[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] znamezsame:
I wanted to let you guys know I released my final version of a app you never heard of and probably don't want. ;)

It is designed to extract text from the internet and display on your today screen, as well as featuring yet another application launcher. I love it because it is very customizable, but that comes at a huge cost to user friendlienss. Since I'm lazy, you have to use rather unfriendly config files to customize the application.

If you're still interested and promise not to bug me too much about it, you can get it from my site (or CAB in next post):

http://nicktech.heliohost.org/windowsmobile.shtml#anythingticker

Here is the readme you will have to read if you want any hope of customizing it:

AnythingTicker 1.0.3735.36102

nicktech.com

AnythingTicker is designed to extract text from the internet and display it on your Today Screen using versatile user customizable parsing of web pages. It is also a customizable grid style launcher where you choose the layout, text or icons, etc.

********************** GENERAL **********************

Install Instructions:

1.) Install the CAB.

2.) Adjust the position of "Managed Items" in Start>Settings>Today>Items.

3.) Edit the config files to redesign your ticker/launcher.

Usage:

Clicking on the left side of the ticker will show the launcher if you have one. If not, it will force an update of the ticker.

Clicking on the right side of the ticker will hide it.

clicking on the left side of hidden mode will show the launcher if you have one. If not, it will show the ticker.

Clicking on the right side of the hidden mode will show the ticker.

********************** CUSTOMIZING THE TICKER **********************

The file that controls the ticker is:

\Program Files\Managed Today Screen Framework\AnythingTicker.txt

The file format is:

*************

Height

Colors

Font Size

Seconds

Error Suppression

TurboLaunch

URL

Prefix

Search

# Times

Move

ThenFind

ThenFindRev

Move

Len / Find

Suffix

************

Any line that begins with # is ignored. Anyline without a # is expected to be the next value in the sequence. This file is required to use AnythingTicker, even if you're only going to use it as a launcher, and turn off the ticker. Everything from URL down is repeated for each element you wish to extract from the web. View the source of the web page used in the current txt file, and follow along with the steps described in the txt file to learn how to make your own data items. Forcing an update of the ticker reloads all config information, in case you changed something it will be reflected after the update.

Height - (Portrait,Landscape) The height of AnythingTicker in pixels. While my form will adjust between portrait and landscape as requested, the framework will not (pending issue). Use TodayRefreshCmd.exe repair the ticker after height changes if you have a scroll bar or can't see stuff at the bottom of the form. The best avoidance is to set the portrait and landscape values to the lowest common denominator (landscape), and you will have no worries.

Colors - (Red,Green,Blue,Red,Green,Blue) values of foreground and background colors (0, 255). Text, then background, totaling 6 numbers seperated by commas. If you want transparent background the first background value should be 256. (255,255,255,256) would be white with transparent background, (255,255,255,0,0,0) would be white with black background. Using Transparent background means that AnythingTicker cannot automatically center the text on the screen or automatically wrap the text to a new line, sorry. Use spaces in the prefix to push text to the right if you must center, and use <linefeed> to start a new line.

Font Size - Size of the font.

Seconds - Amount of time in seconds to wait before refreshing AnythingTicker. Keep your battery in mind before setting too low. Setting it to 0 will turn it off completely, this is for those who want to ONLY use the launcher. If you want a ticker with time and such, but no internet information, you must still leave this non 0. Turning seconds to 0 means that the app will not use CPU or battery, except when interacting. When on, it must update periodically, which uses both.

Error Suppression - 1=on, 0=off. Instead of displaying an error due to bad signal, wi-fi off, or whatever reason, it will show the last update that was successful. If no update has yet been successful since AnythingTicker (or the phone) was started, then an error will be displayed regardless of this setting.

TurboLaunch - Upon program start ticker is not updated, and icons are not loaded. The idea is to launch quickly for instances where you may keep refreshing the today screen

URL - Address of the web page containing data you wish to extract. There is a unique option here to put "<none>". Followed by one prefix line. This is primairly so that you can use the ticker without internet data, just special data provided in the special characters below. You must have one prefix line in the file after the <none> to be valid, even if you don't put anything in it.

Prefix - Some characters to put before the extracted data on the ticker.

Search - The first string of characters to search for on the web page's source

# Times - The number of times to search for the first string of characters

Move - Number of characters to move from the position achieved by the previous searching (can be negative to move backwards)

ThenFind - Find another string of characters from the current position moving forward

ThenFindRev - Find another string of characters from the current position moving backward

Move - Same as move above

Len / Find - Either a number of characters to extract from the current position, or a string of characters to extract up to.

Suffix - Some characters to put after the extracted data on the ticker.

Special characters for ticker:

"<linefeed>" is useable in Prefix or Suffix to start a new line. It is also useable in the search strings to find a linefeed.

"<ut>" is usable in the Prefix or Suffix to insert the time the last update was performed.

"<none>" is usable only in URL for special conditions, see URL

"<date>" is usable in prefix or suffix to insert a real time date

"<time>" is usable in prefix or suffix to insert a real time clock

"<weekday>" is usable in prefix or suffix to insert a real time day of the week

********************** CUSTOMIZING THE LAUNCHER **********************

The file that controls the launcher is:

\Program Files\Managed Today Screen Framework\AnythingLauncher.txt

The file format is:

************

Height

Columns

Rows

Font Size

Colors

SuperLauncher

After Launch Mode

Icons

Icon Size

Gridlines

SuperLauncher Background Y Offset

Text

Icon

Command

************

Any line that begins with # is ignored. Anyline without a # is expected to be the next value in the sequence. This file is not required if you do not want a launcher. Text and Command are repeated for every item you want to appear on the launcher. There are no safety checks to make sure you make a sane grid which will fit the icons or text inside, or be reasonably tapable. Play responsibly. If you don't have enough commands to fill the grid, or to many to fit in the grid, that's okay. It will just have empty blocks, or some apps won't be visible respectively. It is important to have one <update> command on your launcher so you can force updating.

Height - see ticker height

Colors - see ticker colors

SuperLauncher - Turn the launcher full screen. When this is on, the only way to see the normal launcher is using an After Launch Mode of launcher. Be advised that if you pack a full screen with commands, you might not be able to select any in the smaller normal launcher. After launch modes of ticker or hidden are recommended.

Columns - How many columns you want the launcher grid to have.

Rows - How many rows you want the launcher grid to have.

Font Size - Size of the font for text to display in the grid indicating the app to be launched.

After Launch Mode - Which screen to go to after a program is launched. 1=ticker, 2=launcher, 3=hidden.

Icons - Whether or not to look for and display icons for applications. 1=yes, 2=no.

Icon Size - Size of both height and width of the icons to be displayed. Icons can be enlarged or shrunk from their original sizes.

Gridlines - Whether or not to draw gridlines. 1=yes, 0=no

SuperLauncher Background Y offset - The number of pixels to push the background image of a transparent superlauncher downward. The purpose is to match the position of the image on the today screen, which may or may not be pushed downward by the taskbar.

Text - The text to display in the grid indicating the app to be launched. This line must be here for each item even if you are using icons. It will be used in the event that an icon cannot be found.

Icon - Allows you to specify a path to a specific icon file (.ico) to use. Use <exe> to use whatever icon may be present in the application itself. If none is found, text will be used.

Command - The actual command that launches the application. Command and arguments must be seperated by a double comma (,,).

Special characters for launcher:

"<linefeed>" is usable in the Text lines to wrap to the next line within a box.

"<hide>" is usable in the Command line to go to hidden mode from the launcher.

"<update>" is usable in the Command line to force an update of the ticker.

"<autotoggle>" is usable in the Command line to toggle the reg entry for auto backlight dimming (not applicable to all devices)

",," is usable in Command lines to seperate command from arguments.

"<exe>" is usable in the Icon lines to state that you wish to use the applications built in icon, if it can be found.

"<rotate90>" and "<rotate270>" are usable in the Command line to toggle screen rotation between 0 degrees and 90 or 270 degrees counter-clockwise.

"<flashlight>" is usable in the Command line to turn your screen white, max out backlight, disable auto backlight, and disable auto off, until you touch the screen. (Not applicable to all devices, perticularly the ability to adjust the backlight.)

"<wpcycle>" is usable in the Command lines to cycle wallpaper. All it does is copy all files from directories found in \My Documents\My Pictures\wpcycle to \Windows on a cycling basis then wpcycle will restart the today screen to refresh the wallpaper, and launch AnythingTicker in turbo mode. You preformat and prename the pictures appropriately and put in directories within wpcycle. For instance on a 480x640 device one might have:

\My Documents\My Pictures\wpcycle\Hot Wallpaper\stwater_480_640.jpg

\My Documents\My Pictures\wpcycle\Hot Wallpaper\stwater_640_480.jpg

\My Documents\My Pictures\wpcycle\Super Hot Wallpaper\stwater_480_640.jpg

\My Documents\My Pictures\wpcycle\Super Hot Wallpaper\stwater_640_480.jpg

These are properly nammed wallpapers for both orientations of a 640x480 device.

********************** CREDITS / NOTES **********************

This application Uses Christopher Fairbairn's ChrisTec Managed Today Screen Framework to circumvent inadequacies of VB.NET 2008. NOTE: AnythingTicker's CAB file installs the framework for you, but will also remove the framework when uninstalled. Reinstall the framework if you use it with other applications.

AnythingTicker also uses Werner Ruotsalainen's TodayRefreshCmd.exe to refresh the Today Screen and show AnythingTicker after the CAB installs. You can also make it a command on the launcher if you often change the height of AnythingTicker, because only a complete today screen refresh will allow a height change.

********************** VERSIONS **********************

1.0.3735.36102 (5/15/2010)

- Added launcher (and many things associated with it, like special commands).

- Added 0 seconds to turn off ticker

- Added <none> URL option to allow "no interent" usage.

- Cleaned up code.

- Added hidden mode

- Added different left/right tap sections

- Added device time special characters for usage as a clock today item replacement.

- Added landscape height, still not quickly switchable unless framework is fixed

- Added comment ability in config files

- Added TurboLaunch

1.0.3672.33489 (1/20/2010)

- Added error suppression option

1.0.3671.34158 (1/19/2010)

- Fixed updating when device is off

1.0.3670.39448 (1/18/2010)

- Added color changing and optional transparent background.

- Added user configurable font size

- Changed time insertion to anywhere with <ut>

1.0.3670.15199 (1/18/2010)

- Reduced font size from 7 to 6

- Automatically adjusts to screen width

- User configurable height

- Support for <linefeed> in config file

1.0.3669.29916 (1/17/2010)

- Original Release