Kiwix JS v4.3.0

Released on 2025-11-12

• FEATURE: Complete overhaul of dark/light theme system with auto-detection of ZIM colour scheme and auto switching
• FEATURE: Added a dark/light/auto theme button in the toolbar for quickly switching between colour schemes
• FEATURE: Added intelligent theme switching for new ZIMs with built-in native Wikimedia dark theme
• FEATURE: Added intelligent colour scheme detection and theme support for most Zimit ZIMs (experimental)
• FEATURE: New directory refresh button for browsers that have File System Access API
• FEATURE: Popovers now work when experimental libzim back end is enabled (in Configuration)
• UPDATE: Major overhall of file/directory picking, loading and launching in all supported APIs
• UPDATE: Popover colours now adapt intelligently to auto-switching of ZIM themes (Wikimedia ZIMs only)
• UPDATE: Icons and branding of app
• UPDATE: Make the search bar thinner so it occupies less screen real estate
• UPDATE: Added Expert Setting in Configuration to opt out of content theme manipulation (for troubleshooting and testing)
• FIX: Most inverted images and videos in Zimit ZIMs with applied dark theme
• FIX: Populate list of archives when selecting multiple archives via File API
• FIX: Relaunching of same archive in archive list combo box
• FIX: Enter key can now be used to select first entry in search results
• FIX: Gesture detection for sliding away toolbars on short pages
• FIX: Noscript is now properly handled in Restricted mode
• FIX: Update testing framework and fix several reliability issues in test script
• FIX: Follow redirects correctly when using libzim to load articles and resources
• FIX: Selection of correct iframe and setting tracking variables in libzim message channel
• FIX: Erratic sliding toolbars when loading Zimit archives in libzim mode
• DEV: Improve build script
• DEV: Updates to tmp and form-data
• DEV: Bump Vite to v6.4.1

Kiwix JS v4.2.0

Released on 2024-06-15

• FEATURE: Added a Table of Contents display and bottom toolbar button
• FEATURE: Added snippets support when doing a fulltext search
• ENHANCEMENT: Config and Info menus can now be "unclicked" to return to the currently open article
• ENHANCEMENT: Created a new library loader with fallback to mirror sources if Kiwix library is down
• ENHANCEMENT: Make Kiwix search results accessible for screen readers
• ENHANCEMENT: When a folder is picked, show up to 10 archives in the file select area
• ENHANCEMENT: Improved keyboard navigation of fulltext search list
• FIX: Failure to set expected article in ServiceWorker Mode
• FIX: Sizing of random button on home page
• FIX: Sizing of search bar on narrow screens
• FIX: Improved popover placement and style support
• FIX: Handle user clicking on child element of list item
• FIX: Correctly specify conditions for WASM usage instead of ASM fallback
• FIX: Properly select file in archive dropdown on refresh
• FIX: Dark theme display of dropdowns and folders
• UPDATE: Removed display of brief article description in popovers
• UPDATE: Use latest manifest v3 format for v3 extension
• INFO: Typos and minor inaccuracies in app info
• DEV: Change incorrect function calls to spinner
• DEV: Added a small automated UI test for a small Zimit2 archive
• DEV: Converted QUnit tests to Mocha Unit tests
• DEV: Clean up and separate Unit tests and E2E tests
• DEV: Add ESLint tests and improve stability of E2E tests
• DEV: Bump javascript-libzim to v0.9 with support for suggestions and snippets
• DEV: Build compact code by default to avoid style deoptimization warning on building for production
• DEV: Bump Vite to v6.2.6
• DEV: Various security updates

Kiwix JS v4.1.0

Released on *2024-07-15*

* FEATURE: Preview a WikiMedia ZIM article in a popover by hovering, long-pressing, or tabbing into a link
* FEATURE: Automatically re-open the last selected archive in Chromium browsers > 122
* FEATURE: New security dialogue box when opening untrusted ZIMs now shows enhanced ZIM metadata
* ENHANCEMENT: Display active content warning when opening PhET ZIMs in Restricted mode
* ENHANCEMENT: Added option to turn off external link warning
* INFO: Translated Kiwix JS extension entries in Edge and Chrome Stores to Spanish and French
* UPDATE: JQuery mode is now renamed to Restricted mode to better indicate its effect
* UPDATE: JQuery is now fully removed from all first-party code
* UPDATE: Simplify active content warning for clarity and impact
* UPDATE: Allow more time for caching assets before rebooting if SW registration stalls
* FIX: Various issues with enumarating the contents of picked folders
* FIX: Bug with empty search box on initial ZIM load
* FIX: Bug which caused app to reload when accidentally dragging images or links in articles
* FIX: Non-supported URI schemata (protocols) now open outside the sandbox
* FIX: Avoid accidentally opening the first ZIM archive in a picked directory of archives
* FIX: Several typos
* WORKAROUND: Overencoded querystrings in Zimit2 external links are now decoded
* DEV: Add i18n for extension manifests so that Add-on Store entries can be translated
* DEV: Change method for patching gitignore when adding NPM dependencies
* DEV: Some code reorganization
* DEPENDENCIES: Updates to follow-redirects, vite, braces, ws

Kiwix JS v4.0.0

Released on *2024-02-22*

* FEATURE: High-fidelity Zinit archive reading, with fallback to static content for old browsers
* FEATURE: Added preliminary support for forthcoming Zimit 2.0 archive types
* FEATURE: Enabled multi-ZIM support (browsing different ZIMs simultaneously in different browser tabs or windows)
* FEATURE: Added a security warning on opening a ZIM for the first time with fallback to Secure Mode (aka JQuery)
* ENHANCEMENT: Support most Zimit (1/2) archives in jQuery mode if they have largely static content
* ENHANCEMENT: Better UX for dealing with unsupported Zimit archives, and auto fallback
* ENHANCEMENT: Added an active content warning when opening a Zimit 2 archive in ServiceWorkerLocal mode
* UPDATE: Better detection for opening PDFs and external links outside the sandbox
* KNOWN ISSUE: Dark mode inverts images in Zimit-based archives
* BUGFIX: Restored ability to scroll the search results with touch or mouse
* BUGFIX: Issue causing a bootloop in rare circumstances when the app is in JQuery mode
* FIX: Failure to handle PDFs in some OpenZIM archive types
* FIX: Opening of new tabs in Zimit-based archives
* FIX: Updated some broken links
* FIX: Added support for srcsets when reading a Zimit archive in JQuery mode
* WORKAROUND: Provide alternative zimit2 link handling for browsers that do not support wombat.js
* DEV: Added low-level support for zimit2, add added zimType to ZIMArchive properties shown in console
* DEV: Added possibility of using libzim for reading OpenZIM file contents (see Expert Settings)
* DEV: Provided a separate webmanifest for the PWA version
* DEV: Updated info for developers
* DEV: Added a generic version of browserAction in backgroundscript to support MV3 extensions
* DEV: Fixed some anomalies in tests
* DEV: Ensured consistent use of settingsStore prefix with localStorage keys
* DEV: Updated rollup-js to v4
* DEV: Updated libzim to v0.6
* DEV: Updated vite-js to v4.5.2
* DEV: Bumped GitHub actions/checkout@v3 to actions/checkout@v4

## Kiwix JS v3.11.0

Released on *2023-11-12*

* FEATURE: Integration of in-app ZIM Download Library based on library.kiwix.org
* FEATURE: Fallback to basic ZIM library for browsers that don't support library.kiwix.org
* FEATURE: Remember picked files and folders between app launches with File System Access API
* FEATURE: Slide away header and footer when scrolling an article, restored when scrolling up
* FEATURE: On non-scrollable pages use Ctrl/Cmd + UpArrow/DownArrow, long swipe or mousewheel/touchpad scroll to toggle header/footer
* ENHANCEMENT: Active content warning now fades out (auto-dismisses) when user starts scrolling
* UPDATE: Turn off auto-focus of search bar on landing pages (option added to Home key setting)
* UPDATE: Launch spinner as soon as possible and make it more informative
* FIX: Added sanity checks to prevent runaway case-insensitive title searches
* FIX: Active content warning now correctly detects new Kolibri-based archives
* FIX: Translated some untranslated UI elements for Firefox OS
* FIX: File/folder and library buttons now work with keyboard (tab to them, and space bar or enter to activate)
* CLEANUP: Transition animations code cleaned up and animations now off by default
* REGRESSION: ACtive content warning dismissed on changing tab
* DEV: Build both MV2 and MV3 packages for Mozilla extension
* DEV: Add facility to extract and set ZIM metadata (also displayed in console.debug)
* DEV: Ensure all built packages contain i18n files
* DEV: In the extension, completely exit local code when a success message is received from PWA
* DEV: Dependencies for babel-core updated and other vulnerabilities fixed

## Kiwix JS v3.10

Released on *2023-09-10*

* FEATURE: Full internationalization of the app in Spanish and French (more languages to follow)
* UPDATE: Improved availability of non-store Chromium extension files and installation instructions
* UPDATE: Supported platform infromation in README
* UPDATE: Documentation updates throughout app
* FIX: Universal file picking in latest Chromium browsers for Android
* FIX: Failure to show active content warning for PhET ZIMs
* FIX: Instabilities in End-to-End tests
* DEV: Added End-to-End tests with Selenium and Mocha on GitHub Actions and BrowserStack
* DEV: Updated Unit tests to use TestCafé
* DEV: Move to modern ES6 bundling system with rollup.js and Vite development server
* DEV: Conversion of JQuery `.on` events to vanilla JS
* DEV: Add documentation for TESTS and adding dependencies for the bundling system
* DEV: Moved app's configuration code to top-level `init.js` outside of bundling system

## Kiwix JS v3.9.0

Released on *2023-06-16*

* ENHANCEMENT: Enabled full dynamic content in the Chromium extension via the PWA workaround
* ENHANCEMENT: Migrate to Manifest Version 3 for the Chromium browser extension
* ENHANCEMENT: Added a Promise queue to prevent overlapping dialogue boxes
* UPDATE: In-app documentation updated to reflect latest practices
* UPDATE: JQuery updated to v3.7.0
* UPDATE: PWA server URL updated to https://browser-extension.kiwix.org
* FIX: Restored dialogue box animations lost when JQuery was removed from the dialogue box code
* FIX: Increase the number of download types recognized by the JQuery mode code
* BUGFIX: Removed use of `Promise.finally()` incompatible with older browsers
* BUGFIX: Fixed infinite loop with the Bypass AppCache option when returning from PWA to local extension code
* CLEANUP: Added an ESLint configuration and dev dependency
* CLEANUP: Fixed style issues identified by ESLint
* DEV: Added a warning colour to Configuration when the appCache is disabled
* DEV: Compile xzdec and zstddec as ES6 modules (for future use)

## Kiwix-JS v3.8.0

This version incorporates an interim version 3.7.2 that was only published to the moz-extension PWA

Released on *2023-04-23*

* NEW: Expert/troubleshooting setting to disable drag-and-drop
* SECURITY: Add sandbox to iframe to prevent third-party content and top-level navigation
* SECURITY: Apply a CSP for the app as a whole (via meta http-equiv)
* SECURITY: Apply a CSP for iframe contents in SW mode (via response headers)
* UPDATE: API status panel now displays the PWA origin
* UPDATE: The PWA version now notifies more reliably that an update is available
* UPDATE: JavaScript libzim updated to v0.2
* CLEANUP: Removed usage of jQuery in Bootstrap modals
* DEV: CI now uses the latest GitHub workflow actions
* DEV: Script provided (`npm run serve`) to launch local http-server for development and testing
* FIX: Full-text search results were not properly cancelled by user selecting a title search result
* FIX: Fall back to using MIME type to determine type of document being downloaded from the ZIM
* FIX: Broken epub downloads in IE11

Changes in version 3.7.0:

* FEATURE: Full-text search is now available in modern Firefox and Chromium if your ZIM archive has an ft index
* NEW: The API panel in Configuration now informs you if full-text searching is available for your ZIM and platform
* NEW: A new ZIM metadata property added in backend to show whether the loaded archive has an ft index
* NEW: Added code to initialize the new javascript-libzim W/ASM if needed
* UPDATE: Documentation updated to reflect the full-text searching capability
* UPDATE: Renamed the GitHub Repository 'master' branch to 'main'
* UPDATE: Changed some hard-coded values in build script to dynamic
* UPDATE: Provide a Workflow dispatch option to set the build version number
* UPDATE: Release packages that do not need to be signed are now automatically uploaded to the release server
* CLEANUP: Many deprecated JQuery statements have been converted to native DOM equivalents, speeding up code
* CLEANUP: Removed most usage of .innerHTML in the code
* FIX: Tweaks to Wikimedia dark theme for greater compatibility with LaTeX images

* FEATURE: ServiceWorker Mode is now the default, and compatible clients upgrade automatically to this mode
* FEATURE: On first run after update, the user is informed of the ServiceWorker Mode upgrade status (upgraded or incompatible)
* NEW: A warning (with suggestions) is provided if user opens an incompatible Zimit (warc2zim) archive type
* COMPATIBILITY: Minimum Firefox version has been raised to >=52, due to lack of full Extension APIs in earlier versions
* UPDATE: Detection of active content updated for compatibility with more no-namespace ZIM archives
* UPDATE: Nightly packages on the download server now include the date in their filenames
* FIX: Kiwix icon now has an outline so that it is visible against dark OS backgrounds

Improved CSS stylesheet support : now all CSS stylesheets are interpreted, and applied in a performant way.
A cache has been added on these stylesheets to improve performance, too.
Plus some minor fixes