Jelle Druyts

It's taken way too long to remind myself to release a new version of E = m c² - so finally, here goes: v2.1 is out the door! It even comes with source code again! What a perfect Christmas present for 3.4 gazillion E = m c² users*! Actually, there are quite a lot of extra features so if I would've released a bit more sensibly over the last months then it probably would've been v2.4 or so already. Anyway...

E = m c² is a free utility that can check various sources for messages, then filter and redistribute them.

A typical example is checking your mailbox and showing you a popup window if there are new messages, but it goes far beyond that since it's fully extensible using plugins. For example, you can check RSS files for new blog posts, monitor when a server comes online or goes offline, play a soundfile when new messages arrive, send a summary email, run a program, write to an RSS file, ...

Basically, you can make E = m c² do all you can think of! And it can do your laundry too (Pro version only**)!

What's new in this version?

• I'm also releasing the source code from now on (built on .NET 2.0 with Visual Studio 2005).
• Added support for trigger plugins to provide a list of messages of their own when they trigger. This allows non-pull scenarios to be supported as well (i.e. not only receiving messages by "pulling" Source plugins, but "pushing" to deliver messages from within a trigger immediately).
• Added support for "hosted" plugins, which don't actively participate in the message cycle but are just running in the context of E = m c². This means they don't handle messages but they can still have their own settings and commands. This can be convenient to host small pieces of functionality with settings that would otherwise require a standalone application.
• Duplicated the "Change Background" as a separate "hosted" plugin so you can also use it as is, outside of the message cycle.
• The "Change Background" plugins now support other background styles than just "stretch". The new StretchedWithAspectRatio option retains the aspect ratio of the original image while stretching it to fit the screen.
• Added "Yahoo! Mail" plugin that retrieves messages from Yahoo! Mail (but you need to make sure that your account is still using the "classic" user interface for this to work).
• Added "Network Changed" trigger, which triggers when the network changes (e.g. when you plug in or out of a network).
• Added "Debug" publisher, which writes messages to the Windows debug stream.
• The "Viewer" can now have message styles to color rows depending on certain message properties, e.g. the source of a message or its subject.
• The "Viewer" can now be configured to have an initial window state, e.g. to make it start as maximized.
• The template processor can now also use reflected properties, so not just the built-in tokens as before - e.g. $(Sender) - but also tokens that are taken from the value of a property on the (optionally subclassed) message at runtime. This provides better templating support for messages that are subclassed from the base EmcMessage class.
• The "RSS Source" plugin now attempts to remember the read items between sessions of the application.
• The "RSS Publisher" plugin now also writes the message recipients to the RSS feed so that a client also has access to the original message recipients.

You can find all information, screenshots, downloads, and even tutorials on writing plugins at the dedicated website: http://jelle.druyts.net/emc/.

Now I can continue working on the next version, which should turn out to be quite interesting. I already have a number of features lined up and semi-implemented that will take it to a next level. So I think that'll make it v3.0 and non-arguably the most interesting download of 2008 galaxywide***.

I'm even thinking of changing the name to something more meaningful and search-engine-friendly. I don't want to keep steeling Google Love™ from my good friend Albert, you know... So any suggestions would be welcome, and if yours makes it then you'll get a Pro version for free**!

* Usage information obtained by bribing a guy with a moustache who works at a local internet provider and promised me the number of downloads was legit.
** Ha ha! There isn't really a Pro version!
*** I might be a bit biased.

Background

I started rewriting my pet project from scratch in .NET 2.0 last summer, and I'm proud to announce version 2.0 of E = m c² (or should I say E = m c^2.0) is now finally all polished and ready! I'm actually pretty happy with it (and using it all day every day), so to make it stand out a bit more, I've created a separate site for it at http://jelle.druyts.net/emc/. That's where you can find all the information and download this free tool.

By the way, E = m c² (apart from a silly little formula relating an object's mass to its energy content) stands for Extensible Message Checker 2.0, because it's a tool that can check for messages (in the broadest sense) and, well, it's extensible (fully driven by plugins that you can easily create yourself).

Introduction

E = m c² is a utility that can check various sources for messages, then filter and redistribute them.

A typical example is checking your mailbox and showing you a popup window if there are new messages, but it goes far beyond that since it's fully extensible using plugins. For example, you can check RSS files for new blog posts, monitor when a server comes online or goes offline, play a soundfile when new messages arrive, send a summary email, run a program, write to an RSS file, ...

Basically, you can make E = m c² do all you can think of! And it can do your laundry too (Pro version only)!

Features

Runtime

• Fully extensible using plugins.
• Settings are saved to an xml file so you can easily edit and copy it.
• Certain settings can be encrypted if needed by plugins (e.g. passwords).
• Runs in the background, it's basically just an icon in the system notification area.
• Easy to install, set up and remove (if you could live without it).

Plugins

• Check POP3 and IMAP email.
• Check Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) email.
• Check RSS 2.0 feeds.
• Monitor the file system, i.e. get notified when directories or files change.
• Monitor server status (by ping or by checking a url).
• Filter messages by content.
• Write new messages to a text file or an RSS 2.0 feed.
• Show a desktop alert, a message box or a rich message viewer when messages arrive.
• Run a program, change the desktop background, play a sound or send an email when messages arrive.
• ...And you can easily write your own!

Alright, enough already, where is it?

You can find all information, screenshots, downloads, and even tutorials on writing plugins at the dedicated website: http://jelle.druyts.net/emc/. Did I mention it's free?

E = m c² (apart from a silly little formula relating an object's mass to its energy content) is a pet project I've created a few years ago and that I'm still using everyday. It's basically a tray utility that can check various sources for messages, then filter and redistribute them. A typical example is checking your mailbox and showing you a popup window if there are new messages, but the scope of this tool goes beyond that since it's fully extensible using plugins. For example, you can check RSS files for new blog posts, be reminded of events on certain times, log messages to a database, play a soundfile when new messages arrive, send a summary email, run a program, ... Basically, you can make E = m c² do all you can think of!

Although I still have a lot of plans and cool ideas for the tool, it's been over 2 years since my last update, and that's mostly because I haven't had much time to work on it and I was always postponing the release of a new version due to a lack of big changes. So with Visual Studio 2005 and .NET 2.0 around the corner, I guess I won't be continuing it as it is right now but I'm moving all the cool new features I have in mind over to the 2.0 release which will be built upon Visual Studio 2005 and possibly WCF/Indigo.

Hence, this is the final release of the 1.x branch, if you care enough to give it a spin then don't hesitate to let me know how you like it!

The E = m c² 1.3 executable and documentation (251,54 KB)
The E = m c² 1.3 executable, source code and documentation (380,87 KB)
The E = m c² 1.3 Plugin Pack and documentation, without Mshtml (301,93 KB)
The E = m c² 1.3 Plugin Pack and documentation, with Mshtml (1,86 MB)
The E = m c² 1.3 Plugin Pack, source code and documentation, with Mshtml (3,75 MB)

New features on the core executable:

Added checkbox "Add to all distribution channels" next to "Add Plugin" button so you can opt out of this default behaviour.

Fixed bug where plugins weren't disposed when new settings were applied.

Made the plugin properties panel show categories.

Made sure the Filters treenode in the settings screen is now always in between the Publishers and Subscribers nodes.

About screen now closes on any keypress.

Tray icon is now gray when the application is disabled.

New features in the plugin pack:

Added "Toast" plugin.

ContentFilter now works in Block or Pass mode and can be made case sensitive.

Added Categories to the plugin settings.

Renamed Ping plugin to ServerStatus because it now also supports checking an url to see if a certain server is online.

Added XslFileName to RssWriter plugin.

E = m c² and the E = m c² Plugin Pack have both upgraded to version 1.2. Get the goodies now!

The most important new feature in E = m c² is the concept of "distributions", which define the exact flow of messages between E = m c² plugins. If you do not explicitly define a distribution, the messages will be sent through all enabled Filters to all enabled Subscribers. On the other hand, if you define so-called distribution channels then you can create paths which the messages retrieved from all enabled Publishers will follow. For example, all new messages will always appear in a popup window but only important messages (this can be determined by a certain filter) will be emailed to you. I believe there's a lot of power in these channels. Other changes are:

• Settings are now serialized without version information.
• Updated the tray icon: when there are errors, it shows a white exclamation mark on a red background (as before) but when the last message check didn't cause any errors it becomes a red exclamation mark on a white background. 
• Messages are not distributed in a separate thread for each Subscriber anymore, a complete message check happens in only one worker thread.
• Fixed bug where messages were checked when applying new settings while the application was not enabled.
• The plugin properties window now shows the default value in the right-click popup menu to reset the value.

The power of E = m c² lies in its plugins, so I added a few new ones to the E = m c² Plugin Pack:

• Ping: This plugin will check if a certain server comes online or goes offline using ping commands.
• Run Program: This plugin will start a program for each message that arrives.
• Send Email: This plugin will send an email every time a set of messages arrives.
• Yahoo! Status: This plugin will check if a certain Yahoo! user comes online or goes offline.

Other changes:

• PopupAlerter:
  • Added option to write number of unread messages to registry (Windows XP or higher). This will be displayed in the windows logon screen if you switch user(workgroup environment only).
  • Added option to display tray icon independent of whether or not the popup window is minimized to the tray.
  • Tray icon now stays visible until popup window is discarded.
  • Changed the tray icon.
  • Made the form containing the message list non-topmost and added a "Show Message" button to it.
  • Message list now shows messages in a form in stead of a messagebox when doubleclicked.
• Fixed bug where Rss Checker wasn't reset properly after initialization.

The E = m c² 1.2 executable and documentation (247,92 KB)
The E = m c² 1.2 executable, source code and documentation (375,36 KB)
The E = m c² Plugin Pack 1.2 and documentation (76,81 KB)
The E = m c² Plugin Pack 1.2, source code and documentation (176,68 KB)

I just noticed that by compiling all E = m c² plugins into one assembly, the total filesize is now 52 KB where it was 80 KB when each plugin had its separate assembly. I guess there's a lot of meta information wrapped around the code - I didn't expect the assembly manifest to take that much space...

Three updates at once, each moving up to version 1.1!

E = m c² now has something called "Profiles" to group your settings into different configurations - you can easily switch between them using the system tray menu. Other changes:

• Fixed "major" bug (thanks Doggi, how could I have missed this?): Einstein's formula is 'E = m c²' with a lowercase 'c'!
• Fixed minor bug where the status screen didn't always show the right time messages would be checked next.
• About screen is fancier

The E = m c² Plugin Pack has the following changes:

• Merged all plugins into one assembly.
• PopChecker now supports top x lines of the email body.
• RssChecker now supports secured websites with a username and password.
• RssWriter now always sets description to a description of the message (sender, receiver, subject) and content:encoded to the actual message content.
• Adapted E = m C² to E = m c² (lowercase 'c'!) where necessary.

The only change to the JelleDruyts.Tools library is that I added an InputBox class. (Can anyone think of a reason they didn't provide one in the framework?)

The E = m c² 1.1 executable and documentation (244,13 KB)
The E = m c² 1.1 executable, source code and documentation (364,51 KB)
The E = m c² Plugin Pack 1.1 and documentation (68,97 KB)
The E = m c² Plugin Pack 1.1, source code and documentation (149,35 KB)
The JelleDruyts.Tools 1.1 library and documentation (143,34 KB)
The JelleDruyts.Tools 1.1 library, source code and documentation (173,78 KB)

I finally got around building the final 1.0 version of E = m C², updating the projects section on my homepage and deploying it, so I'm proud to announce that it's all there. What, you're still here? Go get it!

The E = m C² 1.0 executable and documentation (197,24 KB)
The E = m C² 1.0 executable, source code and documentation (320,86 KB)
The E = m C² Plugin Pack 1.0 and documentation (78,67 KB)
The E = m C² Plugin Pack 1.0, source code and documentation (174,1 KB)

I've been very busy lately getting v1.0 of E = m C² finished and I think I'm almost there... Extra helper classes and attributes have been written and tested, all code has been reviewed and documented, I created a flexible buildsystem with NAnt (it's generating developer docs with NDoc, making a release build, zipping it up in source and binary versions, ... all in one step), I wrote an extremely basic explanation of what the program does, ... Just a few more things to do and decisions to make and then I can finally post the final build. Exciting!

Although for you it's probably not that exciting because you probably have no clue as to what it is anyway

E = m c² is a utility that can check various sources for messages, then filter and redistribute them.

A typical example is checking your mailbox and showing you a popup window if there are new messages, but it goes far beyond that since it's fully extensible using plugins. For example, you can check RSS files for new blog posts, monitor when a server comes online or goes offline, play a soundfile when new messages arrive, send a summary email, run a program, write to an RSS file, ...

Basically, you can make E = m c² do all you can think of! And it can do your laundry too (Pro version only)!

See the E = m c² website or the E = m c² blog section for more info.