Warning: What you may be about to read is extremely dull but I can’t think of where else to ask the question – it seems that this place is the fount of all (?)knowledge. If you are not an IT geek *waves* then it’s probably best to save 30 seconds of your life and leave now.

I’ve been asked to create an information display which consists of three screen of information which cycle, so each screen appears for ten seconds and then moves on to the next ad infinitum.

Two of the information displays fill the screen but one is non-resizeable window which only fills about a third of the screen (in the middle) at 800×600 which seems to be as small as I can get the resolution to go, I would like this one to also fill the screen.

I can achieve both of these things using software tools, but not at the same time. I can cycle the screens using virtual desktops and I can enlarge the small screen area using magnifying software but when the desktops change from one to the other the magnified screen reverts back to it’s non-magnified state. I have tried several virtual desktop apps and several magnification apps but none will play nicely together.

Anyone got any ideas?

Eh what? Where do these ‘screens’ come from?

Sounds to me like you need a webpage and some dhtml, not sure where you are going with virtual desktops and stuff.

Start by telling us the OS.

Is the info being displayed static? Could you do a screengrab of the 800×600 source, resize it and present that on the next cycle?

Probably Perl could be an answer.

What molgrips said. Linux box running apache, content into a webpages(assuming you can edit this ?). 3 brower windows and a lil bit of magical HTML5 and the jobs a good un.

The big question is where the data comes from. If they are apps then it could be harder.

The big question is where the data comes from. If they are apps then it could be harder.

Indeed

Probably Perl.

Apologies for missing the obvious. The OS is likely to be Windows XP but could possibly be Windows Server 2003.

I have no direct access to the data – despite 90% of my job involving dealing with the software package involved, the 3rd party company we pay a fortune too to develop it will not give us the database password.

So I am stuck with the data being displayed in the form it is given to me. The data is dynamic.

As to where the ‘screens’ come from I run 3 instances of the software each on a different virtual desktop and cycle these. If don’t know what virtual desktops are then go Google VirtuaWin – a very useful tool.

Hi, not sure I’ve completely understood about the need to resize / resolution but some suggestions:

Automatic task switcher:
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/System/autotab/Freeware.htm

Windows GUI scripting:
http://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/

What I would do:
Widescreen monitor with the applications tiled / three monitors / feature request to developers to provide appropriate view of database / display.

feature request to developers

Ooh my aching sides.

al001 – I’ve had a quick look at 2 links you posted and both look worth investigating further tomorrow. Thanks.

If you’re getting the data for the 800×600 screen from an HTML source you could wrap it up in you own bit of HTML to resize it?

Hang on so you have data in a DB that’s only accessible via an app developed by a 3rd party? I hope the data isn’t important and I’d worry how competent a developer is that feels the need to lock down access to a DB in this day and age – it should be the app where the value lies not the DB structure.

At least this isn’t a “my printer doesn’t print” question only to find its has no power as not plugged into the wall…….

Can you find a way of automating alt-tab?

Is it a dedicated client app, rather than a web app?

Any COM objects you can use? (ok so my knowledge of Windows is very sketchy)

this sounds like one of those ‘technical solutions’ that anyone without 15 years at the company could possibly hope to understand…..

(technical debt is my favorite phrase for this)

http://superuser.com/questions/64177/periodically-automatically-alttab

It is a dedicated client app – no web interface.

The alt-tab cycling has already been linked to by al001 and is not dissimilar to my current method of cycling the virtual desktops – the problem is getting the smaller window magnified in a way that ‘sticks’.

At least this isn’t a “my printer doesn’t print” question only to find its has no power as not plugged into the wall…….

Nearly as good as one we had recently. A customer called up because “the server had gone off”. He was asked to do all the usual checks but nothing seemed to work. So finally he was asked to check that the power cable was secure in the back of the server, he told us it was difficult to see behind the server as it was “too dark”. When asked why he was working in the dark he decided to tell us that the lights weren’t working because of the power cut.

this sounds like one of those ‘technical solutions’ that anyone without 15 years at the company could possibly hope to understand…..

(technical debt is my favorite phrase for this)

Not sure what you’re getting at here. The software I’m working with and trying to display is pretty irrelevant – everything I’ve asked about involves working with Windows based tools.

he told us it was difficult to see behind the server as it was “too dark”

Sounds like the engineer I got a few weeks ago who told me he can’t remove the tape drive because “there is lots of wires in the back” and that he can’t remove the lid because “there is a server on top of it”

I’m not an IT chap, so…

What about using a screen capture recorder.
(I use one that records everything that the screen is showing as a movie file – good for sending out as an avi file as instructions on how to do something rather than pages of click this/click that etc)

You could start the recorder, display each screen manually, then just play the movie file on a loop…

Cant recall the program I use – its on my works pc, but it is a free one & works very well.

Nearly as good as one we had recently. A customer called up because “the server had gone off”. He was asked to do all the usual checks but nothing seemed to work. So finally he was asked to check that the power cable was secure in the back of the server, he told us it was difficult to see behind the server as it was “too dark”. When asked why he was working in the dark he decided to tell us that the lights weren’t working because of the power cut.

Did that actually happen to you? Only, it’s been doing the rounds on the Internet since before the web existed.

despite 90% of my job involving dealing with the software package involved, the 3rd party company we pay a fortune too to develop it will not give us the database password.

I’d be very tempted to kick it back to your boss going “you have two options, you can get me read-only access to the relevant part of the DB from the suppliers, or you can put up with it looking crap.”

I’d be very tempted to kick it back to your boss going “you have two options, you can get me read-only access to the relevant part of the DB from the suppliers, or you can put up with it looking crap.”

This

You could use a Powershell script to fire up the app(s) and rotate through them.

Did that actually happen to you? Only, it’s been doing the rounds on the Internet since before the web existed.

Sadly this actually happened, I know the site and person who called us – some of our customers are a bit thick. We often get calls to the on-call helpline in the middle of the night because they can’t find any paper for the printer – like we should know where they store their paper, never mind the fact we probably didn’t even provide the printer.

I’d be very tempted to kick it back to your boss going “you have two options, you can get me read-only access to the relevant part of the DB from the suppliers, or you can put up with it looking crap.”

Getting the password isn’t going to happen. If it looks crap, then so be it, I’m just trying to make it look a bit better with the tools I have/can find.

If you can perform all the necessary steps manually, and this is all some funky inhouse app you can’t make behave in a decent manner then AutoIT
maybe will help. I’ve used this for some Domino client installation automation in the dim and distant past before client packaging was more widely available.

the 3rd party company we pay a fortune too to develop it will not give us the database password.

Call legal/accounts/purchasing ask to speak to the head of back handers and f’in about.

get this sorted first then world becomes easier.