DSC Hub

DSC Hub is a single list of every process Deep Sky Colors makes. Each row shows what you have installed, what version is available, how your license stands, and a short description of what the process does and what changed in its latest release. You choose the ones you want, and DSC Hub brings them in.

It replaces keeping one PixInsight repository per process. One address covers all of them, new processes appear in the list by themselves, and nothing else in your PixInsight setup is touched: DSC Hub never adds a repository to PixInsight. It does offer to remove the per-process Deep Sky Colors repositories it replaced, which is section 2.3.

DSC Hub is free. This page is all you need to get going; for the finer points, see DSC Hub in detail.

DSC Hub itself arrives the way any PixInsight module should: through a PixInsight repository, so the installation is handled by PixInsight, which fetches the module from the Deep Sky Colors repository and verifies the Developer and Repository certificates before it completes.

https://repo.deepskycolors.com/

Make sure the trailing / is part of the URL, and keep this URL in the list of PixInsight repositories. With the URL in place we do RESOURCES > Updates > Check for Updates, select DSCHub, click Apply, and restart PixInsight when it asks.

This is the only address you need. Every other Deep Sky Colors process is installed from inside DSC Hub, so there is nothing further to add to your repository list.

Opening DSC Hub reads the Deep Sky Colors catalog from the server and compares it with what is installed on your computer. The table then tells you where you stand:

• Module: the name of the process.
• Installed and Available: the version you have, and the version published for your PixInsight.
• Status: Not installed, Up to date, Update available, or Manually installed for a copy that did not come from DSC Hub.
• License: free, licensed, a trial with its days remaining, or an expired trial. When there is something to do about it, the cell is also a link.

Selecting a row fills the panel below the table with what that process is and what changed in the version being offered. The panel and the table share the window, and the divider between them can be dragged. Clicking a column header sorts by that column.

To install a process, we select it (or several with Ctrl and Shift), and click Download and install. DSC Hub downloads each package, runs its integrity checks, and queues the package for installation. If all goes well, DSC Hub reports it and then offers to restart PixInsight once the installation has finished.

The installation itself happens after we close PixInsight, and we are asked for administrator rights to copy the files into the PixInsight installation: a Windows UAC prompt, an administrator password on macOS, or the system password dialog on Linux.

After the restart, the new process is under PROCESS > DeepSkyColors.

Updating is the same action as installing. The difference is that when PixInsight starts, DSC Hub checks whether there are updates for the Deep Sky Colors processes you have installed, and if any update is found it reports it on the Process Console and in a small window, much as PixInsight itself does for its own updates. Updates are never announced for a process you do not have installed, so updates for the processes you do not use stay out of your way. Section 5 covers what those notices look like and how to turn them down.

Refresh list reads the catalog again and re-checks what is installed, which is worth a click after any installation or after entering a key.

Uninstall explains how to remove a module rather than removing it. DSC Hub handles Deep Sky Colors installs, updates and licenses, but uninstalling modules is still handled by PixInsight: PROCESS > Modules > Manage Modules, untick the module, close the dialog applying the change, and restart. A disabled module is scheduled for removal and goes at the restart, so nothing changes until then. The row here then reads Not installed, and it can be installed again whenever we like. A license is not affected by any of this: it stays where it is, and the module finds it again.

Deep Sky Colors processes come in three kinds, and the License column always says which one you are looking at. Some are free. Some are free to use for ever and show a small advertisement banner that a key removes. The rest run as a trial until they are registered.

For a single process, the License cell of an installed row doubles as a link to the page where its license is obtained, and the process itself is where your key is entered.

For a bundle, the purchase e-mail carries a single multi-license key: one long block of text holding a license for every process the bundle covers. We click License bundle, paste that block into the box at the top, and click Install licenses. DSC Hub writes each module's license where that module looks for it. There is nothing to type: the address the licenses belong to travels inside the key.

A process the bundle covers but you have not installed is written too, so it is already registered the first time you run it.

The same window can also ask for a fresh key, which is for two cases only: the e-mail was lost, or a process has joined the bundle since the purchase. That needs the bundle code, the short identifier at the foot of the purchase e-mail, and a new key is sent to the address the bundle was bought with.

The Show box at the top filters the table: everything, only what is installed, or the contents of one bundle. While a bundle is shown and you hold no license for any part of it, a Register this bundle link appears beside the box, leading to the page where it can be bought.

When PixInsight starts, DSC Hub checks quietly for updates and for processes that have joined the catalog since your last look, and writes what it finds on the Process Console. Preferences sets four things:

• Sort module list by: the order the table is in when the window opens. Any column, or Importance, which puts what needs your attention at the top.
• Announce updates: on the console only, or on the console and in a window.
• Announce new modules: the same two choices, for processes that are new to the catalog.
• Display process icons: each module's own icon beside its name in the list.

The console note is always written. What these two settings decide is whether a window opens as well.

The same dialog carries a Repositories... button, which is not a preference: it opens the window described in section 2.3, for the old per-module repositories PixInsight may still be checking.

Nothing is ever installed by these notices. They say what is waiting; the decision stays yours.