Since my last release of my Custom Paper Deployment Tool (now hosted on Amazon’s S3 Platform), I have made a series of changes to the tool as I have been preparing for the next major release (available now). These changes include new features, cosmetic fixes, as well as major changes to the tool’s code to increase reliability and stability as well as increase performance while running the tool. I’ll go more in-depth about these changes below.
New Features
- Today I am happy to announce that using the “File” –> “Open” menu options, users can manually select .afd files and deploy them using my Custom Paper Deployment Tool. Under the “Open” menu there are two options “File” and “Folder”. “File” allows users to deploy .afd files one at a time. However, if you have a directory full of files and want to install all of the .afd inside it at once, you can use the “Folder” option to select the directory with the files in it, and it will install all of them at once.
- The “Tools” –> “Smartpen” –> “List Installed Packages” function has been enabled and is now functioning. This allows users to connect their smartpen and view a complete list of all installed packages on their smartpen. This includes all Livescribe packages as well as all custom packages.
Cosmetic Fixes
- The bottom of the main screen now shows the current status of deployment as the tool is deploying the .afd files. Previously, it only displayed the last file deployed.
- I noticed several minor visual issues with the interface of the spawned windows when a user selects an option under “Tools” –> “Smartpen” including button and text field placement. Basically, the text field continued on underneath the button which led to a problem when large amounts of text were placed in the field and the user was unable to scroll all the way down to view it. Those errors have been corrected.
- I found that the check boxes required selecting the text and then selecting the check mark itself (a full two step process). This has been replaced with a single click to either the check mark or the box itself to select it, significantly decreasing the number of clicks when deploying all of the notepads.
- I have replaced modified the “Tools” –> “Smartpen” –> “View Smartpen Data” screen to format the user set time in a human readable format. Previously, it simply provided the number of milliseconds that had passed since Unix Epoch Time (Midnight on 1/1/1970 UTC). This number is now formatted correctly to show both date and time in a way that human-readable text. I have also removed the RTC (Real Time Clock) displayed on the same screen. This shows the milliseconds that have elapsed from the smartpen’s creation. I removed this because it provided no useful information. As far as I know, it is only used to calculate the user set time.
Performance & Reliability Tweaks
- I’ve enabled multi-threading to allow the tool to process multiple actions simultaenously which increases it’s efficiency and stability. Each window now uses it’s own thread to allow background windows to continue processing while another window is open in the foreground. This also allows the main screen to display the current status at all times, even while deploying .afd files.
- My main reasoning for not enabling the “List Installed Packages” function in version 1.0.x.x was that it took an insanely long time to list the data (over 10 minutes) and was constantly polling the smartpen while doing so. I’ve reworked that code so that it pulls the data from the smartpen once and then parses it quickly, while displaying the results in the window. This function is now enabled.
- Previously, Custom Paper Deployment Tool required that users connect their smartpens after starting the program though it should have found any connected smartpens as it started up. I found a bug within the initialization routine that ran that part of the program in the wrong order resulting in the bug. This has been fixed and from now on, Custom Paper Deployment Tool correctly detects smartpens that have been connected before it starts up.
- If there are no boxes checked, the deploy button will disable itself to prevent crashing the program by attempting to deploy nonexistent notepads.
All in all, this is a very major release with a couple of new features, as well as many cosmetic and non-cosmetic bug fixes. It’s a rather hectic time for me so I’m thrilled that I was able to get this update out as quickly as I did. I’m looking forward to seeing your thoughts on the update!
Hi Rohan,
First I'd like to thank you for your work. And I wonder whether you can help me with the error below:
An error encountered when I tried to deploy any of the notepads with the 1.2.0.0.
It says that Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.
Index was outside the bounds of the array.
See error messages in details below:
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.
************** Exception Text **************
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at LivescribeAFDDeploymentGUI.AFDDeploymentGUIHome.deployBtn_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 (RTMRel.030319-0100)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll
—————————————-
System
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
—————————————-
Custom Paper Deployment Tool
Assembly Version: 1.2.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.2.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Howard/AppData/Local/Apps/2.0/MGBRXYNQ.89B/NK02MRQZ.DLE/cust..tion_c51e50a6d8984475_0001.0002_b28c4bb53e0fcf2e/Custom%20Paper%20Deployment%20Tool.exe
—————————————-
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
—————————————-
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
—————————————-
PresentationFramework
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/PresentationFramework/v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/PresentationFramework.dll
—————————————-
WindowsBase
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/WindowsBase/v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/WindowsBase.dll
—————————————-
PresentationCore
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_32/PresentationCore/v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35/PresentationCore.dll
—————————————-
Livescribe.DesktopSDK.PenComm
Assembly Version: 2.5.9.435
Win32 Version: 2.5.9.435
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Howard/AppData/Local/Apps/2.0/MGBRXYNQ.89B/NK02MRQZ.DLE/cust..tion_c51e50a6d8984475_0001.0002_b28c4bb53e0fcf2e/Livescribe.DesktopSDK.PenComm.DLL
—————————————-
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.0.30319.1 built by: RTMRel
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
—————————————-
************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.
For example:
<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>
When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.
Hi Howard,
Thanks for posting that error log. I have found and fixed the bug. The problem is resolved in version 1.2.1.1 which will be on the server in a few minutes. Give it about 10-15 minutes to upload and then next time you start Custom Paper Deployment Tool, it will update to that version.
Thanks for your help in making this tool better.
Well, the new feature works.
I tried File->Open->Folder which contains the .afd files.
And they have been installed correctly:
Package: cornell_notebook_1
Package: cornell_notebook_2
Package: cornell_notebook_3
Package: cornell_notebook_4
Package: cornell_notebook_5
Cheers,
Well I had simply broken the logic for the checkboxes so I'm glad that it does work!
I was replacing several of the numbers with constants and accidentally swapped two of them when generating the array that stores the checkboxes, completely changing its size creating that bug. Version 1.2.1.1 which is uploading now will have that bug fixed.
Thanks!
you could be the AFD file "LS_SA1_01_CVR.afd" from the developer's tool of Livesribe to add to your notepad, PDF tool?
(Google translator)
Hi Wolfgang,
I'm not sure exactly what you asking but I believe you want to know if you can deploy "LS_SA1_01_CVR.afd" that is bundled with the smartpen emulator? Well that .afd file is already deployed onto your smartpen. It is part of Livescribe's firmware.
Hi Rohan,
Just wanting to ask I installed the AFD file for the utilites but none of them work. Did I do something wrong? I can get all your pages to work but can't get the utilities to work.
Thanks for your work again.
Hi Renji
If you are referring to these utilities: http://www.livescribe.com/forums/showthread.php?p… I did not make them, and therefore cannot support them. As far as I know they were designed for printing on A4 paper, but I cannot see why that would be an issue. Did you print them out in black and white or color?
Hi Rohan,
installed your tool, but when i print the paper, the echo does not recognize it.
Before I printed the in the LD included notepads with the same printer, they work, but they are displaced a little bit and i can´t access to the printersoftware to change.
Do you have an idea, what i can do?
Ulli
System:
Windows7, echo 4gb, Dell Laser Printer
Just to confirm… did you deploy the notepads with the tool to the pen before printing?
Hey please contact me @ nyexperiential *at* gmail.com I wanna discuss creating custom livescribe notebooks for sale or modifying one of the existing custom notebooks to mass produce. As i understand it the sdk has been discontinued, ( can you send me a copy of it?) I read that you cannot create new custom pages, is that because the sdk is unavailable or because the pen won't recognize it?
Thanks for designing the tool, it works great!!
BTW, Is there any calendar app/ or calendar/organizer paper available out there??
As far as I know, there is no calendar applications or paper available right now.
Hi Rohan, thanks for making printable graph pads. After following your instructions and downloading the required software to my pen, my pen recognized the paper when I pressed record, pause, and stop. However, when I tried to upload it on to Livescribe Desktop, it said there were no documents to transfer. How do I get Livescribe Desktop to recognize these graphpads?
This is what I downloaded from your site:
Name: Custom Paper Deployment Tool
Version: 1.2.1.1
Publisher: Rohan Kapoor
The following prerequisites are required:
Windows Installer 3.1
Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile (x86 and x64)
If these components are already installed, you can launch the application now. Otherwise, click the button below to install the prerequisites and run the application.
Hi Diane,
If you followed the steps and the buttons are working then Livescribe Desktop should just recognize the graphpads on its own during the next sync. I have occasionally noticed that it takes a little longer to sync them the first time but no more than a couple of minutes. I just added a video at the top of the page demonstrating the deployment process. Can you verify that you did go through that process?
My feelin is that if you deployed it properly, your Livescribe Desktop could possibly be corrupted (it's happened to me one before). If you start using a new regular notebook does it sync over fine?
Hope that helps!
HI Rohan,
Downloaded the Custom Paper Deployment Tool, but it stops working the moment I connect my "SKY WIFI" pen. Does this tool work with the Sky Pens? Otherwise is there any way to upload the custom paper on this pen?
Unfortunately not, there is no support for the SKY Pen from Livescribe.
I have not tested it with the Livescribe 3. Why don't you test it and report back?