Dear all,

It is with much excitement, and not a little relief, that I announce the 
general availability of a first alpha release of Annotator v2.0.0.

"But Nick," I hear you cry. "How can it be the *first* alpha release when it 
says v2.0.0-alpha.*2*?"

Because life is hard and Father Christmas will only bring you presents if you 
behave. (Alternatively, because I mucked up the alpha.1 release. Believe what 
you prefer to believe.)

---

This is an **early alpha release** of Annotator v2.0.0, which represents a 
major update from the v1.2.x release series. It's important to state clearly, 
with ringing bells and flashing lights, that this release has rough edges, 
missing features, and may in some rare circumstances cause harm to your pets 
and loved ones.

With that warning out of the way, here's a sampling of what you'll find in this 
release:

- a code base rewritten in plain JavaScript
- a dramatically improved extension architecture
- support for composing applications from all, some, or none of the default 
user interface
- support for asynchronous module hooks
- support for custom storage modules
- support for custom authorization and identity modules -- integrate Annotator 
with your own user database and permissions models

Some things didn't quite make it into this release, but we hope to get to them 
shortly:

- the Auth plugin -- if you use the Annotator v1.2.x Auth plugin you may wish 
to hold off on upgrading for now
- an Open Annotation-compatible storage component -- this will now probably 
appear in v2.1

The annotation format used by this release of Annotator is compatible with that 
used by v1.2.x, although you will need to update your code for the new version. 
For full upgrade guidelines [please see the 
documentation](https://annotator.readthedocs.org/en/latest/upgrading.html).

---

How to get started?

1. Download 
[`annotator.min.js`](https://github.com/openannotation/annotator/releases/download/v2.0.0-alpha.2/annotator.min.js)
 from the [GitHub release 
page](https://github.com/openannotation/annotator/releases/tag/v2.0.0-alpha.2)
2. Consult [the documentation](https://annotator.readthedocs.org/en/latest/). 
If you are upgrading from Annotator v1.2.x be sure to read the [upgrading 
guide](https://annotator.readthedocs.org/en/latest/upgrading.html).

You can now also use Annotator from [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/) using 
[browserify](http://browserify.org/). If you are familiar with browserify then 
something like the following should get you started:

    npm install [email protected]
    npm install browserify
    browserify -r annotator -s annotator >annotator.min.js

---

Happy hacking! For those of you out here in San Francisco for I Annotate, 
Randall and I will both be around at the Fort Mason Centre tomorrow (Saturday) 
and Sunday to help people who want to play with this early alpha.

Best,
Nick

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