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    Invelos Forums->DVD Profiler: Plugins Page: 1 2 3 4 ...19  Previous   Next
Tool: ProfilerQuery
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantDraxen
I see shiny discs...
Registered: March 13, 2007
Finland Posts: 681
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Thank you very much for sharing your time and programming skills with this excellent tool.

It has been very useful for me in many ways already and now I even use the export file as a replacement to the android application, which I can't seem to get to work... I just use your tool to save the results as CSV and place the file in OneDrive to be used with MS Excel in my mobile phone. Mobile use has always been essentially a double dip preventer for me, so in that regard as well, this is all I need 

Well deserved greenie given.
Mika
I hate people who love me, and they hate me. (Bender Bending Rodriguez)
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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Thanks Mika,

It's always gratifying to hear that others find my programs useful. I do write them mainly for my own use, but I try to make them useful for others too.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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New in ProfilerQuery 2.8.0:



I have added a search function to help if you are unsure of where a certain field is located. Just type in at least three characters, select the desired field and click OK (or just double-click the entry in the list), and the appropriate radio button and field will be selected.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantTraunStaa
Registered: June 2, 2009
Reputation: Highest Rating
Austria Posts: 305
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Just when you're sure that Gunnar can't make it better, he does. Greenie 
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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Why, thank you!

I'm not sure how much of an improvement it is. For the most part I think it was pretty evident how fields were grouped. You can thank my absentmindedness that this got added. I was using ProfilerQuery to calculate the cost of my collection and I had added SRP when I suddenly thought "Don't I have Purchase Price in here, too?"

Well, of course SRP is under General and Purchase Price is under Personal. That's logical if you think about it. And if I had actually figured out the groupings for myself, I probably wouldn't even have to think about it. But most of that was just copied straight from how Mark had done it in Database Query. That wasn't just laziness on my part. I thought it was a good idea to make it as easy as possible to switch between Database Query and ProfilerQuery. I never intended ProfilerQuery to be a replacement. There are some things that Database Query does that ProfilerQuery doesn't and vice versa. Mark did a heck of a job with Database Query, and without it as an inspiration there would never had been a ProfilerQuery.

There are two reasons why ProfilerQuery isn't an addin, and both are because I'm lazy, really. First of all I couldn't figure out how to make an addin in my favorite language, Visual Basic, and I was too lazy to try to do it in C#. Secondly, obtaining data from an XML file is almost certainly easier than getting it through an API. Especially if the API is kind of sketchily documented.

Of course there are some disadvantages to doing things separately from DVD Profiler. The main one is that it's pretty much a one way communication from Profiler to ProfilerQuery. There is very little possibility of pushing data back into Profiler. I can create a flag set, but that's it. An addin is also slightly easier to access since it's always right there in the Tools menu in Profiler.

This post kind of took off on a tangent didn't it? Well, rambling over for now. Take care, all!
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Sweden Posts: 4,508
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Okay, I would like some user input here. I have been contemplating doing something to make it possible to mix and-logic with or-logic in ProfilerQuery. I don't want to make it more complicated than necessary, user wise or programming wise. I have been thinking about this for a while, and my current idea is to make the selection something like this:



This example would correspond to (If Region = 1 AND Audio Content = Spanish) OR (Locality = Spain)
It may become a bit long if you want to include many selection criteria, but I really don't want to get into parsing free text with parenthesis, as this would be immensely more complicated and error prone.

As you can see in the mockup, there are only four type of statements: IF block, SELECT statement, UNSELECT statement and COMMENT statement. Actually, UNSELECT isn't really needed, but in some cases it may be simpler to add an IF statement and an UNSELECT, rather than wrapping a large logic block with another IF statement to exclude something.

You could actually start with a SELECT statement to include everything, and then use IF and UNSELECT to exclude what you don't want. In some cases that might make for a simpler logic.

I have also contemplated adding logic to select boxset parents based on properties in child profiles, and select child profiles based on properties in the parent profile. This would, however, not be in the initial release, if at all.

Note that I do not propose to replace the current selection system. This would either be a selectable alternative system, or a totally separate program (ProfilerQuery Extended).

At the moment I am trying to decide if it is at all worth the effort to implement something like this. So I would like to hear your opinions. How useful - if at all - do you think this would be?
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
 Last edited: by GSyren
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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Well, not much interest. I guess I won't do anything with this, then. It would have been interesting to further develop this with a FOR EACH CHILD loop, so one could test boxset parent and child properties at the same time. Oh well, file under "shelved ideas" 
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorWigram
Don't blink!
Registered: June 6, 2007
Reputation: High Rating
Canada Posts: 949
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Quoting GSyren:
Quote:
Well, not much interest.


May be you are too hasty. Wait a little more before shelving... I myself found the idea interesting but I cannot think about it further before the week-end when work is over and I can profile and play 
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantTraunStaa
Registered: June 2, 2009
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Austria Posts: 305
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I also find the idea intriguing and it surely may become handy. Mixing logic never comes out of date 
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
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Sweden Posts: 4,508
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Say Hello to ProfilerQuery 2.9.0

As you probably know, right clicking on a title in the result brings up the front cover scan. Now, if you hold down shift while right clicking, you get the back cover scan instead.

The front image is a thumbnail. The back image is the regular back image sized to full screen height. The reasoning behind the different handling is that you probably only want to see the front image in order to identify the title, in case you have several profiles with the same title, or you just want to be reminded what it looks like.

On the other hand, if you want to look at the back cover you are probably interested in some printed information, so showing the back cover as large as possible is probably desirable. The resizing is unexpectedly slow, so don't be surprised if it take a few moments to appear. How legible it will be depends, of course, on the quality of the original front image.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
 Last edited: by GSyren
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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I just updated ProfilerQuery to version 2.10.0

There are no new features, just the new look that you might have seen in another of my threads.
For some reason, editing the template for ComboBoxes required addition of a reference to PresentationFramework.Aero.

Please note that this has only been tested on Windows 10. I don't know how well this will play on Windows 7, so I'm keeping the old version available as well, just in case. I would be grateful if someone who is using Win 7 could try it and let me know if it works or not. It should work on Win 8.

Download here.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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Time for ProfilerQuery 2.11.0

What's new:
- Renamed "Is Missing or Blank" to just "Is Missing" (see note below).
- Added "Is Not Missing" to string comparisons.
- Added "Is Missing" and "Is Not Missing" to date comparisons.
- Restyled toolwindows, and made a minor change to main window style.
- Changed to my standard About Window.

Why the renaming of "Is Missing of Blank"? Well, let me start by giving you an analogy. If you wanted some milk, you wouldn't care if you found an empty milk container in your fridge, or if you didn't find one at all. The result would be the same. You're out of milk.

The "missing or blank" is a similar thing. While it is two different situations in a programming sense, the difference is totally irrelevant to the user. The data isn't there. So the text in the user interface shouldn't bother the user with programming details. It's one of the challenges for a developer; to change from looking at things from a programming perspective to a user perspective. It's something that a lot of us developers often fail at. Even after years of creating user interfaces. 

The case of "Is Not Missing" is a a bit different. Neither that nor "Is Missing" are really necessary. A standard "Is" or "Is Not" selection with an empty value field would suffice. But that may not be immediately obvious. And since I thought it would be useful to search for missing values I added "Is Missing". But I didn't think to add "Is Not Missing" and that creates a problem. If someone actually needs to test if something is not missing, it may look like ProfilerQuery can't do that.

So, now that "Is Missing" and "Is Not Missing" has been added for date fields, maybe you would like to select profiles that are missing production year. And you'll be disappointed to find that ProfilerQuery won't let you do that. Why? Well, DVD Profiler doesn't save production year as a date, just as a number, and a missing production year is saved as zero. So what? Well, ProfilerQuery treats all numeric fields the same, and zero doesn't necessarily mean that something is missing. It can be a perfectly valid number. So if you want to check for missing production year you need to check for production year zero. Just so you know.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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ProfilerQuery 2.12.0

I think this thread explains what has been changed.

If it doesn't, feel free to ask!
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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ProfilerQuery 2.13.0
What? Another update again???

Well, you know how it is. Or perhaps you don't? Well anyway, one tinkers with a program and releases an update. But the program stays in ones mind, and the cogs keep turning while one is doing other things, or even sleeping. And suddenly a thought pops up. Shouldn't this program be able to do this or that.

And that's what happened. I had been using ProfilerQuery, and I kept going to Profiler to check on things or update things. And afterwards I thought - it would be so much easier if I could just double click an entry in the result list and be taken automatically to that profile in DVD Profiler. And wouldn't you know, the very next thought was - surely that must be possible to do?

And, with a little tinkering, it was. So that's what's in this update. I'll try to stop thinking about ProfilerQuery for a while now. 

Edit: Almost forgot to mention: The Profiler window cannot be minimized. It must be Normal or Maximized for this to work.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
 Last edited: by GSyren
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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I screwed up! 

Shocking, isn't it? Well, I really thought I had that double-click thing working. But it turns out I was wrong. If you resorted the result tab, double-clicking selected the wrong profile in DVD Profiler.

I thought I had it figured out before, but Microsoft tripped me up. I used SelectedIndex to find out which row was clicked. But apparently the index doesn't change when you resort the grid. The row still has the index it originally had. So if a row is index 20 initially, but ends up on top when you resort the grid, its index will still be 20, not 0 (indexes are zero based) as I assumed. My bad for not testing better.

This is fixed in ProfilerQuery 2.13.2.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar ContributorGSyren
Profiling since 2001
Registered: March 14, 2007
Reputation: Highest Rating
Sweden Posts: 4,508
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Since the documentation for ProfilerQuery was really out-of-date, I took some time to do a complete rewrite for the latest version. 

You can get it here.
My freeware tools for DVD Profiler users.
Gunnar
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