GVNotifier moving forward

July 10, 2010 by Dave
 

Thanks to an update on Lifehacker, GVNotifier has been installed 3,000 times in the past few days.  I’ve been flooded with emails and IMs–I apologize if I didn’t respond to you.  I generally try to respond to everything, but with working full-time, I wasn’t around and many messages were missed.  Thanks to those who have donated, and also those that left kind words!  I appreciate the feedback, good and bad.

As I have indicated in some email exchanges, I’m working full-time for the summer and and don’t have much spare time for development.  I’ll be picking back up at the end of August, but things are pretty stable right now.  The rest of this posts contains my thoughts on moving forward, as well as documentation of known issues and other reasoning.

Known Issues & Bugs

  • GVNotifier does not work outside of the USA:  This is a long-standing issue, Google allows connections to google.com/voice from a non-US IP address, but the authentication process is different.  I’ve built a new Silverlight library for Windows Phone 7 that uses ClientLogin, so I will likely switch over to this system.  (Milestone 1.5)
  • Search Crash:  Some people experience an occasional crash when searching contacts.  I have a fix planned.  The good news is that this is the only known crash.  (Milestone 1.5)
  • Bandwidth Usage:  A couple people have reported that the bandwidth usage is heavy.  This is true if you’re using metered internet.  I have an idea of how I can reduce usage, but this is not a priority right now.  (Milestone 1.6-1.7)
  • Contacts Sync:  Updating a contact that already has a window open doesn’t always work.  If you must sync contacts completely, a restart is required.  (Milestone 1.5)
  • Area code 406 numbers are hidden:  Since there actually are people with Google Voice in Montana, I’ll bring back a setting for this.  (Milestone 1.5)

FAQ

  • Can I change the polling rate?  Yes.  Edit %localappdata%\GVNotifierWPF\settings.xml.  Look for UpdateFreq, which is in seconds.  Using a zero-value will disable updating completely.
  • Can I invoke a manual check?  Yes.  Call GVNotifier.net.exe /check.  (Other arguments include: /signout, /quit and /update_contacts)
  • Can I change the notification sound?  Yes.  Edit %localappdata%\GVNotifierWPF\new.wav
  • Can I dial a number that isn’t in my contacts?  Yes.  Type the number into contacts search.
  • My contacts aren’t all showing, why?  GVNotifier will show contacts only if they have one or more phone numbers that are NOT within the 406 area code.
  • GVNotifier is doing something weird, what can I do?  Check out the log file at %localappdata%\GVNotifierWPF\log.txt.
  • Is my personal data safe?  As of 1.4.1, passwords are encrypted.  Your Google Voice login information is sent only to Google.com, and only via SSL.  Contacts information is stored in plain text, along with other settings.  The password encryption is not impossibly strong, but if you are worried, use full disk encryption (like BitLocker or TrueCrypt).
  • Where is %localappdata%?  Windows Vista/7:  C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local.  Windows XP:  C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Application Data.
  • Can I disable SMS for a certain contact?  Yes – include the text nosms in their Google Contact information.  The input box will be disabled for this contact.

New Features

  • Dial pad:  I’ll probably add this, even though there is a way to insert new numbers–I neglected how valuable a Dial pad would be with a touch computer. (Milestone 1.5)
  • SMS History:  I’d like to sync history in the message window, along with some other enhancements (contact photo, other contact info).  I’m considering adding an SMS History tab, but I’m not crazy about this.  (Milestone 1.6)
  • Mass-messaging:  I’d like to integrate groups from Google Contacts, and on-demand group messaging. (Milestone 1.7)
  • Let me know if you don’t see something you want here.  I consider any requests that aren’t ridiculous.

Things that are not being considered

  • Please don’t ask me to “compile this is without the .NET framework,” or “compile with .NET 2.0 because it is better.”  GVNotifier requires .NET 3.5sp1 and utilizes the Windows Presentation Foundation.  There is certainly a performance hit, but you’re welcome to not use this software.  I’ll be upgrading to .NET 4.0 in the future.
  • Open Source.  I’m not open-sourcing this project unless someone is willing to dedicate a large amount of time to adding new–and reliable–features.
  • “Making the UI more compact.”  I’m mostly happy with the interface, I will not be doing any NCA drawing (at the very top of the window; like Firefox4, Chrome, Opera, et al).  Getting this working perfectly is a waste of effort that is better spent fixing bugs and adding useful functionality.

Comments

One Comment on GVNotifier moving forward

  1. Mike Strider on Sat, 17th Jul 2010 2:36 am

    2. Thanks for taking the time to write this software and make if free for users like me who don’t know how to write software on our own. I really appreciate it and just wanted to say thanks.
    .. Mike