Observation/Frustration with Recent Versions

[JasonG 16]

Let me be clear before I voice my opinion - I love Emby, my family loves Emby, and I can't think of a better centralized media platform that works as well as Emby does on pretty much any device I own.

 

That said, I'm frustrated by the frequency of the framework changes that have occurred twice in the past six months that have required plugins to be rewritten or modified in some fashion (including my own). I understand that there development needs that can cause code changes, however if the base framework changes, there should be safeguards in place as a "double-check" for those that have automatic updates enabled, especially if functionality they may rely on is suddenly removed, causing plugins becoming invalid. The same could technically be said of the release notes (as limited as they are) for those of us that manually update. Warnings, or technical notes should be clearly stated that underlying code may adversely change API/plug-in support. I would completely understand moving to a 3.X release... but the changes I'm referring to are occurring at a very minor version level, and are bundled with other changes, to compound the issues.

 

In addition, the automatic update on the Windows side to the most recent .36 release caused the system to become very unstable (and it's evident others had the same issue, based on the hot topic in General). Coupled with the fact that it required a reinstall from the web, many plugins stopped working with this release (specifically some of the Radeon tools, as well as one of my own), and there is absolutely nothing noted in the release notes about framework changes. There shouldn't be a need to review the website/forums - it should be listed on Github (for the manual updaters), and there should be a better verbosity on the dashboard to allow folks to see the changes to the new version (the link that has been mentioned many times is random in the news feed, and by the time someone would see it, the update is already pending) and provide the ability to defer an update. I've rolled back to .35, where I'll likely stay for a while, until this new wave of issues gets resolved.

 

Just my .02... from an SDLC standpoint, regression testing and strong documentation are critical when releasing code that has underlying low-level changes.

 

[Luke 42089]

Moving to .NET Core has been a gradual, year long process that has required a series of changes along the way. Now that we're there we're now able to enjoy this smaller, faster and more efficient platform from which to run Emby on.

 

I apologize that some plugins have temporarily become casualties, but the developers of pretty much every plugin have all committed to updating for .NET Core, so in time you should see new versions released that you're able to use.

[JasonG 16]

I completely understand where you're coming from. I only ask that perhaps a bit more thought is given to how those required framework changes are communicated to the users that may be affected. I know that a vast majority of users may never notice, or care about some of those programming changes, as long as their server runs with the built-in functionality.

 

I run a separate beta instance to stay current with the changes (albeit without the plugins, so I may have to change that  ), but it would be great to have a more technical release document (or update process) for those of us that have built a significant system around Emby. I do recognize the time that is required to do so, however, and that it may not be feasible at this point.

 

Again, no complaints, just my thoughts - a big thanks to all of the developers for continuing to make Emby better!

[Luke 42089]

Thanks for the feedback. The reason for not communicating is that it was intended to be a transparent upgrade that wouldn't be noticed. In fact, having to make people aware of the runtime is exactly the kind of thing that could intimidate some and drive them away. Api docs for developers were published in August, so they have had time to update. I apologize that some have not updated yet but the ones I know of have committed to it so hopefully they'll be updated soon.