gPodder 4 status update: Sailfish OS and BB10

It's time for another status update on the upcoming gPodder release: Version 4.0.0. Version 4 will (at least initially) be more aimed towards mobile devices and QML, for all other use cases, you can keep using (and contributing to) gPodder 3.

The bleeding edge development happens in the "cuatro" branch in the main gPodder Git repository. From there, code is merged to the "gpodder-core" repository, which only contains the core gPodder library. On top of the core library, there are user interfaces, the single one that we have right now is the QML UI Reference Implementation in the "gpodder-ui-qml" repository. Taking this one step further are then the device/OS-specific repositories for customizations and packaging. Right now, we have "gpodder-bb10" for packaging of gPodder on Blackberry 10 as well as "gpodder-sailfish" for gPodder on Sailfish OS. Both of these use "gpodder-core" and "gpodder-ui-qml" as submodules to import the code from there, but might customize or replace parts of the QML UI Reference Implementation with platform-specific controls (but the Reference Implementation itself is still fully self-contained and functional, and in fact, most of the OS-specific packaging right now reuse everything and don't customize UI elements - yet).

Of course, for all you keyboard cowboys out there, we still have the CLI ("gpo") available. This is actually in the "gpodder-core" repository and is used to test the core library.

The gPodder 4 QML UI is not at all complete yet, but basic subscribing, downloading and playback works already. Stay tuned!

gPodder 3.5.2 "The Prime Mover" released

It's time for another release of gPodder, your favorite podcast client. This release brings some improvements and fixes that we've collected over the last few months. An upcoming release of gPodder 3 will contain iPod support that Joseph is currently working on. But for now, here are the highlights of gPodder 3.5.2:

• Extensions
• Support for Flattr'ing extensions and showing documentation (Bernd)
• Option to auto-embed covert art images into files (bug 1742, Bernd)
• Gtk UI
• Various keyboard-related improvements
• Various fixes (Eugene, bugs 1825, 1832, 1834)
• Device sync: Fix to only include episodes in playlist (Joseph)
• QML UI
• Various UX-related improvements (Rigoberto, bug 1813, PR #94)
• Translation updates
• Italian (Maurizio)
• Spanish (Rigoberto)
• Tooling and other fixes
• Disable gpodder.net when authentication failed (Stefan)
• makefile: Add Harmattan an Sailfish to QMLFILES

As always, a detailed changelog is available at gpodder.org/changelog/3.5.2.

Download: gpodder-3.5.2.tar.gz
md5sum: 03b6906fbb52bce49542ec53632cf07d
sha1sum: a39dfdba48424322c7d5579d92c2622a57591997

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.

Progress report on adding iPod / iPhone sync to gPodder 3

A few months ago, I implemented the 'device sync' feature from gPodder 2 back into the gPodder 3 codebase - but for filesystem-based devices only. I wanted to sync my podcasts to my Android phone. (I'm not an Apple guy, even though I live San Francisco, the Apple capital of the world.) It's been working well and since then I've improved it with the addition of playlists and two-way sync, so that deleting a track on your device removes it from gPodder on the next sync.

But you can't support mobile devices without supporting Apple, so after a friend kindly gave me her old iPod Touch (thanks Kendra!) I got to work.

I started with the code from the gPodder 2 branch, and refactored it into the gPodder 3 codebase, much as I did for filesystem-based syncing. With a bit of work, and by using the libimobile library, I was able to successfully sync my podcasts with the iPod!

I used libimobile tools to mount the iPod before syncing, and gtkpod to help manage the iPod's internal database. However, I don't expect people will need to use gtkpod during normal operation, only to initialize the iPod prior to the first sync.

I'll be working with Thomas to figure out precisely when and how to get this code merged into the master branch. Code that works on a first generation iPod Touch may not necessarily work on other Apple devices, so we may want to test on more hardware before merging.

Stay tuned!

Progress report from the May 2013 hack day

We had another short hack day this weekend. This is the last official hack day, there won't be any future public hack days. What we did:

• Discussed and improved gpodder.net API 3 (Draft)
• Got gPodder Cuatro working on Android

Development efforts are concentrated on gPodder 4 right now, which is a rewrite from scratch.

Progress report from the April 2013 hack day

As you might have figured out by now, some of the gPodder core developers meet up monthly at the Metalab in Vienna to discuss current developments and plans for the future. This also happened this month on the 13th of April.

What we have done:

• Bernd worked on new features for the Flattr extension
• Stefan created a new project out of thp's podcastparser code
• Stefan also added gpodder.net file type statistics (bug 1505)
• Thomas merged Bernd's pull request 89
• Thomas also worked on a responsive HTML design for gpodder.org's website
• We added some more best practice guidelines for publishers
• Stefan (our second Stefan) released libmygpo-qt 1.0.7
• Andreas worked on Sphinx-based developer documentation

The next hack day will be on May 11th, and we will definitely be discussing more about gPodder 4 by then.

Release of libmygpo-qt v1.0.7

After exactly half a year, a new version of libmygpo-qt is ready.
Changes in v1.0.7:

• New Config Class. This class allows to programmatically to retrieve the libmygpo-qt version and retrieve and set the gpodder.net API endpoint (e.g. if you test your software against a private instance of gpodder.net)
• Config Class also allows to set a prefix to the user-agent. Please never completely overwrite the user-agent set in libmygpo-qt (instead pre/append your own, e.g. via mygpo::Config::setUserAgentPrefix( ... ) )
• fixed a bug that created incomplete Episode Actions if an Episode Action couldn't be parsed completely by libmygpo-qt
• fixed a small bug with the pkgconfig file (thx to davidsansome)
• added support for uploading & retrieving flattr Episode Actions to gpodder.net (this allows you to automatically flattr Podcast Episodes from any podcatcher that uses libmygpo-qt)

Where to get libmygpo-qt?
Tarball: http://stefan.derkits.at/files/libmygpo-qt/libmygpo-qt.1.0.7.tar.gz
sha256sum: faade78e1baeeab7f858dec80530ad63c50f683fe511948ab1a45e685828cc74 md5sum: 447e60c8c695b4280a0e20c71abacf49

Some more important Links for libmygpo-qt:
Project Website: http://wiki.gpodder.org/wiki/Libmygpo-qt
Git Repository: https://github.com/gpodder/libmygpo-qt
Doxygen Documentation: http://stefan.derkits.at/libmygpo-doc/ gpodder.net API: http://wiki.gpodder.org/wiki/Web_Services/API_2 Bug reports: http://bugs.gpodder.org
Contact: gpodder@freelists.org 

Want to support libmygpo-qt?
You can support the development of libmygpo-qt you can send me a book via my Amazon Wishlist or donate via paypal to stefan@derkits.at

What is libmygpo-qt?
libmygpo-qt is a Qt/C++ library wrapping the gpodder.net Webservice. It is currently used in Amarok & Clementine to retrieve a directory of podcasts & to synchronize podcast subscriptions with gpodder.net

gPodder 3.5.1 "Nick of Time" released

gPodder 3.5.1 is a small bugfix release to fix some issues in the 3.5.0 release from last month. It is recommended for all users.

• Windows support
• Mandatory notification extension (pull request 72)
• Compatibility: strftime doesn't have %F
• Remove non-ascii characters (bug 1724)
• Device synchronization
• Sanitized playlist filename (bug 1788)
• Sanitize mount point encoding (bug 1785)
• Extensions
• Merge audio/video converter extensions (bug 1783)
• Cleaned up "Enqueue in Media Player"
• Enqueue episodes in Totem also (bug 1775)
• Gtk UI
• Clear filter using secondary icon in GtkEntry
• Fix submenu activation/focus issues (bug 1778)
• Show notification bubbles when downloads fail (bug 1265)
• QML UI
• Add various checks for undefined / null objects
• Apply automatic rotation setting to all pages (bug 1792)
• Better selection reset logic for episode list (bug 1804)
• Convert selection indices to integers (bug 1802)
• Directly add a podcast via feed URL
• Fix layout for multi-line episode titles
• Highlight podcasts on Harmattan, but not on Sailfish
• Make selection background color visible again
• Reset selection when episode list changes (bug 1804)
• Separate gpodder.net login page (pull request 85)
• Other improvements
• CLI: Fix subscribe/unsubscribe when list has not been loaded yet
• Database: Check if every episode is assigned to a podcast
• Makefile: Build ".pyo" files on "make install" (bug 1786)
• Model: Disallow subscribing to an already-existing URL
• Remove "print" statement in enqueue_in_mediaplayer
• Tools: Ubuntu PPA generator for "raring" release
• Updated German translation

As always, a detailed changelog is available at gpodder.org/changelog/3.5.1.

Download: gpodder-3.5.1.tar.gz
md5sum: 60bcc814adc654c00ab197abfe920d80
sha1sum: e9f26bd5bb7742d9c0fa78323e81060495f7417a

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.