taskplan.txt
Die in Englisch geschriebene Dokumentationsdatei taskplan.txt beschreibt ausführlich die Einstellungsmöglichkeiten, die in der Konfigurationsdatei taskplan.ini benutzt werden können.
taskplan V 1.0
(C): 2006 by Thomas Breitenbücher
web: www.breitenbuecher.de
eMail: thomas at breitenbuecher.de
A small tool for checking regulary tasks and, if necessary, launching special commands via this ini-file.
The application was developed for once-remindings.
It completely closes itself after checking your items and will not collide with other applications.
When there is nothing to do, the application will stop silently, otherwise it will lead you through the ToDo-Tasks.
Since it doesn't stay in your computers memory it will not be able to remind you in a special moment.
Check out the Microsoft TaskScheduler or something else for that kind of needings.
The application contains of 3 files: taskplan.exe, taskplan.ini and taskplan.txt.
Copy the files to a place you want to and create a link to taskplan.exe.
Make a copy or cut the created link out; a nice place to put this link might be 'autorun' or 'Autostart'-Folder.
You can open that folder via right-click on the Start-button and move to 'programms' and then 'autorun' or 'Autostart'.
Copying the link to that folder executes the application everytime when Windows is started.
The following information is about the entries in taskplan.ini.
Important:
- Deleting values means disabling features (you might try false).
- Set features to 'true', 'True' is something different !
- Features and section can also be disabled by commenting a row with a preceeding ';', so you don't loose former values.
- Additional files like batch-files can be given with full path, otherwise they are expected in the path of this application.
Sections are starting with section-names in brackets [].
The special-section [COMMON] is used for language-specific phrases.
COMMON-ENTRIES in COMMON-section: (might be left empty, otherwise english defaults will be used)
You may use the tab-character at the end for aligning phrases (StartText, SinceDateText, NextDateText)
or within YesText and NoText.
StartText: something like 'starting task: '.
SinceDateText: something like 'to be done since:' ** when having problems with vertical align of the computed texts **
NextDateText: something like 'Next Date:' ** you may use things like ' ' (1 or 2 tabs + asc #0160) **
NowText: something like 'now'.
YesText: something like 'start task'.
NoText: something like 'don't start task'.
CancelText: something like 'dont't do anything'.
YesActionText: something like 'has been started.'.
YesActionTxt2: something like 'Could the specified job successfully be done ?'.
NoActionText: something like 'has not been executed, next date is'.
DoItAgainText: something like 'Do you want to start the task again ?'
All other variables belong to sections other than [COMMON]:
MUST-ENTRIES:
DateType: what kind of iteration (if any) should be used.
Allowed values: hour, day, week, month, once, none
'none' means disabling; after reminding for an 'once'-task 'none' automatically will be set.
NICE-TO-HAVE-ENTRIES:
TaskText: description of the task, otherwise the section-name is used.
TaskType: if you e.g. want to be reminded to actualize your virus files (if your anti-virus application doesn't do
this for you), the date of an reference file is compared to the value of NextDate to decide, if an action
should take place or not.
Allowed special values: antivirus (other values won't take any special action)
DateTypeValue: number of iteration of the given DateType, default is 1.
TaskCommand: shell-Command for starting applications.
Without a value only a message will be displayed.
The value will be executed as command for your operation system.
It may be a file in your filesystem (in the given path or in the directory where taskplan.exe is)
or a command of your operating system like 'del c:\windows\temp\*.*'.
Especially when some different steps have to be executed it might be good to put them as several commands
inside of a batch-file. In this case tell 'TaskCommand' about the name of that file and where to find it.
When trying to execute an operation-system-command you'll have to give the right shell-command.
Use 'command' in Win9x- and 'cmd' in WindowsNT-systems.
'cmd /C del c:\windows\temp\*.*' will delete all files in the given directory and close the shell-window.
'cmd /K dir c:\' will list the content of the root-directory of drive c: and leave the shell-window open.
WindowMode: sets the window-size of the executed application.
Allowed values: 1 normal size, 2 minimized and 3 full size, as default 1 is assumed when not given.
Brave hearted people may play with 0, the called application is then running in a hide-modus.
It won't be listet in program-list inside your Windows-Taskmanager, but can be seen in the process-list
inside the Taskmanager of Windows-NT-systems. But be careful, you have been warned !
NextFromSince: set to true calculates the next remind-date not from now but from the last remind-date.
If you don't use this parameter, new dates will be calculated with the given diffs from now on.
DontAskLater: by default you will be asked if a task given in TaskCommand has been executed and done its job successfully.
You will have the possibility to start the task again.
In case of remindings or simple tasks which won't fail you may not want to see that dialog, so set "true".
When using a special TaskType like 'antivirus' the program will look, if the ReferenceFile has been updated.
Therefor it's important to inform you, if that was successful and setting DontAskLater to 'true' will have
no effect.
SPECIAL-ENTRIES: typically used with TaskType=antivirus.
ReferenceFile: use with TaskType=antivirus.
The date of this reference-file will be used for comparison before and after the update-action.
When using a special TaskType like 'antivirus' you may display a task-specific message:
BeforeEndText: special TaskTypes like 'antivirus' need to to do a check before displaying the question-dialog,
which asks you for the success of the operation. Therefor the programm must be stopped via a dialog
like 'Has the task xyz been finished ?' before a check of changed files could be done.
ShowBadText: something like 'There was no update of the reference-file'.
ShowGoodText: something like 'Successful update of the reference-file'.
AUTOMATIC-ENTRIES, set by the application itself:
DateRemind: date of next action, will be compared with the actual date and the value of DateType..
****
EXAMPLES:
Most simple Task: add a new section and a line with a DateType-value.
****
[Show me that info next week]
DateType=week
****
If you start this on e.g. Monday and answer the reminding with Yes or No, but not Cancel, a new value for DateRemind
will be set pointing to next Monday. It will not execute any action, only a remind message will be displayed.
Setting the DateType to 'once' means, you'll never see this message again (but it still remains in the ini-file).
Typical task for e.g. saving your data on every first (or following) day of a month:
****
[Backup my data]
DateType=month
NextFromSince=true
TaskCommand=c:\programs\backup\backup.exe d:\data\*.*
DateRemind=01.04.2006
****
Started on a date later than 01.04.2006 the application will execute the given command when pressing Yes and having
a backup-software with that name in the given place. In the case of Yes and No the date will be set to 01.05.2006,
even if you press Cancel for several days, because NextFromSince=true means to calculate the next date from the value
of DateRemind and not from the actual date.
