Planet Feature Update 3 - dWebServices.xyz · Follow .bit · QoL Fixes

Welcome to Feature Update 3, released on September 18, 2022. We brought you two new features in this update and many fixes and improvements.

Here are all the changes between 0.8.1 and 0.9.2:

https://github.com/Planetable/Planet/compare/release-0.8.1...release-0.9.2

dWebServices.xyz

dWebServices.xyz provides hosted IPNS records. You can enter your API key and domain in the new Integration tab in Edit Planet. Whenever you update your content, the latest CID will be sent to dWebServices.xyz to be written in the hosted IPNS record. Then, in addition to the built-in IPNS record, you will get another hosted one. The hosted one may have better discoverability because it is on a well-connected server. This is especially useful for laptop users because you will not need to keep your laptop on to keep your IPNS record active.

Later we will introduce another integration with a pinning service. Then laptop users will just need to wait for a bit after each content update. As soon as a confirmation from the remote pinning service arrives, laptop users can close the lid.

dwebservices-api-key

Follow .bit

Now, when you Follow Planet, a new domain is supported:

.bit

.bit is also powered by smart contracts running on a blockchain. The underlying blockchain is Nervos Network.

Like ENS, .bit can have dWeb records, and you can set IPNS to your .bit domains. So it can have a website built with Planet. .bit has its own public gateway too. For example, you can access this blog via the following address:

https://planetable.bit.cc

One thing is different, .bit does not need you to pay gas when you update records. That is because a certain amount of gas fees are already included in the registration.

Improvements

  • Planet app main window can now remember position and size. Previously, due to a default mechanism in SwiftUI, users get the default size when closing and opening a new window.
  • Added a setting to select a preferred public gateway.
general-setting-public-gateway
  • Updated peering settings with Cloudflare. New content will be discovered by Cloudflare public gateways more smoothly.
  • Added CORS config for webui.ipfs.io, so users will be able to check local IPFS settings with webui.ipfs.io
  • Added support for internal links. Users can link another article or planet, and the app will select the item instead of opening it with the default browser.
  • When you link another Planet, for example planet://gamedb.eth, if you are already following, the app will select it. Or start trying to follow it.
  • Fixed an issue where the unread count is not updated.
  • Fixed an issue where Mark All as Read is not working.
  • Fixed a performance issue that causes a spinning wheel when checking for updates of the following Planets.
  • Added a share button for articles on the top toolbar.
  • Implemented a config to lower the connections opened by the IPFS daemon, thus lowering the resource consumption. We will provide a finer tuning UI for this in a future update.
  • Added showing ENS icon for following Planets
  • Added support to render Markdown in Planet about info. For example, now you can have links in the about field like this:
planet-info-markdown
  • Added a confirm dialog when unfollowing Planet
  • Use TabView in Planet edit window for better organizing more features
  • Added support to enter GitHub / Twitter usernames for social links on the homepage
  • Fixed an issue with URL encoding when opening Plausible.io Dashboard (Thanks to the PR by @Fatpandac)
  • Fixed a regression where the preview area stopped sync scroll position with editor area
  • Writer window can remember the size and position per Planet
  • Added support for self-hosted Plausible.io
  • Added a new variable hasAvatar for template designers to use to decide whether a Planet has an avatar image
  • When you set an avatar for a Planet, a 32x32 version is saved as favicon.ico
  • Added support to use WorldWideWeb by The Iconfactory to open locally built website for preview

Those are the new features and improvements in the 0.9 update. If you encounter any issues, please send your feedback to the developers or seek community support from these channels.

If you are pretty sure you have encountered a bug, please share with us how to reproduce it via GitHub Issues, and we will investigate and fix it as soon as possible.

Release Notes