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1776

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge and Early Beta: Prayer Minder

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 08, 2011, 09:22 PM »

I've fixed the first: you can now name your own files; I'll also be providing your second wish, such that you'll be able to scroll through a listing of all saved prayer files, and see, at a glance, the filename, author, tags associated with the file currently highlighted in a listbox.

1777

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge and Early Beta: Prayer Minder

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 08, 2011, 07:25 AM »

instead of saving with date and title, let it default to whatever the title of the prayer is.  Come tomorrow, I won't be able to tell by the file name, what the prayer concern is.

@techidave: Yeah, I get your drift.  The reason the files are auto-named based upon the date-time, rather than prompting the user with a SaveFileDialog, is that it will make it very easy later to implement a search-by-date function. The "Title" field (see screenshot) below, is meant to allow you to give a memorable title to the prayer.



But I think I see where I could make it more user-friendly: currently, when you click the Load button, you see this:



What would be nicer is if you saw a list of the prayers you've saved, by their "Title" field:



Am I understanding correctly?

is it possible to use the arrow keys to "scroll" through the list of concerns?  instead of actually having to 'load" each one.

I'll see what I can come up with...

1778

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge and Early Beta: Prayer Minder

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 07, 2011, 05:44 PM »

It's worth a download and a few runs just to see the various form background images (a random one of twenty gets chosen each time the program runs).  Some pretty cool images in there.

1779

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: Pledge: VisualPerimeter

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 07, 2011, 05:42 PM »

Cool!  Looking forward to seeing this develop!

1780

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge Teaser: Web Link Captor, aka LL Robot

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 07, 2011, 08:11 AM »

The "LL" in "LLRobot" must be the key...... now what could those two Ls stand for?

1781

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: Pledge: PinPics

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 07, 2011, 08:10 AM »

Glad you've pledged, NinJA99!

1782

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / NANY 2012 RELEASE: Christian Prayer Minder

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 07, 2011, 08:00 AM »

NANY 2012 Entry Information

Application Name	Christian Prayer Minder
Version	1.0.5.8 (attention: prayer files from versions prior to 1.0.0.9 aren't compatible with later versions of the program; If you currently have v1.0.1.1 or earlier installed, please manually install version 1.0.5.8 after uninstalling any previous version. From now on, you should be able to update from within the program as usual. If you have v1.0.1.2 or later installer, you should be able to download the updated installer from within your currently running program.)
Short Description	provides informative texts on prayer-related topics, plus enables easy save/retrieve/edit prayer files, and searching prayer files based on tags and/or author
Supported OSes	Windows XP forward
Setup File (4.8 M)	http://kyrathaba.dcm...count/click.php?id=8
Memory Footprint	about 6,680 Kb (this will increase slightly when many prayers have been searched)
System Requirements	requires .NET Framework v4.0 (program detects if absent, and will download/install it if permission is given)
Author Info	DC member kyrathaba, developer of these other NANY 2012 entries: Found Money, Kyrathaba's Hangman, and Source Code Line Counter. My past NANY entries include: Crocus Contacts, Blackjack, and NANY Excuse Manager.
Description	I realize that there are relatively few Christianity adherents here. Nevertheless, for those of us who are, I believe that this program offers something valuable. I began thinking about writing this application several weeks ago, after a series of conversations with my pastor in which we discussed how it's often difficult to concentrate while trying to pray. We've also discussed the need for a tool that acts as a prayer reminder, and one that can track written prayers and offer search functionality. Finally, we wanted a tool that allows the user to come back at a later time to a prayer and offer thoughts/insights into prayer-answers, or meditations on the prayer itself.  This tool will also, in future updates, allow the user to customize prompts and prompt-frequencies for various types of prayer (praise, intercession, supplication, etc.) The program could also be used to store diary/journal entries, although that isn't its intended purpose.
Screencast
Features	built-in CHM Help file pray at the speed of typing (for me, that's about 85 wpm) enter author, and any related tags to help in future searches (or omit them) main form features fantastic background images, many of them by J. R. Bell twelve fore-/back-color schemes for the "My Prayers" panel option to launch application when Windows starts ten in-depth articles on prayer-related topics articles on spiritual disciplines, and the Biblical plan of salvation ability to print the article, or whatever portion of its text is selected recommended further reading (some titles with accompanying URLs) real-time filesystem watcher monitors for creation/deletion/renaming of prayer files informative message-boxes program uses index files to make searching for specific prayer files faster warns user if they attempt to save a prayer file in a non-MyPrayers directory error-trapping correctly detects and handles case where user attempts to load a non-PrayerMinder file click a Search result in ListBox to view its filename, lastModified date, path to file, Author, and tags double-click the Search result entry to load that prayer file zero Registry footprint you can now increase or decrease font size in the MyPrayers textbox by selecting your desired font size in Options three ways to exit application: close button, file menu, or Escape key optional "Did You Know" dialog at program startup search either by author and/or tags, using indexes (fast: on the order of milliseconds) search within prayer file contents for a search phrase, returning all files that contain that search phrase (slow: seconds, not milliseconds) if you double-click a Search results listbox entry and it is the result of a search-within-for-phrase Search, the search-phrase is highlighted when the prayer file is loaded smart-saving removes any excess whitespace from the prayer before saving it option to set a backup directory (makes program compatible with using Dropbox for backing up the program's data files) full list of features  [url=http://kyrathaba.dcmembers.com/downloads.htm#prayerMinderFeatures]here
Favorite method in this project: bgWorkerSearch_DoWork()	Spoiler Code: C# [Select] void bgWorkerSearch_DoWork (object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) {               log.write("We have entered the background worker that does the heavy-lifting in Searches...");             DateTime _start = DateTime.Now;             clsSearcherArgument arg = (clsSearcherArgument)e.Argument;               #region ifDebuggerAttachedGiveSomeInfo               if (Debugger.IsAttached) {                   string msg = "Search type: " + ((SearchType)arg.SearchType).ToString() + Environment.NewLine;                   msg += "Search ";                 msg += (arg.SearchType == (int)SearchType.SearchWithinFiles) ? " phrase: " : " tag(s): ";                 if (arg.searchPhraseOrTags.Length > 0) {                     msg += arg.searchPhraseOrTags + Environment.NewLine;                 } else {                     msg += "[none]" + Environment.NewLine;                 }                   msg += "Author filter: ";                 if (arg.searchedForAuthor.Length > 0) {                     msg += arg.searchedForAuthor + Environment.NewLine;                 } else {                     msg += "[none]" + Environment.NewLine;                 }                   msg += "Time constraint: " + ((TimeConstraint)arg.timeConstraint).ToString();                   MessageBox.Show(msg);               }               #endregion               #region setUpNeededVariables                           DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(pathToMyPrayers);             FileInfo[] fi = di.GetFiles();             List<clsPrayerInfo> information = new List<clsPrayerInfo>();                         int totalPrayerFiles = fi.GetLength(0);             string searchedForAuthor = arg.searchedForAuthor.Trim().ToLower();             string searchedForPhrase = arg.searchPhraseOrTags.Trim().ToLower();                         int examined_so_far = 0;             int hits = 0;             int time_constraint = arg.timeConstraint;             double totalSeconds = 0;             bool blnPassesTimeConstraint;             bool blnPassesAuthor;             bool blnPassesSearchPhrase;             decimal fraction = 0;             int the_percent = 0;               for (int i = 0; i < totalPrayerFiles; i++) {                 if (fi[i].FullName.ToLower().Contains("thumbs.db")) { totalPrayerFiles--; }             }               #endregion               if (arg.SearchType == (int)SearchType.SearchWithinFiles) {                   log.write("About to enter foreach loop for searching within files...");                                 foreach (FileInfo f in fi) {                                     blnPassesTimeConstraint = false;                     blnPassesAuthor = false;                     blnPassesSearchPhrase = false;                                         if (f.FullName.ToLower().Contains("thumbs.db")) { continue; }                                         #region codeForExaminingWithinPrayerFileContents                                         blnPassesAuthor = true; //because SearchWithinFiles doesn't care about the author                                       FileStream fs = new FileStream(f.FullName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.None);                     clsPrayerInfo oInfo = new clsPrayerInfo();                                           try {                         BinaryFormatter bFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();                         clsPrayer prayer = (clsPrayer)bFormatter.Deserialize(fs);                         string contents = prayer.content.Trim().ToLower();                         if (contents.Contains(searchedForPhrase)) {                             blnPassesSearchPhrase = true;                             oInfo = new clsPrayerInfo(prayer, f.FullName);                             int selStart = contents.IndexOf(searchedForPhrase);                             oInfo.StartOfSelection = selStart;                                                         #region determineIfWePassTheTimeConstraint                             if (time_constraint == (int)TimeConstraint.NoConstraint) {                                 blnPassesTimeConstraint = true;                             } else {                                 DateTime rightNow = DateTime.Now;                                 TimeSpan ts = rightNow.Subtract(oInfo.lastModified);                                 totalSeconds = ts.TotalSeconds;                                 switch (time_constraint) {                                     case (int)TimeConstraint.PastWeek:                                         if (totalSeconds <= 604800) { blnPassesTimeConstraint = true; }                                         break;                                     case (int)TimeConstraint.PastMonth:                                         if (totalSeconds <= 2592000) { blnPassesTimeConstraint = true; }                                         break;                                     case (int)TimeConstraint.PastYear:                                         if (totalSeconds <= 31536000) { blnPassesTimeConstraint = true; }                                         break;                                 }                             }                             #endregion                         } else {                             blnPassesSearchPhrase = false;                         }                           examined_so_far++;                         log.write("We have examined this many files: " + examined_so_far.ToString());                           if (blnPassesTimeConstraint && blnPassesSearchPhrase && blnPassesAuthor) {                             information.Add(oInfo);                                                         hits++;                         }                       } catch (Exception exceptionOpeningPrayerFile) {                         string msgWithinFilesException = "Error in SearchWithinFiles portion of code in method bgWorkerSearch_DoWork(): " + exceptionOpeningPrayerFile.Message;                         log.write(msgWithinFilesException);                         MessageBox.Show(msgWithinFilesException, "Error Opening Prayer File During Search");                     }                     finally {                         if (fs != null) { fs.Close(); }                     }                     #endregion                       fraction = (decimal)examined_so_far / (decimal)totalPrayerFiles;                     the_percent = Convert.ToInt32(fraction * 100);                     bgWorkerSearch.ReportProgress(the_percent);                     log.write("Records counted: " + examined_so_far.ToString() + " of " + totalPrayerFiles.ToString() + " (hits: " + hits.ToString() + ") -- " + the_percent.ToString() + " % complete...");                 }                         } else {                   log.write("About to enter foreach loop for searching via tracking files...");                                 foreach (FileInfo f in fi) {                       blnPassesTimeConstraint = false;                     blnPassesAuthor = false;                     blnPassesSearchPhrase = false;                       if (f.FullName.ToLower().Contains("thumbs.db")) { continue; }                                         #region codeForSearchingAgainstAuthorAndOrTagsUsingTrackingFiles                                         clsPrayerInfo oInfo = new clsPrayerInfo();                     string pathToTracker = Path.Combine(pathToTrackingDirectory, Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(f.FullName));                     if (!File.Exists(pathToTracker)) {                         log.write("Tracking file doesn't exist: " + pathToTracker);                         continue;                     } else {                         log.write("The following tracking file DOES exist: " + pathToTracker);                     }                                         FileStream fs = new FileStream(pathToTracker, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.None);                     try {                           BinaryFormatter bFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();                         oInfo = (clsPrayerInfo)bFormatter.Deserialize(fs);                         oInfo.StartOfSelection = -1;                         DateTime rightNow = DateTime.Now;                         TimeSpan ts = rightNow.Subtract(oInfo.lastModified);                         totalSeconds = ts.TotalSeconds;                           log.write("We were able to open the tracker...");                           #region determineIfTheTimeConstraintPasses                         if (time_constraint == (int)TimeConstraint.NoConstraint) {                             blnPassesTimeConstraint = true;                         } else {                             switch (time_constraint) {                                 case (int)TimeConstraint.PastWeek:                                     if (totalSeconds <= 604800) { blnPassesTimeConstraint = true; }                                     break;                                 case (int)TimeConstraint.PastMonth:                                     if (totalSeconds <= 2592000) { blnPassesTimeConstraint = true; }                                     break;                                 case (int)TimeConstraint.PastYear:                                     if (totalSeconds <= 31536000) { blnPassesTimeConstraint = true; }                                     break;                             }                         }                         #endregion                         if (blnPassesTimeConstraint) {                             log.write("TimeConstraint passed in Search using Mode Normal or ExactMatch...");                             #region determineIfAuthorPasses                             if (searchedForAuthor.Length == 0) {                                 blnPassesAuthor = true;                             } else {                                 if (searchedForAuthor == oInfo.author.Trim().ToLower()) { blnPassesAuthor = true; }                             }                             #endregion                             if (blnPassesAuthor) {                                 #region determineIfSearchPhrasePasses                                 if (searchedForPhrase.Length == 0) {                                     blnPassesSearchPhrase = (arg.SearchType == (int)SearchType.Normal) ? true : false;                                 } else {                                     if (arg.SearchType == (int)SearchType.ExactMatch) {                                         blnPassesSearchPhrase = (searchedForPhrase == oInfo.tags.Trim().ToLower()) ? true : false;                                     } else {                                         blnPassesSearchPhrase = (oInfo.tags.Trim().ToLower().Contains(searchedForPhrase)) ? true : false;                                     }                                 }                                 #endregion                             }//end if (blnPassesAuthor)                         }//end if (blnPassesTimeContraint)                           if (blnPassesSearchPhrase && blnPassesAuthor && blnPassesTimeConstraint) {                             information.Add(oInfo);                             hits++;                         }                           examined_so_far++;                         log.write("We have examined this many files: " + examined_so_far.ToString());                       } catch (Exception exception) {                         log.write("Exception caught while trying to load clsPrayerInfo data from this tracking file in bgWorkerSearch_DoWork(): " + Path.GetFileName(pathToTracker));                         log.write(exception.Message);                     }                     finally {                         if (fs != null) { fs.Close(); }                     }                       #endregion                                         fraction = (decimal)examined_so_far / (decimal)totalPrayerFiles;                     the_percent = Convert.ToInt32(fraction * 100);                     bgWorkerSearch.ReportProgress(the_percent);                     log.write("Records counted: " + examined_so_far.ToString() + " of " + totalPrayerFiles.ToString() + " (hits: " + hits.ToString() + ") -- " + the_percent.ToString() + " % complete...");                                 }                         }               DateTime _finished = DateTime.Now;             TimeSpan tsOverall = _finished.Subtract(_start);             string duration = clsGetDurationDesc.getDurationDesc(tsOverall.TotalMilliseconds);               clsSearcherResults oResults = new clsSearcherResults(information, duration, examined_so_far, hits);             e.Result = oResults;               log.write("Now exiting bgWorkerSearch_DoWork()...");           }
Screenshots (there are 8 more images in addition to the twelve shown here, but you'll have to download/install the program to discover them...)
Installation	run the Inno Setup installer
Using the application	pretty standard Windows application menu system, with some additional options.  Should be straightforward, although I intend to author a help file.
Uninstalling	Run the uninstaller that the installation provides
Known Issues	I've fixed quite a few minor issues. Let me know if you think you've found a bug: it's probably a feature

1783

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: Pledge: Shelves

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 06, 2011, 08:07 PM »

Thanks for the Pledge, pyrohacker!

1784

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: TYSON

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 06, 2011, 08:06 PM »

Nice to see you've further developed this!

1785

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Release: Printer PaperSource Explorer 1.2.0.0

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 06, 2011, 08:03 PM »

Congrats on the Release, Ath.

1786

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge: Apply checked out files

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 06, 2011, 11:05 AM »

Yay! Theo geer! Glad mouser's email convinced you

1787

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Found Money

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 05, 2011, 11:20 AM »

To me the application did not make too much sense either.

@Shades: the program can be used to keep track of U.S. money you truly find (a quarter on a bus, a dollar on the sidewalk, etc), or of money you save (read as "in your piggy-bank" [real or virtual]).  Under "Description" in the OP, there's a link to the Coding Snacks thread where this all started.  Really, the Short Description in the OP summarizes its function pretty succinctly.

I never in my entire life (and I've been around for some decades) found this many coins and bills, that you found in a few months ohmy now I see why you needed this app

@Ath: I found them when I robbed various stores' cash registers...


No, seriously, one of the dropdown options for location where money was found (which I added via the application's provision for just such additional locations) is your pocket/wallet:



I wish I was actually finding this kind of money daily, out on the street somewhere!  But, as you can see, I'm using the program more like a piggy-bank.

1788

Developer's Corner / Re: Writing to Form1 textbox from Form2

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 04, 2011, 07:10 AM »

In the short term, passing form instances around to constructors and whatnot will work, but it's not good for modularity, re-use, or being able to comprehend your code a few months from now.

The first thing you need to learn is separating your GUI from your "real code". This means having pretty much all your logic separated from the GUI code, and never directly referencing GUI controls from the logic/model code. Let your GUI controls observe your program's model state, and let GUI events be very shallow things doing little else but delegating to instance calls on your model.

Agreed. 

1789

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Found Money

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 04, 2011, 07:07 AM »

Woohoo!  Downloads for this program here at DC and across other download sites has exceeded 1,000 downloads!  I'm still using this program almost daily myself:

1790

DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for October 31, 2011 - "Frightening Feathers"

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 04, 2011, 06:53 AM »

Regarding NANY 2012, here is a report on how things are progressing in this year's event.

1791

Living Room / Re: Stage Play

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 03, 2011, 10:49 AM »

Nice to hear from you, CodeTRUCKER!  Congratulations on the play!  That must have been quite an undertaking!

1792

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: Gentlemen (and Ladies), Start Your Engines!!

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 03, 2011, 10:42 AM »

Well, folks, we have about 3 days remaining until the preferred Pledge deadline (although we will undoubtedly extend this deadline for anyone wishing to submit a pledge, the idea was that working to a deadline should help spur pledges).  So if you haven't pledged an app yet for NANY 2012, please do so!  And if you can't pledge it until next week (or later), we still want it, by all means!

Having encouraged your participation, let me give a synopsis of the pledges we've had to date.  In the following list, you'll see the name (sometimes only a temporary name) of the application that has been pledged, then the author's name in parentheses, then in squiggly-brackets the total number of unwithdrawn pledges by that author.  As with the Pledge Deadline, the limit on the number of pledges is only a guideline, not a strictly enforced rule.  This is a competition with the goals of fun and creativity above all else.  Out of that we always wind up with many quite useful applications that draw attention to themselves from all over cyberspace!

NoteMe - Mail Myself (justice) {1}
Desktop URL Embed (wraith808) {2}
Track My Stuff (wraith808) {2}
Nea (ewemoa) {1}
Printer Papersource Explorer (Ath) {1}
Stick-A-Note (anandcoral) {3}
Kyrathaba's Hangman (kyrathaba) {3}
Quicksilver Like Launcher (ecaradec) {1}
Flipside (Deozaan) {1}
Ethervane Echo (tranglos) {1}
LL Robot (mouser) {1}
Kyrathaba's Source Code Line Counter (kyrathaba) {3}
Fentwiss (timns) {1}
Portable Extension Warlock (hamradio) {1}
Tell When Done (anandcoral) {3}
Got Space (Stoic Joker) {1}
Dungeon AI (Stephen66515) {1}
Paste Like Text (anandcoral) {3}
FLAK (capitalH) {1}
You Have Files [Abandoned] (anandcoral) {3}
Kyrathaba's Found Money (kyrathaba) {3}
De-Stress (worstje) {1}
Crush Turbochecker (Crush) {1}

That's 23 pledges, to date!  Awesome!!  Last year, we finished with 24 NANY apps.  It looks quite likely that we will beat that this year 

Let me just once again extend a huge thank-you to all the authors who have pledged, to date, and let me greatly encourage everyone reading this to pledge any idea you may have for an application.  It's a great community-building event.  I have three NANY mugs on my desk to attest to that, and will soon add a fourth!

Regards, and Happy coding!!

- kyrathaba

1793

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 - NoteMe - Mail Myself

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 03, 2011, 10:21 AM »

Really cool stuff 

1794

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge: Desktop URL Embed

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 03, 2011, 10:20 AM »

Very cool!

1795

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge: Track My Stuff!

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 03, 2011, 10:19 AM »

Cool, wraith! 

1796

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge: Nea

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 03, 2011, 10:17 AM »

Very useful! 

1797

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Kyrathaba's Hangman

« Last post by kyrathaba on December 01, 2011, 06:15 PM »

Well, thancock20 won November's high score, and has received this month's $5 worth of DonationCredits.  Congrats on your long reign, thancock20! 

1798

Living Room / Re: NaGa DeMon

« Last post by kyrathaba on November 30, 2011, 08:30 PM »

Cool, I look forward to seeing it!

1799

Living Room / Re: It's Dr. Brinkley, Rice is a university.

« Last post by kyrathaba on November 29, 2011, 07:51 PM »

The invited professor could have been mature enough and gracious enough to overlook the mistake, or even chosen to correct the congressman a bit more tactfully.  The congressman should have enough dignity not to have become offended even if corrected in a non-tactful way.

1800

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Pre-Release: Printer PaperSource Explorer

« Last post by kyrathaba on November 29, 2011, 06:22 PM »

OoooOOoo, cool stuff.  I can find an immediate use for this!!