1.0.0
After a long development phase, it is now time to publish the next release of FOSSWarn. Version 1.0.0 brings a lot of changes and states out the future of this project.
A lot has happened since the last stable release with version 0.8.1. Basically, no code line stayed untouched. This release note gives you an overview of what has happened, what the state is today, and what will happen in the future.
What's new or changed in version 1.0.0?
- code refactoring
- replaced the old APIs with the FOSS Public Alert Server API
- use push notifications now
- auto refresh instead of pull to refresh
- updated dialogs
- Linux support
- Bug fixes
Code refactoring
Refactoring is a permanent task to constantly improve the code quality and to clean-up the codebase. With a lot of the help of @pureTryOut, we changed the naming scheme of files, replaced old plugins like the 'provider' with 'riverpod', implemented a new view routing with GoRouter, and improved the code structure in general. FOSS Public Alert Server
This is the major change in this new version. We are now using the FOSS Public Alert Server to receive push notifications about alerts. The FOSS Public Alert Server is being developed by KDE and the FOSSWarn team. Over the last year, we developed this server to aggregate and distribute CAP alerts globally. This not only allows FOSSWarn to be used in more countries but also provides the first open source push notification infrastructure for emergency alerts. We are using the open source and decentralized UnifiedPush system to deliver near-real-time notifications about alerts.
This completely replaced the old polling for alerts and should drastically reduce delays and improve the battery life. Developing our own server also allows us to ensure that we do not rely on undocumented third-party APIs. This is now handled by the server. Test alerts
The new system required new testing methods. Therefore, we developed a test alert system on the server. To avoid interference with real alerts, we publish alerts at the point of the Earth with the largest distance to the nearest coast. This place is also called Point Nemo. In the developer options of FOSSWarn, you can subscribe to these alerts. You should receive a new test alert every 5 minutes. Auto refresh instead of pull-to-refresh
This is one of the noticeable changes in the UX of the new app version. If you are on the "My Places view" or the "all Warnings view", there is no option to pull to refresh anymore - instead, the app updates automatically as long as it is open. Updated dialogs
The implementation of the FOSS Public Alert Server required updating some dialogs. The introduction has now been updated, and there are some new dialogs, e.g., for missing UnifiedPush distributors. We used the opportunity to update the graphics in the introduction to give it a more unified look. Linux support
FOSSWarn now supports Linux. This brings the app closer to Linux desktop applications or even Linux on mobile applications. This was mainly done by @PureTryOut. We are still working on packaging the app and bringing it into the Flathub store. This will still take some time, but experienced users can already try out the GitHub release. Bug fixes
In the process, we fixed, created, and fixed again a lot of small or medium bugs. It is expected that there will be some minor bugs that will be fixed with some bug-fix releases. Next steps
First of all, we need to see how the server can handle more users. Currently, we only have about 150 subscriptions. We expect that this number will increase as soon as the update reaches the F-Droid store. After that, we will see if we need to fix things on the server side.
We plan to implement improved filtering for alerts to allow more precise settings for which event type you would like to receive alerts and for which not. We also need to re-implement the silent notifications for updated alerts.
In a later release, we also plan to implement an automatic location-based subscription for alerts.