Release 1!

Release 1 🚀
Greetings, everyone! We're excited to announce the first release for our project after our 4th sprint. We've implemented a myriad of new features and improvements, and squashed some bugs to enhance your user experience. Below is a summary of the changes:

New Features 🎉

Connection Pooling: Our back-end has been updated to use connection pooling to enhance performance and resource utilization.
Robust Logging: Heavy logging has been enabled, which will assist in debugging and performance tracking.
Lab Snapshot: Users can now take a snapshot of the entire lab for easy reference.
UI Enhancements: We've improved the interface with features like showing the amount of running virtual machines on the Home tab and have introduced new input fields and a capture button that opens a new window.
Bug Fixes 🐛

Fixed a bug where updating machines from the database thread didn't close properly.
Fixed issues with handling null values in the database helper when doing Azure sync.
Resolved issues where the thread wouldn't close on exiting the application.
Code Improvements 🧹

Introduced thread timeout and restart for slower operations to improve system performance.
Refactored code to improve abstraction and adhered to the DRY principle (Don't Repeat Yourself) by creating a utils class for tables.
The AzureMethods class has been renamed to AzureUtils and is now used as static for better code clarity.
Rollbacks & Reversions 🔙

Rolled back to an older, slower Database class for the backend application due to compatibility issues.
Reverted the "Set timeout for socket and Azure connections" commit due to operational difficulties.
User Experience Questions:

Have you noticed an improvement in performance with the introduction of connection pooling?
Is the logging information helpful and comprehensive?
How useful is the new snapshot feature for lab management?
Is the software easier to use with the new UI enhancements?
Have you encountered any new bugs or issues in this release?
Did you notice any operational difficulties due to the rollbacks and reversions?
Any other suggestions or areas for improvement in future updates?
We hope you enjoy the new features and improvements in this release. As always, we're grateful for your feedback and continued support! 🙌

Pre-release 3

Pre-release 3 🚀

Hello everyone! We're happy to announce a new release for our project. We have introduced several new features and improvements, as well as fixed various bugs to enhance your overall experience. Here's a summary of the changes:

New Features 🎉

1. VPN User Creation: VPN now supports user creation.
2. Azure ID Field: Added a new field in the database for Azure ID.
3. Script Execution: Run commands and scripts on multiple machines and in multithreading, with a new text box for script outputs.
4. Refreshable Interface: Implemented a refreshable interface for MachinesController and other controllers, allowing automatic updates every 10 seconds.
5. Improved Filtering: Reintroduced apply filter function and initialized choice boxes in machines filters.
6. Home Tab Updates: Home tab now shows the number of running virtual machines.
7. UI Enhancements: Fixed State and OS dropdown menus, changed the lab status off color to red, and made certain buttons unclickable when they have no purpose.

Bug Fixes 🐛

1. Fixed the bug where checkboxes didn't show on tabs for each lab on Machines page.
2. Resolved the runtime error: database connection closed early.
3. Fixed the issue where checked checkmarks would become unchecked when machines were refreshed.
4. Addressed the bug where deleted resources were never removed from the database.
5. Improved error handling in closing and reopening threads, as well as handling SQL exceptions in threads.
6. Fixed thread issues with Machines where threads could not start again after stopping.

Code Improvements 🧹

1. Various abstractions and code optimizations for better maintainability.
2. Removed static from AzureMethods and made VPNServiceConnection stuff private and non-static where possible.
3. Made ViewSwitcher non-static and used as a static instance in Main.

User Experience Questions:

How is the speed and loading time compared to the last release?

• Is it acceptable now, or is there still need for improvements, and where?

How do you find using the updated filters compared to the last release?

• Do you have any additional comments or improvements to increase usability in the filters?

Is the application and included functionality in general easy to understand and use?

• Do you have any additional comments or improvements to increase usability in general or any specific places?

How easy is it to find the features you need within the software?

What challenges did you encounter in finding them, and how can we make it easier?
To what extent does the app's appearance match the organization's visual identity?
-Do you have any suggestions for improvements?

How much were you bothered by waiting time or "lag" within the application?

If at a specific location, where?
Have you encountered any "bugs", impracticalities, or annoyances in the application? (Which ones...?)

Any additional comments or areas for improvement?

If you have any additional changes to be made, now is the time since we are starting the last sprint! After that will be only bugfixes and/or fixing critical errors.
We hope you enjoy the new features and improvements in this release. As always, we appreciate your continued feedback! 🙌

Pre-release-v0.2

With this pre-release we have ended sprint no.2.

In this release we have added:

• new design accent colour
• VPN tab with full functionality over all the turned on VPN servers, except for creating users
• Lab power controls and overview
• Machines tab with filter controls
  and a lot of bugfixes.

Things that doesn't yet work includes powercontrols for each Virtual Machine and run command on the virtual machines.

We are seeking feedback!!!

User Experience Questions:

• How easy is it to find the features you need within the software?

  • What challenges did you encounter in finding them, and how can we make it easier?

• To what extent does the app's appearance match the organization's visual identity?
  -Do you have any suggestions for improvements?

• How much were you bothered by waiting time or "lag" within the application?

  • If at a specific location, where?

• Have you encountered any "bugs", impracticalities, or annoyances in the application? (Which ones...?)

• Any additional comments or areas for improvement?

Specific questions for this release:

• What are your thoughts on the filtering of virtual machines on the "Machines" page?

  • Can you filter based on the necessary information?
  • Does the filtering function as desired? (Please provide suggestions if not perfect)

• What are your thoughts on having a overview over each whole lab on the home tab?

  • What other info and buttons do you need in each box on the home tab?

• What are your thoughts on the VPN Administration functionality (Only works if a lab is turned on of course )

Pre-release 1

After our first sprint we have implemented the GUI, and login flow with azure (sadly the user needs to login twice). We have outline some scenes in the GUI, but they are non functional. We have connection to the Database, which the user can test, but not implemented any functionality with it yet.

would like user feedback on:

• Design choices (colours)
• Do the scenes align with expected future functionality?
• Is it easy to setup from the ZIP file? (Only windows for now)

Extract zip and start with Start.bat