Headline Viewer
Version 0.9.6 History

• 0.9.6 - 6  2001
  Some great new features and bug fixes:
  
• The Category List is now organized into a hierarchy, making it easier to deal with large numbers of providers. The list displays a small "+" sign next to any category that contains sub-categories. We will be refining the hierarchy moving forward. It is helpful to think of the name of a particular category as a path. For example, the list of basketball teams is in category "Sports/Basketball". The "/" character is reserved and cannot be used as part of a category name.
  
• It is now possible to create a new category in the Providers tab of the Settings dialog by selecting one or more providers and then entering the name or path of the category. If you enter the name of a heretofore non-existent category, it will be created, as will all other intermediate categories. If you entered "Technology/Software/Linux" and there was no category named "Technology/Software", then it would automatically be created.
  
• The Category List can now be edited using the Categories tab of the Settings dialog. The categories shipped with Headline Viewer cannot be changed. However, new categories can be created and and these can be renamed at will. Category names must not be empty, they must not duplicate the name of another category within the same parent category, and they cannot contain the "/" character.
  
• It is now possible to change the category of a provider by dragging it from the Active Provider List onto the name of another category. The category will be highlighted as the mouse moves over it; releasing the mouse will move the provider in to the highlighted category.
  
• Note that once the category of a provider has been changed by the user, the category of the provider will never again be changed by an automatic update. With this feature, you can safely make changes to the category hierarchy without fear of losing your changes.
  
• Headline Viewer can now search all of the loaded headlines for a text string. To perform a search, enter a string in the text field next to the "Find:" label on the Main Dialog, or press the "?" or "/" keys to move the cursor to this field. Press Enter to start the search. The search starts immediately after the selected article, and proceeds through the current provider and in to successive providers until a match is found. The search is case-insensitive; you can enter "mic" to search for "Microsoft" or "MICHIGAN". After the first match, pressing Enter cycles through successive matches. The program beeps when no more matches are available.
  
•  Headline Viewer can now play an "arrival sound" that is specific to each news provider. There are two elements to this feature. First, Headline Viewer sounds can be globally enabled or disabled using the "Play a Sound When News Arrives" checkbox in the General tab of the Settings dialog. This item is initially checked. Second, the Providers tab now includes three items related to sounds. When a provider is selected, the Sound field will show the currently selected sound (if any) for the provider. The Sound field is a dropdown listing the sounds assigned for the other providers. A new sound can be selected from this dropdown, or by pushing the Browse button and choosing a WAV file. The sound is played after it has been chosen. It can also be played by pressing the Play button. Finally, note that it is possible to change the sound for any number of providers at a time by selecting all of them in the list using Shift-Click or a drag selection and then choosing a sound.
  
• The XMLTree site now generates its list of providers in segmented form. In order to handle this change, Headline Viewer now prompts you to select from 12 top-level categories when loading the External Provider List from XMLTree. When you choose to download a particular category, the providers are placed in a sub-category of the XMLTree category. This change reduces the amount of network traffic and also gives you more control over what is downloaded. Note that there is no summary status given after this multiple-list load. This will be addressed in a future release.
  
• Headline Viewer now displays an informative dialog if the dynamic provider update at startup time (as selected in the Updates tab of the Settings dialog) resulted in any changes (additions, deletions, or corrections) to the provider list.
  
• It is now possible to change the background color for any number of providers at one time by selecting all of them in the list using Shift-Click or a drag selection, and then choosing a color.
  
• The External Provider Lists tab of the Settings dialog now includes a button to import the provider list from NewsIsFree (www.newsisfree.com).
  
• Headline Viewer now includes drag-and-drop integration with mailing lists hosted at www.yahoogroups.com. After you have subscribed to a list in the usual way, you can drag the URL of the list's home page on to Headline Viewer to create a provider which references the list. Headline Viewer includes special code to repair the defective information supplied by the site.
  
• If background updating is set to All, any pending headline fetches that have lingered for more than 60 seconds will be canceled. This avoids problems where sluggish sites monopolize the available set of requests.
• Skins now have two additional optional fields, "FindBackRGB" and "FindTextBackRGB" . The first value provides an RGB value to fill in the area behind the Find label and the associated text field. The second provides a value for the background of the text field.
  
• Background updating now does a better job of fetching news in the currently visible section of the Active Provider List. It also works better when the option to update all providers in the background has been selected.
  
• The Category list in the Providers tab of the Settings dialog is now sorted. This makes it easier to navigate between hierarchically related categories.
  
• If automatic updating of the provider list on startup is enabled, but the updates site is not available, the "try again" message is no longer displayed.
  
• The background color for the article list is now set to a solid color on displays with 256 or less colors.
  
• Fixed a bug which did not always flag providers as new when loaded from an external provider list.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused a crash on startup if the Category List was not displayed.
  
• Fixed a bug which would cause providers that were updated from our site to have their descriptions changed to a single decimal digit.
  
• The internal check for the latest version now clears the browser cache of any old information. This is necessary since the version check is done by fetching an XML file from the Headline Viewer site.
  
• Fixed some skinning bugs including a max/restore button that would show up in random places, and a lack of context menus on edges of the skin.
  
• Fixed a bug which would cause the Updates tab to be selected when the Properties of a provider were requested using the right-click menu.
•  Headline Viewer is now compatible with the newest Microsoft XML DLL, formally known as msxml3.