CM Helper Replacement?

[Allan Wotherspoon]

The website for CM Helper seems to have disappeared and the latest version of the program I can find is 1.7.6-Alpha 4.  Are there any recommended alternatives that anyone recommends to automate the exchange of turns in PBEM games?

[A Canadian Cat]

How about Whose Turn Is It? : http://lesliesoftware.com/products/WhoseTurnIsIt/index.html

full disclosure I wrote it

[Ted]

Wow Cat, that looks really well done.

Is there a way to chat or message your opponent?

[A Canadian Cat]

33 minutes ago, Ted said:

Wow Cat, that looks really well done.

Is there a way to chat or message your opponent?

Thanks. There is not chat support in the officially released version. I am running a beta of the next release that supports chatting - including chatting with CMH users too. I'm not sure when I'll get it out the door though.

[Ted]

OK in the mean time I'll learn how to use this one. Thanks and good work.

[wgbn1968]

On 3/31/2019 at 6:54 PM, Allan Wotherspoon said:

 

After filling in the first three fields and clicking OK, this window appears

[A Canadian Cat]

Well that's not good.

The log file with the additional info should be in C:\Users\B..p\Application Data\LeslieSoftware\WhoseTurnIsIt\wtii.log The about box should show the path. There should be an error in there that will help diagnose the problem.

[wgbn1968]

Everything works well. the error was in the path to the game files folder. Now shows the sequence correctly.

Edited July 3, 2019 by wgbn1968

[A Canadian Cat]

Excellent. I have work to do to make that path to the games folder Forrest automatically more often.

[wgbn1968]

Why is the game archived from the dropbox? Most players keep 1-2 files in a folder to save space. Why no archive of incoming and outgoing folders of the game. If I want to archive the game, it is more logical from the game folders. Then it is not necessary to persuade the opponent to store files unnecessary to it and to overload a Dropbox.

[wgbn1968]

When a turn is completed, it is not sent automatically (or shows this). You have to wait for the update period to expire. It's a little awkward.

[wgbn1968]

As I understand it the backup game notes (very useful thing) in archive is not fit. It would be very useful if the notes were stored in the archive, at least in the form of txt

[A Canadian Cat]

7 hours ago, wgbn1968 said:

Why is the game archived from the dropbox? Most players keep 1-2 files in a folder to save space. Why no archive of incoming and outgoing folders of the game. If I want to archive the game, it is more logical from the game folders. Then it is not necessary to persuade the opponent to store files unnecessary to it and to overload a Dropbox.

I am not sure what you are seeing. WTII will copy the new turn file to the game directory and leave that one file in the drop box folder. Once you play your turn it will move the new file to the dropbox location and clean up the previous file. It should only keep a single file per game in the drop box folder and in the game files folders too.

There is a turn archive feature that copies all turns for a game into a sub-directory under a folder of your choosing. I would recommend that folder *not* be in drop box since it can get really big.

Can you clarify which place has more files than you expected?

[A Canadian Cat]

7 hours ago, wgbn1968 said:

When a turn is completed, it is not sent automatically (or shows this). You have to wait for the update period to expire. It's a little awkward.

Correct the code framework I am using does not have the ability to detect file changes so I was unable to update as files are changed. I see that a newer version now includes this so this is a feature I can add.

In the mean time you can use the Refresh command (available from the system try icon and from the app's main menu).

[A Canadian Cat]

7 hours ago, wgbn1968 said:

As I understand it the backup game notes (very useful thing) in archive is not fit. It would be very useful if the notes were stored in the archive, at least in the form of txt

I am not sure what you are requesting here. The game notes directory can be specified where ever you would like (one directory for all notes). It should not be stored with the game turns since those folders are visible to your opponent and I elected for it to be different separately specified from the turn archive directory because so that people can store their notes locally and their archived files on a external drive or NAS if you want.

Are you saying you would like the notes to be stored in the sub folder where the archived turns are being stored?

[A Canadian Cat]

I also want to say @wgbn1968 - thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it and can likely act on some of your requests in the future. Thanks for helping me get a full understandin of what you want to see as well.

[wgbn1968]

40 minutes ago, IanL said:

In the mean time you can use the Refresh command (available from the system try icon and from the app's main menu).

Now I do so, but it will be more convenient if when a new file appears in the "outgoing" folder, the update command will start automatically. This is not so important because you can set the refresh interval =1 minute

[wgbn1968]

During archiving, my opponent deleted files from our shared folder in the dropbox. In the game folders (outgoing and incoming), the turns files remained. After archiving in the archive folder is empty, in the folders of the game - empty. From this I concluded that the archive contains only the turns files from the dropbox.

[wgbn1968]

1 hour ago, IanL said:

I am not sure what you are requesting here. The game notes directory can be specified where ever you would like (one directory for all notes). It should not be stored with the game turns since those folders are visible to your opponent and I elected for it to be different separately specified from the turn archive directory because so that people can store their notes locally and their archived files on a external drive or NAS if you want.

Are you saying you would like the notes to be stored in the sub folder where the archived turns are being stored?

After the game is archived, the notes file is deleted.  It would be desirable that this file is added to the General archive of the game.

[A Canadian Cat]

16 minutes ago, wgbn1968 said:

During archiving, my opponent deleted files from our shared folder in the dropbox. In the game folders (outgoing and incoming), the turns files remained. After archiving in the archive folder is empty, in the folders of the game - empty. From this I concluded that the archive contains only the turns files from the dropbox.

Ah, Humm I should make that more clear and disable that command unless you have specified the "Turn archive root directory" (see the entry under the file management tab here https://www.lesliesoftware.com/products/WhoseTurnIsIt/gettingstarted.html). The archive game command .zips up all the turn files stored in the game sub folder of said archive directory. This really only works if you have specified a turn archive directory.

I am assuming you do not have the "Turn archive root directory" set. If that value is blank then no archive will be created.

3 minutes ago, wgbn1968 said:

After the game is archived, the notes file is deleted.  It would be desirable that this file is added to the General archive of the game.

Yes, if the archive directory is set then the notes file will get added to the .zip file. Or at least it is supposed to.

[wgbn1968]

Файлы, которые я указал в программе

[wgbn1968]

After archiving, you get an empty archive and all folders are empty. Where do I get all my turns files? Video - 

 

[wgbn1968]

Why do refresh delete turns files? Or something I have configured incorrectly? How to collect in this case all the turns of the game? Video - 

 

[A Canadian Cat]

33 minutes ago, wgbn1968 said:

After archiving, you get an empty archive and all folders are empty. Where do I get all my turns files? Video -

Thanks for the video that clears up my understanding of what you are seeing. Something is wrong though and am not sure what it is.

The archive process takes all the files in the archive directory sub folder named after the game you are playing and then deletes the files under the game files and the drop box share. In your example there should be a folder named "Quick Battle" under the archive directory. Each time you play a turn and files are transfered to and from the drop box folder copies should also be placed in the archive folder. At any given time there should be one file in the incoming folder, one file in the outgoing folder, one file in the drop box folder and a copy of all the files in the "Quick Battle" sub folder under the archive directory.

In your example for some reason no folder named Quick Battle was created and no turn files were archived in such a folder. Further for some reason those extra files in the incoming and outgoing are not being cleaned up as expected. I do not know how that happened.

[A Canadian Cat]

33 minutes ago, wgbn1968 said:

Why do refresh delete turns files? Or something I have configured incorrectly? How to collect in this case all the turns of the game? Video -

Refresh is performing the transfer of files to and from the drop box folder and the game files folders. It is designed to leave only the latest files in each of those locations. Part of that process should be keeping copies of them in a folder under the archive directory. That copy step seems to be not working properly in your example.

I see in the first video that your archive directory does have some sub folders. Are those sub folder names the names from other games you have played? Do those sub folders have .ema files inside them?