April 23, 2014

Macro Scheduler 14.1.03 Available

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 2:21 pm

We have today shipped maintenance build 14.1.03. Change History Here.

This build mostly fixes a few minor bugs but also has one fairly major change: We’ve replaced the application icons and system tray icon with our “Gearhead” logo ().

Why did we change the icon? Well we love that dude, and he represents what Macro Scheduler is all about!

More importantly, the main reason is consistency. As it stood the software didn’t fit with the brand image exhibited by the web site, which has become a product site pretty much dedicated to Macro Scheduler (I’d like to change the domain name to match but that’s a whole other story involving a lot of risk). It’s possible the old icons caused confusion to those who just downloaded the software from our website. In order to make the flow between website and software installation more seamless it made sense that software and website shared the same brand and therefore used the same logo.

April 11, 2014

Loops and Looping

Filed under: Announcements,Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:19 am

A new article has been added to the knowledge base: Loop the Loop – all about the different ways you can create loops in Macro Scheduler.

April 10, 2014

New Knowledge Base

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 1:41 pm

We now have a fancy new Knowledge Base system. Check it out at:

help.mjtnet.com

To get things started we’ve moved over the FAQs, the video tutorials and gone through the blog for juicy articles we think should be in the knowledge base.

This new home puts all the support resources under one roof and there’s an easy way to email support if you can’t find what you are looking for.

We’ll be adding new articles on an ongoing basis and if there’s anything you think should be included, or you have an idea for a tutorial please do not hesitate to drop us a line.

April 9, 2014

OpenSSL and Heart Bleed – All Safe Here

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 4:19 pm

You may have heard about the OpenSSL vulnerability called Heart Bleed. If not there’s some info here.

mjtnet.com is safe!

I just wanted to let you know that our servers have been patched with the latest update and are not vulnerable. As a precaution we also reissued our SSL certificate. The company we use for e-commerce transactions – WorldPay – is also safe and secure.

March 31, 2014

Announcing Code Snippets

Filed under: Announcements,General — Marcus Tettmar @ 12:16 pm

Have you ever tried to send a piece of Macro Scheduler code (or any other code for that matter) to someone by email or instant messaging, or even in a forum, and found that it gets mangled? HTML strips leading spaces, characters get stripped or changed, and special characters get inserted and so on. Even when the code works it ends up looking ugly and is hard to read.

But now you can use our Code Snippets tool. You can access it via your Forum account and you’ll find it in the forum nav menu (top right of forum pages). Or go direct here (you’ll need to be logged into the forums – you can create an account for free if you don’t already have one).

Simply give your snippet a title and paste your code into the box. When you save it you’ll be given a special link which you can give to anyone, via email, forum, instant messaging, or however you like, and you can be sure that the recipient will be able to see your code, all nicely formatted and syntax highlighted. They can copy and paste it safely into a Macro Scheduler script without it being messed up, or they can view the raw file.

Here’s an example: http://www.mjtnet.com/snip.htm?g=533575bab6f58

You’ll also get a special forum embed code. Use this if you want to paste your code into a forum post. Instead of pasting your code, paste the embed code and then when your post is viewed it will display a nicely sanitized version of your code.

Over on the right of the Code Snippets page you’ll also see a list of snippets you’ve already made. If you need to grab the link or embed code just visit a snippet page and you’ll see the link and embed code at the bottom.

So, now, if you’re sending pieces of code to our support desk via email or live chat, to a friend or colleague or in the forums, please use Code Snippets. 🙂

Note that Code Snippets, as it’s name implies, is designed for small scripts and code examples. If you need to send a huge script to someone it’s probably best to send the raw script file as an attachment.

March 17, 2014

Macro Scheduler 14.1 Available

Filed under: Announcements,Automation,Macro Recorder — Marcus Tettmar @ 12:18 pm

Macro Scheduler 14.1 is now available.

Here’s a summary of changes in Macro Scheduler 14.1:

  • New UI Automation functions for manipulating “Accessible” objects (UI Automation Elements).
  • New FindObject Wizard for locating objects, detecting accessible elements and outputting code to manipulate them.
  • Support for HTML email in SMTPSendMail
  • New HTMLViewer component for custom dialogs
  • Macro Recorder speed/reliability improvements
  • Other new functions and improvements.

The most notable addition here is the support for UI automation elements.  What’s this all about?

Well, this makes use of Microsoft’s Active Accessibility framework which allows application developers to expose UI elements to other applications.  It was originally designed to help accessibility tools like screen readers and also for automated software testing applications.

Essentially it means that the controls of applications – the UI elements such as buttons and form fields – can be more easily identified and manipulated.  Controls can be identified by name.  Here’s a short video showing this in use:

Bear in mind that what you can do with this will vary from application to application and what is possible will depend very much on what the application developer has exposed. If a developer hasn’t specifically named elements or knowingly used Accessibility, Windows will in many cases – and assuming a standard windows UI framework has been used – expose the controls anyway and will name objects based on their captions and labels.

To make it easy to identify elements we’ve added the Find Object Wizard which will show you the Accessible object beneath the cursor and let you create code to manipulate it (e.g. click it or set it’s value).  So using this you can experiment with what is possible with the application you want to automate.   Please let us know in the forums which applications you have used this with.

Assuming this new functionality proves useful, expect more features and improvements in future.

Trial Downloads | Registered Downloads | Version History

February 27, 2014

Youtube Page Facelift

Filed under: Announcements,General,Macro Recorder — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:56 am

Thanks to Dorian our youtube channel is looking great:

Macro Recorder and Windows Automation Youtube Channel

http://www.mjtnet.com/youtube

This is the home of all our videos, including video tutorials which you’ll also find here.

December 9, 2013

Winter Sale – 25% Off New Licenses

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 2:11 pm

Get 25% off new Macro Scheduler licenses until the end of this month.

For the rest of December 2013 we’re offering 25% off all new license sales.  Just use the following coupon code:

XMAS2013

This code is valid for all editions of Macro Scheduler and can be redeemed at http://www.mjtnet.com/pricing.htm (Enter the code on the cart/checkout page).

September 26, 2013

Macro Scheduler in the Winter Olympics

Filed under: Announcements,Automation,Macro Recorder — Marcus Tettmar @ 12:29 pm

Macro Scheduler on Skis? No, not exactly. But your favourite automation software and macro recorder will apparently be helping behind the scenes at the Winter Olympics next year in Sochi.

I received this message from Stefano Frattini, DT Manager at Olympic Broadcasting Services SL, yesterday:

You’ll be happy to know that a small Macro Scheduler script will be running on a service channel machine at the Sochi Olympics next year. The script is controlling the download, verification and sorting of weather information files which actually feed a TV channel from OBS (Host Broadcaster) called Olympic Weather Channel. This channel is distributed to all the Rights Holder Broadcasters during the SOCHI Olympic Games.

September 20, 2013

50% Off Software Test Automation eCourses

Filed under: Announcements,Automation,Testing — Marcus Tettmar @ 3:32 pm

Just a heads up that our friend Randy Rice is currently offering 50% off his most popular Software Test Automation eLearning courses.

So if you’re interested in learning about software test automation you can grab yourself a bargain until Midnight Tuesday. Randy’s got the info here.

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