We had some very busy weeks and we are still not feature complete for the 2.2 release but we’re getting very close. A lot of “little” things and a lot of bigger things changed and are new. As a reminder, here are the bigger things new in V2.2:

VNC, External Applications and Plugins One of the bigger underlying changes in Royal TS 2.2 is the new plugin architecture which allows you to use different “client-implementations” for the same connection type – if available. For example, VNC connections can be based on UltraVNC or TightVNC and Terminal connections can be based on the Rebex components or on PuTTY. In addition to VNC and PuTTY integration we also provide a way to implement (almost) any external application using the External App connection plugin. Office 2013 skin, Windows 8 / Server 2012 RDP 8 improvements, improved logging, etc....

Version 0.6.4.1 of Royal TSX brings some exciting new features! (and of course also fixes some bugs)
Here are some of them explained in a little more detail than the release notes offer.

Revamped Plugin Management

On the outside, the plugin management property page looks pretty much identical to previous incarnations of it, but the the backend was completely overhauled to support some nice new features.

For starters, the Plugins page now works even when you're offline. In that case, only the "Installed Plugins" page is available and allows you to view and uninstall your currently installed plugins.

Also new in this release is the possibilty to view release notes of the plugin that's about to be installed.

Sorting support

Well, do I really have to explain this one? I guess, a picture speaks more than a thousand words in that case:

KeePass document Support

It's now possible to open KeePass documents in Royal TSX and use the credentials stored in those documents with connections stored in other documents.

For the time being, KeePass document support is read-only, so you can view and access credentials, but can't make any changes to the document. It's however possible to convert a KeePass document to a Royal TSX document by using the "Save As" command. After doing so, you'll be able to do anything you can with a standard Royal TSX document.

Because KeePass support in Royal TSX uses APIs provided by the official KeePass.exe, which is a .NET application, the Mono Framework must be installed and the path to KeePass.exe must be provided.

KeePass support will soon land on Royal TS (for Windows) too, so if you're a KeePass user, we've got you covered!

Bulk-add and Bonjour discovery

The Windows version of Royal TS already had bulk-add, now OS X users can enjoy the same time-saver feature and even get some extras!

Basically, the bulk-add feature works the same as on Windows. When you create a new connection, you can enter multiple hosts in the Computer Name textfield by separating them with semicolons. Now when you hit save, Royal TSX will parse the field and create new connections for every host entered.

Sounds awesome? But we've still got more! :-)

In this version we also provide support for Bonjour discovery.

From Wikipedia: "Bonjour is Apple's implementation of Zero configuration networking (Zeroconf), a group of technologies that includes service discovery, address assignment, and hostname resolution. Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records."

So basically, what Bonjour offers, is to locate services that computers offer on the local network without having to know their IP addresses or DNS names.

Here's a screenshot showing what the Bonjour browser in Royal TSX looks like when adding a new SSH connection:

When using Bonjour to bulk-add multiple connections, the Display Name, Computer Name and Port are set automatically. Bonjour discovery is currently available for Terminal and VNC connections.

Contact

If you experience issues or want to share your thoughts, please use our Forum or contact us using the contact form.

With Royal TS 2.2 (currently available as beta) we are proud to introduce the new "Performance View". This type of connection enables you to have a real-time view on your servers using Windows performance counters. This way you can leverage your already configured servers and immediately see how they are performing.

Background: Windows Performance...

This is just a brief update on a couple of things we’ve been working on lately. 2.2 will still take some time until we can release it, we’ve also blogged about the new stuff you can do with 2.2 here, but this blog post will be more dedicated to show you the smaller tweaks and changes we implemented in the upcoming version.

To quickly sum up some of the previous blog post, 2.2 will offer new major connection types:

VNC connection based on UltraVNC or TightVNC Terminal connection type based on Rebex (since 2.1) and PuTTY based plugin External Application “connection type” which basically allows you to integrate and manage almost any other 3rd party application within Royal TS. Now let’s get to the other things changed, improved or new in Royal TS and worth mentioning:

Office 2013 inspired skin A picture usually tells more than thousand words:



...

There are basically two ways how Royal TSi can invoke 3rd party applications to connect to your configured entries: by URL or by executing a temporary file. Let's say an app supports connecting to SSH servers using an URL like this:

ssh://username:password@server:port

This is the URL scheme supported by Panic's Prompt (since 1.1.1 a template is already built in) but let me show you how to setup support for Prompt in Royal TSi if the template wasn't built in:

 

• Make sure that you use a tempate based on URL scheme, such as "vSSH (using url scheme)"
• Make sure the template to base your custom template on is checked and tap on View Checked Template
• Tap on Duplicate to create a new template
• Enter a name and the URL scheme as shown above
• Enter or copy the URL using replacement tokens (the same tokens are used here as in the Windows or Mac version of Royal TS
• Hit save and make sure the new template is checked.

Each time you hit on Connect in one of your terminal connection entries, the user template is used to invoke the 3rd party application.

 

We're pleased to announce that the update of our free iOS companion app for Royal TS was approved by Apple and is ready to download/update.

One major bug fix in 1.1.0 is that Royal TSi now remembers and reopens the documents correctly which were open in case Royal TSi was shut down by iOS.

What's new in Version 1.1.0

Remote Desktop Connections

Well, a lot! We've reached out to many RDP, VNC and SSH app vendors and asked for ways to integrate their apps with our app. The result can be seen in the Settings area of Royal TSi:

  

As you can see in the screens above, we now provide connection settings for VNC and Terminal connections. In addition, we also provide two additional RDP templates: the free 2x RDP client for iOS and Remotix RDP for iOS.

As before you can duplicate a template entry and make modifications if necessary. A new button is shown when you view an existing template: App Store. This button will take you right away to the app which can handle the template syntax.

Also worth mentioning is, that we now have two mechanisms to invoke the connection via the 3rd party app. With iTap RDP (the first template we implemented) a temporary file was written and handed over to the 3rd party app. The templates 2x RDP and Remotix RDP are invoked using an URL scheme. So, if you want/need to duplicate a template to integrate another 3rd party app, make sure you chose the right template: apps which can be invoked using URLs, should get a template based on another app which is invoked using URLs.

VNC Connections

This update also includes templates for VNC connections:

Remotix VNC is invoked using an URL scheme and iTap VNC is (as iTap RDP) invoked using a temporary VNC file.

Terminal Connections

We didn't stop with VNC! In 1.1.0 we ship two templates for vSSH (which is available for iPhone and iPad):

The first template in the screen above is based on a temporary file (pretty much the same method used for iTap RDP or iTap VNC) while the second template is based on an URL scheme (like the Remotix apps).

Note: vSSH 1.2.2 or earlier will not accept either of the above. The vendor implemented both methods in the upcoming 1.3 version - which should still be released in December. We got a beta build from the vendor to verify the template invokation. Version 1.3 will also not handle invokation with the password included but this will be implemented in a later version. In the meantime, use the properties screen in Royal TSi, tap-hold the password entry to copy the password to the clipboard. In vSSH you can paste the password by double-tapping with two fingers and hit return.

vSSH will support SSH connections as well as Telnet connections. You will find a special variable in the template called $EffectiveProtocol$ which will be replaced with "ssh" or "telnet" depending on your connection setting.

Conclusion

With this update, we provide even more choice for our users using RDP connections - especially with the free offering of 2x RDP. Of course, having VNC and Terminal connections on board doesn't hurt either.

I hope you enjoy Royal TSi and if you have any feedback or want to file a bug, please visit our forums.

cheers,
Stefan & Felix

 

Royal TS 2.2 for Windows introduces many new things and some cool stuff. We're still working on the beta releases which are far from feature complete but we wanted to provide access to those early builds as soon as possible to give you a chance to test the new stuff and provide feedback.

Under the hood, Royal TS 2.2 changed significantly. We've rewritten the core of Royal TS to support a plugin based architecture, very much like Royal TSX for OS X. The plugin framework used in Royal TS is still not available for the public, plugins are shipped "integrated" and not separately, but it's a huge step forward which allows us to:

• implement new connection types much faster and easier
• provide multiple implementations for the same connection type (pretty much the same as Royal TSX)
• continue to work on a true SDK/3rd party API which enables users and partners to implement plugins (this is on the roadmap for V3)

So, if you want to test drive Royal TS 2.2, click here for download and installation instructions. This build (11122) includes a new, very generic connection type to "integrate" external applications (such as MMC consoles or other applications) and the VNC connection type. The latter is handled by two different plugins and you can choose which one to use, globally or on a per connection level.

How does it all work?

Lets go ahead and just create a new VNC connection:

Note that the screenshot also shows the VNC default settings which can be configured as usual for all new connections.

Create a new VNC connection by providing a display name and a computer name:

You may also configure some advanced settings, such as encoding, compression, etc.:

Note, that there's a new property page called "Active Plugin":

This page works the same way as on Royal TSX or as you also may know from the dashboard settings. When the checkbox "Use the application default setting" is checked, Royal TS will look for the application default plugin and will use the application default plugin to establish the connection.

If unchecked, you can specify which plugin Royal TS should use for the connection. This way, you can create VNC connections using TightVNC while, at the same time other VNC connections are using UltraVNC. This concept also applies later on when we release a putty based terminal connection (stay tuned!).

Click on the button "Open Plugin Management" to view all registered plugins:

As you can see, not only connection types can be extended using plugins. We also plan to release addtional tasks in upcoming versions.

If you click on the VNC connection type, you will see that there are currently two plugins registered and the UltraVNC plugin is the application default plugin. You can use this dialog to change the application default plugin for VNC connections and also open plugin specific settings:

Since these plugins require you to install the viewer application locally, you can use this dialog to configure the path to the viewer application.

If you do not configure the viewer application, Royal TS will try to locate the executable automatically the first time it is using the plugin to connect and if Royal TS cannot find the viewer application, you will be asked to provide the path to the application.

That's all to share at the moment. I'm too busy working on the putty plugin ;)

If you want to provide feedback or report any bugs for the beta releases, please sign up/logon to our beta forums and leave a message.

cheers,
Stefan

We're excited to announce that Royal TSi (for iOS) is now available on the AppStore!
 

We invite you to check out our dedicated Royal TSi pages to get more infos about the app.

Also, because this is our first iOS app, we need your feedback more than ever! So please visit our forum or contact us using the contact form.

Have fun,
Stefan & Felix

Today we are proud to announce that development of our first version of Royal TSi (for iOS) is completed and the app was submitted to the app store.

We are very enthusiastic about this release and anxiously awaiting app store approval.

Royal TSi is a free iOS app which provides access to your Royal TS documents. All your documents created with Royal TS (for Windows) or Royal TSX (for OS X) can be opened and viewed on your iPhone or iPad.

Currently, Royal TSi provides read-only access to your .rtsx files. You can open one or more documents just like you're used to from Royal TS (for Windows) or Royal TSX (for OS X). Any app that provides an "Open in..." menu, like Dropbox can be used to open documents. You can even open documents from your email attachments.

In this version, Royal TSi provides access to your objects and information, such as connections and credentials and also supports opening web pages in Safari. Remote desktop connections are supported through 3rd party applications which can handle .rdp files. 

We recommend iTap RDP, as it is the best Remote Desktop client for iOS, featuring gateway support and automatic login.

Until Royal TSi is approved, we invite you to explore the Royal TSi pages. You can find some teasers, information and screenshots there.

Note, that this is just the beginning of Royal TS on iOS. We are looking forward to receiveing your feedback and will definitely continue to improve Royal TSi.

Have fun,
Felix & Stefan

OS X Users, here's another update to Royal TSX!

Royal TSX 0.5.7.1 enables support for VNC & Apple Remote Desktop Plugins and the first plugin (Chicken VNC) is already out.

Besides VNC support, this release contains mainly bugfixes.

I also pushed out an update to the FreeRDP plugin which fixes most keyboard mapping problems.
It also supports copy/pasting by using the Mac keyboard shortcuts Cmd+C & Cmd+V.

Contact