Opencast 20: Release Notes

Opencast 20.1

This release contains minor admin ui fixes and code cleanups. Also it adds /play route enhancements described below.

Preserve query parameters on /play redirect

The /play route now passes through query parameters to the target player URL. This allows parameters like jwt=... or t=10 to be preserved when redirecting to the configured player.

This is particularly useful for third-party integrations where authentication tokens (like JWTs) or specific player settings need to be passed through the redirect to the actual player interface, while preserving the ability to configure the exact player on the Opencast side.

If a parameter with the same name already exists in the configured player path, the value from the request will be appended, creating a multi-valued parameter. This behavior ensures that parameters are never lost, though player implementations may need to handle multiple values if they occur.

Opencast 20.0

Features

• Opencast now supports chapters in videos. You can use the Editor to add, modify and publish chapters. [Editor #1647] [#7142]

Breaking Changes

• no breaking changes in this release

Configuration Changes

• Paella 8 is now the default Paella version. Paella 7 is scheduled for removal in Opencast 21. [#7214]
• The circular dependency between index and list providers has been eliminated. The configuration for the ACL additional actions list provider has been moved to the organization configuration. #7128
• JMX beans appear to be unused, and there are performance concerns surrounding JMX statistics. Therefore, they have been removed to simplify our code. [#7317]
• Disable service states by default. These tended to cause more issues in modern systems. Functionality is still present, just disabled by default. [#7450]
• The configuration option "heartbeat.interval" was removed from etc/org.opencastproject.serviceregistry.impl.JobDispatcher.cfg Furthermore, only dispatching nodes will have a heartbeat from now on. [#7311]
• All capture agent inputs are now preselected when scheduling a new event in the Admin UI [Admin Interface #1566]
• Whether you were uploading or scheduling a new event in the Admin UI, the "Create Event" modal would always offer you workflows tagged with either "upload" or "schedule". Now if you are uploading, you only get workflows tagged with "upload". And if you are scheduling, you only get workflows tagged with "schedule". [Admin Interface #1567]
• A new config option to filter available roles in the Admin UI access policy dropdowns was added. Allows you to effectively remove catgories of roles (like ROLE_GROUP) from the dropdowns to make them more usable. [Admin Interface #1561] [#7541]
• The editor thumbnail view has been improved. [Editor #1663]

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
April 15, 2026	Release Branch Cut
Mai 15, 2026	Release of Opencast 20.0

Release Managers

• Martin Wygas (elan e.V.)
• Sascha Nösberger (University of Bern)