Marcus' Macro Blog

Mostly tips, tutorials, articles and news about Macro Scheduler & Windows Automation

Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category



Macro Scheduler 12.0.6 Update Available

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Macro Scheduler 12.0.6 is now available with the following fixes:

  • Added: SetDialogObjectFont can now ADD a style to the font (subsequent calls with a different style value will apply that value to whatever the existing style is (e.g. Bold, then Italic)
  • Added: WIN_SLEEP option can be set to 1 to cause WaitWindowOpen/Closed or OnEvent WINDOW_OPEN/NOTOPEN to yield to processor more (slower but less CPU usage)
  • Fixed: ExecuteFile was limited to command lines of length MAX_PATH. Limit removed.
  • Fixed: SetDialogObjectFont unable to reset font style to normal by setting font style to 0 (zero)
  • Fixed: VAREXPLICIT variable is not retrieved properly

Workflow Designer and the SDK have also been updated to the same MacroScript version.

Registered Downloads/Upgrades | Evaluation Downloads | New License Sales

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Practical Software Test Automation Course Now Available in e-Learning!

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Rice Consulting have just announced that their new Practical Software Test Automation Course – which features Macro Scheduler for the scripting exercises – is now available in an e-Learning format.

This course focuses on the basics of software test automation and expands on those topics to learn some of the deeper issues of test automation. This course is not specific to any particular tool set but does include hands-on exercises using free and inexpensive test tools. The tool used for test automation exercises is Macro Scheduler.

The main objective of this course is to help you understand the landscape of software test automation and how to make test automation a reality in your organization. You will learn the top challenges of test automation and which approaches are the best ones for your situation, how to establish your own test automation organization, and how to design software with test automation in mind. You will also learn many of the lessons of test automation by performing exercises using sample test automation tools on sample applications.

I’ve been running through the course myself and so far I’m really impressed. This is a great way to get started on test automation and the great value e-Learning format means you can do it in your own time at your convenience. There’s also a whole module on using Macro Scheduler with some videos to help you get started.

You can see the course outline here, take a demo, or sign up on line here.

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Macro Scheduler 12.0.5 Update Available

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Macro Scheduler 12.0.5 is now available with the following fixes:

  • Fixed: PNG images added to custom dialogs not saving correctly and therefore not displaying when dialog opened or script run.
  • Fixed: LClick and RClick not independent of left hand/right hand mouse settings (LCLick should always do primary button function).
  • Fixed: GetDialogProperty not retrieving properties of parent dialog itself (when object name ommitted).
  • Fixed: “The procedure entry point WTSUnRegisterSessionNotification could not be located in the dynamic link library wtsapi32.dll.” under Windows 2000.
  • Fixed: Macro Recorder failing to properly record window titles containing a colon character.
  • Fixed: Error messages in compiled scripts showing garbage instead of file name.

Workflow Designer and the SDK have also been updated to the same MacroScript version.

Registered Downloads/Upgrades | Evaluation Downloads | New License Sales

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WebRecorder Update

Monday, June 28th, 2010

WebRecorder has been updated with a new version of the runtime component – IEAuto.DLL version 2.07.

This fixes a small bug preventing the ExtractTagByName function from extracting form field values. ExtractTag was working correctly but the same functionality to retrieve form field values was missing from ExtractTagByName.

Registered users can download the WebRecorder update from the registered downloads area.

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Macro Scheduler 12.0.4 Update Available

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Macro Scheduler 12.0.4 is now available with the following fixes:

  • Fixed: _DUMP_VARS not working in all circumstances
  • Fixed: XLSetCell help file topic has missing result variable
  • Fixed: XLSetCell help file topic has missing result variable
  • Fixed: XLSave not working if variable in filename

Workflow Designer and the SDK have also been updated to the same MacroScript version.

Registered Downloads/Upgrades | Evaluation Downloads | New License Sales

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Macro Scheduler 12.0.2 Update Available

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Macro Scheduler 12.0.2 is now available with the following fixes:

  • Fixed: Exit command not working inside dialog event sub when macro run outside of debug
  • Fixed: Error when trying to save script opened in new tab
  • Fixed: “Macro in command line does not exist” error when running, via command line, a macro which calls another macro
  • Added: Version check when performing news feed check

Workflow Designer and the SDK have also been updated to the same MacroScript version.

Registered Downloads/Upgrades | Evaluation Downloads | New License Sales

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Tettmar Jr v3.0 – Maria Christine

Monday, June 7th, 2010

maria Well it was an eventful weekend here.  At 0352 on Sunday morning – 6th June 2010 – my daughter, Maria was born.  A quick and uneventful labour thankfully, so we were home at 7.30 in the morning!  So all well, though mother (and father too) rather tired due to it happening over night.

Essential work on my other baby – Macro Scheduler v12 – continues with another bug fix update expected asap, but if I fall asleep or have to rush off please understand …. :-)

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Macro Scheduler 12.0.1 Update Available

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Macro Scheduler 12.0.1 is now available with the following fixes:

  • Fixed: Old style modal dialogs returning wrong result when run in debugger
  • Fixed: Global vbscript not visible to event handler subroutines
  • Fixed: Autologon username error even if autologon unchecked
  • Fixed: Editing a macro belonging to a group when “All Macros” is selected causes macro to vanish

Workflow Designer and the SDK have also been updated to the same MacroScript version.

Registered Downloads/Upgrades | Evaluation Downloads | New License Sales

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Tweetlib: A DLL Plugin for Tweeting Status Updates via oAuth

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

As noted yesterday I have been waiting on Twitter to provide xAuth access. They declined, saying it was not appropriate. I’m not really sure why.

No matter, I decided to make a small DLL to simplify Tweeting from Macro Scheduler. It uses the full oAuth interface.

Implementing oAuth in Macro Scheduler code would require lots of VBScript code and would be very complicated (although doable in theory). So instead I decided to create a DLL which you can use in Macro Scheduler to tweet in one line of code.

You can download it here.

And then to post a status update all you need to do is something like this:

Let>message=Hello from Macro Scheduler
LibFunc>%SCRIPT_DIR%\tweetlib.dll,UpdateStatus,r,message,buff,1024

Note that the first time you call UpdateStatus you will be asked to log into Twitter and click “Allow” to authorise Macro Scheduler to access your account. You will then be given a PIN to enter. You only need to do this once. If you ever need to revoke access and start over call the RemoveCredentials function. Your Twitter username and password are NOT stored anywhere. This uses the oAuth authorisation scheme which provides an access token. It is the access token which is stored and this only allows Macro Scheduler to access the API for your account.

The return buffer will contain the XML of the status update operation if successful or an error message if not.

See readme.txt and sample .scp in the zip file. Enjoy.

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Test Automation Class Update; European Dates

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Randy has just reported on his blog that the first run of his new Test Automation class which features Macro Scheduler in the hands-on exercises was a great success.

The next class will be held next month in Rome, Italy on 16/17 June, where Randy will also be presenting a workshop entitled “Innovative Software Testing Approaches“.

So if you’re this side of the pond and looking to improve your skills, with the added advantage of a business trip in a beautiful, historical city, check it out.

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