[Ann] CintaNotes 3.2 Beta 3 (Autotagging Rules Preview 3)

[CintaNotes Developer]

Hi all,

Sorry for the long wait - finally the Autotagging Rules feature is approaching production quality!
In this beta we've fixed a number of Beta 2 issues and incorporated most of the improvement suggestions:

Enhancements:
• Automatically add an action to new rules
• Added "Duplicate" context menu command to the Rules list
• Added "Untag when condition is not met" checkbox to the "Tag" rule action
• Added "Attachments" "total size smaller than" "total size greater than" conditions
• Added "Note" "total size smaller than" "total size greater than" conditions
• Update rule name automatically when rule actions are changed if rule name wasn't changed by user
• Export rules to XML
• Import rules from XML and DB
• Ins key to add new rules
• Use popup notification instead of "Finished applying rules" message box
• Sizes of Rules dialog and Rule edit dilog are now remembered
• Increased min width for fields and operators
• Improved operator names for Attachments
• Added rule deletion confirmation

Fixes:
• Assert failure when pressing + in rules dialog
• When searching for attachments, after creating a rule 'attachments do NOT exist' is prefilled
• Tag suggestions added extra space which caused the rules condition not to fire
• Fix "tags has all" condition
• Fix "tags don't have" condition
• Fix "title contains = or :" condition
• Fix "link starts with" and "link doesn't start with" conditions
• Fix "remarks is not empty" condition
• Empty fields for "contains", "containsall", "starts", "ends", "equal to" should trigger an error message.
• Undone log entries for deleted rules appear again in the log
• Crash when pressing "cancel" while testing rule on a large notebook
• Duplicates of new rules are created after pressing "Cancel" when offered to apply modified rules
• Rules list had painting artefacts when other windows moved above it
• Precondition failed error when changing language while Rules dialog is open
• Rule deletion was not working correctly
• Fixed Foreign Key constraint failed error upon applying rule

Download:
Installable: CintaNotes_3_2_Beta3_Setup.exe
Portable: CintaNotes_3_2_Beta3.zip

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

WARNING! BETA SOFTWARE! USE AT OWN RISK AND ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA FIRST!

[date]

- The number in the confirmation dialog 'Rule test on ... notes is complete' sometimes gives the total number of notes, but most times the number is discrepant, most of the time being around double the number of the notes.

On testing a rule defining a condition about notes being new or not I had the following results:

On a notebook with 18478 notes, and an empty recycle bin:
Note is new: rule action would be executed 4726 times on 23204 notes
Not is not new: 13737/32215

On another notebook with 17080 notes, empty recycle bin:
Note is new: 86/17166
Note is not new: 16994/34074

The notes being determined as 'new' return a bunch of my oldest notes, but a few newer ones too, couldn't find a definitive pattern there.

- Ins and Del key don't work when opening the rules dialog. Press Tab 2 times, and they work.

- The 'Untagging when a condition is not met'-checkbox is a great idea, and works well.

- I still don't have a proper dropdownbox for the moving to a section action, but found out this issue is specific to XP.

- The characters g, j, p in rule titles are being cut short in the rules dialog. (Not the editing dialog.)

- There is sometimes the 'SQLite error 21: not an error' error. This could have something to do with notes to which rules are being applied to (and moved to another section?) are at that moment opened. The note windows are then closed afterwards without warning, sometimes not immediately, sometimes the issue isn't there at all.

[CintaNotes Developer]

Hi date,

Huge thanks for taking a look!
Yes, about production quality.. probably was a bit of wishful thinking on my part But slowly it's getting better. The feature is worth the trouble, I think.

- The number in the confirmation dialog 'Rule test on ... notes is complete' sometimes gives the total number of notes, but most times the number is discrepant, most of the time being around double the number of the notes.

Indeed. Will be fixed, thanks.

The notes being determined as 'new' return a bunch of my oldest notes, but a few newer ones too, couldn't find a definitive pattern there.

Basically, "note is new" means now that note's revision number is equal to 1. (Each time a note is saved, its revision number is increased, and a newly saved note received the revision number of 1). So the rule should work correctly when you don't apply it to already existing notes.

- Ins and Del key don't work when opening the rules dialog. Press Tab 2 times, and they work.

Confirmed. Will fix.

- The 'Untagging when a condition is not met'-checkbox is a great idea, and works well.

Glad you liked it. I find it very useful as well. Make it easy to define "saved searches" without the problems the "ELSE" block had.

- I still don't have a proper dropdownbox for the moving to a section action, but found out this issue is specific to XP.

Could you post a screenshot please?

- The characters g, j, p in rule titles are being cut short in the rules dialog. (Not the editing dialog.)

Confirmed, will be fixed.

- There is sometimes the 'SQLite error 21: not an error' error. This could have something to do with notes to which rules are being applied to (and moved to another section?) are at that moment opened. The note windows are then closed afterwards without warning, sometimes not immediately, sometimes the issue isn't there at all.

Do you maybe have a repeatable test case? Would help greatly.

Huge thanks again!

[date]

Yes, about production quality.. probably was a bit of wishful thinking on my part But slowly it's getting better. The feature is worth the trouble, I think.

I tried almost all conditions, and the resulting changes to the notes weren't really skewed like before. I like the rules feature, but with or without, CN is still best invention since the typewriter.

- I still don't have a proper dropdownbox for the moving to a section action, but found out this issue is specific to XP.

Could you post a screenshot please?

2016-07-20_21-01-45.png (1.27 KiB) Viewed 28730 times

There is sometimes the 'SQLite error 21: not an error' error.

Do you maybe have a repeatable test case? Would help greatly.

It won't come up anymore, perhaps my computer just had to acclimatize. When I tried a few things just now, CN disappeared. I think it has to do with that there were a few notes opened that have to change according to a set up rule that is executed.

I kept the log files (link), but they are quite big. (I can excerpt the relevant parts if I know what to look for.)

[CintaNotes Developer]

I tried almost all conditions, and the resulting changes to the notes weren't really skewed like before. I like the rules feature, but with or without, CN is still best invention since the typewriter.

Nice to hear, thanks

I still don't have a proper dropdownbox for the moving to a section action, but found out this issue is specific to XP.

Thanks for the screenshot. I think I could nail it down finally. Could you please try this version:
http://cintanotes.com/files/debug/Cinta ... _Beta4.zip

It won't come up anymore, perhaps my computer just had to acclimatize. When I tried a few things just now, CN disappeared. I think it has to do with that there were a few notes opened that have to change according to a set up rule that is executed.

I tried various ways to repeat this, but couldn't.

I kept the log files (link), but they are quite big. (I can excerpt the relevant parts if I know what to look for.)

Thanks, I looked through and found an interesting error: ERROR Day of month should be in range 1..31
So, did you use a date condition? Maybe you can remember exactly the rule condition?

[date]

I still don't have a proper dropdownbox for the moving to a section action, but found out this issue is specific to XP.

Thanks for the screenshot. I think I could nail it down finally. Could you please try this version:
http://cintanotes.com/files/debug/Cinta ... _Beta4.zip

Yes, works now.

It won't come up anymore, perhaps my computer just had to acclimatize. When I tried a few things just now, CN disappeared. I think it has to do with that there were a few notes opened that have to change according to a set up rule that is executed.

I tried various ways to repeat this, but couldn't.

I kept the log files (link), but they are quite big. (I can excerpt the relevant parts if I know what to look for.)

Thanks, I looked through and found an interesting error: ERROR Day of month should be in range 1..31
So, did you use a date condition? Maybe you can remember exactly the rule condition?

Just a quick reply, I don't think it has to do with a date/time rule. I encountered 'error 21' 3 times in a short timeframe, 2 times on one computer, 1 time on another. So naturally I thought the error was obvious.

If the error 'day of the month' was related to a date/time rule, I think I would certainly have noticed the connection! Appeared at the same time as the 'error 21.' I _might_ have tried a date/time rule, perhaps one time with a 2040 year, but certainly not all 3 times the error appeared, more likely none.

Rather I think it has to do with either a tag or a link rule, and opened notes. One computer runs XP, the other 7, one had an USB-mouse with a scrollwheel attached, the other did not, so that leaves a whole lot out and inclined me to think it must have had to do with the opened notes, and perhaps a TAG or a LINK rule. Just guessing from memory of course!

Just tried now the rule 'If Link is equal to 'dddd',' while specifying the section and having opened 9 notes first. Error message again, 'precondition failed.' Log file here. Not as big as the other ones luckily.
(Of course, tried that yesterday too, but then it wouldn't happen.)

Perhaps tomorrow I have some time to spare to see if I can reliably recreate!

[date]

Hi,
I found out how to get the error 21 and month is out of range about an hour ago. It was a very simple thing. Very unfortunately, I do not remember.

It went about this:
- Run the 3.2b4 version, empty.
- Create 8 notes, insert 'asdf' and slight variations in the contents.
- Open the rules dialog, create a rule.
- Realize that the .db is still empty, save the notes. Found out (some) shortcut keys didn't work, saved them by double-clicking the icon. Created two other sections.
- Create 2, maybe 3 rules. Most likely using 'title starts with' or 'text is equal to.' Perhaps specifying section. Rules were very similar, I don't remember the chosen actions.
- Executed the rules, got the error 21, and in succession the month out of range.
- Ok, that was dead simple, and the pattern to provoke the error was crystal clear to me. This was 2 minutes in.
- I realized this wouldn't happen with normal use, and that I encountered this thing so frequently because I kept using the same keys and creating similar rules, maybe contradictory, maybe not.
- Still might have something to do with the current view, perhaps I should try the same thing with only 2 or just 1 section. So, delete the directory using Shift-Del, and extract the .zip again.
- Tried again, found out it wasn't so crystal clear anymore, not even remembering exactly what I did.
- Realize mistake of not recording. Tried file recovery, no luck.
- Tried some more, but it isn't happening again.

Things I did find out:
- Using two dashes (--) in some fields, like 'Title starts with' or 'attachment filenames equal to' will return all notes.
- If attachments total size < 1, will return all notes.
- Create about a few rules that do apply to notes that you have, execute them, and delete half of them. (Or use a .db that already has a rule log, and delete some rules.) Then, in the rules log, start at the bottom and select the notes for which the rule has been deleted, and some notes for which they are not, and undo them. Then you get: class err::SystemException Postcondition failed: ui::controls::ListView::removeItem sendMessage((0x1000 + 8), index) (122)Der an einen Systemaufruf übergebene Datenbereich ist zu klein.

That's about it. I can see the cut-short characters have been fixed, and log clearing works well. Error 21 still a mystery.

[b-CN-u]

Haven't poked at the beta much yet, but one thing I was surprised to see missing as an auto-tag option: a way to either automatically tag a clipped note with the computer's name it was taken on (yes, portable user here!), or even better, use the computer name as a rule in the new auto-tagging feature.

So, say I have two part-time jobs and use a computer at each, plus my personal computer(s?) at home. It would be fantastic if CN, running from my flash drive, could look at the PC name when I clip a particular note and automatically tag "work1" "work2" "personal" etc. (This is basically a workaround to accomplish something approximating automatic location-based tagging!).

Obviously this would only be available after/while the rule is in place, not applicable to previously existing notes before the rule's creation--unless there were an option to always automatically add the PC name as a tag, as I first mentioned. Such would allow someone to even retroactively implement the above system.

What say ye?

[CintaNotes Developer]

hi date,

Huge thanks for your outstanding efforts in trying to narrow down the failure cases!

Just a quick reply, I don't think it has to do with a date/time rule. I encountered 'error 21' 3 times in a short timeframe, 2 times on one computer, 1 time on another. So naturally I thought the error was obvious.

I also think now that it shouldn't be connected with a date condition.

Rather I think it has to do with either a tag or a link rule, and opened notes. One computer runs XP, the other 7, one had an USB-mouse with a scrollwheel attached, the other did not, so that leaves a whole lot out and inclined me to think it must have had to do with the opened notes, and perhaps a TAG or a LINK rule. Just guessing from memory of course!

I've tried every combination and couldn't reproduce either of the errors. Bad luck.

Just tried now the rule 'If Link is equal to 'dddd',' while specifying the section and having opened 9 notes first. Error message again, 'precondition failed.' Log file here. Not as big as the other ones luckily.
(Of course, tried that yesterday too, but then it wouldn't happen.)

Seems to be a different error, but I couldn't reproduce it as well. Do I understand correctly that to-be-modified-by-rule notes have to open for editing, right?

[CintaNotes Developer]

I found out how to get the error 21 and month is out of range about an hour ago. It was a very simple thing. Very unfortunately, I do not remember.

That's unfortunately still not as simple as I'd like it to be, and I failed to reproduce the error again. But at least we have some logs, thank you for that. I'll add some extra logging to get the missing pieces of the puzzle.

- Using two dashes (--) in some fields, like 'Title starts with' or 'attachment filenames equal to' will return all notes.

Confirmed, will fix that.

- If attachments total size < 1, will return all notes.

Will add an error message.

- Create about a few rules that do apply to notes that you have, execute them, and delete half of them. (Or use a .db that already has a rule log, and delete some rules.) Then, in the rules log, start at the bottom and select the notes for which the rule has been deleted, and some notes for which they are not, and undo them. Then you get: class err::SystemException Postcondition failed: ui::controls::ListView::removeItem

That's a very nice catch! Thanks.

[CintaNotes Developer]

So, say I have two part-time jobs and use a computer at each, plus my personal computer(s?) at home. It would be fantastic if CN, running from my flash drive, could look at the PC name when I clip a particular note and automatically tag "work1" "work2" "personal" etc. (This is basically a workaround to accomplish something approximating automatic location-based tagging!).

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you, but a similar request had been on our roadmap and failed to collect 10 votes:
http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topics/26 ... -taken-at/

Of course I've reopened it now, given that you've shown support for it - please vote there.

BTW if you can move from portable to using Simplenote sync, then there's an easy workaround - simply on each PC to define a rule that would assign
a different tag to every new note.

Example: on PC1 you create a rule
IF [Note][is new] THEN [add tag] [PC1]
and on PC2
IF [Note][is new] THEN [add tag] [PC2]

Hope this helps!

[date]

Seems to be a different error, but I couldn't reproduce it as well. Do I understand correctly that to-be-modified-by-rule notes have to open for editing, right?

I'm not so sure, thought so at first. Perhaps CN will crash when the notes are opened, and display an error when not.

But the most likely answer, of which I am quite sure of, on how to find the cause of the fault when anything of this happens again (the error 21+month out of range, the precondition thing (in this case), the 'disappearing',) is to look at the complete orchestration of rules, not an individual rule.

Yes, if it was 'really' easy, I could do it again, too. Stupid to 'almost' have identified the cause! Hopefully this doesn't hold up too much!

[CintaNotes Developer]

But the most likely answer, of which I am quite sure of, on how to find the cause of the fault when anything of this happens again (the error 21+month out of range, the precondition thing (in this case), the 'disappearing',) is to look at the complete orchestration of rules, not an individual rule.

Well we have now to other choice but to wait and see.
I decided to finally go for the release. Its already long overdue, and I don't think that the issue we're chasing here can cause any serious harm.

date, huge thanks to your outstanding efforts in testing! If by any chance you don' t have a Lifetime licese yet, I'll be happy to give it to you!

[date]

date, huge thanks to your outstanding efforts in testing! If by any chance you don' t have a Lifetime licese yet, I'll be happy to give it to you!

Merely shared my ideas and findings, not so much of an 'effort'; the hard work is all yours! But glad my input has been of some value!