How Long Until Panel - How many days are left until a given date?
Version 2.6 released on August, 14th.

Version 2.6 new features:
- Double click on a list item will show in the text boxes the item's information.
- Entering a hour such as "1010" will automatically be converted into "10:10".
- Fixed a bug in the German version - text was cut. (Well, it isn't my fault that German takes so much space! )

Version 2.5 new features:
- Added new variables: @h for hours, @m for minutes.
- Order of the messages can be changed.
- When you enter a message, the new message will be the default message.
- Some other little bugs were fixed.

Special thanks:
- Marines, for helping and examining my panel.
- Chrisskhc, for translating the panel into German and beta-testing the panel. (Twice!)

Panel features:
- Shows the number of days which are left until a given date.
- Easy to use system of adding new dates - supports more than one date.
- Format of the message can be changed.
- Multilingual support.
- Panel content can be aligned to right (RTL reading order, for Hebrew and Arabic users).

Any ideas, requests and donations will be gladly accepted.

Screenshot:

Dspackage installed perfect and the panel works. Good job

This panel is very useful. This is a great idea. Installed great! Thanks!

the plugin rocks dude

Good job. Works well.

Coult69

Good job. This panel can be very very useful. As an added feature do you think that you could add the option for Hour and Minute countdowns in a future build? Awesome panel overall!

~acommonjo

So I was counting down days till 8/3 and the panel said there were 16 days left. I then moved the panel to a different spot on DS and it now says 15 days left. I don't know what is going on, but it seems that the update is giving a different value than the initial configuration. I've done this 3 times to check if it was a constant problem. Any ideas? I just added another one to see if it would change that value, and when I moved the panel, it's value decreased by one just like the others.

Also, a couple of suggestions.
1. Allow the different countdowns to be moved around into different orders.
2. Perhaps a way to delete more than one countdown at a time, or at least not have the list of countdowns remain in focus so deletions can be quicker. Does that make sense?

great work!

a request: make it into an alarm as well!

That would be perfect.

~acommonjo

I don't know if there's a way to prevent it.

I just put in 7/30 and it says 12 days left. Moving it makes it 11.

Strange... now I have the same symptoms with this panel like eitaneko.

When I move the panel or make a restart of Desktop Sidebar the number of days are -1.

What time is it in your place?
Maybe you just moved a day, so that's what made the problem.

I don't think that the date changing has something to do with it.

For me it is now 07/19/2004 01:18 am.

See the screenshot

Prism,try this:
http://www.desktopsidebar.com/forums/index...?showtopic=1370

It's in c# but KeithI said that it is similar in all languages.Maybe this will help.

Great panel!!! Very useful.

As requested earlier, having an hour/min countdown (esp during the last day) would be very useful.

ALSO, is it possible that the "message" remains persistent. That is - I prefer the format:

@d: <some message>

When I add one date and close the properties, the next time I have to retype the message. It would be nice if that could be fixed.

THANKS AGAIN.

-RIcky

In addition to my previous post, here's some other suggestions :

- ablity to modify previously entered entry
- ablity to sort the entries on dates (for example I might enter a 'how long until' due in 7 days....later I might enter something thats due in 2 days...would be nice to have that sorted)

THANKS.
-Ricky

very nice and very useful panel

like it has already been mentioned before, it will be nice to have hour and minute countdowns too. when hour and mins are added, you might want to consider making each entry into two lines, because the description may not fit into one line for a narrow DS. you can came the text wrapping optional, like for example, if the text contains a /n then it will go to a new line, like in the clock panel.

it will also be nice to have the @d value in a different color, maybe you can set that to the title color, since most skins have different color for title and body.

Alright, then.
Here's my todo list:

• Add support in changing the list order. -> Done.
  
• Find out what is this mysterious bug. -> I hope it'll be solved using the next version.
• Add some other variables: @h - hour, @m - minute. -> Done.
  
• When user change the default text, the new message will become the default.
• Try what yyy has suggested, although I don't understand anything from the link

stuffedtiger79, the panel includes auto-wrap. Try to enter a long message and you'll see.

As you can see from the todo list, a new version will be released in a few days.

It would be great to have a repeat option.

eg if you have to do something monthly, it would count down to '0' and then reset it self for the next month (or week or year).

Another example would be "how many days till payday". Which hopefully is a repeating date.

Just a thought.

New version is available - please check first post.

Very useful panel.
Error - clicking "Delete" in panel properties with no item selected in the list crashes DS.

In my computer it shows this message:

Now it shows it to me too, but when I created the panel for the first time, accessed Panel Properties and clicked Delete, DS crashed.

I can't reproduce this message.
I deleted the panel settigns from the settings file, loaded the panel again and I got the same message as before.

Can someone else report it?

A couple of suggestions for another future build:
Add the ability to edit previously entered items.
If user enters time as 1030 automatically configure it to 10:30.

Works great though, glad to see you fixed that mysterious error when moving the panel.

~acommonjo

Who said I fixed it?
I dunno from where it's coming, so I can't fix it. However, I hope that with the new variables, peoples will be able to give more details about this "mysterious problem".

LOL, well it fixed it on my computer. I moved all over my sidebar and had the same values consistantly. So.... congrats?

~acommonjo

Ho.
If so, then of course I fixed this bug! I, personally, found it and fixed it! Don't you proud at me?

Will there be a new version that allows for editing of current countdowns? If I have it set to say 8:00 PM and it changes to 9:00 PM, I have to do it over. Can there be an editing feature?

Do more people want it?
Actually I have some time since the color picker panel is stuck.

I'm not sure if that is what acommonjo wanted but it sounded like it. I could benefit from it and it doesn't seem like something terribly hard to implement. Just a button, which loads the info to the boxes on the right, and then when you hit Add, writes it back to the list. Keeping it in order might be tricky.

I make right now something like this:
When the user double-click on an item in the list, he will see in the boxes the info.
In this way you cannot edit, but you can duplicate, do a change, and then move the new countdown to somewhere else.

I know it's not exactly what you want, but this will really make my life easier.
Also, it'll save chris from translating this panel all over again.

A new version is available. Please check first post yada yada yada.

It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it does the trick. Thank you very much. Works great so far!

I agree... it works but an edit button would be more efficient.

~acommonjo

Suggestions:

• Click on entry in panel opens edit/properties window or (maybe selectable by a user defined setting in the properties) the calendar showing the date set (same as the one used for selecting the date).
• Mouseover entry list in properties displays pop up of complete entry (wanted to change the text and couldn't distinguish the old from the new entry).
• Besides specific dates also except things like "in six weeks", "in 30 days" (maybe the time span used can be made selectable by radio buttons).

Cheers!

Sorry, I won't keep developing this panel. I have other things to do.
However, I can release the source code if someone wants.

Just a question about this panel's code:
Is it supposed to register 0 days on the day of the specific event or the day before. Basically, my birthday is tomorrow, but the panel says there are 0 days left till my birthday, so I was wondering if it is a glitch, or if that is what it is supposed to do.

This panel calculates the time between now and a given date. When you use the @d variable, it calculates how many full-days are left. It means that if your birthday is 23 hours and 59 minutes from now, it'll show 0 days.

Got it. Thanks Prism.

What is the hyperlink funtionality there for? Am I missing something or is it just to accent your mouse over?

Hmmm, no, mouse hover does nothing. Probably something which I forgot to remove.