[COLOR cyan][B] THE CHAINS – VERSION 6.0.0[/B][/COLOR]

Chains Player

.Few Small Tweaks.
.New Player Button Added.

Chains Player Module Upgrade.

Player Module Stability & Reliability Update.

This update focuses on strengthening the playback engine by improving resilience against malformed metadata, unexpected API responses, and edge-case playback scenarios. No core playback behaviour has been changed.
What’s New

.Improved JSON-RPC response handling to safely process incomplete or unexpected Kodi library responses.
.Added validation for movie, TV show and episode lookups before attempting playback.
.Eliminated multiple potential IndexError scenarios caused by empty result sets.
.Hardened metadata handling using safe dictionary lookups for optional fields.
.Improved playback URL validation to prevent invalid or empty stream launches.
.Added safeguards around subtitle searches when no matching subtitles are available.
.Improved subtitle metadata handling for incomplete provider responses.
.Added protection against divide-by-zero during playback progress calculations.
.Improved watched-status monitoring stability during long playback sessions.
.Reduced the likelihood of intermittent playback failures caused by malformed metadata.
.Improved compatibility with incomplete or inconsistent library information.
.Additional defensive coding throughout the playback engine for greater long-term stability.

Benefits.

.More reliable playback.
.Improved movie and TV episode handling.
.Better Kodi library integration.
.More robust subtitle downloading.
.Improved bookmark and resume stability.
.Reduced risk of unexpected Python exceptions.
.Greater resilience when external services return incomplete or unexpected data.
.Overall: This is a maintenance and stability release designed to make the Chains playback engine more fault-tolerant while preserving existing functionality and maintaining full compatibility with Kodi 21 and Kodi 22.

Stability & Reliability Update.

 Core Stability Improvements.

.Added comprehensive defensive handling for None values throughout the source engine.
.Reduced the likelihood of intermittent NoneType crashes during scraping and playback preparation.
.Improved resilience against malformed or incomplete scraper responses.

 Source Engine Hardening.

.Added safe string handling for URLs, labels, source names and metadata.
.Added safe iteration checks to prevent crashes when providers return empty or invalid results.
.Improved URL parsing to safely handle missing values.
.Hardened file extension detection against invalid URLs.
.Improved HTTP request handling to cope with missing or malformed links.
.Added additional validation around source filtering and quality detection.
.Improved duplicate source detection stability.
.Hardened label generation and formatting routines.
.Improved provider thread handling and empty provider list protection.
.Improved HEVC/x265 filtering to safely process incomplete source information.
.Added additional safeguards around resolver processing to reduce unexpected failures.

 Playback & Source Collection.

.Improved handling of empty provider responses.
.Improved processing of cached and live scraper results.
.Reduced the chance of playback failures caused by incomplete source dictionaries.
.Better handling of invalid stream information before source resolution.

 General Maintenance.

.Improved overall code robustness and defensive programming throughout the source engine.
.Cleaned up numerous edge cases that could previously result in unexpected exceptions.
.General optimisation and reliability improvements.
.Overall Result
.Significantly improved stability during source scraping and playback.
.Reduced intermittent crashes caused by unexpected provider data.
.Better compatibility with inconsistent or partially populated scraper results.
.Stronger foundation for future scraper and playback enhancements.

 Maintenance & Art Update.

.Removed dead and obsolete code that was no longer required.
.Major artwork refresh throughout the addon for a cleaner, more polished experience.
.Updated and maintained several scrapers for improved reliability.
.Fixed various bugs and stability issues.
.General performance optimizations and backend maintenance to keep Chains running smoothly.

.Authentication & Accounts

.Fixed Trakt authentication to ensure reliable authorization on every addon startup.
.Fixed Debrid account authentication not connecting correctly to the One Click section.
.Improved authentication handling for increased stability and reliability.
.Improved Trakt OAuth token refresh handling.
.Added safer validation before saving refreshed access tokens.
.Prevented valid refresh tokens from being overwritten by empty or invalid API responses.
.Added fallback handling when expires_in is missing from the Trakt refresh response.
.Improved token expiry calculations for greater authentication reliability.
.Improved refresh success/failure handling to prevent unnecessary reauthorization attempts.
.Added additional safeguards around Trakt authentication responses.
.Improved resilience against temporary Trakt API and network failures.
.Reduced the risk of invalid authentication data being written to addon settings.
.General code cleanup and stability improvements to the Trakt authentication workflow.

TMDb & Trakt Engine

.Improved the TMDb engine for better reliability and compatibility.
.Fixed KeyError: 'seasons' crash when Trakt returns incomplete TV show data.
.Added safe handling for missing episode information to prevent playback and refresh errors.
.Improved Trakt API error handling to gracefully recover from empty or failed responses.
.Replaced direct dictionary lookups with safer access methods to improve stability.
.Added a reusable safe_get() helper function for more reliable data retrieval throughout the module.
.Improved compatibility with current Trakt and TMDb API responses.
.Increased stability when refreshing TV show lists and watched status.

Performance & Scraping
.Improved overall scraping speed and reduced unnecessary source checks.
.Reduced background processing for faster source retrieval.
.Minor performance improvements and general code optimizations.

Settings & Accounts
.Cleaned up and reorganized the Settings menu for easier navigation and improved usability.
.Added EasyNews integration to the Accounts section.
.Simplified account management and authorization.
.Improved compatibility with supported premium services.

General

.Various small bug fixes and backend cleanup.
.General code cleanup and backend optimizations for improved reliability and overall stability.