As usual my own experiences are what drives changes to my programs. I was using ProfilerQuery to try to suss out profiles that might need updating (in this case profiles that were missing both make-up artist and costume designer). I would use "View contribution notes" from the context menu in ProfilerQuery to see when cast/crew additions had been made and by whom.

It occurred to me that this would be a lot easier if the contribution notes were opened in ContribLookup rather than opening a new instance of my standard internet browser every time. So I added a check to see if ContribLookup was running, and if it was I would copy the ID to the clipboard and change focus to ContribLookup, thereby causing ContribLookup to find the contribution notes.

Fine so far. But I found it annoying that ContribLookup would have to search through several localities when ProfilerQuery actually knew what the locality was. So I wantedto send the full ID including locality suffix, for example 1234567890123.11, to ContribLookup. But ContribLookup wasn't designed to handle that. It hadn't been necessary before.

The solution was to update ContribLookup as well. So in version 2.4.0 it can handle locality suffix.

Final hurdle: I hate to create incompatabilities. So what if someone runs the new ProfilerQuery and the old ContribLookup. Solution: ProfilerQuery checks what version of ContribLookup that is running, and if it is the old version ProfilerQuery only copies the ID w/o suffix to the clipboard.

Hopefully though those who would use this functionality will update both programs:
ProfilerOuery 4.1.0 and ContribLookup 2.4.0.

ProfilerQuery 4.2.0

Finally!

After much research, trial and error I have at last managed to change the Showcase in ProfilerQuery to something that looks a bit more like the Showcase in the iPad version (I don't think it's in the iPhone or Android versions, but I may be wrong).



You can now scroll through all profiles in the result. It's smooth and it doesn't eat a hugh amount of memory. You can also select the size of the images (Small/Medium/Large/Extra Large) through the context menu.

And, of course, double clicking an image opens the corresponding profile in DVD Profiler.
Further enhancements may be forthcoming, but let me know if you have any specific requests.

Edit: Oops! My fingers must have slipped. The version is of course 4.2.0, not 2.4.0 like I initially wrote in the first line of this post. Thanks for pointing out my mistake, AiAustria!

Quoting myself:

Quote:
Note, though, that dividers are not shown. This is due to a limitation in the underlying DLL that would take a whole lot of work to change.

I believe I'm wrong! I just had an epiphany. It may not be nearly as complicated as I thought to fix so that cast and crew are shown with dividers. So unless you are impatient to try the new feature in 4.3, I suggest you wait and I'll most likely have an update in a day or two.

Of course, I just bought the complete 'Allo 'Allo box set.

(I also love the Swedish live version with Sven Melander et al.)

Deserved Greenie 

A bit of background about ProfilerQuery, in case anyone is interested:

The project started in early 2015 when I was running Mark Harrison's excellent plugin Database Query, and thought to myself "This is brilliant, but I wish I could combine different search criteria". I started wondering if I could do something similar. But as I don't do plugins, it would have to be based on the XML export. So I started tinkering.

On March 14 of that year I released the first "Technical Preview", followed by almost daily updates until version 1.0.0 was released on March 28. In the 5 years since there have been 150 more releases! If I had known that ProfilerQuery would take on a life of its own, I'm not sure I would have started the project.

At this point it is comprised of c:a 15,000 lines of source code. I look at some of the code, and today I don't know where I found it, and even less how it actually works. For some of the trickier problems, I googled and swiped code, tested and found that it worked. But most of it is my own. Much of the query engine is table driven, which has made it easy to add new queries along the way. I look at that part and wonder if I really had that much foresight, or if it was just sheer stupid luck. A bit of both, maybe, because in other parts there are a few very stupid choices. Things that I would like to change, but can't without introducing breaking changes.

The thing that annoys me most is that I have absolutely no idea how many people that use ProfilerQuery (or any of my other programs, for that matter). Even if it is a hobby project it would be satisfying to know that people find it useful. A handful of people have commented in this thread, but I hope that there are at least a few more users.

And with this I wish all ProfilerQuery users (and the rest of you, too) a Merry Christmas (or Yule or Hanukkah or whatever) and a Better New Year!

ProfilerQuery 4.4.2

One more bugfix before Christmas:

• Watched date returned 0001-01-01 if the profile had more than one watched date.
• "Watched date" renamed "Last watched" to make it clear that only one date is returned (so you can sort on last watched date).
• Something seems to have changed in Windows 10 recently that made the File Changed event fire more than once, sometimes causing the export file to be immediately reloaded if you have Auto reload on file change set. I have tried to handle that.
• Finally, a new Easter egg. Or is that Christmas egg this time of year? Not really hidden, but will you notice it?

Note: If you want to see all Watched events, use Watched (full) as a presentation field.

Anyway, that's all I have for you today! And as always, have a nice day! ¹

¹ If this sounds familiar you have probably watched The Lockpicking Lawyer on YouTube. Strangely fascinating!

Please note that you don't have to run DVD Profiler/HTTPJolie elevated (as administrator) in order to use this integration!