What am I doing wrong?

[endevor100]

I just started using Rainmeter and I'm trying to use the quote plugin. I've been going through the manual and this forum for the last two hours and I can't get anything to show up. I've got a file in the Skins folder in My Documents with a few lines with line breaks after each line. I right clicked on the Rainmeter icon go to Edit settings and add this code:

Code: Select all

[MeasureQuote]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=Plugins\QuotePlugin.dll
PathName=quotes.txt
UpdateDivider=300

[MeterQuote]
Meter=String
X=0
Y=0
W=200
H=200
MeasureName=MeasureQuote

Save, right click Rainmeter and refresh all and ... nothing. I've messed with tons and tons of little modifications to this and haven't gotten anything to display. Any ideas?

[jsmorley]

I just started using Rainmeter and I'm trying to use the quote plugin. I've been going through the manual and this forum for the last two hours and I can't get anything to show up. I've got a file in the Skins folder in My Documents with a few lines with line breaks after each line. I right clicked on the Rainmeter icon go to Edit settings and add this code:

Code: Select all

[MeasureQuote]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=Plugins\QuotePlugin.dll
PathName=quotes.txt
UpdateDivider=300

[MeterQuote]
Meter=String
X=0
Y=0
W=200
H=200
MeasureName=MeasureQuote

Save, right click Rainmeter and refresh all and ... nothing. I've messed with tons and tons of little modifications to this and haven't gotten anything to display. Any ideas?

You need to check the format of the text file you are reading from and be sure lines end in CRLF (Windows / DOS) and not LF (unix). That is one thing I ran into once before.

[endevor100]

CRLF??

[jsmorley]

Carriage Return / Line Feed It means what char(s) are used to indicate EOL (End of Line).

Comes from the days of the manual typewriter. If you just rolled the platen forward or backward it moved up or down a line (LF), but didn't move to the beginning of the next line unless you hit the big lever on the side (CRLF). Of course you could hold the platen release button and just move the platen without changing the line (CR) if you wanted to smash an "E" over that "I" you put by mistake after daubing some of Michael Nesmith's Mom's WhiteOut on the "E" first and blowing on it to dry it.

If you are using Notepad++ (and who doesn't?) then you can load the file and under "Edit / EOL Conversion", it should have "Windows" grayed out. If UNIX or MAC are, then you need to set it to "Windows" and save.

[jsmorley]

I can't off the top of my head see anything else, unless Quotes.txt isn't in the same folder as the skin .ini.

[endevor100]

I'm using \r\n just to be redundant, windows is grayed out, I have each quote on there own line and I still can't make it work. I can't even make it work when I point it to a text file with only one word in it. Do I need to do anything to initialize the plugin other than the measure call?

[jsmorley]

I'm using \r\n just to be redundant, windows is grayed out, I have each quote on there own line and I still can't make it work. I can't even make it work when I point it to a text file with only one word in it. Do I need to do anything to initialize the plugin other than the measure call?

Can you zip up the text file and attach it here?

[endevor100]

it's only two lines:

test\r\n
will this just work\r\n

a attached the file if your checking something in the formatting, it's so small no need for zip.

[jsmorley]

I use your exact code, without changing a thing, and my own quotes.txt file that is like this:

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
A crisis is when you can't say "Let's forget the whole thing."
A live plowhorse is still better than a dead thoroughbred.
Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill
All generalizations are false...

And it worked fine. Save it, refreshed Rainmeter, loaded the skin and there the quotes are, in the upper left of the screen in tiny black text.

[jsmorley]

it's only two lines:

test\r\n
will this just work\r\n

a attached the file if your checking something in the formatting, it's so small no need for zip.

Putting \r\n in the actual text file doesn't do anything at all. the EOL chars in a text file are there, but invisible unless you turn on "show symbols" in Notepad++

However, having said that, it should still work. You should literally get "will this just work\r\n" in the meter. Sure it isn't really there, but you don't see it on a dark background?

Do this:

[Rainmeter]
DynamicWindowSize=1

[MeterQuote]
MeasureName=MeasureQuote
SolidColor=0,0,0,255
FontColor=255,255,255,255
FontSize=20
Text=Quote: %1