February 6, 2017

Our 20th Year!

Filed under: Announcements,General — Marcus Tettmar @ 5:39 pm

Happy New Year! A somewhat belated new year greeting, but one that comes with the realisation that this year marks the 20th year of Macro Scheduler. The first version was released way back in 1997!

20 years! Quite amazing. It all happened by accident really and I certainly didn’t expect it to still be going strong 20 years later. In fact it’s stronger than ever.

Thanks so much to all of our customers for all your support and feedback, helping to make Macro Scheduler the product it is. Some of you have been around since that very first year and still use the software today, and that makes me very proud.

Here’s to another 20 years!

January 25, 2017

Templates and Default Templates

Filed under: General — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:49 am

Did you know you can create script templates to use when you create new macros in Macro Scheduler?

When you create a new macro you can choose File/New Macro from Template. This allows you to browse for a .scp file to use as a template. There are some pre-built templates in the Templates subfolder of the program folder which by default you will be presented with.

To create your own templates just create a script as normal or use the standalone editor and export it to a name and folder of your choice. You can then use it later with the “New Macro from Template” option.

If you’re always writing the same stuff when you create a new macro – e.g. maybe you have a standard way of documenting your macros with a code block at the top, you might find default templates really useful. You will probably have noticed that “from the factory” Macro Scheduler puts some comments at the top of all new scripts. You can change this or add your own comments/code by creating a default template.

To create a default template create a script file called default.scp and store it in a Templates subfolder beneath your main macro folder (usually My Documents\Macro Scheduler 14). This default template will then be loaded whenever you create a new macro using File/New Macro.

January 12, 2017

Image Recognition Kudos

Filed under: General — Marcus Tettmar @ 12:40 pm

It’s always nice to receive unsolicited praise. I thought I would share this with you which was sent into us from one of our customers, Lee Hightire:

“You have an Incredibly Awesome product! I just used the Image Recognition tool to help me get at an item in the Sys Tray (needed to pause syncing of OneDrive). I was beating my head against the wall trying other methods, and the Image Recognition tool essentially wrote the code (and trust me, I needed it to do so). I just wanted to say thanks.”

December 22, 2016

Happy Christmas from Macro Scheduler and all at MJT Net!

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:09 am

Happy Christmas everyone!

Remember this game from a few years back:

“Help Santa get the presents down the chimney, but watch out for the snowmen and coal which freeze the chimney or set the presents on fire. Of course true to form Macro Scheduler saves you time, so in the game if you catch an MJT Gearhead you get extra time!”

Play Santa’s Gearhead Gift Grab Game

And read Santa’s Macro Scheduler case study:

Case Study: Macro Scheduler Saves 3600 Elf-Hours and Gets Presents Delivered On Time

Have a good one!

November 14, 2016

HTTP Request With Custom Headers using Python

Filed under: Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 10:16 am

As you will hopefully already know by now we added the ability to use Python code a while back in Macro Scheduler 14.2.

A customer recently had a need to retrieve some data from a web service which requires some custom authentication headers to be sent with the request.

It’s really easy to do this using Python. Here’s a made-up example:

/*
python_code:
 
import urllib2

custom_headers={"X-Custom-Application-Id" : "4020c4b37ead0a834c0010a9",
                "X-Custom-REST-API-Key": "49eade9c-d70a-4d3d-b552-4bd9f05966fc"}
url="https://api.custom.com/v1/objects/object_1/things"

request = urllib2.Request(url, headers=custom_headers)
contents = urllib2.urlopen(request).read()
*/
 
//Load the Python code to a variable
LabelToVar>python_code,pcode
 
//Run the code and request the value of the contents variable ...
PYExec>pcode,output,contents

//content of request is now in "contents" variable.

For more on Python in Macro Scheduler see here and here.

October 18, 2016

Macro Scheduler 14.3.05 Released

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 9:58 am

Just a quick update – Macro Scheduler 14.3.05 is now available for download from the usual places.

This version fixes an issue for people running Non-English versions of Windows who found they had to set the “Language for non-Unicode programs” option to English in Regional Settings in order for the SendText/Send functions to work correctly. This is no longer necessary.

As that is the only change there is no need to download if your Windows is set to English. Feel free to skip this update.

Get it Now: Trial Downloads | Registered Updates/Upgrades | New Licenses

September 15, 2016

Finding Window Titles You Cannot See

Filed under: Automation,Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:33 am

Someone emailed today saying they were having problems trying to automate Internet Explorer 11 because it didn’t seem to have a window title.

Actually IE11 does have a window title. Each tab has a different window title. But you don’t see the title in the main title bar of the application.

By default applications show the window title in the title bar. Hence it’s name. But some apps manipulate the appearance of their title bar so that it doesn’t look like a regular Windows title bar. Indeed some apps have all borders removed so that you can’t SEE the title bar. But in all cases, the window will still have a title (unless it’s an empty string!).

So if you can’t see the window title, how do you find out what it is? Well, with Macro Scheduler there are several ways to find it. One is with the View System Windows Tool, which shows a list of all the windows currently available on the system, showing their captions and class names. Another is to use the Code Builders.

Here’s a video demonstrating these two methods. It also shows how I use a substring window match:

September 9, 2016

MacroScript SDK Distros Updated

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:29 am

We have today updated the MacroScript SDK packages with the latest Macro Scheduler script engine (14.3.02). Those of you with the SDK and valid maintenance wil find the downloads in your account.

If you are not aware of the MacroScript SDK you might find this article useful.

September 7, 2016

Macro Scheduler 14.3.01 Released

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:25 am

We have today released Macro Scheduler 14.3.01

This update includes a number of improvements and small fixes, as well some new functionality:

  • Added: Ability to create a default script template (put it in \Templates\default.scp under main data folder)
  • Added: ArrayCopy function
  • Added: ArrayRename function
  • Added: Code folded If commands now show condition in top line
  • Added: Ifs tab to variable/code explorer
  • Added: If result variable omitted from Base64, Crypt, StringReplace, UpperCase, LowerCase, Trim, LTrim and RTrim input is used
  • Added: Assigned function can now check variables with embedded variables (e.g. array type variables)
  • Added: INPUT_BROWSE_FILTER variable to set file filter in input filebrowse dialog
  • Added: First line of script shows in new column in macro list (or second line if first line is compile opts)
  • Added: Undefined variables within complex expressions automatically resolved to empty strings
  • Added: TelnetClearLog function
  • Added: XLGetSheetNames function
  • Fixed: Minor UI issues under UHD monitor resolutions
  • Fixed: Column positions sometimes loaded incorrectly
  • Fixed: Editor goto gosub menu not stripping out optional parameters
  • Fixed: Compiler not updating target BMP_DIR with new images
  • Fixed: Save On Run option ignored (always saves) when macro run from standalone editor
  • Fixed: Code folded While statements show full condition in top line
  • Fixed: Tab length and block indent length inconsistent in editor
  • Fixed: Code builder now respects current indentation level

Get it Now: Trial Downloads | Registered Updates/Upgrades | New Licenses

Toast Notification Window for your Scripts

Filed under: General,Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 10:52 am

Over in the forums dtaylor has posted a script library which allows you to show a small notification window in the lower right of your screen. Useful for reporting on progress during your script, in loops etc.

Grab it here.

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