Author Topic: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck (Read 351264 times)

nickodemos · « **Reply #75 on:** January 14, 2014, 11:35 AM »

Nice app. I am a person who watches more TV shows than movies and it can get complicated. I am currently using http://www.myepisodes.com/ to try and keep track of new shows coming and many series that have been canceled.

There have been times in the past where the site went down so I started to looking for a simple app that would do the same thing. Yours comes close. It would be nice if I could track what shows I have seen since at times I either job series and do not come back for some time or I have no time to watch anything for weeks at a time. All said it can get confusing if you are watching new releases and casually trying to catch up on old classics at the same time.

Possible to get epCheck to record watched shows? It would be nice if you clicked on the episode number it could change it to a color the user sets to indicate seen.

Also I noticed that when I have it in maxed view that there is a large blank column after the 'Air Date'. Possible that instead of being blanked out that you could add the episodes summary there? Would be a nice way to see all episodes summaries at a glance in case your trying to find a specific show for another to watch.

skwire · « **Reply #76 on:** January 14, 2014, 09:20 PM »

Possible to get epCheck to record watched shows? It would be nice if you clicked on the episode number it could change it to a color the user sets to indicate seen.
-nickodemos (January 14, 2014, 11:35 AM)

I have thought about adding something like this but I need to figure out in my head how I want to keep track of that (programmatically). In other words, stay tuned.

Also I noticed that when I have it in maxed view that there is a large blank column after the 'Air Date'. Possible that instead of being blanked out that you could add the episodes summary there? Would be a nice way to see all episodes summaries at a glance in case your trying to find a specific show for another to watch.
-nickodemos (January 14, 2014, 11:35 AM)

The episode overviews are already in the listview but I keep them hidden. However, you make a good point so I've made a little tweak for you and uploaded a new version that doesn't force that column to stay hidden. You will need to download the new version and then do a bit of manual column-shifting like I show in this animated GIF (click on the image):

NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

nickodemos · « **Reply #77 on:** January 14, 2014, 10:12 PM »

Not a programmer but I think I can see your point on adding the keeping track of seen shows.

How about default all series as seen before todays date. If something is not seen then add a right click so that one can change status and then add the episode ID to a master list to change the color in the viewing DB.

Might be easier if you go by air date instead since it is already listed in the viewing area.

-Edit

I should have stated that all new series added should default as seen. If none have been seen then it is easy enough to highlight all in the series and change the status. After that nothing is changed unless done manually.

So to clarify. Go by airdate to track. If no airdate is listed by series ID then all have been seen. If none have been seen then all airdate will be in master list and as they are changed manually then that airdate is removed from the list.

Idea being that the list will actually shrink over time instead of getting larger.

skwire · « **Reply #78 on:** January 14, 2014, 10:41 PM »

Not a programmer but I think I can see your point on adding the keeping track of seen shows.
-nickodemos (January 14, 2014, 10:12 PM)

If I do add anything, it will be just be a checkbox on each row. Checked for seen, unchecked for not seen. No colours, et al. Of course, I'll make it so it's easy to highlight and check multiple entries at once, make it easy to mark an entire series as watched, etc. I do try to keep my apps very simple and focused so if something like that isn't going to be sufficient, you might want to take a look at Free TvDB as it's a much more complete app in this regard than epCheck will ever be.

nickodemos · « **Reply #79 on:** January 15, 2014, 03:26 AM »

I seen you recommend it earlier. Checked it out and for some reason it would not connect to the net. Dropped it for now since your program is close to what I want. Dead simple and easy while being portable and small. Just the seen and not seen is the only thing lacking for me. I will bid my time.

ReX · « **Reply #80 on:** January 15, 2014, 06:50 AM »

Great software, I try to keep track of TV shows individually but I'm always missing something, this will take care of that.
I have a small request, it's possible to not make the "Downloading data for: ${show}" dialog be always on top of other windows? It gets in the way of doing other things.

skwire · « **Reply #81 on:** January 15, 2014, 10:40 AM »

Hi, ReX, and welcome to the DonationCoder site.

I have a small request, it's possible to not make the "Downloading data for: ${show}" dialog be always on top of other windows? It gets in the way of doing other things.
-ReX (January 15, 2014, 06:50 AM)

Sure thing. Here you go:

Website | Download v1.1.0 - 2014-01-15 ! Made the "Adding series" splash box not always on top. (Thanks, ReX)

ReX · « **Reply #82 on:** January 15, 2014, 12:14 PM »

Thank you for fulfilling my request.

skwire · « **Reply #83 on:** January 15, 2014, 12:18 PM »

Thank you for fulfilling my request.
-ReX (January 15, 2014, 12:14 PM)

You're welcome.

joby_toss · « **Reply #84 on:** January 18, 2014, 01:20 PM »

Hi!
Is there a way I can mark the episodes I already watched?
Thanks!

skwire · « **Reply #85 on:** January 18, 2014, 01:24 PM »

Is there a way I can mark the episodes I already watched?
-joby_toss (January 18, 2014, 01:20 PM)

Not currently, but it is something I plan on adding.

ramothgold · « **Reply #86 on:** January 20, 2014, 12:57 AM »

I must say a truly excellent application.. I am not much of an average television watcher. To be honest I despise commercials, so I record all of my series. I have been keeping track writing everything down in a notebook and crossing it off as I finish with each episode. This great little app lets me do all that and more. Keep up the absolutely fantastic work.

wjamoe · « **Reply #87 on:** January 20, 2014, 12:57 PM »

Thanks for this great program! I have one question(found a little bug in the weekly overview only), when I double click an episode title, the program start the browser (in my case opera)

e.g. castle (2009) s06e13 it jumps to
http://thetvdb.com/?...seasonid=524533&id=13&lid=7

the banner is for castle (2009), but the description is for buffy the vampire slayer s01e(N-1) so in this case s01e12
for every episode s(M)e(N) always gives the correct banner with the description for buffy the vampire slayer s01e(N-1)

when selecting next episode and then previous episode the proper description is given.
http://thetvdb.com/?...seasonid=524533&id=4711670&lid=7
it looks like the id is different....

skwire · « **Reply #88 on:** January 21, 2014, 01:03 AM »

Hi, ramothgold, and welcome to the DonationCoder site.

I must say a truly excellent application.. I am not much of an average television watcher. To be honest I despise commercials, so I record all of my series. I have been keeping track writing everything down in a notebook and crossing it off as I finish with each episode. This great little app lets me do all that and more. Keep up the absolutely fantastic work.
-ramothgold (January 20, 2014, 12:57 AM)

Thank you very much for your kind words and taking the time to post. Regarding epCheck, I'm currently adding functionality that will allow you to keep basic watched/unwatched state for each episode. I'll probably release that version on this thread for some beta testing before I push it as a full release so stay tuned.

Thanks for this great program! I have one question(found a little bug in the weekly overview only), when I double click an episode title, the program start the browser (in my case opera)
-wjamoe (January 20, 2014, 12:57 PM)

I'm very glad you find the application useful and thank you for the bug report. As I just mentioned above, I've been making some major changes to epCheck and I think I might have solved this bug as well. Keep an eye open for a beta release on this thread and you can tell me for sure.

skwire · « **Reply #89 on:** January 24, 2014, 10:34 PM »

I've added the watched/unwatched tracking to epCheck but, before releasing it on my website, I'd like to get a bit of beta testing done. The current download is here:

http://skwire.dcmemb...pCheck_v1.1.0.21.zip

I would highly recommend making a copy of your current epCheck folder and then dumping this new build into the new folder. That way, you won't mess up your current epCheck install. Some thoughts:

The watched/unwatched feature is as simple as it gets. Enable the checkbox a row for watched, clear the checkbox for unwatched. I will not be adding colour, blinky lights, etc.
You can highlight multiple rows in the episode list and use the right-click menu to set that selection as watched/watched.
You can right-click the series name in the Series list and choose to mark the whole series as watched/unwatched.
The watched/unwatched state of episodes is saved in the config.ini so, if you delete a series and add it back, your watched/unwatched states should still be there.
You can mark episodes in both the Series and Weekly tabs and they should stay synched. Note that I say should... Can you say, "Beta?"

Anyway...download it, give it a thrashing, and report any bugs you find. Again, this is a beta, so please don't be upset if, for whatever reason, it loses track of your carefully crafted watched/unwatched states. Because of the two listviews in play, this turned out to be a bigger pain in the ass that I initially envisioned so I apologise in advance.

Please see below for other additions/fixes:

Website | Download v1.1.1 - 2014-00-00 + Added a simple tracking ability to epCheck. You can now set the watched/unwatched state using the checkboxes for each episode. + Added a "Show special episodes" option to control whether or not a series' special episodes are listed. (Thanks, lanux128) ! Worked around an issue where the episode list would sometimes be loaded twice.

mouser · « **Reply #90 on:** January 24, 2014, 10:59 PM »

Another nice writeup: http://www.blogsdna....avorite-tv-shows.htm

skwire · « **Reply #91 on:** January 24, 2014, 11:02 PM »

Another nice writeup: http://www.blogsdna....avorite-tv-shows.htm
-mouser (January 24, 2014, 10:59 PM)

Thanks, mouser.

nickodemos · « **Reply #92 on:** January 24, 2014, 11:53 PM »

This is what I was looking for. Will be loading up all shows to stress test it.

nickodemos · « **Reply #93 on:** January 25, 2014, 11:25 AM »

OK. Things are working well as of the moment.

One request though. Possible to have in the options the ability to download only one image file? I, and others might be as well, am pretty simple when it comes to the image. I am fine with what ever one downloads, just that I went through and deleted all but one image per folder and it reduced the data folder by 90 percent.

skwire · « **Reply #94 on:** January 26, 2014, 10:01 AM »

One request though. Possible to have in the options the ability to download only one image file? I, and others might be as well, am pretty simple when it comes to the image. I am fine with what ever one downloads, just that I went through and deleted all but one image per folder and it reduced the data folder by 90 percent.
-nickodemos (January 25, 2014, 11:25 AM)

I added your request in the latest interim build: http://skwire.dcmemb...pCheck_v1.1.0.22.zip

Also, I'm thinking I should have used a separate INI file for the watched data. Possibly a "watched.ini" file saved in the data folder. What do you all think?

wraith808 · « **Reply #95 on:** January 26, 2014, 11:11 AM »

probably. basically you're using it for a plain-text database if you strip it down... so a separate file from the configurations would seem to be the right way to go imo.

nickodemos · « **Reply #96 on:** January 26, 2014, 02:15 PM »

Sounds good for watched INI.

Might reiterate my suggestion of listing all episodes ID on first load of the series in the watched INI. When you mark it as seen it removes that episodes ID from the watched INI. Once again the idea is to steadily make the INI smaller over time.

Normal idea of recording.
If it is not there then not seen. If watched mark ID in file so that it is marked seen. (File grows as more and more series are added. More data needs to be read slower program runs.)

Just reversing the logic of recording the data.
If show ID is there it is not seen. If it is not there then marked seen. (File starts large and gets smaller over time no matter how many series you have. Less data faster response.)

-edit
I just seen that what is watched is in the config.ini. My idea still stands on reverse recording and it can stay in the config.ini.

skwire · « **Reply #97 on:** January 26, 2014, 07:37 PM »

I just seen that what is watched is in the config.ini. My idea still stands on reverse recording and it can stay in the config.ini.
-nickodemos (January 26, 2014, 02:15 PM)

Thank you for your idea. However, I'm not going to do this because:

Your reverse way would involve having to compare the current list with any potential new additions every time a series is refreshed. Programmatically, I find it much easier to simply keep track of watched episode IDs. Sure, the list will grow over time but...
...even with over a hundred TV shows and all episodes watched, the size of the text file is going to be inconsequential. I tested this with 118 series and all episodes marked watched. The resulting watched.ini file was only 158 KB. That was with Doctor Who (700+ eps) and Cops (~900 eps).
In regards to a performance hit, again, I think it's going to be extremely minimal. Most any (semi) modern computer can parse through thousands of lines in a text file in fraction of a second.

skwire · « **Reply #98 on:** January 26, 2014, 08:06 PM »

Here is the latest interim build: http://skwire.dcmemb...pCheck_v1.1.0.24.zip

This moves the watched state data to its own watched.ini file in the data folder. It should move any current watched data from the config.ini to the new watched.ini but if for some reason it doesn't, I apologise.

J-Mac · « **Reply #99 on:** January 27, 2014, 12:00 AM »

Hi Jody.

Great program! I just downloaded it tonight and tried it out. What little I entered so far is looking pretty good!

One issue I encountered: Gotta be real careful when resizing the window. I only had two series in it when I decided to stretch the window a bit. The default when I first opened it was a little too small on a 27" monitor. Anyway after pulling the right bottom corner down about one inch the screen froze. And I don’t mean only the epCheck window - I mean the whole screen! My cursor had changed to the little double arrow that it does when resizing windows, but it stayed like that all over the screen. I couldn't move the cursor over my taskbar - it just wouldn’t go there. Couldn't click on anything at all. The screen was just static. I couldn't clear the screen; ESC did nothing; neither Alt+Tab nor Win+Tab did anything. Just totally locked out. I could move the cursor and nothing else. I decided to try that old standby, Ctrl+Alt+Del, so I could hopefully bring up the task manager, and that finally worked! I restored the task manager and noticed at the same3 time that my cursor had gone back to an arrow. All was fine at that point.

Don’t know if this is related but lately (past two to three months) some programs have become non-responsive and I found that the Desktop Windows Manager (dwm.exe) was also non-responsive whenever this occurred. I don’t know if that was the case this time since I couldn't look at task manager or anywhere else for a time there, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Running Windows 7x64 on a pretty beefy machine.

Thanks again!

Jim