, SASS, jQuery, HTML5, CSS 2.1, MySQL, OrientDB, XML, iText, JavaScript, NoSQL, JNDI, Tomcat 7, AppFog, UML, Mylyn, Git, JUnit, Photoshop, MySQL Workbench
KotvaWrite v1.0
KotvaWrite is a useful web application for creating and editing text-based material that can take a book-like structure (in essence, multiple writings placed in collections that can be combined into a larger whole), which can be exported as a PDF file or made readable by others in HTML format. Text can be accompanied by images, illustrations, drawings and certain other types of "attachments" often seen in blog posts.
Java EE 6, JPA, REST, EclipseLink, Eclipse, Oxygen XML, Visual Paradigm for UML, Dojo, jQuery, HTML5, CSS 2.1, MySQL, OrientDB, XML, JavaScript, NoSQL, JNDI, Tomcat 7, AppFog, UML, Mylyn, Git, JUnit, Photoshop, MySQL Workbench
Ancoaarmade (predecessor of KotvaWrite)
The idea was to develop an web application that would serve its users' in needs like: writing down observations, self-learning, organising and publishing information, producing information, organising thoughts and remembering things. The final product will be a set of writings, which can be made public if desired, and which may consist of various collected or generated materials such as video clips, diagrams, pictures, drawings, etc. illustrative material. Material can be brought in from external data sources or from a mobile phone.
Java EE 6, JAXB, JPA, EclipseLink, Eclipse, Oxygen XML, Visual Paradigm for UML, Dojo, jQuery, HTML5, CSS 2.1, MySQL, OrientDB, XML, JavaScript, NoSQL, JNDI, Tomcat 7, CloudBees, Amazon AWS, Jasmine, DOH Robot, UML, Microsoft Project, JIRA, Mylyn, Git, PureTest, CodePro Analytix, PMD, JUnit, Photoshop, Fireworks, SHA1, PayPal API, Chrome extension, Firefox Add-on, Mockingbird, Adobe AIR, MySQL Workbench, Jenkins, continuous integration, REST, async servlets + filters, refactoring, design patterns, naming conventions