243 replies to this topic

[Coyotee]

** Version 0.5.6 Released **

Whats new:
* CODE CHANGE: Changed override location to /var/lib/AsusLauncher/ to be compatible with latest 701 updates and 90x/100x series.


Download 0.5.6 here


** EDIT **
Ok ppl, I decided to release the source code for version 0.5.6 due to increasing delays with 0.6.

You can find it on the download page.
The source code (and now the editor) is released under GPLv3 or later license.

** Original post **

Program name: AsusLauncher Advanced Editor, a graphical interface program to edit the Easy Mode Icons.


As you can see, it display's on the left side a list with the tabs (the categories), and the available subfolders as subcategories. In the main view you get a list of all Icons configured in the 'simpleui.rc' file for the selected category (or folder) showing the name, command it executes (or shortcut if it's with the shortcut attribute instead of the extraargs attribute), normal icon and selected icon filenames. When selecting an item, you will see the actual icon in lower right corner.

Seems that ASUS made some mistakes in the simpleui.rc file because the item for "Video Manager" entry has the icon option twice, causing a parser error.

By design, the program will only save in the /home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc file (in case something goes wrong).

Download latest version here

Edited by Coyotee, 22 August 2008 - 08:29 PM.

[StormB]

Excellent looking software!

Would it be possible to implement a simple visual 'browser' for png files? Obviously if the goal of this is to making editing easy, then finding a relevant icon should be part of that process :) (Sorry if this is already part of the program; I haven't tested it yet)..

Will

[freee]

Looks very promising. Are you also planning to let the user edit the categories and subcategories?

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When complete, I will release the entire source code under a GPL license. Until then, you can check your files for validation with the alpha pre-compiled binary.

It sound as if you are new to open source programming. The first laws for a successful project is "release early, release often". You should not wait to release the source code only when the project is complete. You should release now, so that there will be a chance for people to contribute patches.

[Coyotee]

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Would it be possible to implement a simple visual 'browser' for png files? Obviously if the goal of this is to making editing easy, then finding a relevant icon should be part of that process :) (Sorry if this is already part of the program; I haven't tested it yet)..

There will be the option to browse for the PNG icons that will be used. It will also check to the if the relevant selected icons are available and warn the user in case they aren't.

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Looks very promising. Are you also planning to let the user edit the categories and subcategories?

Not sure about the categories, but the subcategories will be editable (the categories can be easily edited as well, since they are stored in the same array as the subcategories, just some info different, however i won't include that in the default builds).

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It sound as if you are new to open source programming. The first laws for a successful project is "release early, release often". You should not wait to release the source code only when the project is complete. You should release now, so that there will be a chance for people to contribute patches.

I'm not new to open source programming. However, when I said about releasing the source code, I meant I will be releasing the source code when the initial version is ready (the first version that will actually be usable).

[freee]

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I'm not new to open source programming.

The use of the rar format fooled me :)

In the file menu I think that you should have "Import system settings" and "Import user settings" in addition to the "Import" option. Meanwhile if someone wants to try out the program he can find these settings here:

/opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc
/home/user/.AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc

Also, you should ignore the double icon error you mentioned in the "Video Manager".

[Coyotee]

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The use of the rar format fooled me :)

Yeah, my desktop is currently in Windows 'cause I need to reinstall Ubuntu and because I didn't have anything handy to make a tar.gz archive.

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In the file menu I think that you should have "Import system settings" and "Import user settings" in addition to the "Import" option.

The "import" option is going to be optional, because the editor will automatically load the user settings on launch (just that I didn't add the code yet).

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Also, you should ignore the double icon error you mentioned in the "Video Manager".

Don't know if I can since the XML parser is not written by me (comes with the compiler).

[SublimePorte]

Coyotee,

Looks like an excellent piece of software. I have released something similar, though not quite as advanced. My tool only has the ability to add icons at the moment, no editing or deleting.

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Seems that ASUS made some mistakes in the simpleui.rc file because the item for "Video Manager" entry has the icon option twice, causing a parser error.

This messup by Asus cost me hours of pulling my hair out. In Python, the xml routines fail when they see this mistake in the simpleui.rc file.

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Yeah, my desktop is currently in Windows 'cause I need to reinstall Ubuntu and because I didn't have anything handy to make a tar.gz archive.

Actually the ideal way would be to release it as a .deb file. You just need to write a small install script and removal script, then run a simple command to package it all together as an installable .deb package. It makes it much easier for users to install/remove your software, and it's the standard the 3epc uses.

[SublimePorte]

freee,

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Also, you should ignore the double icon error you mentioned in the "Video Manager".

Any decent xml parser would not let you just ignore such an obvious error. Python's xml parser certainly didn't. And since it was my first time using it, I had no idea why it was getting upset.

[marf]

first off, I must say excellent work. This is one of a few things I was waiting for. I'm just wondering, how long did it take you to get this far in your project? Couple weeks? What environment are you coding it in?

[freee]

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Any decent xml parser would not let you just ignore such an obvious error. Python's xml parser certainly didn't. And since it was my first time using it, I had no idea why it was getting upset.

Clearly Asus are using an xml parser that ignores this error.

[Neil]

Or are ignoring the error...

[Niel1952]

Ok, so who is going to run a comparison between this and this?

[Bazza]

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Ok, so who is going to run a comparison between this and this?

Oooh! I will.

This one, while appearing more fully featured (add, edit, delete of icons within tabs) - it appears, by reading Coyotee's intro, that these features aren't finished, which rather defeats the usefulness of the program.

The other program by SublimePorte only adds shortcuts (no deletion) - and neither seem capable of adding/moving/ removing tabs.


Graphically, both look just fine and are clear as to what they are meant to do.

Finally, Coyotee's program is downloaded as a .rar file (which adds another level of pain-in-the-butt, especially to newbies) while SublimePorte's program is a straightforward .deb file, simply requiring a right-click > Install DEB file to get into your eee.

[Coyotee]

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Ok, so who is going to run a comparison between this and this?

There is no reason to compare the 2 at the moment since my program isn't ready to work and the LauncherTools are operational.

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Oooh! I will.
This one, while appearing more fully featured (add, edit, delete of icons within tabs) - it appears, by reading Coyotee's intro, that these features aren't finished, which rather defeats the usefulness of the program.

As the topic title says, the program is a WORK IN PROGRESS, meaning it's NOT ready yet.
It will have the possibility to add new folders (still thinking about categories) as well as a built-in icon creator (just give it the normal icon and it will do the rest).

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Finally, Coyotee's program is downloaded as a .rar file (which adds another level of pain-in-the-butt, especially to newbies) while SublimePorte's program is a straightforward .deb file, simply requiring a right-click > Install DEB file to get into your eee.

When my program will be ready, it will come as a .deb file as well. Right now, I just added it for who ever wanted it to look at the way it works.

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ASUS really needs to correct their way of writing XML files. The Date & Time entry contains a double <name lang="en"> entry. The XML file gave me a lot of headache's but I finally managed to make the save function to produce an almost identical copy of the simpleui.rc file when reading to internal format and resaving (almost identical because it doesn't save the duplicate language entries and it might have a few more line breaks than the original).
I should have a semi-functional version for testing in about 20 hours (with add/edit/delete capabilities) but won't promise anything.

[Bazza]

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When my program will be ready, it will come as a .deb file as well. Right now, I just added it for who ever wanted it to look at the way it works.

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I should have a semi-functional version for testing in about 20 hours (with add/edit/delete capabilities) but won't promise anything.

Excellent. I look forward to the 'Gold' edition - as does, I suspect, a lot of the community.

Its hard to imagine why something like this (or the other program) wasn't created and installed by default in the eeePC to begin with. Programmers napping, one feels.

While I can appreciate that ASUS isn't really promoting this device to the hardcore computing crowd, equally, even the first time user may have issues with the tabs (wishing to remove, move or create new ones) and wish to delete some 3rd Party icons (as found in Internet) and place shortcuts to the included software in tabs different from where they are placed (if at all) by ASUS as default. Similarly, the ability to, say, add shortcuts to often used documents in the Work tab would not go amiss either - either for newbies or those a little more experienced.

All in all, making the device work for users, rather than the other way around.

Had I not been able to access the Advanced Mode and been left with only the ASUS Easy Mode (and nothing like this software available at the time) I would likely have not bought the device.

This (or other similar programs) might even convince me to return to Easy Mode - if for nothing else, the shorter boot!

:)

[SublimePorte]

Bazza,

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Its hard to imagine why something like this (or the other program) wasn't created and installed by default in the eeePC to begin with. Programmers napping, one feels.

A seperate tool shouldn't even have been necessary, it should've been a part of the AsusLauncher program itself. Right-clicking on an icon should've brought up menus to do half of these functions. I think it's more about protecting basic users from themselves.

[Bazza]

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Bazza,

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Its hard to imagine why something like this (or the other program) wasn't created and installed by default in the eeePC to begin with. Programmers napping, one feels.

A seperate tool shouldn't even have been necessary, it should've been a part of the AsusLauncher program itself. Right-clicking on an icon should've brought up menus to do half of these functions. I think it's more about protecting basic users from themselves.

Well perhaps - and that's why a separate program that one had to actually open - rather than stumbling upon this capability with an errant right-click - would be better.

Still, if new (completely inexperienced) users can't be trusted not to bugger up their eee (there's plenty of us experienced users doing that already), then perhaps the program ASUS should have provided would not allow the Settings tab (and the stuff in it) to be deleted?

Besides, there's always F9 if one really balls up the device.

I look forward to you and/or Coyotee creating The Software That ASUS Thought We Were Too Stupid To Use...

;)

[Coyotee]

Finally, I managed to do some more work on the editor, so, the Folder adding/editing is available now.

After importing the simpleui.rc file, just right-click on any category or subcategory (folder) for the context menu that will allow you to add a new folder (if a main category is selected) or to edit/delete (if a folder is selected. Note that deleting a folder doesn't work).

Here's some screenshots:

As you can see in the picture, the add/edit window has 2 tabs:
First tab: Location & Name
It will allow you to chose it's parent category and English name. If you check the "Show more languages" option on the bottom, the window will resize and will show more Language name options as you can see in the next image:

This means that you can add localized names for your language (i based the available languages from the existing entries in the simpleui.rc file)

Second tab: Icon
This will allow you to set the folder's icon.

A neat little feature I included in it is the dropdown list with all the icons available in the /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/ directory. The program will read that dir and list all *_norm.png files (I still need to modify it to check for the _hi.png icon before adding it to the dropdown list to be sure you won't have blank icons when highlighting). The moment you select an icon, it's preview will be shown (unfortunately I still need to fix the alpha transparency as you can see in the screenshot).


Please note that changing the parent category for an existing folder will change it's internal id (used by the icons) so I don't recommend doing it at the moment (I haven't written the code to update the icons to the new category id).

I have also activated the Save option from the menu so now you can save the new simpleui.rc file (it will ask you where and with what name to save). So now you can test the output.

*link removed* (zip file, make sure you give the extracted binary exec permissions).

Unfortunately I don't have enough time to work on it so the release date is still far :(

Edited by Coyotee, 12 January 2008 - 06:20 PM.

[Grogs]

Thanks for the time you've put in. This is shaping up to be something very useful. I hope you get time eventually to work a little more on it. :)

[Graves]

thank you for the nice tool... a feature that would vastely improve iit and should not be that hard to implement would be to make items from one catecory or subcategory draggable to another, or if not draggable at least moveable in a copy&paste manner. that way you could move items instead of having to rewrite the entries if you want them in another category.