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Beaker Browser Changelog

What's new in Beaker Browser 1.1.0

Dec 9, 2020
  • New features:
  • Add beaker.shell.tagDrive(). See the API docs. (close #1864)
  • Add the ability to set tags in create/forkDrive when prompt=false (#1864)
  • Add the ability to create drives from the select/save file dialogs (close #1866)
  • Automatically update the drives listings in modal dialogs (close #1867)
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fix issue with screenshot captures (close #1872)
  • Destroy all tabs when a window is closed (fix #1871)
  • Dont unsnap windows from the edge on ctrl+tab (close #1868)
  • Maintain focus in the active pane when window blurs then refocuses (close #1869)
  • Fix the license-viewer mouse events (close #1862)
  • Fixes to the shutdown process
  • Remove old contacts UI in select-file modal
  • Fix reference error in webterm

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 (Dec 3, 2020)

  • Beaker 1.0 is finally here! And with it, we've solidified the move from Dat to the Hypercore Protocol (same team, new name, updated tech).

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 7 (Jul 15, 2020)

  • In Beta 6 we introduced tiling panes. With Beta 7, we take panes even further with “attached mode” and new Web APIs.

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 6 (Jul 15, 2020)

  • In Beta 6 we introduced tiling panes. With Beta 7, we take panes even further with “attached mode” and new Web APIs.

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 6 (Jul 10, 2020)

  • Added dark mode
  • Added the tiling window manager
  • Added the bookmarks bar

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 5 (Jun 19, 2020)

  • Added tab minimization
  • Updated folder-sync tools
  • Less page-flicker when switching tabs
  • Less flickering in the “favicon” and loading spinners of tabs
  • A “tab close” animation
  • hyper:// responses now stream, improving page-load speed
  • Added “Add to dictionary” to context menu on spellchecked words (thanks Matthew Auld!) #1745
  • Added settings to set the default search engine (thanks Matthew Auld!) #1722
  • Beaker now indicates that shutdown is on-going #1712
  • The Webterm font no longer has the purple text-effect as it was hurting accessibility #1570
  • Added the ability to cmd/ctrl+click or middle-click on menubar items to open them in a new tab #1626
  • Added more detail to query() output #1699
  • Added configuration for whether new tabs take focus or not #1634
  • The Network Stats page now gives better descriptions of the drives #1628
  • The tab-close button is now hidden if not the active taab #1720
  • Relative imports now work in custom webterm commands #1680
  • The window.beaker object will not be set if the APIs are not supported in the protocol (such as file:///) #1713
  • Saving from file editor no longer overwrites the file ctime #1659
  • Writing to file using writeFile no longer erases metadata. #1714

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 4 (Jun 4, 2020)

  • Improvements:
  • New beaker.hyperdrive.forkDrive API parameters #1694
  • Add Folder-sync #1600
  • Add legacy dat:// browsing #1674
  • Add commands reload command to webterm #1708
  • Add “recently visited” to start page #1705
  • Add ‘json’ encoding to readFile/writeFile #1703
  • Better “site identity” information for Beaker’s builtin interfaces #1678
  • Bugfixes:
  • Fixed issue where file manager doesn’t import everything on drag and drop #1695
  • Closing a prompt modal now returns focus to window #1709
  • Fixed beaker/issues with dat to hyperdrive conversion #1698
  • Peers will no longer appear joining unshared drive #1598
  • Editor now shows “loading” status on folder clicks #1691
  • Settings “Network Stats” view now provides better loading and error feedback #1655
  • Fixed beaker/issues where the query() limit param was incorrectly applied #1702
  • Javascript in <script type="module"> now syntax-highlights correctly in the editor #1637
  • Modals now support the context menu #1561

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 3 (May 29, 2020)

  • Bugfixes:
  • Fix to the dat:// converter on windows #1611
  • Improvements to the rendering of the peers menu #1670
  • Browsing session (previously open tabs) now correctly restore from tray #1666
  • Fix to the auto updater #1677
  • Fix to the editor’s file export #1676
  • User directory now correctly includes a “add to address book” button #1564
  • The mv command now correctly handles targets with spaces in their name #1651
  • The beforeunload event now workss correcty #1645
  • The Beaker icon on Mac OS dark menu bar now renders correctly #1629
  • “My Drives” and “Hosting” will no longer fail to load if a drive has no title #1644
  • Can no longer cause the editor to accidentally navigate by drag&drop #1647
  • “Pin to start page” in the bookmark dropdown is now clickable #1667
  • Fixed an error which was emitted when doing a “hard reload” #1646
  • WebTerm now has an “exit” command #1596
  • Address bar no longer incorrecty holds the focus when a URL is entered from address bar #1535
  • Command–L now correctly selects the text in the URL bar #1671
  • Hyperdrive asset-loading fixes #1569

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 2 (May 20, 2020)

  • Improvements:
  • Beaker now provides a progress-bar during file imports #1612
  • The builtin editor now provides much better feedback about loading state #1589
  • You can now configure a default zoom-level on pages via the settings #1572
  • Web APIs are now much faster when passing “binary data” and will return a Uint8Array instead of an ArrayBuffer #1616
  • Added tab animations when a new tab is opened #1624
  • Improved the clarity of the perm prompt for reading the address book #1587
  • Added an explanation for the “new profile” creation during the setup flow #1586
  • Improved initial setup performance
  • Bug fixes:
  • The Linux .AppImage distribution should now work correctly #1568
  • Fixed an issue where clicking “host this drive” would fail silently #1575
  • Fixed an issue in the editor where performance would degrade over multiple saves #1636
  • Fixed entitlements on macOS to allow camera & mic access #1571
  • Fixed various shell-window UI failures #1605
  • Fixed a critical error in the dat -> hyperdrive converter on Windows #1611
  • Fixed the build tooling for npm run burnthemall on Windows #1592
  • Markdown rendering now respects the original spec’s rules around line-breaks #1610
  • Fixed scrolling issues in the settings’s log views #1588
  • Moved the files-explorer into Beaker (instead of https://hyperdrive.network) improving performance and UX clarity #1580

New in Beaker Browser 1.0.0 Pre-release 1 (May 15, 2020)

  • A new protocol:
  • Beaker is now using the Hypercore Protocol. This breaking change includes a ton of new improvements:
  • Performance is now vastly superior thanks to new data structures.
  • Connection-reliability has improved thanks to a switch to a hole-punching DHT.
  • A new “mounts” feature for composing multiple Hyperdrives into a single hierarchy.
  • And much more.
  • You can read about the new features in the Hypercore Protocol blog: Announcing Hyperdrive v10
  • With this change, dat:// URLs are being phased out and replaced with hyper://. The previous term “Dat Archives” has been replaced with a new term, “Hyperdrives.” Beaker includes a Dat -> Hyperdrive converter to help you update your library.
  • A new editing experience:
  • With Beaker 1.0, we took an entirely new approach to how you build sites in the browser. We wanted to make it as easy as possible to get work done fast.
  • The new release includes a set of builtin tools which open side-by-side with your page. These include a source editor, files explorer, and a new Web-based terminal.
  • Beaker 1.0 also includes tools for quickly forking, comparing, and merging Hyperdrives. With these tools, you can collaborate on your development without ever leaving the browser.
  • A new set of Web APIs:
  • For building peer-to-peer applications, it’s important you have a powerful set of APIs to replace the server. In 1.0, we’ve overhauled Beaker’s Web APIs to provide a ton of useful tools:
  • beaker.hyperdrive - query, read, and write files on Hyperdrives.
  • beaker.peersockets - send and receive messages with peers on a Hyperdrive.
  • beaker.contacts - read and update the user’s personal address book (with permission).
  • beaker.markdown - convert Markdown into HTML.
  • beaker.shell - create prompts to select files and hyperdrives.
  • beaker.terminal - register “page commands” which can be invoked from Webterm.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.10 (Mar 13, 2020)

  • A couple of quick bugfixes:
  • Fix to "library view" UI for Dats that you are seeding (#1521)
  • DatArchive is now attached to the window object to conform with previous behaviors.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.9 (Mar 13, 2020)

  • Hey everybody! This is an important security fix. Please update immediately if you are using Beaker 0.8.x. Follow #1519 for more information. We will post a full post-mortem there after users have had time to update.
  • Critical security fix (#1519)
  • Note Some users have reported that the settings page will not open, making it difficult to update. If this is the case for you, download the binary from this page and reinstall.
  • A very big thank you to @imagemlt for researching this issue and responsibly disclosing it.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.8 (Apr 2, 2019)

  • Fixed an issue with markdown and JSON rendering
  • Fixed a condition where loading tabs failed to close

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.7 (Mar 30, 2019)

  • Fixed a persistent freezing issue (close #1333). Sorry about that everyone!
  • Fix: Favicons should now render correctly
  • Fix: URL will no longer overflow the navbar
  • Fix: URL will no longer swap to items loading within the page
  • Fixed an issue where Beaker would fail to close in Windows and Linux (close #1359)
  • Fixed an issue where the url bar suggestions would not accept clicks (close #1360)
  • Fix: Devtools no longer opens a “chrome-devtools://“ tab when popping out
  • Fix: Windows and Linux now correctly show the new beaker logo image (close #1305)
  • Fix: A weird little window no longer shows up during startup on Windows

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.6 (Mar 20, 2019)

  • Important security fix, see this post for details.
  • Beaker's UI has been rewritten to improve performance and stability
  • Devtools are now dockable to the window
  • Dat DNS-over-HTTPS lookups are now randomized between multiple providers to reduce the user's browsing fingerprint.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.5 (Feb 18, 2019)

  • Adds UPnP port-binding, to help improve connectivity success (thanks @da2x!)
  • Temporary disables the HTML5 fullscreen APIs due to an issue with upstream (see #1339)

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.4 (Feb 11, 2019)

  • Fix a bug which caused Beaker to freeze due to bad responses from the dat:// protocol.
  • Beaker now uses Chromium's process-level sandbox.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.3 (Feb 3, 2019)

  • A few fixes and minor updates:
  • Upgrade to Electron 4.0.3 and Chromium 69
  • Add "sound playing" and "muted" indicator to tabs
  • Add experimental.datPeers.getOwnPeerId() (Thanks @imsnif!)
  • Fixes to the Dat stack
  • Various small fixes

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.2 (Dec 2, 2018)

  • Fix issue with dat forking ("Make an editable copy") where files would not be copied.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.1 (Nov 17, 2018)

  • Performance improvements! We used the latest in computing sciences to make Beaker run smoother than ever before. (We moved dat into its own child process.)
  • avicon editor. You can now draw your own favicons for your sites! Thanks @Septimus for this awesome new tool.
  • A couple small bugfixes.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 (Oct 23, 2018)

  • Full release! The changes to 0.8 have stabilized and we are no longer on pre-releases.
  • The Watchlist. Added the "Watchlist." (Thanks to @Septimus and @sgwilym.)
  • Default to Dat. HTTP/S sites with Dat alternatives will now automatically redirect. This can be disabled from the settings page, and you will be prompted to go back to the HTTP/S version if you want. (Thanks to @Septimus.)
  • Spellchecker Added a spell-checker. (Thanks to @Septimus.)
  • globalFetch. The experimental globalFetch API can now be used on dat:// URLs.
  • Preview-mode. The "+preview" version of dats now filter out files according to the .datignore.
  • Favicons. Favicon picker now supports uploading your own images. (Thanks to @Septimus.)
  • Forking. Forked dats now preserve the experimental and content_security_policy fields of the dat.json.
  • Files editor Files editor will now stop you from navigating away from unsaved work.
  • Many other final bugfixes and UI updates.
  • Updated to Electron 3 which includes Chromium 66.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 9 (Sep 9, 2018)

  • Preview mode now correctly opens the preview interface
  • Fixed a fatal error that occurs after the loading Beaker for the first time

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 8 (Sep 7, 2018)

  • Overview:
  • Preview mode. You can now toggle a mode where changes to your dat sites are kept locally where you can review them before publishing. This mode also uses a special +preview versioned URL to show the mode. (We’ll put together lots of help docs on these updates when 0.8.0-final is released.)
  • More network stats. The network tab of a dat's source-view now gives you more information about your upload & download bandwidth usage.
  • And lots of bugfixes, of course!

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 7 (Jul 31, 2018)

  • Updated the library UI
  • Added experimental.capturePage
  • Added experimental.datPeers
  • Added experimental.globalFetch
  • Added DatArchive#checkout()
  • Added "type" to dat.json
  • Added a "dat bandwidth limit" setting
  • Scroll position is now retained on page refreshes
  • Disabled the builtin ad blocker temporarily due to an issue with the upstream module

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 6 (Jun 4, 2018)

  • New icon! (Still a work in progress 😏 )
  • Replaced Workspaces with Bi-directional syncing folders. Watch this video to learn more. Discussion is here
  • New "template chooser" for creating archives
  • New library listing
  • Rewrote modals to be much snappier
  • Added an "inline editor" to the library, plus more tools to create, edit, and manage files
  • Updates to the browsing UI around dat:// sites to be more clear
  • Added support for DNS TXT records
  • Added the ability to set a "donation" link on dat:// sites
  • Added experimental.library API (we still need to document this, you should probably hold off trying it unless you really want to dig)
  • Added an analytics ping to help us measure usage (it's opt in, currently in the settings page, default is off)
  • Added a JSON renderer
  • Added the content_security_policy directive to dat.json
  • Plenty of bugfixes and small tweaks

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 5 (Apr 3, 2018)

  • Fixes some issues and improves the tabs' rendering

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 4 (Mar 28, 2018)

  • Bugfixes
  • Can now reorder the pinned bookmarks
  • Added 'Paste and Go/Search' to search bar
  • URL bar text selection now works how you'd expect
  • Bumped to Electron v2, which puts us on Chrome 61, which means we have ES modules now!
  • Can now edit workspace names

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 3 (Mar 17, 2018)

  • More bugfixes.
  • Also removed a migration utility which was auto-creating workspaces incorrectly.

New in Beaker Browser 0.8.0 Pre-release 2 (Mar 16, 2018)

  • Some bugfixes for prerelease 1

New in Beaker Browser 0.7.11 (Jan 25, 2018)

  • Fixes:
  • fix Patch security issue in Windows builds
  • fix Display errors in the swarm debugger when they occur

New in Beaker Browser 0.7.10 (Dec 4, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • new Added the ability to save the current page (thanks @rickycodes!)
  • new (#768) Added a tool to the settings page which clears your Dat browsing cache.
  • new Added pagination to beaker://debug-log so that you don’t end up loading a 10gb log on accident.
  • new Added the beaker_open_url env var, which opens the given URL on first load.
  • Fixes:
  • fix (#775, #776, #765) Now, when you add files to a Dat archive, Beaker will add the files to the Dat archive instead of weirdly replacing the folder.
  • fix (#779) Modals will now resize themselves to avoid clipping the edges off of content.
  • fix (#774) You can now close modals without ruining everything.
  • fix (#773) Fixed a bad reference error at start up. The new reference is not necessarily good, but it’s not bad either.
  • fix Sometimes the URL-bar’s site info dropdown would show the wrong tab’s info. Users felt this was “confusing” and “kind of unprofessional” so we fixed it.
  • fix Reduced overall memory usage for Dat archives. We did this by reducing the amount of data cached in memory, which may increase some load times, but it should be worth it for the reduced RAM usage and GC frequency.
  • fix Eliminated some internal messaging bugs that was barfing errors into the window. Bleh!

New in Beaker Browser 0.7.9 (Nov 17, 2017)

  • Fixes:
  • fix Use native-compiled crypto library (sodium) rather than the wasm version. This improves performance overall.
  • fix If the wasm crypto library is used for some reason, don’t spaz out and throw “Source too large” errors.

New in Beaker Browser 0.7.8 (Nov 16, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • new (#711) Added the ability to mute tabs. Hush, you!
  • new (#668) Added an “import folders” control to the library for Linux. It’s really clunky and confusing but we had to come up with something.
  • new (#744) Added back/forward/reload controls to the context menu (thanks @rickycodes!) The menu really didn’t look right without it.
  • new Added a ‘toggle javascript console’ shortcut. We had to do some serious code diving to figure out this snippet.
  • new Added auto-updating for Windows, and the ability to jump ahead to pre-releases. We’ll use this for the big 0.8 release coming up.
  • Fixes:
  • fix (#474) Fixed a crash bug in the dat:// protocol handler. Rotonde will now be much more fun to use, unless you liked the crashes, in which case Rotonde will now be much less fun to use.
  • fix (#380) Ctrl+W now closes the tab instead of the browser in Linux. Sorry we didn’t believe you earlier, Linux users.
  • fix (#754) New tab command now creates a new window if no window exists.
  • fix (#735) Guard against bad references to electron.screen. We have no idea why the bad references keep happening, but we’re on guard now.
  • fix (#746) Opening URLs from other apps no longer errors. (Unless it’s the URL to an error page… then you’ll see an error.)
  • fix Fixed keyboard shortcuts for keyboard layouts other than US QWERTY. For what it’s worth, we had a typing competition and QWERTY beat DVORAK.