· Some of you use more than one Usenet server, for various reasons. While it has always been possible to mark servers as backup servers (aka fillservers), until now, it required you to edit the HellaNZB configuration by hand. Starting with LottaNZB 0.5.1, you can do that from within LottaNZB. Backup servers are servers that are only used if a certain file cannot be downloaded from all other servers. It would be interesting for us to know how many people actually use more than one server. You might want to tell us in a comment.
· These days, most paid Usenet servers offer SSL encryption support at reasonable prices. It's now possible to directly enable SSL while setting up LottaNZB for the first time.
· Fixes for severe bugs
· Adding NZB files directly from Firefox hasn't worked properly for a long time. You were required to download the files to the desktop or somewhere else instead and clicking on it. Not anymore! We also fixed crashes that occurred when starting LottaNZB for the first time on newly installed systems and when adding a NZB file.
· The wait is finally over. Six months after the release of LottaNZB 0.4.1, I’m proud to announce LottaNZB 0.5! Let’s have a look at all the awesome new stuff in this version.
· We want to keep the default user interface as clean as possible, while making it easy for you to activate extra functionality if you need it. In LottaNZB 0.5, we turned both the categorization and Newzbin support into plug-ins. You can also hide the LottaNZB icon from the notification area if you want to.
· We want LottaNZB to look and behave exactly like the other GNOME applications you love! LottaNZB 0.5 instantly applies changes to the preferences. There’s no need to press a “Save” button anymore.
· There are some issues that should have been tackled much sooner. It’s now possible to open the preferences window also if LottaNZB is connected to another computer and makes it possible for you to change the bandwidth limit. You can finally enqueue NZB files over the network! Have you ever wondered why NZB files just vanish as soon as you add them to LottaNZB? Now you can choose whether you’d like to keep them or not.
· GNOME 3.0 is on the horizon and some technologies are being replaced by new and better ones. This is why we migrated from the deprecated libglade to GTKBuilder. Of course, LottaNZB 0.5 still runs on distributions not older than 1.5 years. The configuration has been moved from ~/.lottanzb to ~/.config/lottanzb, making it easier for you to take all your desktop configuration with you, including LottaNZB’s.
· As always, several bugs have been fixed thanks to reports by various LottaNZB users! A special thanks to those brave people who have participated in the successful public beta test.
· Thanks go out to all who have contributed to this release in some way, no matter if by contributing code, reporting bugs or translating the application to all kind of languages. We will probably release LottaNZB 0.5.1 few weeks after this release, giving LottaNZB users (you!) the time to update the translations and report bugs we haven’t catched during the public beta.
· For those who initially used the Ubuntu package of LottaNZB 0.3, this release fixes a severe problem with the automatic extraction of downloaded archives. LottaNZB now always uses 'unrar' instead of 'unrar-free' because unfortunately, the free alternative isn't capable of extracting a majority of downloads. We recommend you to reenable the automatic extraction in the preferences window.
· Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish translation updated.
· Turkish translation added.
· Bug fixed that prevented LottaNZB from working properly on machines with Turkish locale. (LP: #318328)
· Remove unwanted leading and trailing whitespaces from category and download directory names for downloads that were added to the download queue using an older version of LottaNZB (thanks to Mikal Krogstad for reporting this).
· A bunch of Debian/Ubuntu package improvements, which were necessary to make LottaNZB ready for the Debian and Ubuntu package repositories: e.g. a new MAN page and an application menu entry on Debian.
Features:
· Use LottaNZB as a front-end for HellaNZB or as a stand-alone NZB Usenet client
· Enqueue NZB files directly from within your file manager and web browser
· Newzbin.com support
· Support for multiple Usenet servers
· Support for secure (SSL) connections
· Arrange the download queue and add NZB files using drag 'n drop
· Bandwidth throttling support
· Easily configure both HellaNZB and LottaNZB without having to manually edit configuration files
· Supported languages: English, Dutch, Danish, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian Bokmal, Polish and Portuguese
· Detailed documentation
Changelog:
· This is the first version of LottaNZB which is based on the Kiwi framework (http://www.async.com.br/projects/kiwi/). Kiwi simplifies the development of graphical applications by providing an extensive set of high-level tools, which now replace our self-baked ones. Kiwi enabled us to significantly reduce the amount of code required to do certain things and paves the way for a faster implementation of new features, since we can concentrate on the things that matter.
· Beside the graphical parts of the application, also the other parts have undergone a major rewrite. This did not only improve the reliability and maintainability of the code but also fixed a bunch of bugs.
· The categorization feature has been improved notably. Users that don't want to categorize their downloads are allowed to disable the feature completely in the preferences dialog. The others are rewarded with the possibility of creating a custom set of categories and - even more exciting - with a function that automatically moves a completed download to a directory named like its category.
· The algorithm collecting HellaNZB's log messages has become way more intelligent (LP: #245670).
· Thanks to this, we laid the groundwork for a mechanism that analyzes all incoming HellaNZB log messages and extracts the interesting information. HellaNZB's current interface for external application doesn't provide us with much information. In future version of LottaNZB, you can expect more information to be displayed about the state of your downloads and LottaNZB will also know more about potential problems.
· The way how LottaNZB manages its configuration has completely changed. Instead of an XML file an INI-style configuration file format is used. Internally, LottaNZB uses a decentralised configuration system with support for nested configuration sections, which makes LottaNZB more modular end extensible. There are plans for a plugin system which will make use of it. Any existing, old-fashioned XML configuration file is automatically converted to the new format.
· Scrolling should now be possible in both the download list and the message log window and the lists won't flicker anymore when updated.
· Reordering the download queue using drag & drop has been made more predictable and hence sleeker to use. Dropping a download won't unselect it anymore.
· LottaNZB won't crash anymore if the Usenet server configuration contains an optional property such as 'fillserver', 'enabled', 'skipGroupCmd' and 'bindTo'. (LP: #251798, #280302)
· Support for non-ASCII characters in HellaNZB configuration files, which makes it possible to choose a download directory with a name like "Vidéos". (LP: #305248)
· It's possible to enable or disable the automatic extraction of completed downloads.
· Users are informed when something goes wrong downloading an NZB file from Newzbin.
· LottaNZB 0.4 speaks several new languages. Thanks to the work of numerous people, translations to Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian Bokmal, Polish and Portuguese have been added. Upgrading to a new LottaNZB version has become much easier for those who use the source package. The 'install' command will look for existing installations and prevent annoying version conflicts.
· This list is far from complete. There are numerous other minor and major improvements not mentioned here. Give LottaNZB 0.4 a try and see yourself!
· This is the first version of LottaNZB which is based on the Kiwi framework (http://www.async.com.br/projects/kiwi/). Kiwi simplifies the development of graphical applications by providing an extensive set of high-level tools, which now replace our self-baked ones. Kiwi enabled us to significantly reduce the amount of code required to do certain things and paves the way for a faster implementation of new features, since we can concentrate on the things that matter.
· Beside the graphical parts of the application, also the other parts have undergone a major rewrite. This did not only improve the reliability and maintainability of the code but also fixed a bunch of bugs.
· The categorization feature has been improved notably. Users that don't want to categorize their downloads are allowed to disable the feature completely in the preferences dialog. The others are rewarded with the possibility of creating a custom set of categories and - even more exciting - with a function that automatically moves a completed download to a directory named like its category.
· The algorithm collecting HellaNZB's log messages has become way more intelligent (LP: #245670).
· Thanks to this, we laid the groundwork for a mechanism that analyzes all incoming HellaNZB log messages and extracts the interesting information. HellaNZB's current interface for external application doesn't provide us with much information. In future version of LottaNZB, you can expect more information to be displayed about the state of your downloads and LottaNZB will also know more about potential problems.
· The way how LottaNZB manages its configuration has completely changed. Instead of an XML file an INI-style configuration file format is used. Internally, LottaNZB uses a decentralised configuration system with support for nested configuration sections, which makes LottaNZB more modular end extensible. There are plans for a plugin system which will make use of it. Any existing, old-fashioned XML configuration file is automatically converted to the new format.
· Scrolling should now be possible in both the download list and the message log window and the lists won't flicker anymore when updated.
· Reordering the download queue using drag & drop has been made more predictable and hence sleeker to use. Dropping a download won't unselect it anymore.
· LottaNZB won't crash anymore if the Usenet server configuration contains an optional property such as 'fillserver', 'enabled', 'skipGroupCmd' and 'bindTo'. (LP: #251798, #280302)
· Support for non-ASCII characters in HellaNZB configuration files, which makes it possible to choose a download directory with a name like "Vidéos". (LP: #305248)
· It's possible to enable or disable the automatic extraction of completed downloads.
· Users are informed when something goes wrong downloading an NZB file from Newzbin.
· LottaNZB 0.4 speaks several new languages. Thanks to the work of numerous people, translations to Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian Bokmal, Polish and Portuguese have been added. Upgrading to a new LottaNZB version has become much easier for those who use the source package. The 'install' command will look for existing installations and prevent annoying version conflicts.
· This list is far from complete. There are numerous other minor and major improvements not mentioned here. Give LottaNZB 0.4 a try and see yourself!
