After months of work we’re happy to announce that Shoko version 4.0.0 is available for download! This releases introduce some big changes for Shoko, especially for our Windows users, so we recommend reading through this release post before updating.
For a complete list of changes, check out the Changelog.
.NET Core Conversion
We’ve successfully converted Shoko Server to .NET Core, providing better cross compatibility support, as well as making Shoko easier to build upon and maintain as we go forward. One of the big benefits for us is this conversion helps us clean up the codebase which is one of our never-ending tasks we work on with nearly every version. While this is all internal, the biggest benefit for users will be an increase in both speed and stability when using Shoko Server. Another benefit for our Windows users is you no longer need to have .NET Framework 4.7 installed to run Shoko Server. However, it is still required to run Shoko Desktop.
Goodbye Native UI, Hello Web UI
Arguably the biggest visual change for Windows users is the replacement of the longstanding Shoko UI that we’ve been using for nearly a decade with our Web UI. This is something that we’ve been planning since the initial conception of the Web UI, and we’re happy to finally see it become a reality. While we understand this will take some time to get used to, especially for Windows users, as Linux users have always used the Web UI, the changes and benefits it provides will make it worth it. For starters, the Web UI already provides more functionality than the old UI did and with the Web UI separated from Shoko Server we can update it without having to tie that update to the next version of Shoko Server.
We’ve got a lot planned for the Web UI so check back with us in a couple weeks.
Shoko Server Tray Service (Windows Only)
With the removal of the native UI in Shoko Server, we’ve made Shoko Server into a tray service. This means when you first start Shoko Server (if you don’t have it automatically start with Windows) it will automatically be added to the Windows Tray. Clicking on the Shoko Server icon will allow you to open the Web UI or close Shoko Server. It’s possible we might add a few more options, but we haven’t decided on anything at the moment. Make sure to let us know on Discord if you’ve got any ideas.
API Version 3
While not exactly new, we’ve been working on it for some time now, version 4.0 makes API version 3 our main API and leads to the deprecation of both API version 1 and API version 2. For the majority of our users, this change won’t affect you, but its still important to note, as eventually, we’ll be removing the deprecated APIs. We highly suggest that all users using our API update to avoid issues in the future. One of the benefits of API version 3 is the addition of swagger which can be accessed via 127.0.0.1:8111/swagger when Shoko Server is running.
Renamer Plugin
One of the most requested features is more control over the Renamer system, and while it’s something we’ve also wanted (Drop Destination Scripts) for a long time, our .NET Core conversion finally allowed us to make some progress on it. This does require some basic C# knowledge, so we’re more than happy to help anyone who needs assistance getting their Renamer plugin up and running.
We’ve created a repo with some examples to help you build your own Renamer plugin.
ShokoAnime - SamplePlugins
Docker Changes
For our Linux and Docker users, please make sure to update your path to the Shoko Anime docker account, Shoko on Docker as we’ll be using this account going forward. The build on Cazzar’s page will eventually be deprecated.
Daily Changes
We’re now using Github Actions to build our dailies for both Shoko Server and Shoko Desktop and have updates our download links for them. If you’ve bookmarked the App Veyor links or have pulled in your setup, please make sure to update your links as they are no longer linked and will no longer build on new commits.
Contributors
This release was made possible by the following people.