Vha.Chat and Vha.Net released

[Vhax]

New to Vha.Chat? click here

I'm looking for people to start using this for their normal daily usage and hoping the collective mass will trigger the last bugs remaining (if any).
I'm working hard to turn 1.2 into the finest Vha.Chat release yet, but I need your help to guarantee this quality.

I've setup a build server here: http://build.vhabot.net/
You can find the latest nightly releases here: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx

When reporting a bug, try to include the full version number from the About window. (especially the last number).
If you have reported a bug, I'd be really grateful if you can occasionally check back and see if it's fixed in a newer version.
Sometimes I have to fix bugs I can't fully reproduce locally.

[Vhax]

- Fixed a bug with 'scroll down' not going all the way down
- Fixed a bug with the friendslist going visually out of sync or displays blank characters
- Fixed a crash related to losing connection in a very specific state

New version up at: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx
Disclaimer: Alpha version, might behave better or worse than the previous version

PS. You might see an options interface, it's not functional. Ignore it

[Vhax]

- Fixed a crash bug that could occur while disconnecting (or cancelling a login)
- Added AFK command
- Fixed an incorrect 'Xxx left private channel' message when declining private channel invites

As always, new alpha build available at: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx

[Vhax]

I've just hit a really interesting milestone in the path to 1.2, the options interface.
It's done and to my knowledge fully functional. I could really use some testing though!

- Proxy support is back
- Added an options interface (no more manual .xml editing!)
- You can now select whether the side panel goes left or right
- The side panel can now be resized (size is not remembered yet!)

The new build can be found at: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx

ps. Options from previous 1.2 alpha versions may be lost.
There are mechanics in place to avoid this, but I intend to only use this between official releases.
Supporting alpha versions this way would clutter up the code too much.

[Vhax]

This time, a fix to the 'remaining online' bug some of you reported.
Thank you for testing! It's really helping me a lot!
Getting quite close to the beta now

- Sanitized user text input (you can now safely use < and >)
- White-listed center, left and right AOML tags
- You can no longer invite yourself
- Added a crash command (for debugging purposes)
- Added a reply command
- Fixed an issue where the client wouldn't exit even though all forms are closed

A fresh build can be found at: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx

[sorhan]

Wooo just found this today, excited to see a new alternative to AORC.

The /o, /org, and /organization commands aren't working for me, it tells me "Not a member of an organization" even though I surely am. I can see org chat though and talk to it if I manually select the channel. This is in version 1.2.0.160

Any chance of a feature where the program will beep or flash if certain (user-defined) words appear in chat? e.g. I like to be around in case orgmates need me, but I'm usually doing other stuff so I'd love to get a notification if someone said my name.

[Vhax]

The /o, /org, and /organization commands aren't working for me, it tells me "Not a member of an organization" even though I surely am. I can see org chat though and talk to it if I manually select the channel. This is in version 1.2.0.160

Good catch. I forgot a piece of code during the grand restructure. Should be fixed in the new nightly.

Any chance of a feature where the program will beep or flash if certain (user-defined) words appear in chat? e.g. I like to be around in case orgmates need me, but I'm usually doing other stuff so I'd love to get a notification if someone said my name.

Sounds reasonable. I'll certainly keep this in mind for future versions.


Latest changes:
- Fixed a bug that prevented you from talking in your own private channel
- Fixed a bug that prevented /org from working

As always, get your nightly here: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx

[NoGoal]

• Selecting text is still borked, I have to do ctrl-a once for it to work.
• Some parts don't get selected and/or stay selected after. Mainly the first bracket.
• No option to hide the sidebar. Left|Right is nice, add Hidden please.
• Some way to change the timestamp. I don't really care about seconds and I think I could even live without it at all.
• '/org bank' makes you say bank to the org chat. But I guess you can't use that without being logged in game.
• Tabs instead of pop-ups would be better imho. (ticket #41)
• Tabs to avoid spam instead of having to turn some channels to ignore. Like shopping, ooc, etc.
• Clicking an item should open auno/xyphos/etc. in your default browser.

[Vhax]

• Selecting text is still borked, I have to do ctrl-a once for it to work.
• Some parts don't get selected and/or stay selected after. Mainly the first bracket.

Bugs caused by IE which I can't fix atm.
I do intend to replace the WebBrowser control for rendering the chat output, but for now it's a necessary evil.

• No option to hide the sidebar. Left|Right is nice, add Hidden please.
• Some way to change the timestamp. I don't really care about seconds and I think I could even live without it at all.

Sounds like a few good options to add.

• '/org bank' makes you say bank to the org chat. But I guess you can't use that without being logged in game.

Yep, ingame only.

• Tabs instead of pop-ups would be better imho. (ticket #41)
• Tabs to avoid spam instead of having to turn some channels to ignore. Like shopping, ooc, etc.

Layout changes like these are too big atm.
Popups are mainly to emulate the ingame /tell popup in a generic way that works for all output sources.
Changing to a tabbed layout would be a much bigger change and possibly hurt the simplicity of the application.
But I'd love to hear some feedback about this from other users in how they use and wish to use the client.

• Clicking an item should open auno/xyphos/etc. in your default browser.

I kind of like the way it is atm. It shows you just the item and not all the fuzz of your default browser around it.
I'm aiming for the same usage/flow of ingame, where you can quickly check an item and close it again. Launching the default browser would take the focus away from Vha.Chat.
I guess I can see to make this configurable in the future.

[Octopuss]

Bugs caused by IE which I can't fix atm.

Explain a little bit further please...

[Vhax]

Explain a little bit further please...

I'm using a WebBrowser control which internally is just a wrapper around IE.
Because .net does many things for me, I can spend more time on features and less on trivial tasks.

Selecting text is one of these features I wrote absolutely 0 code for and is completely implemented by .NET and in this case, also IE.
Unfortunately, somehow the way I use it makes it dodgy and especially unpredictable (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and for some people never works).

I can't really fix this. But I can plan to replace this control with something custom to fix these issues.
But this will take time and other changes to happen first.


Latest changes:
- Fixed a bug with the private channel invite that stalled other messages and triggered a few other (now fixed) bugs
- Fixed a deadlock and a few threading related bugs

Your new nightly is being cooked here: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx

[Vhax]

Possibly the last feature is in. Going to give this some time for testing and we'll probably move towards a Beta release soonish.
('possibly' because I'm considering moving a few things up to this release )

Latest changes:
- Channel/pg/tell popups have been added. Right-click the side panel or shift-click shift a link to open them.
- The chat target dropdown is now sorted alphabetically
- Made the 'strip images' process a bit more aggressive
- Possible fix for selection bugs some are experiencing

Obtain the goodness here: http://build.vhabot.net/ccnet/server...ckageList.aspx

[NoGoal]

I can't select text by dragging mouse but double/trippple clic works (and better).

Also, something I forgot to say before, when you paste text it doesn't show in the input box unless you use the left key.

[Demoder]

Also, something I forgot to say before, when you paste text it doesn't show in the input box unless you use the left key.

Is there any chance there's a newline at the end of that copypaste? (try moving the cursor to the right again)

[NoGoal]

No it's not a new line, the pasted text goes to the left and the cursor stays a the same position (at the start of the box).

So if I press the Up key, nothing happens, if I press Left, text appears.

[sorhan]

Selecting text still only work intermittently for me even in 1.2.0.177, but triple-click does work (just a bit more unwieldy)

I'd like the option to select which DB is used by item references instead of having it always do Xyphos. I prefer Auno even though it's not as up-to-date.

I'd also like the option to set colors for each chat group, or at least have them closer to in-game colors. In particular, I'd like the darker brighter green for org chat rather than the dijon-mustard color it is now.

Shop sales display is great... I assume there's no way Vha.Chat can write this to the shop log file like AO does?

Overall, great program, and thanks for all of your hard work! Can't wait to see what future versions will bring.

[Octopuss]

How about some of the usual handy keyboard shortcuts? Like ctrl-backspace for deleting one word back?

[Waahash]

I have a few suggestions and one odd bug. The bug is nothing major, however.

Pasting text: add a scrollbar to the input box so that we can see just what we pasted and if we can add anything to it.

If I get a /tell from several people at once, it would be awesome to either be able to open a floating window for that person, or to be able to specify a color for the different people I'm talking to so I can pick out easily just which person I mean to reply to. These colors should be saved only temporarily since you can easily /tell many different people in the course of a day.

Maybe allow us to specify colors for different chat channels (with respect to the colors in my previous suggestion), and the chat client itself. Currently I get notifications from a few bots and the color of the client window likes to blend that text in. And with the current text selection issue, it makes it harder to be able to read it at the times I cannot select that text to highlight it.

Resizing of the channel/friends window, or a slideout bar for temporary viewing. The way I have the client set up is so that I can manage my screenspace with a browser, music player, a computer information layout, a few widgets, and AO among other things. With this panel being unresizable, it squishes all the text to fit into the entire client's size, making a short sentence a few lines long, and any "wts" dumps in the chat channels being more cumbersome, flooding the window.

As for the bug, to best replicate it, I am using Windows 7 Home Premium, and the client version is the 1.2 from July 23. I put all my text/program files for AO, including vha.chat into 1 folder in My Documents, and then I put that folder as a toolbar on my Start Menu. To select vha.chat from the toolbar on the Start Menu gives me an instant crash, with the message "VhaChat has stopped working." If I open the folder and start it from there, it works fine. Also, pinning it to the taskbar on the Start Menu works fine as well.

[Vhax]

Pasting text: add a scrollbar to the input box so that we can see just what we pasted and if we can add anything to it.

Not entirely sure if a scrollbar would work (visually), but it's something I certainly should look into.

If I get a /tell from several people at once, it would be awesome to either be able to open a floating window for that person, or to be able to specify a color for the different people I'm talking to so I can pick out easily just which person I mean to reply to. These colors should be saved only temporarily since you can easily /tell many different people in the course of a day.

In the latest alpha version you can middle-click or shift+left-click a name to show a popup window with the convo for just that person/channel.

Maybe allow us to specify colors for different chat channels (with respect to the colors in my previous suggestion), and the chat client itself. Currently I get notifications from a few bots and the color of the client window likes to blend that text in. And with the current text selection issue, it makes it harder to be able to read it at the times I cannot select that text to highlight it.

In the last alpha, set "bots and scripts colors" to "strip" or "invert" (from the options window).
The colors might be gone, but at least it's very readable now.
Changing colors is planned, but it's not entirely trivial so there is at least 1 major release between that and now.

Resizing of the channel/friends window, or a slideout bar for temporary viewing. The way I have the client set up is so that I can manage my screenspace with a browser, music player, a computer information layout, a few widgets, and AO among other things. With this panel being unresizable, it squishes all the text to fit into the entire client's size, making a short sentence a few lines long, and any "wts" dumps in the chat channels being more cumbersome, flooding the window.

Latest alpha allows you to resize the side panel.

As for the bug, to best replicate it, I am using Windows 7 Home Premium, and the client version is the 1.2 from July 23. I put all my text/program files for AO, including vha.chat into 1 folder in My Documents, and then I put that folder as a toolbar on my Start Menu. To select vha.chat from the toolbar on the Start Menu gives me an instant crash, with the message "VhaChat has stopped working." If I open the folder and start it from there, it works fine. Also, pinning it to the taskbar on the Start Menu works fine as well.

I can think of a few reasons why this happens.
I'll let you know when I committed a possible fix.

How about some of the usual handy keyboard shortcuts? Like ctrl-backspace for deleting one word back?

Sounds good, got any more?
I'm not entirely familiar what all the "usual" ones are :P

[Waahash]

Not entirely sure if a scrollbar would work (visually), but it's something I certainly should look into.

I will delete the internet if you do not add this feature. Do you want that on your head?! You, sir, can prevent this from happening.

In the latest alpha version you can middle-click or shift+left-click a name to show a popup window with the convo for just that person/channel.

Oh, nice.

Latest alpha allows you to resize the side panel.

I found the resize sweet spot, about 2 inches to the right of the panel, but I can manage it with a little muscle memory.