Chat Alert pack for uber doctors (level 100+) V2

[Soladoc]

sw33t

[davidchiou]

Covenant (creator of Chat Alert) has left AO. Therefore he is not maintaining his code. However, all the source codes (including that of ClickSaver) are available on his web site.
If this is really due to Vista, someone who is familiar with VB may need to take a look at the code and re-compile it for Vista. Any volunteer?

[Soladoc]

I'r Newbie WTB <3 ". would love to see this worked out!

[Soladoc]

Got this running on vista!

First what to do:

make a path: C:\chatalert\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1

add a text file: C:\chatalert\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1\Log.txt

Create a .bat file just with ur notepad and save it as .bat instead of .txt
example "q.bat", write in it:

type "C:\Users\Soladoc\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Progr am Files\Funcom\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Soladoc\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1\ Log.txt" > "C:\chatalert\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1\Log.txt"
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000
call q.bat

"C:\Users\Soladoc\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Progr am Files\Funcom\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Soladoc\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1\ Log.txt" = the original place of the log.txt

C:\chatalert\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1\Log.txt is the path we created.

now edit "chatalert.cfg" which is located inside the directory where u extracted the chatalert files and add there.

C:\chatalert\Anarchy Online\ (which is the first part of the path we created).

now start Chat Alert.exe and have fun!

Special thx to Criticaldmg who actually came up with this all!

[dockwagon]

What does pinging loopback device do in this?

Oh, wait... Literally wait? as in the famous nonexitent windows command wait or sleep? :-)

Haha, bestest workaround I've seen, I had to script some windows ***** and the pain of missing simple things as sleep had me wondering about the sanity of the system.

But the workaround makes the chat messages appear one second later. I would rather use tail for this, either http://tailforwin32.sourceforge.net/ or cygwin.

then just : tail -f <inputfile> >> <outputfile>

Or, solve it with the fad that pretends to be symlinks in windows vista :

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/

Edit : thougth a bit more and there are some wtf's with the script. Quite, good actually, as many wtf's as there are lines.

1 - Type copies the whole file into another and overwrites it. As file grows, this forces the whole file to be continously read (will read it, take 1 sec break and then loop back). Effectively steal <size of your logfile> from the operating system available memory.
2 - It overwrites the destination file all the time.
3 - It's a infinite loop.

How chatalert dont go bananas about getting <all your previous log messages> into the log monitor every second beats me.

This is a classical showcase if the only tool available is a hammer, every problem is a nail :-)

[davidchiou]

Wow you guys are uber.
Copying the file every second seems to be a pain for the hard disk. Dockwagon, which approach (q.bat for infinite copy, tail -f, symbolink link) do you think is the best way? This will benefit the Vista users a lot.
Is the reason that Vista fails to run Chat Alert due to something like file lock? But any idea why DD parser can run on Vista?
Thanks!

[CriticalDmg]

Haha, bestest workaround I've seen

thanks

Copying the file every second seems to be a pain for the hard disk.

You can make a small virtual ramdrive and copy the logfile there, this'd solve the constant writes to disk (but unfortunately not the reads).

Is the reason that Vista fails to run Chat Alert due to something like file lock? But any idea why DD parser can run on Vista?

Vista doesn't let Chat Alert to work simply because CA locks the log file for some unexplained reason... and the parser you're using probably not.

[dockwagon]

Best solution would be to get symbolic link to work.

If you have a directories called

c:\files_here\want_this_dir
c:\another_path\

with symbolic link want_this_dir could be linked to another path, so

c:\another_path\want_this_dir would point to c:\files_here\want_this_dir

From the operating system vies, there will be no differences then to the directories (except one is symbolic link).

Better explanation can be found : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link

then use mklink in cmd only once, no need for scripts later:

mklink "C:\Users\Soladoc\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Progr am Files\Funcom\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Soladoc\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1\ " "C:\chatalert\Anarchy Online\Prefs\Char001\Chat\Windows\Window1\"

I suspect chat alert is not configurable where to search for the files, so it searches ao installation directory, but vista have placed those somewhere else. That's why chat alert will not catch the log file

edit: symlink is better than tail

[CriticalDmg]

symlink sounds like the good old "subst" dos command
but if it works in the same way I'm afraid this won't help, as Chat Alert will still lock the file from the link as well

[dockwagon]

then try with the tail I posted previosly.

tail -f will output every change to a file.

so :

tail -f <log written by ao client> >> <log to be read by chatalert>

[Ober]

Not tried this, but I think installing AO somewhere else than program files, and giving your account "full control" or running as administrator, will avoid these problems.

I really should try one day

[CriticalDmg]

well what do you know, SUBST worked

open your command line (cmd , the good old fugly dos box),
or just the windows RUN menu (I'm sorry I can't tell you how to launch it since I don't have Vista and all this is just from my general knowledge, should be something like : Start -> Run -> cmd )
and type this in:

subst Z: "FULL_Log_Path"

Z - is the letter that'll simulate a drive
FULL_Log_Path - replace it with the full location of the log file (don't forget the quotes)
(most likely in: C:\Program Files\Anarchy Online\Prefs\account_name\Char##########\Chat\Windows\Window#)

after you've entered that line there should be another "hard drive" available to you (in this case - Z), so simply redirect your Chat Alert to look in that path instead, by editing the chatalert.cfg file (in the Chat Alerts' directory) with your favorite text editor and just copy there the drive letter like this:

Z:

P.S. you don't need to download SUBST as it comes with windows, and you don't need to read a guide on how to use the other programs

[Delforx]

Ok, so I finally got the q.bat to work the only way was to make chat alert be tied to the full path of c:\chatalert\ao\prefs\user\char\chat\windows\windo w1 and it works woot...

I tried to do the subst thing but CA seems to still lock that log file also. It will only update if I manually click on the log file.

[CriticalDmg]

well SUBST worked for Solams (he does have vista), so Idk... did you start AO first and the CA after ? so AO'll still be "primary file owner" or w/e u wanna call it

[Hurtig]

Sorry for digging up an old thread ...

The files mentioned in this thread do not appear to be available anymore. Does anyone have an alternative link?

[davidchiou]

Sorry for digging up an old thread ...

The files mentioned in this thread do not appear to be available anymore. Does anyone have an alternative link?

I have uploaded it again at:
http://rapidshare.com/files/79583926...Alert.zip.html

Not sure if it works properly with Windows Vista. As both the writer of the program and myself are no longer in AO, the support may not be enough. However, as the writer of the program released the source code, anyone please feel free to take over the program/configuration for fellow doctors in the future!

Sincerely,
David