Textfile Confessions - Part 2

I've uploaded a new Public Beta of Rename Master with an improved Textfile tab. This version does not include a Wizard interface that I spoke of in the previous post, but a lot of the settings have been automated. I've also re-worded some of the items to make their purpose a bit more clear, but I still think the wording isn't clear enough and I'm still looking for anything better to use.

The first thing that happens after selecting a TXT or CSV file, the program looks at the data contents and attempts to automatically change the import settings. These settings divide each row of data into columns and each column is assigned a Meta-variable. Data that contains quoted fields will automatically detect comma and tab delimited CSV, even when a single column is present. Data without quoted fields must contain at least 2 fields to be detected. A single column of data is the default, for all other cases.

The last thing that happens, the program searches for the selected filenames in the rows of imported data. If the filenames are found in the data, then the program automatically sets how the program populates the ?TextN? Meta-variables for each file -- by Searching in this case. The other case is the program will just use the rows of data in order of appearance. That is to say, file number 1 will use row number one in the textfile.

At the end, a detailed description tells the user what to do next. A new "Example Script" button is also present that will create and show a new script using the ?Text1? variable as described. This way, it's possible to for a new user to get a visualization of the effect of the settings using Preview. Basically, with two button presses, the user will be in a situation to be able to experiment and see the results. I think a big problem was at the end, the user really had no idea what to do next after loading the textfile.

This Textfile section still needs a lot of polish, but it's possible I might not need a Wizard if I can get the wording fixed and the automation reliable. This all depends on what (if any) feedback I get about this part of the program.

Textfile Confession

The Textfile tab of Rename Master sucks. There, I said it. While it's rather functional once you get past the steep learning curve, it takes some leaps of logic to get there. Usually, most things can be figured out with just some playing with the Preview function, but the only feedback I'm getting about the Textfile tab is questions just getting it working. While I could add another entry to the Online Help, the help file should be a last resort and not a cheap fix for a poor design.

First of all, each section of the tab isn't labeled. The items are logically grouped, but there's quite a bit of guesswork to figure out what the settings are conveying.

The first section is the Preview section. It is used to tell the program how data in the textfile is stored and the program responds by showing the columns of data if finds and the Meta-variable names it creates. Currently, only one row of data is displayed because of size constraints.

The second section tells the program how to match files in the File List to rows in the Textfile. There's no preview here, no one-to-one mapping visual. By default the ?cfn? (current file name) meta-variable is search for in each row and a "match" means to use that row. Most user have no idea what ?cfn? even means. The user won't know it's correctly until after a script has been made using the newly created meta-variables.

The last section just vaguely references the ?TextN? meta-variables that should be shown clearly in the Preview section. The problem here is that there's nothing to tell the user to go to the Scripting tab and use the Text meta-variables in a scripting step.

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What I'm thinking about for a fix is using a Wizard to populate the Textfile tab. First, using the Wizard, I can include more descriptions and more previews. Second, I can break the sequence into logical step so the user doesn't need to be drowned with details and the users doesn't need to proceed forward until each part is working as expected. Lastly, a Wizard can even create a generic Script so that logical jump from using the Textfile tab to the Scripting tab is easy to make.

ArsClip Icons

I've uploaded a beta showing off the new icons and fixing some small problems. You'll notice that all the icons haven't been fixed - especially since the the "system tray menu" is shown in three different places three different ways. This is on my must-fix-list.

Icons Continued

As harsh as I was on Inkscape, seen below, I thought it fair to show the icons I was able to create for Arsclip that are only 16 pixels in size. After fumbling with the program and dodging crashes for hours, I learned to whip up an icon in about 20 minutes that looked decent at such a small size. For reference, I included some of the icons scaled up 3 times. I can say that I worked harder making much, much worse icons before using Inkscape.

Icons, Icons, Icons

Every once in a while, I'll get a message or two concerning the icons in Rename Master or ArsClip. Usually, I'll update them with something that's a bit better, but they're not great by any means. It's that time again and not only did I get feedback on the icons but this time I also got a user created icon.

For creating all my images, I've been using an ancient version of PaintShopPro that's around 9 years old. While great back then, it's now really behind the times and only barely supports vector based graphics. I did some searching for freeware solutions and found Inkscape, a rather horrible and sluggish program but very functional -- with a very, very useful Icon Preview feature. With just 3 objects on the screen and a 32x32 pixel sized page, it brought my modern system to a crawl once a filter was added and happily crashed several times. When it's free, it's hard to complain too much.

I've icon amnesia. Every time I start to make icons, I alway forget how difficult it is to get something that looks good at only 32 or 16 pixels square. With Inkscape, it's damn easy to get a 48x48 icon that looks good and scales up extremely well - something that vector graphics are very good at. The opposite, however, isn't true. Scaling images down make them horrible.

Based off the work of a user submitted icon, this is what I came up with for a new Rename Master icon.



It's no where near as fancy as it should look, but that's a side effect of creating something that's simple enough to scale down to 16x16 pixels in size and not look completely awful. I only had to minimally change the smallest icon by hand to have something that's a representation.

I've uploaded a new build of Rename Master using the new icon. In the next upload, I'll update the upload for more color depth, a transparent taskbar icon, and a super huge 256x256 icon (with the last 2 changes only for Vista/Win7).

I've also updated some of the icons in ArsClip, but it needs more work. Seeing it took a full day just to create a single icon, it might take a little while more to update the dozen icons used in ArsClip.

ArsClip Mystery

I've had a few reports of an Access Violation when right-clicking items on the popup. While this can be worked around usually by flushing the popup, I've not been able to find a cause. I've tested the cached items from a user with this problem and was unable to replicate the error. There's one or more factors that I've not replicated. The only commonality I've seen is Windows 7 (which I use as my main OS).

If your receive the same error in version 3.1.4 Test 9: close the program, make a copy of the ArsClip folder, and run the new copy. If the same error occurs, send me an email. I would like to get a copy of the cache and settings that's causing this seemingly rare problem.

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Also, there's a known bug where Unicode text may not be mistaken as already on the popup (especially when copying short text items). I'm aware of this problem but haven't coded a solution yet.

The Cloud

I've been thinking a little about cloud support for my programs. Since my programs are already portable, copying the files to a service - like Google Docs - is already possible manually. This lets you have a the program and its settings so that you can download it from anywhere and use it.

Since a service like Google Docs makes public API's, it's open for a program to automate tasks for it. The problem here is that it would require quite a bit of work and there's no reason to think it would be a popular feature.

For one, there's a trust issue since the program would have to prompt for login information at least once. To save the login for automatically logging in, the program would need to store the data in some form and it wouldn't be secure by any means. A second issue is that not much changes, so syncing data often isn't an expected pattern. In ArsClip, only the current and removed clips change but it doesn't make much sense to overwrite the current computer's history with history from another system.

As you can tell, I've pretty much talked myself out of adding this feature on a whim. While I'm still keeping it in mind, I doubt it will generate much discussion. The percentage of users that take advantage of the portable nature of my programs is small and the subsection of those that would also want to sync the data online is even smaller.

JumpListDo Progress

Above is an example of the current JumpListDo Public Beta. It's now grouping together outside windows with it's own taskbar icon, this makes the taskbar icon behave like the command prompts it executes are a part of the program itself. This also helps identify the jump list history as belonging to the command prompt, which is the goal of this program - to add jump list support for both files and folder to programs that don't support it. No program, other than Explorer itself, has folder history.

One option I've been thinking about added is the ability to import the Recent folder list from Explorer. When the program first starts, the jump list is mostly bare. Unless the initial help message is read, it's not clear that the folder history is generated by using a folder's context menu to execute JumpListDo on that location.

Currently, the program is mostly functional but there are still some notable omissions - like a way to remove the registry entries made during the first run as well as other items mentioned in another post. I think before an official release, the program must - at a minimum - offer a way to remove the file association entries it creates. I'd also like to try and find a way to make clear exactly the main way of executing JLD from a folder's right-click menu. Since this program is mostly a background process, this major core functionality is hard to convey.

Codename JumpListDo Prototype

A prototype of JumpListDo (for Windows 7 only) has been uploaded as a Public Beta. By default, this program is configured to give you a context menu on every folder to open a command prompt. Folders opened will show up in the jump list to be re-opened with a command prompt.

Support for UAC elevation is already included. Since items in the jump list are shell items, the CTRL+Shift+Click shortcut key will execute the item with elevated privileges. Items run elevated will be added in a separate list to that will automatically run the program elevated.

When the program is running, it will update it's icon to include the icon of the host program. By default, you should see a small command prompt icon added to the JumpListDo's tasbar icon.

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Example JumpListDo.ini file:
[Associations]
Count=1
0=Folder
[Host]
Filename="CMD.EXE"
Parameters="/K cd /D ""%1"""

0 is the first file association, in this case "Folder" is the file type to be associated. Types like ".jpg" are also valid. If Count was "2" instead of "1", items "0" and "1" would define two unique file types to associate with the program.

The "Filename" host executable is executed by the shell, in this case "CMD.EXE" will be resolved using the systems path environment variable, so no full path is required. A fully qualified path may be required for some programs.

"Parameters" is the list of command line parameters to pass to "Filename". The %1 variable will be replaced with the name of the associated file or folder. The doubled full quotes are required around the %1 variable only in this special case.

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This program is not yet fully functional. For example, there's no way to just open the host program. Shortcuts to folders are saved in the "links" folder, but deleting all the files does not clear the jump list. The jump list shown on the taskbar is only updated when the program is first run, when the program is run from a context menu, or when items are selected from the jump list. There's no Window to configure the program, and so on.

A new program idea for Windows 7

Working with the Jump List feature in Win7 had me thinking about possibly creating a new tool. One thing about jump lists is that they won't track folders (except for Explorer). Also, only file types registered with the program will show up under the Recent/Frequent listings and only files opened associated with the target program will show up under those lists.

My first prototype, codename JumpListDo, is a program that will register file types on behalf of an outside program (including folders) and manage a list of those files and folders in the jump list. This would add virtually add jump list support for programs that don't have any. For example, my first use was to pin it to the taskbar and associate folders on behalf of the command prompt. This way, I can right-click on a folder and select "JumpListDo" from the context menu and have a command prompt open at that location. This simulates having a taskbar item for command prompts that also keeps a history of folder locations to re-launch the prompt.

Though my first idea for JumpListDo was just a program to remember folder locations for CMD.EXE, I quickly realized it could work for any program that doesn't support the "Recent" list or needs to be opened with a folder. This stub program could add jump list support to any program that supports command line parameters or file associations.

After I work on the last of the small issues, I'll release it as a public beta.

The latest prototype

Here's a look at the jump list in action for the latest Public Beta upload of ArsClip. Since ArsClip doesn't have a taskbar icon by default, I'll need to think of some way to allow the user to discover the jump list. At a minimum, I'll include a listing under Configuration>Misc, but this likely isn't enough.