RandyRants: SharpMT 2.5

The rants, and occasional raves, from a guy trapped in today's world.

SharpMT 2.5 - Beta 3

SharpMT: Saturday, April 17, 2004 at 06:56 PM by Randy

This is probably the version that I should have waited for before releasing a beta at all but a) I wanted feedback on the Interface and b) I didn't think I would be able to hook up to Amazon's Web Services and get them working in under an hour's worth of effort. But here it is: Plug-Ins and the Book Search one is now included.

Bug fixes: Just one, and that's for the "disappearing" focus that used to happen with the Options form was closed.

Plug-In: The interface hasn't changed and is still at version 0.9.2.

Amazon Plug-In: This Plug-In is now included in the PlugIn directory: Amazon-PlugIn.dll. When this Plug-In is kicked off the SharpMT Input form is shown; there are two parameters to enter: Author and Book Title. You can enter either one or both but since Amazon only returns ten results per page and I'm only showing one page because it's quick and easy. If you aren't online when you try this you'll crash - just kidding! It will tell you in the results window that it's having trouble connecting and ask you if you're online. The resulting item links are returned in a random order - I tell them to come back in "Featured Items" order but it ignores me... but it works. I get back a list of book URL's: I select one and it drops right into the draft.

Of course, now that the Interface has grown, I almost want to re-write it to offer its own UI and offer a bunch more searching, but that might be a future thing... or someone else can do it too! I just want to be able to say, "Hey, I want to plug a book, and want to put a URL here: Memoirs of an Italian Geek without having to go chop apart an Amazon URL" and that's what it does.

This should be it for features and bug fixes, so I'll give this build a week of code frozen goodness and that's about it.

Download SharpMT 2.5 Beta 3: EXE | MSI
Read: SharpMT FAQ

Comments: (8)

(latest)

Posted on: April 17, 2004 at 10:32 PM by Doc

Cool! Been a while since I posted over here, but I have been very much keeping up with the revisions. Just haven't found that much broke or left out! Glad to see my donation has brought about such a superb effort.

Great work!

Let the plugins roll!

Posted on: April 18, 2004 at 12:24 AM by James

Love the plugin Randy. I'm hoping to create a "Map It" plugin that would create a link to a zip code or city, but I need to do more research to see if it is even possible (I'm sure it is).

Posted on: April 18, 2004 at 10:32 AM by Simon

Hi Randy,

It would be cool if the amazon plugin could target both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (shoot me if it can, I haven't had time to try yet). Also, it would be good if I could get it to always form URLs for my associates account. That way if people buy books I refer to then I get a bit of money. Fun!

Simon.

Posted on: April 18, 2004 at 03:15 PM by Randy

@Doc - Thanks!

@James - I think the only issue would be finding a server to supply the data... I dunno if there's an XML Web Service for it or maybe an XML Server - someone much have data for ya... it's just a question of finding it!

@Simon - UK might be possible. I'll have to check the Plug-In and see if there's an easy way to do it. I might have to make a third parameter and let UK end up in there. The problem is that the Amazon Plug-In could be a much larger applet... it should have it's own UI and support different products and items and countries and categories, but I haven't had the need to do it... thanks to the Plug-In bit, someone else can! :) I do know that it tried to put in my dev id and associates id in the URLs that it returned, but I have the Plug-In strip it out b/c #MT users shouldn't have to plug my account... you can always update the link in the draft but that's about it for now...

Posted on: April 18, 2004 at 06:22 PM by James

Randy, that's my thought. I have my own XML Map Server that I use at work, but I sure can't let everyone connect to it (lest I get fired). I'm hoping ESRI has one (http://www.esri.com), but I'm not holding my breath for a free/open one.

Posted on: April 23, 2004 at 10:15 AM by Arvind

I hope MT3 compatibility is on the todo list ;)

Posted on: April 23, 2004 at 12:01 PM by Randy

More like, I hope MT3 works well and lets me upgrade :)

I haven't even bothered to download the beta... how's it looking?

Posted on: April 28, 2004 at 09:30 AM by Arvind

Its looking great. If you were invited to the beta then I suggest you install it. Its amazing !