Subject: [BEEPwg] [ANN] Vortex Library 1.0 is ready!

From: Francis Brosnan Blazquez <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:22:37 +0100

###########################################
       ##  Vortex Library 1.0 Stable Release    ##
       ###########################################

Release note
~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Advanced Software Production Line is proud to announce the Vortex
  Library 1.0 availability: an open source "BEEP Core" protocol
  implementation written in C, mapped onto TCP/IP.

  Vortex Library has been developed inside the Af-Arch project as its
  data transport layer.

  Vortex Library is a stable and robust application protocol
  development toolkit. Currently it is running under Microsoft Windows
  and GNU/Linux platforms.

  Check out the following links to get ready with Vortex Library:

    - http://vortex.aspl.es
      [Vortex Library homepage]
 
    - http://www.sf.net/projects/vortexlibrary
      [Sources and Win32 binaries]

    - http://fact.aspl.es
      [Af-Arch homepage where Vortex Library is being developed]

    - http://www.beepcore.org
      [BEEP Core community web site]

    - http://xml.aspl.es
      [Axl Library, XML 1.0 implementation]
    
The release in short
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This new release fixes and integrates many known bugs from previous
  stable release. It also includes the first implementation for the
  regression test that will be used to ensure function and to upgrade
  the library performance.

  Several library improvements has been done, making it faster than
  previous one (vortex writer loop has been removed) and vortex reader
  handling under many connections has been updated showing an upgrade
  from 39segs to 5segs for a test that creates 1000 connections and
  then closes them.

  Many new useful functions has been added, a new reference counting
  support for channels and frames, xml-rpc-gen tool updates.

  This is the first stable release for the 1.X series that will
  include many interesting features like separating library into a core
  BEEP component, the current library that provides application
  structure, and the rest of BEEP profiles. 

Thanks to..
~~~~~~~~~~~

  Milton Yates (Gentoo ebuilds, axl library wrong dependency, SASL
  patch to solve user defined pointer at listener side and its
  appreciated suggestions)

  Attilio Drei (libssl wrong flags configuration)

  Sam Roberts (fixed wrong vortex main header c++ declarations, fixed
  documentation vortex_connection_new about reference returned, fixed
  wrong user defined pointer passed to the close channel notify, many
  const declarations fixes, added vortex_channel_close_full and its
  appreciated suggestions)

Changes since 0.9.0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* [fix] fixed wrong dependency (0.9.0) with Axl Library 0.2.4 (Milton
  Yates report).

* [fix] Added to src/Makefile.am a rule to update the libvortex.def file
on
  make dist.

* [fix] making server generation to split the main file into a plain
  main file with only the main function and the service dispatcher
  code at other file. This makes more easy to integrate source code
  generated with other source code.

* [fix] adding a new option to allow controlling where will be placed
  the source code for the server component generated: --out-server-dir

* [fix] fixed a bug at the source code generated for the deallocation
  function created for the array API.

* [fix] adding a new option which allows to disabling source code
  generation for the main file (main.c) at the serve side component:
  --disable-main-file

* [fix] fixing a bug while choosing if the client or server component
  was generated. Autoconf module was always activated for both.

* [fix] adding an explicit reference to -lcrypto if TLS interface is
  activated. Making configure.ac to create a vortex.pc according to
  the TLS and SASL configuration.  Bug solved: 325.

* [fix] Fixed bug 325 (-lcrypto wasn't properly configured, making
  platform with an libssl compiled but not associated with libcrypto
  to fail while linking).  Bug reported by Attilio Drei.

* [new] Adding a new function to the vortex tls API to enable getting
  the SSL object for a VortexConnection with a TLS session
  activated. This will allow to vortex client application to implement
  more features beyond the set already provided by the Vortex API. API
  added:
  
   - vortex_tls_get_ssl_object

* [new] Adding a new function to the vortex tls API to enable getting
  the peer TLS certificate finger print. This will allow to easily
  implement a verification code like ssh tools does. API added:
   
   - vortex_tls_get_peer_ssl_digest

* [fix] adding additional checks to
  vortex_channel_next_pending_message.

* [fix] making vortex_channel_is_opened to check for a null reference,
  return FALSE if that case.

* [fix] Rewritten vortex_hash_destroy function to lock the hash before
  proceding to the destroy operations.

* [fix] fixed a bug inside the xml-rpc-gen activation flag
  (configure.ac)

* [fix] Fixing a bug which was causing to not generate the
services_dispatch.[ch]
  functions if --disable-main-file option is activated.

* [new] Adding a new function which allows copying an
  XmlRpcMethodValue from a previous one. API added:

   - vortex_xml_rpc_method_value_copy
   - method_value_copy

* [fix] fixing a bug inside vortex_xml_rpc_boot_channel_sync it wasn't
  properly check the presence for reporting status variable before
  being used. Also fixed channel notification when it is not created
  (synchronous API).

* [new] Adding an new function to get current msg-no configured for a
  given XmlRpcMethodCall object (the BEEP message that was used to
  transport the request). API added:

   - vortex_xml_rpc_method_call_get_msgno

* [fix] fixing several wrong reference to the component name where the
  lower version is required. Updated source code generation to
  translation non allowed characters into '_'. Added two new function
  to support this:

   - xml_rpc_support_to_lower
   - xml_rpc_support_to_upper

* [new] added a new option which allows to fully configure where is
  placed the source code for the client stub generated.

* [fix]fixing several compilation errors exposed due to compiling the
  tool inside the windows platform (it was missing -Wall) from
  Makefile.am (xml-rpc-gen tool).

* [new] Updated makefiles to include all tools and the xml-rpc-gen.exe
  inside the installation directory. Making vortex.nsi to include
  import libraries for windows (libvortex.def, libvortex.exp,
  libvortex.lib).

* [fix] fixing a non initialized writable inside
  xml_rpc_c_stub_write_native_type.

* [fix] updating vortex_init documentation to include some references
  to how disable console log debug.

* [fix] updated vortex_xml_rpc_invoke_sync documentation to includes
some
  examples and a reference to the automatic deallocation of the 
  XmlRpcMethodCall received.

* [new] added support to the compiler to get notification about the
  service name to be used while performing the invocation rather than
  supposing it from the XDL/IDL declaration. Updated dtd definition to
  support this new feature. Added tests for this new support:

    - reg-test08.xdl
    - reg-test08.idl

* [fix] making lookup path to use . before INSTALL_DIR (allows to use
  the local copy from the development source rather than the one
  installed).

* [new] finished support for method_name attribute declaration for IDL
  format.

* [new] Added support to IDL format to detect attribute declaration,
  initially for service declaration, even if the service has no source
  code definition.  Used to support alternative method name
  declaration.  Example:

     [method_name="operation/aritmetic/sum"];
     int sum (int a, int b);

  Now, the api produced will be the same, but the underlying method
  invoked is the valued provided at method_name.

* [fix] making vortex_sasl_auth_method_used to return a NULL value
  when the library isn't compiled with SASL support.

* [fix] updating vortex_xml_rpc_method_value_from_string to include a
  reference to supported types that could be translated into a string.

* [fix] updated vortex_connection_ref function to return a boolean
  status signaling that the connection reference counting was
  increased or not. Updated source code to check this return value and
  to not perform a vortex_connection_unref and to act according to the
  failure. Updated function documentation.

* [fix] making __vortex_channel_block_until_replies_are_received
  function to get get blocked forever until replies are received. Now,
  waiting process is limited with a timeout. Updated the function to
  return the wait status value so the caller can react.

* [fix] making __vortex_channel_0_frame_received_close_msg to check
  current closing status for the channel that is receiving the
  notification before doing any operation.  This solves the problem
  created by a channel requested to be closed that have also received
  a request to close from the remote peer at the same time.

* [fix] using vortex_connection_ref return status code, now second
  level and first level frame delivery handlers are not executed it a
  failure was found.

* [fix] making vortex_xml_rpc_method_value_nullify to check
  XmlRpcMethodValue received before proceeding.

* [new] added a new function that allows to nullify the method value
  internal reference for a selected XmlRpcMethodResponse. API added:

    - vortex_xml_rpc_method_response_nullify

* [new] Updated channel pool API to allow managing channel that its
  creation are more complex than just calling to
  vortex_channel_new. The API now support an external handler that
  allows to delegate channel creation task to the user space code. API
  added:

    - vortex_channel_pool_new_full
    - vortex_channel_pool_add_full
    - VortexChannelPoolCreate (creation handler)
    - vortex_channel_pool_get_next_ready_full

* [new] implemented a channel pool mechanism for the XML-RPC API,
  allowing to create XML-RPC channels and reuse them across
  invocations. API added:
  
    - vortex_xml_rpc_create_channel_pool
    - vortex_xml_rpc_channel_pool_get_next

* [fix] Fixed an internal bug inside
  __vortex_xml_rpc_unmarshall_common_sync which wasn't allocating a
  copy for the method response fault string causing the application
  level to access to deallocated memory. Updated synchronous
  invocation documentation to note that fault strings, on error cases,
  is an allocated string that must be deallocated when no longer
  needed.

* [new] Updated xml-rpc API to include a function to get the member
  value for a provided struct selected by name. Added also a function
  to get the member selected by a position provided and a function to
  get the member name at a provided position. API added:

   - vortex_xml_rpc_struct_get_member_value
   - vortex_xml_rpc_struct_get_member_value_at
   - vortex_xml_rpc_struct_get_member_name_at

* [fix] fixed a memory leak at the greetings parsing code caused by a
  change at the libaxl API. Now axl_node_get_childs returns an
  allocated list of nodes.

* [fix] fixed a memory leak at the vortex sasl module which was
  causing to not deallocate the gsasl_session object associated to the
  connection.

* [new] Extending XML-RPC API to include a function to stringify a
  method value containing basic values (int, string, boolean, double)
  and making vortex_xml_rpc_method_response_stringify to use it. API
  added:
  
    - vortex_xml_rpc_method_value_stringify

* [fix] making common reply code to check application level replies,
  avoiding to reply several times to the same msgno, making
  __vortex_channel_common_rpy to not hang but drop an error log. (only
  done for RPY and ERR).

* [fix] Making __vortex_channel_block_until_replies_are_received to
  not wait for replies to be received "and processed". The last part
  of the checking was causing to hang forever if a the user space
  tried to close the channel from inside the frame received (including
  the last message received). Added documentation near to the update
  linking it to the BEEP RFC section.

* [fix] Making marshalling code for XML-RPC profile, for <string> tags
  to use <![CDATA[..]]> to enclose content, allowing to use non
  allowed xml symbols.

* [fix] added some comments to the vortex_connection_new_empty
  function.

* [fix] Added missing declarations BEGIN_C_DECLS/END_C_DECLS to main
  vortex module. (Reported and fixed by Sam Roberts).

* [fix] Committing patch that solves SASL user pointer problem at the
  server side programming (Milton Yates patch).

* [fix] adding some comments, fixing vortex writer header, making
  doxygen to not confuse it with documentation.

* [new] Added a new function to the vortex connection module to get
  current channels opened. API added:

   - vortex_connection_get_opened_channels

* [fix] Removing old vortex writer implementation, that has showed to
  not scale properly on have connection load.

* [fix] Removed all references to the vortex writer module and
  implemented inside the vortex sequencer the ability to send BEEP
  frames produced.

* [fix] making vortex main header to define by default 1024
  connections to be handled inside one single select(2) call.

* [new] Committing a new test file (vortex client) that creates many
  connections to a single vortex server. Base test used to improve
  vortex performance on high load.

* [fix] Fixed comment inside vortex_connection_new (Sam Roberts) about
  reference returned if threaded and non-threaded model is used.

* [new] Updated VortexFrame definition to include an internal reference
to the 
  channel where the frame was received. Added new API to retrieve the
channel
  reference:

   - vortex_frame_get_channel_ref

* [fix] committing initial status for the regression test that will
  check all features provided by vortex (vortex-regression-client and
  vortex-regression-listener).

* [new] Added a new example which servers as an initial step to
  implement a main loop based vortex client application
  (vortex-client-without-cbs.c) and updated vortex-server-without-cbs.

* [new] Added a new API to handle close channels in a decoupled form
  allowing to configure the handler to be called to get notification
  and a function to finish the notification. API added:

   - VortexOnNotifyCloseChannel (handler)
   - vortex_channel_set_close_notify_handler
   - vortex_channel_notify_close

* [fix] committing more updates to the vortex-regression-client file.

* [new] Updated regression tests to include tree initial basic tests
  which check basic BEEP functions and data transmission (with small
  messages and large ones). Added support to check
  vortex_channel_set_serialize.

* [fix] Fixed a bug inside vortex sequencer loop which wasn't checking
  for the result received from vortex_sequencer_direct_send. Also
  making that function to return a boolean value to flag if the
  message was sent or not.

* [fix] Making all vortex_channel_send_rpy* to check the connection
  that is being used to send the reply message before performing any
  action.  Also added a connection check for waiting threads for other
  replies to be sent inside the same function.

* [new] Added support to enforce serialization while notifying
  incoming frames for a particular channel.
  
   - vortex_channel_set_serialize
  
* [fix] Making vortex reader process to return a status value if it
  isn't able to notify SEQ status, making vortex reader process to
  stop for the particular connection.

* [fix] Making vortex reader to add new connections to watch using
  prepend operations rather than append operations. Making also vortex
  reader to check the number for descriptors changed during
  processing.

* [fix] removing all implementation inside vortex reader based on
  GList to hold connections watched and started to use axlList,
  allowing to better reuse memory and to perform efficient element
  removal while traversing connection list.

* [new] Added a new regression test to check vortex support for many
  connections.

* [fix] Making vortex reader to set fds to be watching taking listener
  connections first, improving startup new connections. All
  modifications done have improved vortex library overall efficiency
  to run vortex-client-connections in 37.138segs using vortex 0.9.0 to
  5.207segs using current vortex SVN. GREAT!!

* [fix] fixed "being_closed" flag configured for TLS-fixated
  connections.

* [new] Added initial tests to check TLS and SASL profile support.

* [fix] Updating vortex-regression-client and
  vortex-regression-listener to use a constant to define listener port
  to be used. Updated Makefile.win to include this new tests.

* [fix] Adding missing new lines to the vortex-simple-client test
  (patch from Sam Roberts).

* [fix] Fixed a serious bug inside vortex TLS profile caused by not
  protecting the SSL session object with a mutex, producing undefined
  behaviors under heavy data transfered while the session is
  TLS-fixated. Now, the library passes test_05.

* [fix] making vortex connection internals to notify when it is not
  ready the layer to send and receive data (even when it was notified
  by the select(2) call).  This is because having data at the
  underlying transport doesn't means directly to have data available
  while calling to SSL_write and SSL_read.

* [fix] Making vortex sequencer to queue data as pending if it isn't
  able to send it while calling to vortex_sequencer_direct_send.

* [new] Added a new function that allows to create a new listener
  using as port configuration an integer value (Sam Roberts
  suggestions).  API added:
  
   - vortex_listener_new2

* [fix] Updated VortexOnChannelCloseNotify documentation to explain
  its function, and how it relates with VortexOnChannelClose.

* [fix] Updated several functions from the vortex_channel and the
  vortex_profiles module to include "const" declaration where
  suitable.  (Sam Roberts suggestions).

* [fix] Fixed a bug inside vortex_channel_get_reply which was causing
  to unref the queue used each time it was called.

* [fix] Making SASL server side profile to use gsasl_property_fast
  rather than gsasl_property_get to avoid infinite loop while
  accessing to not defined properties due to a malicious auth
  attempt. Making these checks to ensure "realm" value is defined if
  requested DIGEST-MD5.

* [fix] Fixed SASL CRAM-MD5 and DIGEST-MD5 to allow receiving empty
  blob mainly because these mechanism are started by content at the
  server side.

* [new] Updated regression test to check SASL mechanism: PLAIN,
  EXTERNAL, CRAM-MD5 and DIGEST-MD5.

* [fix] Fixing wrong user defined pointer passed to the close channel
  notify and the profiles module (report and patch: Sam Roberts).

* [fix] Making vortex_profiles API module to use where suitable
  "const" declaration.  (report Sam Roberts).

* [new] Added a new API to the vortex listener to allow configuring
  realm to be used at the server side for all connections. This is
  only used, at this moment, by the SASL DIGEST-MD5 mechanism. API
  added:

     - vortex_listener_set_default_realm
     - vortex_listener_get_default_realm

* [fix] Added "const" declarations to: vortex_channel_get_mime_type
  and vortex_channel_get_transfer_encoding.

* [fix] Making SASL server side to check and properly return realm
  configuration if available.

* [fix] Now vortex library passes all tests added to the regression
  test suite.

* [fix] Several fixing to make the tool to produce source code that
compiles with
  the latest version of vortex and axl library (xml-rpc-gen)

* [fix] Fixed bugs caused by mixing services and type declarations
inside a single
  file declaration (xml-rpc-gen)

* [new] Added support for a new option: --to-xml, which allows to
translate
  the input .idl file into its representation .xml (xml-rpc-gen)

* [fix] Minor modifications to the xml-rpc-gen tool and the library to
  use -ansi flag.

* [fix] Fixed a bug which was causing to not properly deallocate SASL
  ctx and SASL session once the connection has gone.

* [fix] Fixed a bug which was causing to not deallocate the
  VortexConnection that was tls-fixated (once called
  vortex_tls_start_negociation and its *_sync version).

* [fix] Fixing minor code problem to implement --version inside the
  tool when the value isn't defined.

* [fix] Wrapping FD_SETSIZE and VORTEX_FD_SETSIZE definitions to avoid
  redefinitions performed by external libraries.

* [fix] Making vortex sasl module to notify an error if the SASL layer
  don't initialize properly.

* [fix] Many const fixes for the vortex channel and the vortex
  connection API (reported and fixed by Sam Roberts
  [email-masked]).

* [new] Updated vortex frame API and its internals to add support for
  reference counting and automatic memory deallocation. API added:
  
    - vortex_frame_ref
    - vortex_frame_unref

* [fix] Updated vortex library internals to use new vortex frame
  reference counting support.

* [new] Updated vortex channel API to support reference counting and
  automatic memory deallocation. API added:

    - vortex_channel_ref
    - vortex_channel_unref

* [fix] Updated vortex library to use the new vortex channel reference
  counting mechanism.

* [new] Applied patch to support vortex_channel_close_full, a version
  of vortex_channel_close with user defined pointer support. (Patch
  Sam Roberts).
   
About Us
~~~~~~~~

  Advanced Software Production Line is leading the Af-Arch project: a
  complete framework to develop distributed application to manage
  enterprise process.

  Af-Arch project relies on Vortex Library to exchange data between
  its distributed nodes.

  Advanced Software Production Line also provides GNU/Linux support
  and consulting services to help organization to introduce GNU/Linux
  inside its process.

  Contact us, using English or Spanish, to get commercial support
  and/or BEEP based development services.

  You can reach us:

       http://www.aspl.es - [email-masked]

  We hope Vortex Library help you. Enjoy Vortex Library!  

--
Francis Brosnan Blázquez           - [email-masked]
Advanced Software Production Line  - http://www.aspl.es
7th Dic 2006, Madrid (Spain)

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