Yes! It's finally here! The second beta release of OpenLP 3.0 is available for download immediately. Go and get it while it's hot!

From here on out, we will only be fixing bugs and making release candidates in an effort to get version 3.0 out the door.

Downloads

Windows  

• 64-bit Installer
• 64-bit Portable
• 32-bit Installer
• 32-bit Portable

macOS 10.12+ Ubuntu Debian Fedora Source

As the song says "Come now is the time to - test a new version of OpenLP!"

Apart from some select as-yet implemented features, this beta contains all the features that will be in the final release of OpenLP 3.0. This beta release should be stable enough for people to try it out and report back any bugs they encounter. Please make sure you know how to generate a debug log file and submit a log file when something goes wrong.

Of course there are a ton of bug fixes across the board, including fixes in some of the song importers, fixes in handling videos, presentations as well as fixes to the web Bibles.

Downloads

Windows  

• 64-bit Installer
• 64-bit Portable
• 32-bit Installer
• 32-bit Portable

macOS 10.12+ Ubuntu Debian Fedora Source

It has been a few months since the first alpha release and now the time has come for the next alpha release. We expect to have implemented most of the new features that will be in the upcoming 3.0 release, so the next release will be a beta release, marking the shift to focus on bugfixes and stability.

Release Highlights

• Fixed planning center plugin

• New service file format (faster loading of presentations from service file)

• Web remote and web complete

• Songs with Media backgrounds

• Media now supports live streams via cameras or VLC IP streams

• Changes to internals which improve the start up time

• Tons of bugfixes.

Do note that this is an alpha release and as such it is not suitable for "production use". There will be serious bugs. There will be crashes. There is a high risk of data loss. That being said, we hope you will test this release and report any findings to the forums or issue tracker. It is recommended to use the portable build/mode (download the portable build for Windows, or use the -p command line argument on Linux or macOS) if you do not want to affect existing install.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9 ESV

Download

Windows  

• 64-bit Installer
• 64-bit Portable
• 32-bit Installer
• 32-bit Portable

macOS 10.12+ Ubuntu Debian Fedora Source

Full Change Log

• Remove a traceback on exiting OpenLP

• Add back toolbar separator

• Fix biblegateway webpage parsing

• New API method to return current theme

• Use single method to set service items via both position and uuid

• Update tests to match above new features

• Fix issue where chords were not being returned to the API

• Fix the clear/backspace icon (the old one doesn't exist in Debian)

• Clean up Apis and remove duplicate files

• Add new API to help testing

• Fix a traceback to wrongful path to string convertion

• Correctly hide network stream button in the theme background page.

• Fix traceback in the FTW due to the mainwindow (which is not yet created) being used

• Updated translations

• Change server send correct files for new web-remote

• Change live toolbar to use radio buttons

• Removed the live -> preview button

• Simplified button handler functions (removing duped code)

• Set new showScreen shortcut to spacebar

• Removed desktopScreenEnable button and shortcut

• Liveworship import change

• New service file format

• Fix errors in translatable texts

• Logging and Powerpoint fixes

• Fix loading optical and streaming items from servicemanager

• Always use transparency when going to desktop

• Fix loading PDF items from the servicemanager

• API improvements

• Deploy to PyPI when a tag is created

• Make OpenLP download version files from get.openlp.org

• Fix theme image transparency

• Remove global background

• Fix slow preview after fetching live image

• Add missing theme functionality

• Download the web remote as part of the FTW

• Add version checking for the web remote

• Always order the authors when exporting to OpenLyrics

• Fix core/logo hide on startup setting

• Fix display stuck as hidden and invert transparent display setting

• Fix up the formatting of the contents of the help box

• Fix presentation load from service file

• Fix some race conditions

• Remove calls to ImageManager (which no longer exists)

• Fix a crash in the remote API

• Add basic theme API

• Refactor deployment away from the web server thread

• Refactor the web remote settings tab

• Provide a way for threads to show an error message to the user

• Fix an issue where multiple zeroconf services were being run instead of a single instance on multiple addresses

• Refactored the DownloadProcess dialog

• Always return a list when searching in the API

• Fix error when adding songs from services

• Fix song editor crash - don't call a non existent function (create_slides on a service item)

• Add support for network streams

• Don't reload images on start (they are already loaded)

• Update Reveal.js to 3.9.2

• Fix vertical positioning on text slides

• Fix common settings crash

• Deregister screen-updates to the theme widget when it closes.

• Fix missing / incorrect copyright

• Update remote API to use Flask, and be more RESTful

• Made the Bible and song import more robust.

• Properly detect chords, support >5 optional splits

• Change Structure of OpenLP and move a test

• Fix bibleserver integration.

• Migrate setting definitions to Core from plugins

• Handle git styled version tags/hashes instead of bzr

• Fix planningcenter traceback

• Fix minor stuff detected by pylint.

• Create a Theme Preview dialog, plus some theme background fixes.

At long last, we are proud to announce the first alpha release of OpenLP 3.0!

The biggest new feature in version 3.0 is the new renderer. Still based in HTML, but using the new Chrome-based QtWebEngine component, it should deliver much better performance, and it also enables us to offer something people have been requesting for a long time: transitions!

But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they ripen late.

Exodus 9:32

Below is a list of known issues, new features, enhancements to existing features, and bug fixes. Download links are at the bottom of this article.

Downloads

Windows:

Windows 7+ Windows 7+ (32-bit) Windows Portable Windows Portable (32-bit)

macOS:

macOS 10.13+

Linux:

Fedora    (Debian & Ubuntu downloads unavailable at the moment)

Source Code:

Source Code

One of the steps toward OpenLP 3.0 was moving to git and GitLab, and this has now been completed. After many years on Launchpad and using Bazaar, it was clear to us that unfortunately there was no future in either of those, due to them being all but abandoned by their developers.

You can now find OpenLP on GitLab: https://gitlab.com/openlp/openlp

Over the last few days we have received a TON of reports about OpenLP's integration with BibleGateway being broken. Users who rely on web Bibles from BibleGateway are telling us that they get an error message whenever they try to look up new passages (verses are downloaded from Bible Gateway on an as-needed basis in order to comply with Bible translation copyright terms).

Unfortunately there is no quick fix for this, and because some of the libraries that OpenLP 2.4.6 uses are no longer available, we are not able to create new builds for the OpenLP 2.4.x release series. We are investigating other options, but we cannot guarantee anything.

While we are well aware that some bibles available on BibleGateway are not available elsewhere, there are other sources for a lot of Bibles, such as Zefania or from the homepage of Open Song. In both cases do remember to extract the zip file before importing. See the Bibles section of the manual for more details on importing Bibles from other sources.

Alternatively, going to https://www.biblegateway.com/ and copying and pasting the Bible text into a custom slide is also an option.

The only good news here is that the new implementation for web Bibles in the upcoming OpenLP 3.0 release is not affected by this, although it is not ready for production use.

We apologise for the problems people are experiencing. The bad side of using an external service like BibleGateway is that when they change something, OpenLP is not built to handle the change, and appears to be "broken". Sadly, there is no real way to prevent something like this from happening again.

As of today, the 1st of May 2019, OpenLP is officially licensed under version 3 (or higher) of the GNU General Public License.

Simply put, we're updating to a newer version of the license we already use.

It has been almost 2 years since the release of 2.4.6 and understandably we are getting a lot of questions as to when the next release will be ready. The answer is always the same: "When it is ready". So what does "ready" mean? Currently there are 2 major features that we need to finish before we feel we can begin the release process:

• The new renderer engine.

• The new VLC based mediaplayer framework.

Once these are in place we will release the first Alpha (2.9.1) and then work from there towards the final release of 3.0.

Due to a lack of resources within the OpenLP team we have decided to close down the e-mail support system (not to be mistaken for the forums which will not be affected).

For some time now a single person has answered almost all the support requests the support system has received. And since that person is also one of the most active developers of OpenLP, it has drawn a lot of time away from actual development. In order to free up more time for development the only solution was to close down the support system.

We are really sad to do this, as we feel our support is one of the defining parts of OpenLP, but since we need to move OpenLP forward we do not believe we have any other choice - though it was not an easy decision.

In future anyone who e-mails support@openlp.org will get a message that redirects them to the manual and the forums.

[ Image Credit: Closed by Rob Brewer ]

Many years ago, when OpenLP was first released, computer screens with millions of colours were very new, and most people had what are tiny screens by today's standards. I remember getting my first 17" monitor, and it was positively HUGE - it could even show 1024 by 768 pixels (a pixel is a single dot on your screen). Wow!

In those days, most icons were 16 by 16 pixels because if they were any bigger, they'd get in the way of the rest of the user interface. And so we created static icons that were stuck at 16 by 16 pixels. Time moves on, but sadly without a designer, OpenLP was unable to move on too, and now we're stuck with tiny icons and 4K screens.

If you're a designer and you'd like to contribute to OpenLP, now's your chance! We really need a refreshed icon set, one that can scale with the monitor sizes of today. You'll need to have working knowledge of Inkscape (or be willing to learn how to use it), and the time available to design about 150 icons (or less, if we have a number of designers who work together).

You can get into contact with us via IRC, the forums or info [at] openlp.org.

[ Image Credit: Drawing opals by Mauro Cateb ]