Proxi Blog

link: Proxi v0.19

In this update:

• AppleScript trigger
• Help menu now available in dockless mode
• About box / Splash screen reworked
• Improved updater
• Updater preferences
• Fixed extra value and filter item selections after a delete
• Exported blueprints check to make sure they are not replacing an existing file
• Assorted cleanup in anticipation of open beta

Mostly minor and cosmetic changes in anticipation of the open beta. I did add the AppleScript trigger though and that’s not really so minor. Not only is it useful for the obvious reasons, but you can also have Proxi trigger itself through an AppleScript task, allowing you to chain together triggers (be careful to avoid an endless loop). The AppleScript trigger definition takes this form:

trigger v : Proxi AppleScript trigger
trigger reference : the object for the command
description Unicode text : Description of the trigger
name Unicode text : Name of the trigger
[image TIFF picture] : An optional TIFF image for the trigger
[pictImage picture] : An optional PICT image for the trigger
[value integer] : An optional value for the trigger

To try it out, add an AppleScript trigger to your trigger list and set the AppleScript trigger name to “test”. Add a Screen Message task displaying the Description value or whatever. Then create a new AppleScript in Script Editor that looks like this:

tell application "Proxi"
trigger name "test" description "Testing Proxi triggers via AppleScript"
end tell

Run the script and marvel at the results. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

link: Proxi v0.18

In this update:

• Folder monitor
• URL coloring removed
• Help menu

My apologies to anyone affected by the expiration of v0.17, I usually set the expiration date one month beyond the release date, but this time I let it slip.

Folder monitor. This works similarly to Apple’s own Folder Actions. When a folder has an item added to or removed from it, it will generate a trigger with the name, url and some other information. You might use this to monitor a drop box or initiate a series of actions via AppleScript.

URLs in Screen Messages (and elsewhere) no longer force the text color to blue unless you have not specified a color for your text. So you should be able to set the URL color to whatever you like. I do force the underlining of a URL however.

Help: This kept me busy for awhile, I have a hard time when it comes to documenting for some reason. And I was kind of rushed with the expiration problem at hand so there are probably numerous grammatical and spelling errors.

So there you have it not much in this release, I’ve had a few other neglected projects that I spent time on over the last 2 weeks. I think we’re getting close to opening up the beta so if you have any additions you really want to see, now would be the time to make those requests.

link: Proxi v0.17

In this update:

• Added iSight image extra value
• Added Sound Play task
• Fixed problem with images not obeying justification settings
• Allowed multiply defined Hotkeys and fallback definitions
• Added Auto start at login preference
• Fixed media keys on intel
• Added eject and power Key Presses
• Added contextual menus in trigger / task lists

Most of the additions this time around are pretty self explanatory. But I’ll mention a couple. You can now embed an image from an iSight camera in your triggers (assuming you have an iSight) via the extra values items. Just add an extra value to your trigger then select iSight Image from the popup menu and you’ll have a snapshot from your iSight attached to the trigger values.

Let’s see… the Sound Play task is pretty obvious. The Hotkeys have been re-implemented allowing you to define the same Hotkey in multiple triggers. This might be useful if you want a Hotkey that does one thing when a certain app is active and another if not. The Auto start at login is a shortcut so you don’t have to open System Preferences and add it manually to your Login Items there.

So that’s pretty much it. Hopefully I didn’t put together a broken release (sorry about that last week.. oops) and let me know what you think.

link: Proxi v0.15

In this update:

• Fixed Hide Dock and Menu Bar preference
• Fixed Hotkey Monitor for Intel based machines
• Fixed a crash that could occur after deleting a Scheduled trigger

A minor update, but one of the biggest complaints has been the inability to remove the Proxi icon from the dock and run the application headless. I’m pretty sure I’ve got it this time… maybe. So anyway, I wanted to go ahead and make this available since it has been at the top of more than one person’s list of things that really need to be addressed.

link: Proxi v0.14

In this update:

• Enables added to triggers
• Added Open URL task
• View divider positions should now save
• Fixed a rare bug that sometimes caused a crash during redraw

Took a while with this release, I apologize. I added the beginnings of an enable system. For now you can selectively enable or disable individual triggers. In a future release we’ll add a method to store your enable settings in named sets allowing you to rapidly swap in and out groups of triggers. The enables are initially visible, but as it makes the trigger list a little busy you can choose to hide them if you like. Use the configuration popup menu below the trigger list to toggle trigger enable visibility.

I also added a Open URL task which is pretty self explanatory. And also the position of the view dividers should persist between launches of Proxi. Finally, there I fixed a seldom seen bug that would cause Proxi to crash.

link: Proxi v0.13

In this update:

• Fixed clipped text in screen message windows
• Screen message windows can now be dragged (command-drag)
• Screen message windows can now be made sticky (control-click)
• Command-W shortcut works again
• Added Open File task
• Mysteriously missing PowerMate Light task no longer missing

Mostly just fixes for some annoying little problems that have sort of crept into the software recently. I did go ahead and add one new task while I was at it though, the Open File task. Handy for me personally to open a todo list that I’ve put together using Hotkeys, Screen Messages, a Timer and Clipboard extra value. I hope it’s useful to you.

In other news, I think we’re going to try and move this blog onto the Griffin site some time in the future. I’ll keep you posted on when / if that happens

link: Proxi v0.12

In this update:

• Added Blueprint Browser to locate ready made blueprints
• Proxi now auto saves your changes. Happy now Dustin!?
• Several crashies were located and fixed
• Memory footprint substantially reduced
• Blueprint file format changed (still compatible with old version) to a more compact form

The biggest change in this release is the addition of the Blueprint broswer:

The browser locates blueprint files online in our repository and you can add them to your trigger list as you would any other blueprint file. A description is available for each so you can get an idea exactly what commands are contained within the blueprint. If you have a collection of triggers and tasks, feel free to submit a copy to me and if it seems useful, I’ll add it to the repository.

Another pretty big change is the auto save function. No longer do you have to save your changes. This is handled automatically. Actually the entire file menu has been removed.

Yesterday I noticed that Proxi’s memory footprint was getting a bit out of hand, so I did a bit of sleuthing and located a couple of extremely wasteful areas. This reduced Proxi’s initiali memory footprint considerably (from about 40MB to 15MB).

That’s about it for this release. Next release, I’ll be looking (again) at the Screen Message task. It seems that sometimes the text is properly positioned within a Screen Message window and also, clicking a link activates Proxi. Hopefully both of these will be fixed next time around.

link: Proxi v0.11

In this update:

• fixed a problem where clicking the values window made it and the component window vanish
• update Mail settings during install so the Mail trigger should work now
• fixed a problem with loading on Intel based Macs

OK, so my quality control needs a little work. I let this mornings release go without realizing that clicking the values window would make it hide itself. That’s bad. Anyway, I fixed that and a couple other boo boos in this build. Sorry about that.

link: Proxi v0.10

In this update:

• iChat task and trigger
• Shell Script extra value
• URL can now be embedded in other values or user defined text
• View animation crash fixed
• Trigger list disclosure states are now stored and recalled
• Preliminary support for auto software update feature

Some good updates in this release I think. Most are pretty self explanatory, but I’ll go into detail on a couple of them.

First, there is a new extra value type: Shell Script (note: this is not an AppleScript). Use this extra value to append the results of a shell script to your trigger. To do this, open the extra values disclosure triangle for your trigger, click on the “+” button and select Shell Script.

In the value field, enter your script. The results will be placed in a value with the name indicated by the name field.

Another requested feature was the ability to embed a URL value in some other text or another value. I’ve added that in v0.10 as well. You’ll notice when you place an URL value in a text field, such as the Screen Message task, that a URL value has a popup triangle. Clicking on that triangle will present your choices for embedding that URL. You can select an existing value such as the title of an RSS feed item as I’m doing here:

Or you can select “Embed in text…” and enter whatever test your like, such as “link”.

That’s pretty much it for this update. Keep those cards and letters coming and feel free to spread the word about Proxi. We could use a few more users.

Thanks again for your help!

link: Proxi v0.09

In this update:

• Repeating AirClick triggers
• A bit more undo/redo capability
• Speech Recognition trigger

A smallish update tonight: AirClick trigger can now be set to repeat. The repeat rate is fixed as it in the original AirClick software. This could be changed, but I figure the AirClick trigger settings view is already a bit more cluttered than I’d like.

I also threw a little speech recognition module together. It’s pretty self explanatory, just enter the phrase to trigger on. You may want to tailor the Speech Recognition settings in the Speech System Preferences Pane to your liking before using this.

It’s been a little quiet out there. I take requests, so if you have any let me know otherwise, I’m moving ahead with some work on URL handling and most likely an iChat (Adium too?) task for setting status and so forth.