Opencast 19: Release Notes

Opencast 19.1

This version contains updates for both the admin ui, and the editor, along with the usual collection of bug fixes.

Opencast 19.0

Features

• Episodes in the search index can be filtered according to whether or not they are live. [#7032]
• Paella 8 is now included in Opencast as an alternative player [#7166]
• A Matomo statistics provider has been added [#7134]
• Default series ACLs can now be configured [#7041]

Breaking Changes

• Target tag behaviour has been unified across all workflow operation handlers. [#6648]
• The Opencast presets module has been removed. This previously allowed for org, and system wide presets to be defined, but was undocumented and untested. This change was discussed in 5615. [#6903]
• The Opencast annotation service has been removed. If you had opencast-plugin-legacy-annotation enabled in org.opencastproject.plugin.impl.PluginManagerImpl.cfg then this affects you, otherwise it should not. This change was discussed in 5615. The relevant database tables will be automatically removed from your database systems by the upgrade script. [#6902]

Configuration Changes

• Default workflows are now in yaml [#6798]
• The configuration key video-source-flavor for the Subtitle Timeshift Workflow Operation Handler changed to video-source-flavors (plural). [#6901]
• Configuring JWT authentication is now substantially simpler [#7189]
• The editor now displays less metadata by default [#7053]
• The plugin opencast-plugin-legacy-annotation has been removed from org.opencastproject.plugin.impl.PluginManagerImpl.cfg. [#6902]

• Target tag handling has changed with [#6648]:

  All workflow operation handlers adapt the same method of handling target tags (if they support target tags).

  The chosen behaviour is that of the tag WOH: "If a target-tag starts with a '-', it will be removed from preexisting tags, if a target-tag starts with a '+', it will be added to preexisting tags. If there is no prefix, all preexisting tags are removed and replaced by the target-tags."

  This means that all WOH that did not support "+" and "-" now do. THIS CONSTITUTES A BEHAVIOUR CHANGE FOR SOME WORKFLOW OPERATION HANDLERS! In particular, some WOH were adding tags instead of replacing them, even though they were not prefaced with a "+". Adopters are advised to check their workflows.

For more details, please take a look at the full changelog. If you want to update Opencast from a previous version, you should also read the upgrade guide.

Release Schedule

Date	Phase
November 19, 2025	Release Branch Cut
December 17, 2025	Release of Opencast 18.0

Release Managers

• Greg Logan (Logan IT Enterprises)
• Lukas Gehrlein (ssystems Gmbh.)