Changelogs

History of Novon releases fetched dynamically from GitHub.

Novon v0.0.5-alpha: Typography & Configuration Persistence

  • Published: 4/19/2026
  • Tag: v0.0.5

Welcome to Novon v0.0.5-alpha. This focused patch addresses a configuration lifecycle bug affecting the core reading experience on cold application starts.

Core Reader Enhancements

  • Persistent Font Memory: Fixed a regression where custom typography preferences (such as selecting El Messiri or Lalezar) would be unexpectedly reset to the default system font after closing and reopening the application. The architecture now strictly respects and enforces your explicitly saved typography choices from the persistent key-value store, guaranteeing that your preferred reading layout remains intact across all future caching logic and async network states.

As always, thank you to all contributors and early testers for identifying edge cases and helping refine the core engine.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/novonapp/novon/compare/v0.0.4...v0.0.5

Novon v0.0.4-alpha: Performance Overhaul & Offline Resilience

  • Published: 4/18/2026
  • Tag: v0.0.4

Welcome to Novon v0.0.4-alpha. This release is a dedicated latency and resilience overhaul, heavily optimizing the multi-threading architecture to resolve critical UI stutters when executing heavy network abstractions.

[!NOTE] This patch fundamentally alters how background I/O is managed. The SQLite database schema remains unchanged, but local asset parsing rules have been reinforced to ensure a flawless offline experience.

Extreme Concurrency and Performance

  • Staggered Enqueue Architecture: Re-architected the bulk download execution engine to eliminate the "JavaScript Parsing Storm." Queuing dozens of chapters no longer triggers concurrent V8 engine initialization. The queue now enforces a strict 600ms cascade delay, preserving a stable 60fps UI thread while maximizing network efficiency.
  • Granular Render Scopes: Rectified a cascading widget invalidation loop inside the novel detail screen. Action buttons now utilize exact Riverpod state selectors, completely preventing hundreds of background chapter tiles from repainting identically during a download progress tick.
  • Isolate Computation Offloading: The Download Options sheet now renders instantaneously. The deep cyclic algorithms required to filter URL variants have been entirely detached from the main isolate, running flawlessly in a background compute() node.

The Reading Experience & System Resiliency

  • Network Detachment: Removed aggressive synchronous background network pinging upon entering cached novels. When you re-enter a library item that already has an initialized manifest, Novon natively skips the network fetch, loading instantly directly from local storage.
  • 100% Offline Cover Guarantee: Overhauled image asset routing. The application bootstrapping sequence now executes a silent, non-blocking asynchronous migration that detects remote image URLs in your library, caching them to localized physical device paths for flawless air-gapped visibility.

As always, thank you to all contributors and early testers for identifying edge cases and helping refine the core engine.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/novonapp/novon/compare/v0.0.3...v0.0.4

Novon v0.0.3-alpha: System UI & Routing Fix

  • Published: 4/18/2026
  • Tag: v0.0.3

This patch release focuses on refining the application's maintenance layer and critical navigation workflows.

System UI & Aesthetics

  • Enhanced Markdown Rendering: Completely overhauled the update changelog interface with a custom MarkdownStyleSheet. It now features theme-aware typography, professional blockquote styling with accent borders, and high-contrast code blocks that integrate perfectly with Novon's dark mode.
  • Surface Correction: Replaced jarring light surfaces in the update flow with standardized surfaceVariant containers to ensure visual consistency.

Navigation & Routing

  • Smart Navigation Recovery: Fixed a critical routing bug where the "Later" and "Close" buttons on the update screen would fail during cold starts. These actions now intelligently detect the state of the navigation stack and will automatically route users to the Library if no previous screen exists.

Improvements

  • Standardized version manifest synchronization across pubspec.yaml and internal application constants.

What's Changed

New Contributors

Full Changelog: https://github.com/novonapp/novon/compare/v0.0.1...v0.0.3

What's Changed

Full Changelog: https://github.com/novonapp/novon/compare/v0.0.2...v0.0.3

Novon v0.0.2-alpha: Smart Downloads & Global Preferences

  • Published: 4/18/2026
  • Tag: v0.0.2

Welcome to Novon v0.0.2-alpha. This focused release addresses critical user experience behaviors regarding novel cataloging, intelligent batch downloading, and visual immersion.

[!NOTE] This patch builds upon the initial α-release architecture. Migrations for the new global key-value store are handled automatically upon upgrading.

Core Reader Enhancements

  • Global Chapter Sorting Persistence: Re-architected the chapter sorting logic to decouple from per-novel database flags. Sorting preferences (ascending/descending) are now bound to the global application state via Hive. Toggling the sort direction seamlessly synchronizes across the entire library instantly.
  • Smart Sequential Download Queue: The batch execution engine ("Download Next 10/25") has been thoroughly re-written to strictly enforce forward-reading chronology, detaching its queue calculation from the current visual UI state.
  • Consumption-Aware Fetching: Download routines now actively evaluate cross-referenced read states. The queue explicitly bypasses previously consumed chapters—even if read out of sequence—ensuring zero redundant payload fetching and precise downward bounds.

UI/UX and Polish

  • Immersive Detail Header: Redesigned the Novel Detail header surface to reduce redundant maximum vertical expansion. Introduced a sleek 30% opacity dynamic cover image layer under the primary background gradient, providing a premium, glass-like reflection element that bleeds naturally into the device status bar.
  • Streamlined Asset Formatting: Cleaned up unused database imports and standardized internal header constraints for a cleaner codebase footprint.

As always, thank you to all contributors and early testers for identifying edge cases and helping refine the core engine.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/novonapp/novon/commits/v0.0.2

Novon v0.0.1-alpha: The Foundation Release

  • Published: 4/18/2026
  • Tag: v0.0.1

Welcome to the first alpha release of Novon. This release establishes the core enterprise-grade architecture for the high-performance novel reading ecosystem. Built from the ground up to be local-first, modular, and extensively customizable, v0.0.1-alpha sets the baseline for all future development.

[!WARNING] This is an Alpha release. While the core engine is robust and heavily tested, you may still encounter edge-case bugs. Please report any issues you find on the GitHub repository.

Core Architecture and Engine

  • Sandboxed JS Extension Engine: Implemented a full flutter_js custom runtime environment. Developers can now write JavaScript extensions that seamlessly interop with native Dart APIs to scrape and parse third-party websites safely.
  • Relational Data Persistence: Designed and integrated a strict Drift (SQLite) relational schema to manage Novels, Chapters, Read History, and offline Web Content securely.
  • Reactive State Management: Abstracted all UI state behind a strict declarative architecture using Riverpod. The UI now updates instantly via direct StreamProviders hooked into the database.
  • Advanced Network Interceptors: Built a custom Dio pipeline equipped with:
    • Rate Limiting: Enforces strict domain limits (e.g., 2 requests/second) to prevent IP bans.
    • Resilience: Exponential backoff for automated network error recovery.
    • Cloudflare Bypass Support: Built-in cookie persistence and WebView fallback bridging.

The Reading Experience

  • Instant Offline Loading: Re-engineered the HTML parsing pipeline. Chapters under 100,000 words are now parsed synchronously directly from the local SQLite cache, achieving true instantaneous opening (0ms visual delay) with zero skeleton flashes.
  • Dynamic Reading Progress: Progress is accurately saved and calculated based on viewport scroll position, allowing flawless multi-session reading.
  • Granular Customization: Added full support for modifying font family configurations, line-height, text sizing, text alignment, and solid background color tuning.

Security and Privacy

  • Local-First Philosophy: All core data tracking, metrics, and application state are stored strictly on the user's device. No telemetry or server-side sync is required to use the application.
  • Biometric AppLock Gateway: Integrated enterprise-grade authentication utilizing local_auth. Users can now lock the application behind their device's native fingerprint/face scanner or a custom integrated PIN code.

Background Maintenance

  • WorkManager Integration: Handed off all heavy maintenance tasks to the native OS background thread:
    • Automatically fetches novel tracking updates every 6 hours.
    • Scrapes the official extension repository for new version rollouts.
    • Cleans up orphaned chapter BLOBs and temporary image payload caches.
    • Generates automated daily database backups.

UI/UX and Quality of Life

  • Premium Design System: Built a completely custom, premium dark-mode design system based on HSL color targeting, abandoning flat generic colors.
  • Dynamic In-App Branding: The BrandingLogo engine now supports true theme-aware dynamic rendering, ensuring the Novon logo matches the custom material-you seed colors.
  • Extension Repository Manager: Built an intuitive GUI for managing custom repository index.json URLs, allowing users to safely browse, install, and uninstall .novext bundles dynamically.

Technical Notes for Developers

  • The complete Source Script Technical Specification is now available in the docs.
  • When building modules, please remember that the Presentation layer is strictly forbidden from directly executing database reads; all transactions must be delegated via Riverpod controllers.
  • A strict 100% flutter analyze compliance policy has been integrated into the root project blueprint.

Thank you to all early testers and contributors who helped bring this initial vision to life.