BETA of the timer widget for FreshBooks
I have the first BETA version of the Windows timer widget for FreshBooks. This is great. I could use my previous knowledge from writing InvoiceSync to finish the timer very fast. Anybody interested to have a look, here is a direct link to the installer.
http://www.invoicesync.com/downloads/timerSyncSetup.exe
I don’t have any descriptions prepared yet, but I think it is straight forward and I don’t believe anyone would have problems using it.
And here is a screenshot:
In some days (possible weeks) I will make a separate page for it on my site, but for now this is the only link to it.
Tim said,
January 23, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
Hello - it seems like a recent .Net update by Microsoft may have broken your wonderful Timer widget. Just thought I would let you know! It’s very helpful, by the way.
Thanks!!
admin said,
January 23, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
Hi Tim
I don’t use .NET, I don’t see why would that affect my widget.
Did you experience some problems with it? Feel free to say it, no matter how bad it is, I am open for discussion.
Nathan said,
January 23, 2008 @ 9:45 pm
After trying it out for a few days and having it work wonderfully, the timer mysteriously stopped working for me, giving an “Unexpected Error” message. It doesn’t kill the program, but I can’t connect to my Freshbooks account. Any ideas?
I like the timer a lot, but one criticism (and a vain one at that): the start/stop toolbar icons are really ugly, and I’d personally prefer if the controls (buttons, dropdowns, etc) used the standard Windows style instead of the flat style. Just some feedback for you.
admin said,
January 23, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
Nathan, thanks for posting.
Any chance you installed an older version of invoiceSync after you installed the timer widget? They both use the same DLLs to access FreshBooks, and I updated the FreshBooks DLL for the timer. And I know I should check in the installer and overwrite the DLL only if installer has a newer one, but I haven’t got the time yet. I would suggest downloading (or reinstalling) the timerSync over the existing installation. This will most probably solve the problem.
This about the controls look & feel, I just picked one that seemed most standard to my eyes. I didn’t wanted to invest too much time in finding the best one, or also didn’t wanted to include all supported by Prof-UIS because that would make the download bigger. However, I might consider later compiling it with another style.
If you still have problems with the widget, I will probably tomorrow upload a new version (release 1.0), that will add also some other features, like auto stop on screensaver activation and optional periodical warnings (balloons from the systray) that the timer is running.
Regards,
Goran
Nathan said,
January 23, 2008 @ 11:48 pm
Goran,
Thanks for getting back to me. I did have an older version of invoiceSync, which is uninstalled now. Where do I find the DLL I need to delete before installing timerSync?
RE look/feel: I understand not wanting to spend much time on UI early on in a project. I really recommend the Iconzon (http://www.icozon.com/) icons; they’re beautifully done, look great with all versions of Windows, and are available at $3 per icon, buy only what you want. I’d be happy to provide more feedback on UI when you get ready to tackle that part of the project in more depth.
The new version sounds great, can’t wait to try it!
admin said,
January 24, 2008 @ 12:14 am
No need to uninstall anything. I hope you didn’t lost your settings, but it is most probably because uninstall will remove all files.
I was suggesting just reinstalling timerSync again over the existing installation that will overwrite the freshbooks.dll with a newer version. The files are installed bellow Program Files\invoiceSync
The dll is in Program Files\invoiceSync\bin, but I guess there is nothing left there now. So, just install timer again and be prepared to reenter your FreshBooks account info (because the uninstall removed that).
I appreciate your feedback about the UI and the icons in particular. I recently bought a bundle of icons from iconshock, I just think I have picked the wrong ones for the purpose. Or choose the wrong bundle, ha?!
I really appreciate your feedback and I am really happy you are ready to invest some time in playing with the widget.
Thanks,
Goran
Nathan said,
January 24, 2008 @ 12:37 am
Okay, uninstalling everything and reinstalling seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks!
admin said,
January 24, 2008 @ 12:40 am
I am glad I could help, Nathan.
Brian Massey said,
February 3, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
Downloaded your widget. I’ve been waiting for this for some time.
I followed your directions to enable the API in freshbooks and got a token string.
However, when I enter it and click next, I get a dialog box with “No such host is known”.
Do you know why I’m getting this error?
admin said,
February 4, 2008 @ 9:29 am
Brian, any chance this is happening on Windows Vista? I think there is a small problem in my library with DNS resolving on Vista. I am looking now into this issue and I will post here as soon as I locate the problem. Let me know if I can help any other way.
admin said,
February 5, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
Brian, just a follow up to my previous comment, the issue on signing in is resolved. Here is a link to a page that describes what’s new with a direct download link to the latest version.
http://www.invoicesync.com/timerSync/releases.php
Sorry for the inconvenience,
Goran