Voice Notifier: Custom Date Format

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chrisb
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2020 4:05 pm

Voice Notifier: Custom Date Format

Post by chrisb »

I'm trying to create a custom voice announcement, but the program crashes when I test it, even with the examples in the Help file %DATE<%A, %I:%M %p>%

OR

%DATE<%B %d, %H:%M>%

What I'd like to hear is : From %FROM%; at %DATE<%A, %I:%M %p>% == From Some Guy at Monday, 4:55 p.m.

What am I doing wrong?
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Jeff
Admin / Developer
Posts: 9227
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2001 9:46 pm

Re: Voice Notifier: Custom Date Format

Post by Jeff »

Well, the only thing you're doing wrong is using something buried in the documentation that apparently no one else uses ;) There's definitely a bug (2 actually), but before I go into that --

Are you sure this is what you think it is? You mention "custom voice announcement" but that's not what this is. This syntax is for the *reader*, not the *notifier*. The "reader" is used to read the current message (e.g. when you open it). The notifier has a much more restricted syntax and does not include a date value (the reason being -- it's a new message, the assumption is that the message is relatively recent).

BUG(s):
The first bug is that -- somewhere along the line -- the syntax was forced to lower-case, so %B gets changed to %b and %H:%M to %h:%m.
The second bug is that if you use an unsupported %-value in %DATE<>%, PP crashes.

Result: %H gets converted to %h; %h isn't a valid value so PP crashes.

Also, if you use something like %DATE<%B>%, it will work, but it says "apr" instead of "April" because %b = abbreviated month name.

So, in the current build (voice notifier v5.4.5), the only way to get a time value is with:
%DATE<%c>%
%DATE<%#c>%
The latter syntax includes the weekday but, unfortunately, either one will use 24-hour time.


I hadn't planned on a Plus Pack release for v5.4.6, and probably still won't. If you want the update to fix these 2 issues, let me know via email and I'll make it available (support at esumsoft dot com); keeping in mind that this syntax only applies to the "reader" and not the "notifier".
chrisb
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2020 4:05 pm

Re: Voice Notifier: Custom Date Format

Post by chrisb »

My bad. I assumed I was dealing with a custom announcement. I have no need for a reader.

No further action required.

Thanks!
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Jeff
Admin / Developer
Posts: 9227
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2001 9:46 pm

Re: Voice Notifier: Custom Date Format

Post by Jeff »

That's what I figured. Glad to have found the bug as a result of it, though :)

Use the "notification" page in voice notifier's settings to customize the Notification. There are some preset syntaxes you can select from the drop-down, or set your own; but like I said, there's not quite as many variables as there are for the reader since they're just not applicable (although... :-k).
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