NANY 2013 Release: Customizable Remote Administration Panel (CRAP)

[hamradio]

The edit and delete favorites buttons -- will they return?

-oblivion (April 08, 2024, 04:21 AM)

While hovering a favorite…

Shift+Click to edit.
Ctrl+Click to delete with confirmation.
Shift+Ctrl+Click to delete with no confirmation.

The edit/delete buttons on main window won’t be back as they have no way to tell which to edit/delete from that menu so if the buttons ever make a return it will be in an edit favorites window.

An initial note. Quite a few of my CRAP buttons use "runas" so I can use an admin account to run things from a non-admin login.

If I use the new "skip command window" option, I have to set the application as runas.exe and pass everything else (the actual program as well as the user account details) to the command as a lengthy parameter.

It works -- of course! -- and is exactly as the command actually works but it means, for me at least, most of my buttons -- those that don't need a results window left open, anyway -- are going to be runas.exe with the actual program I'm running (along with its parameters) demoted to a parameter of runas.

Not sure if this matters or not! I haven't found an error with it, just a change of focus.

-oblivion (April 08, 2024, 04:57 AM)

Cool.

Your current proposal for the message seems self explanatory enough to me

-ConstanceJill (April 08, 2024, 02:29 AM)

I changed it slightly but it’s pretty much the same.

[hamradio]

Slight question before the next beta version...

Since I am warning the user when <var> isn't there if skip command window is true and ignore variable text is false...should I also do the reverse? Whereas if <var> is found but ignore variable text is true then popup asking if you was wanting to use it and if yes is pressed changing ignore variable text checkbox to false and continuing or if no is pressed allow you to make changes?

[ConstanceJill]

I guess it would be logical to do so indeed.

[hamradio]

I guess it would be logical to do so indeed.

-ConstanceJill (April 10, 2024, 02:45 AM)

Done.

Also the beta @ the CRAP Beta Download Page has been updated to 2.1.0 build 25. Scroll down to see details in the terms of a few things. One such is if you left keep command window open and selected skip command window as well in previous beta make sure the option you want is selected.  Reason is I made it to where only one or the other of those two checkboxes should be checkable at a time for more clarity to which is used. The others should still be checkable as normal but it won't let you select both of those now.

[hamradio]

Even though beta 2.1.0 build 25 has been uploaded I have been working on the lnk file dropping onto main button panel to read the data in. It is close to being ready for testing itself.

Will work with .exe and .lnk. However...the .lnk files will get the arguments and the .exe will always turn up blank for the arguments portion.

[hamradio]

CRAP beta 2.1.0 build 40 should now be uploaded to the CRAP beta download page.

You should be able to do this in it...

Click for example of drag and drop in action.
NANY 2013 Release: Customizable Remote Administration Panel (CRAP)

Note: You may also drag lnk and exe files to the listing portion of the layout editor to do the same for those of you who might use the layout editor window. It works with multiple selected files and will loop through all you dropped onto either way before it finishes.

[ConstanceJill]

Cool, I'll download and test it a bit later.

From your animated demo though it looks like it doesn't have "Ignore variable text" checked by default when drag-and-dropping a shortcut, which it probably should.

[hamradio]

Cool, I'll download and test it a bit later.

From your animated demo though it looks like it doesn't have "Ignore variable text" checked by default when drag-and-dropping a shortcut, which it probably should.

-ConstanceJill (April 17, 2024, 06:33 AM)

Yeah I noticed that when I did the animation, so it will be fixed in the next. Let me know what other rough edges you want me to look at too if you notice them.

Don’t think I mentioned it but it’s also a - in title and value for favorite separators

Update: Another rough edge I noticed is when dropped it wasn't gaining focus. It should hopefully now gain focus in the next uploaded version.

[ConstanceJill]

Hello there

Today I've tested (on my home computer, running Windows 11 v23H2) adding buttons using the shortcut drag and drop feature, and I've encountered a few issues, some of which seem to be related to the handling of lower/uppercase.

1 - when adding a single button, if the ".exe" part of the icon's name happens to not be entirely in lowercase, then in the main window, the button's icon and caption do not appear.
The button itself can still be highlighted when placing the mouse cursor at its position, the tooltip shows up and the associated program can still be launched.
Changing the button's properties to have the ".exe" in the icon's name be in lower case fixes that issue

2 - when dragging several shortcuts to the main window in order to create the corresponding buttons.
If a single one of those shortcuts has the ".EXE" part of target program's filename written uppercase, then CRAP will open the "Adding New Button" dialogue for each shortcut, until the user confirms the "Add" button for that one shortcut with the uppercase ".EXE", at which point CRAP will basically abort processing the queue: there will be no further window to add the next shortcuts even if more were selected, and the buttons for which the settings were already input will not be added to the layout.

3 - This one isn't related to uppercase vs lowercase file names, but to how some games themselves behave.
A normal Windows shortcut has a "start in" field, which, from my understanding, basically sets the "current folder" before starting the program. This field doesn't appear to exist for CRAP buttons, and so for some programs that need it to be set, they may either fail to run, or try to look for and/or write some files in the wrong place.

[hamradio]

Hello there

Today I've tested (on my home computer, running Windows 11 v23H2) adding buttons using the shortcut drag and drop feature, and I've encountered a few issues, some of which seem to be related to the handling of lower/uppercase.

1 - when adding a single button, if the ".exe" part of the icon's name happens to not be entirely in lowercase, then in the main window, the button's icon and caption do not appear.
The button itself can still be highlighted when placing the mouse cursor at its position, the tooltip shows up and the associated program can still be launched.
Changing the button's properties to have the ".exe" in the icon's name be in lower case fixes that issue

2 - when dragging several shortcuts to the main window in order to create the corresponding buttons.
If a single one of those shortcuts has the ".EXE" part of target program's filename written uppercase, then CRAP will open the "Adding New Button" dialogue for each shortcut, until the user confirms the "Add" button for that one shortcut with the uppercase ".EXE", at which point CRAP will basically abort processing the queue: there will be no further window to add the next shortcuts even if more were selected, and the buttons for which the settings were already input will not be added to the layout.

3 - This one isn't related to uppercase vs lowercase file names, but to how some games themselves behave.
A normal Windows shortcut has a "start in" field, which, from my understanding, basically sets the "current folder" before starting the program. This field doesn't appear to exist for CRAP buttons, and so for some programs that need it to be set, they may either fail to run, or try to look for and/or write some files in the wrong place.

-ConstanceJill (April 21, 2024, 08:16 AM)

1. I have tracked down that bug. At least in my test it works.
2. After I fixed #1 I cant seem to get #2 to reproduce if I have understood correctly.
3. The fix for that will be a "start in" text box in which I can add one. (Update: I have added in.)

[hamradio]

Just a FYI...I am currently hoping to get another beta out in the next day or two with those 3 items fixed.

[hamradio]

CRAP beta 2.1.0 build 49 should now be able to be downloaded from the CRAP beta download page.

Changes...
Hopefully the drag and drop bugs are fixed.

The start in addition textbox to all non layout link buttons. Along with various other tweaks.

Note: Also in this version...I don't know if I should keep/remove but atm if the control key is pressed when dropping it will add all without the add dialogs...should I keep or remove?

Thanks for all the testing so far as well.

[ConstanceJill]

Thanks, I'll download and test it ASAP

[…]
Note: Also in this version...I don't know if I should keep/remove but atm if the control key is pressed when dropping it will add all without the add dialogs...should I keep or remove?

-hamradio (April 24, 2024, 03:34 PM)

Sounds neat, if the default settings it adds the button with are all right then I see no reason to remove it.

[hamradio]

Thanks, I'll download and test it ASAP

[…]
Note: Also in this version...I don't know if I should keep/remove but atm if the control key is pressed when dropping it will add all without the add dialogs...should I keep or remove?

-hamradio (April 24, 2024, 03:34 PM)

Sounds neat, if the default settings it adds the button with are all right then I see no reason to remove it.

-ConstanceJill (April 25, 2024, 02:16 AM)

I noticed one thing myself today...in fixing how the settings are handled the separator goes based on the width of the button not the height in that build 49 when using a custom button layout. I will fix that.

[ConstanceJill]

All right, I've tested it a little bit and indeed the 3 issues I had posted about in post #133 seem to be fixed.

I've noticed however that in the "Start in" field, it appears that CRAP puts the path it imported between double quotes, and that seems to not work exactly as expected as, for example :
- Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction, when connecting to Battle.net, creates a BnetLog.txt file in the folder where it is started in.
If it is started from a button in CRAP where the "Start in" field has double quotes around it, then that file is created in the same folder where CRAP itself was started in
- The Dark Mod v2.12 x64 (it's a free game, get it from https://www.thedarkmod.com/downloads/ ) exhibits a similar behaviour, also creating its Darkmod.log file in the same folder where CRAP was started in
- Thief Gold, if its install.cfg file (that file basically tells it where to look for its resources) contains relative paths such as ".\", which is likely to be the case if it was patched up TFix (which is very much THE recommended unofficial patch package), will fail to run when started from such a button.

In all those examples, removing the double quotes around the contents of the "Start in" field from the buttons fixed the issues.

Now I didn't try to install those games in folders that had spaces in them, so I'm not sure if the double quotes would be required then or would still cause issues.

[hamradio]

All right, I've tested it a little bit and indeed the 3 issues I had posted about in post #133 seem to be fixed.

I've noticed however that in the "Start in" field, it appears that CRAP puts the path it imported between double quotes, and that seems to not work exactly as expected as, for example :
- Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction, when connecting to Battle.net, creates a BnetLog.txt file in the folder where it is started in.
If it is started from a button in CRAP where the "Start in" field has double quotes around it, then that file is created in the same folder where CRAP itself was started in
- The Dark Mod v2.12 x64 (it's a free game, get it from https://www.thedarkmod.com/downloads/ ) exhibits a similar behaviour, also creating its Darkmod.log file in the same folder where CRAP was started in
- Thief Gold, if its install.cfg file (that file basically tells it where to look for its resources) contains relative paths such as ".\", which is likely to be the case if it was patched up TFix (which is very much THE recommended unofficial patch package), will fail to run when started from such a button.

In all those examples, removing the double quotes around the contents of the "Start in" field from the buttons fixed the issues.

Now I didn't try to install those games in folders that had spaces in them, so I'm not sure if the double quotes would be required then or would still cause issues.

-ConstanceJill (April 26, 2024, 02:26 PM)

I will also get the quotes removed and hopefully those wont be needed for it after all.

[hamradio]

CRAP BETA 2.1.0 build 60 now on the CRAP Beta Download Page.

BIG CHANGE -> Reworked how button's are identified to account for some of the D&D changes below.
A smaller change -> When files are dropped it should now filter out files that are not of correct file extension.
Additionally -> Some bugs were squashed and hopefully are dead.

Due to the BIG CHANGE I was able to implement the following...

Added more drag/drop operations for buttons.

Main Window D&D operations...
1. Shift + D&D = Move a button/separator within current layout (always placed to the left of button/separator you dropped it on).
2. Control + D&D = Drop a button on a "layoutlink" to give the option to move the button to that layout if it exists.
3. Control + Shift + D&D = Drop a button on a "layoutlink" to give the option to copy the button to that layout if it exists.
4. Note that you cannot move separators to layoutlinks as they don't require data to be entered anyway.

Move to Layout/Copy to Layout right click menu items for the equivalent of the above.

Note: Even with the "BIG CHANGE" no changes should be needed on your side with this version but let me know if you find a bug...