2014-03-29

gPodder 4.1.0 "Moombahcore" released

A new release of gPodder 4 is out, refining the UI of both the Sailfish OS and BB10 version and fixing some bugs along the way. The Sailfish OS version is available right now from the downloads page, the BB10 version is currently waiting for App World approval.
  • Core
    • Avoid race conditions in database writing
    • Expose EQL query module for use in UIs
  • QML UI - Common
    • Support for filtering episode lists
    • Show metadata in shownotes, website link
    • About page with version information
  • QML UI - Reference Implementation (BB10)
    • New confirmation dialog
    • Removed start page to be in line with Sailfish OS UI
    • Toolbar with back button, pop-up menu
    • Podcast list context menu (longpress)
    • Clipboard (paste, copy, ...) support in text entry
  • QML UI - Sailfish Silica UI (Sailfish OS)
    • Update Git submodules (podcastparser from Git)
Download: gpodder-core-4.1.0.tar.gz
md5sum: ff1753aed597d5ff3a31dad64dc24473
sha1sum: a9277c4b5a40c4a337b4d684ac7e772c4bab8691

Download: gpodder-ui-qml-4.1.0.tar.gz
md5sum: 525d3ca512a9ff36d1080676d2349ca2
sha1sum: d31c86be234894380b6eabdd7eba9889230b34df

2014-03-17

gPodder 4 now available for Blackberry 10

With gPodder 4 released last weekend, version 4.0.0 is now available for devices running Blackberry 10 from Blackberry World:
The package will be updated with our usual update process, due to the BB World QA it could take a while for updates to appear.

2014-03-15

gPodder 4 vs gPodder 3: Release notes and changes

As pointed out by Tim on Twitter, yesterday's release was missing some proper release notes, and while if you have been following gPodder 4's development process (here, here, here and here), you kind-of know where it comes from, it's probably useful to summarize the differences between gPodder 3.x and gPodder 4 in a separate post here, especially for users wondering about the differences of gPodder 3 and gPodder 4.

Some early plans for gPodder 4 considered rewriting parts of the core in C++ for performance and portability, but in the end, we decided to take a less risky approach, and split off from gPodder 3.5.1 in April 2013 and work on trimming down, refactoring and replacing the codebase there one-by-one.

Even though we went with the existing codebase, we took this opportunity to go Python 3-only with this release (because Python 2 is a dead-end), as well as have a split between the core library (now know as gpodder-core) and user interfaces (gpodder-ui-qml and gpodder-sailfish at the moment). Another opportunity to make a clean cut was migrating from feedparser to our own, custom-written podcastparser (performance gains are goody), so we have more control over what and how we parse things, and properly split YouTube, Vimeo and Soundcloud integration into separate, self-contained modules.

Here's a list of things gPodder 4 can do better than gPodder 3:
  • Native Sailfish OS port
  • Blackberry 10 port
  • Potential ports to other Qt 5 platforms (Android, iOS, ...) in the future
  • Qt 5 and Python 3 support via PyOtherSide
  • CLI interface ("gpo") with new features (querying episodes, etc..)
  • Faster parsing of RSS and Atom feeds using podcastparser

In the end, the list of things we added in gPodder 4 is probably shorter than the things we removed compared to gPodder 3. Here's what gPodder 3 can do that gPodder 4 can't (at the moment):
  • Gtk UI (Linux, OS X and Windows "Desktop" UI)
  • Harmattan (Nokia N9) QML UI (PySide and Qt 4-based)
  • MP3 player sync, iPod sync
  • Extension scripts (e.g. convert files, Ubuntu Unity integration, etc..)
  • gpodder.net integration into the core
  • Web UI (was never really completed, anyway)
  • Flattr integration into the core
  • Python 2 support
While features like gpodder.net and Flattr integration are things that we want to integrate into gPodder 4, this hasn't happened yet, and in some cases, it might be better to put these things into the UIs rather than handling them in the core (e.g. gPodder 4's QML UI actually has gpodder.net directory search, done purely in QML/JavaScript).

In case of Flattr, Stefan actually implemented Flattr integration into the gpodder.net web service (so you can Flattr via gpodder.net without having to integrate Flatter directly into the client), so we might opt to use gpodder.net's service here - this has the nice side-effect that you don't have to deal with logging into your Flattr account on your mobile device; just set up gpodder.net and Flattr in your browser on your PC, notebook or tablet at home, and then let gpodder.net handle Flattr'ing of episodes you have listened on your mobile device (the mobile device will send play events to gpodder.net, and gpodder.net can Flattr all played episodes on your behalf if you tell it to do so).


For users of gPodder on the Desktop (Mac OS X, Linux, Windows), this means that you probably don't want to upgrade to gPodder 4 at all at the moment, and that's fine (I personally use and will continue to use gPodder 3 on the Desktop). Stick with gPodder 3.x, which has all the features you have come to expect from gPodder. We'll continue updating gPodder 3.x for some time to come (after all, we don't expect feature parity in gPodder 4 any time soon, and don't even aim for it). Mobile touch UI development will happen in gPodder 4, with a focus on performance, ease of use and integration with our webservice, gpodder.net.

gPodder 4.0.0 "Iffy Kiffy Izzy Oh" released

So, time for gPodder 4 to graduate to release level. We've been using and testing it for the last few weeks on Sailfish OS and Blackberry 10, and are happy with the first release.

This is mostly a source release, with packages for Sailfish OS and Blackberry 10 being available in the respective stores hopefully soon. For Sailfish OS, we also provide a RPM package directly from gpodder.org, so you can get your podcast fix right away.

Download: gpodder-core-4.0.0.tar.gz
md5sum: d3baf0268edbdb3b25b6549154edc39d
sha1sum: 6d0781c9a28899aa2824ff9830a6ece42f979758

Download: gpodder-ui-qml-4.0.0.tar.gz
md5sum: ebf84682f5375b0b141c8d1d2a28aeae
sha1sum: c240ff407eefb17cf0ef5e969adce681fc78184a

Download: harbour-org.gpodder.sailfish-4.0.0-9.noarch.rpm
md5sum: b690cbf2d1d18a88991506bcb767d979
sha1sum: b7f6a39bf4900d0bd352179c3b71ca05b6067ecd

This is only the beginning; stay tuned for regular gPodder updates and fixes. Of course, we'll also update and maintain gPodder 3.x for users not covered by gPodder 4 at the moment. We expect gPodder 3 and gPodder 4 to run in parallel for quite some time, they cover different target audiences.

If you are using gPodder's CLI UI ("gpo") only and don't need the gPodder 3 Gtk UI, it is included in gpodder-core 4.0.0 and has got some nice clean-ups and features - give it a try!

2014-03-08

gPodder 3.6.1 "Little Orphan Airplane" released

This is a bugfix release in the 3.6.x series, fixing a bug in YouTube integration that was found only a few days after the 3.6.0 release. Two other small fixes are also included in this release.
  • Fix YouTube integration (bug 1887)
  • Desktop file: Add prefix to path (bug 1618)
  • Makefile: Use LC_ALL=C to have C-locale dates in manpage
As always, a detailed changelog is available at gpodder.org/changelog/3.6.1.

Download: gpodder-3.6.1.tar.gz
md5sum: f4765a8ecf4f216fe634709ed66417cb
sha1sum: 203ecfbe37ad2b6dc8de00c88eabc99e9194253f

For packages in distributions, see the downloads page.

Thanks to all users who supported the gPodder project by providing bug reports, patches, documentation, feedback or donations / Flattrs. For this release, special thanks go out to Andreas Piesk for providing the YouTube fix.