Update HC binaries to v0.0.47-alpha1

This release has no feature changes to Holoscape, it simply packages the new v0.0.47-alpha1 holochain binary.

Sim2h Server URL change

Along with changes to the Holochain conductor, the sim2h server needed to be changed as well. In order to not break earlier versions, the sim2h server running at public.sim2h.net:9000 will stay unchanged and a new version will be spawned at public-v4.sim2h.net:9000.

In this release, the default sim2h_url got changed accordingly. But this new default only gets applied on a fresh install.

IMPORTANT: If you have installed a previous version of Holoscape, you will need to either adjust your conductor-config.toml manually and set sim2h_url to the new value (ws://public-v4.sim2h.net) OR start fresh by removing/renaming your config directory. You can open your Holoscape config directory via the system tray menu -> Settings -> Reveal config directory.

Update HC binaries to v0.0.45-alpha1

This release has no feature changes to Holoscape, it simply packages the new v0.0.45-alpha1 holochain binary.

Important breaking change: Due to an incompatibility of the new HDK's serialization code, DNAs have to be recompiled with the dependency to the HDK crate updated to 0.0.45-alpha1. Otherwise links queries might not be responded with correctly.

v0.0.7-alpha (HC binaries @ 0.0.42-alpha5)

Improvements

• HTML _blank links in hApp UIs open in system browser
• Interface port handling improvement during install of hApps - this solves an issue where installing a hApp could render the conductor config bogus which could only be remedied by fixing it by hand or starting from scratch

#53

New sim2h default URL

This was mentioned in v0.0.6-alpha already. Here again for visibility:

Important breaking change: any config files created with v0.0.5 or earlier will NOT work because they point to a sim2h server that is not compatible with v0.0.42-alpha2. You can manually update the sim2h server to: ws://public.sim2h.net in your conductor config file if you want to continue to use a given Holoscape config directory.

Update binaries to holochain 0.0.42-alpha2

This release has no feature changes to Holoscape, it simply packages the v0.0.42-alpha2 holochain binary AND it points to the new sim2h server which is compatible with that release.

Important breaking change: any config files created with v0.0.5 or earlier will NOT work because they point to a sim2h server that is not compatible with v0.0.42-alpha2. You can manually update the sim2h server to: ws://public.sim2h.net in your conductor config file if you want to continue to use a given Holoscape config directory.

Major UX revamp

Walk-through video of this version

Material redesign

This release is big step in terms of user experience.

The most prominent change is the introduction of a main window that is shown automatically on start-up, instead of having the whole application hide from the user behind a system tray icon. hApp UIs are shown as sub-views inside the main window and can be switched like tabs.

hApp-Store

The hApp-Store / install view was reworked completely and is intuitively usable now.

Debug view

The instance debug view can handle larger data sets now and renders source chain, locally held DHT contents and the validation queue as a table each.

A really important feature that makes the debug view a tool that you don't want to miss when debugging your hApps is search. All tables are searchable now such that it is very easy to find out if the node is holding a certain entry or what entries of a certain type was authored.

Bug fixes

• Flaky timing issues that made it crash during start-up got fixed
• Modal dialogs can't get closed by clicking the background
• Memory leak fixed

---

Binary release files below include Holochain binaries of v0.0.41-alpha3 which includes many changes against v0.0.40-alpha1.

Stability and Performance

This release contains only very few changes to Holoscape itself

• CMD+Q on macOS now works without errors
• It shows a pop-up dialog if binaries are missing (which was a common pitfall when running Holoscape from source)
• The instance storage back-end can now be chosen when installing hApps (which is a conductor config setting per instance)
• A memory-leak got fixed
• The instance debug view is much more responsive and displays new available data from the conductor such as the DHT holding queue

There are major improvements to the included Holochain conductor

which is now at version 0.0.40-alpha-1.

• Lots of deadlocks have been fixed and thread-handling in general was revamped
• Several performance optimisations have been implemented

This release is much more stable and uses much less system resources (memory/CPU)!

Updating from an old version

If you ran v0.0.3-alpha before which included an older conductor version, you will probably see this panic in the log when trying to start the new version without clearing the config:

thread 'main' panicked at 'could not load DhtStoreSnapshot from content: SerializationError("missing field `holding_map` at line 1 column 410")', src/libcore/result.rs:1051:5
stack backtrace:

   0:     0x55f0b75bf08b - backtrace::backtrace::libunwind::trace::hd4effc5cbc99af65
                               at /cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/backtrace-0.3.29/src/backtrace/libunwind.rs:88
   1:     0x55f0b75bf08b - backtrace::backtrace::trace_unsynchronized::h389cccb5967fa3c2
                               at /cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/backtrace-0.3.29/src/backtrace/mod.rs:66
....

Despite the error, you can open the Holoscape menu by clicking the system tray icon and then choosing: Settings-default -> Reveal config directory and then delete that old directory and start with a fresh installation.

v0.0.3-alpha

Changelog

• Switching between UIs added (used by Peer Chat when switching to Identity Manager UI)
• Reference Sim2h blog post in network configuration dialog
• Update conductor to v0.0.36-alpha1
• Minor UI improvements

Sim2h networking and alpha hApp Store

This release is a major step in terms of usability of the full Holochain stack. It includes a Holochain conductor v0.0.34-alpha which introduces a fully working sim2h test network implementation. Since Holochain now has two working (test/alpha) network implementations, this Holoscape version introduces a network selection dialog that lets the user choose between sim1h and sim2h (and later lib3h) on first use.

Network selection dialog

Included in this release is a default network configuration which is set to our pre-alpha public test server of sim2h.
This early version of our sim2h switch-board simulation is made available mainly for real-world testing of the network itself. For that purpose, all messages going through this central point are getting logged for debugging and performance analysis.

Though this early test version of our sim2h switch-board simulation comes with no guarantee of up-time, it enables first real-world and full-stack test runs of hApps. With this release we invite every hApp developer to help us test it all by deploying their hApps with Holoscape and engage in real-world, networked Holochain app usage!

Integrated alpha hApp store

This release also introduces an alpha version of a hApp store that is based on our happ-index repository. hApps can easily be published through a pull-request on that repository. Holoscape renders a list of all hApps included in that index and provides an easy and simple way for installing them.

Lots of bug fixes / small improvements

• Install logic makes sure interface ports are not assigned twice
• Several timing issues during boot process fixed that lead to crashes or hidden error messages
• File paths in hApp bundles work in all cases now
• hApp UIs are initialized with path / instead of /index.html which fixes JS router issues
• Splash screen shows conductor log in the background during boot
• If conductor is not booted after 1 minute, Holoscape opens the log window to enable debugging\
• ...

0.0.1-pre-alpha

Holoscape pre-alpha 0.0.1

This is the first pre-alpha release of Holoscape.

Holo World

It includes everything needed as an MVP for the automatic install of hApps from bundles with just a few clicks.

But it also includes some pre-alpha bugs and UX quirks. Such as:

• If there is a conductor running already listening on the same ports, the started conductor will bail and Holoscape will wait during splash screen forever. If it doesn't start, make sure there is no old zombie conductor running. If that doesn't help, try starting it from command line so you can see the conductor output.
• If a bundle references resources via HTTP URI, Holoscape will download the file during install. If the network connection is flaky, it won't try again but show an error during install process.
• many more that are still unknown

This first release is for a first test roll-out, mainly targeted at Holochain/Holo teams.
Everybody is welcome to try this and provide feedback through issues, pull-request and all other means!

What to do with it?

Download the app bundle for your platform, unzip it and run the executable in there (double click Holoscape.app on macOS or run the Holoscape executable on Linux).

After the splash screen, there will be a Holoscape icon in the system tray.

Download the example hApp bundle personas-and-chat_bundle.zip, and unzip it.
Choose "Install hApp..." from the Holoscape system tray menu. In the new window click browse and select the file chat.toml from the unziped personas-and-chat_bundle.zip. The dialog will now show the contents and immediately starts downloading the two DNAs which are referenced via HTTP link the bundle. Once the download is complete, the green "Install" button at the bottom will get enabled and you can install the bundle by clicking it. If this is your first time installing a DNA and agent, a popup will appear and ask for a passphrase. Remember the passphrase you enter as it will request the same again on next start up in order to unlock the agent keys. The whol install process will take about a 1 minute (mostly because hashing the password and creating and encrypting new keys takes some time).

After the install process is complete, you will find two new hApps in the "hApps" sub-menu of the Holoscape system tray menu:

• Basic Chat
• Personas

Both items can be clicked to show the according hApp UI.

Debugging with Holoscape

Click:
Holoscape Icon
|-> Conductor Run-Time
|-> Debug View

You see a list of all running instances.

• Click one of those names to expand
• Use the hApp while having the debug view opened
• You will see "Core actions" getting populated with little pills representing actions
• Click on one of those actions to see its parameters (like which zome function was called with a SignalZomeFunctionCall)
• Click "Source Chain" to see all the source chain entries of that instance