Changelog

2024-12-19 Fixed a bug that prevented Merit Cards from starting when checking for GPU drivers. This issue was found for javafx-fluent-theme: https://github.com/Eroica/javafx-fluent-theme/issues/3
2024-12-01 Testing license extended to January 2025.
2024-09-25 I will be travelling during October which means I can’t do many updates, but I’m working on a bigger release. I extended the test license to December, just re-download the latest release.
2024-09-18
  • Fixed a memory leak caused by views not being removed correctly. This mostly happened in the main window when navigating from one deck to another.
  • Improved database management. Merit Cards won’t unnecessarily remove and add a new row to the database if the row can be updated (this prevents the row ID from being incremented).
  • Corrected somme grammatical errors in the deck setting dialog.
2024-09-01

This release updates how facet media is organized. Make sure to keep an additional backup of %LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards!

  • Facet media is now stored under Media/ in Merit Cards’ app directory.
  • Fixed a bug that still showed the old name in the sidebar when renaming a deck group.

When starting a custom study session, I noticed that “Apply grading (default)” and “Only apply grading for due notes” was worded very confusingly. I changed it to “Only grade due notes (default)” and “Apply grading for all notes”, and updated how the latter option works. To summarize:

  • Only grade due notes (default): If a note is not due (e.g. by unchecking Study only due notes), its stage will not increase if it was graded correctly. This is how it always works, but I hope is worded clearer now.
  • Apply grading for all notes: If a note is not due but graded correctly, its stage also increases.
2024-08-01

This release performs a database migration. Make sure to keep an additional backup of %LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards\Merit Cards.db!

  • Fixed a bug when adding facet images/audio to newly-created facets in the note editor.
  • The sidebar’s scroll position should now be reliably restored …
  • Take display scaling into account when restoring width and height of Merit Cards’ window.
  • Fixed a bug around nested database transactions.
  • Improved handling of edge cases when moving facet media.
  • Merit Cards’ log file (if any) is now created at a platform-specific location (but on Windows, this is still in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards anyway).
  • Lots of internal refactorings around state restoration!
2024-07-01 Extended June’s license to this month. Next version is coming soon, but too many bugs still need to be fixed.
2024-06-07
  • Fixed a bug that always displayed Auto-play audio as disabled in preferences window
  • Fixed broken facet media
2024-04-30 Re-uploaded Beta 29 with a new license valid for May June. Unfortunately, too much other work to do right now.
2024-04-01 New monthly beta.
2024-03-01 New monthly beta.
2024-02-01 New monthly beta.
2024-01-01

Happy new year!

  • Note editor now displays to which deck a note belongs at the top right
  • Added a “Graded incorrectly” smart deck which contains all notes whose latest grading was incorrect
  • Internal refactorings
2023-12-01 Just a maintenance release to update Merit Cards’ dependencies, but I began with some refactoring to work on some new features.
2023-11-01 When studying multiple decks with and without templates, fixed a bug that failed to clear facet styles.
2023-10-01

Only a small update:

  • Build with JavaFX 21.
  • Fixed broken session when note limit was set to a higher number than available notes.

In related news, I published my custom-built JavaFX theme that makes Merit Cards look more like a Windows 11 application as a separate library: javafx-fluent-theme

2023-08-30

I’m on a short vacation before starting my new job, so this September’s beta arrives a little earlier. This build is valid until October 1st, 2023.

  • End-of-session statistics now correctly take into account skipped notes.
  • Upgraded dependencies and build with JDK 20.
2023-08-01

It’s been 1 year since Merit Cards’ first beta release! I finally created a custom icon. It’s supposed to be a cute owl in a fortune bag.

Apart from that, new monthly beta with updated dependencies and bug fixes that were necessary for Kotlin 1.9.20.

2023-07-01 New monthly beta. Sorry for the lack of new updates, but I was busy looking for a new job. New things are coming soon!
2023-06-01 New monthly beta.
2023-05-01
  • Fixed drag area for header bar on screens with a display scaling other than 100%.
  • Disabled adding or removing notes when multiple decks are selected in the sidebar. This is not because this is buggy (the fixes from before still apply), but I took a look at how other programs work with multiple selections, and I couldn’t make up my mind on what behavior is most familiar to users yet.
2023-04-11
  • Added a workaround for a bug with JavaFX’ TreeView when selecting multiple items. Investigation and workaround described here: https://github.com/Eroica/javafx-treeview-selection-bug
  • Fixed a small bug that consumed all key events when the sidebar is focused (e.g. disabling Esc).
  • Added a minor style fix for display scalings over 100%.
2023-04-01

Beta 16 release bringing:

  • Correctly prompt Windows 11’s “snapping” when dragging Merit Cards’ main window.
  • Manual decks now display an M in the sidebar instead of showing a due count of 0.
  • Facets now support adding audio to them! There’s also a new setting to “Automatically play audio” in the app preferences.
  • Revised the layout of the sidebar to be more similar to WinUI 3, including animations.
  • Fixed a restoration bug when deleting a deck while the note editor is open.
  • Fixed a bug that a facet’s alignment property was ignored during a study session (introduced when facets started supporting images)
  • Some internal optimizations around database watchers.
  • Minor style fixes.

Unfortunately, I think I found a bug in JavaFX’ TreeView that can happen when selecting multiple items (and then deleting one). I have disabled support for selecting multiple items in the sidebar for now while I investigate this bug. Sorry about that.

2023-03-12 Fixed broken session when not setting a note limit.
2023-03-11 Re-uploaded Beta 15 because Merit Cards didn’t create its necessary folder in %LOCALAPPDATA% if it was missing; sorry about that.
2023-03-10 Re-uploaded Beta 15 because it was still showing “Beta 14” in the About dialog.
2023-03-08

I’ve been working on bringing Merit Cards closer to a public release. Notable features/bug fixes are:

  • You can now add images to notes by dragging them onto a facet. Images are copied and stored in Merit Cards’ resources folder per deck (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Merit Cards). [Supported image formats]
  • Fixed a bug that allowed dragging deck groups into their inner children.
  • Added a customizable note limit to a study session.
  • When importing notes into an existing deck, any detail screen on the right (e.g. note list or note editor) now correctly refreshes if necessary.
  • Some minor style fixes.
2023-01-21 Extended this month’s license to April.
2023-01-01 New monthly beta; happy new year.
2022-12-19 The color when grading a note now flashes for a short time instead of immediately switching to the next note; added a confirmation when exiting a study session with Esc; fixed a bug that cleared the search bar after all notes were retrieved in a note list; minor style tweaks.
2022-12-04 Fixed a bug when re-grading previously graded notes (and automatic re-grading is allowed in the settings); fixed stale cache when adding a new note in the Note editor and then returning back to the list of notes.
2022-12-01 New monthly beta; fixed a restoration bug when deleting facets during a study session.
2022-11-26 Fixed broken session when studying decks without due notes.
2022-11-19

I refactored the session screen for many small improvements:

  • Got rid of an annoying jitter while transitioning between notes if display scaling was set to something higher than 100%.
  • Added a non-blocking progress bar while the session is being set up.
  • Removed a huge chunk of code from a now unusued library which also allowed adding better tests.
  • You can exit a study session early by selecting End study session early. This allows you to look at this session’s statistics even if you haven’t studied all notes.

And for the note list screen:

  • Now retrieves notes more efficiently and without blocking the UI.
  • Searching for text is now done case-insensitive.
  • When moving between different screens or re-starting Merit Cards, the last search term and scroll position is restored.
2022-11-03 Removed “Free Notes” (this wasn’t usable anyway in the current state; it might come back in the future); fixed wrong default for Mica on non-AMD hardware (finally).
2022-11-01 New monthly beta; Merit Cards now backups its database once per day; improved the database scheme for less space usage; fixed the calculation of due notes for the “All Notes” deck; fixed a restoration bug when deleting a facet during a study session; added the option to import new notes into an existing deck; improved the workaround for Windows 11’s Mica effect on non-AMD hardware (see discussion); added an internal setting for debug logs.
2022-10-08 Fixed a severe bug when moving around notes; added a workaround for Windows 11’s Mica effect on non-AMD hardware (take a look under Preferences); improved how notes are being fetched from the database (this speeds up decks with several thousands of notes).
2022-10-01 New monthly beta; added a summary at the end of a study session; fixed sorting by due date in the note list screen; you can now edit a note’s due date manually if you need to; updated the Mica effect to Windows 11 22H2 (this might be unreliable, still investigating).
2022-09-01 New monthly beta; removed “Cancel session and skip grading” (this feature was actually removed before the first beta build, but not from the UI).
2022-08-19 Added a new setting to quickly allow re-grading of notes; Merit Cards now correctly shows all available fonts when editing facets; adapt to JavaFX 19’s focus-visible classes.
2022-08-07 Fixed a restoration issue when returning to a study session from the note editor. Only one Merit Cards instance can be launched at a time.
2022-08-01 First public beta build!