Development Diary #9: MangaDex Fixes, Comix Decryption Restored & Alpha Core Improvements (Patreon)

Hello everyone! 👋

Here is what's new in the latest updates for the alpha version:

🦊 MangaDex Improvements & Database Patch

I have updated the MangaDex plugin to support and bypass their new protections against User-Agent spoofing. Alongside this, I’ve fixed a couple of bugs regarding the library and the display of chapters you have already downloaded.Speaking of downloaded chapters, I have also updated the core of the program to apply a patch to the main database. This ensures the correct matching between chapters downloaded from the new version of MangaDex plugin and those already existing in your database. If you are already using MangaDex on the alpha build, everything should now work seamlessly!

🪟 Windows UTF-8 Fix

I’ve explicitly set the UTF-8 encoding for Python commands. This should be a big help for Windows users, as Python libraries on Windows tend to default to saving files with Windows-specific encoding. This change will prevent those formatting and saving issues.

🕵️‍♂️ The Comix Plugin is Back (For Now!)

Finally, after countless hours of reverse engineering their new encryption functions (3 full days of work 😅), I’ve managed to fix the download plugin for Comix! The pages are once again being correctly decrypted and descrambled. Please take advantage of it while it lasts! I am almost certain they will break it again in a few days. Their dedication and commitment to blocking third-party scraping apps is well known at this point, so enjoy the fix while it's up and running 🤣

❤️ A Huge Thank You!

As always, I want to deeply thank all of my supporters. Your contribution is quite literally the only thing keeping this project alive. Without it, I would have never been able to dedicate all this time to the program, and who knows how long the support for these broken websites would have stayed down. 🙏 I also want to give a massive shoutout to everyone who is actively reporting bugs in the alpha version. Without you, I would never have discovered many of these issues. Thanks to your feedback and testing, the program is getting better and more stable every single day.

Thank you all for your incredible support! ❤

🚅 Get Involved

If you are discovering this alpha version for the first time and would like to join the testing process yourself, you can find all the necessary information, including the link to download the dedicated launcher, right here in this post:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/jam-welcome-to-155669938

We are excited to have you on board and look forward to hearing your feedback as we continue to develop and refine the experience.