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Archive for the ‘Code’ Category

MediaCore 0.8.2 Stable Released

We just finished the final touches to the latest stable branch of MediaCore. We took two extra weeks to give the community time to provide us with feedback on the beta, and would like to thank nicolas2k9 and rnewton for reporting bugs.

What’s New in 0.8.2

  • HTML5 player can now gracefully fall-back to the chosen Flash player on the client-side.
  • Improved performance when saving media and podcasts
  • Fixes some more display bugs and inconsistencies
  • Adds instructional videos to default installation
  • Adds help links to various screens in the administrative control panel. These links take the user to the correct section in the MediaCore docs.
  • Updated documentation http://getmediacore.com/docs/
  • Converted all internal strings to unicode
  • Fix a bug that reported an error when trying to re-upload a recently deleted file.
  • Fix handling of partial requests for media files (supporting Range, If-Modified-Since, and similar headers)
  • Standardize file extension chosen for saved .mp4 files

Also, be sure to check out the many improvements in v0.8.1rc1.

Download a zip or a tarball
http://getmediacore.com/files/MediaCore-0.8.2.zip
http://getmediacore.com/files/MediaCore-0.8.2.tar.gz

Checkout from github:
http://github.com/simplestation/mediacore

Cheers,
The MediaCore Team

Posted in Code | 2 Comments »

Vimeo Universal Player

Vimeo just announced their new Universal Player. We’re keen to have this integrated into MediaCore so we’ll be taking a look at it today, and we’ll see if we can sneak it into 0.8.2 we’ll be adding it to 0.8.3.

If you haven’t heard the news about Vimeo’s new universal player you might want to check it out: http://vimeo.com/blog:334

Posted in Code | No Comments »

0.8.2 BETA – Available for download

We just finished the final touches to the latest beta of MediaCore. We’re pushing hard to finalize the release for Monday the 9th of August or Tuesday the 10th. If you’re using MediaCore and would like to give the new beta test a whirl please do so and let us know if you run into any issues.

This new release includes all the fixes made in the 0.8.1 – Release Candidate. If you are interested in why we jumped from 0.8.1RC1 to 0.8.2-beta please read our blog post on why we did this .

What’s New in 0.8.2 beta

  • HTML5 player can now gracefully fail-over to the chosen Flash player on the client-side.
  • Improved performance when saving media and podcasts
  • Fixes some more display bugs and inconsistencies
  • Adds instructional videos to default installation
  • Adds help links to various screens in the administrative control panel. These links take the user to the correct section in the MediaCore docs.
  • Updated documentation http://getmediacore.com/docs/
  • Converted all internal strings to unicode
  • Fix a bug that reported an error when trying to re-upload a recently deleted file.
  • Fix handling of partial requests for media files (supporting Range, If-Modified-Since, and similar headers)
  • Standardize file extension chosen for saved .mp4 files

Download a zip or a tarball
http://getmediacore.com/files/MediaCore-0.8.2b1.zip
http://getmediacore.com/files/MediaCore-0.8.2b1.tar.gz

Checkout from github:
http://github.com/simplestation/mediacore

Cheers,
The MediaCore Team

Posted in Code | No Comments »

MediaCore 0.8 Final – Released

We’ve made the final enhancements to the 0.8 branch and have just launched 0.8 final. If you head over to the download area you can now get the latest release. This was launched on Saturday last week, but we didn’t make a public announcement as we wanted to prep the marketing on the site.

A lot of effort has gone into this release and I’d like to take a moment to recognize Felix Schwarz, who has helped out with patches and bug fixes. Thanks Felix.

We’ll be posting the official announcements later this week, as we need a bit of time to update the marketing information, but the downloads are all ready now.

Enjoy!

The MediaCore Team

Posted in Code | 2 Comments »

MediaCore 0.8RC3 Released

We’ve had a busy week working on MediaCore and are now ready to release MediaCore 0.8rc3! The final release will be coming later this week.

We’ve improved our HTML5 support and file handling, slimmed down the frontend CSS and javascript, and fixed a number of minor bugs. For more details, see the complete list of changes.

For those users concerned about preserving their existing MediaCore 0.7.2 database when they upgrade to 0.8, see this comment I posted to the rc1 announcement.

For a list of new features in the MediaCore 0.8 series check out our recent blog post:
http://getmediacore.com/blog/upcoming-0-8-release-iphoneipad-and-more/

Posted in Code | No Comments »

MediaCore 0.8RC2 Released

After a few exciting days (and much feedback and many fixes), MediaCore 0.8rc2 is out.

All reported bugs have been fixed in 0.8rc2, and the installation/deployment process has been tweaked to be more clear and accommodating.

Hit the link above to download a copy.

For those users concerned about preserving their existing MediaCore 0.7.2 database when they upgrade to 0.8, see this comment I posted to the rc1 announcement.

For a list of new features in the MediaCore 0.8 series check out our recent blog post:
http://getmediacore.com/blog/upcoming-0-8-release-iphoneipad-and-more/

Posted in Code | 1 Comment »

Sneek Peek: 0.8beta

screenshot_09

We just deployed our first beta test of MediaCore 0.8 to Assistive Technology .TV.

We’re now looking for active feedback. What do you think?

Posted in Code | 4 Comments »

Upcoming 0.8 Release – iPhone/iPad and More

mediacore-08

Good news! We’re pushing hard for the next release. Our release schedule (tentatively) is as follows:

Release Schedule

  • 0.8 alpha beta – Friday, April 23rd. This will only be available to people who have signed up as beta testers.
  • 0.8 rc1 – Friday, April 30th. This will be available via our download page, beta testers will also be notified.
  • 0.8 final – Friday – May 7th. This will be available via our download page. Everyone who has subscribed to the mailing list will be notified.

Front-end (User) enhancements:

  • New UI – Completely redesigned front-end user interface.
  • Multiple flash players – Users can now view videos in either the FlowPlayer or JWPlayer. This is set by the administrator
  • HTML 5 video players – Using the new HTML5 video players can make a MediaCore site compatible with devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. An administrator can upload encoded H264 or Ogg videos and MediaCore will automatically select the best encoding for the device the user is browsing with. (It’s up to the admin to be aware of which video codecs and containers will work in which browsers/platforms.)
  • Better Accessibility – The whole front-end in 0.8 is very accessible to users with visual disabilities. This includes support for adding closed captioning and audio descriptions to videos.
  • Categories – We are now allowing categories to be nested.
  • Search – Allows a user to search for videos and podcasts.
  • Share – Allows a user to share a video with their friends via email, Twitter, or Facebook.
  • Embed – Allows a user to embed any clip from MediaCore on their own site.
  • Improved Comments – Integration with Akismet for anti-spam, and Gravatar for user profiles.
  • Related videos – If you view a video, it will also pull up related videos.
  • Featured videos – A special category that will allow an administrator to feature video content.
  • Filter Video – Adds the ability for a user who is browsing videos to filter video by popularity, date, and whether it was featured.
  • Over 100 minor bug fixes and UI enhancements.

Administrative Control Panel Enhancements

  • Tiered categorization – Allows the administrator to tier categories. You can have subcategories and sub-subcategories.
  • Improved add file mechanism – Allows for easier adding and removing of video/audio from the administrative back-end. This also adds support for HTML5 video.
  • Add Closed Captioning / Audio Descriptions – Allows for an administrator to associate an XML closed captioning file, or an mp3/m4a audio description to any video.
  • File deletion – When an administrator deletes a file from the back-end, it will now automatically remove the file from the server.
  • Multiple flash players – Ability to choose which flash player you want to use (JWPlayer or FlowPlayer).
  • Revised settings interface – We’ve cleaned up the settings interface and given administrators more power in customizing MediaCore to their specific needs.

Programming Enhancements

  • Moving to Pylons – We have moved from TurboGears to Pylons as the web framework we built on top of. This minimizes the number of packages required for installation and makes the code easier to follow, for developers.
  • Easier Installation – Most of the dependency issues people have been facing are fixed, as MediaCore now depends on fewer other packages and is more strictly aware of which versions to install.
  • Model cleanup – We’ve really cleaned up the models, making everything a little more simple and straightforward.

Front-End Internationalization

  • Although we are not ready for internationalization quite yet, this release is a step in the right direction. We’ve removed many of the image-based buttons so that it will be easier to translate MediaCore into other languages. Once we launch version 0.8 final we will start looking for people to help us with internationalization. Our hope is to have French and German translations ready for the next release (version 0.9).
  • If you are interested in helping us with this please contact us at info@simplestation.com.

Posted in Code, Design, Marketing, Release | 9 Comments »

Mediacore Docs Updated!

In anticipation of our upcoming 0.8 release, I’ve updated the MediaCore installation docs extensively.

If you’ve been having trouble getting MediaCore up and running, definitely check out the new installation documentation. The instructions are already much more streamlined, but suggestions are welcome!

The production deployment documentation (Step 6 in the install docs) won’t work with the MediaCore 0.7.2 distribution, but check them out for a feeling of what’s to come. If you want to test out the new mod_fastcgi deployment on shared hosts, or the updated (streamlined) mod_wsgi deployment before the official 0.8 release is out, pull down the source code from our git repository and follow the directions!

The API documentation is also updated to the latest development version, so if you find any methods in the docs that aren’t in your 0.7.2 distribution, that’s why.

Posted in Code | No Comments »

New features for users with disabilities

We are pleased to announce we will be working on a project for AssistiveTechnolgy.tv to make MediaCore even more accessible for individuals with disabilities. The features we will be working on will include:

  • Revising categories to make them more accessible and also to provide administrators with the ability to create categories and subcategories. There will be no limit to the number of subcategories a category can have. Both the administrative interface and the front-end interface will see revisions to accommodate these changes.
  • Integrating JW Player with closed captioning and audio descriptions. We will be completely overhauling the add file dialogue in the administrative interface to accommodate these changes.
  • Allowing users to choose which player they would like to use. Options will include: FlowPlayer, JWPlayer, and HTML5

All of these changes will be worked into the main branch for the next major release. Due to the size of these changes it will likely push our previous mid-March release date back a few weeks.

Posted in Code | No Comments »

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