Mastodawn

Keao Wright Feb 15, 2023

Want to test NVDA 2023.1 beta and have addons that NVDA reports as incompatible? It's always best to wait for the developer of said addons to update and test their addons. However, if you'd like, follow these steps:
Click start, open the NVDA folder, and select explore NVDA user config ...
open addons, and in each addon folder, edit manifest.ini.
Find a line that says lastTestedNVDAVersion= ...
Remove the old text i.e. 2.22.1 and replace with 2.23.1 and you'll be cookin with gas.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

Keep in mind, you should back up your NVDA settings before doing this because, if you break it or the addons are actually incompatible, you'll be really sad and will have to pick up the pieces yourself. I hope this helps at least someone. I, for one was surprised that I was able to get things working without too much heartache. Your mileage/kilometerage may vary. Have fun!

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

All, cricricri, modified to work with the latest NVDA beta is here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1xjrfhs4bkpyfv/cricricri-0.2.1.nvda-addon?dl=0
Install it into NVDA before you upgrade to the beta.
Once installed, press nvda+n, select tools, then select "date changer for manifests."
This will bring up a lits of all of your installed addons.
click the select all button, select major version (2023" then minor version (1, then revision, 1.
Click apply changes to manifests, and then
install the beta.

cricricri-0.2.1.nvda-addon

Shared with Dropbox

Dropbox

Borris Feb 15, 2023

@ner Oh, yeah, it's soon time for the add-on break-fest again.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@BorrisInABox Yep, and apparently it's easier to fix junk than I thought. I was able to update everything with no problems, except for the fact that SecureCRT stopped working. That's not the addon's problem though, it's just NVAccess broke it, and the code snipit I wrote to fix SecureCRT back in the day does nothing since they use UIA now. It's all broken.

Borris Feb 15, 2023

@ner I never used SecureCRT anyway, so I guess I won't notice. But UIA is the future and junk, so it should all just work and be happy.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@BorrisInABox Yep, and junk. Right now it's just junk, and JAWS actually works the best with SecureCRT. It's definitely nifty and crap if you own it, otherwise, it's expensive as all hell. Oddly, they have it available for use at work. Guessing that's because it's fips compliant.

Seedy Three Sixty Feb 15, 2023

@ner @jaybird110127 A weird name for an add-on.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@seedy @jaybird110127 Yep, not sure what it actually means / what it actually means coloquially speaking in Spanish. Weird stuff.

Tyler Spivey Feb 16, 2023

@ner That addon isn't being maintained anymore. Use Addon Packager, which is already compatible. https://github.com/hxebolax/Add-on-packer

GitHub - hxebolax/Add-on-packer: Back up your add-ons quickly

Back up your add-ons quickly. Contribute to hxebolax/Add-on-packer development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@tspivey That may be true but it works at the moment. Also not much to it.

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@tspivey The last updated / tested version was 2022.1. I’ve tested it and it appears to work as advertised. Fixed manifest to indicate last tested version.

Jayson Smith Feb 16, 2023

@tspivey @ner Okay, so what's with these addons with English descriptions on GitHub, but Spanish Readme docs?

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@jaybird110127 @tspivey It was originally written in Spanish. No idea.

Mohamed Al-Hajamy 💾Feb 16, 2023

@ner @jaybird110127 @tspivey It's by a Spanish developer. I believe the developer doesn't know English and uses Google Translate.

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@tspivey @devinprater That addon would work for sure but if you need a quick and dirty solution this would work too. Thanks for the tip.

Seedy Three Sixty Feb 16, 2023

@tspivey @ner The readme for this thing is (I think) entirely in Spanish.

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@seedy @tspivey Looks like this package includes cricricri and some other really cool little utilities. Nice.

Orinks Feb 16, 2023

@ner What's that?

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@Orinks Basically helps NVDA theoretically become compatible with addons. Basically is a way to make the beta work with addons temporarily as you're waiting for devs to update them to work with the new version.

Darren Duff, this account has moved Feb 16, 2023

@ner what does this add_on do? have never heard of it?

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@darren_duff It helps to do things like back up your add ons ets. Meant for power users.

Mohamed Al-Hajamy 💾Feb 15, 2023

@ner There's also an add-on called cricricri that does the same thing, but in an easier interface. Very useful if you have many add-ons installed. There's also that weird paradox of cricricri, the add-on for changing manifests, having its own manifest be required to be changed. https://github.com/hxebolax/cricricri-para-NVDA/releases/download/0.2.1/cricricri-0.2.1.nvda-addon

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@MutedTrampet Ah cool. I'd never heard of that addon. I can totally see the paradox of having to update the manifest of the manifest updater. Weird and junk. I'll have to go and get this thing.

Mohamed Al-Hajamy 💾Feb 15, 2023

@ner Yeah, it's quite useful if you're like me and have 39 add-ons and don't feel like updating the manifests for all of them one by one.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@MutedTrampet Dude, having 39 addons reminds me of my desktop which has like 75 items on it. People who can see are very confused and overwhelmed when they look at my messy desktop.

Mohamed Al-Hajamy 💾Feb 15, 2023

@ner Yeah, know how that goes. I think I hadd nearly 100 icons on my desktop at one point.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@MutedTrampet So you were right, you do have to update tthe manifest of the manifest fixer. Retro dude, retro! But it works and that's the most important thing, plus I now know how to fix things properly.

Abby Marie - 🌱👸Feb 15, 2023

@ner I keep trying to view this with Tweesecake so I can copy and paste to a friend, but every time I view the toot, my tweesecake crashes completely.

Drew Mochak Feb 15, 2023

@ner You mad lunatic.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@objectinspace I am a champion at breaking stuff. Proud of it. Haven’t broken myself lately which is good. Breaking other peoples computers? Yes please! I will own lunatic. Yep. Right here.

Pratik Patel Feb 15, 2023

@objectinspace @ner I did this exact thing with a certain synthesizer add-on yesterday morning. It worked without a problem.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@ppatel @objectinspace Worked for said synth addon as well. Cricricri, once you fix its date also will do it en mass.

Pratik Patel Feb 15, 2023

@ner @objectinspace I'd rather do this with individual add-ons.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@ppatel @objectinspace Fair enough. Some would like to do it en mass, so that's why I included instructions. I did it all manually personally.

Pratik Patel Feb 15, 2023

@ner @objectinspace My major concerns were the synth and Bluetooth Audio. The rest I can live without for awhile. I'll edit and update as needed if maintainers don't do it.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@ppatel @objectinspace What's the bluetooth audio thingy? Is that the silent player stuff? I left the versions in my manifests the same to allow the developers time to update. I use the Braille Extender a lot, so I needed to make that happen. Not sure why I wanted this beta--I guess I really didn't need it--but I wondered if I could make these addons work, and so that's how it all happened.

Pratik Patel Feb 15, 2023

@ner @objectinspace Bluetooth Audio allows you to make sure that your speech is not dropped if you're using a Bluetooth headset with NVDA. Windows silences audio to preserve battery.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@ppatel @objectinspace Is it (the addon) called bluetooth audio?

Pratik Patel Feb 15, 2023

@ner @objectinspace Yes. That's the one.

Brandon Feb 15, 2023

@ner Is there an NVDA addon to do this for the user?

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@serrebi Yes, it's called cricricri. Thing is that you have to manually fix that addon as I detailed, Once you've done that, cricricri lists all your addons. You basically then set your date/version to 2023.1 and bingo bongo, you're done, and it basically does your batch of addons.

Brandon Feb 15, 2023

@ner Well it's a stupid simple thing that should exist. It's not a problem for other screen readers, nearly as often as it is with NVDA.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@serrebi I know, they should have written the addon infrastructure so that it's dependent on particular dependencies. I think that the idea is that developers test their addons to make sure they work with an updated API and Python substructure, then all they have to do is update the date or update dependencies / resolve problems. Beauty of open source I suppose.

Pratik Patel Feb 15, 2023

@serrebi @ner They're working on it from what I understand.

Brandon Feb 15, 2023

@ner O that's the actual name. huh.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@serrebi Yep, it's from Spain or something like that.

Brandon Feb 15, 2023

@ner I gotta wait for NVDA remote to be updated for one thing. I'm back on 2022 for now. I got Eloquence working no issues there but an update will be required again for NVDA remote.

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@serrebi Nvda remote worked for me though technically didn’t run it. Did it fail when you tried running it?

Brandon Feb 15, 2023

@ner Yes: It didn't let me disconnect from the remote session. So f11 worked only one time to focus the remote session :D

Noel Romey Feb 15, 2023

@serrebi Well dang. I'm sure they'll fix it at some point. I don't run NVDA remote here, so doesn't really affect me. I'm not running it however due to some other NVDA related issues I'm seeing.

NV Access Feb 16, 2023

@ner We strongly discourage this at any time, but during the beta period is the worst possible time to suggest it. Any findings you come to about the beta are completely invalid when you are running untested and possibly unstable code in the middle of it. If you want to test the beta, please do, but only with confirmed working add-ons. If add-ons you need aren't yet updated, then perhaps hold off until they are.

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@NVAccess roger that.

NV Access Feb 16, 2023

@ner Remember, if you want to test the beta without losing your existing installed setup, you can run it either as a temporary copy (choose "Continue Running" from the installer) or create a portable copy - neither will interfere with your installed version. So you can check out the new features without needing to fully commit.

Noel Romey Feb 16, 2023

@NVAccess Yep, I'm with you and am running portable. I tried it both ways for completeness sake however.