09/02/2016 Topic: Request feature for "Get new apps SPS" window Gianluca Administrator	An SPS is new if the modified date of the SPS physical file is within the 10 days. In my opinion we can turn around the problem in whatever way but the problem is only one: every historical or statistical information about an SPS can't be included in the file itself, because it's by its nature an external data. The SPS is a way to only install and manage your program, not to create historical and statistical data. When I read the file last modified date to give the user this "new" information I'm already stretching a lot the SPS nature. Do you want to know my thought? Doing this thing is wrong because infers an information on an accidental and different element. As we - me and sl23 - already talked about, we can imagine a lot of services tied to the SPS historical, statistical, or grouped data: the number of weekly/monthly download for every program, the stars and the reviews from the users, suggestions about similar programs, about programs installed by users that already have installed a certain program, and so on. You can imagine that all the information available in any smartphone app store could be offered for desktop apps. It would be a revolution! Naturally the information about a totally new SPS or an updated SPS could be easily included. Why am I speaking with hypothetical sentences? Because the effort to transform the current SPS architecture this way is over my current possibilities. I should rethink everything from SyMenu, to the SPS Manager and Builder, to the web site. I estimate an activity of 6/8 months, full time, to create all of this and unfortunately I can do it. All this talk to justify my sensation about the new/update overlay. In my opinion we can't entirely solve the problem with the current architecture and the effort to change the current architecture only to give the user a different overlay for the two SPS condition is too much. Unless someone's stroke of genius
10/02/2016 Topic: Request feature for "Get new apps SPS" window Gianluca Administrator	I'm really impressed... Why don't you think to create a plugin for SyMenu? You could include the logic from your script in a more consistent way for example inside a form. You could list the app with their icons and real names too and, if useful, metadata. Anyway great work. There are some little issues. In SyMenu the 10 days range are considered as <= 10 and not < 10. Yes with this rule they becomes 11 and not 10... my fault. The placeholder date file should be excluded from the final list. It's recognizable because its name ends up for "sps.zip.date" or because it's the only file with a 0 byte size. As I expeted if you check two times for new sps you loose the information for new SPS in the Trash mode because the second trashed folder already contains all the new files. But it's impossible to workaround that with the current architecture. Your second approach is more interesting. Checking the file physical creation date instead of the modified date you have a further information that, incredibly, remains consistent. I checked an SPS file and it preserves the correct creation date even if it's deleted and modified every time you use the SPS Builder to change something in it. It's counter intuitive but in fact it works. Windows sorceries... I have to go deep in this but if it is reliable the direct implementation in SyMenu becomes possible. I told you before... "Unless someone's stroke of genius"
13/02/2016 Topic: SPS Manager Bug Gianluca Administrator	You're right. I'll surely fix it in the next version. I discover one other bug in the SPS Manager. If your PC is not so fast, when you click the tab for a suite and really quickly you click on another tab, the program list won't appear. I think that I'll fix all these bugs locking the tab suites during the download of new SPS and during the grid refresh. Thank for your report.
13/02/2016 Topic: Request feature for "Get new apps SPS" window Gianluca Administrator	@sl23 Good idea. I'll put it on the TODO list @VVV_Easy_Symenu Thanks to your ispiration the different icons for new and updated will be available on the next version. I'm working on that exactly now.
15/02/2016 Topic: Future SyMenu version 5.01 Gianluca Administrator	It's time to publish some news about the next version. Besides the scripting engine I'm working on a new feature to recognize the SPS that are new from those ones that are simply updated. In the image below you can find my first attempts. I'm awaiting for your feedback.
16/02/2016 Topic: Future SyMenu version 5.01 Gianluca Administrator	Hi guys. The colors are only sketched and are not definitive. You can see two different solutions, one with the colorful background and one not. If someone wants to sketch something more nice and intuitive, be my guest. I don't track the user access in the SPS Manager and for this reason I can't remove the new/updated attributes based on that. But I can shorten the period in which the new status is activated. Now we are on 11 days. I can go down to 5 or 7 days if you agree.
17/02/2016 Topic: Future SyMenu version 5.01 Gianluca Administrator	And here's the new tooltip
17/02/2016 Topic: Select all apps for download/install Gianluca Administrator	Do you really need all of them? Yes you are right I haven't implemented the bulk selector yet because it is unusual that someone wants to download everyting and because I have to implement a method to group the newly created SyItem in a different way... now you'll find them all on the root. Anyway you can workaround the single click with the mouse using the keyboard which is faster: - select the first checkbox with the mouse - click on your keyaboard the arrow down key and click the space bar - repeat the sequence with the arrow down key and space bar until the end of the list. Hope this help
18/02/2016 Topic: Future SyMenu version 5.01 Gianluca Administrator	Every element you currently see in the tooltip is customizable. For example today you can have the only path but I haven't thought to the version. I can add it as a new option.
19/02/2016 Topic: Select all apps for download/install Gianluca Administrator	Nice joke sl23 Hosting Nirsoft suite inside SyMenu is an honor for me and not a charge, especially because I received the direct endorsement from Nir Softer. The problem jemail met is a real problem along with all SyMenu suite not the Nirsoft one only. I'm studing it and with a chance of 90% in the next version you can optionally install the SPS programs inside automatic created folders based on the programs categories. This is the main prerequisite for the jemail request because I can't allow massive installation that risks to mess your menu with hundred of elements all inside the root. If I realize that feature, I'll also create a standard way to multi select the SPS. I'm thinking about the use of the SHIFT key modifier. You find the SHIFT key use in various software (Windows Explorer, Total Commander, Double commander, Free Commander, Unreal Commander, Gmail, Outlook, Excel...). The SPS Manager will work exactly in the same way.
19/02/2016 Topic: Future SyMenu version 5.01 Gianluca Administrator
19/02/2016 Topic: Select all apps for download/install Gianluca Administrator	It's surely because of my English don't worry Today when you add a new SPS program, SyMenu creates the entry in the root of your menu. It's up to you to configure a more appropriate location through the configuration form. Conversely if you are updating an SPS program, its logical position won't be changed so if you have all your Nirsoft programs inside a logical folder called "Nirsoft suite", the SPS update won't impact on their location. With the next version you'll have an option to instruct SyMenu to put the completely new SPS programs inside a folder and not in the root. SyMenu will take the SPS category name to create/locate a folder with the same name in the root and put the new SPS program there inside. In case of categories with a compound name, for example program A category is system - Benchmark and program B is system - Utility, SyMenu creates a generic folder called system and you'll find both the programs all inside the folder system. For the SPS programs updating nothing will change, their logical folder will be preserved. In the future version I can evolve this concept but for now let's try this new approach.
22/02/2016 Topic: Let's speak about SyMenu and its world Gianluca Administrator	Hello guys. For those of you that haven't noticed yet I would like to introduce the new ugmfree page: About http://www.ugmfree.it/About.aspx About page was born as a container to describe all the topic that IMHO are strictly tied to the SyMenu world. You can read them all in the nice tag cloud you see on the top of the page (thanks to MB for that one). For now the About page hosts only two topics (Portability and Program Suites) but stay tuned for the next ones. The About contents will be serially previewed in the SyMenu social channels: http://www.facebook.com/SyMenu https://www.linkedin.com/company/symenu So if you like the contents or if you simply like SyMenu please support it in the social channels. It's easy and you surely know how to do that: click on like and follow. Thank you.
25/02/2016 Topic: Small bug in SPS Builder v1.1.2 when form is blank Gianluca Administrator	Are you sure that every needed files are available? In the same folder of the main SPS Builder file (SPSBuilder.exe) you need a file called System.Query.dll. Is this file at its place?
27/02/2016 Topic: The SPS scripting engine Gianluca Administrator	Hello guys. The new 5.01 version is in translation now so it will be released with a partial scripting engine: we'll only have the scripting before install. Sorry for that but the my release scheduling is too strict to implement the entire feature. At least when SyMenu is released the before install scripting feature will be available an fully working (I hope). I will update the SPS Builder just after the SyMenu release to avoid the publication of SPS that require the scripting ability before SyMenu is able to understand it. Stay tuned.
27/02/2016 Topic: Future SyMenu version 5.01 Gianluca Administrator	In that way we will have some full paths and some relative paths. It's not good for consistency. Besides consider that you shouldn't know where the SyMenu is located. Think about a SyMenu located in a network path or in a pen drive that always changes its drive letter. Again what if you have two SyMenu versions that work from different locations? I would know where exactly is any element inside the contextual menu I'm looking without making too many thoughts. You are right about the relative paths, they are easier to read but they are prone to be misunderstood too.
02/03/2016 Topic: Select all apps for download/install Gianluca Administrator	@sl23 I know that you hate using the SPS search engine but unfortunately this is the future. Think about this. Today we have nearly 1.000 programs split up in the three suites. The SyMenu Suite alone counts on 578 programs and all the three suites are constantly growing. We will reach a point where scan the entire list will become senseless. The search is the only way to master so many entries. The current filters become simple prefilled searches. Eventually I can think a way to allow the user to create his own filters/searches. My model here is the Gmail search engine. In Gmail when you want to search all the mail with the label it-SPS you are simply searching something like that "label:it-SPS" and using the available filter button is the same then using the search. So every current filter will become a search and even the suites split will lose its meaning. Will this change risk to convert the SPS Manager in a mess? I don't know but anyway this change is not in my priority list so we have time to think about that.
03/03/2016 Topic: Select all apps for download/install Gianluca Administrator	No I haven't understood you were talking about the "install in category" option and now I see you weren't speaking about search neither. The topic here is the program categorization. In my experience the categorization problem isn't solvable. It requires an unique criterion, maybe a single person who does the job. And even in this case we are not sure that this single person always works in the same way... maybe for a period he sets the categories in a way, while in another he changes his mind and changes his categorization method. And IMHO it's the only right method. In fact a way to maintain a good project organization is reorganizing it again and again, possibly every single day, because it's impossible to identify a good criterion from the start. You reach a better organization only refining and specializing your current one. If today you suggest a better category list, within some months you surely would like to change it because it becomes inadequate. The reality is not done of categories and our representation can only be an interpretation, our personal interpretation. Regarding the search I would like to make a simple example. The first web indexing portals work through categorization (do you remember Yahoo!, Altavista...?). And finding anything among the categories was a nightmare. Then Google comes and the music changed. With a categorized web you find nothing, with an indexed one you probably find more. I agree that the search is not the definitive answer. With the search you need to know how to place your search terms, you get a lot of not needed results, you risk to be overwhelmed of too many useful results. But search is the only working solution available today. How is the SPS state today? We are working in a mixed environment because we have categories and search together. I would like to push more and more the search feature without abandoning the categories, because they will become just another search. But we can work for an improved category list starting from now because the SPS Builder doesn't tie you to the suggested list. In other words already today you can create your own categories. For example when I create the jCloisterZone SPS I found that among the game categories it lacks the "Boardgame" one and I introduced it. You don't find it among the SPS Builder suggested/official categories but it exists the same because an SPS introduced it. Today I would like to change it in "Game - Boardgame" because it's more appropriate... maybe tomorrow I will change my mind again and the label will become "Game - Strategy - Boardgame".
06/03/2016 Topic: Too Many Windows? Gianluca Administrator	From a technical point of view is almost as rewriting an half of SyMenu but it's not an impossible task. Maybe in a future version. I have a question for you. Are you really sure that a mixed menu, built in elements and customized ones, should be so clear and easy to use for a normal user? Consider that, I am not a basic SyMenu user, but I rarely need to change the build in elements. I found my ideal menu structure and I leave it as it is for long. Instead I'm constantly changing the custom elements, adding new ones, removing old ones, changing the positions and the folders organization. So why I have to modify my custom elements along with the build in ones since they are so differently subjected to changes? Is it more logical and easier? Naturally I'm asking with no preconceptions and the question is opened to anyone.
06/03/2016 Topic: Select all apps for download/install Gianluca Administrator	You argument is valuable, as usual. My point is not against your approach but I'm objecting that your situation is not so frequent. I tend to think in a more extended way. When I choose something it should be useful for the wider number of users and I suspect that a too narrow number of categories could create too crowded sets inside the automatic folders. On the other side with double categories in SPS Manager, you can search for root categories only with the search tools or ordering the category column and having your root category grouped all together the same. In that way your approach could be followed even if not as perfectly as it could be.

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