[New] BitComet Beta [20101109] is here

[Lucy26]

Dear all,

The latest Beta version of BitComet has just been released, you're all welcomed to download it HERE.

Changelog

[2010.11.09]

GUI Bugfix: preview icons in file list display incorrectly in XP

Core Bugfix: improve stability

[2010.11.03]

GUI Improved: display download progress on task bar button in Windows 7

GUI Improved: only one tag can be selected in the filter toolbar of task list

GUI Bugfix: total speed of download/upload not displayed in peer list in [20101029] beta

Core Improve: improve download speed of "VIP Accelerate"

Core Bugfix: speed up the download rate of pieces having file boundaries from Long-Time Seeds

[2010.10.29]

GUI Improved: add "VIP Accelerate" for BitTorrent download, enable from the VIP icon in task list

GUI Improved: new global settings: move downloaded files to specified folder after task finished

GUI Improved: add task filter on the top of task list, filter tasks by states, tags and keywords

GUI Improved: move task tag list from the favorites bar at left to the task filter bar above task list

GUI Improved: add keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F to find task

GUI Improved: show batch download dialog when open multiple magnet links using Ctrl+U

GUI Improved: change the text of preview/open in task list to icon

GUI Improved: remove the upper limit of the peer number displayed in peer list of BitTorrent task and display all

GUI Improved: display a yellow warning icon for tasks that failed to move/rename files after download finished

GUI Improved: improve the "Search ED2K links" dialog launched from the file list of BitTorrent task

GUI Improved: add thumbnail picture for task bar button in Windows 7, to display downloading task information

GUI Improved: add frequent used operations to context menu of task bar button in Windows 7

GUI Improved: new global settings to specify main window action when program starts, minimized or closed

GUI Improved: new option for auto-shutdown, to action once or forever

GUI Improved: OpenDir, Properties and Delete buttons in toolbar available when switched to Torrent History list

Core Improve: support "VIP Accelerate" for BitTorrent download

Core Improve: keep original creator name of torrent file when save torrent as

Core Bugfix: connect to peers returned from DHT network using encryption protocol by force (thanks to Ori)

Core Bugfix: VideoSnapshot.exe can not exit normally when processing abnormal video files

Please feel free to leave your comments and feedback in this post.

Thank you for your support.

The BitComet Team

[kluelos]

Installing this beta messes with my tab settings (makes the LOGS tag visible again), and displays a game advertisement in my browser. That latter will reinforce the old claim that BitComet is adware.

Preview icons are now visible in the files tab under XP.

If the file is partially downloaded, the icon is an outline. If fully downloaded, the icon is filled in.

However, it seems to function identically either way. If that's true, then we're going to get support questions about what that means, which could be entirely avoided if it simply didn't do that.

How about it's just a solid green right-arrow (not what I would choose for a preview icon, incidentally) that doesn't change?

I would like to make a suggestion that, if LT Seedng is disabled in the options, the eponymous column in the files tab should disappear, rather than remain and be filled with "No Support" for every entry. That makes it look like it's something that needs to be fixed or that it's bad to do that rather than just a matter of personal preference.

The "ED2K LINK" column should behave similarly (if, say, the plugin isn't installed).

[Lucy26]

Hi kluelos, I've talked to my teammate about your suggestions.

Installing this beta messes with my tab settings

This is because few changes were made in the detailed info pane, a tab was added under testing mode, hence the order of tabs was disrupted.

displays a game advertisement in my browser

That's one of the games developed by our company, I'm not sure if this webpage can be defined as an advertisement, because we own it... :unsure:

If the file is partially downloaded, the icon is an outline. If fully downloaded, the icon is filled in.

The outlined arrow means "preview", the solid arrow means "play". The meaning of both arrows will be added into the wiki after the next stable release comes out, so I guess we won't need to worry about users.

if LT Seedng is disabled in the options, the eponymous column in the files tab should disappear, rather than remain and be filled with "No Support" for every entry..........The "ED2K LINK" column should behave similarly (if, say, the plugin isn't installed).

This change is not very likely to be made. The "No support" in LT seeding column tells user the status of LT Seeding, and the text in brackets explains why LT seeding isn't supported. If you find these 2 columns useless, you can uncheck them to hide them.

Anyway, thank you for your ideas kluelos! :D

[kluelos]

When a seeding task reaches the status of exceeding the maximum number of tasks (That is, it was downloading, then reached 100% and has now become seeding task #3 where only 2 are permitted), the task status icon changes to a yellow triangle with an exclamation point stating that the "file cannot be found" instead of the appropriate icon for a queued seeding task.

If you remove one of the other seeding tasks (in order to drop below the maximum number of tasks), then stop and restart the task in question, the icon changes back to an orange up-arrow.

(I've had this occur twice now, but I am not certain of the conditions under which it appears. I don't have a testing lab and can't set up to duplicate the conditions easily, but this is what it appears to be.)

1) This is a new icon. It needs to be documented in the FAQ and its function explained.

2) Its tooltip says that the file cannot be found, but gives no hint or clue WHICH file it cannot find. This is horrible UI design, the customer has to just guess what the problem is. If the problem IS a file or related to a file, then such messages should always report the full pathname of the file in question so that the customer at least has an idea where to start.

That's one of the games developed by our company, I'm not sure if this webpage can be defined as an advertisement, because we own it... :unsure:

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Most people would clearly define it as an ad no matter who owns it. Ownership just isn't relevant.

I think all of us would feel very uncomfortable with trying to claim that's not advertising, or to agree with that position.

The mere existence of a logo display in the video viewer was enough to spark the original charge of adware, way back in version 0.6x when it was first incorporated. If a really borderline case like that was a problem, a clear issue like being involuntarily shipped to an unasked-for web page is unquestionably adware.

This change is not very likely to be made. The "No support" in LT seeding column tells user the status of LT Seeding, and the text in brackets explains why LT seeding isn't supported. If you find these 2 columns useless, you can uncheck them to hide them.

Well, that is not true. The functionality to view or not view columns within a tab doesn't exist, i.e., you can't hide them.

You can choose whether or not to have the entire tab visible, but not the individual columns within any tab. That probably OUGHT to be possible, but certainly isn't now. I think someone is confusing this with the main window.

This repetitive column of "No Support" messages looks like an error that needs to be attended to -- else why repeat it multiple times, for each file, why isn't just once for the whole task sufficient? What's the *point* of saying this *per file*? It's largely doing that, that makes it look like something the user must attend to.

It's also implying something that is not true, namely that I can choose to LT-seed THIS file, but not THAT one, within a torrent. I can't. I can only LT-Seed the entire torrent, all of the files or none of them.

Better to move the statement to the summary tab and state it for the task rather than the files. THat way it also wouldn't look like an error being reported any more.

[greywizard]

On my system (Win XP) and using the last beta, I can select which columns to be visible or not in the Files tab, by right-clicking on any column header and then unchecking/checking the column I want.

It's weird that it doesn't work for you.

[kluelos]

My bad, I didn't try that. I did notice that if you click a column now you can sort by that column and reverse-sort by clicking again, which was a feature requested years ago. I'm really glad to see it implemented.

Left-clicking does allow me to select column visibility.

Working some more with the "can't find file" problem, I had enabled the new "move to directory when finished" feature but had not really tested it.

I tried downloading a small torrent with this active, and I got the icon even though I had only one other task seeding, so it's apparently not related to the number of tasks as I stated, but related to the "move to directory" feature.

When I stopped the task with the problem and just immediately restarted it, it the yellow icon vanished and I got the normal orange upload arrow.

BC did successfully move the task, but apparently lost track of it after it did so. It looks like the task needs to be stopped, the move performed, then the task started again, but without another hash check, to get this to work smoothly.

It's now apparently officially v 1.24 according to the download site, as I saw when I went to get the eMule plugin.

[Lucy26]

I'll ask my team leader see if anything can be done on the game page, but I cannot guarantee the removal of that page, since we are promoting new servers of the games.

Yes BitComet 1.24 was released last night, some changes will be added in the wiki, probably next week.

Kluelos, I'm sorry but I'm kind of lost in the "Can't find file" problem, can you please break it down and explain to me again? I was a bit lost from the very beginning, and became even more confused in the next post.... :(

[kluelos]

Ok, this happens when I have a task that makes the transition from leeching to seeding, which for me is typically overnight, and when I have the new "move completed download to" option active.

When I check it in the morning, the task has a yellow triangle with an exclamation point as its icon. This is the icon that Windows typically uses to indicate a configuration problem with some hardware in Device Manager.

a) It's a new icon for BitComet, so it needs to be documented in the FAQ.

b ) If I mouseover that icon, it says that it can't find the file. But it doesn't offer a clue as to WHAT file it can't find. That must change. That is terrible user interface design. If the problem IS a file then we need to tell the customer what file we're talking about so that he can attempt to do something about it.

c) Now if I stop the task, then immediately restart it, the yellow icon vanishes and I get the correct orange up-arrow for a seeding task. Thus, it appears to me that "can't find file" means that BitComet was looking in the original download location (where the file was before BitComet moved it after completion) and not finding it (naturally), then complaining about that. When I stop and restart the task, it looks in the right place (the pathname where it was moved to), finds it, and begins seeding normally.

[greywizard]

Lucy, this icon is mentioned in the changelog for v.1.24.

"GUI Improved: display a yellow warning icon for tasks that failed to move/rename files after download finished".

Obviously, in this case this is a little bug, since as kluelos reports, the files actually GET moved, but the application doesn't seem to be aware of that, at first.

[Lucy26]

I see. Thank you kluelos and wiz, I'll talk to the development team about this bug.;)

[Lucy26]

Hey kluelos, my teammate could not reproduce the bug, can you please attach these pictures:

1. The summary tab when the task is downloading.

2. The summary tab when the task is complete.

3. The message appeared when you mouseover the triangle icon.

Thank you. ;)