Almanac / Setting Management Application

[SDragon]

It doesn't let *Nix users set it for all accounts?

Edit-- Okay, so all in all, it looks kind of interesting. All I can see it doing so far, though, is simply organizing notes. Mu biggest comment so far is that the text contrast doesn't seem high enough in some areas. I would comment on the lack of help files, but i think you've mentioned that as being on the to-do list.

[snakefing]

Which areas seem too low? HTML display, editors, etc? I can easily adjust the contrast, I haven't fully worked out the color theme anyway.

Wiki is certainly an alternative, and certainly a better one for many people. I started this project mostly as a testing ground for the look and feel and UI framework code, so if it doesn't actually go anywhere, no big deal.

I'll look at the installers on *nix. I thought there was an option there for all users, so maybe I disabled it by accident.

[Xeviat]

This is a lot bigger than I thought. It's going to take me some time before I can get down into it.

[Ravenspath]

Thought I would give this a try as I love anything that will help keep track of game ideas/notes. I tried to install it and I get this error.

"This directory can not be written! Please choose another directory."

I've tried to modify the path and I get the same error.

C:\Program Files\DSP\Almanac

This is the original path.

[snakefing]

Hmmm, let me guess: Vista?

I do have a Vista box around here, I'll try it there using various levels of access. That box and I aren't on speaking terms lately, since it somehow decided it wasn't an authorized Windows install and I had to reload it from the OEM disks...

[Ravenspath]

Hmmm, let me guess: Vista?

You are correct. It is Vista.

[Ravenspath]

Okay, I got it to install. I was reading a post for a different program and it stated that you have to install to a folder you have permissions to, not the program file folder. Before I had changed the path except for that.

So I installed to my personal folder and it installed fine. I haven't used it yet but at least it is installed.

[Ra-Tiel]

Hmmm, let me guess: Vista?

I do have a Vista box around here, I'll try it there using various levels of access. [...]

The problem is that the installer is not asking for elevated privileges before copying the files to the %PROGRAMFILES% folder. In that case, Vista redirects any write operations to the current account's "virtual store" in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\AppData\Local\VirtualStore (see also this article). This obviously breaks all applications that use absolute paths and not relative paths, because without elevated privileges you're not allowed to write into the program files folder.

[snakefing]

Yeah, I'll have to read up on the installer to see if there is a way to request that. You'll have the same problem, of course, on Unix if you don't run the installer with sudo. The installer is a Java-based one that uses JNI to do OS-specific stuff, so they could have an option I've missed. If not, I'll have to look around for some kind of MSI packager. Note going to pay for it though.

[snakefing]

Okay, updated version to Alpha-2.1. I think this will be the final alpha, so when I finish the help files and a few known issues, the next version will be the first Release Candidate.

New in this version:

Convert HTML code to BB code or plain text.
*Can add tags to entries, items, sections, or people.
*Search page finished - can search on tags or names.
*Improved contrast on most pages.
*Better handling of images to improve reuse of images across pages.
*Exe wrappers for Windows.
*Exe installer for Windows should deal with the elevated privileges issue on Vista.
*Unix installer can now install for all users, if you run it as root. But, then there seem to be some issues with the uninstaller. Still works as before if you run as normal user.
*Help button added and partial help files installed.
*New context menu options added to the table links.

This version changed the way that it searches for images in its archive, so there is a small chance that it might not be able to find them in legacy files. It seems to work okay for me, but my files get so corrupted with test runs that I can't be sure I've run a fair test. If you see a problem, don't save any changes (or make a backup) and send the problem file to me for diagnosis. Then you should be able to continue working.

There is a separate windows installer now. I couldn't get the elevated privileges to work right on Unix, so instead I opted for an EXE wrapper for Windows. Supposedly a .EXE file with Setup in the name automatically gets elevated privileges (with user permission), so hopefully that will deal with the Vista issues.

[snakefing]

Update: I found some bugs in the text editor relating to some of the key bindings. Specifically, the undo wasn't working, nor was the previous word navigation. (Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-left arrow, Ctrl-Backspace)

The undo bug was particularly irritating because it prevented you from undoing complex edits - precisely the ones you'd most likely want to undo. Since the 2.1 release has only been out a day, I just replaced the old version without reversioning - but if you installed yesterday, be aware that you might have some issues with undo.