Messages

476

General Software Discussion / Office 365 and Outlook

« on: March 11, 2014, 01:17 PM »

Does anyone have any info on a way to prevent Office 365 from EVER using Offline mode.  I understand the reasons for it but I have a lot of people who don't.  When they hit send, if the item says it sent, they expect it to be gone.  Then the recipient may not get the item for hours because it really did NOT get sent but put in a cache waiting for the next internet connection.  There is not indication to the sender (or not one they ever see) that this item did not really g out.  It is not in the Outbox and shows in the Sent box.
And eventually it does send.  But on items of an Urgent nature this is a  Nightmare!

I can even understand their reasons for the request, they just want Outlook to work the way it always has.  I have tried to research this but it almost looks like no one even wants to discuss it.
If she hits SEND, and it does NOT really go out for whatever reason, she wants it to show that by staying in her OUTBOX so she KNOWS it is not sent.

All attempts to explain the "new way" that Microsoft forced on everyone with the "OneDrive" default has been a total nightmare at most businesses.  and If there is NO other way, I might have to suggest they go back to Office 2010.  Although I am not even sure that is possible as far as importing the new PST file from Outlook 2013 (365)  into Outlook 2010.

This company uses Outlook like a Giant Filing Cabinet and learning NEW ways here is not a good thing.  The new laptops all come Windows 8 preloaded with Office 365 ready to go.  I know Office 2010 works fine on windows 8 as I build my OWN systems for my use and for the servers.  They run Office 2010 with no problem on windows 8 and Server 2012.

So right now, any help would be appreciated.  I just spent 3 days to find a way to unravel the "OneDrive" default and get rid of it.  Most people here did not even notice that they were defaulting to ONEDRIVE instead of their local systems other than complaints about the OPEN and SAVE being SLOW.  I almost missed it myself.  The only evidence being the address bar on SAVE showing
"httP://" instead of c:\

Getting rid of ONEDRIVE is worse than a cockroach infestation.  It just wont go away.  In addition is played havoc with locally mapped network drives in our office. 

Right now my only concern is Outlook 365 as this is a desperate request direct from the Owner and I hate to tell her I simply don't know the answer yet.  I hope someone here does.

477

Coding Snack Guidelines / create a one click pre-addressed option to send link by email from browser

« on: March 08, 2014, 09:41 AM »

OK, I know I am at the right place, so hopefully someone here already has this.  Being a knowledge "junkie" makes for tired fingers even with a computer and one thing that would be of great help would be an add-in for IE11 (preferably) to slightly modify the usual multi-click and lots of typing to be able to so one simple thing.

File, Send, link by email, which opens an outlook email with the link in it but then I have to fill in a standardized list of about 5 email addresses, add a short note as to why I thought this link would need to be revisited, then click send, and HOPE it goes out eventually.

I found out after time that the SEND button is somewhat misleading as the email does not actually go out. Not even if I have Outlook set to Send immediately.   When sending the link in this manner, the email apparently just gets loaded into the outbox and is sent the next time I open outlook,  Which isn't a big deal but annoying since when I hit SEND, I wanted it sent.

The addresses I do this for are all my own at various computer stations I work from located at more than one building and the links are usually just fortuitous finds that I happen to run across.   Adding the site to favorites on the one computer does no good since the information may relate to a job I am working on at another company.  Or even something I want to review later at home.  And the "Favorite" doesn't really do well at adding a note as to WHY I wanted to save it.

Using outlook to do the sending is also a waste in that one of the addresses in always the computer I am on at the time so I end up with two copies, one in sent and one in received.  Plus as I mentioned Outlook has always had that annoying habit of not actually sending it when you click send.  And yes, I have tried setting every possible location including perform an automatic send receive every 1 minute (which is a BAD idea when you think about it).   Worse, links sent in this manner use an "envelope" that apparently does not work with autofill so you have to type in the full address for every recipient, every time.

I have managed to beat that problem with a preprogrammed hotkey to fill in all 5 email addresses with one Alt+M but that is still more than it should take.  

While an Add-in would be nice only because I have become accustomed to the File/Send part in IE, it would probably be easier to set this whole thing up in a script using some form of code and link it to a hotkey.  The following VB script is something I have used before but would require a lot of modifications for this specific task.

Code: Visual Basic [Select]

1. Dim mail As New MailMessage()
2.         Dim SmtpServer As New SmtpClient("smtp.(mymailserver)")
3.         mail.From = New MailAddress(txtid.Text)
4.         mail.[To].Add("Email Id to"all 5 email addresses")
5.        mail.Subject = txtsub.Text
6.        mail.Body = txtmess.Text
7.        mail.Attachments.Add(New Attachment(OpenFileDialog1.FileName))  <<<Here is where I need to get the IE link added
8.        SmtpServer.Port = 587
9.        SmtpServer.Credentials = New System.Net.NetworkCredential(txtid.Text, txtpass.Text)
10.        SmtpServer.EnableSsl = True
11.        SmtpServer.Send(mail)
12.        mail.From = New MailAddress(txtid.Text)
13.        MsgBox("E-mail Has Been Send Successfully !")

While it could probably be modified to activate from a hotkey and it can be preaddressed the attachment I need to add would be the link to the page the browser is on.

I also have other simple batch files to essentially do the same thing but none of them is quite up to the task of capturing the hyperlink in focus at the time along with letting me add a brief reminder of what I thought it would apply to.

At some point I might even want to create a rule in outlook to capture all emails arriving like this and file them in a separate "Ideas" folder as well as keeping any that are unread with the oldest at the top of the list in that folder as most of these ideas are time sensitive dealing with problems in the immediate time frame.

I guess this amounts to a glorified reminder list but my interests are so varied that ideas that pop up while browsing are often lost if I don't make some kind of note as I find them.  and the note has to be more than a scribble on a napkin which gets tossed in the trash.

There may well already be "An App for That"  and if someone knows of one I would appreciate finding it. And if not.  I am certain someone here knows how it could be done.

478

General Software Discussion / Quick and Easy way to change all IP's for several Maped drives

« on: March 02, 2014, 11:25 AM »

I know this is easy to do for anyone with decent tech savvy.  But trying to walk several people through the process over the phone (or worse by email) only ends up with me having to do a remote connect and do it for them.
It does not happen often but when it does, it is a real pain. 

We use several mapped drives on a single server which are mapped to the IP rather than the FQDN.  Mostly because everything is run on a simple workgroup.  With the people in the office, it still results in me having to do  it for them,  right click, map network drive, bring up the old route, change to the new IP, save etc..   Then repeat for about 5 mapped drives.
Then find the next person who could not follow those simple instructions

I got to wondering if there was a utility that could be programmed to simply change all occurrences of xxx.xxx.xxx in the registry under mount points to the new IP.  I'm not even sure it could be done that way.  But since Windows has the option to save the Wi-Fi connections to a flash drive and transfer them to another laptop,  I figure there must be a way to just change the IP used for drive mapping.  Nothing else changes, they have the same username, same password, same everything.  Only happens when the server has to be moved to another IP, usually due to a change in ISP bit sometimes due to reallocation of storage space.
 

479

Post New Requests Here / Adding link to webpage when using cut and paste into notepad from a website

« on: February 18, 2014, 11:18 AM »

This is something that is similar to another problem I had a while back of wanting to save the link back to the site where I downloaded any files from.  On that I finally resolved myself to using FDM which does help though still not quite what I was after.

Many time I find useful information while browsing the Net on various topic, I open notepad, and use cut and paste to save the specific part I need to refer back to.
then I go to the browser address bar and copy the link for the page I am on and add it to the bottom.

finally, I save the notepad document into a folder called "Net-Info" on my C: drive.

These three or four steps are not that bad but I with I could at least hot key the addition of the link because that step sometimes ends up with my getting only a partial link or even accidentally closing the page.  I already figured out the part about using a shortcut to a blank.txt file that is located in the "net-info" folder so that when I save it, that is where it goes.  But adding the link is something I would like to automate.  Better than ahot key would be if the information in the address bar was added to the document as soon as I click to open the blank one.  Maybe this is something I could do with an "auto-mouse" capture script?

Anyway, once the link info is in the text file, I could cut and paste the text I wanted from the site above it.

It would also be nice if the name of the file would automatically become the first 20 characters of the pasted text like Word does.  Then I could just paste in the data and click save.    I try not to use Word or WordPad so the link is not automatically active but can be copied and pasted if I want to.

If there is an easier way than taking all the steps I do or if it is something I need to program a script for if someone knows, I would appreciate the knowledge.
It seems like there should already be a button for adding the open link to a text file  in the browsers but if it is there I cannot find it.

If the knowledge is out there, I am sure someone here knows it. 

480

General Software Discussion / Re: Command Line special needs for Batch file - Replace/rename/remove in filenames

« on: February 17, 2014, 12:13 AM »

Seems there are days when things just never go right.   Every time I get something to where I think it is right, hit Post and with for an Instant Retract That button 

Yes, you are exactly right (oddly, you almost got the name right too ) It actually should end up more like:
1.               John

2.http://www.MYSITE.CO.../john/johnsfirstsite
3.http://www.MYSITE.CO...john/johnssecondsite

4.               Fred
5.http://www.MYSITE.CO.../Fred/fredsfirstsite

6.               Julie
7.http://www.MYSITE.CO...ulie/juliesfirstsite

and so on.  Each name has at least one sub-site  some have as many as 10.
The "MYSITE.COM" just acts as a "host" for all the user's sub-sites.
Probably are better ways to do it but this is the way it was so I left the layout alone as it works.


The part of the code that reduce it to just the everything after the first 59 characters ends up with the name on the first line with the paths for that name's sites on each following line, then another name line.  That almost got me there.  At this point I should have done the deed with the extra spaces for a division as you show.

Then I found your trick for replacing a "\" with the "/"  by using using a double "\\" to simulate "\"  and replace it with "/".  I stuck that in and was so happy to see it worked that I almost did not notice it got to the end and started over again in the resulting text file.  I also ran into trouble trying to convert the Text to a DOC so that the links would actually work.  I guess even an RTF would have been enough.  I think I got lost in the middle parts where the inputs need to only be there until the output.  Too bad I cant use the input filename AS the output filename to save so many middle steps.

Somewhere in all this, I got into a loop (Surprise!) that ended up with FNR running for almost 3 minutes until finally stopping.  Not sure why it ran out of steam but it did.   The results though ended up doubled so I figured I was looping through at least twice.

By then I was ready to hang up my batch-hat and just edit the rest.
The trick there would be probably another length test.  the lines with just a name are always shorter by far than those after the name that have a full path
Easier to test for length than test for the "/" character.  But my eyes were getting blurry (again)  Allergies/Flu  who knows.  Either way, to  hard to see.

I was still trying to figure out the logic, gave up, posted what I had and went home to bed.
Thanks for your input as always.  It would help if I was even half as good at it as you are    but I will try your latest in the morning and see how it goes.

Also  DUH  I will NOT screw up my next code post, I saw those two start-end boxes in the prview but I figured they would merge in the final.
I See now though.
Thanks

481

General Software Discussion / Re: PC Audio Enhancers

« on: February 16, 2014, 11:36 PM »

I was looking for a way to use my laptop connected to my home audio amp which can input for 7.1 sound but outputs on a laptop were limited to a single left and a right.  Even when I tried the DVI audio same setup.  I finally ran across a gadget on Amazon that seemed to get pretty high ratings and was priced so low I figured it had to be worthless but I bought it anyway.  $36 I think.  Model NBA200U although I think that several similar units may all be made from the same design by a single company in Taiwan and sold under different names.

While sound is always a very subjective thing, I have to say that it installed with Zero problems, I like the software Interface for PC/Windows environments, and the outputs were exactly what I needed for the 7.1 audio inputs on my amp.

The end result audio even coming from Pandora was better than what I had been hearing from a desktop PC with a Turtle Beach Sound Card in it.  Plus it took up a fraction of the space.  The laptop was almost a freebie since the screen was broken but it works fine on the 36" LCD that the desktop was using.

I was hoping that the USB would be used in some way to provide additional audio info to the processor chip in the unit but I think it is there for Power Only. Still, I have to say I am satisfied with the results.

If any one else has had any experience with these external soundcards I would love to be able to do more if it could be done.    But even this Inexpensive Convertor gave my Subwoofer vibes that can shake the walls with clear bass output from my Asus laptop and the surround-sound sure seems to be real.

482

General Software Discussion / This is almost over! But. As all works in progress there is always more..

« on: February 14, 2014, 02:37 PM »

 
OK, Many thanks to everyone who posted.  From those and from pieces here and there I finally got this thing to fly.
The finish touches are probably easy.  But I have been out of sort for the past week or so and this is still eluding me

The final mash-up of all the codes resulted in this one batch file.  It does work!  For that I am thankful.
There are only two small places where I need to accomplish the finishing touches to a one-click solution.  I have tried a few things but in most cases I seem to be ending up will errors in creation for some reason.

Below is the working code with the two sections where I am trying to accomplish the tasks I wrote in at those points in ALL CAPS after a ##

Code: Text [Select]

1.  

@echo off
:: timestamp YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('wmic OS Get localdatetime  ^| find "."') do set dt=%%a
set dt=%dt:~0,4%-%dt:~4,2%-%dt:~6,2%_%
setlocal
set currentLevel=0
set maxLevel=%2
if not defined maxLevel set maxLevel=2

:procFolder
pushd %1 2>nul || exit /b
if %currentLevel% lss %maxLevel% (
  for /d %%F in (*) do (
    echo %%~fF >>c:\activelink\activelink-%dt%.txt
    set /a currentLevel+=1
    call :procFolder "%%F"
    set /a currentLevel-=1
  )
)
popd

:: start next

Set "InputFile=c:\activelink\activelink-%dt%.txt"
Set "OutputFile=c:\active-link\active-link-%dt%.txt"

setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion > "%OutputFile%"

for /f "usebackq tokens=* delims= " %%a in ("%InputFile%") do (
set s=%%a
>> "%OutputFile%" echo.!s:~59!
)

## AT THIS POINT I WOULD LIKE TO ADD 15 SPACES BEFORE CONTENTS OF THE LINE. 
LINES WITHOUT A "\" AT THIS POINT ARE THE NAME OF THE OWNER OF THE FOLLOWING LINES )

(for /f "delims=" %%L in (c:\active-link\active-link-%dt%.txt) do @echo http://www.mysite.com/%

%L)> c:\active-link\active-link-A-%dt%.txt

"C:\fnr.exe" --cl --dir "C:\active-link" --fileMask "active-link-A-%dt%.txt" --excludeFileMask "*.dll,

*.exe" --find "\\" --replace "/"

Code: Text [Select]

1.  

This is probably an ESS  (Extremely Sloppy Script) but it gets the job done.
Any suggestions on shortening appreciated.  The FNR.EXE utility was very helpful and 4WD's coding I borrowed from anywhere I could get it to work on my directory structure.
The only two tasks left could really be done with a text editor (And that is what I am doing at this time) but.. as always
Repetitive tasks are best left to the computer.

483

General Software Discussion / Re: Script to input two variables and use them to perform multiple tasks

« on: January 15, 2014, 07:15 AM »

While I m passing out Thanks, I should also thank Mr. Shades for his input on the command line sequences for MySQL database creation.  I have run the completed script several times and found no problems in creation.  As soon as I get a spare hour or two for loading one, it should make life a lot simpler for me.  Unfortunately, it probably would not be of much use to anyone else as I am sure no one would need it to do things quite like this.  It is a Rube Goldberg setup for sure!!  I will also post back the completed sequence.  You may spot something I am missing in the way I managed to get the script to create using the variables I wanted.

484

General Software Discussion / Re: Script to input two variables and use them to perform multiple tasks

« on: January 15, 2014, 07:04 AM »

Thanks 4W for the pointer to look back at what had already bee answered.  A little bit of this and touch of that and lo and behold the whole thing works!  That was the middle part of the 3 steps.  It fit like a glove.  I might be better off with AHK but it is more fun doing it the old way.  Like back in the COBOL days .  Anyway, I might post the whole project now that it is finally complete and tested several times.  Works perfectly! (I doubt anyone but me would ever need it!) 

485

General Software Discussion / Re: Command Line special needs for Batch file - Replace/rename/remove in filenames

« on: January 10, 2014, 12:20 AM »

DOUBLE DUH!  4wd.  Thanks for pointing me back here.  I had lost track of this and never did get to see your helps.

MANY GRATEFUL THANKS!  I have sent you a few PM's I hope you are getting them

I am going to transfer the scripts right now and test it on my last run to see if all works out.
Where Shades was asking me to use pen and paper ,.

even if I did, I don't think my drawing could be understood either.  I cannot draw nearly as well as I can type and even THAT is not so good.

I really thought my description using dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/ etc was about as good as it gets but I am sure it depends on HOW each person "sees" a problem in their own mind.

I "see" it as an actual physical structure where I need to remove a  4th floor from a 6 story building.  Plus replace the stairs with an escalator 
Well something like that.

486

General Software Discussion / Re: Script to input two variables and use them to perform multiple tasks

« on: January 05, 2014, 11:23 PM »

Hi Shades. 
I promised to report back on the test run.  Everything was ok until the xcopy command.  For what it is worth, I changed your parameters and it went through,  Not sure which one was the cause,. 
You used the /I/H/Q/R switches which is probably the norm.  I am a bit more "paranoid" (overkill or whatever)  and I usually put half the alphabet.  As in "/s/h/e/r/c/k/y/d/I/f/g"    I know a lot of that is unnecessary but something in my switches must be needed.  The fail seemed to be on copying either subfolders or contents of subfolders since the main files went fine.  Once I got past that the next stop was in the database creation. 
This is just a dummy system so I only left root as the user with no password.  But it still hit an error.  I added a pause statement so I could read it and it was about the system not being able to find the stated file (ie: variable)

Changing the "create"  line for  MySQL to -u root -e "testdb"; works fine.

Also leaving the variable %flaUserNameOK%  for the database name works.   Unfortunately the name of the db needs to be the variable (%flaUserDescriptionOK%).

I thought this would simply be a matter of changing the variable name but for some reason it won't go.  If I leave it creating the Username as you have it, that works although I need to add switches to set the character-set and collation to Latin1_swedish_ci from UTF8.
But it will create the empty database.  I have been reading through the MYSQL manual   (Sorry but that is why this has taken me so long to get back to you)  but everything looks Kosher.  That one variable is the only problem and I can even echo the value of the description variable immediately before the creation of the DB and it is the correct value.  I am obviously missing something since the other variable works fine but I cant use it due to the structure of the server.  The inputted description is what should be used for the database creation.  I think I can handle the addition of the default characterset and default collation after the DBs created if necessary but it looks like it can be done during creation too.

I MUST say that your structured formatting for each process has given me a new way to look at these problems as modules rather than trying to do everything in one chunk.  Much easier to troubleshoot for sure.

Any ideas on the variable problem would be appreciated.  The multiple switches I added on the Xcopy command have a lot of unnecessary actions but a couple of them (probably /S/E ) were all I needed to add) to get the contents of the subfolders and files

487

General Software Discussion / Re: Script to input two variables and use them to perform multiple tasks

« on: January 05, 2014, 08:52 PM »

See what happens when you add on a year ever time Christmas goes by?  Post?  What Post?   
Since me and Santa have the same birthday I try to hide mine in the rush so  it won't count.  But.....
Where was I? 

Thanks for the repost I need to keep better tabs on my  other self.  
I did not check in much over the Holly Daze but that one looks like I need to read it again for the first time.

Mr. Shade.  I can do as you say with the pen and paper but it will still look the same I am afraid.  I cold post screenshots of Notepad++ while I repeatedly use the replace function but that is the issue now.  I have to repeatedly replace the same sections of a directory listing in order to convert it to a hyperlink listing.  Instead of c:\websitelocation on the server.  I  need http://"website location on the server" with all the slashes reversed 

I think I better haul out my copy of autohotkey and see how it flies.

488

Living Room / Need for a true Multi-user Collaborative Calendar

« on: January 05, 2014, 07:29 PM »

This is something I have been looking to find for some time.      with no luck I am afraid.  I am currently using an adding we have had for years called Workgroupshare that does interact with Outlook but does not play well with other OS such as Ipad/Iphone/Blackberry.  The resulting mix of Sync's from each is creating a ton of duplicate and "old-removed" entries that suddenly reappear with no way to figure out whose laptop or phone did the trick.

The ideal solution would work as both an Outlook add-in plus being able to run on Apple IOS/Android/Blackberry etc.  A multi user appointment scheduler with the preferred format the same as an Outlook calendar.  Updates (synchronizations) should be automatic at timed intervals and the ability to display each user in a different color (up to maybe 10 or so) would be a major plus.

Importantly, it needs to be able to track which user made what changes and when so that erroneous changes or entries could be traced back to the source.  Historical data for at least 2 months in the past as well as 2 months or  more in the future would need to be included in each sync.  The items stored would also need to be able to link or store internally various small files like itineraries, reservation receipts,  etc.

Outlook 2013's shared calendar was supposed to do all this .. and does ... as long as every device is using Outlook 2013.  Not so good on a smartphone. 
If the only option is a true webhosted Calendaring service that might work even if it does not link with Outlook's calendars, as long as it has keeps a local copy that could be accessed with or without internet access which would show the most current data. 

Does anyone have one they can recommend?

Thanks

489

General Software Discussion / Re: Script to input two variables and use them to perform multiple tasks

« on: January 05, 2014, 04:48 PM »

I Just got your file will be testing in a sec.  I appreciate your help.  I have tried various iterations of Perl, Sed, etc. with varying degrees of success.  If your solution works, perhaps you can tell me how to finish another project along the same lines.  I wrote the following script to create a "date-in-the-name"  directory listing from website files on our webserver. ( I Hope I properly formatted the script so it shows 
   
    @echo off
    :: timestamp YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS
   for /f "delims=" %%a in ('wmic OS Get localdatetime  ^| find "."') do set dt=%%a
   set dt=%dt:~0,4%-%dt:~4,2%-%dt:~6,2%_%
   setlocal
   set currentLevel=0
   set maxLevel=%2
   if not defined maxLevel set maxLevel=2

   :procFolder
   pushd %1 2>nul || exit /b
   if %currentLevel% lss %maxLevel% (
     for /d %%F in (*) do (
       echo %%~fF >>c:\dailylist\Sites-%dt%.txt
       set /a currentLevel+=1
       call :procFolder "%%F"
       set /a currentLevel-=1
     )
   )
    popd
                     <end>


The next step would be to process the final output file (Sites+date.txt) in the "dailylists" folder on the C: drive.  The created file is a full local path directory listing showing each line as  "C:\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\dir5\dir6".
I am running the script at the dir4 level in the example above with a limit of 2 in order to omit everything not needed.  In the resulting file I have to perform several other steps to get what I need in the end.

Each line of the output file should be showing an active hyperlink to a website such as "http:\\www."rest-of-line.   

I have been manually using notepad++ to change the starting text from a local path to a web path by converting "C:\dir1\dir2\"    to   "http://".  dir3 is the actual name of the site starting "www.xxxx"  so it needs no changes.
dir4 is not necessary and must be removed on each line no matter what it says
Any line that is only 5 dirs. long ending in dir5, should replaced to show only the name contained in dir5 to serve as a division marker (not absolutely necessary and could be skipped)
In the last step I do a final check converting any left-over "\" to "/"

The final result is the original local directory listing of about 50+ "C:\dir1\dir2\dir3\dir4\dir5\dir6" is converted to a working list of hyperlinks showing "http://dir3/dir5/dir6"  (with those of only 5 dirs. used as divisions if possible)

There may be an easier way to do this but I have not found it. (Probably because this works and I have not had much time to experiment with automation)  Due to the precise structure of the Web-Server this is always the layout and this process always works generating a name+date.txt in about 1 second.  But it takes me another 5 minutes of editing with notepad++ to change all the lines of text to be working hyperlinks .

The generated txt file does not have the capability of clickable hyperlinks and another annoying thing is when I copy them into a word doc, they will not become active until I add a carriage return to the end of each line but so far I have not gotten Perl to work with me on automated editing (due to some of the characters "like the "/" and "\" I think) .

As    Skwire  mentioned, it might be possible to convert this whole mess into an AHK program but that is another skill (AutoHotKey) that I have downloaded but not had time to experiment with.

Thanks again..  Sorry for the long post but it is the only way to give easy to see examples and I have found they help a lot when trying to convey an unusual method of doing things.

490

Living Room / Help with a Script/Batch to perform multiple tasks after inputting two variables

« on: January 04, 2014, 11:36 PM »

I must need a new pair of glasses too because I posted the whole thing in the wrong Forum

If anyone happens to know how to move it to here this is where it belongs.  I don't want to waste space with a duplicate post.  I was so careful to write it out with exacting details then posed it in the Mac Forum

If anyone happens to wander over there .. I am sure someone here can point me in the right direction to get this done.
It is esier for me to work in Basic or Windows/Dos Batch but I am not sure about the MySQL database creation from a command line.
This is the title I posted under in the General Software Forum until I can figure out how to move it.
 
    >Script to input two variables and use them to perform multiple tasks<
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New year.  

491

General Software Discussion / Script to input two variables and use them to perform multiple tasks

« on: January 04, 2014, 10:33 AM »

I need a script to automate something that has become a very tedious and risk-prone procedure that I have to perform several times a day.   Worse, I am going to have to teach someone else how to do it with a “Zero” margin of error.  I am hoping someone here can offer some ideas on how to accomplish the following:

The script should ask me to input two variables to be used to perform a series of tasks that never varies
The first step would input a name (example "jimmyk") for the first variable $na1
The second would input a description (example:  "jimmywins")  for variable $nb2

(I need to use some variable name that is not likely to already exist in other scripts in case I have to join this script to interact with another script that could already be using them)

Then first procedure would be to check for any errors that would make these variables unusable.  The naming conventions require that neither of these can have any capital letters, spaces, hyphens or other special characters (%, $, #, etc.) and a maximum length of 13 characters.

Next I have to check the existing databases in “c:\mainfolder\databases” to be sure there is not already a database using the name of the 2nd variable.  

Finally, I need to check to see if there is  preexisting subfolder of the first variable containing a folder by the name of the 2nd variable.
(example:  There might be a folder C:\mainfolder\jimmyk\  but it cannot already contain the subfolder "jimmykwins".  

If any of these is conditions exist ( if the "jimmykwins" subfolder already exists in C:\mainfolder\jimmyk" or if the "jimmykwins" database exists in "c:\mainfolder\databases" or if I accidentally made the name too long or included any capital letters or spaces etc.. as mentioned above this would result in an error message and send me back to the start to change the entered data to fix the problem.

If both inputs pass all these tests I need to use those input variables to create a subdirectory named "jimmyk" within a directory "C:\mainfolder"  IF it does not already exist there.

(Example c:\mainfolder\jimmyk").      If it DOES already exist then proceed to the next step.

In the next step it should create a sub-subdirectory using the name of the second variable inside the directory of the first variable.  

(example: "c:\mainfolder\jimmyk\jimmywins”)

There are or will be other sub-subdirectories such as "jimmyloses" or "jimmyties" but never another with the exact same name.  If there is a preexisting subfolder with the name in variable $nb2 I would not want to overwrite it.  This same rule applies to the creation of the new database file later.   If any of these occur, that should be an automatic stop with an error flag.

The next step is to copy the contents of the “c:\mainfolder\master template” directory including all the files and folders contained into the newly created sub-directory
(This populates the directory “c:\mainfolder\jimmyk\jimmywins\" with all the files and folders from the master template.  Currently done using xcopy or cut and paste if I am in GUI mode.)

Next, create an empty  “MySQL” database of the correct type with the name "jimmywins" in the MySQL database folder.
(I currently use phpmyadmin to do this).  If there already exists a database by that name, I would definitely not want to overwrite it or replace it in any way.  This should have been caught back at the beginning and forced me to use some other name.

*Note:  If the automatic database creation is a "deal-breaker"   it  is not an absolute necessity for the script.  I can perform that part after all the rest is done*.*

Next step is to edit a file called "identityfile.cfg" which was copied from the "master template" into the "c:/mainfolder/jimmyk/jimmywins"  directory. I need to replace the single instance of the word "masterdb" with the 2nd variable "jimmywins" for use in identifying the correct database for the main program to use later
(This is now done by editing the name-field in the identityfile.cfg  file with Notepad++)

Finally, the last thing is to  create a hyperlink used to access that database with the format "http://www.mainfolder.com/1st variable/2nd variable"  and writing it to an existing text file "info.txt" that was copied into the newly created subdirectory "c:\mailnfolder\jimmyk\jimmywins" when all the other files were populated there.
 (Also now done with notepad ++)

I could be missing something but I think this is the procedural order I have been manually following to accomplish all the tasks done with those two variables

Currently the time needed to do all this is at least 15 minutes even for me and I have done it hundreds of times.  The chances of a typo is high enough with me but would be higher with someone else who had never done it.  A script to ensure that this procedure was followed properly at every step would be a godsend for sure

I hope everyone at DC had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Like most   I.T.   people, I was working through the Holidays but still had time to remember how it used to be.        

I think it is time for Santa to make another Donation to DC (In the General fund I guess) as so  many of you have helped me with problems in the past I don't want anyone to feel missed or any less appreciated.  I am not sure what happens to donations to the General fund but I assume they in some way benefit everyone.  

Final Note:  I already tried doing this with a program that "follows the mouse" to repeat all my steps pausing for me to enter the needed names at each place but it ended up taking just as long to do because I have to keep entering those variables over and over again.   That is where it is possible to make a typo that screws up everything.   I admit that I am not that good with this but "Ghost Mouse" or anything like it is definitely not an answer.

492

General Software Discussion / One more Wish. A need for a Working solution to a Collaborative Calendar

« on: December 10, 2013, 11:42 PM »

If anyone has any info of the best place to look.  Or wants a new project that someone would gladly purchase? 

I have a client who desperately needs a simple Calendar format scheduler exactly like found in Outlook.  Which is essentially what they use now but this  "Calendar" is a special one created and synchronized by a client add-in for Outlook called "Workgroupshare".

The problems are all related to "tracking" in a sense.  They end up with many duplicate entries.  Some are real duplicates which can be removed with a de-duplicator.  But others show the same event only it starts and ends by an hour or in some cases even 30 minutes different.  These are therefore NOT duplicates (even though they really are) and de-duplicators will not remove them.  I have found after doing a lot of checking that in some cases, maybe ALL cases it is caused by Outlook and differences in Time Zones of who entered the data. 

Unfortunately, as I mentioned, the developers did not include any means to know who entered what.  It is a shared calendar, that is equally shared with no way to know who did what and when.  This has resulted in a lot of "heated commentary" over who is at fault with no way to know.  The only way this could occur by "human error" is if both people did not "see" the already existing file (which should be impossible with it doing a "sync" every 15 minutes)

Or it is a fully automatic thing where the synchronizing software sees it as it appears with times stated per Outlook's rules for such making it appear one hour off so that the people who are in EST get there on time instead of late (or early) by one hour due to Outlook "helping" by adjusting the appointment instead of taking each as a literal "Item" to be treated as just that with NO changs instead of trying to "help out" and changing it.

Once it shows a different time, it is a completely different entry so it cannot even be removed by de-duplication. 

In other cases.  One person who has two laptops and uses one most of the time may not even turn on the other but once a week.  When they do, it has not been synced to the server for that whole week while many things have changed.  Apparently, the sync software can only tell that this out of date laptop has what it "thinks" are new appointments but they are really ones that have been deleted.  So, it adds them all back.  This has definitely happened just recently.

I am of the opinion that if there was at least some kind of ability to track the changes the software should be able to know that the ones on the laptop which has not been synced are old and should not be added.  The newer data on the server is what should stay and delete those entries.  I have been told that the reason for this is that both laptops have the same email account (they do since they belong to the same person) and therefore the same level of control.  The software has no way of knowing,   if they turn on both at the same time,    which one is the most current. 

Taking this one step further, if Both laptops have been off, both are out of date, maybe one more than the other.  So neither should send anything to the server but instead should only go there to read what the Group's most current appointments are for.  But this is not what happens.  Poorly written client add-ins. 

I can see the problems but I have no idea how to fix them.  I am hoping someone else here has experienced this and maybe knows of a working solution as this is a time critical issue.  If I can buy a working solution "Now", that is what I really need.  While they would like to continue to work inside of Outlook, I am of the opinion that a software written specifically for their needs would be far better off running outside the PST files since they run on POP/SMTP and usually lug around PST's in the multi-Gigabyte range.  (14GB to 19 GB is not the least bit unusual.)  Outlook problems are plenty enough even without this add-in.

Again.  I appreciate any advice.  This Forum has always been a fountain of useful knowledge and One of the best  if not "THE BEST    " of any I have ever belonged to.

This is probably out of place in this context       But I wish everyone here a very Happy Holiday Season!   

493

General Software Discussion / Command Line special needs for Batch file - Replace/rename/remove in filenames

« on: December 10, 2013, 10:53 PM »

I have finally   managed to finish a working script to accomplish a task that I have to run several times a week.  It was something that had always been done by hand due to the specific nature of the needs.  Now that I have a working script that outputs to a dated filename, I have a few final cleanup tasks that I am still doing in notepad that could be added to the script if I knew how to do it through command line.
The output is a list of file paths as they exist relative to the directory on the server.  In their final form, they are all really hyperlinks.  To get there, I have to:
1: change all "\"  to "/".
2:  change all occurrences of "c:/1st level/2nd level/"  to "http://www."  (note that this shows the already been changed slashes)
3:  I need to remove a folder referenced in the physical local path as it doe not exist in the hyperlinks ie:  Remove all instances of "/webroot"
4:  And finally. the tricky one.  If any of the created hyperlinks ends up being a link with less than 5 "/"'s  I need to delete it as it is not a working link.
And there are always going to be several of these.  This part I have to just manually do as notepad is no help in making it any easier.

The others are all simple functions done in notepad but I cannot find the corresponding command line references to accomplish them.
I am going to try to paste in the code below as it currently exists.  The last time I tried this it would not insert due to a need for indenting?  I think?
I hope this comes through.  I am sure someone out there probably know exactly what I am missing.  
Thanks for any pointers

Code: Text [Select]

1. @echo off
2. for /f "delims=" %%a in ('wmic OS Get localdatetime  ^| find "."') do set dt=%%a
3. set dt=%dt:~0,4%-%dt:~4,2%-%dt:~6,2%_%
4. setlocal
5. set currentLevel=0
6. set maxLevel=%2
7. if not defined maxLevel set maxLevel=2
8.  
9. :procFolder
10. pushd %1 2>nul || exit /b
11. if %currentLevel% lss %maxLevel% (
12. for /d %%F in (*) do (
13. echo %%~fF >>c:\Hyperlinks\Working-%dt%.txt
14. set /a currentLevel+=1
15. call :procFolder "%%F"
16. set /a currentLevel-=1
17. )
18. )
19. popd

494

General Software Discussion / Google Website Topics

« on: November 29, 2013, 10:36 AM »

Does anyone have any idea how Google decides what to print as links to your website?  I have two Flash modules that only work correctly when used in context with the rest of the site.  For some reason, Google has recently added these at direct entries.  Since they are not folders, but rather files in the main folder I am not sure how to go about stopping the listing or at least stopping it from working.  In total they recently added 4 links with titles like "loading, loading, loading..." and one that says "100%".  I would be happy if all it had was index.html.
The others are real inside pages and while I would rather it went in the front door, these pages can be loaded as standalone and it would not be so bad, kind of like a directory of pages on the site.
But the (Flash) > pages do not display properly and have no real meaning unless the user gets there from the main site page.

This is something that just happened recently as I have never seen it before.

Thanks

495

Post New Requests Here / Default email Domain autofill

« on: November 27, 2013, 01:04 AM »

I know this is surely possible but not sure if it is something there is a 3rd party app to do or if it wold take special mods to Outlook.
The company I work for has I high turnover of employees and there are quite a lot of them.   I have always wondered why Outlook does not have an option to automatically fill in a "default" mail domain wen someone enters a name like "john doe" and nothing else.
Since John just got hired, there is no auto fill for him so you have to type in the full @xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com email domain.

It' not a big deal, just one of those small time saving "things" that sure would be nice to see it happen since or company mail domain is about 20characters long. (not MY idea    Short is sweet!).

My current solution which is not really that bad was to use my favorite hotkey utility (Clavier) to make a hokey for the rest.  As long as I remember to hit the hot key (they have a name for that but I forget what it is   )

Anyway, dumb request and maybe it is already in outlook but I don't know where.

Happy Thanksgiving to All and THANKS  from ME to Everyone for such a Great Board!!

496

Post New Requests Here / Re: File Send Link by email as a Single Hotkey without having to leave the webpage

« on: November 24, 2013, 08:50 PM »

OK   I neutered Bit Defender on ieae and now I get a transport error.  One of those long codes but at least I got something  said error code 2.  The name is right.  smtp server is right.  pw is right.  port is right 
Any idea where to go from here?

497

Post New Requests Here / Re: File Send Link by email as a Single Hotkey without having to leave the webpage

« on: November 24, 2013, 08:19 PM »

Oh well.  I guess I will have to completely dump Bit Defender to even find out if IEAE will work.

Even after unzipping, it still kills he process if I try to run it.  Doesn't say why. 

498

Post New Requests Here / Re: File Send Link by email as a Single Hotkey without having to leave the webpage

« on: November 24, 2013, 04:16 PM »

By the way... Conduit?  Just Google it.  "Conduit Malware"  It is "officially" a Browser Helper Object.  Apparently they even have some affiliation with MS.  They never get pulled and hard as heck to get rid of.  The Start page of your browser will usually show some kind of "SWEETUMS"  blah blah blah  that LOOKS just like the usual playpen that Google throws out but... it is not Google!  It is definitely a re-director and hosts all kinds of nasties. 
But, while the nasties themselves will often get removed by Malware-bytes and others, the Originator of all the trouble "Conduit" is still there.
              You will find it peppered all over your registry often in the company of words like "re-director" and so on.

Removing Conduit from all over program files really doesn't do everything.  Like I said, it takes a thorough searching of the registry to remove the rest.  Right now I can't even remember all the "aliases" but there are several. 

But the thing is so sneaky that unless you just happen to notice that you keep ending up on the same sites no matter what search terms you put in...   No harm - No foul I guess is how they look at it!    But it makes Google and other search tools worthless.  Worse yet, it sends back to ???? "Whoever" a full list of whatever you have been looking for.

499

Post New Requests Here / Re: File Send Link by email as a Single Hotkey without having to leave the webpage

« on: November 24, 2013, 04:03 PM »

Now I see it CLEARLY!   

BUT  I still don't know what to do with it.  Maybe removing the LOCKS put on by BitDefender.  Apparently they don't have all the bugs worked out yet.

This is from a post on their forums from January.   Another user in the same fix I am.  Stuck.  I think I will remove bit defender then re-download the file.
__________________________-  posted on their site -- _________________________

"........ that's because you are using two security products: Microsoft Security Essentials and Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition, which are incompatible on the same system.   You must uninstall one of them for the proper functionality of your security product and computer.

Thank you! I've already uninstalled MSE.  >>>(Looks like he should have kept MSE and removed BitDefender  )

How can I remove a quarantine file and prevent future false threat identifications of that file by Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition?

Jan 23 2013, 12:13 PM

We are working on this issue, in the next product update this feature(restore from quarantine) will be available.       Thanks for feedback,

500

Post New Requests Here / Re: File Send Link by email as a Single Hotkey without having to leave the webpage

« on: November 24, 2013, 03:43 PM »

Hah!  well  half hah...
I found most of what I need to know but not all.
I do not have Autoit3?  Do I need it?  I can read the script with notepad but not sure how to get IE to swallow it.

From your print-screen it looks like it would do the trick.
The ini files I can see how to edit but the other two are off my sight-line?  I have no idea what to do with them.