Features

IP Phones

• Added support for Gequido GX5+ phones. Other Gequido phones as well as a number of Fanvil phones are likely to work as well, but have not been tested. (#12570)

Changes

IP Phones

• Improved the initialization of IP phones to better deal with phones that are somewhat fragile in their capability of being configured. (#13037)

Bug fixes

• Added a few missing french localization strings. (#12018)
• Fixed a GUI glitch that caused the preferences window height to increase by six pixels each time the app was activated while the call handling view was visible. (#13070)
• Fixed a GUI bug that could cause wrong items to be selected in the preferences popup menus for URL type handling. This bug only occurred if multiple applications with the same name were available to handle the same URL type. (#13070)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that required a software update to be made.

Features

IP Phones

• Added support for HTTPS communication with Yealink phones in order to support phones that require this. (so far only available via a special configuration setting) (#12790)

Changes

• Added localization to the french language. (#12018)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a regression of direct 5.2 that caused the Open Source acknowledgements window to be empty. (#12319)
• Fixed a regression of direct 5.2.3 that caused minor GUI layout problems in the preferences window. (#12679)
• Fixed a minor GUI layout problem in the German language version of the preferences window. (#12682)
• Fixed a regression of direct 5.2 that caused a warning about unsupported old direct 4 licenses to always be displayed in the license panels. Now this warning is once again only displayed in the rare cases where the warning is required. (#12832)

Bug fixes

Tiptel connections

• Fixed a regression of direct 5.2.2 that caused the app to crash upon multiple outbound calls via a Tiptel phone. (#12636)

Features

• Two new AppleScript handlers were added: incomingAccepted for when an inbound call is accepted and outgoingAccepted for when an outbound call is accepted by the remote party. (#11602)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented connection initialization when an outdated connection plugin was installed outside of the application. (#12610)
• Fixed a bug where Tiptel connections wrongly signaled an inbound call being accepted when actually an outbound call was accepted by the remote party. (#12611)

macOS support

• macOS Sierra (10.12) is no longer supported. (#12380)
  direct 5.1.4 is the last release to support macOS Sierra.

Features

IP Phone connections

• Added support of Yealink VP59 video phones. (#12323)

Changes

GUI

• Finetuning for a better look in macOS Ventura.

Bug fixes

• Added missing German language translations of a few error messages. (#12018)
• Fixed two bugs that could have caused a wrong caller number to be displayed for calls from internal extensions (the trunk number was missing). (#12337)
• The redial list is no longer selectable by tabbing from the input field when it is collapsed. (#12403)
• If the redial list is selected, it will no longer remain selected when it is collapsed. Now the selection will switch to the text field in such a case. (#12403)
• Fixed a bug that caused a log file error message. (#12404)
• Fixed a bug that could have caused the app to crash in rare cases.

Features

macOS releases

• This final version of direct 5.1 ensures continued operation for users of macOS Sierra (10.12).
  Users of newer macOS releases should update to direct 5.2.

Features

IP Phone connections

• Added support of Yealink T4 series phones with newer revisions of firmware version 86. (#12303)

Features

IP Phone connections

• Added support for the Snom phone's optional hidden tags feature. (#12177)
• Added support of Yealink T5 series phones with newer revisions of firmware version 86. (#12198)

Features

IP Phone connections

• Added support of Yealink T42U phone. (#12033)
• Added support of Yealink T5 series phones with firmware version 86 and password encryption. (#12092)

Changes

• Minor improvements of the direct help files. (#12132)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that would have caused the app to stop working on January 1, 2022.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that would have caused the app to stop working on August 1, 2021.
• Fixed a bug that might have prevented the license for IP phone connections from being recognized as valid.

Changes

• Minor improvements in case of unexpected problems. (#11865)

Bug fixes

IP Phone connections

• Fixed a potential compatibility problem with some Yealink phones. (#11763)

Changes

• A few minor improvements. (#11765, #11769, #11770)

Changes

IP Phone connections

• For testing purposes, IP Phone connections can now be created without having a software license. (#11759)

macOS support

• Added support for macOS Big Sur (11.0). (#11482, #11496, #11510)
• Added native support for Macs with Apple Silicon. (#11496)
• The macOS releases Yosemite (10.10) and El Capitan (10.11) are no longer supported. (#11494)
  direct 4.5.1 is the last release to support those macOS releases.

Features

GUI

• Added support for the UI dark mode. (#10411)

IP Phone connections

• IP Phone connections are now officially supported. (#11418)
• Added support of Yealink T4 and T5 series phones with firmware version 86. (#11715)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a regression of release 4.5 that caused a glitch in the software update preferences GUI when the system profile details table was expanded/collapsed. (#7128)
• Fixed a second potential glitch in the software update preferences GUI where the GUI elements where stretched/condensed for a moment while the system profile details were expanded/collapsed. (#10415)
• Fixed a bug that prevented the display of connection settings when one of the connection names was empty. In addition, it is no longer for a connection to have an empty name. (#11704)
• A number of minor bug fixes. (including #11511, #11513, #11518, #11525)

Changes

• Added a GUI for activating and deactivating debug logging. (#9573)
• Renamed the addresses preferences to contact preferences. (#11431)
• Minor GUI changes in the dial window to better support macOS Big Sur. (#11483)
• The dial window GUI was changed so that the redial list now expands downwards, not upwards. (#11484)
• Improved the direct help pages. (#11521, #11522)
• A number of minor improvements. (including #10995, #11437, #11443, #11445, #11497, #11499, #11751, #11753, #11754, #11755)

Changes

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• Extended the beta test period until the release of direct 5.0. (#10801)
  

macOS support

• The macOS releases Lion (10.7), Mountain Lion (10.8), and Mavericks (10.9) are no longer supported. (#11421)
  direct 4.4.5 is the last release to support those macOS releases.

Changes

General

• Updated the help pages (#11419, #11428)
• Preparation for the upcoming direct 5 release (#11436, #11445, #11489).

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• Extended the beta test period until the release of direct 5.0. (#10801)

Features

AppleScript

• Enabled direct to use AppleScript files for call handling that send Apple Events to 'System Events'. Before this change, calling such an AppleScript led to an error message. Now, the user will be asked to grant (or deny) permission.
  The first change for this issue in direct 4.4.4 was not sufficient, this second change should make it work now. (#11283)

Changes

• Removed superfluous double slash from the beginning of phone numbers that are being dialed from Outlook via a click on the phone icon. (#11378)

Features

AppleScript

• Enabled direct to use AppleScript files for call handling that send Apple Events to 'System Events'. Before this change, calling such an AppleScript led to an error message. Now, the user will be asked to grant (or deny) permission. (#11283)

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• Added support of firmware versions 10.1.42.14 and 10.1.49.11 of Snom phone models D385, D735, D765, and D785. (#11189)
• Added support of Yealink T5 series phones with firmware version 85. (#11274)
• Improved firmware detection to support Yealink T53, T53W, T54W, and T57W phones in scenarios where they previously were only supported in the first connection attempt. (#11274)
• Disabled remote control warning on the screen of Yealink T5 series phones. (#11320)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that could have caused the application to crash if specific debug values were set. (#11097)

Changes

General

• Adapted to tightened notarization requirements from Apple. (#11215)

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• Extended the beta test period until the release of direct 4.5. (#10801)

Features

Growl

• The (long obsolete) Growl framework to send notifications outside of the macOS Notification Center is not longer supported. (#11050)
  direct 4.3.8 is the last release to support Growl.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a regression of release 4.4 that prevented the names and remote call states from being displayed in the Local Users window. (#11044)
• Fixed a regression of release 4.4 that prevented the app from being able to access the macOS contacts on macOS 10.15.1. (#11048)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a regression of release 4.4 that prevented LDAP search from working and that caused the application to crash on recent macOS releases when LDAP search was activated. (#11033)
• Fixed a regression of release 4.4 in the Contacts plugins that caused the Contacts app to crash on macOS releases up to 10.13. (#11034)

macOS support

• The macOS releases Tiger (10.4), Leopard (10.5), and Snow Leopard (10.6) are no longer supported. (#10995)
  direct 4.3.8 is the last release to support those macOS releases.

Features

General

• Added app notarization to allow Apple to check the app for malware and security problems. (#10951)

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• In addition to the connection to phone systems via a CTI server (TeamCall or TeamCall Express) and the connection to Tiptel phones via a USB cable, direct 5 will be able to also control IP phones (Mitel, Snom, and Yealink). Selected beta test participants are able to already use this functionality today.
• Added support for Yealink T53 phones with firmware v84. (#10811)

Bug fixes

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• Fixed a bug in the determination of the firmware version of Yealink phones. (#11005)

Features

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• In addition to the connection to phone systems via a CTI server (TeamCall or TeamCall Express) and the connection to Tiptel phones via a USB cable, direct 5 will be able to also control IP phones (Mitel, Snom, and Yealink). Selected beta test participants are able to already use this functionality today.
• Added support for Snom phones that have been configured to use HTTP Digest authentication. (#10571)
• Added support for firmware version 84 of Yealink non-Android phones. (#10791)
• Added support for Yealink Android phones. (#10792)

Bug fixes

General

• Adapted the german language settings GUI to prevent a problem on macOS Mojave where one line of text was no longer displayed. (#10536)
• Prevented (harmless) initialization of unused components of a customer-specific license system. (#10566)

Tiptel connections

• Prevented a theoretical crash (which had never been observed outside our labs, though). (#10816)

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• Fixed a bug that prevented the dialing of numbers that include a number sign (#) on some IP phones. (#10649)

Changes

General

• Upon application start as well as when the Preferences panel is closed, there will now be an alert panel if there are connections with missing mandatory settings. (#6475)
• Extended connection status information to include information about missing connection settings. (#6475)
• The default selection in the telephone connections list when the preferences panel is first opened has been changed to now attempt to select the first active connection (instead of the first connection in general). (#10333)
• Improved the description text of the phone number field in the connections preferences > phone. (#10550)
• Prevented problems of user-defined AppleScript scripts from causing problems in direct. (#10704)
• Updated help page for dialing from the macOS contacts application to reflect the changes made by Apple in macOS Mojave (10.14). (#10808)
• Improved debug output.

Tiptel connections

• The Tiptel phone connection will now be closed before the computer goes to sleep and will be reestablished after the computer woke up from sleep. This may improve cases where the Tiptel phone no longer reacted after wake up. (#10460)

IP Phone connections (for beta test participants only)

• Added support for yet another flavor of Yealink session termination so that the connection can be properly restarted. (#10236)
• Added periodic re-login to Yealink phones in order to prevent the Yealink phone's session from timing out. This improves the reaction time if a number shall be dialed after a long period of inactivity. (#10302)
• Improved handling of IP phone authentication errors. (#10380, #10561)
• The connection settings now ask for the phone's admin credentials (instead of the phone's user credentials). The admin credentials no longer need to be entered via the connection special settings. (#10548)
• The attempts to detect the IP phone type will no longer be repeated indefinitely if the type cannot be identified. (#10551)
• Improved the detection of Mitel and Snom IP phones. (#10552)
• Changed the way the caller ID is determined on Snom phones to now use the same parameter that has already been used on Mitel and Yealink phones. This reduces the likelihood that the caller ID cannot be correctly interpreted. (#10597)
• If the caller ID string contains a SIP host address, this is now stripped in order to improve the chances of finding a matching contact. (#10599)
• Added a workaround for a Yealink event signaling problem in cases where an inbound ringing call is picked up on a different device, not on the one monitored by the application. This problem caused the application to wrongly assume that the phone was still in the ringing state. (#10813)

Bug fixes

Bonjour

• Fixed a bug where the remote party's phone number was not published via Bonjour if the configuration was set to do so. (#10336)
• Fixed a bug in the english language user interface that caused one of the Bonjour settings checkboxes in the call handling preferences to remain active when it should have been disabled. (#10400)

Preferences panel

• Fixed a bug where changes to the special connection preferences (which are not visible by default) were not saved when a different connection was selected before the preferences window was closed. (#10053)
• Fixed a bug that caused a broken user interface in the call handling preferences under specific circumstances. (#10246)
• Fixed a bug that could have prevented connection configuration changes from being saved when the preferences window was closed. (#10286)
• Fixed a bug where the initial values displayed in the advanced connection preferences were erroneously taken from the last connection in the list instead of from the selected connection. (#10294)
• Fixed a bug that could have caused the connection list in the connection preferences not to be updated in certain cases.

Software update

• Fixed a bug in the german language localization of the software update that caused the automatic update panel's headline to be cut off. (#10299)
• Fixed a bug in automatic update panel where the version of the existing app was displayed as the version of the downloaded app. (#10300)

Others

• Fixed a bug with Tiptel connections where a minor update OS update from the base version (e.g. from 10.13 to 10.13.1) was erroneously being treated as a major OS version update. (#10054)
• Fixed a regression of release 4.1.5 that caused direct to ship without the acknowledgements page. (#10412)
• Adapted the internal structure of the direct help pages to react to increased security restrictions of the macOS help viewer. This causes the help pages to once again be displayed in full in recent macOS releases. (#10413)
• Prevented a Gatekeeper warning that appeared for direct upon initial installation since a recent macOS security update. (#10433)

Changes

• Added display of the list of supported URI types to the call handling preferences window. (#10237)
• The open/closed state of the status panel is now persistent across application launches. (#10254)
• Made the headlines of the software update panel selectable. (#10301)
• Improved internal safeguarding against potential problems.
• Improved debug logging.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a regression of release 4.3.0 that caused direct to crash upon application start for specific customers with a special configuration. (#9784)
• Fixed wrong version number (4.2 -> 4.3) in four locations of the help pages.

Features

macOS High Sierra

• direct now fully supports macOS High Sierra.

Telephony

• Added optional support for sites where the dialed number of all outbound calls need to include the country code (not just the international calls). This is the case for some Swisscom customers in Switzerland. Activation of this feature requires support from ilink as this is not exposed in the preferences user interface. (#9710)

Other features

• direct now writes log files instead of logging to the console. One log file per application start is written to ~/Library/Logs/ilink/direct/. Up to five log files are retained for seven days. (#9445, #9446)
• Added a help menu item to open a Finder window with the log folder. (#9465)
• A minimum log level is now active by default, so that at least basic information is available in the log in case of an error (previously, no logging was active by default at all). (#9467)

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that led to application crashes upon startup on some computers. (#9568)
• Fixed a bug that could have led to the "new connection" panel's list of connection plugins being empty. The likelihood of this happening seems to have increased in macOS High Sierra compared to earlier macOS releases. (#9707)
• Fixed four bugs that occasionally worked together to cause the connection preferences' list of connections being empty even if connections had been configured. (#9720)
• Fixed a bug that could have prevented the buttons to add and remove connections from being visible. This only happened to some users on macOS High Sierra. (#9568)
• Fixed a bug that could have prevented direct from being able to access the user's contacts. This only happened to some users on macOS High Sierra. (#9569)
• Fixed a rare bug that could potentially have led to multi-minute hangers during startup in unusual network configurations. (#5036)
• Fixed a bug that occasionally prevented a screen popup from being shown for incoming calls with blocked caller ID. (#8382)
• Fixed a bug that could have caused warning messages to be written to the log. (#9492)
• Fixed a bug that could have caused the reaction to incoming calls on a TeamCall connection to be delayed or possibly even skipped. (#9728)
• Fixed a bug that could have multiple parallel connection attempts to be made if the connection to the CTI server or to the phone was not stable. This typically led to a number of followup problems. (#9729)
• Fixed a bug that could have caused the Tiptel advanced preferences to not be fully displayed so that the slow dialing checkbox was not visible. (#9770)
• Fixed a bug that could have caused the LDAP password not to be saved under specific conditions.

Changes

direct Extras

• Changed the Daylite integration script (in direct Extras) to no longer pause iTunes upon incoming calls. (This caused problems for users who had never even once started iTunes). (#9590)
• Updated FileMaker example database FileMakerPro12-Demo.zip/Contacts.fmp12 (in direct Extras). Added access rights (fmextscriptaccess) to allow AppleScripts to execute FileMaker commands. Thanks to Torsten Höner (MIX-Verlags-GmbH). (#9682)

Other changes

• direct is now a 64 bit application. (#9490)
• Added an application verification test that prevents the application from starting if the Info.plist data is missing. (#9574)
• Removed superfluous line breaks at the end of STLI logs (for TeamCall connections). (#9728)
• Minor updates to the direct help pages. (#9731, #9732, #9733, #9764, #9776)
• Updated disk image background to use macOS instead of OS X. (#8972)
• A number of minor improvements. (including #8742, #8966, #9141, #9463, #9466)
• Updated debug output. (#8382, #9447, #9467, #9500, #9765)

Features

Dialing

• Failed dial attempts will now be added to the redial list as well in order to make it easier to try again after the problem is fixed. (#7931)
• Added support for dialing from Firefox 48 which no longer supports our previous dialing service definition. (#8959)

Search

• A new indicator in the lower right corner of the dial window shows that the search is still going on. (#5002)
• Searching for user input in the macOS contacts will now also search in the middle name, title, and suffix fields. (#5006, #8902)
• Added support for the "Other Fax" contact phone number type (i.e. a reasonable description is displayed for these numbers). (#7043)

Telephone connections

• Prevented reconnect attempts after certain connection errors that seem to be due to a configuration problem. Also, an alert panel will be opened in such a case to inform the user. (#7974)

Tiptel phones

• Added a notice about the direct web site's USB page and (potentially) a warning about a driver update after OS upgrades to the Tiptel advanced settings. (#6454)
• Added advanced preference option to allow dialing of * and # characters. (#6499)

Other features

• Various preferences UI items will now be updated after changes have been made outside of the application: list of dock menu address groups, list of AppleScript files, and lists of default applications to handle the various URL types. An application restart is no longer required after such changes have been made. (#5113, #6163)
• Changes in debug log settings via command line no longer require an application restart to become active. (#6161)
• Improved debug log output. (#6454, #6646, #8955, and others)
• Added help menu item to open the release notes page. (#6920)
• Added description of the AppleScript HangUp command to the direct help pages. (#7127)
• Added a Daylite integration script to the direct Extras. (#8587)
• The software update now uses https to improve the security and prevent potential man in the middle attacks. (#8747)
• Attempts to dial while a call is going on will now always cause a warning message to be logged.

Bug fixes

AppleScript

• Calling a non-existing AppleScript handler in a user configured script will no longer print error messages into the log. (#6376)
• The incoming handler of a configured AppleScript will now always be called before the script's contactFound handler. (#7052)

Telephone connections

• Fixed a bug that could have caused TeamCall connections to not adapt to certain configuration changes without an application restart. (#5012)
• Prevented a bug where direct failed to recognize that a call had ended while the computer was asleep. (#8482)
• Fixed a bug in the timing of repeated reconnect attempts of disconnected telephone connections. (#8726)
• Fixed a bug that could cause a non-active connection to erroneously be set as the default connection. (#8944)

Other bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash during software update if direct's internal components are corrupted. (#8723)
• Fixed a problem that could cause Facetime to be called instead of direct when tel: URLs were clicked on macOS 10.11 or later. New user interface elements were added to the preferences to set the default applications for such URLs (call:, callto:, tel:, and direct:) if multiple applications are able to handle them. (#8754)
• Fixed a regression of direct 4.0 beta 25 that caused the software update to log a warning about attempts to set a (null) instance as date. (#8932)
• Fixed a bug that could have caused some error messages to always be displayed in English instead of the current application language. (#8946)
• Fixed a bug that caused direct to initially not be aware of an active connection under specific conditions, so that the application icon remained gray. (#8957)
• Prevented a rare case of the application menu containing two help menus. (#8964)

• Fixed a regression of direct 4.1.2 that caused the ABDialer plugin (for dialing from Contacts.app) not to work. (#8290)
• Fixed a bug that caused an unversioned ABDialer plugin to be included in the release. (#8291)
• Removed superfluous files from the application bundle.

• Fixed a bug that caused direct to display an initial license warning even though a license is available. (#8243)

• Bugfix to prevent a direct 3 license warning from being displayed in license management panel when it shouldn't be displayed. (#7489)
• Postponed the initial license check until all connections have been initialized and have reported to be ready for the license check. (#7498)
• Improved installation process of the Contacts Dialer plugin. (#8173)
• Fixed a bug that caused the version number of the Contacts Dialer plugin not to be correct. (#8177)
• Updated codesigning to v2 for Gatekeeper support in current OS X releases. (#8187)
• Various minor bug fixes and code quality improvements.
• Added debug output.

• For most TeamCall connections, incoming transferred calls will now also be indicated by a screen popup (with the caller ID of the original caller). This depends on the specific signalling received from the phone systems, so this may not appear in all cases. (#7126)
• Fixed a bug that could cause direct to hang in specific cases with TeamCall connections where a network problem or a configuration error prevented a successful connection to the CTI server. (#7025)
• direct connection plugins located next to the application will no longer be loaded. (#7135)
• The default name of new connections now includes the connection type (TeamCall or Tiptel USB). (#6711)
• The connection list selection in the direct preferences no longer unnecessarily jumps to the top of the list when a connection is removed. (#6668)
• Deactivated connections will no longer receive a keyboard shortcut. (#6886)
• Minor update of handling of direct 3 licenses. (#6661)
• Minor license management panel improvements. (#7253, #7254, #7255)
• Fixed errors in debug output. (#7256)

• Fixed a bug that could cause the application to crash in the demo mode. (#7038)
• Removed superfluous debug and error output. (#7037, #7039)
• If licenses are due to expire soon or if a connection is in demo mode, this is now displayed when the application is started. (#6608, #6921)

• Rephrased the connections preferences option "Include area code when making local calls" to make its function clearer. (#7030)
• Minor updates to help pages.

• Fixed a bug that prevented opening of the preferences in the english language version. (#7026)

• Fixed a bug that caused dialing via a Tiptel phone to fail in some situations. (#7024)

• Fixed a rarely occurring app crasher related to AppleScript calls. (#7004)
• When updating the Contacts app dialing plugin, direct will now not only remove recent old versions of this plugin, but ancient (pre 2006) versions as well. (#7016)
• When a built-in AppleScript is selected, this selection will now remain valid even if direct is moved. (#7020)
• Fixed a bug that caused a wrong version of the example script AppleScript Test.scptd to be included. (#7018)
• Fixed wrong output in the example script AppleScript Test.scptd. (#7021)

Features

direct now fully supports OS X Mavericks. (#6894)

Search

• Major rewrite of address search functionality:
• Mac OS X Address Book is now being searched in a background process.
• The search still starts while the user is typing, but is delayed until the search string contains at least three characters or until there is a small pause in typing.
• Improved handling of LDAP connection problems to reconnect to the server more reliably.
• Improved debugging features for cases with sudden LDAP connection loss.
• In many cases these changes lead to a big improvement in search responsiveness.
• Improved search cache handling, leading to a potentially much faster search, and a noticeable reduction in the number of LDAP requests generated by user input search.
• Changed search logic to treat user search input with embedded whitespace as multiple search strings, all of which need to be found in a contact. (#6629)
  For example, searching for "Neil Armstrong" will cause separate searches for "Neil" and "Armstrong" to be performed. Previously, the contact needed to contain the exact string "Neil Armstrong" in one of its fields. Now, "Armstrong, Neil" or separate fields containing "Neil" and "Armstrong" would be found as well.
  A default minimum search string limit of two characters for LDAP searches has been introduced in this context.
• Added support for detection of phone number types of contacts integrated into Address Book from a german language Exchange server (work phone, home phone, cell phone, work fax). (direct 3 had already supported detection of phone number types from english language Exchange servers.)
• Added optional user defaults switch LDAPMinimumSearchStringLength to set the minimum user input length below of which no LDAP search requests will be generated. Set to 2 or 3 if your LDAP server contains a large number of contacts, or if the LDAP response is very slow.
• iPhone numbers are now displayed as mobile numbers. (#6237)
• Fax numbers are no longer included in the search results. (#5844)
• Minor improvements in fax number detection.
• Workaround for bug in LDAP servers that cannot process LDAP search requests with "or" clauses. We modified all LDAP search strings that contain just one attribute to no longer use "or" clauses. All search strings with more than one attribute continue to use the "or" syntax, so in order to work on such servers, direct will have to be configured so that both name searches and number searches will only take place in a single attribute. (contact us for information on how to do this)
• Enhanced internal LDAP configuration so that the display names of the found contacts can now be constructed from the contents of multiple LDAP fields. Please inquire for configuration details if you need this functionality. (#6365)

Outbound calls

• When dialing from manually entered text input, all digits preceding a colon will now be ignored. So if the text input contains contact and company information followed by a colon, the contact name and company name may now include digits. (#6476)
  For example you may now safely enter the following text into the search and dial window and hit return for dialing without a leading 20 being included in the dialed number:
  Darryl F. Zanuck (20th Century Fox): +1.310.369.1000
• Before dialing, a specific type of common formatting error is now corrected: superfluous zeroes will be removed.
  Phone numbers in many countries precede the area code with a zero which should only be included when dialing from within that country. E.g. the german phone number +49 (30) 285 26-555 needs to be dialed as (030) 285 26-555 from within Germany, with an added zero before the 30.
  When such a number is written in international format, this added zero should not be included. Often, such numbers wrongly include the zero, however: +49 (0)30 285 26-555, perhaps to indicate that the zero does not always apply.
  direct will now detect this and silently remove this zero before dialing.
  Numbers in Italy, however, are excluded from the removal of superfluous zeroes, because the zero is required in Italy, even if dialing from abroad (e.g. +39 (0) 2.88.79.1). (#6540)
• Updated phone number conversion to support the Italian dialing plan in setups where the phone system signals caller numbers without the local dialing prefix. (#6274)

Inbound calls

• Added prioritization of search results display for inbound calls: if matching contacts are found in both Address Book and in an LDAP server, the information retrieved from Address Book will be used for caller ID display.
• Changed initial settings so that caller ID will now be displayed by default, also increased standard caller ID display duration from 4 to 5 seconds. Use direct preferences to change these settings.
• Extended support for queued calls on phone systems where direct had not supported them before.
• Changed display of non resolvable caller id numbers: previous versions displayed the number verbatim as received from the phone connection (possibly including a trunk access code). Now the number is converted to phone book format for display (i.e. without a trunk access code).

Configuration

• Changing the settings in the Info tab of the TeamCall settings will no longer require administrator credentials. (#6885)
• The area code is no longer a required configuration parameter in TeamCall connections, so TeamCall connections now also work in countries without area codes (e.g. in Liechtenstein). (#6475)
• The names of the configured telephone connections are now enforced to be unique and will be changed if necessary. (#6670)
• Centrally configured connection settings are now applied to connections with a matching name (instead of connections with a matching connectionID). (#6669)
• Improvements to the handling of the internal configuration parameter LDAPResultAttributeNames in situations with a central configuration. (#6506)
• General improvement of handling of LDAP settings and central configuration values.
• Useability improvements in changing the connection to be used for outbound calls. (#6999)

Telephony connections

• Added status indication in app icon (will turn grey if no active connection is available) and in new status panel (accessed via the help menu).
• When the connection to a telephone was lost, direct used to open an alert panel that had to be closed manually, before direct would continue. These panels have now been replaced by a unified non-modal and autoclosing ghost panel. No longer does the application icon jump until you click OK. (#5013)
• Added hidden configuration option to deal with phone systems that have problems with rapid disconnecting and reconnecting (which direct will do in certain cases of network reconfigurations). (#6597)

User input

• In the search results and redial list, direct no longer adds a leading number sign (#) to the display of contacts without a name. This was intended to indicate that such contacts are 'number only' contacts (created by the user typing a number into the search and dial field), but it turned out to be confusing because it looked as if a dialable hashmark (#) was prepended to the number.
• Increased default width of search/dial window.

AppleScript

• Changed API of AppleScripts called by direct.
  See included example script AppleScript Test.scptd for details. This file is located in the folder Contents/Resources/Scripts within the direct application package. You can access this folder by holding the control key while clicking on the direct icon, and selecting "Show Package Contents". (#6169, #7006)
• The format of the phone numbers that are passed to your AppleScript can now be specified in the call handling preferences. (#6838)
• The path name of the selected AppleScript file in the call handling preferences can now be selected and copied. (#6382)
• The demo mode now allows one AppleScript call to each AppleScript handler per unlicensed connection (instead of just one call at all per unlicensed connection).

Software Update

• Added software update preferences.

Extras

• Moved Extras folder from the disk image to within the application. Use the help menu item "direct Extras..." to open this folder.

Outlook script

• direct 4 now contains an improved version of the Outlook script that previously had to be purchased separately.
  You'll find this script and its documentation in the direct Extras folder (use the help menu item "direct Extras..." to open this folder) (#6993)

OS X Contacts plugin

• The dialing plugin for the OS X Contacts app will now be automatically installed (or updated) when direct is launched. (#6217)
• The OS X Contacts app plugin now includes the name and company name in the dial string. (#6895)
• The OS X Contacts action menu item will now be deactivated for empty phone number entries.

Other

• direct 4 will accept direct 3 licenses until January 15, 2014. (#6608)
• Added new icons, including high resolution versions for retina displays. (#6402)
• Improved options for handling of specific CTI server error messages. (#6527)
• Changed file name extension of direct connection plugins from .bundle to directconnection. (#6537)
• direct no longer uses ~/Library/Application Support/direct, all files are now stored in ~/Library/Application Support/ilink/direct. (#6664)
• Improved display of company contacts without an associated name in the redial list. (#6891)
• The title, middle name, and name suffix of contacts retrieved from the OS X Contacts application -if existing- will now be included in the displayed name (in both the search results and in the incoming call popup). (#6983)
• The old language specific embedded iChat Status scripts were replaced by new localized scripts for Messages (in OS X 10.8 or later), iChat (up to OS X 10.7), and Adium. Also a number of bugs were fixed in these scripts. (#6959)
• The demo mode now allows three instead of one outbound calls per unlicensed connection. (#6919)
• Improved localization.
• Added description of dialing via URL to help pages. (#5606)
• Many additional updates to the help pages.

Bug fixes

Telephony connections

• Major improvements of handling of connection loss, both when sleep mode is and is not involved. (#5109, #5122, #5570.1, #5570.2, #6235, #6864)
• Fixed a potential race condition in telephone connection establishment.
• Fixed potential deadlock after loss of CTI server connectivity. (#6464)
• Prevented potential double initialization of connections, which occasionally led to non-functioning connections. (#6610)
• Improved connection establishment to more robustly deal with intermittent connection failures.
• Fixed sporadic app crashes that were observed after wakeup from sleep (mostly in cases with multiple configured connections). (#6209)

Search

• Safeguarded against hypothetical problem where search operations that were aborted e.g. due to failed parameter validation could have resulted in permanently high processor load.
• Fixed a regression that caused search operations to result in permanently high processor load.
• Fixed a problem where a caller name was not resolved if the LDAP connection was closed by the server while the search was being executed.
• Fixed regression in handling of expired search cache entries. (#6236)
• Fixed crash after LDAP server timeout.
• Fixed crash after typing the left arrow key when the search string was empty.
• Fixed display problem (empty search results table was visible as a two pixel high element).
• Improved handling of LDAP configuration changes as well as operation without activated LDAP search.
• Fixed LDAP search bug that caused an empty search results list to be cached if the LDAP connection was aborted during the search operation. (#6364)
• Fixed a bug where the search for nicknames and birthnames did not work in the search cache, leading to the effect that nickname and birthname searches sporadically did not return the expected results.
• LDAP connections will now be closed immediately when no longer in use. This fixes problems with some LDAP servers that close the connection before direct did so. (#6662)
• Fixed bug that could lead to LDAP search related crashes. (#6678)

AppleScript

• Fixed a potential bug that could have caused the AppleScript menu in the call handling preferences to remain empty. (#6896)
• The user-defined AppleScript will now only be called once per outbound call. (#6991)

Other

• Error messages that indicate dialing failures will now always be printed and do no longer depend on debugging settings.
• Safeguarded against potential but very rarely occuring crashes.
• Fixed a few 64 bit compatibility issues.
• Fixed a number of potential bugs in handling of multiple threads.
• Fixed a few logging bugs and reduced debug logging load. (#6572)
• Fixed many localization issues. (#6543, #6544, #6546, #6547)
• Fixed a potential crash when a software update is manually triggered after a previous update had been aborted. (#5005)
• Safeguarded against potential crash upon wake from sleep. (#6626)
• Enhanced debug log output. (#6665, #6687, #6688, #6689)
• Fixed potential application crashers in cases of corrupt user defaults data. (#6860)
• Slight performance optimizations during start of system sleep and wakeup from sleep.
• Prevented a potential visual artefact in caller ID ghost window. (#6992)
• Many other minor bug fixes.

• Preparation for the direct 4 update.

• Fixed application crasher in handling of callto: URLs.
• Added explanation of how to open ~/Library to "About Extras.rtf".

• Dialing via URL (callto:, call:, tel:) will now correctly decode the number from the URL, so that URLs with embedded spaces (encoded as %20) will now work.
• Added support for direct 4 license keys.

• The direct dialing service is now once again registered automatically upon program start. The user no longer needs to activate the service in System Preferences.
• Fixed a bug that caused the service menu localization to not always be used.


• Fixed 64 bit compatibility issues.
• Fixed a bug that occasionally could have caused direct to crash during logging.
• Fixed a bug that caused some software updates to not be recognized.


• Updated help pages and example scripts.
• Updated FileMaker example in the disk image's Extras folder to support FileMaker 12 and to include more documentation.

Features

• Signed the application with the Apple developer ID code signing certificate for Gatekeeper support in Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8).


• Enhanced software update mechanism to optionally include system configuration information with software update queries.


• Workaround for bug in LDAP servers that cannot process LDAP search requests with "or" clauses. We modified all LDAP search strings that contain just one attribute to no longer use "or" clauses. All search strings with more than one attribute continue to use the "or" syntax, so in order to work on such servers, direct will have to be configured so that both name searches and number searches will only take place in a single attribute. (contact us for information on how to do this)


• Changed behaviour of application after having received a 'MakeCall to' command via AppleScript. Before, direct became active only when no other application was active, now it becomes active in any case (matching the behavior after a MakeCall command was received via Services).
• Changed initial settings so that caller ID will now be displayed by default, also increased standard caller ID display duration from 4 to 5 seconds. Use direct preferences to change these settings.

Bug fixes

• Added workaround for a potential (and unfortunately quite common) direct misconfiguration where longDistanceDialPrefix or internationalDialPrefix do not start with localDialPrefix. Previously this would cause number conversion to totally fail, which in turn caused direct to not be able to dial in this case. Now, the number conversion would at least return something, even though probably not the number that the user expected. This at least allows direct to dial, so the failure mode now is much more graceful.
• Safeguarded against potential but very rarely occuring crashes.
• Made plugin loading more robust and prevented problems in accidentally loading non-direct plugins.
• Modified software update version comparison algorithm so that interim development versions are recognized to be newer than the latest official version.
• Fixed a number of minor bugs.

• The LDAP password may now optionally be taken from the system keychain instead of the user's login keychain.
• Added an option to prevent direct from modifying the LDAP password (via the user defaults key LDAPPasswordUseSystemKeychain).
• direct is now a code signed application. If direct has once been granted access to a keychain item (e.g. to the LDAP password stored in the system keychain), the keychain will grant access to updated direct versions as well, as long as they are identically signed. So access will not need to be granted anew for each new direct version.


• Fixed bug where direct in some cases completely stopped to do LDAP searches after the LDAP server had closed the connection. LDAP searches now time out after 30 seconds. This timeout value may be changed via the new user defaults key LDAPSearchTimeoutDuration.
• Reduced LDAP load by no longer searching for empty strings in a corner case where inbound calls were not detected as such.
• Prevented the LDAP connection problem alert panel from being opened multiple consecutive times.


• Contacts read from Address Book that have an organisation but no name are no longer displayed as "organisation name (organisation name)".
• Contacts read from Address Book that have an organisation but no name are now included in the dock menu.
• Contacts without a phone number are no longer included in the dock menu.
• Now uses custom phone number labels of Address Book contacts in dock menu and in the dial window's display of the last called phone number.
• Excluded fax numbers from being added to the dock menu entries.


• Prevented a crash after wake from sleep in a rare race condition.


• Fixed a bug that caused ghost window contents of multiple connections to overwrite each other.


• Fixed a number of other minor bugs.
• Added a number of minor debugging features.

• Implemented new central configuration scheme (see description in help pages). The previous, less advanced system is no longer supported.
• Added option to deactivate the built-in software update, e.g. to be used in managed environments (via the user defaults key DisableSoftwareUpdates).
• Updated direct help pages.
• Updated internal structure of direct help pages, extracting the resources shared by multiple languages, so that they now are only stored once.
• Added a number of minor debugging features.