salimoneus
01-12-2016, 09:13 PM
This is a little tool I created to notify me via text message if an item I am looking to buy shows up in an auction. Basically you just enter in your search items, configure the text/email, and let it do it's thing.
This comes in handy when I'm working in the garage or around the house, or doing something out in the yard, or even working in a different window or virtual desktop at the office (purely hypothetical ofc), but I'm available to come back to the computer in the event someone posts the item for sale.
Here you can see it's configured to look for Wavecrashers and Insignia Protectors, and in case I am also posting WTB periodicaly, I added "You auction" in the exclude box to ignore those log statements. You could also optionally add "WTB" in the exclude box to filter out others' WTB posts matching the items:
http://oi63.tinypic.com/xggv3p.jpg
Here is what the text/email Config tab looks like:
http://i58.tinypic.com/2hdb8sk.jpg
Note that the "Enabled" option must be checked in order for texts to get sent out. This can be unchecked for testing to make sure your search filters are setup correctly, or just to temporarily disable it. Even if transmissions are disabled, they will still be logged to the Processed tab so you can see exactly how your filters are working.
Important: To have the program stop processing after the first text goes out, make sure the "Stop after first" option is checked. This option will be checked by default, as a lot of texts can result if the search terms are too broad or general.
I would recommend creating a new Gmail account to use as the Outgoing SMTP (account to send from) just for use with this tool, but it doesn't really matter what account it gets sent from it just needs a valid account on an SMTP server in order to send the text emails out. The reason I would use a new account is because most servers limit the number of emails that can be sent in a time period, so the account might get blocked if it gets too spammy. I have not tested all providers, only Verizon, but I used fairly standard email -> text mappings available for all providers so they should work.
When a log entry matches the filters, it gets added to the Processed tab:
http://oi66.tinypic.com/mcuq08.jpg
If there are errors during processing, the application stops processing the log file and indicates an error status and adds an entry into the Processed tab. The most common error would be invalid email credentials, so if you are seeing connection errors I would look there first.
Another way which I imagine this tool being useful, would be if you had EQ running in a remote desktop or on a virtual desktop (or both) at work, and were trying to sell a few items. You can quickly post your WTS messages, switch to another window or desktop, and wait for a text to show up from a potential buyer.
I'm sure there are other clever ways that this can be used, and it's not specific to auctions or even Everquest in general, it can be configured to watch any live logfile you have access to on a running system.
The application does save your preferences, so in between each run it will remember everything, EXCEPT for your email password. It never saves or stores or uses your password in any way aside from the actual sending of the text email message.
This tool does require EQ to be running, and a mule parked in EC so it can process the live auction data being logged. It does not try to impersonate an EQ client, nor does it log into the P99 servers.
This tool requires that logging be enabled, so make sure Log=TRUE in your eqclient.ini file.
This tool also requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17851) so if you do not have that please install using the link provided.
I am providing the complete C# source code, built with VS2010, as well as a zip file containing a Win32 executable. On Windows7 it will save your settings to an XML file in the c:\users\myusername\AppData\roaming\LogNotifier folder, and the location will vary on other versions of Windows. It is open source code with no viruses or ads, nothing but the code.
Latest release on GitHub: https://github.com/salimoneus/LogNotifier/releases/latest
I hope someone finds this tool useful. Feel free to post feedback and/or any issues you may have.
This comes in handy when I'm working in the garage or around the house, or doing something out in the yard, or even working in a different window or virtual desktop at the office (purely hypothetical ofc), but I'm available to come back to the computer in the event someone posts the item for sale.
Here you can see it's configured to look for Wavecrashers and Insignia Protectors, and in case I am also posting WTB periodicaly, I added "You auction" in the exclude box to ignore those log statements. You could also optionally add "WTB" in the exclude box to filter out others' WTB posts matching the items:
http://oi63.tinypic.com/xggv3p.jpg
Here is what the text/email Config tab looks like:
http://i58.tinypic.com/2hdb8sk.jpg
Note that the "Enabled" option must be checked in order for texts to get sent out. This can be unchecked for testing to make sure your search filters are setup correctly, or just to temporarily disable it. Even if transmissions are disabled, they will still be logged to the Processed tab so you can see exactly how your filters are working.
Important: To have the program stop processing after the first text goes out, make sure the "Stop after first" option is checked. This option will be checked by default, as a lot of texts can result if the search terms are too broad or general.
I would recommend creating a new Gmail account to use as the Outgoing SMTP (account to send from) just for use with this tool, but it doesn't really matter what account it gets sent from it just needs a valid account on an SMTP server in order to send the text emails out. The reason I would use a new account is because most servers limit the number of emails that can be sent in a time period, so the account might get blocked if it gets too spammy. I have not tested all providers, only Verizon, but I used fairly standard email -> text mappings available for all providers so they should work.
When a log entry matches the filters, it gets added to the Processed tab:
http://oi66.tinypic.com/mcuq08.jpg
If there are errors during processing, the application stops processing the log file and indicates an error status and adds an entry into the Processed tab. The most common error would be invalid email credentials, so if you are seeing connection errors I would look there first.
Another way which I imagine this tool being useful, would be if you had EQ running in a remote desktop or on a virtual desktop (or both) at work, and were trying to sell a few items. You can quickly post your WTS messages, switch to another window or desktop, and wait for a text to show up from a potential buyer.
I'm sure there are other clever ways that this can be used, and it's not specific to auctions or even Everquest in general, it can be configured to watch any live logfile you have access to on a running system.
The application does save your preferences, so in between each run it will remember everything, EXCEPT for your email password. It never saves or stores or uses your password in any way aside from the actual sending of the text email message.
This tool does require EQ to be running, and a mule parked in EC so it can process the live auction data being logged. It does not try to impersonate an EQ client, nor does it log into the P99 servers.
This tool requires that logging be enabled, so make sure Log=TRUE in your eqclient.ini file.
This tool also requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17851) so if you do not have that please install using the link provided.
I am providing the complete C# source code, built with VS2010, as well as a zip file containing a Win32 executable. On Windows7 it will save your settings to an XML file in the c:\users\myusername\AppData\roaming\LogNotifier folder, and the location will vary on other versions of Windows. It is open source code with no viruses or ads, nothing but the code.
Latest release on GitHub: https://github.com/salimoneus/LogNotifier/releases/latest
I hope someone finds this tool useful. Feel free to post feedback and/or any issues you may have.