Pre-v0.12.0 Checks

[NateEaton]

@Alanon202, @copperfeesh,

I am preparing to publish release v0.12.0. It would help to have another set of eyes on the changes. When you have time, please give Snapshot build #110 a try and let me know if it works ok for you.

Key changes for this release:

• re-architected the sync process to better support text and images when reading offline
• re-architecting the sync settings controls with more of a "set and forget" paradigm, includes storage, count and date options for offline content management
• fix for text disappearing on reflow with typography changes
• support for http in server URL (for use cases like VPN, Tailscale, etc.)
• support for intra-page links (scroll to anchor in page, long-press to share)
• a significant pre-release code cleanup

After this release, I'm going to come up for air a bit, about to do some travel and looking forward to spending time using instead of building MyDeck.

Garron, not sure how much you have explored the app features since being able to connect to your server but one thing I implemented earlier is a tablet layout, largely with the goal of using the app on my Pixel Slate. As a ChromeOS device, the only way to install the app is from the Play Store so I created a developer account and have the app available via the internal testing channel. If you are interested in having that as an install option, let me know.

Stefan, you asked about roadmap. Here's a rough outline of what I have planned after v0.12.0.

v0.13.0

• Highlights sidebar menu option and other highlights improvements (editable notes, using highlights on Video or Picture bookmarks if they have article text)
• refined reading view opening transition
• develop solution for issues with fast multiple deletes
• other non-user-visible technical improvements

v0.14.0

• Readeck Collections feature
• Enhance Bookmark Detail (slide in/out, able to persist like Readeck UI when on tablet landscape)
• Detect duplicate URL feature

Unassigned

• TTS (read article aloud)
• support for highlight changes while offline
• multi-select in list view (Delete, Archive, Favorite)
• sharing links to content on Readeck server
• Label selection: show the latest label assigned and the most relatively assigned label at top of list
• user-provided fonts
• add user guide in wiki (shared code with in-app user guide)
• automatic app update

If y'all have input on feature prioritization, reply here.

Regards,
Nate

[copperfeesh]

Thanks Nate, will download and test the build and let you know how things go. Happy with the .apk as an install option for now as my only Android device is my Pixel 8 Pro. Garron.

Update. Initial tests seem good, Will keep testing basic functionality and new features.

[Alanon202]

@NateEaton great news, and a lot of progress!

• re-architected the sync process to better support text and images when reading offline

• re-architecting the sync settings controls with more of a "set and forget" paradigm, includes storage, count and date options for offline content management

Gave it a once over and didn’t notice any changes beyond what we ended up with previously.

• fix for text disappearing on reflow with typography changes

Seems to be working still.

• support for intra-page links (scroll to anchor in page, long-press to share)

Could you elaborate more on this one, I’m not sure I got the functionality?

After this release, I'm going to come up for air a bit, about to do some travel and looking forward to spending time using instead of building MyDeck.

Good on you, you deserve it!

Stefan, you asked about roadmap. Here's a rough outline of what I have planned after v0.12.0.

I’ve taken a look at the roadmap, the only big-ticket item I’d like to play around with personally are user supported fonts and even that’s more of a nice-to-have thing. I think that v0.12 will covers all the bases nicely, everything over that is just refinement. I think you’ve spaced things out nicely to still make progress and ship while adding enough meaningful things in the mix, and 0.13 and 0.14 reflect that. Probably the most objectively "needed" features would be the multi-select and offline highlights (given you’ve just added offline reading into the mix).

Do take some time to use the app, that might shift your priorities a bit and you might end up reshuffling some stuff anyway.

---

Now, I seem to have uncovered a new variant of the pesky text disappearing bug. Once I press on the Archive button on our test article, the text disappears, the bottom buttons disappear, and I was left with a totally blank black screen and the top bar. I could access the font, theme etc. settings but changing them did nothing. The only thing that helps is exiting the article and entering it again, forcing a reload.

After trying this out on the same article for several Archive-Unarchive cycles, this stops happening, but I was able to reproduce the same behaviour with other articles.

I’ll continue testing further and report back.

Best,
Stefan

[NateEaton]

@Alanon202,

• support for intra-page links (scroll to anchor in page, long-press to share)

Could you elaborate more on this one, I’m not sure I got the functionality?

Sure. Give these a try:

[Article with Table of Contents] (How to Cut Video Using FFmpeg in 3 Easy Ways (Extract/Trim) - OTTVerse
https://ottverse.com/trim-cut-video-using-start-endtime-reencoding-ffmpeg/)
[Article with Footnotes] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma)

When you click on a link that references another point in the same article, it will now scroll to that point. Those links have a dashed underline instead of a solid underline.

I implemented this based on that first one and I had the impression that even the native Readeck UI doesn't support this feature but during testing I discovered the Wikipedia article internal links do work in Readeck. There's apparently something in how the anchors are defined in the first article that the Readeck extract has trouble with. Anyway, give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Now, I seem to have uncovered a new variant of the pesky text disappearing bug. Once I press on the Archive button on our test article, the text disappears, the bottom buttons disappear, and I was left with a totally blank black screen and the top bar. I could access the font, theme etc. settings but changing them did nothing. The only thing that helps is exiting the article and entering it again, forcing a reload.

I am able to produce this and I've open an issue on it, #144. It has to do with the removal of offline content when archiving a bookmark. I should be able to include a fix for this tonight when I sit down to finalize and publish v0.12.0.

Cheers,
Nate

[NateEaton]

@Alanon202,

See snapshot build 113 for fix for the archive button.

Regards,
Nate

[Alanon202]

@NateEaton Seems to be fixed!