Ticker Tape Changelog

What's new in Ticker Tape 1.5.1

Dec 15, 2014

Bug Fixes:
Fixed 'Invalid Property Value' crash that could occur on the 'Agent Look & Feel' tab of the Configuration dialog with some combinations of large font point sizes and logos
Corrected the update behaviour of the screen preview when adjusting the 'screen width' slider on the 'Agent Position Control' tab of the Configuration dialog in large jumps
Corrected issue where colour picker on 'Agent Look & Feel' tab of Configuration dialog stopped functioning once the 'Browse for Logo' dialog (accessible from the same tab) had been shown, leading to new colour selections being seemingly ignored
Agent Maintenance Wizard (previously Deployment Wizard) now increments failed deployments count as intended when Agent MSI copy fails due to existing read-only Agent MSI on target computer
Agent Maintenance Wizard (previously Deployment Wizard) now shows failure text in red consistently on grid view as intended
Corrected Agent launch command in Registry to specify debug parameter as intended (either /debug or /nodebug, with no 'debug=' prefix)
Fixed 'Invalid procedure call' error that could occur when the Administrator attempted to refresh the status of the Sites while certain prompts such as the 'Exit Ticker Tape?' confirmation was on screen
Corrected issue where a newly received Agent message was not displayed as it was determined to be 'already expired' by the Agent under certain scenarios and with certain regional date settings
'Please select the Sites to which this message applies' pane on main Administrator interface no longer 'randomly' switches to show Sites 22-42 when Site status is refreshed when 'Message Send Confirmation' is on screen
Tooltips shown within 'Message currently active in each Site' pane on Administrator now correctly indicates status of messages that have just expired
Loading of previously saved Site selections now functions as expected rather than setting all to unselected under some circumstances
Administrator Tools / 'Upload data to Ambersoftware...' no longer displays an error message during compression of files if Message Log file doesn't exist (as no messages have been sent)
Enhancements:
Each Site can now be assigned an Agent configuration profile, allowing the 'Look & Feel' of an Agents' Message to differ per Site (Agent configuration profiles are loaded and saved via the new 'File' menu on the Configuration dialog)
Agent Maintenance Wizard (previously Deployment Wizard) now caters for Agent software to be uninstalled from computers as well as its installation status to be checked
Ticker Tape Agent no longer disallows multiple instances of itself to run on the same computer - this opens up the possibility of running two or more agents configured for different Sites, displaying different messages with their look & feel (and position) controlled by the new 'Agent configuration profiles'
Agent Maintenance Wizard now indicates where an Agent installation failure occurs due to a Windows 'duplicate name on network' error rather than just showing the associated error number
Administrator Tools menu now contains new options to export and import the Administrator configuration settings, allowing configuration backups to be taken and the Administrator configuration to be easily transferred between machines
Where a multi-monitor system is detected, the secondary mouse click context menu on the Agent Message bar now allows you to choose which specific monitor to display the message on
Agent debug log file is now flushed to disk in near-real time, ensuring it's contents are always accurate and reflect the latest Agent status
Active Directory Browser on the Agent Maintenance Wizard now includes an option to additionally show system-related OUs that have been previously filtered out by default
Agent now automatically resumes scrolling if a new message arrives and the user had previously paused the message scrolling
When deploying the Agent, the Agent Maintenance Wizard now includes an extra option to attempt to start the Agent immediately after installation
Cosmetic tweaks/improvements:
Version number changed from 1.5.0 to v1.5.1
Deployment Wizard renamed to 'Agent Maintenance Wizard' through-out to reflect additional exposed functionality
Miscellaneous spelling / grammar corrections as well as internal HTML tidy-up to in-built Help
Corrected spelling error on tool tip help for 'Don't show this again' check box on Welcome dialog
Image within the "What to do if the Agent isn't displaying messages" help file topic updated to show correct manual install command line
Updated Help/About with additional contributors - thanks for your feedback!
Added a prompt to Ticker Tape Administrator on startup for the user to take the Ticker Tape survey if they haven't already done so (shown about 1 in every 10 launches only)
Corrected capitalization on hint text shown on 'Messages' tab in Configuration dialog
Foreground and background colours shown in 'Messages currently active in each Site' pane now reflects the actual colours in use by the active Message itself rather than the currently defined default 'Information', 'Warning' or 'Critical' colours
Added icons, hints and shortcut keys onto menu choices in Administrator GUI
Ticker Tape icon for both Administrator and Agent altered
Wording on Help / About screen altered slightly
Configuration dialog no longer offers to restart Ticker Tape following changes; just advises that the changes will be active on the next Ticker Tape Administrator launch
Agent Maintenance Wizard now defaults the configuration of Agents that it deploys to creating a debug log file (this behaviour can be overridden in the Wizard if necessary, though that's not recommended)
Agent Maintenance Wizard now instructs the Agent MSI to create a verbose, rather than standard, MSI installation log on the target computer(s) and also includes the date and time of installation in the filename (TickerTapeAgent-InstallLog-YYMMDD_HHMM.txt)
Wording regarding Manual Agent installation on 'Sites' tab of Configuration dialog altered to clarify that it relates to when the Agent Maintenance Wizard isn't used
Current Site name now shown in banner at top of 'Sites' tab in Configuration dialog
Altered the wording of the dynamically generated 'Sites without an active message' choice on the Load Site choices form
Copyright date and minor grammatical error in license file altered
'--> Free-text' button on Message Log Viewer now disabled if there's no prior messages to show
After hovering over the Proposed Message on the main Administrator interface, mouse pointer should default back to normal arrow when moving away more consistently
When an Agent message is already being displayed and a new message arrives, the message now restarts at right-hand side of message bar, rather than at the point where the old one was
Tooltips added for Logo-related checkbox and other controls on 'Agent Look & Feel' tab of Configuration
Example Ticker Tape Agent installation commands file is now rich, rather than plain, text
Corrected License file to refer to Ticker Tape 'Sites' rather than 'Geographical locations' as intended
Proposed message on Administrator now 'blinks' as the Agent would when paused rather than remaining static
Time the proposed Agent message would expire is now also indicated on the Administrator interface if appropriate
Minor cosmetic tweaks to log files / dialogs

New in Ticker Tape 1.5.0 (Dec 23, 2013)

Bug Fixes:
Corrected issue where choosing not to show Welcome screen was ignored and it was still displayed on the next software launch
Check for software updates no longer assumes direct connection to the Internet but respects the connectivity options specified within the configuration dialog (which, by default, uses the settings configured in Internet Explorer)
Where connection to Active Directory fails in Deployment Wizard, the 'Refresh' button on the AD browser is now disabled as intended to avoid triggering additional errors
Administrator incorrectly warned about sending an 'Alert' when sending a special command (clear or terminate) but the 'Send as an Alert' check box was still selected from a previous message configuration
Help/Ticker Tape Log Viewer now highlights warning messages as well as error messages as intended
HTML report produced by Help/Message Log export now renders with horizontal scroll bar as intended when viewed in Chrome
Count of failed Agent installs on Deployment Wizard status form failed is now updated as intended if the Agent is successfully copied to the target computer but then subsequently fails to install
Agent now repositions itself on next poll if its vertical position has been altered rather than next startup (if message still applicable)
'Refreshing Active Directory cache' form in Deployment Wizard now no longer gets hidden behind Deployment Wizard form in some circumstances
Deployment Wizard now correctly handles OUs containing single quotes
Enhancements:
In-built help added, accessible from the 'Ticker Tape Help...' choice from the Administrator Help menu
HTTP and FTP-based Sites are now supported, allowing use of Ticker Tape where Agents are not directly connected to the corporate network. Please note that this feature is currently Beta, so please let us know of any issues or suggestions in this area.
Maximum number of Sites that can be managed by a single instance of Ticker Tape Administrator increased from 21 to 42.
License Key dialog now allows entry of multiple licences, allowing a previously purchased license to be combined with new ones to increase the manageable Sites up to a maximum of 42. e.g. If you've previously purchased a 21 Site license, you could purchase an additional 14 Site license (or even two 7 Site licenses) to now manage a total of 35 Sites from the Administrator interface.
'Send to Tray' functionality at the Agent can now be disabled, stopping the user removing the Agent message bar from the screen (unless they're allowed to exit the Agent of course)
Sites with an alert style message are now indicated by the Site's status indicator flashing an inverse colour periodically
Configuration and Log files are now stored in common Application Data directory rather than the Ticker Tape Administrator installation directory to conform to Microsoft best practice (any existing configuration files are moved if required during startup)
Numerous changes to support creation of working / export files etc. to current users' (non-roaming) profile directory rather than Ticker Tape Administrator installation directory to enhance compatibility for 'standard' (locked-down) users
Tools / Upload data to AmberSoftware now allows capture of Message Control Files from remote Sites also
Frequency of the software update check can now be controlled from the 'Administrator Settings' section of the Configuration dialog
Current message displayed in the Message Log Viewer can now be sent to the 'Free-Text Message' text box on the main Administrator interface
Messages shown in the 'Messages currently active in each Site' pane on the Administrator interface can now be sent direct to the 'Free-Text Message' text box by secondary mouse clicking them
Agent installation via Deployment Wizard now behaves more consistently when re-deploying or upgrading an Agent on a workstation where it is already installed. In particular, changes of Site are now handled as expected rather than being seemingly ignored.
Message Log File viewer now has an option to export to Excel also
New 'Jump to first Site' and 'Jump to last Site' buttons added onto current Site message pane on main Administrator interface
Now possible to specify both an upload and a download MCF location for UNC based Sites; while these will be the same in the vast majority of cases for UNC-based Sites, ensures consistency with FTP/HTTP-based Site configuration and allows for additional flexibility
Added 'Message Confirmation' dialog shown just prior to a new message being sent out to a Site or Sites - affords user last chance to review message and settings prior to actual send
HTML Output produced by Help/Message Log viewer is now fully W3C compliant
O/S filter in Active Directory section of Deployment Wizard now dynamically populates based upon the O/S's found in the AD rather than a hard-coded list, ensuring all available O/S variants in your AD are catered for
Cosmetic tweaks/improvements:
Version number changed from 1.4.0 to v1.5
Alignment of Site 7 on Administrator interface altered slightly
Corrected spelling of 'position' and altered wording slightly in Live Preview button tooltip on Configuration dialog
Number of Sites selected is now indicated on main Administrator interface
Tooltips and status messages on main interface now refer to messages or alerts as appropriate
Tooltip shown for a Site with a message or alert set to expire now includes a space between the message criticality and type
Date format of Message Log Viewer exported CSV and HTML files is now always 'yyyymmdd' rather than 'ddmmyyyy' to avoid ambiguity between UK/US date formats
Correct grammatical error in error message shown in Log File Viewer when a copy of the Ticker Tape Log file couldn't be successfully taken
Added Minimize button to Ticker Tape Administrator interface
Version number of any update found is now included in tooltip when hovering over the 'Update Available!' status in the main Ticker Tape Administrator interface
MSIExec Agent installation log file is now created by default on Agent workstations when Agent is deployed via Deployment Wizard
Deployment Wizard now allows you to configure Agents to create a debug log file while they are running (by inserting a '/debug' on the command line used to launch them)
Copyright date on Help/About dialog updated
'Site Active?' text on 'Sites' tab of Configuration dialog changed to 'Site Enabled?'
Updated text in License file (no substantive changes, just copyright dates and mention of the Ticker Tape Survey)
Added pop-up help text to fields on the Sites and Messages tabs of the Configuration dialog
Enablement/disablement of Administrator Welcome screen is now on a per-user basis
Status message shown while loading the log file when using the 'Ticker Tape Log File...' choice on the Help menu now indicates percentage of the file processed
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are now used to format the HTML output generated using the 'Export to HTML' button on the 'Help/View Message Log..' dialog
Altered 'Prefix message with time sent' checkbox to 'Prefix Agent message with time received' as that more accurately describes behaviour at Agent
Up and down buttons used to view messages in each Site on main Administrator interface now enable and disable as appropriate when at first / last Site
Corrected pop-up help text associated with the O/S filter on the Active Directory browser within the Deployment Wizard to indicate that it is used to specify which O/Ses to include, not exclude
Message status tip balloons in main Administrator interface now indicate amount of time remaining until a message is due to expire or the amount of time since a message expired
Exiting Ticker Tape Administrator with the 'Exit' button on the main interface is now confirmed
Using the 'Help/Ticker Tape Log File..' menu choice to view a very large Ticker Tape Log file now behaves more gracefully, avoiding a possible transient 'Not Responding' message
'EMail/FTP data' button on 'Upload Data to AmberSoftware..' dialog now disabled while collection and processing of data proceeds
Altered advisory message shown at end of Deployment Wizard to indicate that the Agent will be active on the target Agent computers following a log out and log in, as well as a reboot
Deployment Wizard now indicates error number on target computer 'connection failure' message if unexpected connection failure occurs
Sizes of status panel areas on main Administrator interface adjusted slightly
HTML report produced by Help/Message Log export now includes message number in first column
Tooltip on Ticker Tape Agent message bar and Notification Area icon now indicates software version
Minor updates to installation routines to perform better parameter validation on interactive installs
Confirmation message now shown when choosing to re-enable the Welcome screen via 'Tools / Re-enable Welcome screen' on the main Administrator interface
General improvements to Deployment Wizard logging, error handling and feedback
Progress label on 'Refreshing Active Directory cache' form shown when Deployment Wizard is reading the Active Directory now taller to cater for longer OU names
Timeout value for queries when reading Active Directory in Deployment Wizard increased from 30 to 60 seconds to cater for large trees
Current LDAP location is now shown in status bar when browsing Active Directory structure in Deployment Wizard
Font used in this file ('About TickerTape') and when viewing the log file via the Help / Ticker Tape Log File menu changed to Verdana
General minor text / description & tab order corrections

New in Ticker Tape 1.4.0 (Sep 24, 2012)

Bug Fixes:
'Check Path Accessibility' button on Site configuration now refreshes to show 'Checking..' immediately when clicked as intended
Corrected the 'Ok' button tool tip text on the Load Site choices dialog which referred to 'Save' rather than 'Load'
'Valid For' time on main Administrator interface now validated to ensure it falls within acceptable range of between 1 and 720 minutes (12 hours) and only contains numerical characters avoiding subsequent error when message once 'Apply' button used
'Validity' time on Configuration / Messages tab now validated to ensure it falls within acceptable range of between 1 and 720 minutes (12 hours) and only contains numerical characters
Clicking the form close button (X) on the Agent's 'View in Dialog' form now just closes the dialog as intended rather than sending the Agent message to the System Tray as though the 'Send to Tray' button had been pressed
Tooltips shown within 'Messages currently active in each Site' pane for messages that are set to expire are no longer truncated
Corrected several instances where incorrect error details were either recorded in log file or shown to user when an unexpected event occurred
An empty Free Text message can no longer be send out to a Site as intended
Administrator now gracefully handles a number of situations where files in the program directory require updating but the user does not have the correct permissions (configuration, log file updates etc)
The flag as to whether a pre-defined message should use the 'Append Text' by default or not on the 'Messages' tab of the Configuration dialog is now correctly saved; previously it was incorrectly saved as the opposite of the expected setting
Enhancements:
Deployment Wizard introduced allowing easy deployment of Agent software for small to medium sized estates. Allows target computers to be chosen from Active Directory, imported from a standard text file or manually entered
New tab on Configuration dialog, 'Agent Position', allowing both vertical and horizontal position of message bar to be controlled by either specifying an absolute position or by a percentage of the Agent screen
Messages may now reference specific 'placeholder' variables or, more generally, environment variables available on Agent machines to allow dynamic information to be contained within Agent messages. For instance, the place holder variable %%ShortDate%% can be used to include the date in the short date format of the Agent machine or %%Username%% can be used to interrogate the UserName environment variable on the Agent machine and show the Users login ID - See the Ticker Tape documentation for further detail
Secondary mouse-clicking on the Free-text box now pops up a context menu allowing you to choose from a list of predefined variables to insert at the cursor
Now checks for whether an updated version of Ticker Tape is available to download - if so, user can launch the download page by clicking the 'Update Available!' message in the status bar
Message Log Viewer now includes indicates how many Sites the message was sent to and whether any failed to deliver
Message Log Viewer now allows export of sent messages as a HTML report or CSV file (for import into Excel for example)
Rate that Agent polls for changes to its Message Control File can now be specified during its installation (default rate is once per minute, but can be anywhere between 1 and 60 minutes) This will help minimize network traffic where new messages don't need to be shown within the first minute of them being set to a Site
The text of a message currently active on a Site can now be sent to the 'Free-text' message text box on the main Administrator GUI by using the secondary mouse button to click on a Sites message in the 'Message currently active in each Site' pane and selecting 'Send to Free-text' - useful if you're previously sent a non-predefined message out to the Site
Cosmetic tweaks/improvements:
Version number changed from 1.3.2 to v1.4
Minimum configurable percentage width of Agent message bar reduced from 20% of screen to 5%
Site status can now be manually refreshed by clicking the 'Site refresh due in x seconds' panel in the lower right corner of the Administrator dialog
Administrator status bar contains a link to the Ticker Tape survey (unless a software update is available as the update message will take precedence)
Message Log Viewer now utilizes iconic ticks and crosses rather than checkboxes to indicate whether the message was sent to a particular Site.
Numerous minor corrections and updates to tool tip text shown through-out
Implemented 'bubble' tool tip mechanism allowing clearer and more useful tool tips to be displayed on both Administrator and Agent
Message shown in 'Proposed Message' area altered to refer to 'Agents' rather that 'Clients' when a special command is chosen
Altered 'Ok!' buttons on Help/Program History dialog and Help/About dialogs to be 'Close' buttons instead to better reflect use
Re-organised Tools and Help menus
Open hand icon now displayed when mouse hovers over 'Proposed Message' area on main Administrator dialog
"Delete the selected definition" confirmation dialog on the Load Site Choices dialog now defaults to the 'No' button
Configuration dialog now centers to Ticker Tape Administrator window rather than screen
Message validity time on 'Messages' tab of Configuration dialog no longer immediately prompts that invalid values are out of bounds - they're corrected as the field looses focus
Altered 'Refresh Sites every' related text on Administrator Settings tab of Configuration dialog to refer to 'minutes' rather than 'mins'
Help/Ticker Tape Log File viewer no longer allows on-screen version of log file to be altered
Made tab orders on main Ticker Tape Administrator interface more consistent
Exit confirmation prompt title now includes Agent version number
Added accelerator keys on Agent pop-up menu
Agent message now 'blinks' when paused every couple of seconds
Agent message now fades out rather than just disappearing if user chooses to exit the Agent from its pop-up context menu (whether the choice is available or not is controlled by the Administrator software)
Message Log viewer now displays 'Alert', 'Valid For' and 'Message' fields as 'n/a' if Message Type was a control message such as 'Clear' or 'Terminate'
Sample Agent messages show in Configuration dialog's 'Agent Look & Feel' tab and via Live Preview now include some dynamic content, showing time, day & date
Paths for Test Sites in 'Sites' tab on Configuration dialog now default to fully qualified path rather than short path
Wording regarding installation of Agent software on Sites tab of Configuration dialog altered to refer to Deployment Wizard
Help/On the Web links updated to link to the AmberSoftware.co.uk Support pages rather than (now deprecated) forum
Help text for message 'Validity' setting on Message tab of Configuration form altered
Default width of Program History dialog increased
General code tidy and optimization in both Administrator and Agent software

Ticker Tape Changelog

What's new in Ticker Tape 1.5.1

New in Ticker Tape 1.5.0 (Dec 23, 2013)

New in Ticker Tape 1.4.0 (Sep 24, 2012)

New in Ticker Tape 1.3.1 (May 15, 2011)

New in Ticker Tape 1.2.3 (Dec 6, 2010)

New in Ticker Tape 1.2.2 (Oct 25, 2010)

New in Ticker Tape 1.2.0 (Jun 27, 2010)