Looking back over the past year, OpenLP has had quite an eventful year. In 2011 we had the last two releases of openlp.org 1.2.x, had five releases of OpenLP 2.0 (1.9.x), we moved from alpha releases to beta releases, and we end-of-life'd openlp.org 1.x. Not only that, OpenLP even has an Android app!

Both as an application, and as a project, OpenLP has gone from strength to strength during 2011. Since the first beta release (version 1.9.5) we have had over 80,000 downloads, and the new manual has seen steady improvement since it was first put together. There have been a number of favourable reviews of OpenLP, and we've seen people talking about OpenLP more on the Internet this year. The OpenLP site has also seen almost 150,000 visitors this year.

This coming year promises to be even bigger and better. While we don't have a fixed release date for OpenLP 2.0, the general feeling is that it will likely be toward the end of 2012. This means that lots of bug fixing lies ahead of us, we'd like to get things like translations and the manual complete, and look at revamping the web site for the final release too.

Often we make New Years resolutions but in 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul tells us:

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"

2 Corinthians 13:5, ESV

A careful self-evaluation is often insightful and motivating, especially for Christians working on their New Year’s resolutions. As we kick off the new year, take time to examine you faith and confirm your commitment to Christ, reflecting on what He has done for you this past year, and thinking of what you can do in the coming year to strengthen your faith and deepen your relationship with Him.

In short, the OpenLP team wishes you a blessed and fruitful new year.

PS: Don't forget to upgrade OpenLP to version 1.9.8.

Another release, another beta... As with most other open source projects, we don't want to release OpenLP until it is ready. So here's our Christmas present to you: another beta version. Don't worry, we are just as eager as you to get the final release out, but we also want to make sure the final release is the best it can be, so we'll continue to release beta versions and then release candidates until we're happy with what we've got.

Last night I added Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin to our PPA, so from today or tomorrow all those early birds who like to run Ubuntu from the first alpha release should be able to download the daily build of OpenLP for 12.04. Unfortunately, OpenLP 1.9.7 will be not available for 12.04, but 1.9.8 and up will be.

Don't forget, we support all flavours of Ubuntu, including Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu. Mint Linux is also supported, as long as you are using the standard edition, not the Debian edition (the Debian edition should work too, but it doesn't work directly from the PPA). We also support all releases from 10.04 and up, so don't worry if you want to stick to the LTS releases of Ubuntu, we still support you!

To download OpenLP 1.9.7 for Ubuntu 10.04 to 11.10, go to our download page and add the PPA to your software sources. To download a nightly build (testers and adventurous users only!) of OpenLP, go to the download page and scroll down to the Developer Downloads section.

Changes have been made to the songs plugin to give users the ability to edit songs in a service when the "Add missing Songs when Opening Service" option is disabled. In the past, this was not possible.

This has meant that we needed to make a change to the songs database to protect the database. Thanks to the new internal upgrade system, you do not need to make the change yourself, OpenLP will do so automatically. In addition to this, the songs plugin will be disabled if the version of the database is newer than the version the code expects.

This will only impact people using nightly builds who have a number of copies of the code or who copy the database between different machines and the database has been updated. It will also impact anyone who tries to install an older version of OpenLP after using the latest nightly build.

It is recommended that you first backup your songs database if you think you may need to downgrade to 1.9.7 or an older nightly build after installing the latest nightly build.

Many thanks to Joseph Mulloy and Alexandre D. Rogoski who have worked hard to get OpenLP up and running on openSUSE!

A couple of developers have tried in the past, and run into various issues, but between Joseph and Alexandre, they have managed to overcome these issues, and give us a One-Click Install for openSUSE 12.1, 11.4 and 11.3.

You can download OpenLP for openSUSE by visiting the download page and clicking on the link for your version of openSUSE.

Please note that you will not be able to import songs or Bibles from openlp.org 1.x as dependencies for this functionality are not present within openSUSE. Should you need this, please e-mail your database to support[at]openlp.org and the support team will try to convert them for you.

Hi folks,

I've just committed one of our largest (if not the largest) chunks of code yet. It is a complete rewrite of the way media works in OpenLP. You should not see any noticeable difference from your perspective as the user at the moment, but this change gives us the ability to use various media "engines" to play videos and audio other than the ones built into your platform.

For instance, one of the engines we are working on at the moment is VLC. VLC is the dominant media player, and being able to use VLC as a video player means that OpenLP should be able to play any video that VLC can play. However, this is not yet implemented, we'll let you know when it is.

Due to the nature and the size of this change, we'd really like as many people as possible to test it out for us, and make sure it is bug-free. You'll need to download tonight's nightly build (see the download page), and make sure to backup your OpenLP data and keep the installer for your previous version of OpenLP close at hand. Don't install this on your church computer!

If you do encounter any bugs, please check our Launchpad.net bug tracker, our support system, and the forums before posting your bug report - we may have already received it from someone else.

Hello folks,

Time for a new feature, time for a new blog post...

I just added special shortcut support to the Live Controller to OpenLP. This allows you to navigate through and jump between your slides in the Live Controller using only your keyboard. This works for any type of slide, e. g. songs, bible verses and images.

There have been changes made to Impress 3.4 which make it incompatable with OpenLP if the Impress has been selected as a presentation player.

This is known to effect Fedora 16 and may impact other builds.  If the presentation plugin is enabled then OpenLP will fail to start.

More details will be provided as we find out the impact.

Many churches use CCLI for licensing their music. It's the easy way to stay legal. Every year, however, these churches need to submit what songs they have used, and often also have to fill in a questionnaire about how they use those songs...

The next time you have to fill in that questionnaire, don't forget to point out that you use OpenLP! This has a direct benefit for you, as users of OpenLP, because it means that we have enough users for them to actually listen to us, and think about implementing things like SongSelect differently, so that we can also add it to OpenLP.

OpenLP one point nine point seven It's like a match made in heaven, With plenty new features And fewer bug creatures.

(Stupid poem courtesy of Raoul - you can moan at him!)

NB: Please note that OpenLP does not work on OS X 10.7 Lion. This is a known issue, and we are working on a solution.

It's release time again, and once again this new version will not disappoint. Along with over 79 bug fixes there have been a large number of features added.

Moving on we hope the next release will either be the first Release Candidate, or the last beta.

New features:

• Basic support for audio files on songs.

• Internal database upgrading (no more re-importing of your database).

• Drag and Drop support has been enhanced from the desktop into all plugins and Services.

• It is now possible to change to the colour surrounding small images used for themes or when displayed from a service.

• The Song database now records when a song is created and edited.

• Song Usage can now record when a song is used or printed.

• The Android client is now available on the Android Market

• More visible indication if song usage is active or not.

• Tooltips in the service manager, including theme name, notes and media playing time.

• The spell checker is active in notes as well.

• The First Run Wizard can be re-run.

• Settings can be exported and imported.

Major bugs that have been fixed:

• Render performance improvements.

• Image displaying performance improvement.

• Fixed JPEG support on Mac OS X 10.6.

• Formatting tags now work on second slide when slide is split.

• You can update the song's theme by double-clicking on the top level item in the service manager after setting a new theme.

• The manual is now packaged with OpenLP on Windows.

• Various fixes around the First Run Wizard, including better handling of no connectivity.

• Various fixes for the Bible and songs imports.