Auction/Logfile Notifier Tool (Text Message or Email)
 

This is a little tool I created to notify me via sound alert or text/email 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 my precious 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:

https://i.imgur.com/qM3lvix.png

Here is what the text/email Config tab looks like:

https://i.imgur.com/C6bAFki.png

Note that the Transmit must be Enabled (checked) in order for texts or emails to get sent out. This should initially be unchecked for testing to make sure your search filters are setup correctly, or just to leave that feature disabled. Even if transmissions are disabled, they will still be logged to the Processed tab so you can see exactly how your filters are working. The Windows taskbar button for the application will also flash when a match is found. I would recommend starting out with Transmit Enabled being unchecked but have the sound alert checked so that you are notified when a match is found, to see how your filters are working.

Important: To have the program stop processing after the first text/email goes out, make sure the "Stop after first" option is checked. This option will be checked by default, as a lot of texts/emails 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 email services 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:

https://i.imgur.com/SVDIM8N.png

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 text 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. I still recommend creating a new email account you don't plan on using just in case it gets blocked due to excessive messages.

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. All it does is read the logfile of the currently logged in toon and parse the incoming messages in real time.

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 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 Windows 7/10 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/LogNot...eleases/latest

I hope someone finds this tool useful. Feel free to post feedback and/or any issues you may have.

Third party hax

This seems to be an overcomplicated version of GINA, no?

What service are you using to send out text messages?

None, since that seems to be a part of your program that would be against the rules since that gives an advantage while you're not at your keyboard.

dwarves at it again delving deeply! :p

Just standard Email->SMS gateway addresses, like 5152223456@vtext.com and such. I don't know if they are all still working and active, this tool has been around for a few years and I haven't updated the code or tested all the gateway addresses (actually haven't tested most of them).

Nowadays I mostly just use it for the audible alarm on a match when I'm at the comp.

You can find my old threads for this exact utility posted as long as 4 years ago, have never heard anything to that effect.

Hmm not familiar with that, but will check it out.

I actually wrote this for another notification system, so it's very generic in nature and not specific to EQ at all. It's doesn't integrate at all with Everquest (overlays, etc) and knows nothing about Everquest.

It just reads a live logfile and does various notifications, not that complicated really.

You really need to try reading the actual rules before you lecture others on them. There is nothing whatsoever in the rules against reading log files while AFK. On the contrary, they're explicitly permitted in the rules: