Happy Friday QuickBoxers! We’re back again with another weekly Developer Update. It seems like I just posted last weeks developer update. We’ve been coding night and day and within what seems like only a couple of days, a lot of developments have been going down!
Let’s take a peek at what’s happened!
conversions
We’re still going through and doing the conversions. That’s, complete rewrite and refactor of the quickbox pro code. The build packages for the various software we include in the QuickBox lineup can have some in-depth review that needs to take place. So these are still very much a large part of the current process. Between conversions, there are some tweaks and additional features that are being added. Some of these may be “on the fly,” and some are a little more thought or have been planned. Before we dig into the belly of these conversions to unfold the bounty that awaits, let’s talk about a new feature coming to QuickBox Pro v3.
Extra Extra! qb news is in the box!
@mschf has been down in the labs (when he’s not quality controlling my drunken conversions 🤪) and he’s cooked up a new module to be used in CLI. What is this new module? qb news! The module allows important announcements, as presented by us here at QuickBox.IO, to be posted directly to your server. This means, if there’s ever a critical patch, a fix for anything, or a new exciting release, we can post this announcement directly to your server! If you’re wondering if this is posting content directly to your server, have no fear. Any content that is announced is processed via our own “announce” server which means it’s secure and non-invasive. It’s just a fun announcement ensuring that you never miss an important update… calm down!
Take a look at this nifty gif that @mschf actually had time to make for us… slacker!
conversions continued - oh, that quality control
Remember we were talking about conversions and how there’s loads of quality control and adjustments being done under the hood? Well, this is one of those that are worth a mention. Within the QuickBox Pro environment, there are several software that require python. In v2 of QuickBox Pro, we set alternatives to python in various locations, but still utilize globals when installing python3 pip modules. This means that a software, such as Bazarr, would use the same global python3 directory as, let’s say, Deluge. At first, this type of setup seems easy and harmless, however, it can get complicated! If another user installs Bazarr, when they initiate an install it will check and update these pip modules according to the software requirements. Therefore, if user A has yet to update their Bazarr and user B installs a fresh version that updates pip modules (possibly not yet functional with the previous version), this can cause collisions and other errors. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen often, but let’s not ignore this and wait for it to happen. Nay! Let us be proactive and create greater stability… now!
We’re now going further down the modularity hole and are introducing unique python virtual environments by way of python3-venv. What this means now is that user A will install Bazarr and a python virtual environment will be staged under their /opt/USER/Bazarr/.venv/ directory. All required python/pip related modules will be isolated to this directory. Only for the user and that particular software! So user A and user B will now utilize 2 completely separate instances of python for their Bazarr installs (and other python required software).
It’s a win folks, cheer now!
well that was long winded JMSolo, we done yet
Oh my dear friend, if only! In the spirit of quality control, and just generally being really excited developing on v3, we’ve decided to take it up a notch. It’s been asked more times than I am going to bother try remembering. That’s right, the old “Will v3 support Debian 11 (bullseye)?” Short and sweet; yes!
Rather than wait until after QuickBox Pro v3 is launched, it’s been decided to simply start taking these measures now. This ensures that as we continue grinding along the path of conversions, we can set the support for Debian 11 as we rewrite and test software in the lineup. So there you have it, Debian 11 support will be included at the launch of QuickBox Pro v3… it’s official.
Have you customized your qb install?
In the meantime, catch you all next week! 💖
