MSN On Fire. Now completed -Update your MSN message from FOF

[killerbyte]

I posted this in the work in progress forum whilst I was working on it and it's now finished so I decided to post it here.
This program updates your MSN what I'm listening to message with the song you are playing on frets on fire.
Firstly, I'd like to give some credit to Divra. I did not use any source code from his msn updater but he gave me the idea to make this, I wrote this program myself and it has some major improvements over his version.
It (should) work with any version of FOF using any mod.
Works with non default FOF or songs directories.
Customizable message with preview.
No modding or patching of FOF files required, just copy my program to your FOF directory and run it!
Option to start FOF when you run my program.
Instructions:
All there is in the zip file is MSNOF.exe, copy this to your FOF directory (the same folder as FretsOnFire.exe) and then run MSNOF.exe. It will take you through the first time setup which is quite easy, you just browse for your songs directory, then set your message preferences (see below) and some other small settings.

To download it, go Here
Note: you may get an error message when trying to run it along the lines of: "component 'some file' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid" If that happens then you need the library files from microsoft Here

screenshots:
main program:

Customizable message:

Note: where it says: "karl. - Frets On Fire: Jordan - Buckethead" It is only a preview, and it just shows you what it would look like on my MSN if I were playing Jordan. you can customize the message, for example, to say the artist before the song, or just to add any extra words in you like. the words "&Song" and "&Artist" are like special codes for the program and it basically tells it "insert the song name or artist name here"

Note 2: This was designed for windows XP, although it should work on vista aswell, however, I have not tested it yet.

Hope you like it, any questions or problems post here
Current Version 1.313

Updates:

Version 1.313:
Fixed a bug when Music was chosen instead of Game on the message settings.

Version 1.310:
Lock up bug whilst scanning should be fixed now and it should only take a fraction of the time to scan your songs folder, maybe half a second if you have a normal sized songs folder to about 3 seconds if you have a big one.
Some other minor improvements to do with communicating with MSN

[MarvinPA]

This has been done before, but I think this one is much better

It's probably more effective too, I'll download it when I use windows next

[killerbyte]

Yes, it has been done before. As I said in the first post, divra made the first version, and that's what gave me the idea to make this, since his version didn't have alot of flexibility. This version has alot of improvements over his, such as; it works with any version of FOF, it has a customizable message, works with non default directories, and other stuff.

[lnkk]

thanks dude, i'll definitely use it.

[Dan1lo]

I'm so using it, THANKS A LOT !!

edit: the program freezes when I press 'apply' at misc settings o_O

it just says Scanning and freezes :p(but it seems it works)

[MarvinPA]

Yes, it has been done before. As I said in the first post, divra made the first version, and that's what gave me the idea to make this, since his version didn't have alot of flexibility. This version has alot of improvements over his, such as; it works with any version of FOF, it has a customizable message, works with non default directories, and other stuff.

That's why I said this one's better

[Dan1lo]

It loads, scans fof, shows 'Frets on Fire - Idle' on msn.
Then it does the countdown to refresh again, I put 30 seconds.
I was choosing a song, it started scanning again.

Program froze.

help ?

[killerbyte]

Hmm. have you tried running it again to see if it does it every time?
There are two possible reasons I can think of why it is doing this:
If you have a large songs folder with lots of songs, it may take a while to scan them all, so it may appear that it has frozen but, it might be that you just need to give it time to finish scanning.
It may lock up whilst searching for the MSN window to send the song information to, because it might not be able to find it and get stuck in a loop.
I will have a look at these areas of code and change a few things to make it scan the songs folder more slowly so that it doesn't lock up, and also just make it give up if it can't find the MSN window and try again on the next scan instead of endlessly searching for it in a loop.
I will have it done by tomorrow because the computer that has the source code on it is at home, and I'm not.

[Dan1lo]

Ok, I'll do some more testing and then post it here...

And yes, it shows the message on msn, the main error may be the large number of song folders, and maybe subfolders...

Let's see...

Edit:

So I could track down the error.
It sends the message to msn OK, the problem is that it takes too long to look for the file, it seems that it searchs all the folders, if there's any way to track down the song the time we choose it...

Like... the game tracking the game menu or something o.o

For example, I have like 6 folders, I put only 2 now,
songs\fretsonfire
songs\rockband\dlc
so, when I played frets on fire, the program should just look for the song in the folder fretsonfire and forget about any subfolders...

It took two minutes+ to track down enter sandman in the rockband folder and some more to ride the lightning on the rockband\dlc folder

But it at least works fine
just needs to be optimized

[jrdnxxhero]

Thanks

[Dudoronron]

Works perfectly for me now after a bit of initial trouble, thanks for making it.

[bluzer]

coolio man, thx 4 this.

[italianstal1ion]

Works great, but it always has troubles with about more than 200 songs. I let it scan for awhile (until the Scanning... Idle) showed up, but whenever I open FoF or start a song then it will freeze again. I'd really like to see this work with my whole songs folder.

Awesome what you've done though. If its impossible to do the above, then don't bother.

[killerbyte]

ok then, I'll have a look at optimizing the file searching code when I get home. I'm sure theres a way to make it faster.

[Dan1lo]

ok so... one more suggestion ;D

Instead of Idle, make the user decide what message he wants to show.
For example
Karl. - Frets on Fire - Not Playing Yet

or something like it

and...
It seems it bugs when you put Music instead of Game, dunno the reason though