This has been a while in coming, but it should finally be usable enough for public testing:

Enable message history by enabling the option “Show previous message history in new message windows” in Chax’s general preferences. You may notice that message history will not immediately appear after enabling this option. Message history will only be displayed after you begin to chat with other people after you enable this option, so chat with some people for a bit before determining that it isn’t working.

There are also a couple of new options that aren’t currently exposed in the preferences. At some point in the future I’ll add a page describing all of the hidden defaults that Chax currently includes. SaveWindowFrames is an option ported from Chax 1.5 that saves the window position for each contact that you talk to. ShowSenderAccount shows what account you’re using to talk to someone with for those of you who use multiple accounts on the same service and want to know which account you’re sending a message from.

The syntax for enabling hidden options in the Terminal is as follows:

defaults write com.ksuther.chax SaveWindowFrames -bool YES

Changes from Chax 2.1.2:

• (New) Message history shows messages from the previous conversation in new chat windows
• (New) Added multitouch swipe gesture to switch tabs in message window
• (New) Hidden default SaveWindowFrames saves per-contact window positions
• (New) Hidden default ShowSenderAccount shows the active account in each conversation
• (Bug) Fixed parsing logs with some languages
• (Bug) New chat windows no longer steal focus when using auto-accept

Download Chax 2.2 Beta 1

This release should fix the crashes that occur when waking from sleep or reconnecting. Also fixed from last beta are the stop screen saver options and some additional log viewer bugs. Enjoy!

Changes from Chax 2.1.1:

• (New) Quick Look support for inline image transfers (available by right-clicking an image)
• (New) Contact lists can now be sorted by user handle (View menu -> Sort Buddies -> By Handle)
• (New) New default to strip background color of outgoing messages (StripOutgoingBackgroundColor)
• (New) Russian localization (thanks to Denis Avdeev)
• (New) Options to undim the screen when receiving a message or AV invitation
• (Change) The unified contact list can now be set as the primary contact list in the Chax preferences
• (Bug) Unified contact list should now stay in sync properly with all accounts
• (Bug) Auto-replies to ICQ users are now properly stripped
• (Bug) Name notifications in the Dock now truncate better
• (Bug) Selecting “All Contacts” from the Window menu now toggles unified contact list visibility
• (Bug) Can now make all accounts invisible at once with the unified contact list
• (Bug) Fixed crash that could occur on wake-from-sleep or when reconnecting
• (Bug) Improved German localization
• (Bug) Viewing logs on a specific person will now properly reload logs
• (Bug) Exporting logs as text will now save status changes
• (Bug) Exporting log as text now gives a default name
• (Bug) Stop screensaver on event options now properly stop the screensaver
• (Bug) Find now works properly in the log viewer

Download Chax 2.1.2
Download Chax 2.1.2 Source

This version doesn’t contain any new features, but greatly improves how click-to-warp and the activation delay interact with each other. Using the two together should feel much more natural now.

• Improved click-to-warp behavior to work better with the activation delay
• Increased borders around hot corners to prevent accidental activation
• Added traditional Chinese localization (thanks to Jack M. H. Lin)

Download Warp 1.1.1

This beta includes few additional bug fixes as well as new options to undim the screen as well as stop the screen saver when receiving a message.

Changes from 2.1.2 Beta 1:

• (New) Options to undim the screen when receiving a message or AV invitation
• (Bug) Showing groups now restores properly for the unified contact list
• (Bug) Improved German localization
• (Bug) Viewing logs on a specific person will now properly reload logs
• (Bug) Exporting logs as text will now save status changes
• (Bug) Exporting log as text now gives a default name

Download Chax 2.1.2 Beta 2

Here’s a new beta with a couple of small improvements and bug fixes. There are still two outstanding bugs that a limited number of people are encountering: some incoming messages not appearing properly when auto-accept is enabled, and crashes when waking from sleep. I’ve been having trouble reproducing these issues myself, despite having consistent reports on reproducing the problems. I still hope to fix these two problems in the future.

The unified contact list behavior has been changed slightly in order to better suit differences in usage. There is now an option to either explicitly use the unified list. If this option is not checked, selecting “Buddy List…” from the iChat menu extra and clicking on the iChat dock icon will not automatically display the unified contact list. Be sure to check this option if you generally use only the unified contact list. The synchronization issues between the unified contact list and individual accounts should be fixed in this release.

The syntax for enabling the option to strip the background color from outgoing messages is the following Terminal command: defaults write com.ksuther.chax StripOutgoingBackgroundColor -bool YES. Swap YES or NO to disable the option. You may need to restart iChat for changes to take effect.

Changes from Chax 2.1.1:

• (New) Quick Look support for inline image transfers (available by right-clicking an image)
• (New) Contact lists can now be sorted by user handle (View menu -> Sort Buddies -> By Handle)
• (New) New default to strip background color of outgoing messages (StripOutgoingBackgroundColor)
• (New) Russian localization (thanks to Denis Avdeev)
• (Change) The unified contact list can now be set as the primary contact list in the Chax preferences
• (Bug) Unified contact list should now stay in sync properly with all accounts
• (Bug) Auto-replies to ICQ users are now properly stripped
• (Bug) Name notifications in the Dock now truncate better
• (Bug) Selecting “All Contacts” from the Window menu now toggles unified contact list visibility
• (Bug) Can now make all accounts invisible at once with the unified contact list

Download Chax 2.1.2 Beta 1