May 25, 2006

Vista Beta 2 Released

Filed under: Vista — Marcus Tettmar @ 5:44 am

So Vista Beta 2 was made available to MSDN subscribers this week. We installed a copy yesterday and my first impressions are good. It installed quickly with the minimum of fuss and the performance is good – it seems pretty quick. Beta 1 was agonisingly slow so it’s good to note that beta 2 is faster. No doubt beta 1 had lots of debug/diagnostic code in it which was slowing things up, and they’ve probably worked on improving performance generally since beta 1. Macro Scheduler 8.0.3 runs nicely in beta 2, as I expected 🙂

Now that beta 2 is here things should start to settle down, documentation will hopefully improve, and more developers will start working on Vista-izing their software. So things should become clearer and we can hopefully get a better idea on what it will take to create a Vista version of AutoLogon. Watch this space.

May 22, 2006

Be Helpful!

Filed under: General — Marcus Tettmar @ 11:36 am

As a Macro Scheduler envangelist, I keep an eye on several usenet newsgroups for any reference to windows automation software, or anyone asking for help with automating some task. I also subscribe to Google Alerts so I know when a new article has been posted which contains certain key phrases. Now, of course, with my PR hat on, one thing I hope for is an opportunity to answer the question by demonstrating how Macro Scheduler can help solve the problem. However, the wrong thing to do is just post a link to Macro Scheduler in response to any question vaguely related to macros in Windows. This is just the sort of thing that upsets people, especially in the Usenet community.

However, this is exactly what I’ve seen other people do. I’ve seen a number of messages from software companies which are nothing more than boilerplate sales notes used in response to someone with a specific need. At the very least, if you think your software will solve the problem, then post an example showing how! Often though, you don’t even need any third party software to solve the poster’s problem.

For instance, I saw a message recently where someone wanted to schedule a call to a web page. All he needed to do was have his browser go to a specific URL once a day. That’s it. The URL did some processing on his web application, so it just needed running once a day. No interaction required – just call up the URL and then close the browser. He had created a Windows Task Scheduler entry which ran Internet Explorer with the URL on the command line. But the drawback was that it leaves a copy of IE running, and when he was using the PC the IE window would get in his way.

A developer of a basic macro tool had posted a response which said nothing more than “you can use our software to do this” – with a link to their website. No indication of how. But, you don’t need any third party software to automate that! You can use VBScript, built into Windows, and IE’s ActiveX interface to do the whole thing transparently. So I wrote a few lines of VBScript code and explained how to schedule it. No need to pay for any other tools.

What did I get out of that? Well, apart from the satisfaction of trumping a wannebe competitor, I helped someone with a useful response. That feels good. Of course I also mentioned Macro Scheduler and a link to mjtnet.com in my signature. Maybe, one day, the poster, or someone who reads that thread, will remember that and check out Macro Scheduler. Maybe their requirements will one day be greater and they will need to do other things that can’t be done with built-in tools alone. Hopefully they’ll remember me, because I gave a helpful response, and they’ll come and check Macro Scheduler out.

May 19, 2006

Macro Scheduler Success Story – eDocFile, Inc.

Filed under: Success Stories — Marcus Tettmar @ 7:05 am

By Keith Passaur.

eDocFileThree years ago I started eDocFile, a company that specializes in image enabling applications. Before then I was a salesman working for a document imaging company and the products I sold were too complex and expensive for most users. During my training I learned about how years ago people wrote programs that pulled information from a user’s screen (screen scraping) and passed it onto other applications. I realized that if I could find an easy way to do this I could pull a unique piece of information from a users screen and use it to relate an image to the screen. This would allow the user to have an image enabled application.

Image Enabling an application is allowing images of documents to be retrieved from an application that contains data that relates to the documents. For instance, a user is in their accounting software application, they click on an icon or press hot keys and an image of the document appears on their screen that relates to the record in their accounting application. This is accomplished by screen scraping the application (capturing the data on the screen) and passing it on to a method of retrieving the document related to the screen data.

With Macro Scheduler I have been able to capture the screen and do all this. I cannot think of another product that would allow me to do this as easily. One product I developed for this determines what application the user is in, what screen they are on and what information needs to be gathered to scan an image or retrieve an image. Another program I developed works specifically with Loan Origination Software. It is called Scrape LOS.

After spending years testing other products, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers Strategic Alliance Committee approved Scrape LOS. The reasons were because of ease of use and price. Without Macro Scheduler this product could not have been developed and sold in the price range they were looking for. One client spent over eight thousand dollars on an application to scan and file loan documents. They dropped that product within six months and went with Scrape LOS. In a nutshell it is the old 80/20 rule. This application has eighty percent of the features at twenty percent of the price and twenty percent of the complexity.

Other products have also been developed with Macro Scheduler. The latest being one that productively routes faxes to email accounts, printers and folders based upon a set of rules. In its first week of release three copies of it were sold. I cannot say enough good things about Macro Scheduler as I am not a programmer, yet I can write these scripts that get the job done, quickly and economically.

Keith Passaur
President eDocFile, Inc.
www.edocfile.com

If you have a Macro Scheduler Success Story I’d love to hear from you. Drop me a line.

May 17, 2006

Use the Debugger!

Filed under: Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 8:55 am

[Update 23 Feb 2011: Click here for a video tutorial of the debugger in Macro Scheduler 12]

The first thing I turn to when helping someone get their script working is the debugger. But I’m often surprised to hear people say they didn’t know about the debugger. The debugger is an invaluable tool to help you find problems in scripts and is dead easy to use.

Macro Scheduler Script Debugger

Here’s how to use it. Open your script in the script editor. You’ll want to enable the watch list. This shows you the value of script variables and updates them as they change. Select “Show Watch List” from the “Debug” menu. This displays the watch list on the right of the editor, as can be seen in the picture above.

Step Through Line by Line. Place the cursor on the first line of the script and hit F8. F8 executes the current line and then stops and waits for you to press F8 again. This allows you to “step” through the script one line at a time. You’ll see the green arrow next to the current line and a border around it. You can now follow the flow of execution through the script at your own pace. Every time a variable is created you’ll see it appear in the watch list and when a variable value changes you’ll see the new value there.

Breakpoints. Note that F8 executes the current line so in most cases when you start debugging you’ll want to put the cursor on the first line. Sometimes you may just want to debug a part of the script so you can start at that point. That’s fine as long as the code before that point doesn’t set things up that are required to make the bit you want to debug work, such as initialising variables. If that is the case you can set a “breakpoint” just before the bit you want to step through and then run from the top. To set a breakpoint, put the cursor on the line where you want the breakpoint to be and select Debug/Insert Breakpoint. Now place the cursor on the first line and select Debug/Run. The macro will now run as normal but stop when it reaches the breakpoint and wait for you to step onwards using F8.

The Watch List is a very important tool in tracking down why values aren’t what you think they should be or why certain outcomes that depend on variable values take place. With the watch list you can see when a value changes and what line caused it to change. This is extremely helpful and can highlight scripting errors and bad logic.

Side Effects of Debugging. One thing to bear in mind is that the act of debugging slows execution down, since the script waits for you to execute each line. If a script is failing because it is running too fast and doesn’t have sufficient code to ensure the system is ready for each step (e.g. a lack of WaitWindowOpen commands) then you will probably find that when you debug the script it works! So here’s a tip: if the script works when you debug it but doesn’t when you run it, the problem is almost certainly a timing issue and you need more intelligent delays.

So if you have a script which does something unexpected at a certain point and isn’t working how you want it to, or throws up a weird error and you’re not sure which part of the script is the problem then use the debugger. You’ll then find out which bit of the script is the problem and can step through it to find out what the cause is.

[Update: In version 9.0 the debugger is part of the Advanced Editor. From Macro Properties click the “Advanced Editor” button.]

May 16, 2006

Switch off to Save the Planet

Filed under: Automation, General — Marcus Tettmar @ 8:31 am

Recent research from Computacenter and Fujitsu Siemens finds that the 200 largest UK companies waste £61m a year on unneeded electricity by using power-hungry, inefficient PCs. This wasted electricity equates to over 2.8 million kWh of energy.

Of course the recommendations from Computacenter and Fujitsu Siemens are that these businesses should throw out their desktops and replace them with “Green-PCs” made and supplied by, say, Computacenter or Fujitsu Siemens. Though, I’m not so sure that throwing out thousands of perfectly good desktop computers is that great for the environment either!

In fact the report also finds that “more than a third (37%) of workers don’t switch off PCs when they leave the office” and “by adopting green IT equipment and switching off desktops when not in use the top 200 companies will make annual savings of around £305,000 each”. One of the largest UK corporations could save up to £2m by adopting such policies.

So for those in a rush to get out the door at 5pm, or who forget to switch off their machine, why not create a simple Macro Scheduler macro which shuts down the PC automatically at, say, 6pm:

ShutDownWindows>0

Just in case you might be working late you could add a 30 second warning allowing you to cancel:

Let>ASK_TIMEOUT=30000
Let>Prompt=Shutting Down in 30 Seconds. No to Abort, Yes to Shutdown now.
Ask>Prompt,cont
If>cont=YES
  ShutDownWindows>0
Endif

May 11, 2006

Vista Application Compatibility

Filed under: Vista — Marcus Tettmar @ 12:29 pm

As you know we have been working hard on ensuring Macro Scheduler is compatible with Vista and our latest 8.0.2 maintenance release is built with support for Vista. But what about other applications?

Well, Microsoft’s “Application Experience Team” have started their own blog to provide resources for testing application compatibility and “To help make the Application Compatibility process manageable and successful for you, and help us learn about your experiences”. Their first post links to Microsoft Connect where you can sign up for the Application Compatibility Toolkit V5.0 Beta program to receive tools to test your existing applications for Vista compatibility.

Check out All Things AppCompat.

May 10, 2006

Macro Scheduler 8.0.2 Update

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 8:40 am

We have released Macro Scheduler 8.0.2 Maintenance Release. For more information see:

http://www.mjtnet.com/usergroup/viewtopic.php?t=2879

As well as some small bug fixes this release has been prepared for Vista and has been tested under Vista beta 2. Please note however that we do not yet officially support Vista as it is still a beta product. Also note that AutoLogon is not supported in Vista at this time.

May 9, 2006

Instant Directory Assistance

Filed under: General — Marcus Tettmar @ 8:12 pm

Here’s a novel use for Macro Scheduler. TeleQuery have released an inexpensive new tool, powered by Macro Scheduler and msNet, which does instant directory look-ups in the USA, and it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. This tool uses the most up to date and reliable telephone company databases to return the actual Directory Assistance listings for only $0.50. It lets you find telephone numbers based on full or partial name and address searches and will even do reverse look-ups – give it a telephone number and it will return the address.

TeleQuery Directory Assistance

Not only is this tool a time and money saver for anyone who needs to perform Directory Assistance queries but it also demonstrates the power and flexibility of Macro Scheduler and msNet for GUI and network tasks.

For more information Click Here or contact:

TeleQuery.Net, Inc.

Phone: 214-946-5116 – 8am-10pm Mon-Sun (Central Daylight Time)
Toll-free: 1-877-225-7827 – 8am-10pm Mon-Sun

Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.telequery.net/

WebRecorder 1.72 Update

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 7:55 am

We have today made available WebRecorder 1.72 which adds the ability to hide and/or show Internet Explorer windows. IEAuto.DLL now includes the ShowIE function which lets you set the IE window to visible or invisible. This now means you can create WebRecorder scripts that automate IE transparently “behind the scenes” with invisible IE windows.

http://www.mjtnet.com/webrecorder.htm

May 2, 2006

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