Archive for the ‘Plugin’ Category

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CoreWitness 1.3.0

Monday, March 9th, 2009

CoreWitness Plug-inI just released an update to my CoreWitness plugin. This minor release adds the showing of the current preference value in the OnPreferenceChanged and OnPreferenceInvalid events. Here is a sample trace I get when I toggle all the check boxes in the privacy tab off, click apply, and then check them again and click save:

01:58.754 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.Privacy.DiscloseTypingStatus'
   new value = No
01:58.755 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.privacy.discloseBuddyFeed'
   new value = No
01:58.764 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.Privacy.DiscloseIdleTime'
   new value = No
01:58.777 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.privacy.disclosePluginsToBuddyFeed'
   new value = No
01:58.777 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.Privacy.DiscloseWireless'
   new value = No
02:03.859 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.Privacy.DiscloseTypingStatus'
   new value = Yes
02:03.860 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.privacy.discloseBuddyFeed'
   new value = Yes
02:03.868 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.Privacy.DiscloseIdleTime'
   new value = Yes
02:03.869 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.Privacy.DiscloseWireless'
   new value = Yes
02:03.869 [gusblog  ] DAccEvents::OnPreferenceChange - 'aimcc.privacy.disclosePluginsToBuddyFeed'
   new value = Yes

You can get the latest version here.

Please note that activation of the CoreWitness plugin is now automatic. No registration is needed.

This is a free plugin for Open AIM developers.

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Posted in CoreWitness, Plugin, Software Development | No Comments »

Tip on Finding Preferences in Open AIM

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Every now and then I have to look up a preference specifier in AIM in order to use it in a plugin.

For example, the other day I wanted to determine if the user has enabled the pushing of AIM Plugins to their buddy feed. I usually check in technote 10 on preferences in the AIM SDK technotes. However, you can also do this empirically in AIM with my CoreWitness plugin. All ‘aimcc.*’ preference changes will cause the OnPreferenceChanged event to fire on all listeners so you can simply make a change in the client to see what preference specifier is changing.

To make it easier, the latest version of my CoreWitness plugin lets you filter the messages being logged by pressing the * button in the title bar. To filter the log to just the OnPreferenceChanged event, open the filter dialog and proceed as follows. Click on the ‘clear all’ button and then start typing the word “preference” in the filter edit box until you see “OnPreferenceChange” appear in the list. Select this event and click OK. Here is a screen shot of this step:

DAccEvents Monitor Filter

After doing the above, I changed the ‘I have installed a new AIM Plugin’ check box in the privacy tab of AIM 6.9’s Settings and clicked apply. Here is a screen shot of my results:

As you can see the preference is called ‘aimcc.privacy.disclosePluginsToBuddyFeed’. Finding the preference specifier is only the beginning. I will cover how to read it in a future post.

NOTE: This will only work for aimcc.* preferences. So it is possible that you can make a change in the settings that does not get notified via OnPreferenceChange because it is internal to the client. Internal preferences are not available to pluigns at this time.

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Posted in AIM SDK, CoreWitness, General, Open AIM, Plugin, Plugin Q&A | No Comments »

CoreWitness 1.1

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

I have released an update to my CoreWitness plugin for AIM. This version adds a few new features like the ability to pause and filter the messages being captured.

Here is a screen shot of the new filter dialog:

DAccEvents Monitor Filter

From this window you can select the messages you want to trace and click on apply, to activate your selection without closing the window, or OK to activate and close the window. You can save your selection as the default to be loaded at sign-on and when you click on load defaults button.

The contents of the event list will be updated as you type in the filter box to show just the events with the partial name. You can ctrl-click to select or de-select an event. The enable state of events not shown by the filter are preserved.

One last “feature” I added has more of a viral approach to getting the word out on this plugin (your help is appreciated). CoreWitness will push an activity to your buddy feed every time you install or upgrade this plugin. This will only be done if you have enabled the publishing of AIM Plugin installs in your privacy settings.

You can read more about this and download it on the Gus Verdun’s CoreWiteness Plugin-in web page.

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Posted in AIM, CoreWitness, Plugin | No Comments »

Easy tool for generating AIM plugin fingerprints

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

Ever wanted a command line version of acchash.exe that simply displays the fingerprint and copies it to the clipboard without any mouse clicks?

Here you go:

use Digest::SHA;
use Win32::Clipboard;
 
$file = shift;
 
if ( -e $file && -f $file )
{
   $hash = uc( Digest::SHA->new(256)->addfile($file, 'b')->hexdigest );
   print "Plugin Fingerprint for '$file' (copied to clipboard): $hash\n";
   Win32::Clipboard()->Set( $hash );
}
else
{
   print "Usage: gushash [plugin_file_to_hash]\n";
}

Save this as gushash.pl in a location where your command shell can find it.

You will need Perl and the Digest-SHA package to use this script. The latter can be obtained through the ppm (Perl Package Manager) tool that is installed with Perl.

I’m always making little tools like this in Perl and Python to help me automate stuff.

This is here in case someone finds it useful…

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Posted in AIM SDK, Open AIM, Perl, Plugin | No Comments »

Using the Send Calendar Feature in RX-Plugin

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Thanks for all the feedback on this new feature. The /cal (send calendar) command accepts optional numeric parameters for month [1-12] and year. To send a calendar for another month of the current year, just add the month’s number after “/cal ”. Here are some examples:

/cal 7

Sends the July calendar of the current year.

/cal 7 2009

Sends the July 2009 calendar. You must specify the month if you want to specify the year.

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Posted in Plugin, RX-Plugin | 3 Comments »

Can you say Hotkeys?

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

For the second post of the night, I am announcing the release of an update to Gus Verdun’s IM Tweaks. This version adds a new feature called Hotkeys which lets you define keyboard shortcuts to the IM and Buddy List windows that you can use within any other application.

Just press the hotkey for the IM windows (defaults to WIN+CTRL+SHIFT+UP ARROW) to set focus to the last IM window. Press it again, and it will close all IM windows. You can also press the hotkey for the Buddy List window (WIN+CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW) to switch focus to that window.

See the IM Tweaks page for more details.

Enjoy.

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Posted in IM Tweaks, Plugin | No Comments »

“Talk Dates” with your Buddies using the latest RX-Plugin (1.0.11)

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

I just released an update of Gus Verdun’s RX-Plugin. This version fixes a number of bugs and also adds a new feature that lets you send a calendar:

/cal command

Give it a try.

Enjoy.

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Posted in Plugin, RX-Plugin | 2 Comments »

IM Tweaks 0.8.1

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

I updated this plug-in yesterday. This version fixes the problem with AIM 6.5 where invisibility was not being set properly at first sign in. I also added a new about window that you can access from AIM 6.5’s Help menu. The about window has a way to send feedback.

Be sure you sign-out and exit from your IM client before installing this plug-in.

Let me know if you have any questions. I will post my answers in the comments.

Posted in IM Tweaks, Plugin, Plugin Q&A | 12 Comments »

RX-Plugin and IM Tweaks Feedback Q&A

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

I got some feedback questions today from a few of you reporting problems with my plug-ins.

Q. Do these plug-ins work on Windows Vista?
A. Unfortunately, I can only test them on Windows XP. That being said, I don’t see any reason why they should not work on Windows Vista. Can someone post a comment on their experiences in running my plug-ins on Windows Vista? Is there anything that is not working?

Q. I get an “Error opening file for writing C:\Program Files\Gus Verdun\rxplugin.dll”. What does this mean?
A. This means that the installer could not overwrite a plug-in file since it is being used by the client. Just exit AIM before installing the plug-in. Once you exit your AIM client, you can select re-try to make this install work. You might have to wait a bit for the client to truly exit so just keep re-trying.

Thanks for your feedback.

Posted in Plugin, Plugin Q&A, RX-Plugin | 1 Comment »

IM Tweaks 0.6.1

Monday, August 20th, 2007

I released a new version of my IM Tweaks plug-in today. This build contains a few new features. The first feature was by request. Someone asked me, via my AJAX powered anonymous feedback page, to be able to automatically sign in invisibly when AIM automatically started at Windows startup. So, I added an option that will automatically do this when you sign in during the first eight minutes of Windows startup. You have to login fast since the time starts as soon as Windows is functional.

The second feature that was added is the ability to start an IM conversation from the context menu of the buddy list. You can send an IM by clicking the right mouse button on a buddy and then selecting the “Send a Real Quick IM” option. An optional prompt window will open to let you change the default message of “yt?”.

As a side note, this feature was also developed separately by Greg at his aimInfo blog via his Quick IM plug-in. We were both standing at the curb waiting for a taxi while talking about this idea and agreed to implement our own solutions. Since Greg got his version out first, I had no choice but to call my version “Real Quick IM”. What fun. Be on the look out for a “Super Fast Quick IM Deluxe” plug-in real soon. :) I did say I would be very busy, right?

As a bonus, I added the prompt window and the ability to change the recipient by dragging a buddy from the buddy list and dropping it on the prompt window.

You can see the screen shots and more details here.

Wow, IM Tweaks has already been downloaded by 523 fans. Not bad, considering I have done little to promote it. Imagine the usage if there was a central site where everyone could go to discover all AIM plug-ins.

One last minor feature: IM Tweaks will now automatically check for newer versions. You should see a nice tray balloon message when that happens.

Enjoy. As always, I appreciate your feedback.

Posted in AIM, Plugin | No Comments »

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