We are pleased to announce the release of ProjectLibre 1.5.5.  This has significant improvements, most that are not visible.  We previously announced the ongoing effort to complety rewrite the ProjectLibre codebase. This process is  well under way and will be released with a target of late Summer.  Laurent and the team are amazing!  It is common knowledge that we exclusively wrote the OpenProj code a decade ago.  The code is complex and virtually impossible to attract code contribution due to the complexity.  The 10 years of dormant status and hundreds of bugs really prompted our team to release ProjectLibre. It is a labor of love, we have made less than $200 in donations in the past year.  That literally does not keep the lights on and has cost the core team significant expenses to keep going.  

We are committed to releasing a replacement of Microsoft Project.  This will require not only top level project management features but also integration within the enterprise and cloud access.  The current code is not suited for extensions and integration.  Laurent and team are well along with an OSGI modular architecture.  When the re-write is complete we can take community contributions of modules.  The initial integrations are planned with ERP solutions like @xTuple (my employer) or CRM systems like @SugarCRM .  There are literally hundreds of extensions that can be written or reports contributed around the world.  This will be a game changer and very much community driven.

How does this relate to ProjectLibre1.5.5 ?   The .POD file structure is flawed and occasionally causes problems when people have used OpenProj and migrated to ProjectLibre.   We will have an improved file format in the future.  In the interim, we have added a dual storage in ProjectLibre.  When projects are stored they will store in both .POD and .XML formats.  You will not see a visible difference.  You are simply saving your project.  However, a major difference if you end up with a corrupted OpenProj file.  ProjectLibre will initially read the .POD file and if it coughs up a hairball will then successively skip to the .XML file stored within the saved file.  It will the still open your project, a recovery you don't even notice.  I can tell you it has been troubling to get emails from students, project managers and executives who have encoutered significant problems opening existing projects.  When they migrate to ProjectLibre 1.5.5 this will no longer be an issue.  We are also changing the file format in ProjectLibre2 when it is released.  This will be an improvement as mentioned.  The changeswill allow the migration of ProjectLibre users to the new version and file format seamlessly!

That is all behind the scenes.  What else ?  A lot more bug fixes and also a Portuguese release.  We have other languages getting ready to roll out.  If you are not using ProjectLibre in your preferred language you can download these two files (Client Properties and Menu Properties) and translate them into your language and send us the files. If anyone from your locale downloads in the future they will run ProjectLibre in your local dialect or language.  We do have quite a few translations being performed of these files and also the documentation itself. 

Good luck with your projects!  Your promotion of @ProjectLibre is appreciated.  We are looking to continue getting the word out! We are now in 217 countries and surprisingly 83% is outside the United States.  We are making a difference.  Your support is needed! 

Best regards,

Marc