TimeBuddy User Guide

Overview
Features
Glossary
Getting Started
Event Panels
Events
- Common Properties
- Setting Event Properties
Tools Menu
- Set Ruler
- Audio Clips
- Event Log
- Preferences
  - General
  - Email
  - Web Proxy
Warnings
Notes
Appendix A - System Commands
Appendix B - Web Command Implementation
License Notices

Overview

TimeBuddy is a scheduler and organizer with email reminders and audible alarms. The graphical timer also allows system command scheduling. Recurring events can be scheduled with the click of a button. The program can maintain multiple independent event panels. Programmable event actions include email reminder, changeable audio clips, pop-up window and system command. The user data is saved in XML format.

Features

Variety of event mechanisms:
- Pop-up reminder with repeated chime
- Play audio clip
- Send email
- System event
Graphical time scale
Graphical interface for setting events
Multiple, independent Event Panels
Dynamically adjustable ruler for best viewing
New audio clip installation
Event log
User data in XML format

Acronyms

AIFF	Audio Interchange File Format is an audio format developed by Apple Computer Incorporated
AU	A filename extension commonly used for the Sun Microsystems audio file format
CPU	Central Processing Unit is the processor of a computer
GUI	Graphical User Interface
ISP	Internet Service Provider
SMTP	Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is used in sending and receiving e-mail
WAV	A Windows audio file format developed by Microsoft Corporation

Getting Started

The basic components of the TimeBuddy software are shown in the following diagram:

To try a simple event execution, single-click on the Pop-up Window Event button in the Toolbox. This will select the event type. Now move the cursor into the Mark Container area, to a point on the right side of the Time Cursor. When you click the left mouse button, the event will be scheduled. The short line under the Mark will indicate that the event will execute (the line will not be shown after an event is executed.)

Similarly, moving the cursor into the Task Container, and clicking the left mouse button will set a Task. A Task is basically a component that has two sets of Marks, Start Mark and End Mark.

Marks and Tasks can be moved around in their containers by clicking and dragging the mouse on the component (pressing and holding the left mouse button while moving the mouse.)

Event Panels

Initially the software starts with one Event Panel--as seen in the image in the previous section. New Event Panels can be added via the New Event Panel menu item under the Edit menu. The following image shows two Event Panels named as Main Panel, and Performance:

Events

Clicking on different components in the Toolbox will select the type of event that will be used. There are 5 types of events:

Pop-up Window Event (with repeating audio)

Audio Event

Email Event

System Event

Setting Event Properties

Properties of the events can be set by double clicking on the components or by using the menu items under the Edit menu. Setting the properties of the components in the Toolbox will determine the properties of events of similar type. Properties of each event can also be changed individually after they are created.

Properties are set via the Edit Dialog window:

Every event type has Schedule and Repeat properties. The Schedule property is used to set the time the event will be executed:

The Repeat property is used to set recurring events:

The Event Choice dialog in the Edit Dialog window is used to select the type of event (a Mark can execute multiple event types.):

The Edit Event dialog provides different type of properties for each event type. These are provided in the following sections.

Pop-up Window Event

There are two actions associated with Pop-up Window Event. At the scheduled time, a pop-up window as shown below is displayed, and a sound clip selected by the user is played:

The Title and the Note fields in the pop-up window are set by the user as show below.

The following image shows how the properties of the Pop-up Window Event is set:

The Chime field lists the available audio clips (see the Preferences section to find out how to add new audio clips.) One of the audio clips will be selected by default. No audio clip is played as part of the event if the user un-selects all the clips. (A selected clip can be un-selected by clicking the left mouse button while pressing on the Control key.)

The Chime Repeat Interval determines the repeat interval of the audio play.

Audio Event

With Audio Event, an audio clip is played at the scheduled time. The following dialog is used to select the audio clip (this window is activated via the edit procedure described in section Setting Event Properties.)

One of the audio clips will be selected by default. An audio clip must be selected for Audio Event. If the user un-selects all the audio clips, the default clip will be activated automatically.

For Audio Events, "Chime" is the default clip.

Email Event

Email Event is used to send an email message at the scheduled time. The user must fill in the To, Subject, and Message fields using the edit dialog window as show in the following image (this window is activated via the edit procedure described in section Setting Event Properties.)

System Event

System Event is used to execute a system command. On the Unix platform, these commands will be Unix Shell commands and on the Windows environment they will be commands that can be executed in the Command Prompt window. The following image shows the edit dialog window for the System Event.

The System Event feature is aimed at advanced computer users. This feature has to be turned on via the Preferences dialog under the Tools menu. Getting the system command string right will require good understanding of the native operating system platform.

See Appendix-A for more on this feature.

Tools Menu

Set Ruler

The buttons that are provided under the Ruler are used for changing the starting time and the ending time of the Ruler. The buttons on the right and the left sides change the time span covered by the Ruler. The buttons in the center will change both the start time and the end time while keeping the time span unchanged.

Under the Tools menu, the Set Ruler menu item is used to set the starting time and the duration of time displayed in the Event Panel window. Pressing the Now button will set the starting time to the current time and the duration to 4 hours.

Audio Clips

The TimeBuddy software comes with a set of pre-installed audio clips. The user can install new audio clips to be played at scheduled times. Supported audio file formats are WAV, AU, and AIFF. For example, on the Windows 2000 platform, the Sound Recorder software (under Windows menu Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment) can be used to record new clips, save them as WAV files and install them on TimeBuddy using this dialog window.

The Volume control will be in effect when playing any of the audio clips, it is not an individual setting for selected clips.

Event Log

When events are executed, the time of the event is recorded in the Event Log. For the Popup events, when the user acknowledges the popup dialog window, another entry is writing indicating the time acknowledgement (note that this can be used to verify attendance near the computer at the scheduled time.)

Preferences

General

The General preferences panel tab includes the check boxes to turn on the Web Event and the System Event features. These advanced features will generate outcomes that are outside the functional scope of the TimeBuddy software.

The Main Event Panel Name field is used to change the name of the main Event Panel displayed on the lower left side of the panel.

Email

For Email Events, the TimeBuddy software functions as an email client. For this feature to work, the user must be signed up with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides outgoing email service that supports SMTP, typically known as Internet Mail.

The Email preferences panel tab is used to set the Outgoing SMTP Server name. Typically, this server name is provided by the ISP that the user subscribes to for Internet access.

The outgoing SMPT server may require user-ID/password authentication. In that case, the Outgoing SMTP Server Requires Authentication check-box must be selected and the user-ID/password should be entered in the User ID and Password fields respectively.

Note:

Some email services that provide email access only via Web browsers may not provide direct access to an email server. This feature cannot be used with such email services.

This software will not work with corporate mail servers such as Microsoft Exchange.

The Sender Email field populates the "From:" field that is visible in the email messages. However, regardless of what this field is set to, email headers going out from the ISP mail servers will include other fields such as "Received:" that will identify the ISP subscriber.

Warnings

If you remove an Event Panel, all the Marks and Tasks in that panel will be deleted.
The TimeBuddy software is designed for personal computing environments. This software should not be used in mission critical operations.
If the software is used to remind important events, the user must remember that there may be many other activities on a personal computer that may interfere with the normal operation of the software, thus resulting in event actions not being executed at scheduled times. These may include but not limited to power outages, computer going into hibernation mode, audio channel conflicts, system memory exhaustion and CPU overload caused by other programs.
If the system clock is changed, the application must be restarted, otherwise time references may not be accurate.
Graphically moving event Marks and Tasks over the Time Cursor will result in re-execution of the events.
When the software starts, recent past events (those in the visible set) that had not been executed will be executed.
When a Pop-up Event is executed, the window manager of the computer may not bring its dialog window in front of another active application--therefore it may be hidden behind other application windows. If the TimeBuddy software is iconized when the pop-up event occurs, it will be maximized (opened) and acquire the top level focus.

Notes

When there are multiple Popup Events dialog windows, only the top most of these windows will respond to user inputs--the others will be blocked. (For example, when deleting these windows, the user must first delete the most recent window, then the next one, and so on in reverse order.)
The TimeBuddy software does not run as an unattended background "service." Therefore events are not executed if the software is not running.
If a new event is created with a scheduled time in the past, then the event will be executed immediately.
Multiple Event Panels must be used to create overlapping Tasks.
When the Ruler is in the Auto mode, manual Ruler actions interrupt the automatic Ruler adjustments for 15 seconds.
To function as designed, the software must be able to store application settings in the file TimeBuddy/TimeBuddy.ser in user's home directory.
When entering data into the Preferences fields, hit the Enter key (CR) to save the data.

Application A - System Commands

These examples are provided as is; The operations described here are outside the functional scope of the TimeBuddy software.

On the Microsoft Windows platform, a system command can be any command that can be executed in the Command Prompt window. On Windows 2000, the Command Prompt window can be displayed from the Accessories menu item under the Programs menu.

Using this feature, the user can start backup jobs, start and stop other programs, display a Web page using external browsers such as Netscape and Windows Internet Explorer, and many others.

For example the command

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE http://cnn.com

will launch the Microsoft Internet Explorer and display a given web site. So, placing the System Event Mark at 8 AM in the Time Panel will bring up the browser to show the latest news.

On the Windows environment, right clicking on the program execution icons will bring up a pop-up menu; Selecting Properties from the menu will bring up the Properties dialog window. Typically, the text in the Target field under the Shortcut tab may also be used as the system command to run the selected application.

License Notices

Click here for the TimeBuddy License Agreement.

This software uses graphics artwork (icon images) from Sun Microsystems, Copyright and License notice.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/ ).