[BETA] Neowin News Tray

[ToastGodSupreme]

dude, THAT is cool (Y)

[azcodemonkey]

i got an error as soon as i tryed to open it.

it said

runtime error

this application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way

What OS are you running? Do you have MSXML 3 installed?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default..../xmlgeneral.asp

i am running winxp, so does xp come with MSXML 3

OK, I just duped it. I was running VPN to my company's network, so it may be a timeout issue. How are you connecting to the internet(behind proxy, dialup, etc)?

[azcodemonkey]

nice app, i like although the mem usage is a tad bit on the high side

thanks, working on reducing the memory consumption. does anyone here know why simply calling ShellExecuteEx causes memory to jump almost 1MB? I've even closed the handle to the process and it's still jumping.

I am aware of the text being html escapes in some instances. I've known about it since I started getting the feeds. I just haven't had time to build a parser routine to replace the errant characters.

@ToastGodSupreme

Thanks! It will get cooler... I hope.

[QuarterSwede]

Niiiiiiiiiice program. This is just what I needed. Keep up the good work and updates. Oh and don't feel pressured to update it constantly. We know you have a life. :happy:

[eth3l]

**sweet!**

Very cool, works great on my XP + SP1 machine!!!

[Oogle]

thanks, working on reducing the memory consumption. does anyone here know why simply calling ShellExecuteEx causes memory to jump almost 1MB? I've even closed the handle to the process and it's still jumping.

Just curious to know why you need ShellExecuteEx in the first place.

Edit: Nevermind. Forgot about actually opening the web page...

I am aware of the text being html escapes in some instances. I've known about it since I started getting the feeds. I just haven't had time to build a parser routine to replace the errant characters.

So, you're saying that the existing XML parser is buggy? Or is it the data that's buggy? It just feels kind of redundant to reimplement functionality that the parser should've handled correctly.

Edited July 13, 2003 by Oogle

[nims]

this is sweet dude! nice job!

[azcodemonkey]

Just curious to know why you need ShellExecuteEx in the first place.

Edit: Nevermind.? Forgot about actually opening the web page...

hehe.. it's ok. I've tried to create a process as well, but I still get the same problem.

So, you're saying that the existing XML parser is buggy?? Or is it the data that's buggy?? It just feels kind of redundant to reimplement functionality that the parser should've handled correctly.

I'm guessing that it is something that is happening with the PHP that is generating the XML that the app consumes. Instead of leaving things like apostrophes and > < symbols, it is tokenizing the string a replacing them with the HTML escape equivalents, > < #39; #33; etc. So it is nothing I'm doing. Those symbols would break the XML parser, too. They are illegal text inbetween tags.

Edited July 13, 2003 by weenur

[azcodemonkey]

I just noticed something funny. I accidentally ran another instance of the app, and it works. I have two app instances monitoring two news feeds. lol!

[tomwarren Veteran]

Looking good, it needs some kind of refresh though on it so it automatically updates when there is a new news item.

[azcodemonkey]

There is an auto refresh. It defaults to 1200 seconds/20minutes. You can change that to a lower value in the app.config, under TimerInterval. :D

I don't know that it would be practical to monitor for every new post. People post like mad here. You'd be getting a new balloon every second. lol!

Edited July 13, 2003 by weenur

[Mike Douglas]

There is an auto refresh. I defaults to 1200 seconds/20minutes. You can change that to a lower value in the app.config, under TimerInterval. :D

I don't know that it would be practical to monitor for every new post. People post like mad here. You'd be getting a new balloon every second. lol!

that would be annoying :pinch:

[Oogle]

I'm guessing that it is something that is happening with the PHP that is generating the XML that the app consumes. Instead of leaving things like apostrophes and > < symbols, it is tokenizing the string a replacing them with the HTML escape equivalents, > < #39; #33; etc. So it is nothing I'm doing. Those symbols would break the XML parser, too. They are illegal text inbetween tags.

Hmm, it's starting to sound more like a data problem, then. With symbols like that, you probably need to encapsulate it in CDATA tags.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default....kedsections.asp

Is there some way you can relate that to the people who generate the XML?

[azcodemonkey]

It would be easier just to stick the original text, with exception to & in an attribute, which would still be &.

Instead of:

<rdf:RDF>
  <item>
    <title>Some news feed title</title>
    <link>https://www.neowin.net/blah</link>
  </item>
</rdf:RDF>

make it

<rdf:RDF>
  <item title="Some news!" link="http://neowin.net/forums/blah.php?"/>
</rdf:RDF>

[Oogle]

The downside to attributes in this case, is that data contained within them have to follow even more restrictive format requirements than nodes; which, in turn, requires more unnecessary coding and exception handling on your part.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default....nattributes.asp

Whichever format you prefer (attributes or nodes), the fact is that the current XML data can be corrupted should the title use invalid characters. It would be a lot easier (and cleaner) for them to fix the problem than for you to code around it.

[Aaron P]

I'm getting this one too. However, I'm at work where we block port 80 to force everyone through a proxy server. I'm assuming that the app is attempting to connect to neowin.net, not getting there and crashing.

Proxy support would be nice... ;)

[azcodemonkey]

Whichever format you prefer (attributes or nodes), the fact is that the current XML data can be corrupted should the title use invalid characters. It would be a lot easier (and cleaner) for them to fix the problem than for you to code around it.

Absolutely. I'd rather not have to create my own tokenizer for this app. I'm having a hard enough time keeping memory usage down as it is.

[scoult01]

Neat little app uve got here, keep it up :)

[azcodemonkey]

I'm getting this one too. However, I'm at work where we block port 80 to force everyone through a proxy server. I'm assuming that the app is attempting to connect to neowin.net, not getting there and crashing.

Proxy support would be nice...  ;)

OK. I'm looking into proxy configuration right now. Looks like it will be easy. A current workaround would be to run from the command line proxycfg.exe -u if your IE is setup for proxy already. This will import your settings to WinHttp. Please let me know if that helps or not.

Cheers!

[ceminess]

i got an error as soon as i tryed to open it.

it said

runtime error

this application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way

What OS are you running? Do you have MSXML 3 installed?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default..../xmlgeneral.asp

i am running winxp, so does xp come with MSXML 3

OK, I just duped it. I was running VPN to my company's network, so it may be a timeout issue. How are you connecting to the internet(behind proxy, dialup, etc)?

i have a home network but i am not behind a proxy nor am i connecting with dial up, just good ol' cable

i am behind a router, what port is it going through?? maybe my port is blocked, and that is what is causing it.

[ceminess]

i tried the command line proxycfg.exe -u just to see if it would make a difference, and it did not work

[azcodemonkey]

Ok. I think your issue is a timeout issue. I'll send you a build with timeouts set to 5 seconds, though I would think with cable you'd have no problem. The request is sent on port 80 via HTTP, so if you can hit the web, you should be able to run this app.

Email me at [email protected], and I'll send you a build to test, if you would. I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Aaron P]

I'm getting this one too. However, I'm at work where we block port 80 to force everyone through a proxy server. I'm assuming that the app is attempting to connect to neowin.net, not getting there and crashing.

Proxy support would be nice...?;))

OK. I'm looking into proxy configuration right now. Looks like it will be easy. A current workaround would be to run from the command lineproxycfg.exe -u> if your IE is setup for proxy already. This will import your settings to WinHttp. Please let me know if that helps or not.

Cheers!

Excellent, works well.

[azcodemonkey]

New BUG. Balloons don't show up on multi-display desktops. This one ought to be fun to fix... :blink:

[azcodemonkey]

Another BUG: Current feed doesn't save when shutting down Windows.