[Banshee-List] Banshee 0.10.4: Have some plugins!

[Aaron Bockover <abockover novell com>]

Banshee 0.10.4 is out!

This release features faster and more efficient source management,
improved playlist support, a complete plugin system, and the first four
official plugins. Plugins include DAAP (iTunes music share) support
(client and server), cover art fetching, Audioscrobbler song submitting,
and file system monitoring.

NEW FEATURES
------------

* New plugin system and management/configuration dialog; allows for easy
loading/unloading of plugins while Banshee is running [1]

* DAAP (iTunes Music Share) plugin that provides the ability to browse
and listen to songs over DAAP and publish the local Banshee database as
a DAAP share for other clients to browse; features a light weight
embedded web-server for proxying DAAP over HTTP which enables streaming
within all supported media engines (GStreamer 0.8, GStreamer 0.10,
Helix/RealPlayer, VLC). A simple web-based front-end to the DAAP is also
available at http://localhost:8089 [2]

* Audioscrobbler plugin by Chris Toshok now features queue saving, main
menu integration, and a configuration pane for entering account
information

* Metadata Searcher plugin will download cover art automatically for
songs in the library, and can optionally supplement or correct song
metadtaa

* File System Monitor plugin can monitor the library directory in the
file system and automatically import or remove songs added or removed
from the file system

* Rewritten source management; sources are centrally managed and
abstracted from the view; sources are accessible to plugins (DAAP plugin
implements sources)

* Playlist support has been overhauled; much faster, and reordering a
songs in a playlist now works properly

* All "legacy" transaction/threading code has been removed, resulting in
various performance gains in many areas

* New popup window "tooltip" is displayed when hovering over the tray
icon; shows cover art and track information

* Added "intelligent" shuffle that has a 60% chance of hovering inside
the current genre, making the transitions between songs slightly more
fluid. (Brad Taylor)

* New Czech translation by Lukas Novotny; other various translations
have been updated

* Many other improvements and minor features


[1] For details on developing new plugins, please read the Plugin
Developers Guide on the Banshee Wiki:
http://banshee-project.org/Developers/Plugins

[2] The DAAP plugin requires at least the latest release of Avahi core
and avahi-sharp from HEAD. The mDNS layer in the DAAP plugin is being
rewritten to also work with the legacy mDNSResponder. The DAAP plugin
can be disabled by passing --disable-daap to configure.


BUG FIXES
---------

315955 (crashes at startup, IPod.DatabaseReadException)
316105 (playlist d&d sort doesn't stick)
320327 (Errors loading library)
321101 (The play icon disappears)
324113 (Banshee does not start when pressing play)
324652 (Library name should be i18ned)
325011 (Help & Contact on website may lead users to wrong channel)
325076 (""source properties"" menuitem does not do anything)
325078 (Updating the preferences of a song doesn't refresh)
325079 (play time in notification area is wrong)
325139 (Shuffle/Repeat buttons do not remember state.)
325697 (Can't add column to database table)
325705 (Menu items aren't displayed in localized string)
325956 (Metadata Searcher freezes after ~100 tracks)
326045 (please add a description for the repeat/random buttons)
326567 (""about..."" menu item should not be ellipsized)
326568 (search entry keynav)
326863 (Crash on metadata scan.)
326922 (Can't execute uninstalled banshee)
326923 (Accelerator(shortcut key) doesn't work)
327046 (org.gnome.Banshee.service installed in wrong directory)
327047 (menu entry Music/Source Properties... has no effect)
327123 (random playback isnt working correctling when banshee is
started)


THE IMPORTANT LINKS
-------------------

Release Overview Page:
http://banshee-project.org/Releases/0.10.4

Banshee 0.10.4 Tarball:
http://banshee-project.org/files/banshee/banshee-0.10.4.tar.gz

njb-sharp 0.2.1 Tarball:
http://banshee-project.org/files/njb-sharp/njb-sharp-0.2.1.tar.gz

ipod-sharp 0.5.12 Tarball:
http://banshee-project.org/files/ipod-sharp/ipod-sharp-0.5.12.tar.gz

libipoddevice 0.3.5 Tarball:
http://banshee-project.org/files/libipoddevice/libipoddevice-0.3.5.tar.gz

Banshee Wiki: 
http://banshee-project.org/


DEPENDENCIES
------------

- Mono 1.1.10 and full stack
- gtk-sharp-2.0 (2.3.92)
- sqlite3
- GStreamer 0.8.11 or GStreamer 0.10 (experimental)
- libmusicbrainz 2.1.1 or better
- libnautilus-burn 2.12
- GTK+ 2.6 or better
- HAL 0.5.2 or better


MORE NOTES
----------

* Please do not hesitate to file bugs against Banshee in GNOME Bugzilla
(http://bugzilla.gnome.org, component: banshee), or discuss Banshee on
this list or in #banshee on irc.gnome.org. The Banshee Wiki, open to
everyone for viewing and editing is located at
http://banshee-project.org.


* Bindings to the VLC libraries have been implemented and are available
as a Banshee Media Engine. To use the VLC engine, pass --enable-vlc to
configure. Additionally, libvlc.so must be copied to
banshee/mediaengines/vlc before running "make install". To build
libvlc.so, download and build Jon Lech Johansen's snd123:

http://nanocrew.net/2005/09/20/snd123/

Copy the resulting libvlc.so to the aforementioned build directory, and
proceed with building Banshee as normal. Keep in mind, VLC support is
optional. Banshee also supports GStreamer and Helix engines. GStreamer
is required, and Helix is optional, but will be automatically detected
and configured if your system is set up properly with either RealPlayer
or Helix Player. See http://helixcommunity.org/