LYTE

1.11.0-Release — 1.11.0-Release - gui overhaul and theme engine revamp

Release Date: 2026-03-01
Build: 91059db

Overview

This release delivers a major visual and architectural refresh of the LYTE application. 🎨🛠️
Key highlights:

• Complete redesign of the graphical user interface with new windows and widgets.
• Introduction of a flexible theme engine supporting custom QSS themes and live reloading.
• Improved thread safety and stability for background operations.
• Enhanced GitHub release workflow (auto‑detect previous tag, version bump, detailed notes).

What's New

Overhauled GUI – The entire user interface has been rebuilt. New modules include:

• config_window.py, moderation_windows.py, settings_window.py, update_window.py for dedicated configuration, moderation, settings, and update dialogs.
• custom_widgets.py adds reusable widgets (e.g., styled buttons, toggle switches) that replace the previous ad‑hoc UI elements.
• launcher.py and main_window.py now orchestrate the new window hierarchy and provide a cleaner startup flow.

Theme Engine – A brand‑new theming subsystem (theme_engine.py) enables:

• Loading of external QSS files (aurora_theme.qss, custom_theme.qss.demo).
• Live theme reloading without restarting the app (fix #7ea7d57).
• Helper utilities in helpers/theme_helpers.py to parse and apply palettes consistently.

Thread Bridge – thread_bridge.py introduces a safe communication channel between worker threads and the GUI, eliminating race conditions (fix #e414d3c).

Update Helper Enhancements – Minor adjustments in helpers/update_helpers.py improve version check handling.

Release Workflow Automation – GitHub Actions now:

• Accept a from_tag input to compare against the previous release.
• Offer detail_level (brief/standard/detailed) for release notes generation.
• Auto‑update CURRENT_VERSION in Src/main.py during the release process.

Improvements

Performance Improvements

• Thread safety fixes reduce the likelihood of deadlocks and UI freezes when background tasks interact with the main thread.
• Refactored helpers/theme_helpers.py streamlines theme parsing, lowering load times for large style sheets.

UX / Quality Improvements

• Dedicated settings and configuration dialogs provide clearer navigation and separation of concerns.
• The new custom_widgets library offers consistent look‑and‑feel across the application.
• Live theme reloading lets users experiment with styles instantly.
• Updated update_window gives a more informative update experience.

Fixes

• Theme Reloading – Fixed bugs that prevented QSS changes from taking effect without a restart. (7ea7d57)
• Thread Safety – Resolved race conditions in background thread communication. (e414d3c)
• D‑Bus Interface – Addressed and then reverted a regression related to D‑Bus handling. (2469fd6, bf36d8c)
• Version Ignoring – Corrected logic that previously ignored the version bump during releases. (cee4786)
• Custom Theme Example Removal – Deleted obsolete custom_theme.qss.example file. (5eca3c8)

Breaking Changes

• The GUI API has been substantially changed; code that directly accessed previous window classes or widget layouts will need to be updated to the new module structure.
• The custom_theme.qss.example file has been removed; users should adopt the new custom_theme.qss.demo format for custom themes.

Dependency Updates

• Src/requirements.txt was modified (2 line changes) to align with the updated PyInstaller and theme handling libraries. No major version bumps are introduced.

Internal Changes

• Src/main.py underwent extensive refactoring (over 1,000 lines changed) to separate launch logic from UI initialization and to accommodate the new version‑bump step.
• helpers/theme_helpers.py was trimmed and reorganized, removing legacy code paths.
• Additional helper modules (thread_bridge.py, update_window.py) were added to encapsulate background processing and update UI flow.

Stats

Commits: 24 | Contributors: 1 | Files changed: 26

Changes (diff)

View full diff on GitHub