Author Topic: NANY 2011 Release: JottiQ (Read 335,508 times)

mouser · « **Reply #25 on:** December 17, 2010, 02:29 AM »

"Scan with JottiQ" is a tiny bit inaccurate as you say, but i still think it may be the best option.

timns · « **Reply #26 on:** December 17, 2010, 02:41 AM »

How about -

JottiQ Scan

To me, the quickest and most effective context menus tell me the app first, because then I immediately remember what they're going to do for me.

worstje · « **Reply #27 on:** December 17, 2010, 02:49 AM »

Quote from: timns on December 17, 2010, 02:41 AM

How about -

JottiQ Scan

To me, the quickest and most effective context menus tell me the app first, because then I immediately remember what they're going to do for me.

Hmm, that's an idea, but I am not so sure how fond I am of it. As it is, it stands out a huge deal due to the bright red lady bug besides it.

Give me a few minutes to get rid of the fact I've got two lady-bugs in my menus, and I'll show you what it looks like in my current tests.

timns · « **Reply #28 on:** December 17, 2010, 02:55 AM »

I never look at the icons - they are sort of 'off to the left' of where my eye naturally falls when I pop a context menu. But that's just me...

worstje · « **Reply #29 on:** December 17, 2010, 02:57 AM »

This menu shows why I dislike MBAM so much: it stretches the menu so much wider than it usually would just because it wants its stupid company name in there. I don't care who wrote the damn program!

cranioscopical · « **Reply #30 on:** December 17, 2010, 04:03 AM »

Add to JottiQ Add > JottiQ Send to JottiQ Send > JottiQ Scan with JottiQ Scan now > JottiQ Queue for scan > JottiQ scan queue

lanux128 · « **Reply #31 on:** December 17, 2010, 09:14 AM »

wow! this looks nice..

i wonder if you were inspired by this request.

worstje · « **Reply #32 on:** December 17, 2010, 05:31 PM »

Nope, not inspired by that one. I had my own inspiration after going through the entire upload-haggling process for the 100th time. However, I am quite glad that I am not the only one who felt a tool like JottiQ might be useful though.

lanux128 · « **Reply #33 on:** December 17, 2010, 10:04 PM »

that's good to hear. i'm sure that this tool will come in handy for those who can't stand the web interface, which includes myself..

worstje · « **Reply #34 on:** December 18, 2010, 10:47 PM »

Still working on this little gem... my putting a beta up keeps getting postponed out of perfectionistic tendencies.

Right now I am implementing enabling/disabling the shell extension through the Settings dialog, which works fine so far... except that I have a problem remaining.

I can't figure out how to properly support user-account specific stuff, so I am doing the context thing for the entire system. Maybe I will fix that at some future point if there's a lot of call for that, but for now it just seems like a huge pile of complications waiting to happen. I can do either current-user or entire machine, but can't just yet figure out the way to mix them yet. Perhaps it is a matter that will help clarify itself once I start on the installer, which is next on my TODO list I think.

Or maybe I'll upload a beta first after all. Hmm.

worstje · « **Reply #35 on:** December 19, 2010, 01:08 AM »

Guess what the cat dragged in?

Yup, it is a beta that goes by the name of JottiQ v0.9.2!

Download JottiQ v0.9.2

If you want to test, by all means - there's plenty to test and I expect a lot of bugs.

Readme.txt

JottiQ
v0.9.2 (2010-12-19)

REQUEST TO TESTERS:
    Please test _everything_!  Things I need tested in order of priority:
    
    XP 32-bit
    Vista 32-bit
    Vista 64-bit
    Seven 32-bit
    
    The part I think needs most testing above all is everything to do with
    the file context menus, as those are probably a total mess (esp. on XP.)


For more information, see the official JottiQ (NANY 2011) topic:

    http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=24663.0


VERSION HISTORY
---------------

v0.9.2 (2010-11-15)

    First public beta.
    
    So many features were added that any list is going to prove pointless.
    Nevertheless, here it goes:
    
      Added: Settings window with plenty of settings
      Added: IDropTarget support. (Infinite amount of dropped files.)
      Added: JQcm.dll for both 32 and 64-bit. Handles the file context menus.
      Added: Lots of pretty icons. Especially the lady bug.
      Added: Better handling of multiple selections in queue.
      Added: Support for Jotti's server-side rate-limiting.
      Added: Context menus for files in the queue.
      Added: Shortcuts for easy keyboard access.
      Added: Privacy Policy Agreement requirement (one time only).
      Added: About box.

0.7.1 alpha 1 (2010-12-01)

    Initial (screenshot-only) release.
    Too many bugs, too ugly for words, so not really worth mentioning.
    (I blurred the very first screenshot with a good reason, yo.)



KNOWN ISSUES
------------
1) There is no installer just yet.

2) Shell extension registration is always for the 'Local Machine'.
     If I figure out a proper way to support both 'Current User' and
     'Local Machine', both in JottiQ and the installer that is yet to be
     written, I will implement it. Currently, I find 'Local Machine' the more
     useful of the two, thus that is the only option currently available.

3) JottiQ has not been tested on anything other than Windows 7. Especially
     testing on Windows XP systems is required, as I expect at least the icon
     of the file context menus to break on there. Microsoft has made a mess
     out of the images-on-menu-items thing. (I do very little OS testing in
     the hope that some stuff just works as I expect it to in regards to
     the file context menu stuff, so please test on WXP 32-bit systems!)

4) The configuration file has an obscene name and is hidden in a stupid place.
     And I have no clue how to change it, since .NET comes up with that rather
     idiotic path all by itself, and thus far I haven't found a good way to
     influence it yet. It should be something under
     
       AppData\Local Settings\Gholam_Inc.\XXXXX
     
     If anyone can explain to me how to get rid of that disaster, I would
     appreciate it. Right now, version upgrades won't remember settings, and
     I would really prefer to have them remember it without me going through
     endless hoops to fix that stuff. Seriously, who puts hashes in directory
     names with settings in them? Argh!
     
     (No, I am not planning to use .MSIs for my deployment as it is pure hell
     once you work with the hell that is 32-bit and 64-bit context menu
     extensions, and I don't have that patience nor time.)


CREDITS
-------

Thanks to...

* Jotti for Jotti's malware scan and going out of his way to support this
  application after I contacted him with the idea I had @
    http://virusscan.jotti.org/

* Vladi for the awesome lady bug icon @
    http://www.rw-designer.com/user/vlasta
    http://www.rw-designer.com/icon-detail/4513

* Raymond Chen for his awesome blog  @
    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/

* Lukas von Hohnhorst who gave me permission to use his magnifying glass @
    http://lukasiniho.deviantart.com/art/Magnifying-Glass-128330627

* DonationCoder.com as a whole @
    http://www.donationcoder.com/

* Mark James for his excellent Silk Icon Set @
    http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/

* Smaller Animals Software for their CtxMenu example that saved me oodles of
  time rather than having to spend time to figure out all details on my own @
    http://www.smalleranimals.com/ctxmenu.htm

* stackoverflow.com for solving those issues I have before I have them @
    http://stackoverflow.com/

mouser · « **Reply #36 on:** December 19, 2010, 01:13 AM »

holy hell we have a question mark problem on the forum on the new server.

i've fixed it by reverting back to ISO-8859-1 from utf8, which solves the question mark problem but restores the problem with some post titles with odd characters.

worstje · « **Reply #37 on:** December 19, 2010, 01:19 AM »

Looks like you fixed it mouser.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #38 on:** December 19, 2010, 02:37 AM »

Quote from: mouser on December 19, 2010, 01:13 AM

holy hell we have a question mark problem on the forum on the new server.

Are we having fun yet?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #39 on:** December 19, 2010, 03:22 AM »

Quote from: worstje on December 19, 2010, 01:08 AM

If you want to test, by all means

XP 32 SP3

Accepted the Jotti terms (font doesn't fit well on the buttons on my machine, btw) and had the following.

[attach]

kyrathaba · « **Reply #40 on:** December 19, 2010, 03:39 AM »

Quote

Add to JottiQ(ueue)

Actually, I quite like it...

worstje · « **Reply #41 on:** December 19, 2010, 04:00 AM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on December 19, 2010, 03:22 AM

Quote from: worstje on December 19, 2010, 01:08 AM
If you want to test, by all means

XP 32 SP3

Accepted the Jotti terms (font doesn't fit well on the buttons on my machine, btw) and had the following.
(see attachment in previous post)

Okay, now that is a bummer. I'll have to look into that. Gotta dig out my XP laptop for it again, but I sadly have no debugging environment on there so figuring out the issue is going to be tricky. You've got .NET Framework v4 installed?

Any other XP users who can confirm that crash?

worstje · « **Reply #42 on:** December 19, 2010, 04:47 AM »

Quote from: kyrathaba on December 19, 2010, 03:39 AM

Quote
Add to JottiQ(ueue)

Actually, I quite like it...

Duly noted, thank you for your input.

I'll give the name of the item some more considerations before I release the final v1.0.0 version. (Although with my luck, I'd reach 1.1 pretty soon after.)

mouser · « **Reply #43 on:** December 19, 2010, 10:15 AM »

I got same as Cranioscopical on win Xp Pro.

worstje · « **Reply #44 on:** December 19, 2010, 09:23 PM »

Okay, that v0.9.2 release indeed deserved this

icon. (On XP anyway.)

So instead, I offer you v.0.9.3 which should at least not crash anymore.

Download JottiQ v0.9.3

There is still plenty of stuff to test and I expect a lot of bugs.

Readme.txt (excerpt)

v0.9.3 (2010-12-20)

    Second public beta. Let's try this again.
    
      Fixed: Windows XP always crashes. WPF has a nasty bug involving high-
          resolution icons on XP, and that gave a possible crash at two
          different points. Strangely enough, the About box was never affected.
          For now, the fix is not to show these images; default behaviour
          differs between XP and Vista+ making for a fortunate accident that
          still keeps the window icon looking like a lady bug.
      Fixed: Windows XP had the most ugly visuals ever. I've tried to patch
          them up a little. Side-effect is that on Vista+, the background
          colours aren't as white and pristine anymore, which is how the
          standard window colouring seems to have developed over time. Still,
          at most it gives the 'dated' impression you'd find in many windows
          throughout the operating system.
      Fixed: Several dialogs shows a lady bug on XP despite being dialogs that
          aren't intended to have a lady bug. Big woop, fixed now.
      Fixed: Clarified the message given when unable to make changes to the
          file context menu configuration so it won't confuse as many people.

...

KNOWN ISSUES
------------
1) There is no installer just yet.

2) Shell extension registration is always for the 'Local Machine'.
     If I figure out a proper way to support both 'Current User' and
     'Local Machine', both in JottiQ and the installer that is yet to be
     written, I will implement it. Currently, I find 'Local Machine' the more
     useful of the two, thus that is the only option currently available.
     UPDATE: the UAC shield icon is totally wrong on XP and clipped, and the
         actual elevation is also a totally different whoop-ass experience.
         It _works_, but it is nowhere as user-friendly as it is on Vista+.

3) JottiQ has not been tested on anything other than Windows 7. Especially
     testing on Windows XP systems is required, as I expect at least the icon
     of the file context menus to break on there. (UPDATE: it breaks!)
     Microsoft has made a mess out of the images-on-menu-items thing. (I do
     very little OS testing in the hope that some stuff just works as I expect
     it to in regards to the file context menu stuff, so please test on WXP
     32-bit systems!)

4) The configuration file has an obscene name and is hidden in a stupid place.
     And I have no clue how to change it, since .NET comes up with that rather
     idiotic path all by itself, and thus far I haven't found a good way to
     influence it yet. It should be something under
     
       AppData\Local Settings\Gholam_Inc.\XXXXX
     
     If anyone can explain to me how to get rid of that disaster, I would
     appreciate it. Right now, version upgrades won't remember settings, and
     I would really prefer to have them remember it without me going through
     endless hoops to fix that stuff. Seriously, who puts hashes in directory
     names with settings in them? Argh!
     
     (No, I am not planning to use .MSIs for my deployment as it is pure hell
     once you work with the hell that is 32-bit and 64-bit context menu
     extensions, and I don't have that patience nor time.)

mouser · « **Reply #45 on:** December 19, 2010, 09:38 PM »

Working here on Xp Pro !!!
NICE

Very cool app.

NOTES:
Trying to enable context menu crashed the app after the windows dialog was shown.

Suggestion:
Maybe move the file-related buttons to the bottom, under the grid?
Maybe add a right-click option to search for the filename in browser to help people learn more? maybe on a favorite process info site?

mouser · « **Reply #46 on:** December 19, 2010, 09:43 PM »

Worked very well.. throttled itself and updated results perfectly as they became available. Very nice.
The Jotti.org people should be excited about this

worstje · « **Reply #47 on:** December 19, 2010, 09:57 PM »

Quote from: mouser on December 19, 2010, 09:38 PM

Trying to enable context menu crashed the app after the windows dialog was shown.

After what Windows dialog was shown? I have tried (WXP Pro SP3) to install the context menu extension, then add a file through the context menu extension, and then remove it, and I saw no crash. Can you be a bit more specific as to what you did?

Quote from: mouser on December 19, 2010, 09:38 PM

Suggestion:
Maybe move the file-related buttons to the bottom, under the grid?
Maybe add a right-click option to search for the filename in browser to help people learn more? maybe on a favorite process info site?

I had the interface at the bottom originally, but I found it confusing as it wasn't where people looked. Admittedly, I haven't tried putting stuff both at the top and at the bottom, but I felt that a single bar at the top would probably be enough. If the file-specific stuff all went at the bottom, the top one would only have the 'Process Queue', 'Settings' and 'About' things, and imo those aren't as important at all.

mouser · « **Reply #48 on:** December 19, 2010, 10:05 PM »

Well the logic being:

1. Not all buttons now have room if the window isnt really large.
2. It makes sense to me to isolate the buttons that work on a specific selected file from the generic buttons, and putting those file-related buttons at the bottom of the list makes sense to me.

Couldnt get the crash to occur again.. the dialog that showed was the "Run As" dialog where i could give it permission to run as administrator. It doesn't crash any more, but doesn't seem to install any context menu extension even when i give it permission. Not that this bothers me as i love to drag+drop files anyway instead of right-clicking.

worstje · « **Reply #49 on:** December 19, 2010, 10:25 PM »

Hrm. On XP, I noted you really need to run it as the Administrator for it to work. I used to have a 'success' popup originally, but right now it only popups when it fails in some manner (assuming the thing isn't completely canceled to begin with), which seems to make more sense.

And yeah, I know all buttons don't have room. That's why I pretty much moved the most infrequently used items to the far back. I originally considered using an ordinary menu, but I was rather charmed with the way this allowed me to keep the menu items to the left side and leave the full vertical height available for all the virus scan results, of which there tends to be a lot.

To boot, all items have a shortcut attached (hover over the menu button to see it), and they are also available in the right-click popup menu if they are item specific. Them not showing.. I am not sure how much of a problem it truly is.

What I have been considering more-so though is to perhaps remove the labels for the move up/down and delete commands, and very maybe put them back in for the more specific actions. Or perhaps shuffle them around a little. (I was really unhappy with the stuff-at-bottom idea when I toyed with it for a few hours, hence my hesitation on committing to that idea.)