Communique 12

It has come to my attention that there is a huge problem with some of the old artefacts on Windows. Namely, something has broken the JTextField listeners etc so that they are laggy and do not respond properly. This means that the client key, secret key, and telegram ID fields get nulled – I am not exactly sure how this is happening – and this causes the program to crash on restart because the autosave file now contains null keys. For arcane reasons, rebuilding the jar in modern Java fixes it. I have no idea why this is a solution.

This is the first actual release since version 8.2 in 2018 and the first pre-release since version 9.pre2 in 2020. There have been some substantial improvements to the parser documented in the change log. Among them are:

• Inclusion and exclusion of nations by regular expression
• Inclusion and exclusion of regions by region tags

These have been available in the repository if you built the jar yourself for some time. I have tested that they work myself in some tests, especially when recruiting for Europe. I am rather confident that these new syntaxes work. I have also updated the code to be more resilient to strange changes in the autosave.txt file. Hopefully this class of errors does not recur.

I have tested for this JTextField problem on Windows Java 22 and macOS Java 17 and the issues do not seem to be recurring. My thanks to Bisofeyr for reporting this problem. Because I have not tested the Marconi jar, I am not releasing it. I have now tested and built a reduced jar with dependences with Maven for both Communique and Marconi.

Communique 9.pre2: Revenge of the Colon

There was a bug: the hard-coded log files contained colons, which are not accepted by the Windows file system for ... unclear reasons that can only be found in the depths of Microsoft's headquarters. The newest version and these artefacts should fix that problem. Other changes from last pre-release remain.

Communique 9.pre1: Active filtering

You can now filter the API version of the Happenings for nations with recent activity using the flag:active tag. There is a bug fix in reporting of failed and not-failed nations.

The new feature has not been tested to a particularly robust level.

Communique 8.2

Bug fix for logging. Also, cleaned up parts of the code base. See full commit notes here.

1 May 2020. Original artefacts removed.

Communique 8.1

Unlike Communique 8, this version does not require Java 9 and should run on Java 8.

Also fixed a bug crashing sending thread when dispatching to non-existent nation, added more logging messages to clarify issues in execution.

1 May 2020. Artefacts removed.

Communique 8

Communique 8 requires Java 9

Version 8 introduces a new GUI and overhauls the post-processing system.

Now, Communiqué supports randomisation of the recipients list, prioritisation of the Delegates in the recipients, and reversing the order of the recipients.

Due to changes in the way this is implemented, this requires a new file version; it also means that it can easily be extended with new features into the future without breaking too much backwards compatibility. Please make any requests for new post-processing options via GitHub.

1 May 2020. Original artefacts removed.

Version 7

Please consult the READ ME to be familiarised and oriented, perhaps to the East, with the new syntax used in Communique 7, which is identical to the NationStates telegram stamp syntax, recently introduced. Old files containing the old syntax are automatically converted to the new format.

Example changes in the syntax can be seen here:

Old                                             New
=====                                           =====
region:Europe                                   region:Europe
wa:all                                          tag:WA
wa:delegates                                    tag:delegates
region:Europe -- nation:imperium_anglorum       region:Europe, -nation:imperium_anglorum
region:Europe -> wa:all                         region:Europe, +tag:WA

The program now also does checking for whether it is possible to recruit or campaign to some nation before the end of the API time limit. It will skip nations which cannot be recruited and nations which cannot be campaigned and do these checks without sacrificing time after the delay.

Communique 7 also introduces an update-checker, which will inform you of major updates to Communique. It also now logs its logging output to file instead of simply discarding it. You can find this output in the application support directory. Marconi now uses a file lock to prevent multiple instances of the program from running (this only works if querying from the same application support directory, which is not the case on Linux, where it works only by directory).

There are quite a few changes to the CommuniqueConfig, which are mostly on the back-end. New versions should automatically transition from the old recipients-sentList system to the new system.

Please, please, report bugs to this repository's issue list or send a telegram to Imperium Anglorum.

Differences from the last pre-release, corrected bug in JavaTelegram that caused campaign difficulties. Some changes also affected to JavaTelegram to reflect skipping recipients due to their telegram blocking.

1 May 2020. Original artefacts removed.

Various edits and changes

Various changes and feature upgrades have been implemented, along with issues as reported.

1. Communique now logs its logging output to file instead of simply discarding it. You can find this output in the application support directory.
2. Marconi now uses a file lock to prevent multiple instances of the program from running (this only works if querying from the same application support directory, which is not the case on Linux, where it works only by directory).
3. Timer changes have now been effected, to make sure that the program sends the next telegram at the end of the delay period rather than after the end of the delay period with added time for various checks.
4. There are quite a few changes to the CommuniqueConfig, which are mostly on the back-end. New versions should automatically transition from the old recipients-sentList system to the new system.

Please report any bugs you encounter with this pre-release!

Bug-fix Release

There was an issue with the Windows version of the client having to do with a line separator formats and a JTextArea. It went unresolved, in part due to the fact that I don't have a Windows computer. That issue has been resolved. After some bug testing by Krypton Nova and Wallenburg, this is the next pre-release version.

I don't normally continually issue re-releases, but the recent HTTPS issue has forced me to release code in the middle of a rewrite of the Communique parser to version 7.

I will note that on top of a number of bug fixes, the Communique Recruiter interface has been reworked to look much nicer. I've also added support to tag:all, removed some dependancies to make Jar files smaller, fixed a duplication bug, and fixed some issues where the old recipients syntax is hardcoded.

Please note that the tag to which this release is attached is not accurate.

Bug-fix Release

Recently, the NationStates API was updated for enforce the use of HTTPS instead of HTTP. This broke compatibility with a large number of telegram clients which, in line with standard usage, have hardcoded NationStates API prefixes.

A short explanation of the issues can be found here:

Communique forum thread: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=30751797#p30751797
HTTPS announcement: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=399213
Issue report (HMS Unicorn): https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=30748932#p30748932

The following files, which are pre-release versions of Communique 7, have that issue resolved. Please consult the READ ME to be familiarised and oriented, perhaps to the East, with the new syntax used in Communique 7, which is identical to the NationStates telegram stamp syntax, recently introduced.

Communique 7 also introduces an update-checker, which will inform you of major updates to Communique. For minor updates, check back to this releases page, as this is not entirely stable code. As the HTTPS issue has forced me to release code to fix the issue as soon as possible and it came in the middle of a parsing-engine rewrite, there may be some issues. Please report them and I will try to fix them as soon as possible.

Please note that the tag to which this release is attached is not accurate.