pub2 Dev Blog

scenelabs Policy and Pricing Revisions for 2012

2012-02-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Today we implemented our new revised pricing for our products. These changes are mainly due to recent events within the file hosting scene, but also due to the new direction that we wish to go in.

scenelabs Publisher is now considered a legacy application. Most of the file hosts it supported are no longer used. It will receive no future updates. It has been removed from the product list and its license price has been significantly increased.

scenelabs pub2 will recieve much less development time. In addition to this, its pricing scheme has been revised significantly:

Free license has been removed.
Basic license will likely be removed.
Ultimate license pricing has been increased to £249.99 monthly or £2,999 for a lifetime license.
Lifetime license holders of Publisher 1 will receive Publisher 2 for free if purchased after 2012-01-01.

We are aware that the new pricing changes will not appeal to 99% of people. This is largely intentional. Please keep in mind the following:

Publisher 1 was the most powerful application on the market for what it did. It was 4 years old and doing stuff it wasn't designed for. It was terrible.
Publisher 2 is better than Publisher 1 in every way.
With reduced development time being given to Publisher 2, there is not a lot of time for feature requests. The new pricing scheme will significantly reduce the client base, which will reduce feature requests and support time required, resulting in a better experience for both developers and clients.

The cheap price tag of Publisher 1 contributed to the saturation of links available on the internet. While some may view this as good, ultimately it is not. There are rougly 3 groups of people that the Publisher series appeals to:

The people that are dedicated and efficient.
The people that are perhaps not as dedicated or efficient, but have the knowledge and potential to become so.
The people that want a free money ticket without any effort, thought, or learning, and are generally bad for the file host scene.

The majority of scenelabs clients fit groups 3 and 2. Our preferred clients belong to groups 1 and 2, and will be taking steps to only accept these types of client from now on.

Another new addition to our client acceptance policy is language requirement. Clients must display an ability to communicate clearly and fluently in English. We do not care so much about grammar and spelling mistakes, but the ability to form a coherent sentence is now a requirement.

Filename Modifiers

2012-02-04T00:48:00.000-08:00

Filename modifiers allow for the automatic renaming of files being uploaded.

The job editor window. You can select a modifier here.

The filename modifiers test window.

The list of modifiers available (as of right now).

The file upload window for the job above.

Output Templates

2012-02-03T22:39:00.001-08:00

I've added rough documentation for output templates on the wiki.

Delayed

2012-01-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

I'd hoped to have pub2 ready by now. However, I thought of a new feature I wanted to add that would require redoing some upload extensions if I added the feature later.

That is all.

Intermission

2012-01-24T00:49:00.001-08:00

Pub2 dev will resume tomorrow. Until then, feel free to check out scenelabs.info v2. And if you don't have an account, why not ask someone you know for an invite code ;)

Day 12 - Automation Subscriptions

2012-01-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

I explained this in detail last post, and I just finished the UI.

CLICK THIS!

The same-as-every-other-list-window subscriptions window.

Create a subscription

This needs to be changed a bit.

Create a new text file.

HOLY SHIT OUR JOB GOT ADDED WTFBBQ

Day 11 - Automation

2012-01-18T05:36:00.000-08:00

These seem to now be going in 2 day intervals instead of 1 day intervals. Oh well.

Today I (mostly) finished automation. The code is done, I just haven't finished the interface and I'm quite tired so I'm not doing that today.

The system administrator can set up Automation Sources via this menu.


This is the terrible, terrible looking window that contains active automation sources.

The add button brings up the add extension window (obviously).

We can then modify the source settings using this obviously copy-pasted window. FSWatcher is very basic and doesn't have a lot of options.

Note that although FSWatcher is shitty, the automation API is very flexible. It supports passing info from the automation source to the template, which is ideal for blog thieves. I may make an RSS leecher myself, but I'm quite lazy you know.

The subscription interface isn't done yet, so I'll explain it. Automation Sources work together with Automation Subscriptions. Users can view all of the automation sources and create "subscriptions" to them. Subscriptions are tied to a specific source and user, and have configurable name, job name filter, filename filter, and job template.

When an automation source is triggered (for FSWatcher, this would be when a new file is created), a broadcast is sent to all the source's subscriptions. New jobs will then be created and started using the associated job template for all subscriptions that have filters that match what the source is offering.

I've probably explained it badly. Oh well.

P.s.
Renaming engines are cool.

Day[9] - Linux/Mac Tests 'n' Stuff

2012-01-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

The core is roughly 90% complete. The only thing left is finishing touches and finishing the interface, but it works.

It should be ready for Beta when I've added actual stuff (uploaders, etc).

Also, Linux tests worked flawlessly.

The config window. Yawn.


This button adds a new job! Who would've thought.

Yep. File selection.

Yep. Name and template selection. More on those later.

This is how you configure a job. Ain't that some shit.

Double click that bad boy.


Configure dat module.


Why not a single link version too?

Why not save these settings?

We can use them for the next job!

And save lots of time :)

We can run on Mac too, BECAUSE EVERYONE USES MAC FOR UPLOADING AMIRITE?

Day 7

2012-01-14T02:19:00.000-08:00

Working on the new template engine. Designing something that enables simple stuff and detailed stuff has proven trickier than first anticipated. Keeping it simple is made tricky due to data sources actually being a modular thing this time instead of just a single 5000 line plugin.

I've more or less settled on a design that I want to use. Due to it's somewhat MVCish nature some advanced things won't be able to be kept simple.

Day 5

2012-01-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

No pub2 work today. Worked on the website instead. Note, features below are subject to change.

The scenelabs website now has a nice automated payment system ready for when pub2 goes live. Account registration is available but is invite only (all users have unlimited invites, but may have a maximum of 3 pending invites at a time).

When someone you invited pays for their license, a percentage of the money they paid will be credited to your scenelabs balance, which can be used to pay for your own licenses and maybe some other stuff.

Day 4 - Job Upload Interface

2012-01-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

The interface is starting to not suck.

The upload "Group" is assigned to files that are a part of the same group. E.g., upload.part1.rar and upload.part2.rar on Rapidshare would be in the "rapidshare" group. The group is used to display links within the post template.

You could have RAR splits and a single link uploading to the same host and group them into "rapidshare_rars" and "rapidshare_single", allowing you to upload multiple formats to the same location and being able to differentiate between them within the post template.

Day 3

2012-01-10T02:43:00.000-08:00

Productivity: Above average.

I finished the new upload engine and designed an i/o sampler for measuring speed very accurately. The new upload engine now allows uploading files with virtual filenames. This means you can have the file on your hard drive once, but use different filenames and CRC for each file host. You can also create virtual HJSplit style files without splitting the file on your hard drive.

Also, the interface is coming along quite nicely.

Everyone loves progress bars

The plan for this screen is to be able to view and control all active network connections.

Day 2

2012-01-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

What a not so productive day. Designing nice graphical stuff that also works with mono is quite the annoying task. Thankfully, the design is coming along well and isn't completely fugly in mono.


Ain't that some shit.

Mono: Making me lose my shit since 2009.

Thankfully I got the multi user stuff mostly finished. Licensing and configuration is also coming along nicely.

This is my license. It's expensive.

Maybe edit later. Peace.

Day 1

2012-01-08T03:58:00.000-08:00

Hello,

If you're reading this then you probably have more time on your hands than I do. The goal of this blog is to record the progress of the pub2 interface from the ground up. The core is mostly complete, which means awesomeness.

So, after years of no interface, I'm tasked with creating one.


Is that a motherfucking text box instead of a config file?

Holy shit, a list telling me which plugins I have and have not loaded?

Shit, son. Modifying plugins without restarting AND SOME MOTHERFUCKING STATUS ICONS?

Bam, son. Settings editor.

Vague plan for the main window.

Isn't that exciting. Goodnight.