-Plugins can now be enabled via settings.json after dropping the plugin files into the new plugins directory
-Enabling plugins will allow extending the normal functionality of the explorer with new database collections, menus, pages and apis + open up a new url for data to be sent from the plugin to the explorer
-A new plugins section was added to the settings with a definition for the generic-snapshots plugin
-Locale strings are now loaded and shared out via the settings so there is generally no more need to explicitly include the locale.js file
-The locale object has been updated to localization within the explorer
-A number of new locale strings have been added and their values replaced with the locale string within the explorer
-Added plugin support verbiage and a link to the generic-snapshots crowdfunding task to the README
-The delete-database script now checks the claimaddresses collection for data and if at least 1 record exists, it will ask an additional question to see if you want to preserve that data or delete everything
-The delete-database script now issues the prompt for the reindex with a slightly different msg than the delete without reindex
-The prompt for deleting now happens after the locks have been properly checked
-Reindex now calls the delete-databse.js script which is much faster and more complete than the previous manual delete code the resync used to use
-The delete-database.js script now accepts a parameter that suppresses the delete prompt when being called from the resync process
-Reindex and normal block sync now reuse the same block sync code
-Reworked the sync script to no longer require the readline-sync dependency
-The readline-sync dependency has been completely removed from package.json since it is no longer used
-Mongoose and mongodb dependencies have been updated to the most recent versions in package.json
-Updated the project for use with the newest mongoose major version which required fixing many breaking changes to a number of files in the explorer
-Removed the db.find_address_tx() function as it is unused
NOTE: This update requires mongoose 6.0.10 or higher. If you are getting errors running the explorer after upgrading, it is recommended to run an 'npm update' or manually update mongoose to a more modern version which should fix the problem
-Suppress the "DeprecationWarning: Mongoose: the `strictQuery` option will be switched back to `false` by default in Mongoose 7" warning msg when starting the explorer and using any of the scripts that connect to mongo
-Added locks to all sync processes (blocks, markets, peers, masternodes) as well as "create backup", "restore backup" and "delete database" functions. This helps prevent problems with syncing data while a backup is in progress for example
-The code to initialize certain database collections on startup was moved into database.js and is now called from restore_backup.js and delete_database.js. This effectively allows the database to be deleted or restored to a completely different backup while the explorer is still running
-Lock functions (create_lock, remove_lock, is_locked) were moved into explorer.js for better reusability and rewriten to be synchronous
-is_locked function now accepts an array of lock files to be able to check for multiple locks in a single call
-remove_sync_message() function was moved into database.js so that restore_backup.js and delete_database.js can also check for and remove the sync msg if it exists
-Useful Scripts section updated in the README to make it clear that the explorer no longer needs to be stopped for these scripts to be run
-Most if not all log messages now start with a capitlal letter
-All shell scripts have been removed and replaced with javascript equivalents which allows for better platform independence
-All scripts have been improved over the older shell scripts to be more functional and dynamic
-Updated all applicable cmds in the package.json to target the new js scripts + added the backup, restore and delete database functions to the list
-Removed the json and strip-json-comments-cli packages as they are no longer needed
-Added a new package realine-sync
-Updated cluster code with better Windows support when shutting down the explorer
-Backup and Restore scripts now use mongo's own encryption instead of tar.gz by default. Older tar.gz backups can still be restored as long as the tar.gz suffix is explicitly added
-Backup and Restore scripts now support connecting to remote database based on the mongo details in settings.json
-Updated README to include a new line for the 'platform independence' feature, updated script cmds and notes about certain steps being Linux only
Joe Uhren