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Release history v7.x

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2024 10:29 am
by alex
- v7.4 -

- Added the capability to extract Spotnet nzb files and import them seamlessly. The implementation is non-intrusive and won't bother those users who don't need Spotnet. See the Handling Spotnet files at the UE website for details.

- It is now possible to use the search service with only the group field and the subject and author fields empty, i.e. effectively to browse newsgroup headers in a subset of newsgroups matching the pattern without subscribing to the newsgroups. If a message popup will state that not all results are shown, the date range can be narrowed or the newsgroup pattern may be made more precise until the message will disappear. The function is convenient for exploring groups, it wasn't the purpose to provide headers on an industrial scale. The function won't work with prior versions as they don't dispatch "empty" searches. See Using search service for browsing groups at the UE website for details.

- In Edit menu->Properties->Search/Import a check box has been added to control whether to interpret the search service bar Group field boolean wildmat pattern as substring (like before) or not. It allows e.g. to define a more targeted boolean wildmat expression to match specific newsgroup names exactly since the heading/trailing asterisks are not attached automatically, but can be added by the user explicitly. The option is relevant in part for the group browsing feature. Note the feature is only effective when boolean wildmats are selected as the search pattern syntax in the Search/Import properties page.

- A warning popup message will be displayed on the program start if the total or article number of tasks were set to zero to avoid being confused with the tasks stuck in the pending state.

- Added the option Edit menu->Properties->Search Import, Import folders, "Delete NZB files used more than x days ago". When dropped into an import folder the [nzb] files are moved to the "Old" subfolder after import. At that point the file creation date is updated to the current time and the time count starts. By default the option edit box is empty, rendering the option inactive as it was the case previously, it just can be set up if needed. The file cleanup is performed on the program start.

- Fixed a cosmetical problem when the interpret quick filter Newsgroups field as substring check box for the search view boolean wildmat patterns wasn't greyed out when "All words" was selected in Edit menu->Properties->Search/Import.

- This release is accompanied by v5.9.9 which accommodates 3 last changes above.

- v7.3 -

- Revised the unrar password list code which is now fully compatible with the asynchronous unpack including .7z and .zip files. Also the help "?" button has been added to the set unrar password dialog with the explanation about its options and how they apply. In addition, the set unrar password dialog code has been refined, so more options are enabled when it is not associated with an unpack entry. "Set unrar password" is an option in the relevant context menus to display the dialog, and now it also comprises .7z and .zip files when asynchronous unpack is enabled.

- When .7z or .zip files are set to be handled by the asynchronous unpack the phrase "Set unrar password" will be replaced with "Set extract password" etc. in relevant context menus and dialogs. Properties->Unpack were minimally adjusted as well. The purpose was just to show the potential in a simple way without being too clever.

- When minimizing the UE window shortly after the program start the status icon in the article task view rarely wasn't drawn initially (caused by a flaw in anti-flicker code), although the cosmetical issue resolved later by itself.

- When initiating "Download&save attachments" from a search service view the program will correctly show in the title "Download&save attachments" instead of just "Save attachments" even as the download function itself wasn't affected.

- In Properties->Newsgroups, Properties->Post, Properties->Watch and Properties->Kill filters the subscribed newsgroup names followed by their nicks in parentheses will be shown in the list instead of the nicks only for the nicknamed newsgroups when "Show nicks" is checked in the workspace view context menu. The list is sorted in the alphabetical order by newsgroup name, so the sort order when nicks were assigned and shown without newsgroup names was confusing.

- The release is accompanied with v5.9.8 release which includes non-asynchronous unpack changes and adds separate check for updates.

- v7.2 -

- All words quick filters are implemented internally as boolean wildmats in such a way that all words search patterns are converted into boolean wildmat search patterns. When there were quotes in the pattern and "exact phrase" was checked in edit menu->properties->search the generated pattern could clash with the repetitions boolean wildmat syntax introduced in v6.1 and there were no matches as the result.

- Also when the all words pattern contained a non-alphanumeric character followed by space and "Non-alphanumeric" checkbox was unchecked with quoted pattern and exact phrase checked the created wildmat pattern wasn't optimal and could result in less or no matches.

- Improved xml parsing function to address some recent nzb files.

- Some default settings are reset to defaults when running this version in the first time, namely, "Enable custom collections" in properties->general, "Import as collection" and "Collection name out of nzb name" in properties->search/import with warnings shown when unchecking the options, that they are needed to store the nzb password when it is included in the nzb file, since it wasn't so apparent. Likewise in properties->newsgroups the import groups' "Collections" setting changes once when running this version from auto to all and from none to custom with the same change for the topmost "Default" entry with added warnings when changing to an import group "Collections" setting without custom collections enabled, actually or potentially, the latter when changing the "Collections" setting for the topmost "Default" entry. Of course if the user didn't change the defaults the settings will remain the same.

- There was an original largely forgotten limit around 1M+ (64 bit version) files per collection when collections shown in the newsgroup view and around 16M files with collections enabled in "Edit menu->Properties->General, Auto collections", but not shown in the newsgroup view (oddly enough in the 32 bit version the limit for the newsgroup view with collections shown is 4 times higher than in the 64 bit version, so around 4M). Incredibly, somehow over the years at least in one newsgroup this limit has been breached. So an option has been added in "Edit menu->Properties->General, Collections, Limit size to x entries with the default 100K. If the edit control is empty it will be the maximum number of entries, which can be contained in a collection. The excess will be still added as separate entries. In practice such situation of course don't arise unless to know the newsgroup and the sufficient retention range to hit the limit, so the solution has been added mostly to maintain the code robustness.

- Added more functionality and a webpage to set up asynchronous unpack more effortlessly.

- Those users using v5.x see v5.9.7 release notes, as the aspects related to reliability were fixed there as well.

- v7.1 -

- The create subfolder out of nzb/collection/subject name concept has been revised. As before the (Auto) options are silently saving to the default folder defined in "Edit menu->Properties->Newsgroups", but they are no more always tied up with creating a subfolder which is now optional. Namely, "Create subfolder out of nzb, collection or subject name" applies now separately to "Download&save" (unchecked by default) and "Download&save(Auto)" (checked by default). For full backwards compatibility with the default settings the result will be the same as in the previous versions.

- The created subfolders described in the above paragraph contain source files such as rar or 7z files which may be temporary in nature, so the option "Edit menu->Properties->Unpack, Delete empty save folders" (checked by default) has been added along with "Edit menu->Properties->Save, Ignore subfolder/view name subdir for relative unrar" (checked by default).

- In the recent folders menu added the entry "Clear deleted folders" in addition to "Clear all". Also the folders which are deleted by the program are cleared automatically from the recent folder list and in addition the option is invoked on the program start.

- Two buttons "Forget created subfolders" and "Show stored folders" were added in "Edit menu->Properties->Save" just for the internal state transparency. Press the question sign button in the tab for more details.

- "Tasks menu->Finish all tasks ..." weren't adjusted for asynchronous unpack and if invoked could cause the program to exit prematurely, it is now fixed.

- The v7.0 added misnamed files handling made sense, but it was too pervasive and not fully utilizing the older related code. This version combines both the older and the newer code for optimal misnamed file handling, so in most cases there will be no wait for the downloaded files destined for the same folder to be exhausted.

- To keep import groups visually more compact - added "Edit menu->Properties->Search/Import, Import options, Expand imported entry" which is unchecked by default, instead of previously always expanding imported entries with the last import routinely taking up too much view space.

- The flicker in both newsgroup and task manager article task views while downloading article bodies, which could be noticeable e.g. over a slow remote desktop connection has been largely eliminated.

- v7.0 -

- To finalize the later work the asynchronous unpack code has been thoroughly reviewed with the purpose to achieve a conclusive point in the feature implementation.

- When the files are not misnamed in the par2 set, but the post subject is not readily associated with the file name (e.g. "mag." instead of "magazine") and the par2 set is complete - the program won't start unrar right away in case there are more par2 files in the download or save queue destined for the particular folder, since the files would otherwise become orphaned, would create a redundant par2 set entry in the unpack view and wouldn't be automatically cleared.

- Fixed inaccurate internal unrar progress bar/percentage shown when sometimes the progress reached 100% while the actual progress has been less. It was rather a cosmetical issue only, the unraring function itself wasn't affected.

- Multicore repair is now enabled by default also for the older installations as well when this version is run in the first time. The default retention will change from 120 days to 365 days (see v6.1.1 release notes) for older installations too, but it won't change if it had been changed by the user already. The default maximum number of tasks for a new server was only 3 historically which nowadays is too small, if that number wasn't changed by the user it will be increased to 10 when running this version in the first time, and if the maximum number of tasks for every server is also 3 - the number of tasks for every server will be increased to 10 as well, since then it is likely to be the case that the user had only relied on the default settings and the connection speed is underutilized. To reduce the waiting time to finalize a download containing misnamed files - the option "Edit menu->Properties->Search/Import, NZB files, Auto - folder name out of nzb name" is now checked by default for new installations and is checked once for older installations when running this version.

- When the program is exited while performing par2 repair - on the program restart the status column will show "Repairing" instead of "Repair cancelled" while in fact the relaunched repair was in progress.

- The search protocol had to be further upgraded to properly accommodate the trial searches.

Release history v6.x

Release history v5.x