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Hello,
Newsflash Plus 3.3.0b5 has been released with some major improvements. Please do note that it is a beta version so there are some rough edges. Any feedback is appreciated.
Also note that this is a completely free release for both platforms Windows and Linux.
http://www.ensisoft.com
I hope you enjoy using Newsflash Plus as much as I enjoy developing it. :naughty:
Great news. It's always nice to get communication from a developer. There's nothing like releasing free software to stand out from the pack and to build up a userbase. :)
As I said in another post, Newsflash's lack of fill-server support is what keeps me from using it, as just about all other modern clients support fill-servers (and it's bailed me out plenty of times). A lot of people just use a single provider (and complain about incompletes), but I preach the gospel of blockaccount fillservers. Hopefully it's on the list as a future feature.
I thought it was only free for linux. Do you intend to keep the program free permanently ?
Yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by maphongbax
Hello Sami ,have been testing it for couple days now and
1.Amazing what a man with a coding skill can do
2.Sami,you got the only good free program that handles headers,very good indeed!
even altbinz can not do that because he dont have the skills.
3.change name to sami the headerbinzer,name newsflash plus is not my cup of tea
was name newsflash taken(irony) flash is fast but with a plus does it go faster than speed of light
yes, im ranting but you got a great program so,why not a better name.
couple points i want to make, its was first very confusing how to manage headers.
and also to limit the header downloading is in %,but now when i got hang of it i like it.
using words like flush,expunge,boost,prefer secure,yield,clone is also little bit confusing.
use of search/newsnab,open nbz tabs must be better explained.
(search shows only old files)
here is faster par: http://paulhoule.com/phpar2/index.php or
http://www.chuchusoft.com/par2_tbb/download.html
reqs:
a start button before pause
a button go to downloads folder
when adding a server: enable disable server and max conn per server
RSS-feed import,(if this is done there is no other programs that is better out there!)
adding search by https://www.nzbindex.com/ and https://www.binsearch.info/
bugs: it doesent del dl rars and pars?
help - protocol c not supported
Thanks for the feedback guys. Most people just don't bother to provide any feedback and as a single developer without the resources to do usability studies etc. so developing end user friendly software is difficult.
@zot - Yes server priorization is on the list potentially, just got few things to sort out. I.e. it's easy to get it working for NZB based downloading (RSS feed/Search/NZB files) but for headers it is trickier. Anyway it won't make the coming 3.3.0 release.
@stillwaiting - Thanks for the phpar2 link.
Can you clarify what RSS feed are you referring to and what does importing mean in this context?Quote:
RSS-feed import,(if this is done there is no other programs that is better out there!)
Yep, although this is more like an unimplemented feature though. Easy enough to do with the embedded python.Quote:
it doesent del dl rars and pars?
Sorry, can you clarify what does this mean?Quote:
help - protocol c not supported
Thanks guys!
br,
ensi
Then to speed up implementation, I'd suggest prioritising servers ONLY for NZB downloading (and falling back to a single server for headers). I think that header-originated downloads will tend be much less in need of fillservers because many people -like myself- only use headers for smaller files like MP3s. And without compressed headers (as it seems Newsflash doesn't support header compression) a person would be crazy to try to download headers in large groups like a.b.dvd.Quote:
Originally Posted by ensisoft
The big files (most probably downloaded by NZB anyway) when incomplete can take an extremely long time to par-fix on an old PC -- even longer than to re-download over again from another server. That's one reason why I think fillserver support is a lot more important for NZB downloads than for header downloads.
You truly have taken a big task to code a usefull usenet client by yourself ,once again kudos for that
Zot,you are spot on, i do like a client that can dl headers and also uses a search indexing sites to create and import nzbs.
you should see how Unzbin client(http://www.unzbin.com/) handles custom rss-feeds from search engines like nzbindex.com or binsearch.info
exmpel:http://rss.binsearch.net/rss.php?max...lt.binaries.tv it also have a auto-download feature.
about rars and pars: yes,there should be auto delete box for those files
bug: when i click on help? firefox popup (Firefox doesn't know how to open this address,
because the protocol (c) isn't associated with any program).
Hello all,
I have released Newsflash Plus 3.3.0b6 (yes beta6). This version will be quite close to the final release which will come in sync with the first Newznab release. This version includes some 20 odd fixes and a few small enhancements.
@stillwaiting
I've added a script for deleting all .par2 and .rar files after successful repair. One can now enable/disable this feature in settings. Also I've fixed the help bug you reported. Thanks for reporting.
About Usenet indexing and searching. I am not going support search for different sites with each one of them having different APIs and response feeds (such as binsearch.info, nzbmatrix.org, nzbs.org etc) because this would be too tedious.
What I am going to support however is the FREE INDEXING SERVICE called Newznab (www.newznab.com). However please do note that the currently Newznab is still under development and the first official release is coming out soonish. So hopefully in the future sites running Newznab will provide enough searching potential to cater for most needs. Additionally the Newznab WEB API is well documented and provides a simple API even for all clients to use (afaik Sickbeard is doing integration).
For other searching purposes and automation it's easy to have Newsflash Plus watch a group of folders for .nzb files and then just save the .nzb files in those folders with the browser etc. and have the application pick them up for downloading on the background.
Thank you all.
- ensi
newznab is going to be awesome. hopefully we'll have more niche community run indexing sites.
Hey envisoft, could your company develop a version of Mac Snow Leopard PLEASE? Thanks
Thank you for making this client, it's great.
But one thing I'm missing is grouping of the download, similar to alt.binz
Either way, thanks :)
Loving it so far. Tried a few others but always went back to Alt.Binz mostly because they had issues when downloading large collections.
ETA on files are nice but I would want to see ETA on the total., or at least on each release/"NZB".
Is it possible to get it to show all the files under the NZB name in the downloads window so you can show/hide the list of file names (like Alt.Binz)? It's a bit hard to see what release is finished etc.
ETA/speed on taskbar would be nice.
"Yield", "Clone", "Delete Connection" and "Flush" does what?
It doesn't seem to automatically sort after date or whatever when you refresh RSS, you have to click on date to get it to sort it (yeah I'm lazy).
A really dark theme would be nice (good old terminal green on black maybe:P) ;)
Hi guys,
@UseNetLover - Yes I could develop a Mac version... except that I don't have a mac :( So no Mac version right now. Sorry.
@sassan - Thanks :)
@MultiForce - Thanks, that's a second request for grouping of the downloads into releases. I quite like this idea.. I have to chew on it for a while to figure out how to do it but yeah it's definitely doable.
These are probably a little bit unintuitive concepts for the users, which is bad desing on my behalf. It's just very difficult to translate concepts that are obvious to you for users. Anyway here's a quick recap:Quote:
"Yield", "Clone", "Delete Connection" and "Flush" does what?
Yield = Request the currently selected connection to be given a new download to work on. If there are downloads with higher priority they are considered before normal priority ones.
Clone = Create a new connection based on selected existing connection, basically "duplicate"
Delete connection = well... delete's a connection, removes a connection, disconnects a single connection. Don't know how to explain it :)
Flush = This is a bit bad and only involves headers. If you're downloading headers and you don't want to wait for the whole process to finish you can just "flush" them onto the disk. So you can start browsing while letting the process to continue.
Please, if you have suggestions how to formulate the concepts better on the UI I'm all ears. (And if everything else fails.. there's always the help file ;))
Yep, this is an unimplemented feature. I'm lazy too ;)Quote:
It doesn't seem to automatically sort after date or whatever when you refresh RSS, you have to click on date to get it to sort it (yeah I'm lazy).
Unfortunately the theme engines come preinstalled with the toolkit (Qt)... maybe in the future.Quote:
A really dark theme would be nice
Since I've destroyed a few hard drives downloading, a disk caching feature is something I welcome in a client. For instance, Unzbin has a simple MB memory-cache amount setting, and Usenet Explorer has an option to store and decode articles completely in memory and so only write out the finished rar file to disk.
Basically, anything to keep the hard drive from constantly thrashing as it downloads. (some of the older newsreaders and P2P clients would thrash drives even downloading at dialup speed, and so wear out hard disks with only a few GB downloaded, at least in my experience)
I would agree that Altbinz has a nice download page layout, with all the stats and groupings laid out in an easy-to-read manner.
For header layout, I liked the way that NewsReactor grouped its headers into rars and then grouped all rars in a release into a single title. Simple but effective.
Newsflash has a setting for setting max file size for in memory decoding. When a binary is decoded in memory all the data is kept in memory untill it's complete and is then written to disk in one go.Quote:
Originally Posted by zot
Excellent. I guess I completely missed the "Treshold" setting :)
Will future versions come with an uninstaller? Does NewsFlash create any Windows registry keys or install files anywhere other than its installation directory?
Also, it's not a major issue for me, but it would be nice to be able to change the download order of files. (Sometimes a release contains files named in such a way that both CD1 and CD2 will get downloaded at the same time, instead of completing CD1 before starting CD2)
One more small point..... It seems that the number of connections remains constant across every server in Newsflash. It can take me 4x or 5x as many connections to max out my line using the UE server as it does the US server. If I'm using the free ISP usenet server, I'm only allowed 2 connections, and if I request more than that, the download will sometimes hang up and stall, saying that I've exceeded the connection limit. (this is why I always stop short of using the maximum number of allowable connections on any server: the server will punish me thinking I'm too greedy) Also, I've discovered that old files often need more server connections than recent material, for reasons I've never quite understood. My favorite feature of (old versions of) Grabit was the fact that I could change the number of connections on the fly, just by checking or unchecking a series of boxes on the front page -- and this feature I used quite often.
A possible easy workaround to Newsflash's connection issue might be to install several installations of Newsflash: one copy for connecting to the ISP server, one copy for the pay-server, etc. -- if Newsflash supports multiple installations.
That's all I can think of for now. NewsFlash is looking very good.
I hope I have the time and motivation to create a proper installer one day. So yeah, uninstaller is on the todo list. Just don't know when. And no, the application creates no registry entries whatsoever. In fact the readme.txt contains directions how to *completely* remove the application (just delete 2 folders). Sorry for the inconvenience.Quote:
Originally Posted by zot
You should be able to do this... Downloads tab contains up/down/bottom/top buttons for moving selected tasks in the queue.Quote:
Also, it's not a major issue for me, but it would be nice to be able to change the download order of files. (Sometimes a release contains files named in such a way that both CD1 and CD2 will get downloaded at the same time, instead of completing CD1 before starting CD2)
Yep, right now the maximum connections per server is a global setting, but I'm planning on moving this to be per server instead.Quote:
One more small point..... It seems that the number of connections remains constant across every server in Newsflash. It can take me 4x or 5x as many connections to max out my line using the UE server as it does the US server. If I'm using the free ISP usenet server, I'm only allowed 2 connections, and if I request more than that, the download will sometimes hang up and stall, saying that I've exceeded the connection limit. (this is why I always stop short of using the maximum number of allowable connections on any server: the server will punish me thinking I'm too greedy) Also, I've discovered that old files often need more server connections than recent material, for reasons I've never quite understood. My favorite feature of (old versions of) Grabit was the fact that I could change the number of connections on the fly, just by checking or unchecking a series of boxes on the front page -- and this feature I used quite often.
A possible easy workaround to Newsflash's connection issue might be to install several installations of Newsflash: one copy for connecting to the ISP server, one copy for the pay-server, etc. -- if Newsflash supports multiple installations.
That's all I can think of for now. NewsFlash is looking very good.
Right now however you can manually create/remove connections per each server on the Downloads tab. Simply select a connection and either Clone or Delete it. Cloning creates a new connection to the same server with the same properties (credentials/SSL etc) and Deleting removes a connection. HTH.
Thanks for the input. :)
I was just poking around on newsflash and knowing it's the work of only one coder, it's a pretty impressive software. What I like the most is being able to search through headers and manually update groups and search through their headers.
It makes me nostalgic. See, I started on newsgroups way before the NZB was invented, and it was always a nice feeling browsing through the groups and checking what's new.
Good job indeed, and please keep going.
MAJOR BUG! - automatic deletion of paused or "incomplete" downloads
I hope this 'deletion bug' only applies to par files, which happened to be my case. I think the only situation in which software should ever be allowed to automatically delete downloaded files might be *optionally* upon successful par-repair and unrar of the finished files. (even if a download is properly judged as being "unrepairable" just means I need to download the missing parts from another source) I had just paused the download and I did not even complete the download and Newsflash deleted all the files that had already downloaded. (I will turn this thing off in the scripts page and do my own par checking and unraring - and suggest that other users consider also disabling those functions for now)
http://i33.tinypic.com/2pyqr6b.jpg
Are these logs written to a file? I couldn't find any log files, so I had to post a screenshot instead. I had several other suggestions to make, but for now I think this problem is of the highest priority.
Hi,Quote:
Originally Posted by zot
yep deleting any par/rar files should only be done after a successful repair.
Can you provide me steps to replicate the problem and I'll fix asap. Btw you can report this through the built-in feedback system. Thanks for reporting and sorry for the inconvenience.
-ensi
No need to apologise, that's part of being a beta-tester or early adopter. :) Believe me, I've had much worse things happen in the past, like having critical system files irreversibly overwritten by an application's installation sequence. (That's why I greatly prefer to try out software offered as a zip file instead of an installation package.)
I also think there would be a lot more user response if there was a public discussion forum for talking about Newsflash and reporting bugs. I always try to see if other people have already discussed an issue before starting a new topic. With sending a email or PM directly to the developer, there's no way to know if the same problem has already been reported a hundred times before.
But back on topic...........
As for the deletion bug: I had paused the downloading files, but because I did not see the PAR2 files (since they were out of sight below the edge of the window in the download pane) I did not pause the pars and they continued to download. Only the pars were downloaded, not any other files (which were all paused). Once the pars downloaded, Newsflash performed a parity check (on the non-existent files), reported a failure, and then deleted all the par files. :(
That brings up another point: pausing and resuming a download
If I need to suddenly pause all downloads and close all connections, Newsflash requires a series of mouse-clicks and scroll actions to accomplish this. In recent years it seems it's become a kind of universal standard on various P2P and NZB clients to have a "kill switch" on the upper left corner of the GUI - where Newsflash's existing "pause" button sits. But Newsflash's "pause" button only pauses the previously highlighted file/rar being downloaded --not the entire set- so then the next file in the queue will automatically start downloading when the current one is paused. It's a very convenient feature to have a button to open and close all connections to the server in one click - and many other applications do this.
So I'd like to suggest a one-click "kill-all-connections" -switch/"resume-all connections" -switch. Similar to Emule and Altbinz.
A tiny issue:
Newsflash's default port setting for "Secure Server (SSL)" is 443, rather than the standard SSL port 563.
hmmm interesting. i prefer sabnzbd+ though.
Can you explain this please? I thought newznab is supposed to be a web based service not in a newsreader?Quote:
Originally Posted by iLOVENZB
Newznab is a server side service. It is a a set of automated scripts to build a NZB index using headers. But it also it comes with a web frontend so you can easily run it as a web site similar to nzbs.org. But on top of that it specifies an external API for for applications doing searches against the index over HTTP. In other words Newsflash can run searches against Newznab indexing sites. The search performs on the server, search response comes back to the application which displays it. When an item is being downloaded the NZB content is also fetched from the server.Quote:
Originally Posted by DuronCan you explain this please? I thought newznab is supposed to be a web based service not in a newsreader?Quote:
Originally Posted by iLOVENZB
Those who know me personally know how much I rant about crappy software. IMHO there's no excuse for it. But software is a difficult undertaking and bugs happen. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by zot
That's a very nice approach. :) However I think that for a lot of people posting and issue on a forum that requires registration etc. requires too many steps. I know I'm quilty of this. So therefore using an email or the built-in feedback system is ok with me.Quote:
I also think there would be a lot more user response if there was a public discussion forum for talking about Newsflash and reporting bugs. I always try to see if other people have already discussed an issue before starting a new topic. With sending a email or PM directly to the developer, there's no way to know if the same problem has already been reported a hundred times before.
But yeah.. I started a forum which you can find here http://www.ensisoft.com/forum It will probably always remain empty cause getting some discussion would require some actual users hahaha :) Let me know if you want to move the discussion over there.
FIXED in the next release! Thanks for reporting that was nasty.Quote:
But back on topic...........
As for the deletion bug: I had paused the downloading files, but because I did not see the PAR2 files (since they were out of sight below the edge of the window in the download pane) I did not pause the pars and they continued to download. Only the pars were downloaded, not any other files (which were all paused). Once the pars downloaded, Newsflash performed a parity check (on the non-existent files), reported a failure, and then deleted all the par files. :(
Hmm.. I guess that makes sense in some volatile circumstances like leeching at work :) As for pausing... Ctrl+A to select all and then click Pause (or hit Ctrl+P)Quote:
That brings up another point: pausing and resuming a download
If I need to suddenly pause all downloads and close all connections, Newsflash requires a series of mouse-clicks and scroll actions to accomplish this. In recent years it seems it's become a kind of universal standard on various P2P and NZB clients to have a "kill switch" on the upper left corner of the GUI - where Newsflash's existing "pause" button sits. But Newsflash's "pause" button only pauses the previously highlighted file/rar being downloaded --not the entire set- so then the next file in the queue will automatically start downloading when the current one is paused. It's a very convenient feature to have a button to open and close all connections to the server in one click - and many other applications do this.
So I'd like to suggest a one-click "kill-all-connections" -switch/"resume-all connections" -switch. Similar to Emule and Altbinz.
A tiny issue:
Newsflash's default port setting for "Secure Server (SSL)" is 443, rather than the standard SSL port 563.
Anyway.. new version coming this weekend. Stay tuned.
Thanks for the input as always.
-ensi
Hello, I've released 3.3.0b7 with a bunch of fixes and some small new features.
Fixes include the par/rar file deletion bug pointed out by zot and RSS sorting bug pointed out by MultiForce.
Other changes include, Connect/Kill switch logic in the connection button, connection # is per server instead of being global, Newznab account creation/registration and some other shit which I now cant remember.
Thanks guys.
-ensi
Downloaded now so going to test right away.Quote:
Originally Posted by ensisoft
I have some issues though (the previous version that is):
[18:20:51:214] critical error:connection timeout
[18:20:51:214] thread exiting now!
I have no idea why it is disconnecting as everything else is fine. Iv'e also had Alt.Binz up and running at the same time to see if it disconnects and it doesn't.
Sometimes it disconnects only a few of the connections that is in use.
The biggest problem with this is that it doesn't make any new connections when a new NZB file is loaded so the program just sits there all day with a bunch of connections not working till I'm home from work and give it a kick in the nuts. I guess that it doesn't use more connections than you specify in options even though half/all of them are dead?
Hmm.. correct it's not spawning more connections even though some are dead. Not sure if it should. You could classify this as a kind of a bug.Quote:
Downloaded now so going to test right away.
I have some issues though (the previous version that is):
[18:20:51:214] critical error:connection timeout
[18:20:51:214] thread exiting now!
I have no idea why it is disconnecting as everything else is fine. Iv'e also had Alt.Binz up and running at the same time to see if it disconnects and it doesn't.
Sometimes it disconnects only a few of the connections that is in use.
The biggest problem with this is that it doesn't make any new connections when a new NZB file is loaded so the program just sits there all day with a bunch of connections not working till I'm home from work and give it a kick in the nuts. I guess that it doesn't use more connections than you specify in options even though half/all of them are dead?
However I'm more interested in why the connections are dying. Can you send me a full log for a single connection when it b0rks so I can have a look. (You can send it through the Feedback/Report bug tool as a attachment)
Thanks for reporting.
-ensi
I'm going to send the logs (next time that is).
I still need the program to retry/reconnect on disconnects whatever the reason for the disconnects is (external, internal, whatever) though so I'll be happy if you add such an option ;)
One thing that I just remembered.. do you have that silly "Keep connections alive" option checked in the settings?Quote:
Originally Posted by MultiForce
I HAD but I unchecked that box after I wrote the post yesterday and so far there haven't been any disconnects yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by ensisoftOne thing that I just remembered.. do you have that silly "Keep connections alive" option checked in the settings?Quote:
Originally Posted by MultiForce
The connections are still there after download is finished so that option doesn't do what I thought :P
It seems that it doesn't disconnect anymore so I guess the problem is solved :)
I'm kinda starting to like that newznab thingy too.
If you don't mind.. please replicate the problem and send me a complete connection log so I can give a shot at figuring out what's the problem. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MultiForce
I'll get to it in a couple of days.Quote:
Originally Posted by ensisoftIf you don't mind.. please replicate the problem and send me a complete connection log so I can give a shot at figuring out what's the problem. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MultiForce
-rethinking this-
Segfault on linux (ArchLinux):
./newsflash.sh
QCoreApplication::postEvent: Unexpected null receiver
QCoreApplication::postEvent: Unexpected null receiver
QCoreApplication::postEvent: Unexpected null receiver
WARNING: Cannot find Mozilla directory containing libgtkembedmoz.so. Some Addins may not be able to function. Please set MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME to your Mozilla directory.
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
newsflash[5626]: segfault at 1ad ip b6afff62 sp bf83aa40 error 4 in libQtCore.so.4.6.3[b69ae000+266000]
Binary distribution on Linux is a bitch. Works on 9.04 Ubuntu though. :whistlingQuote:
Originally Posted by cimithan
Now that I used it for some time I have a few things that really needs to be fixed:
Watched folders:
Quote:
When I download a NZB file into the watched folder and the program tries to read the file before it is finished (FF sets the original file name right away) it makes a file with error_NZBFILENAME.NZB. This doesn't happen in Alt.Binz and it's really annoying when downloading over 1 TB/month and you end up with a bunch of unusable NZB files.
UI:Quote:
There should be an option to select where it should dump the imported NZB file.
Quote:
Group downloads in the downloads window. I get a headache when I have 20+ blu-ray ISO releases in that list and I want to increase priority on something and have to browse through..... yeah you get the idea ;)
Quote:
The repair tab gives me 2 problems: It's nice as a log, but it fails to show me the status of all the downloaded releases (witch maybe should be shown as in Alt.Binz where it is displayed on the NZB/release it has downloaded) if the releases are big. When the program extracts, and if it fails it just screams and run off and let the folder be a complete mess. The log usually just shows the last release and then I can just delete the partially unpacked stuff myself.
An option to delete crap that are not repairable would be nice, and the program needs to tell you that it failed too.
That will be $5/issue fixed in donations as long as the grouping stuff is in (maybe a postcard for Xmas too).Quote:
There should be 2 timers here. One countdown for the total download list and one countdown for each release.
I really like this program because it handles massive downloads so well and I just hate the authentication stuff in Alt.Binz. The newznab thingy is also something I really appreciate.
Looks good, any chance of getting a speed limiter on this please