MAL Updater OS X

Shukofukurou 3.1.4 Released

Shukofukurou 3.1.4 is now released. For the Mac App Store release, you have to wait awhile until it appears. This release adds improved Dark Mode support under Mojave. Also, outside the Mac App Store, the app is now notarized for macOS Mojave.

The change log is below.

Bug Fixes and Enhancements

• Add Dark Mode support for macOS Mojave
• Airing/Publishing titles will appear as bold in the user’s anime and manga lists.
• App is now notarized for macOS Mojave.

Hachidori and Mojave

Hachidori is already compatible with Mojave, but we added new information regarding Automation permissions with the new Privacy settings under the new OS. You can review them at our Github wiki.

MAL Updater OS X and Mojave

MAL Updater OS X development is currently on hold until the new API returns. However, there isn’t much that needs to be done to add Mojave support besides updating a few frameworks. MAL Updater OS X 2.5 will eventually support macOS 10.14 Mojave.

Hiyoko (Shukofukurou iOS port)

We are about 1 or 2/4th done with the initial pre-alpha release. Season, Airing, Title Information, Characters and List Management needs to be implemented before initial testing begins. Once testing begins, initial beta phase will be restricted to Patrons and whoever donated to the project through a voluntary donation or a donation license purchase. The app will ultimately cost $2.99 to cover the costs of the Apple’s Developer Program and will have lifetime updates. Source code will become available after the initial test release.

MyAnimeList support

The first biweekly update have been released and it seems that the MyAnimeList developer team have finished reviewing the steps necessary to complete the development of the new APIs and will start working on the remaining development sometime next week. We currently do not know when, but we will keep you updated.

Funding Update

We are fully covered for the remainder of 2018. For 2019 as of today, We have raised $62.78 out of $204 (30.8% of the goal) needed to cover our development costs. We need to reach $204 in order to continue development or development will be discontinued and the repos will be removed. You can support us today by buying a donation license or leaving a tip, download Shukofukurou off the Mac App Store, or becoming a Patron.

Now that the final release of Hachidori is now out, here is what we have planned. We are currently working on porting Shukofukurou to iOS since there is no app that allows you to manage your lists from multiple services. We are naming this Hiyoko, which means Chick in Japanese. It will have most of the features in Shukofukurou with a clean and modern mobile interface on iOS. Some features such as importing will not make it in the mobile version. However, syncing and airing notifications will eventually make it on there.

At pleasant, we are in the early stages. Once the App is done, the free version will have the same functionality as the desktop version, including Manga support. However, editing fields outside of  Episodes/Chapters/Volumes, Status and Score will require an in-app purchase in addition to any features that are exclusive to donors. List syncing and airing notifications will only be available for donors in addition to the existing donor-exclusive features. This is because distributing the App requires an Apple Developer Program and I currently rely on donations to cover that along with hosting fees. Therefore, I can’t make all the features available for free. The in-app purchase to unlock all the features will be $2.99 and all future updates will be free. If I receive enough Patreon support to sustain the developments, I will reconsider this decision.

However, the source code will be available for free for those who want to compile the app for free. However, you will need your own Apple Developer Program membership if you want to use the compiled app indefinitely. Without a membership, the app will only run for a week and afterwards, you have to create a new provisioning profile and rebuild the app.

As for MyAnimeList support, we are still in the dark, although we should hear back soon. I do not plan on implementing any workarounds in the meantime as DeNA can restore the API and make the effort to workaround  this pointless. If or when the API returns, I will put my efforts to restoring MyAnimeList support to all the apps.

Lastly, MAL Updater OS X 2.5 will be the last release of MAL Updater OS X when the API returns. This is mostly because I want to merge the functionality of MAL Updater OS X into Hachidori and only maintain one app for auto-updating anime libraries. As a transition, MAL Updater OS X donation keys will work with Hachidori. Hachidori 3.1 or 3.2 is when this change will occur, after the MyAnimeList API returns of course.

With that, this is all the updates I have in mind in the  next several months.

You may notice that all references to MyAnimeList and MAL Updater OS X was removed. It’s because the Official MAL API at this point have been down for over 2 weeks. We don’t know when it will return. Since we don’t want to falsely advertise that MyAnimeList support is still there, we removed these references. This doesn’t mean that MAL Updater OS X will be discontinued or that MyAnimeList support will be removed in Shukofukurou. Once DeNA reenables the API, we will restore things back to it’s former state.

As for the plans we have in store for the summer, we plan to release Shukofukurou 3.0.5. This will fix some more bugs along with adding an increment button to the toolbar. This makes it easier to increment the watched episodes or read chapters by one without opening the edit popover. We also plan to add export functionality to Kitsu and AniList to allow users to export these lists to MAL XML format. This will require looking up for the title ID that is on MAL and some times might not be exported. This should give some peace and mind for those who want to use Kitsu or AniList as their main sites and use MAL as a backup.

Also, we anticipate in adding Anime-Planet support to Hachidori once their API is released to the public some time this month or early July. Once it’s ready, we will work on adding support for AniList to Hachidori. In addition, MAL Updater OS X functionality will eventually be merged into Hachidori. 2.5 will be the last version when the MAL API returns. Once this transition is complete, Hachidori should accept MAL Updater OS X donation licenses. This will make life easier as I only need to maintain one app opposed to two, which have the same functionality.

Lastly, I plan on porting Shukofukurou to iOS to expand our audience for those who use iPhones and iPads. Except the import and Export features, the iOS version will mostly have the same features as the Mac version. It will eventually have sync support, which will allow you to sync your AniList list with your Kitsu list so they are mostly the same. Shukofukurou for iOS will probably be renamed to Hiyoko or Hinatori, both mean chick or young bird in Japanese. Once a beta release is ready, I will make it available for testing.

With that, thanks for the continued support!

The official statement from Kineta and Xinil have been posted. The full post can be read here. Here are the excerpts.

We have been waiting for our owners, DeNA, to make a statement to the community. Unfortunately, Xinil and I feel it is not possible to wait any longer.

At approximately 4:00 AM PDT on May 24th, two things happened:

• all user accounts were frozen, requiring users to reset their password before they can log in
• the API – a communication tool for 3rd party apps – started returning 404s

This means that all user-developed applications stopped working, including:

Anime Recommendation Finder, Anime Recommendations, Anime Trakr, AnYme, Atarashii, BetterMyAnimeList, Cafeine, hinatachan, iMAL, Kamuy, MALClient, MALembed, MALgraph, mal-gtk, MALstats, MAL Updater, MAL Updater OS X, MyAniList, MyAnimelistRT, PocketMAL, Shukofukurou, Taiga, themes.moe, Trackma, and others that we may have missed which use MyAnimeList.

Hello everyone. I want to apologize for how terribly rushed and opaque these changes have been. Forcing a site-wide password reset is extremely time consuming for the users (as well as our staff) and springing it on the community without any explained security breach is a bit odd. As you also know, we have immediately terminated the MAL API service without providing a sufficient replacement. I’m deeply sorry for this action. Our developer community have been nothing but amazing over the near 10 years the API was available, and I had high hopes we’d be able to put out a completely rebuilt version before taking down the current service. Rest assured, we will absolutely provide a new API everyone can use, but I can’t speak to a release time yet (though it is most definitely in a beta phase.)

It is my personal goal to always put the community first and as the number one stakeholder in all projects we undertake. In that regard, I’m very disappointed we’ve failed to provide a great user experience. We will absolutely review the steps that were taken that led us to today and I am determined to improve our communication and community relations with DeNA and upper MAL management.

I hope you will continue to put your trust in us and find our overall service rewarding and useful. Thank you for taking the time to read our messages.

Lastly, if you need help accessing your account, please reach out to our customer service department or in cases were you cannot wait, me. The moderators are not able to provide account support.

What Now?

For the time being, MAL Updater OS X and the MyAnimeList service in Shukofukurou will not work. With 3.0.1, MyAnimeList support will be disabled. Until the MAL API comes back in some form, it will remain disabled and MAL Updater OS X will not work.

The Future.

MAL Updater OS X won’t go away as the MAL API will probably return in the future. Once the new Official MAL API returns, MAL Updater OS X 2.5 Alphas will most likely be the only builds that will work. We have to back port the new API back to the old versions. The new APIs will use OAuth, so no password will be collected.

What should I use for the time being?

If you are still angry with the decision DeNA made, you have a choice. You can switch to AniList or Kitsu. Shukofukurou currently supports AniList and Kitsu. While Hachidori only works with Kitsu, I am currently adding AniList support to Hachidori.

Also, an ability to export a MyAnimeList XML for an AniList or Kitsu list is being worked on in the future. This should allow you to import changes back from those sites into MyAnimeList for the time being.

If you have a donation license for MAL Updater OS X, you may request a free Hachidori Donation license by sending your invoice to ateliershiori@moyit.pro. If you don’t know what it is, you can lookup your order here.

Hachidori will now accept MAL Updater OS X (new style) license key. Make sure you are using MAL Updater OS X 2.4.5. In MAL Updater OS X, view the about window by clicking the MAL Updater OS X icon and select “About MAL Updater OS X.” You should see your license key. Use this license key in Hachidori to register it.

Without warning, the MAL API went down due to a security vulnerability. While our programs don’t exactly use it, we only use the account verification. This means that you may not be able to use our apps. Note that we cannot fix this issue since MyAnimeList can only fix this.

Since this issue is primarily related to DeNA (MAL’s parent company) rather than the MAL staff, sending complaints to DeNA’s customer support seems to be our best bet at the moment. If they don’t fix it, I advise you to switch to Kitsu or AniList and boycott MyAnimeList to give them a message that this is unacceptable. Note that you can easily import your lists into these sites.

However, Hachidori (excluding MAL Sync) and Shukofukurou (Kitsu and AniList services only) are not affected by this. We will report back when there are updates.

To ease the pain, I suggest using a different Anime List management service like Kitsu. If you have purchased a donation license for MAL Updater OS X, you can request a free Hachidori license by sending your FastSpring order invoice to ateliershiori@moyit.pro. We are currently working on supporting AniList soon. With that, I apologize for the inconvenience as this is out of my control. For the time being, MAL Updater OS X donation licenses are temporarily pulled from sale until I can find a workaround.