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Automated Sleuth Helper complete!
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Pidgeot
Pidgeot

Jan-30-2007 12:13

Hello, fellow Sleuths!

Over the last two months, I've been working on a brand new Sleuth helper. You might not think that sounds all that special - after all, great helpers are already available - but what makes this one different is that it's automated!

What it does is monitor your progress in the game, and extract relevant information from the pages. The information is stored and analyzed, in order to help you determine who did it, and who didn't.

It's heavily inspired by Evita's JavaScript-based Sleuth Helper, so a special "thank you" goes out there.

The application is made with Delphi 2005, and should run on any machine with Windows NT/98/ME/2K/XP/Vista and Internet Explorer 4 or later. Additionally, source code is included (ZLib license) in case someone wants to port it to another platform and/or language (such as Java).

The program can be downloaded from http://download.birdiesoft.dk/SleuthHelper.exe (330 KB), and a screenshot of the program can be seen at http://download.birdiesoft.dk/sleuth_helper.png.

Please take a look at the help file before using the program (it's very short), so you are familiar with how the program works.

(Disclaimer: The application depends heavily on the current structure of the game pages, and changes to this may break the program. Although the application is designed in such a way that it should fail entirely if something goes wrong, this cannot be guaranteed. Use of this program is entirely at your own risk, and any cases lost because of errors in the program should not be blamed on the program or the author.)

Replies

fionaghal01
fionaghal01
Well-Connected

May-17-2007 19:17

Ive checked my settings I have the latest version of IE and I have windows xp and I get the same message as the others did..

page is either unavailable or cannot be found please try again later.

Piccolo
Piccolo

May-19-2007 06:07

I had "fun" yesterday! I have a poor internet connection - there's nothing I can do about that unfortunately, but it means that I get kicked offline periodically. I went back into the "aut help" and started hitting the suspects to get the info back onscreen. I'd only got a short way through the case and was far from the end. I clicked on one suspect to get the info back and it came up with you dun it wrong and you got a FA. !!!!!!!! Most upsetting! No idea how much the internet connection was to blame or if it combined with starting and stopping sleuth helper. Thoughts would be welcome. Understandably at the moment I'm very nervous of using Helper again but i'd love to cos it's so brill.

yoyofoshow
yoyofoshow
Old Shoe

May-19-2007 06:57

I'm not sure Piccolo, I think that might be more of a bug rather than anything else, but I'm not sure.

Pidgeot
Pidgeot

May-19-2007 07:42

Fionaghal01: Adam Carter has a mirror you might be able to use (www.rothwell-forum.co.uk/sleuth/Helper.zip). I'll also be adding an extra mirror for the next version.

Piccolo: I can't say exactly why this would happen, but I can guarantee you that it's completely unrelated to the helper (or closing and reopening it, for that matter) - the browser is just plain old Internet Explorer, and I don't manipulate the HTML shown in any way.

Piccolo
Piccolo

May-20-2007 10:37

No, i expect it was my internet connection. As I say, the phone line is very bad so it could easily have been that the wrong noises went down the line! Living in the Algarve is "wonderful" at times - most of the time it's fantastic!

Piccolo
Piccolo

May-20-2007 14:24

I've figured out a way of overcoming the PM problem - I open sleuth in my usual browser as well as automated helper. this means that when PMs come through they sort of attach themselves to the "real" sleuth allowing me to work in the automated helper window. works a treat!

Piccolo
Piccolo

May-20-2007 14:57

someone was mentioning having the suspects in order. i wondered if there could be an extra column (far left) into which we can type the number/order into which we'd like them to be sorted, then i suppose we'd need a button to push to activate the sort. any chance? personally i'm not so bothered but it could be useful! many thanks - it's a great programme. Why don't you put it on your website alongside a link to Sleuth?

Lady Jas
Lady Jas
The Chosen One

May-20-2007 15:21

Well I guess I'm out of luck using this helper. I tried downloading it I get error messages or to try back later, same as fiona, and I tried downloading adams version with the link you gave me and all I get is page cannot be displayed, page is unavailable.

Oh well hehe!

Piccolo
Piccolo

May-20-2007 15:32

Hi Adam Carter - is your weblink still active? I put it in and it goes to http://www.fsphost.com instead of your own page.

Lady Jas
Lady Jas
The Chosen One

May-20-2007 16:23

HI all, I got the helper downloaded, but Piccolo had to email me the file in order for me to get it to download. I too get that error code that flautim posted about on May 15th. However Sir A. Conan Doyle, that message is not due to him not having any contacts, as I have all my contacts and still get that error message too!

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