Downloads

This tab tells you the state of current downloads and connections. There are no limits to how many downloads or connections you can have. One of the fundamental ideas in Newsflash Plus is that at all times the user (that means You) should be in complete control of doing things. The application only provides you the primitive operations that you need in order to orchestrate things.

Every time you start downloading items, request for a group listing or update some headers a new download task is created. All such tasks are listed in the Downloads list. When a new task is created it is initially set to QUEUED state. This means that it is in the download list but is not yet being downloaded. All QUEUED downloads are scheduled for download automatically and will be downloaded in the order they appear in the list as soon as there are available connections.

When a task is being run it goes to RUNNING state, and if given sufficient time it will either go to ERROR, UNAVAILABLE, DAMAGED or COMPLETE state. Of course in order to provide more sophisticated control over the whole download process it is also possible to pause (PAUSED) and thereafter resume (WAITING) tasks. A task can be paused at any time and a paused task is not considered for running untill it is resumed.
Also keep in mind that when a task is resumed it will not be run immediately but rather is considered for running when connections become available again.

When a task is in the queue it is possible to toggle its priority. When downloads are scheduled all high priority downloads are considered before any low priority ones.

Summary of different download states

•   Queued - The download is in the list waiting to be downloaded.
•   Waiting - Download is waiting, either after a distruption in a connection or after being Resumed.
•   Running - Download is being downloaded.
•   Paused - Download is currently Paused.
•   Complete - Download is complete without any errors.
•   Damaged - Download is complete but there were problems such as yEnc CRC errors.
•   Deleted - Download is deleted and will be removed from the list.
•   Error - There was an error during download.
•   Writing - Data is being written to the disk. This can mean headers or binaries depending on case.
•   Unavailable - Download was no longer available on the server.
•   Preparing - Download is being prepared, for example when updating headers old headers are checked to see where we are.

Connection management

By default Newsflash Plus automatically creates connections to a server when a request to download something is made. The number of connections per server is defined in the server properties. However it is also possible to manually organize connections by Removing and Cloning.

When a connection is removed the TCP connection is simply shut down and the task (if any) is put to WAITING state. The connection will be removed from the list and cannot be recoved as such any more. If the server defined connection limit is not met a new connection may be created automatically depending on the number of queued downloads.

When a connection is cloned a new connection to the same server with same properties is established. If there are waiting downloads in the queue it will start to work on a download automatically.

Toggling the Connect button will either start all connections or remove all connections.

Summary of different connection states

•   Connecting - Establishing a connection to the server.
•   Active - Currently working on a download.
•   Ready - Connection is ready but idle.
•   Abrupted - Network error has occurred. A reconnection is attempted.
•   Error - An error has occurred.
•   Forbidden - Server has denied access. Most likely incorrect username/password were provided.
•   Deleted - Connection is deleted and will be shut down and removed from the list.