Battle notifier - Update 28 Jun 2016

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 26 Jun 2015, 22:02

Hi! I made a program for windows desktop that notificates incoming battles with a few filtering options and settings.
It can optionally play a sound when a battle starts and it shows the battle's information and map at the screen.
Example

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UPDATE 28 JUN 2016
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Download v1.4.3 BattleNotifier.exe

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UPDATE 16 JUN 2016
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Some features:
- Show battle's info and/or map at screen when a battle starts.
- Battle's info: Level's name, designer, duration, attributes, timer telling time left, countdown for special battles, link to battle on elmaonline.
- See last started battle regardless of the filters (set a global hotkey).
- Run Battle Notifier on windows startup.
- Print current battle Map right away!
- Easily filter designers and battle types.
- Choose from 4 najs sounds or pick a sound of your own.
- Choose which screen to show notifications when have multiple screens.
- And more!

Known bugs:
-Might cause golden elma if playing full screen. Use ropelli's ddraw.dll to fix this or simply don't check the option Show over full screen programs at the settings panel (in v1.3 or higher).
-Settings are lost after moving .exe to another folder.

The program should be self explanatory, it shows helping descriptions when you move the mouse over things.
Hope you like! Go for try it!

Little background story:
I wanted to make an elma related program for fun so i tryed making a quiz level generator. I went pretty far with it but suddenly had no time for it coz of uni,work,etc. so i lost interest and stopped that project (for now).
But then the idea of a mobile battle notifier came up and i found some time for it, so i decided to make a desktop prototype to see solutions, viability and obstacles, osv. The desktop prototipe quickly became a small but proper program thanks to the help of domi with his current battle api.
Also lousku helped me to test it and gave me good ideas for it!! Later other mans helped too like zero and maw.
Same thing happend again, free time started to vanish and with it the project. Even broke a finger in half past weekend so im pretty much one handed at this moment.
So i reduced the TODO list to its minimum and managed to finish a pretty solid version of the program.

The program uses domi's current battle api to show battle's information and elmaonline to get and show battle's map.
That means this information is not coming for free and i dont have much control over it, even worse i dont know what costs it could cause.
Ive been quiet careful and at best everything will work just fine.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 26 Jun 2015, 22:05

holy shit

Lukazz · Post by **Lukazz** » 26 Jun 2015, 22:09

i remember that back when battling was happening in IRC, there were a couple of sounds that you could get to play each time a battle started. i specifically remember that i used a sound for a while saying something like "it's time for a fucking battle". does anyone still have that clip? would be fucking phenomenal if that would work with pab's program.

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 26 Jun 2015, 22:15

Can pick any mp3,wma,wav sound from the settings panel

insane guy · Post by **insane guy** » 27 Jun 2015, 00:37

best... shit... ever!

Thanks so much Pab, now I have a really nice tool to cultivate my addiction!

Some feedback (which propably has already crossed your mind):

Would be nice to have a button for "current battle". For now is ez cause you can just klick "Restart" and it shows current balle but if you are using the timer function this could be annoying.
Also would be nice to have a mode in which you don't get any notifications but can check for current balle.
One more cool thing would be a global hotkey for current balle. So whatever fancy design software you're working with or maybe even while playing another game you could press the "balle button" and see if and whats going on in eol.
Is there a way to include the queue info?

Other than that this is just perfect. So many nice features (balle time left, set screen for notification, print map lolz...).

Ez GAA

edit: OT: What happened to your finger? Still able to play?

Bludek · Post by **Bludek** » 27 Jun 2015, 01:05

damn, that looks useful as f.
Sik good job, it will enhance my elma experience 4 sure

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 27 Jun 2015, 01:18

Thanks for the nice feedback!!!!! All onions are welcome.

insane guy wrote:Would be nice to have a button for "current battle". For now is ez cause you can just klick "Restart" and it shows current balle but if you are using the timer function this could be annoying.
Also would be nice to have a mode in which you don't get any notifications but can check for current balle.

Ar ye this was exactly the last feature i wanted to make. Program had Current Battle button that i was going to implement but then i broke my finger and i just wanted to not keep adding things coz with no much time to put on it, it was never ending. Right now can press ctrl+r while in program, or right click on program logo if it is hidden in tray bar and press on Restart, to quickly restart and see if there is a current battle at the moment.
Maybe i get some time to do add this feature, but probably not soon.

insane guy wrote:edit: OT: What happened to your finger? Still able to play?

Broke little finger in right hand, the bone broke in 2 kinda vertically :s Today played elma for first time since broke, puted WASD controls and alo in Q, played 2 battles and got oke resutls

first battle was like playing drunk, many times pressed right volt istead of left volt and viceversa.

Lukazz · Post by **Lukazz** » 27 Jun 2015, 09:08

Pab wrote:Can pick any mp3,wma,wav sound from the settings panel

then pls give sound files anyone!!

Juish · Post by **Juish** » 2 Jul 2015, 20:14

I downloaded and ran it.. stopped working immediately. I have windows 7 if that helps...

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 2 Jul 2015, 23:40

Anything else? any message? Many ppl here used windows 7 and worked normally.
The first time it runs does not do anything fancy. My guess is that its made on .NET framework 4.5 and you have an older version?

Try downloading this framework update https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/downloa ... x?id=30653 and tell me if this helps.

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 3 Jul 2015, 18:11

Works fine on Windows 8.1 x64.

Great app Pab!

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 4 Jul 2015, 10:29

The possibility to start with Windows would also be nice. In the meantime, I had to add it to the registry.

Lousku · Post by **Lousku** » 4 Jul 2015, 10:33

Gud work Pab! =)

Mrrrr wrote:The possibility to start with Windows would also be nice. In the meantime, I had to add it to the registry. :roll:

You can search "shell:startup" for teh startup folder and drop it theer.

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 4 Jul 2015, 19:35

Lousku wrote:Gud work Pab! =)
Mrrrr wrote:The possibility to start with Windows would also be nice. In the meantime, I had to add it to the registry.
You can search "shell:startup" for teh startup folder and drop it theer.

Yeah this is on a TODO list but for now gotta do it yourself if want to run it on windows startup.
Remember to also check "Start notifying on startup" at the setting panel if you want the program to start notifying automatically once it runs.

To add a program to windows startup do what Lousku says:
1. Search "shell:startup", this will open a folder like C:\Users\[YourUser]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
2. Drop a shortcut of BattleNotifier.exe in that folder.

In Windows8.1 you can easily check if it worked: go to task manager (ctrl+alt+esc) and there will be a Startup tab where it shows all programs that start on windows startup. It looks like this.

Thanks!

Polarix · Post by **Polarix** » 7 Jul 2015, 19:38

This is most excellent!

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 12 Jul 2015, 17:13

Oh, and another thing would be amazing. The possibility to start battle from notification window. I'm so lazy

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 19 Jul 2015, 22:51

Made some updates on BattleNotifier, download the new version at the first post.

Just rewrite the old .exe, your old settings will remain.
Just in case: you cannot start two instances of BattleNotifier.exe, if you don't rewrite the old one just make sure it's not running when you run the new version, or else it won't launch.

New features:
- From insguy suggestion "current battle button". Now you can set a global hotkey, to see the lastest started battle. The last started battle will show as a notification (with the current settings) but without caring about the designers and battle types filters. This is useful to see whats going on in EOL at the moment. It will work once you start notifying.
- From Mrrrr suggestion "Start on Windows startup" option added at settings panel. Don't have to do it manually anymore.

Some changes:

- Notifications won't try to steal the focus from other active windows. "Show on top" setting makes it show notifications over active windows but it won't focus when it does, so you don't lose focus on your active window.
- New option to quickly reload map in a notification. Sometimes the little elves of the internet take advantage on a moment of weakness of your DNS and confuses it so you don't get to download the battle's map, this is very random and when it happens, the default "about Battle Notifier" map appears. Now you can right click on the map and a Reload option will appear, press it to quickly reload the map.

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 22 Jul 2015, 00:01

Did minor changes, and bug fix for previous version. Download the new version v1.2 here or check the first post.

devin · Post by **devin** » 22 Jul 2015, 19:09

Can this be a mobile thing?? Would be a cool little app for the phone!

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 23 Jul 2015, 18:08

Please post another link to BattleNotifier 1.1, as v1.2 crashes on my 64-bit Windows 8.

It crashed eol, then had to restart PC then it keeps notifying me that "BattleNotifier has stopped working". I tried compatibility, no go. I already have net framework, I always had it.

Ok, after I removed its dump files it's back to normal.

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 23 Jul 2015, 22:38

Damn those small letters sound bad, sorry you had troubles. Tell any problem that you have, don't keep them to yourselfs!
Dunno when ill make new features or changes but i will try to fix problems as fast as possible. at least while someone uses the program:p

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 2 Aug 2015, 02:49

Added a new default behaviour to the program: when there is a full screen program active in the window in which notifications are displayed, the notifications are now going to be shown under it even when the Show notifications on top option is checked. This solves the problem of getting golden elma while playing full screen without ropelli's ddraw.dll, and getting other unwanted effects on other games. I added it as an option at the settings panel so you can always go back to the old behaviour in case you want to get notifications over a specific program that you know it works fine, for example, while watching a movie in certain media player.

With that and some other minor improvements, download the new version 1.3 at the first post.

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 7 Aug 2015, 14:31

IMO it would be nice for the app to start minimized at Windows startup.

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 7 Aug 2015, 21:15

New update, download version 1.4 at first post.

- From recent request added start minimized on windows startup.
- Fixed bugs related to Run on Windows Startup.
- Fixed 1htt map.
- Added Fade out effect for Fade effect on notification feature. Peviously only worked when shown.
- Synced the project with github (https://github.com/PabloCorso/BattleNotifier) on request to share the source code. Im new to it so i might add info there but not yet.
- And did some useful code refactoring to help intruducing new features on the future, i will need to redo the interface. Some of the new features that i got on list are: adding more filtering options, adding custom filters, choosing different sounds per battle type, notify queue, countdown for battles (apple battle), notify when battle ends, few new settings that i have on mind and others.

So keep telling if there is anything that you think that will improve the program or any feature that could be helpful or important to add.

Mrrrr wrote:Oh, and another thing would be amazing. The possibility to start battle from notification window. I'm so lazy

It is possible using Domi's API for starting battles but i will try getting all battle notification related things first since its the purpose of the program.

devin wrote:Can this be a mobile thing?? Would be a cool little app for the phone!

I definitly have this in mind.

roope · Post by **roope** » 7 Aug 2015, 21:34

Nice! Upcoming features sound very good. I'd say for me the primary needs (from that list) are
1. notify queue
2. more filtering options / custom filters
3. diff sounds for diff battle types

Keep up the good work)

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 7 Aug 2015, 21:46

Thanks roope!

Btw Ruben made the program run on a mac using a program called Wineskin. I don't know if the same works for linux, there seems to be one called PlayOnLinux to run Windows Applications on that OS. This info might help someone...

edit: Fixed an issue caused by the refactoring >D thx to insguy that told me that the close X button on info dialog was not closing the map dialog. Uploaded a new version with that fix at the first post.

dz · Post by dz » 22 Aug 2015, 07:46

Just found this topic and man, Pab, your app kicks ass! I'll be using it forshure.

Bludek · Post by **Bludek** » 23 Aug 2015, 16:44

I always read "Battle nolifer" when I glance over the name of this topic. So weird. I guess it is too late to change the name...

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 1 Sep 2015, 17:45

Not showing map anymore, the map window is white.

Whether I use v1.2, 1.3 or 1.4, same thing. Reset settings - same thing.

What could have happened?

Orcc · Post by **Orcc** » 1 Sep 2015, 18:40

It's because EOL site is down

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 1 Sep 2015, 19:03

EOL site down? But battles can be started.

Anyway, came here again to say there might have been ghosts, because for last 2-3 battles it worked again.

Thanks Orcc.

ville_j · Post by **ville_j** » 1 Sep 2015, 19:10

..because eol site is back up, was already when Orcc posted.

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 1 Sep 2015, 22:57

Ops yep, should have told that. I noticed that map didn't load today. I think that the map is the only thing that is retrieved directly from elmaonline.net.

Program could have given a explanatory error message of why map didn't load, wonder why didn't even show the default map. >D Btw remember that if map doesn't load you can right click on it and you will find a Reload option. If reloading doesn't work either then just try restarting (ctrl+r or stop/start).

Btw im having a little elma brake right now, but ill try to fix any errors if they come. Just in case my Skype account is "corsopablo" and my email is pabcorso@gmail.com

Thanks for the comments ppl cheers

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 24 Oct 2015, 18:55

Sad news, bot is rip for now so battle notifier wont work until the api that tells current battle is up again.

I want to ask how many ppl use this program, how many find it useful? To know if its worth keep updating it and improving, maybe no one uses it right now, i don't know. Maybe i should just try making phone app? Right now i don't have much time for this so i wanna know more before i sacrifice other stuff for this.

Ruben · Post by **Ruben** » 24 Oct 2015, 19:41

Pab wrote:Sad news, bot is rip for now so battle notifier wont work until the api that tells current battle is up again.

I want to ask how many ppl use this program, how many find it useful? To know if its worth keep updating it and improving, maybe no one uses it right now, i don't know. Maybe i should just try making phone app? Right now i don't have much time for this so i wanna know more before i sacrifice other stuff for this.

I use it perpetually for everything else than norm battles. All battles when I'm in playing mood. GAA material.

dz · Post by dz » 25 Oct 2015, 11:08

I came here to find out why it's not working, so Pab count me in for a huge fan. I really hope you keep on working on it once the bot stuff is sorted out!

Bjenn · Post by **Bjenn** » 26 Oct 2015, 09:43

I haven't tried this, I will.

Domovoy · Post by **Domovoy** » 27 Oct 2015, 14:54

API should work now, sorry for the delay.

dz · Post by dz » 27 Oct 2015, 19:59

Domovoy wrote:API should work now, sorry for the delay.

Wow amazaing. Seems to work again!

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 5 Dec 2015, 00:20

Not working on new IP?

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 5 Dec 2015, 00:37

API is using the old IP, as soon as it starts using the new IP, battle notifier will work normally with the new server info.

Im not the one who decides this tho, so i can't tell you now when the API is it going to start using the new IP.

Mrrrr · Post by **Mrrrr** » 5 Dec 2015, 01:00

Oke tanks! Will wait for it...

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 7 Dec 2015, 18:10

Seems like BN started working again!

edit: Btw, as ppl noticed sometimes the notifications make active programs to lose focus and sometimes not, and that sucks.
I maybe found a workaround for this: when a notification appeared and my current active program lost focus, i minimized the notification window (i have only map notification, right cicked on it and pressed Minimize). And after that, the notifications didnt unfocus other programs anymore. When i restart notifications i have to do the same thing again, minimize a notification window once and it works fine after that.
It might be a good workaround, I have to investigate more about this bug to fix it once for all.

Sla · Post by **Sla** » 15 Feb 2016, 15:34

Im trying the program and I have to say its amazing and useful. Glad an uruguayan made it.

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 15 Feb 2016, 15:37

Thanks Sla!

The program wont work right now, a change has to be made. Ill upload a working version as soon as i can.

Sla · Post by **Sla** » 15 Feb 2016, 15:39

Thats why i wasnt noticed of last balle ;P
Ill use it for sure

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 16 Feb 2016, 21:13

Okay i uploaded a new working version. Basically the domi's api server address changed, so the older versions are now obsolete.
Download last battle notifier version 1.4.2 at the first post. Cheers!

I took this chance to make a little change:
- Now the Reload option on Map notification window (right click on the map) will always show.
- Improved notifications algorithm. One Life battles always end before its duration and sometimes messed up the notification of the next battle.

dz · Post by dz » 22 Feb 2016, 10:57

Thanks Pab, really appreciated!!

Pab · Post by **Pab** » 29 Jun 2016, 04:07

Made a few small updates on the program:

- Now you can press the global hotkey for current battle, to close the notification. So when you want to quickly close the notification that is on your screen, just press the same hotkey.
- Click on the notification to keep it open. Once you click on the notification windows they will not close even if there is a time set to close automatically.
- Improved startup speed. The program took like a second or more to lauch, now it takes nothing.
- Added About info at main window (with link to this post), click on the little icon at right top corner.

Download v1.4.3 on the first post!

Sla · Post by **Sla** » 17 Sep 2016, 18:24

Is this working properly? Atm it isnt showing new battles.