OpenLP
Empower Your Church

Reflections and Projections

OpenLP 3.0 "Steadfast Simeon" Released

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, it's finally here! Yes, OpenLP 3.0 has been released!

And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:23-24 WEB

One of our original goals with OpenLP was to move to faster releases, and while that didn't seem to happen for version 3.0, moving foward we are aiming to roll out releases much faster. With that in mind, we decided that the worst bugs have been fixed, and most people should be pretty happy with the 3.0 release.

Known Issues

Before we dive into the new features, here are some known issues which may apply to you:

New Features

One of the biggest changes in version 3.0 is that we completely rewrote the renderer, meaning that we were able to bring in efficient transitions between slides for text items (i.e. songs, Bible verses, custom slides). Transitions are available as part of themes.

Another major change in version 3.0 is the remote. Maintaining separate remotes for browsers, Android and iOS was painful and slow. In version 3.0 we rewrote the remote API, and have consolidated our work into the web remote. The web remote is also no longer bundled with OpenLP, allowing us to roll out updates to the remote separately from OpenLP itself. The old API's will be removed in a future release breaking the Android and IOS applications. Please migrate to the new Web Interface.

In addition to the two above, OpenLP now supports presentations on macOS, using LibreOffice, Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac and Keynote. Support of Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer has been removed.

Other New Features

  • VLC is now bundled with OpenLP on macOS and Windows, and there is no need to select a media players

  • Guide marks to show position within a clip and the ability to repeat the playing video

  • Motion (video) backgrounds in themes

  • Better screen detection and configuration

  • Performance improvements reducing start up times

  • The settings page has been updated, so a number of options have moved

  • All icons have been migrated from images to scalable monochromatic fonts to allow for the support of larger desktop displays and dark themes

  • OpenLP now ships with a dark interface/UI theme. On Windows and macOS, it can be enabled by enabling the dark theme on system. You can always force the dark theme by changing the Interface Theme in Settings

  • Media and Presentations now support being grouped by folders

  • Slide numbers in footer can be enabled in Settings

  • Songs can be searched by number

  • Chord support in songs (can be enabled in Song settings). The chords are shown in the "Chords View" section of Web Remote, which supports chord transposition and mobile devices

  • More song formats can be imported: - Singing The Faith - LivePresenter - ProPresenter 5 and 6 - EasyWorship 6 - ChordPro (for chords)

  • More bible formats can be imported: - SWORD - WordProject

  • Support for importing services from PlanningCenter

Updates and Bug Fixes

A lot more has been fixed, updated or improved, far too much to include here. If you're really curious, you can do a comparison between 2.4.6 and 3.0.0 on GitLab.

Download

Head on over to the downloads section of the website to download version 3.0 now!

Download

New Release: OpenLP 3.0 RC2 (2.9.5) Helpful Hadassah

Today we are announcing the release of OpenLP 2.9.5. This is the second release candidate of OpenLP 3.0, and contains a plethora of bug fixes.

You can download this release from the bottom of this blog post.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 WEB

Bug fixes in this release

  • Fix various issues in downloading and maintaining Web Remote

  • Fix various issues in saving services

  • Fix various bugs in handling files

  • Fix various bugs around background audio in songs

  • Fix some formatting in songs/slides/etc

  • Fix Crosswalk Bible importer

  • Various bug fixes in the remote projector controller

  • Fix various issues around videos, background images and blanking

  • Switch to using the old way of making text outlines

  • Change the icons from groups to folders in the Images plugin

  • Fix various issues in chord handling

  • Confirm deleting item from service

  • And much, much, much more...

Downloads

macOS 10.12+ Ubuntu Debian Fedora Source

New Release: OpenLP 3.0 RC1 (2.9.4) Mighty Malachi

Time for the first release candidate for 3.0 - we're getting really close now!

Basically, if no issues are detected with this release it will become the 3.0 release.

Bug fixes since beta 2

  • Dark mode fixes

  • Fix of problem showing presentations after media items

  • Fix issues when adding service items remotely

  • Default to the first screen if there is no display screen

  • Correction of previous fix for setting slide numbers in footers

  • Various code clean ups especially Alerts.

  • Fix media issues with DVD playing

  • Resolve issues with formatting Tags

  • Fix bugs from the beta 2 release

This release should be nearly ready for production, but there might be a few bugs left here and there. Make sure to report them if you find any!

Downloads

macOS 10.12+ Ubuntu Debian Fedora Source

OpenLP 3.0 Beta 2 (2.9.3) Zealous Zechariah [UPDATED]

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.

New Features

Here are some of the fancy new features in this release:

  • Better dark mode

  • Folders in Media and Presentations

  • Various Webserver changes to support the remote interface.

  • Quick access to the help through the "?" icon on a number of windows

  • High DPI scaling for 4k monitors

  • Improved media handling

  • Updated display mode toggle system

  • Add slide numbers in footers

  • Allow sub directories in custom stages

  • Make images fullscreen

Bug Fixes

Of course, this release also packs a ton of bug fixes and enhancements:

  • Fix merging of song books

  • Fix replacing the incorrect service entry when the live item was changed externally (#881)

  • Fix some issues with the alerts

  • Handle window changes more gracefully

  • Fix icons in print when using a dark theme

  • Fix data directory copy fail

  • Various fixes around presentations

  • Various fixes for the remote API and the web remote

  • Fix preview video restart after pause or stop

  • Fix some bugs in the CCLI/SongSelect import

  • Fix missing image service load crash

  • Fix a bug where drag-and-drop images are loaded twice.

  • Fix chapter count for Zechariah

  • Fix a few other issues with Bibles

  • Fix reset footer template

    And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

    Galatians 6:9 ESV

Downloads

macOS 10.12+ Ubuntu Debian Fedora Source

OpenLP 2.9.2 aka 3.0 Beta 1 - Persistent Peninah

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.

New Features

  • Keynote and PowerPoint support for macOS

  • New web remote version (upgrade by visiting Settings -> Remotes)

  • Fixed SongSelect importer -- it now opens an internal web browser

  • A better dark mode on Windows 10

  • Native dark mode on macOS

Known issues

  • Using a video / streaming background theme prevents playback of audio linked to to songs

Downloads

macOS 10.12+ Ubuntu Debian Fedora Source

Other notable changes and bug fixes

  • Powerpoint fixes

  • Relicense GPL-2 files

  • Fix the CrossWalk Biblestudytools.com importer

  • Fix two bugs in the MediaShout importer

  • Fix image db upgrade

  • Add footer to the object returned in the api

  • Re-add custom stage view support

  • Expose the entire ServiceItem in the API

  • Remove and add screens without reloading screens

  • Allow XML processing istructions in OpenLyrics importer

  • Revert recently introduced bug causing video background to be on top of lyrics. The crash this was supposed to fix is no longer present.

  • Fix the colour of the icons on macOS

  • Set default header and footer areas if not overridden

  • Scale service save progress increments to thousandths

  • Fix incorrect image title from loading service

  • Fix Image Backgrounds and remove Image Manager

  • Upgrade and cleanup WebSocket code

  • Various alpha2 fixes

  • Update API definition

  • Settings cleanup

OpenLP 2.9.1 aka 3.0 Alpha 2 - Encouraging Ephraim [UPDATED]

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

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.

OpenLP 3.0 Alpha 1: Refactored Rebecca

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.

Known Issues

  • Disable BibleServer support for now

  • Remote API is still unstable

  • Old web remote doesn't work, new one on the way

  • QCollatorKey error when loading services created by OpenLP 2.4.6

  • After installing on Windows OpenLP does not start automaticly even though "Launch OpenLP" is checked

New Features

  • Implemented a new renderer

  • Transitions in themes

  • Drop all media players other than VLC

  • Planning Center plugin

  • New screen selection widget

  • New icons

  • New song importers:

    • Singing The Faith

    • LiveWorship

    • ProPresenter 5 and 6

    • EasyWorship 6

  • New Bible importers:

    • SWORD

    • WordProject

  • Searching by Song Number

  • Guitar chords (in ChordPro format)

  • Update license GPL version 3 or higher

  • Added a Zeroconf service to aid devices detecting OpenLP on the network

  • Video changes

    • Ability to show Streaming

    • Sound for Preview

    • Ability to loop videos

    • Show video time and how long it has played

  • Support Impress for presentations on macOS via Pyro4

  • Support PJLink2 specification for projector control

  • New dark theme for OpenLP

  • Global proxy settings

  • Totally new internal API server

  • Added SongBook name, Song Number and Alternative Title to "Entire Song" search

  • Support more fields in song search: topic, copyright, CCLI number search

  • Natural sorting for song book searches

  • Revamped the Bible tab interface in the Library

  • New logo and branding!

Enhancements

  • Refactored how settings work

  • Better layouts in Theme wizard

  • Better parsing of scripture references

  • Sort the authors when exporting the songs

  • Alerts are now able to scroll

  • Update the about dialog

  • Updated translations

  • Some performance enhancements

  • Add epub, cbz, and fb2 support to pdf controller

  • Catch some errors to provide user friendly error messages

  • Replace PyICU with PyQt's QCollator

  • Add proxy settings button to First Run Wizard

  • Remove proxy settings from individual bibles and use the central OpenLP proxy server settings.

  • Use appdirs instead of pyxdg

  • Raise minimum Python version to 3.6

  • Implement natural sort for authors, topics, songbooks, themes

  • Added QR code and link for iOS app to remote plugin ui

  • Hide the splash screen when a message shows during startup

  • Hide the Projectors manager by default so that it doesn't confuse people

Plus a whole lot of code cleanup and feature streamlining...

Bug Fixes

  • Fix window titles so that the main window just says 'OpenLP'

  • Update the translation process files and fix issues

  • Use PyMySQL rather than MySQL Connector

  • Fix service Print code

  • Fix deleting song books

  • Fix bible reference search when text matches multiple books

  • Strip unwanted formatting characters when pasting into song editor

  • Word of Worship file importer fixes / rework

  • Fix choruses, bridges & etc. being imported as verses in CCLI txt files

  • Attempt to remove/reduce circular imports

  • Fix dvd clip selection

Tons and tons of other minor bug fixes

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

OpenLP is now on GitLab

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

Further News

We've also recently made great strides toward an alpha release recently. The new rendering engine is almost complete, and the VLC-based media framework is also pretty much done. There are a couple more minor things like bug fixes and general cleanup that need to be done, and then we're going to release OpenLP 3.0 Alpha 1.

Again, we don't have an exact date, but it will be pretty soon.

Helping with Development

Just a reminder, if you want to help with development (and that includes non-coders!), please take a look at the getting started page on our wiki, and making sure to join the mailing list and hang out with us in IRC.

Integration with BibleGateway Broken

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.

OpenLP Now Licensed Under GPL Version 3

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.

Does this affect me?

People reading this blog post will no doubt be asking themselves, "does this affect me?" and the answer depends on what your role within OpenLP is.

End user

If you're an end user, someone who downloaded and installed OpenLP and is using it in your church, youth group, Bible study, or somewhere else, this change does not affect you. Your freedoms remain the same, you can still use it whenever, wherever and however you want. You can still give OpenLP away to as many people as you want, without needing to obtain permission (the license expressly gives you permission to do this). This newer version of the license ensures your freedoms the same way the old version did, but adapted to a newer age of technology.

Developer

In many ways, this change does not affect people contributing to OpenLP either. From today onward, however, your contributions to OpenLP will be covered by version 3 (or higher) of the GNU GPL.

Do I need to do anything?

No, this is just a change to how we the developers are licensing OpenLP. You don't need to do anything.

Why the change?

Version 2 of the GPL was sufficient for many years, but many of the libraries and projects that OpenLP uses have moved forward, not only in code but also in licenses. With this in mind, OpenLP had to change our license to be compliant with the licenses of the libaries and project we use.