Runtime Revolution 2.8.1 has been officially released so we have built our beta versions and are ready for testing. While we have lobbied for fixes and features that would best serve the Interocitor, not all have as yet been addressed. Be sure to check the Known Issues heading below for more info.

The beta program has a list of phased goals we would like to achieve in order to assure that new and complex features are founded on solid, crash-free components. As each phase is successfully completed we'll post the goals for the next until full functionality is implemented, after which the beta program will end and PatroNet will officially reopen for business.

Anyone may participate in the program, but testers should be aware of what limits and responsibilities are involved. While you may be a PatroNet member and be anxious to get your subscriptions working, it is critical that testers do their best to both 'break' the application and keep track of the steps to recreate the problem. To this end we will maintain an online bug database (see below) that you can access using any browser. You should NOT email tech support about issues encountered during the beta test.


Our goals for Phase 1 of the test are as follows:

* Successful download and decompression of the Interocitor from patronet.com
* Successful creation of the PatroNet folder and installation of the core updatable components
* Consistent behavior of various media such as sound and Flash content
* Consistent and intuitive behavior of the ChannelSurfer and Tracker components
* Switching of online and offline modes by restarting the Interocitor


Please note that while the Member Info channel can be reached, it is not activated and will neither submit your info nor save it locally. This will be part of the next test phase.

Note also that the Player (archive mode) is not yet activated and is available only to confirm that you can switch from online to offline mode and back.
KNOWN ISSUES

Most of these issues are a result of behaviors in our authoring environment that have not been resolved or have no current workaround.

* Flash media may not properly convey the cursor position to the Flash movie. This will be most obvious in the "All About" channel where rollovers will behave strangely and not respond to mouse clicks.

* Fonts may change their appearance from session to session.

* Channelsurfer and Tracker objects may have grey corner 'artifacts' and the Channelsurfer may flicker excessively when resizing.

* Sound cues may sometimes not play. This may be an addressable issue, but we would like to gauge how consistent this bug is.

THE BUG FORUM


We have implemented a web-based issue tracking system at http://www.patronet.com/betatest/. To log on, use this information:

     username: betatester
     password: interocitor

Before you add a new issue, please check to see if it has already been entered by another tester. You can also check the status of any outstanding issues.


The PatroNet Development Team