Awasu 3.4.1.alpha2

IMPORTANT: This is an alpha release (what's this?). Some features may not be complete and there will probably be bugs!

You must be already running Awasu 3.2 or later.

To install:

• Read the release notes below first!
• Backup your Awasu installation directory and keep it, even if the alpha appears to work correctly.
• Unpack one of the following zips on top of your existing installation:
  • Personal Edition
  • Advanced Edition
  • Professional Edition
• Run admin.exe to upgrade your installation (this will be quick).
  • Or, if you are already running 3.4.1.alpha1, you can just delete the Awasu.upgrade file in the installation directory.

If you are not already running 3.4.1.alpha1, please read the notes for that release, that explain the changes to the new search engine.

New search engine

Full support for long search queries has been added, which can be spread over multiple lines.

Comments can be included (start a line with a #), and Ctrl-Enter can be used to save and close the editor.

Other changes:

• Improved how Awasu generates search result snippets.
• Search channel feeds now have an image.
• Restricted the allowable values for search result scores.
• Made sure that expired feed content is never returned as search results.
• Clicking on the search button in the toolbar now does the search (Shift-click to open the dialog)
• Fixed a problem that was stopping the search index from being rebuilt twice in a row.
• Fixed a problem that broke JSON search results returned by the Awasu API (introduced in 3.4.1.alpha1).
• Awasu now defaults to choosing FTS5 when asking the user if they want to upgrade to that, or stay with the legacy search engine.
• The search index is now always rebuilt on first run, even if the user chooses to stay with CLucene.
• Fixed a possible crash when auto-upgrading the search engine setting.

Display names

The way Awasu displays the names of channels, reports, workpads, etc. in the UI has been tightened up considerably. Long values are now handled better, and where applicable, multi-line values are shown in a better way. They are also now quoted where it makes sense to do so e.g. in the Activity Log, you will now see something like this:

27oct26 23:45:15 Updated "F# for Fun and Profit" OK.

Changed how the feed parser handles whitespace

Awasu's feed parser was changed to treat an all-whitespace value as if it were an empty string (i.e. ""). Since whitespace is significant in XML, this is technically not the right thing to do, but the problem is that all of the following <id> tags have a different value:

However, the publisher's intent is clear - there is no ID - and while most of the time, it doesn't make a difference, there are some cases where it does (e.g. when doing xml:base processing), and so Awasu tries to do what the publisher means, not what they say.

This change means that there might be the odd case where an old feed item re-appears as new.

Other changes and bug fixes

• Clicking on a new feed item notification balloon now shows the Awasu feed item, not the linked URL.
• When a lot of channels are being opened from the Find channel dialog, the process can now be cancelled.
• The max. number of feed items in consolidated new feed item notification balloons can now be configured.
  This can be found in the Notification balloons section of the General tab in the Program Options dialog.
• Got the Ctrl-C shortcut working when editing content in a mini-dialog (to copy the selected text).
• Fixed auto-generation of search agent names with non-English values.
• Fixed user tools that invoke a URL to work with non-English values.
• Awasu now uses the registered application for text files when it wants to present content in an external editor.
• Tightened up how file:// URL's are handled.
  These should actually be file:///, but Awasu tries to be liberal in what it accepts.
• Fixed a problem that was stopping the search channel Properties dialog from showing its query string correctly.
• Fixed a problem that would sometimes re-create an existing channel when doing a sync import (instead of synchronizing it).
• Awasu now handles the case where the user clicks on a new feed item notification balloon, the channel is already open, but the feed item is not there.
• Awasu no longer tries to download a channel's image if it doesn't have one configured.
• Multiple folders can now be deleted simultaneously via the Awasu API.
  A single ID can be passed into $/channels/folders/delete as before, or a comma-separated list. Note that the response format has changed.
• Awasu now shows a better error message when trying to download a URL with embedded authentication details.
• Fixed a problem that was stopping the API from returning a log file if it was empty.
• Fixed a problem that could stop extremely long values from being unloaded from an edit control.
• Fixed a possible deadlock if a channel is deleted while channel hook events are being processed.
• Fixed a problem that could cause a feed item to be incorrectly shown as read or unread after a channel has been deleted.
• Optimized how feed items are loaded into a channel's window.
• Optimized some internal string processing.
• Tightened up how Awasu's internal HTTP servers work.
• Tightened up the structured exception handler.

UI changes

• Awasu no longer uses a message box to warn that a channel has had too many consecutive update errors.
  It had become so ingrained in my muscle memory to press Escape after opening a channel that was showing red in the My Channels window that I hadn't noticed how annoying this message box was It also took a while to learn to stop pressing Escape...
  
  
• Improved how Awasu ensures that list and tree control items are visible.
  Windows has built-in functionality to do this, but it doesn't care where the target item ends up being shown, so it would often appear near the bottom of the control. Awasu now makes sure it appears near the top.
  
  
• Tightened up how Awasu handles text-boxes that can accept either a file or URL. In particular:
  • the file browser can be used even for values that start with file://.
  • if a file is specified, the file browser will now open at the file's containing directory.
  • validation has also been greatly improved.
  
  
• The Find channel dialog now always opens up at the smaller size.
• Awasu no longer dynamically enables/disables the OK button in dialogs.
• Improved how long channel names are shown in a channel's Properties dialog.
• The home URL and tooltip is now shown correctly for a search channel's image in its Properties dialog.
• Added buttons to the Delete folders/channels dialog to select/de-select all channel filters.
• The user is now reminded if Awasu needs to be restarted after changing a setting, even if the relevant hint has been disabled.
• Notification balloon titles are now shown using different colors, and at a slightly larger size.
• Set a limit on how long a notification balloon's title can be.
• Consolidated new feed item notification balloons now show the feed items in a bullet list.
• Stats in the About box are now comma-separated.
• A channel's image no longer has a border drawn around it in its Properties dialog.
• Tweaked some dialogs to resize their controls proportionally.
• Tweaked the tab order of the Help button in dialogs.
• Tightened up how combo boxes are configured.
• Tightened up how button images are loaded (in particular, fixed some leaks and duplication).