Date: June 1, 2014
From: Bob Jacobsen
Subject: Test version 3.7.6 of JMRI/DecoderPro is available for download.
This is a test release. Please post a note if you encounter any new or old bugs! And please back up your JMRI files before installing this, in case you want to go back to an earlier version.
This is the next in a series of test versions. We expect this series to end in a JMRI 3.8 production release around the middle of 2014.
Some of the changes involved are quite extensive. They may require a certain amount of experience before they are working well. Therefore, this test version should be considered experimental.
JMRI is now only available under the GNU General Public License. For more information, please see our copyright and licensing page.
The decoder definition files have been reformatted to make them easier to maintain. If you want to make a change in a decoder definition file, please start with a file from this release or later.
The XmlIO web service has been deprecated and is scheduled to be removed in JMRI 3.11 (July 2015). All users who are relying on direct access to the XmlIO API are recommended to begin using the JSON API. inControl web throttle users are recommended to begin using webThrottle instead, or to plan on investing in devices that can support webThrottle, the iOS WiThrottle, or the Android Engine Driver.
This release series has some changes to the application-initialization structure, particularly in the apps.Apps class. If you have written code of your own that runs applications based on JMRI, please check for use of deprecated methods.
The internals for handling CV read and write addressing have been extensively reworked. The change should be transparent (invisible) to users. If you do notice anything problems involving CV reading, writing, storage or anything else, please let us know.
The configuration structure for JMRI is changing to use Configuration Profiles. Configuration Profiles allow a single JMRI application to have multiple, user selectable, configurations that can be changed as application startup. For some users, this change will have no impact; other users will be visibly impacted by this change. See http://jmri.org/help/en/html/profiles.shtml for more information.
The JMRI SRCP implementation is undergoing extensive revision, in part due to testing with 3rd party SRCP clients and servers. If you are using the SRCP support, you will need to upgrade both the client(s) and the server to the same JMRI version.
The JMRI Web Server is being extensively rewritten. If you notice any problems using it, please let us know.
This release, and all other releases in this cycle, require Java 1.6 or newer.
Do not use this release for programming any ESU Select or V4.0 decoder. Instead, please use test release 3.7.7 or later.
Please use these links for downloading:
Reformatted the decoder definition files using the xml/XSLT/normalizeDecoder XSLT transforms. This cleans up some ambiguous attributes, adds missing elements, and formats them into a consistent (comparable) style using xmllint. In the process some errors (usually missing elements) were found and fixed. There were also some refinements and additions to the XML schema for panes and decoders.
Added a "Check for Updates" item under the help menu. If you want a button, you can configure it under startup preferences.
Read-only enum decoder variables now are disabled (grey-out) in the DecoderPro/DP3 interface. This includes as combo (selection) boxes, check boxes and radio buttons. They still track the CV value, but you can't change them yourself. This may cause unexpected side-effects, e.g. if a decoder file has improperly set read-only on a variable and nobody noticed because it wasn't visible.
The JMRI Web server has been rewritten to support a more-unified appearance and to better
provide dynamic, user customizable content.
If you wish to browse the /prefs directory
in your browser, but get the old web server home page instead, you will want to remove
the index.html file from your User Files directory.
Dave Heap made the following changes:
Alain Le Marchand made the following changes:
Bernd Wisotzki improved the German translation.
Enzo Fortuna did more work on the Italian translation.
Older versions of the JMRI manuals and associated PDF files have been moved out of the JMRI distribution. They are now available on the web. This was done to make it easier to keep the manual up-to-date, and reduce the download size. You may have to update your bookmarks.
Nigel Cliffe provided a new Zimo decoder definition.
JMRI now implements a "transform-xslt" XML processing instruction for post-processing XML files with XSLT transforms. (If that doesn't mean anything to you, you can ignore the rest of this item). For an example of invoking this, see the test XML file and test XSLT transform.