Q&A Watcher Available for Download

[Nate Smith]

To help increase usage of the new Q&A forum, I have written a small program which will pop up and notify you whenever there is a new post in that forum. The current version is believed to be stable, however, due to the limited wide scale testing done thus far, this version is still considered a beta. If you are interested in trying it out, it is available for download from http://www.first-codex.net/software/. Note that this program is currently available only for the Windows operating system, and a minimum of Windows 98 is required, due to the use of the .NET framework in developing the application. If you have not already downloaded .NET(MS lists it as a Critical Update), you can do so from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Feel free to suggest new features for the upcoming versions...

[Joe Matt]

Make a java applet we can log into that warns us of new things. That'll help us with iBooks from the county that are locked.

[Nate Smith]

I used to have a Flash "movie" that talked to a server-side script which watched FIRST's site for updates...I might be able to make something like this up again...as for Java, I'm a little out of practice on that...if someone else wants to take the Java version on, let me know...

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by Nate Smith
I used to have a Flash "movie" that talked to a server-side script which watched FIRST's site for updates...I might be able to make something like this up again...as for Java, I'm a little out of practice on that...if someone else wants to take the Java version on, let me know...

Flash is good too

[rbayer]

Very cool. Any possibility of open-source? If you let me know how you did the actual query for new threads, I can probably make a little Java port, or possibly a Linux version if you are interested.

--Rob

[Matt Reiland]

Nate,

How does it work, or what should we expect to see when an update happens? Also will it go through the Company proxy server? It is already set up to go through for Web and Email but I don't know about .NET

Thanks, Matt

[Brandon Martus]

Its all based of an XML file downloaded from chiefdelphi.com

Tonight I will be detailing what data is available, and how to query it.

Originally posted by rbayer
Very cool. Any possibility of open-source? If you let me know how you did the actual query for new threads, I can probably make a little Java port, or possibly a Linux version if you are interested.

--Rob

[Nate Smith]

Originally posted by Matt Reiland
Nate,

How does it work, or what should we expect to see when an update happens? Also will it go through the Company proxy server? It is already set up to go through for Web and Email but I don't know about .NET

Thanks, Matt

I don't see a reason you would have any problems with it...it basically acts as a web browser, connecting to the server here and pulling down an XML file that lists all threads with activity since you last actually visited the site.

If there's one or more listings in the XML, you will get a small popup appearing in the bottom right corner of your screen, as well as hearing the distinctive FIRST start match "charge" sound. The connection should look to the proxy server the same as your web browser...not having tried it myself though, I'd be interested to know how it works out...

[Matt Reiland]

Nate, each time my computer boots I get the following, any thoughts? Also it was eating up 91% of the CPU power.?

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: The remote name could not be resolved.
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.CheckFinalStatus()
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncRes ult asyncResult)
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetNonFileStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials)
at System.Xml.XmlDownloadManager.GetStream(Uri uri, ICredentials credentials)
at System.Xml.XmlUrlResolver.GetEntity(Uri absoluteUri, String role, Type ofObjectToReturn)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.CreateScanner()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Init()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read()
at QANotify.frmConfigure.tmrCheckXML_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr idEvent, IntPtr dwTime)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 1.0.3300.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.3705.288
CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/microsoft.net/framework/v1.0.3705/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
QANotify
Assembly Version: 1.0.1080.17629
Win32 Version: 1.0.1080.17629
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Q%26A%20Notify%20Setup/QANotify.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 7.0.3300.0
Win32 Version: 7.00.9502
CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/microsoft.visualbasic/7.0.3300.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/microsoft.visualbasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 1.0.3300.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.3705.288
CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms/1.0.3300.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 1.0.3300.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.3705.288
CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system/1.0.3300.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 1.0.3300.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.3705.288
CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.drawing/1.0.3300.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 1.0.3300.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.3705.288
CodeBase: file:///c:/winnt/assembly/gac/system.xml/1.0.3300.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.xml.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just in time (JIT) debugging, the config file for this
application or machine (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the machine
rather than being handled by this dialog.

[rbayer]

It seems to take control of my processor too, pegging it at 100% usage whenever the app is running. Quitting it makes the system drop down to its normal 10-20%. It doesn't seem to affect other programs, I asssume because of a very low thread priority, so it's not that big of a deal, but definately something to look at.

[Nate Smith]

Matt, in your case, it appears that the program does not like being behind your proxy server. If you remove the program from the Startup group, it will stop trying to load at boot. Looking over the error, it appears that it is unable to determine the IP address for the hostname. I may look into providing the program with the IP address of the server, rather than the hostname.

I am looking into the CPU usage issue...I normally run distributed.net on my computer, so it was taking the spare CPU cycles rather than the QANotify process. I do know that it takes a rather large amount of CPU cycles during update checks, but that is because of the overhead involved in processing the XML data. I'll see what I can come up with...

[EDIT]
I'm not sure about the CPU usage still, but it does only appear to eat up unused cycles. I can say that the app has passed a Norton 2003 antivirus scan, as well as running the same in the Development Environment as in a compiled version. I have a feeling that .NET is spawning a new thread for one of the functions I'm calling, and it's not terminating correctly. I'm not sure though...
[/EDIT]

[Brandon Martus]

Originally posted by Brandon Martus
Tonight I will be detailing what data is available, and how to query it.

I made it -- but forgot to put a link to it anywhere. Oops.

Note the new 'extras' link that has replaced 'stats'. Thats where all the extra stuff will go that isn't visited on a regular basis. A link to the instructions & information about the XML file(s) is located on that page.

-Brandon