ImageSalsa 2.0 Beta

Users may wish to check out ImageSalsa 2.0 in its beta stage:  Beta Page Link
The beta software adds support for additional video capture devices such as Digital Video (DV), multiple USB capture devices, non-RGB frame formatted devices, removable devices, and others.  Please read the beta page carefully for explanation of the new features.

Please download and read the User's Guide which contains a quick start section to help you get going

Script Writers accessing CSV data:  Starting with version 1.9.12+ and 2.0.6+, there was a change to the CSV data mapping to accommodate the new Monthly Rain and Yearly Rain data points in version 1.01 CSV files.  Download the Change Guide.

Note that ImageSalsa may not reliably operate with Windows 95, 98, or Me (see explanation under the support page).  ImageSalsa is recommended for Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista and any other NT-based operating systems.

Changes:

Version 1.9.14:

• Updated copyrights
• Included demo key with no expiration in distribution

Version 1.9.13:

• Bug fix for occasional error #91 in procedure myInet_StateChanged -- possible affects users using the web images in their canvases.

Version 1.9.12:

• Adds support for version 1.01 of the CSV data files used with the Weather Edition.  A Change Guide for script writers is available.
• New Weather tags available for 1.01 users: "<csvmonthlyrain>" and "<csvyearlyrain>"

Version 1.9.11:

• FTP now performs three connection attempts before giving up -- previously was one attempt.

Version 1.9.10:

• Bug fix for font smoothing contrast value save/restore.

Version 1.9.9:

• Registered Dart control.  No other changes.

Version 1.9.8:

• Expanded font smoothing as a new option for each text line -- so you can use font smoothing in ImageSalsa independent of how it is setup on the system.  Also, added new option under Preferences menu to select ClearType font smoothing contrast.

Version 1.9.7:

• Quick fix to handle FTP "Send Temp, Delete, Rename" case where the original file does not presently exist on the server.

Version 1.9.6 (beta):

• Replaced FTP component with a trial version from Dart -- expires around 2/14/2005.  At that time, you will need to go back to version 1.9.4/1.8.10.  If the control works well for everyone, we will register it and release an updated version.
• Removed clock correction code in 1.9.4 that was the application to hang after many hours.
• Added support for font smoothing.  Previously, font smoothing caused a halo-effect for some text/background color combinations.  Now, ImageSalsa works with font smoothing.  You can turn on font smoothing by going to the Start/Control Panel/Display/Appearance/Effects.  Here's a sample -- each set of three lines is no smoothing, standard smoothing, cleartype smoothing:

Version 1.9.4 (beta):

• Added some stability enhancements to the FTP routines.
• Overhauled a good part of the shutdown code.  Should close more cleanly.

Version 1.9.3:

• Fixed bug that caused hang in FTP when a directory was provided in the path of the file.

Version 1.9.2:

• Contains fully-registered FTP control.  Otherwise, identical to 1.9.1.

Version 1.9.1:

• Fixed a bug where passive FTP mode wasn't used when set.

Version 1.9.0:

• Changed the Canvas Properties Layout -- split the Internet and Auto Save into two more tabs as each was fairly crowded.
• Fixed a bug in the text tag conversion where the 100ths of a second may occasionally round down one value such that 12:00:00.00 may show 12:00:00.99 instead.
• Changed the FTP control from the Microsoft Internet Transfer Control to one produced by Xceed.  I am using a temporary demo license that will expire in 20 days.  If all goes well, I will purchase the registered version and included it in the next version.
• Added Passive FTP transfer mode
• Added a Keep Connection Open option -- in recent versions of ImageSalsa, all connections were closed after a file transfer.  Some servers will let you keep the connection open which can allow faster transfer intervals.
• Added a Keep Alive mode (Makeup Activity...) that causes a PWD command to be sent every 30 seconds.  If you are using the Keep Connection Open option, but your interval is greater than a couple minutes, check this option to prevent the server from closing the connection because of inactivity.

Version 1.8.10:

• Fixed a bug with the rectangle graphic that caused both properties to change to 1 if either was set to zero or blank while editing.  Now, only the edited property will change to 1.
• Update the copyright to read 2002, 2003

Version 1.8.9:

• Changed the maximum canvas size from 1600x1200 to 3000x2000.

Version 1.8.8:

• Fixed a bug where large files would be sent through FTP even though the image quality was reduced.
• Made sure that program recognized schedule changes as changes to the canvas so that if the user forgot to save it, it would notify the user.

Version 1.8.6:

• Fixed a bug with the cropping routines.

Version 1.8.2:

• Upgraded Scripting and Weather versions to 100 graphics per canvas.  With improvements in the architecture of ImageSalsa, this capability should add only a tiny bit of extra resource requirements unless they are enabled.
• Added FTP Mode selection.  Some modes are not possible with certain servers -- if you see errors, try a different mode.  Modes available are:
  • PUT temporary, Delete original, Rename temporary to original (default)
  • PUT temporary, Rename temporary to original
  • PUT original

Version 1.8.1:

• Added sequential save intervals to 1/30th of a second.  You may not actually get this speed unless your machine is blazingly fast -- I got about 20 saves per second at 320x240 with a 2.4GHz Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 system.

Version 1.8.0:

• Changed the way True and False was saved in the portfolio and canvas files.  Now, it will resort to the native language settings.

Version 1.7.2:

• FTP upgrades:  1.7.1 and earlier kept the connection open.  This caused some problems for servers that had in inactivity timeout period longer than the FTP interval in ImageSalsa.  This version performs a fresh login, file transfer, and log off at each interval.

Version 1.7.1:

• Fixes <date> tag at midnight (didn't update until 12:00:01AM).

Version 1.7.0:

• Fixes Sunrise/Sunset calculation during daylight savings.

Version 1.6.0:

• Added new "Canvas Image" option to Graphics Source Type (i.e. along with Video Feed, Image File, URL, Rectangle).  Select this option and then set the Canvas Script Index (shown under the General Tab) value under the Canvas Source column.  You can crop, stretch, rotate, and all other options.  This will keep users from having to save an image to file and then load that image back into another canvas just to reuse it.  Note that when the canvases are drawn, they are done from the smallest to the largest script index; therefore, if everything is timed to fall at the same time, you will want the source canvas to have a smaller index so it is completely drawn before being loaded into the destination canvas.
• Added a "Save Canvas" button to the Canvas Properties Window.  The text is highlighted when ImageSalsa believes the canvas is modified.
• Changed the FTP sequencing again -- it was trying to change into the "" directory, causing an error.  If enough errors are generated, there appears to be a Microsoft bug that causes the control to hang.  With this change, the number of errors should be drastically reduced.

Version 1.5.5:

• Placed error handlers around the font properties of text lines in case font information is corrupted.  Empty font names are converted to "Arial".

Version 1.5.4:

• Placed an error handler within the Error 480 error handler :)  Not having been able to personally replicate this error, I think version 1.5.3 would still raise the error.  Hopefully, this version will not (fingers crossed).  I did verify that the error.txt file was being generated correctly.

Version 1.5.3:

• Any Error 480 bugs from the Picture.cls hDC Get property are stored in error.txt and the program continues without notice.
• FTP routine initializes to "./" instead of "/" to be friendlier with more server setups.
• Text property is stored in double quotes.  Now you can save leading and trailing spaces.
• Removed the beta designation since there hasn't been any problem reports related to the international compatibility changes made in 1.5.0.  Leaving v1.4.0 up a little longer.

Version 1.5.2:

• Fixed a bug where the Smooth Stretch property wasn't being saved.
• Added additional error information for Error 480 in Picture.cls -- now it reports the temporary filename that contains a possibly corrupted image.

Version 1.5.1:

• Fixed some bugs in the new International-friendly features.

Version 1.5.0:

• Went through and made the program more International-friendly.  Numbers are reported and entered in the default country format set under the "Regional Settings" under the Windows Control Panel (i.e. "35,6" vs. "35.6", "12.30.00" vs. "12:30:00", and the <date> and <time> tags should default to the correct format as well.  Internally, files are still saved in the United States format to allow easier sharing of canvases.
• Fixed cascading file bug introduced in version 1.4.0.
• This version is considered beta because of the many changes throughout the program for the international formatting.  A quick test shows that it runs, but I may have missed one or two.

Version 1.4.0:

• Added "Smooth Stretch" property to graphics items.  This gives you more control when stretching or shrinking a graphic.  Until now, all stretches where done by removing or duplicating pixels.  With the smoothing enabled, pixels are now blended.  This produces a better-looking image in most cases, but it can cause problems when transparent pixels are blended with the non-transparent pixels so try it out both ways to see which one produces the best results on a graphic-per-graphic basis.
• Changed the cascading file saves to base 0 from base 1 (i.e. first (current) image is saved as filename0000.jpg instead of filename0001.jpg). 
• Added "Save current as #0000" checkbox to the cascaded file saves.  Deselecting this, prevents the creation of filename0000.jpg since this is already being saved as filename.jpg.  This is to help out the dial-up users by reducing the number of files to upload from the directory by one.
• Added "CascadeMode" property to SCAutoSave object in ImageSalsa object model -- see User's Guide.
• Add four links under the Help menu that take users directly to web pages.
• Added <time12h>, <time1012h>, <time10012h>, <timehh12h>, <time0h12h>, <timeh12h>, <time h12h>, and <timeAMPM> tags -- see User's Guide.
• Added <timezonelookup> tag.  When ImageSalsa starts, it looks for a file called timezone.txt in the program folder and loads the lookup table inside.  This table should be individual lines with each line containing the original time zone text and the custom text to display, separated by a comma (i.e. "Pacific Standard Time,PST" would be one line).  Sample file distributed and installed in the setup.exe file.
• Added common text tag window that shows all text tags (not weather-related).  Available under Canvas Menu.

Version 1.3.1:

• Added <timezoneabbrev> tag.

Version 1.3.0:

• Added <timezone> tag.
• Fixed a bug where non-lowercase <sunrise> and <sunset> tags would not convert.
• Includes debug hooks -- no separate debug build.

Version 1.2.1:

• Fixed the bug created when canvases were removed while minimized.
• Fixed the installation such that the URL and UnInstall works correctly

Version 1.2.0:

• Fixed the retrieval of weather data min/max data between program termination and restart for international users.
• Moves current day's min/max/etchttp://www.imagesalsa.com. weather data to yesterday's when it detects a change in date from the weather station (used to use the system time, but this could lead to performing this operation twice).