gPodder Portable 3.1.0 (podcast receiver) Released

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on May 10, 2012 - 12:52pm

logogPodder Portable 3.1.0 has been released. gPodder is an easy to use podcast receiver that will download and manage your podcast subscriptions. This release updates gPodder to the latest version. Note that gPodder's settings have changed and settings/subscriptions will be lost when upgrading from 2.x to 3.x. You can export your subscriptions in the Subscriptions menu before upgrading and then reimport after upgrading. It's packaged in PortableApps.com Format so it can easily integrate with the PortableApps.com Platform. And it's open source and completely free.

Update automatically or install from the portable app store in the PortableApps.com Platform.

Features

Screenshot

  • iPod, MP3 player and mobile phone support
  • RSS, Atom, YouTube and Soundcloud feeds
  • Focus on Usability
  • Integrated with the gpodder.net Web Service

Learn more about gPodder...

PortableApps.com Installer / PortableApps.com Format

gPodder Portable is packaged in a PortableApps.com Installer so it will automatically detect an existing PortableApps.com installation when your drive is plugged in. It supports upgrades by installing right over an existing copy, preserving all settings. And it's in PortableApps.com Format, so it automatically works with the PortableApps.com Platform including the Menu and Backup Utility.

Download

gPodder Portable is available for immediate download from the gPodder Portable homepage. Get it today!

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Comments

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

May 10, 2012 - 12:54pm

There is a warning on install that reads as follows:

GPODDER PORTABLE 2.x UPGRADE WARNING - PLEASE READ!

gPodder 3.0 and higher uses a settings and podcast database that is incompatible with previous versions. When you upgrade, you will lose your current settings and list of podcasts. You can preserve them by exporting your subscriptions (Subscriptions menu - Export to OPML file) in version 2.x before upgrading, and then importing them back in once you upgrade. Your currently downloaded episodes will be preserved but moved from gPodderPortable\Data\downloads to gPodderPortable\Data\config\Downloads. After reimporting your subscriptions, they may be unavailable through the gPodder interface.

Additionally, you may see a notice that a new version of gPodder is available when you start up. But, upon visiting gPodder.org, you see you are running the current version. This is a bug due to the fact that gPodder's Windows builds often lag behind the Linux builds. If you use the PortableApps.com Platform, you'll get the new version of gPodder Portable as soon as it's ready.

That should help folks upgrading from 2.x a bit. Sadly, there isn't a better upgrade procedure, so we detailed it in a license that you can cancel out of if you aren't aware prior to upgrading.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

What did you have to do to get 3.x.x to work?

"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

May 10, 2012 - 2:47pm

Had to have Python and PyGTK+ included with the proper environment variables. Had to figure out what could be removed since it starts out at 175MB total. Had to figure out what Visual C++ runtimes needed inclusion and where. Had to figure out what could be compressed and what couldn't (sadly, my experiment with letting it create the pyc files and then removing the py files failed, though it would have only saved a few MB). All told, it took a couple hours, but it's working now.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Thats a lot.

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

I've been using the 2.x version for a long time and when I saw what was needed to get the 3.x version to work, I really gave up hope of it working in a paf way.

While the transition from 2.x to 3.x is a bit jarring by design, I believe what you have done in order to get it to work is pretty amazing. My hat off to you for the hard work on this.

While it did take a few steps to get everything back in place, I can't say it was that hard and I'm enjoying the new version. Thanks again.

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

May 11, 2012 - 12:18pm

Which is why it had a big "GPODDER PORTABLE 2.x UPGRADE WARNING - PLEASE READ!" announcement right in the middle of the installation and an explanation of how it upgrades and exactly how you can export and then import your subscriptions.

If you accidentally upgraded without doing this:
1. close gPodder
2. Explore to your gPodderPortable\Data\config\Downloads directory
3. Move all those files back to gPodderPortable\Data\downloads
4. Delete the now-empty gPodderPortable\Data\config\Downloads directory
5. Downgrade to gPodder Portable 2.20 by downloading 2.20 and installing it over the top of the new version.
6. Follow the directions listed above about exporting and importing your subscriptions

The gPodder devs made the decision to rewrite the app so it was incompatible with previous subscriptions databases. That's not something we can fix. What we can do is warn users about the issue right in the install process as well as the release announcement, come up with a set of steps that let users preserve their file, and even have a way to get around it if they installed without reading anything. We can even be nice to you when you swear at us. But we can't make gPodder 3.x read 2.x settings/subscriptions.

gPodder is not that well-supported on Windows and takes a good amount of work to make portable. If you're worried about this happening again, you can always give Juice Portable a try, too. But, hopefully, now that gPodder was rewritten for 3.0, it won't happen again.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

This looked like a tough build, and it is a better version. So I am grateful and applaud your efforts. Getting a workable version without the giant python filesize is a welcome addition!

PortableUser2009

May 13, 2012 - 5:44am

Hi John,

I really appreciate your work and I know that you are not responsible for the gPodder dev and I do not blame you for this.

But it's not only about the release. The new version is really buggy.
F.e. the media player settings get lost after restarting the app.
You can sse them from the interface but they do not work.
From my perpective this version it horrible.

What I blame you for is the non proper testing before adding the updated app to the store and the auto-update. This is still not acceptable!

Following your instructions I switched back to gPodder 2.20. That worked fine. Thanks for your support on this.

Sorry for the hard words but I was really dissappointed and angry.

Regards

PortableUser2009

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

May 13, 2012 - 9:50am

gPodder has always been pretty buggy. The only reason our previous packages worked is because we patched the python code ourselves using some stuff in the gPodder bug tracker. Selecting your media player has never worked, I don't think. It just uses the system default.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

May 11, 2012 - 12:25pm

If you accidentally upgraded without following the details in the window, try this:
1. close gPodder
2. Explore to your gPodderPortable\Data\config\Downloads directory
3. Move all those files back to gPodderPortable\Data\downloads
4. Delete the now-empty gPodderPortable\Data\config\Downloads directory
5. Downgrade to gPodder Portable 2.20 by downloading 2.20 and installing it over the top of the new version.
6. Follow the directions listed above about exporting and importing your subscriptions

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!