Announcing Indigo 2023.2

We're very pleased to announce the release of Indigo 2023.2, the second major update of Indigo for 2023. The main focus of this update was to upgrade our technology stack by upgrading to Python 3.11, upgrading to the most recent macOS developer SDK release, upgrading Indigo Touch for Web's underlying libraries (Svelte, SvelteUI, etc.), and to make it significantly easier for plugin developers (and by extension users) to use libraries available from the huge collection available on the Python Package Index.

We also see this release as a hardening of the Indigo ecosystem. We know that reliability and stability are a major benefit of Indigo over many other solutions in our category, and we believe that we should do everything that we can to ensure that your automation is as solid as we can make it. We will be upgrading our backend systems in the coming months to a better technology base as well. But there are also some notable new features in Indigo 2023.2 (see below for a sample). For a complete list of all changes in this release see the support forum Indigo 2023.2 Release Notes post.

IMPORTANT: We have increased the minimum macOS requirements to macOS High Sierra (10.13) (previously it was 10.12).

IMPORTANT: As previously announced and as a reminder for those that may be upgrading from a release earlier than Indigo 2023.1, Indigo no longer supports plugins and scripts that use Python 2. Users that are reliant on any plugins or scripts that use Python 2 should verify that there are Python 3 versions available or be prepared to switch to a different solution. The best way to get help converting your scripts to Python 3 is to post a help request to the user forums.

Technology Updates

One of the things that we really want to improve is the frequency in which we evaluate and upgrade the technology and infrastructure that we use across the Indigo ecosystem. In this release, we invested a significant amount of time updating the Indigo product itself to more current releases of everything. This will help to avoid large changes in a single release and reduce the pain users can sometimes feel when there are big technological updates. It also helps to ensure Indigo remains compatible with future technologies / macOS and is more secure against potential exploits.

Upgrade to Python 3.11

Now that we've made the jump from Python 2 to Python 3, we want to stay as current as possible with new versions of Python to provide additional security and functionality but without sacrificing stability. We will most likely never ship the latest version of Python to avoid the bleeding edge and its associated bugs, but we will also not allow our installed Python version to fall too far behind.

Python 3.11 is currently the most stable release. We don't anticipate that it will affect much of the user base. If you have had to install 3rd party libraries using pip3 for a script, then you will need to do that again. If you needed to install for a plugin, you may need to run it again. Note that several plugins have been updated to use new functionality included in this version which automatically install dependencies, so check for upgrades to those plugins (see below for details).

Here are couple of improvements in Python 3.11 that will most directly affect users:

• Improved speed: 3.11 is between 10% and 60% faster so plugins and Indigo scripts will be more zippy
• Improved error/exception handling capabilites allow developers to handle errors in better/easier ways
• See the What's New In Python 3.11 section of the Python docs for more details if you are curious

Part of this upgrade also includes updates to the preinstalled libraries that we include with the Indigo install (check the new list of preinstalled packages for details). Again, this won't affect the vast majority of users, but if one of those libraries introduced a backwards-incompatible change, you may need to research the change and adjust your solution.

Upgrade macOS SDK and our Build System

Another effort that we undertook for this release was to upgrade our build environments. This meant upgrading to the latest Xcode, newer macOS SDKs, and our build environments to Sonoma. Apple continues to make these transitions quite painful (especially for a product like Indigo where we try to maintain backwards macOS compatibility for several years), but we're hoping that by doing this transition regularly, we will minimize the difficulty that we've experienced in the past by waiting several releases before upgrading.

Automatic Processing of Required Libraries for Plugins

Some of you may be using plugins that in the past required you to open a terminal window and run a pip3 command to install a library before the plugin would function properly. With this release, we have enabled plugin developers to specify required libraries, and when the plugin runs the required libraries will automatically be installed. Plugins will need to be upgraded to support this capability (it's actually quite simple) and some of the most popular plugins have already been upgraded to support this fantastic feature. Check with your plugin developer or the plugin store to see if an upgrade is available.

Note: the methods that older plugins used to handle these requirements will still work, so plugins aren't required to be updated. This functionality will just make it much easier for both the user and the developer to deal with 3rd party library requirements.

We delayed this release several weeks to get this functionality added because we really wanted to reduce the pain when upgrading to Python 3.11. We think the extra time was well worth it.

Indigo Touch for Web (ITW)

We are continuing to improve and enhance the new ITW. Going along with the technology upgrade theme of this release, we upgraded almost all of the JavaScript technologies we used to build ITW. This has enabled us to more easily skin the UI to match the Indigo color scheme, fix a few nagging bugs that were dependent on new library versions, and lay the groundwork for even more capability in future releases. Here are a few of the updates:

Enable/Disable Menu Item: This menu item allows you to enable or disable a device.

Energy Reset Menu Item: This menu item allows you to reset the energy usage statistics for a device which supports them.

Add Help Button (next to light/dark toggle): ITW is becoming more and more functional with each release. We wanted to give users an easy way to get help so we added this button which will take you to the website and a discussion of the functionality in ITW.

ITW UI Enhancements Based on Customer Feedback: There are several refinements to ITW's user interface based on great ideas and feedback submitted by our users. See the Indigo 2023.2 release notes for a few of the more notable improvements.

Additional Z-Wave Device Support

Indigo 2023.2 adds/enhances support for the following Z-Wave devices:

• Ecolink Chime Siren (ISZW7-ECO).
• Fibaro Heat Controller Radiator Thermostat (FGT001).
• MCOHome Multi Sensor (A8-9).
• Neo Repeater and Sensor (NAS-RP01Z1U).
• Shelly Flush 2 Micro Relay (Wave 2PM).
• Zooz ZEN76 Switch LED UI action / controls (under Zooz specific action menu)
• Fixed Eva Logic ZW97 Smart Plug definition to control both outlets independently

Plugin Version indicators and Plugin Store Enhancements

As a reminder: the Plugin Store will continue to show plugins that won't work with Indigo 2023.2, but they are clearly marked with red highlights. All plugins in Indigo continue to show their status as well, so if you need an upgrade it will show using the appropriate icon next to the plugin's name.

Summary

As usual, we want to recognize our 3rd party developers and a small group of beta testers for helping us with the development of Indigo 2023.2, especially with the new 3rd party library management feature. They provided development support, documentation contributions, extensive testing and significant plugin updates. We're grateful to have a group of dedicated individuals helping us to keep Indigo alive and thriving.

Note: this release may not be available to all Indigo customers for free. Specifically, if you've allowed your Up-to-Date Subscription to lapse, you won't have access to Indigo 2023.2. Select the Indigo X.X->License Details... menu item in the Indigo Mac client to see the details of your subscription. You can also check the Licenses section of your Indigo Account to see the subscription status and the last version you are eligible to use, or you can go to the new Downloads Page (make sure you're logged in to your Indigo Account) to see which releases you can download and use.

Many expired subscriptions are not yet past their catch-up deadline date, so you may be able to catch-up your subscription to get access to Indigo 2023.2 (otherwise you'll need to purchase a new license). As mentioned above, you will need an active subscription not only to upgrade to 2023.2 but also to use an Indigo Reflector, the Alexa integration and API key functionality.

Thanks for your continued support and we hope you'll love all the new features and enhancements of Indigo 2023.2!