The daily alarm fired yesterday at the correct time, then I noticed its status was OFF, and it was still OFF when I fired up the PC tonight. The three monthly alarms all change to OFF at the next reboot after I set them ON. I have just set all four alarms back to ON again, and tried stopping and restarting DS. All four alarms are now ON - but this is what has happened before when I tried stopping/restarting DS. Just going to try a reboot so the info is fresh.....

Right - rebooted, all 4 alarms are still ON. But I think this happened before. The daily alarm is due to fire in 30 minutes, I will see what happens. And betya the three monthly alarms (which are due to fire on the 6th, 15th and 30th) will be OFF when I restart tomorrow....

The daily alarm should NOT shut off ever, unless you manually shut it off. The monthly alarms were a new feature and can still be buggy. They might shut off. Please let me know what happens.

Well just booted up - and all four alarms are now OFF again as I suspected. I should add that I'm on DS version 1.05 Build 94 and I'm on the latest patch level of .Net framework...

The alarm panel is great. Please can I ask one question. When I right click and go into panel properities and change anytime, ie floder location for sound files. After I click "OK" the properities tab closes and then the Side bar just hangs and never responds again?

Can anyone suggest why?

Windows XP home SP2 Side bar vers 1.04 build 75

Thanks

Shane

I'm not sure if this is the problem, but I used a later build to develop the panel. You should try upgrading to build 94 of DS. It is stable, despite it saying a beta build. Somone please correct me if this isn't a good solution.

Any further thoughts, eitaneko?

Hmm. Perhaps the panel isn't getting a chance to save it's data before DS closes?? How are you rebooting? Via Start-> Shut Down or through the System ShutDown panel for DS? I'm just speculating here. Do they shut off only after a reboot, or after you close and then reopen DS as well?

Hey, eitaneko! Look at me post here...
Won't be a hard day's work for you to do... Are you interested? I'd help with grfx...

Don't be so sure.

At least there's something to start with, something to build on...
But it could make it worse... Nevertheless, please consider...

I have installed the 'Alarm Panel, v4.3.2' hoping to use a quick timer alarm. Functionality of the panel is great, more than I expected.
But, the timer function is not working as I have dreamed; "click the panel, set minutes, press OK."
Its asking me for a title, hours, seconds and a task to do.
I made a search in forums to find only the below message about this.


My offer is;
1) As requested by 'yyy' filling only one of the 'hours,minutes,seconds' boxes may be enough to set the timer alarm. So there will NOT be an error message, but they will get zero by default.

2) In place of an emtpy 'title box', it may be filled by some default text for example 'Timer Alarm,Daily Alarm etc.', so there will NOT be an error message when setting an alarm. (If I do not need a title to fill, I remember what to do, I do not want others to see, I need a quick reminder, etc.)

3) In panel settings where "Initial Sound Directory", there may be a default sound selection and default action settings, so there will NOT be an error message to make me select some action and select a file every time.

I think, preparing default actions is a good idea instead of checking, if everything is correct, and giving error messages for all. I set the defaults once then I may set anything in two clicks and contiue my work.

When adding a new alarm, everything will be ready, just set the time and go.

Other comments (but not dreaming);
Instead of 'ON/OFF' text, you may display 'ON' alarm in white-bold and 'OFF' alarm in grey-normal font. So there will be less text in the sidebar (easier,faster to read alarm list)
There may be time info (time set of alarm or time left of timer) aligned to the other side of alarm name, displayed by a checkbox in panel properties.
These are just for a little bit more comfort.

Thanks for this detailed Alarm plugin, I feel this will not be a short time plugin in my sidebar, but a permanent one.

First, thanks for using the Alarm Panel.



I believe you are absolutely correct. I originally did have default values, but it was a bit annoying to change them. You were very persuasive in your arguments. I will be more than happy to put in defaults. Do you think everyone will benefit from this, or should I make it a properties option?



With regard to the color of the ON/OFF text, everyone has a different skin, so I can't hardcode the colors. However, one of my plans for this panel was to allow for skinning options, but I have not had the opportunity to do it yet because of school. If I release a newer version with the defaults, it will probably not contain skinning abilities. I'll need more time for that.

I don't think I understand your second request. You want the remaining time or trigger time displayed on the panel itself? I was asked to remove it to use less space in the sidebar. I hope you won't mind explaining that request a little more clearly. Please let me know if there is any other way I can help you.

I think (1) and (2) has to be automatic without a properties option, your code decides. (3) has to be in properties.

1) If any empty timebox (days,hour,min,sec) put zero = no questions, no error, no properties setting. (Error will be displayed if all empty)
User will not notice it. If he needs to select one, of course he will not leave it empty.
When openning an alarm setting window, you should put the cursor in time section (days,hour,min,sec). Because, if I open to add a new alarm, I will first decide the time and maybe leave others to default values, if I open to edit an alarm, I will most probably change the time settings.

2) For title box, you may put the default text at the opening. When user clicks the textbox (assuming you put the cursor to time section when opening), this default text is cleared automatically and textbox is ready for entry, as with the current version. So, there always be a text. If user deletes it and presses 'Set', there will be an error message as now.

(3) For default action settings;
You may add the same 'Actions' frame of alarm settings window to 'Panel properties' dialog as a new tab 'Actions'. So, it will not make any confusion (user will see exactly the same frame in both) If this new tab is left untouched (empty or all actions unchecked) your code will work the same way, asking for each; title, action, file selection with an error message.

This is the answer to your question 'Do you think everyone will benefit from this';
if someone loads the new version and leaves all previous settings as it is, your code will work the same way as before, nothing is changed. But, if he opens 'Panel properties/Actions' tab and changes settings, your code will work by using these default values.
Everybody is happy.

I have noticed that your code remembers the last visited directory for sound file selection, if the "Initial Sound Directory" is empty. The last directory will be the "Sound File Directory" to open. That's perfect.

You may only change text style. This will be indipendent of skin settings. 'ON' alarm in bold and 'OFF' alarm in italic font (no bold).


Yes.

Thats why I said 'a checkbox in panel properties'. Thats right, when there is 'ON/OFF' + 'Alarm Name' + 'time' text, its crowded.
The user will decide to show it or not. I do not know previous versions, but its a good idea to see a timer 'remaining time' info in the bar.
Well, maybe there will be a checkbox in each alarm setting, so only the selected one will show time info.
And, if can remove the 'ON/OFF' and display it by graphical means, there will be more space for time info.

I have exactly the same problem as ballmj99, and another one...

Just to start, I have set 3 different alarms. One monthly and 2 yearly. The one monthly always goes OFF when I restart my computer... But the weirdest are the yearly ones, they don't go at the right date at all !! One is set in march and the other one in june, both at 10 AM, but, from time to time, they go anyday at 10 !! I have check many times the settings as to be sure I didn't make any mistakes and I can assure I did not...

Any ideas ?

Other purpose: I submit to JeffSmart's idea of combining different plugins, as for example Priority List and Alarm Panel, and others...

Thanks for your job !

Vic

Vic,
I apologize that it has been a long time since you posted and I have not responded till now. I am usually better about these things. Again, I apologize.

The Monthly and Yearly alarms were kind of thrown in at the end of one of the last releases, and I expected them to be a bit buggy. I unfortunately can't reproduce the problem with the Monthly alarms. Is there some sort of pattern in the behavior that you can tell me about that might hint to me the source of the problem? Perhaps in a future version, I will put in the option for a debug mode.

Yeah, I know what is wrong with the yearly alarms....Wow, that was a really stupid mistake. It's coded to check to see if it's the right year, hour and minute, and doesn't even check to see if it's the correct month. Wow...How did I miss that?

In terms of a fixed version, I would like to fix the Monthly Alarms as well, before I release a new version. Anyone who can spend a few minutes helping me to figure out what the issue is, would be greatly appreciated. I can't seem to replicate it on my machine.

Great panel. I would like to use this panel as a timer. The timer alarm feature works fine, but I would really like to have an option to pause the timer not just turning it on or off.

That is an excellent idea. I've been working on this panel a lot lately, so I can probably put this in. Thank you for the feedback. Hopefully, in the next week or two, I'll have most of the work on this finished.

If the details window is disabled, this error appears:

ListOutput OnShowDetails function
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80004005): Unspecified error
at DesktopSidebar.IControlFactory.CreateTextDetailsWnd()
at AlarmPanel.Panel.OnShowDetails(IListOutput list, IListRow row)


It appears that CreateTextDetailsWnd() is throwing some sort of exception, although I don't know what a COMException is, nor does "Unspecified error" help very much.

Thank you for the tip. I'm in the process of rewriting the panel, so I'll make sure this doesn't continue. Thanks for using the panel!

Would you please please have some level of integration with Outlook, please. I will you if my Outlook alarm can be sync with the panel. Thanks so much.

Hmm...So I just started using Google Calendar, and I really like how they do their "events" and alarms...

I still plan to release a version of the alarm panel that works like the old one with most of the bugs fixed (I hope) and then we shall look into changing the way things are done. I will keep you informed.

Just so you know, work has left me with less time to work on code, but maybe next week I will dive back into it. I will be in touch.

why is unfolding by itself ???

You mean - you have it in a stack panel, and it opens up when an alarm goes off? Yeah, sorry about that. I'm taking out that functionality in the next version, but you can disable it now by right clicking on the panel, selecting Panel Properties, go to the Display tab and uncheck Activate Panel on Trigger. That should make it stop. If it doesn't...oh boy...

I just noticed the Google Calender C# API and I was wondering where to locate the Outlook API or documentation I could possibly use for integration with the alarm panel...

Some pointers I found with the kind aid of my friend Google (thinking you'd want to get appointment reminders):
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310265
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms268731.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313801 (VB.NET)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcen...5/tips0901.mspx (VBScript)

Wow! Thanks GoMa. I searched Google and didn't come up with anything quite that useful, even when searching only microsoft's domain.

In any event, do I need VS.NET to use this stuff, or is there any way to get the DLLs I need to do it in SharpDevelop? And does this library work with all versions of Outlook?

I don't know about the version. I think it should be mostly backwards compatible to Outlook XP (and maybe 2000). I remember worrying about it with the Outlook Contacts panel but no problems surfaced in that area.
To add the library to SharpDevelop (2.0), right click the project node in the Project Browser, click Add Reference. Then in the COM tab, select Microsoft Outlook 11.0 [in my case] Object Library. That should generate an interop assembly for you automatically like VS.NET does. I don't know if this was also in SD 1.1 if that's what you're using (if you are, upgrade to 2.0 NOW!!!).
btw, for everyone: SharpDevelop is an excellent IDE. Version 2.0 is superb because of the integrated debugger. It's also easy to develop DS panels with it (version 2.0 has the Register for COM Interop option we needed). <teaser> And it will be much easier when DSDevEnv is finished. </teaser>

They released a new version of SD and I didn't know????? Oh dear...I'm out of the loop. I will rectify this situation when I get home from work. Thanks for the help GoMa. Perhaps we should get a command line extension that returns GoMa help results. Anyone want to give it a go? GoMa?

I'm too busy. You have to ask in his forums if they expose a public API. They probably have to do an internal redesign for that.

Everything seems to work fine after upgrading to SD2.0, but I can't get my panel's icon to be included in the project. What should I do GoMa?

Create the bmp file on disk in the project folder, then right click in Project Browser -> Add -> Existing Item. Point it to the bmp file.

I've been using an .ico file for the little alarm clock, and I tried that and I get a message when DS loads "null is a not a valid value for stream"...

Also, I've add the GMail library to a new project and it won't compile saying it doesn't have a strong name. Do I have to sign this library manually?

Make sure you set the icon file's Build Action to Embedded Resource in its Properties.

Yes, you have to sign the library manually. It's not possible to sign a compiled dll (that'd contradict the purpose of signing). You have to get the source of the library if it's available and recompile it with your key. If you do not have access to the source your only choice is to not sign the plugin's dll and have the regasm warning displayed.

Yeah, I have the source. So I should compile it with the same key that I am using for the GMail Panel itself?

You can, it doesn't matter if you don't.

I'll have a look at it later. When I get the Alarm Panel working in SD2.0, I'll finish work on that for a while. Then I'll come back to GMail.

Thanks GoMa.

When I tried to mark my .ico file as an Embedded Resource and then loaded the new .dll, I still go the same error: "value null is not a valid value of stream". Am I forgetting something obvious?

What's your code in the Load method in plugins.cs? It's working fine for me. Try running a Rebuild Solution.

I'll post the code when I get home from work. I haven't changed the code since I first released the panel with an icon. I will try what you suggested.

It also turns out that although SD2.0 lets you add the DLL for Office integraton, you sort of have to have office on your system to use it. It is giving me an error saying the library was not found and it fails to compile. Besides, I can't test integration with Outlook without having it in the first place.

That's true. The DLL is just an interop wrapper around some COM types.

You can ask users to beta test for you. It's like developing a battery monitor panel without having a laptop.

I fixed the icon issue. Took a little investigating, but somehow SD2.0 embeds resources a little differently and I wasn't using the right name for the resource. So that works again. I should be able to continue development on this soon.

GoMa, if I don't have outlook, then including this DLL prevents it from even compiling, so how could anyone beta test it for me?

Oh. I didn't think of that. Well, I guess you don't have a lot to do in this case. Maybe I can compile and test it for you (I've got Outlook).

I'd find it weird to write code I couldn't test on my own, especially for an API I'm not familiar with. I have a student version of Office 2002 I think...I don't install Outlook b/c I don't use it, but if that would allow me to develop the functionality, then I'll put it on. I just don't know if the Calendar is forward compatible.

I'd be more than willing to test for you, as Outlook and Exchange boy. Let me check my resources and my DVDs. I probably have an extra license of Outlook that comes with my Exchange server disks or probably a standalone copy of Outlook.

Also check slipstick.com and outlookcode.com for various other samples of code you can use to port data from Outlook/Exchange.

is unfolding by itself....

I'm sorry. I'm working on a new one where that won't happen.

Update: I have not forgotten about this. 2 more alarms to implement and we should be back to where we were (I am refactoring the code). I have found lots of bugs, due to simple programming errors. I'm surprised no one has complained about the Hourly alarm, which was ridden with problems. However, I seem to have rooted them out in the new version. Lots of bug fixes, and very few new features coming, but there are some. I hope to have this released soon for people to test.

Another update: Work on this has been going slowly as I recently just moved to a new apartment and have been running errands like crazy getting settled. Plus, I have no internet connection for the time being, so things are a little up in the air. There is one alarm left to do, and then my tests, and then some beta tests and then release. It might be some time though, depending on how crazy work gets.