SubTrackr v0.4.5 Release Notes

🎉 Overview

This release brings significant improvements to email notifications, UI polish, and visual enhancements with subscription icons. We've revamped the SMTP configuration system, fixed dark mode issues (Issue #48), added automatic logo fetching for subscriptions (Issue #6), introduced table sorting functionality for better subscription management (Issue #27), added Quarterly schedule support (Issue #49), implemented automatic renewal date updates (Issue #29), and added a comprehensive calendar view with iCal export functionality.

✨ New Features

📧 Enhanced Email Notifications

• SMTP TLS/SSL Support (PR #51, Resolves #50)

  • Added comprehensive TLS/SSL support for SMTP connections
  • Supports both STARTTLS (ports 587, 25, 2525, 8025, 80) and implicit TLS/SSL (ports 465, 8465, 443)
  • Improved error messages to distinguish between SSL and STARTTLS failures
  • Fixed authentication issues with SMTP2Go and similar providers
  • Added loading spinner to test connection button for better UX

• Email Notification System

  • Added "To Email" field to SMTP configuration for notification recipient
  • Implemented high-cost alert emails (>$50/month) when creating or updating subscriptions
  • HTML email templates with subscription details (name, cost, category, renewal date, URL)
  • Emails sent automatically when subscriptions become high-cost
  • Respects "High Cost Alerts" setting in preferences

🎨 Subscription Icons/Logos (Resolves #6)

• Automatic Logo Fetching

  • Automatic favicon fetching from subscription website URLs
  • Uses Google's favicon service for reliable logo retrieval
  • Supports URLs with or without protocol (auto-adds https://)
  • Logos automatically update when subscription URL changes
  • Logos displayed in subscription lists and dashboard

• UI Enhancements

  • Icons appear next to subscription names in all lists
  • Graceful fallback to status dot if logo fails to load
  • Works seamlessly in both light and dark modes
  • Responsive design maintained

📊 Subscription Table Sorting (Resolves #27)

• Sortable Columns

  • Click any column header to sort subscriptions
  • Sortable by: Name, Category, Cost, Schedule, Status, Renewal Date
  • Toggle between ascending and descending order
  • Visual indicators (arrows) show current sort column and direction
  • HTMX-powered sorting (no page reload required)

• Table View

  • Converted subscription list from card layout to table format
  • Better data organization and readability
  • Maintains responsive design with horizontal scroll on small screens
  • Full dark mode support
  • Sort state persists during page interactions

📅 Quarterly Schedule Support (Resolves #49)

• New Schedule Option
  • Added "Quarterly" as a subscription schedule option
  • Quarterly subscriptions renew every 3 months
  • Properly handles month-end dates (e.g., Jan 31 → Apr 30)
  • Cost calculations updated for quarterly subscriptions
  • Annual cost: 4x quarterly cost
  • Monthly cost: quarterly cost / 3
  • Category statistics correctly include quarterly subscriptions

🔄 Automatic Renewal Date Updates (Resolves #29)

• Smart Date Management

  • Renewal dates automatically update when they pass (for active subscriptions)
  • Renewal dates recalculate when start date changes
  • Renewal dates recalculate when schedule changes
  • Updates happen automatically when subscriptions are loaded from database
  • Uses GORM hooks (AfterFind, BeforeUpdate) for seamless updates
  • No manual intervention required - dates stay current automatically

• UI Improvements

  • Added info tooltip to "Next Renewal" field explaining auto-update behavior
  • Tooltip clarifies that renewal date updates after clicking Update button
  • Better user understanding of automatic date management

📅 Calendar View & iCal Export

• Interactive Calendar

  • New calendar page showing all subscription renewal dates
  • Month view with navigation between months
  • Visual highlighting of days with renewals
  • Subscription icons displayed next to names
  • Renewal amounts shown for each subscription
  • Click any subscription to edit it directly from the calendar
  • Full dark mode support
  • Responsive design

• iCal Export

  • Export all subscription renewals to standard iCal format (.ics file)
  • Compatible with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, and other calendar apps
  • Includes recurrence rules based on subscription schedule (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annual)
  • Event descriptions include subscription details (name, cost, schedule, URL)
  • One-click download from calendar page

🐛 Bug Fixes

Dark Mode Improvements (Resolves #48)

• Fixed SMTP configuration section dark mode styling
• Fixed categories section dark mode visibility
• Fixed API keys section dark mode colors
• Fixed API documentation section dark mode support
• Fixed email message templates for dark mode
• All input fields and labels now properly visible in dark mode

JavaScript Fixes

• Fixed syntax error in subscription form (extra closing braces causing HTMX errors)
• Improved form initialization and event handling

Dashboard Improvements

• Removed 5-subscription limit on dashboard
• Dashboard now displays all subscriptions (matching subscriptions page)
• Better consistency across views

Date Calculation Improvements

• Enhanced date calculation logic for all schedule types
• Robust handling of month-end dates (e.g., Jan 31 → Feb 28/29)
• Quarterly renewals properly handle edge cases
• Start date changes now trigger renewal date recalculation
• Past renewal dates automatically advance to next occurrence

🔧 Technical Improvements

Database

• Added icon_url column to subscriptions table with automatic migration
• Migration handles existing databases gracefully

Code Quality

• Created reusable LogoService for favicon fetching
• Extracted duplicate logo fetching logic into helper methods
• Improved error handling and logging
• Better separation of concerns

Architecture

• Email service with TLS/SSL support
• Logo service with URL normalization and domain extraction
• Synchronous logo fetching for immediate display
• Preserves existing logos when updating subscriptions
• Repository layer supports flexible sorting with column validation
• Service layer abstraction for sorted data retrieval
• GORM hooks (AfterFind, BeforeUpdate) for automatic date management
• Enhanced date calculation with month-end date handling
• Quarterly schedule support throughout the application stack
• Calendar view with client-side rendering for performance
• iCal export with RFC 5545 compliant format
• Template function support for date formatting in navigation

📋 Future Enhancements

Email Notifications

• Renewal reminder emails
  • Automatic emails before subscription renewals
  • Configurable reminder timeframe (e.g., 7 days before)
  • Support for multiple reminder intervals
  • Note: Auto-update of renewal dates (Issue #29) is now implemented
• Customizable email templates
  • User-defined email templates
  • Template variables and customization
• Email notification preferences per subscription
  • Per-subscription notification toggles
  • Granular control over alert types
• Batch email sending for multiple alerts
  • Digest emails for multiple high-cost subscriptions
  • Daily/weekly summary emails

Subscription Icons

• Manual logo upload option
  • Allow users to upload custom logos
  • Override automatic favicon fetching
  • Support for image formats (PNG, JPG, SVG)
• Logo caching/memoization for performance
  • Cache domain-to-logo mappings
  • Reduce redundant API calls
  • In-memory or database caching
• Background job to refresh missing logos
  • Periodic refresh of logos for existing subscriptions
  • Retry failed logo fetches
  • Update logos when favicons change
• Support for alternative favicon services
  • Fallback to multiple favicon APIs
  • Icon Horse, Favicon.io, etc.
  • Service rotation for reliability
• Local file storage option for logos
  • Download and store logos locally
  • Reduce dependency on external services
  • Better privacy and performance
• Logo optimization and resizing
  • Automatic image optimization
  • Consistent sizing across subscriptions
  • Support for different display sizes

SMTP

• OAuth2 authentication support
  • Gmail OAuth2 integration
  • Microsoft 365 OAuth2 support
  • Improved security for email sending
• Multiple SMTP provider presets
  • Pre-configured settings for popular providers
  • One-click setup for Gmail, Outlook, etc.
• SMTP connection pooling
  • Reuse connections for better performance
  • Reduced connection overhead
• Email delivery status tracking
  • Track email delivery success/failure
  • Retry failed email sends
  • Delivery reports and analytics

🔄 Migration Notes

• Automatic Migration: The icon_url column is automatically added to existing subscriptions
• No Data Loss: All existing subscriptions remain intact
• Backward Compatible: Existing SMTP configurations continue to work

📝 Breaking Changes

None - This release is fully backward compatible.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• PR #51 contributors for SMTP TLS/SSL improvements
• Community feedback on dark mode issues (Issue #48)
• Inspiration from Wallos project for logo implementation approach (Issue #6)
• Community request for subscription sorting functionality (Issue #27)
• Community request for Quarterly schedule support (Issue #49)
• Community feedback on renewal date management (Issue #29)

📚 Documentation

• Updated settings page with "To Email" field
• Improved SMTP configuration UI with better error messages
• Enhanced subscription forms with logo preview capability
• Added info tooltip to renewal date field explaining auto-update behavior
• Version number updated to v0.4.5 in About section
• New calendar navigation in main menu
• Calendar page with month navigation and subscription details

Release Date: TBD
Git Tag: v0.4.5
Branch: v0.4.5