3.x [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

ChristmasInKaralee

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Vixen Messaging Main.jpg Version 3.3u2 Major revision.

*********** Please go to the new thread in the Software forum or click here****************

For those interested I have completely redone the Vixen Messaging App to make it look and feel the same as Vixen and to significantly reduce the complexity.

- The new version only excepts messages from Twilio, after using it for two sessions I felt that Twilio was the simplest and most efficient way to have the audience send messages to your Display.
- Updated to work with the latest Vixen 3.3u2 and above.
- Updated to use the latest Text effect, settings and added basic two color gradient.
- Can send an instant message to your Display.
- Can still send a countdown to a specified date message to your Display.
- Smaller, faster and cleaner.
- If there are any issues installing it then as per very first post, you may need to add an exception in your virus software.

Download 64bit Version

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q3dp4nq9w3lwj2a/Vixen Messaging 3.3u2 64bit.exe?dl=0

Download 32bit Version

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uc4bu37pfsi8uiu/Vixen Messaging 3.3u2 32bit.exe?dl=0

Videos

Demo
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mkurn960dx6s9so/Vixen Messaging Demo.mp4?dl=0

Setup Twilio
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8qnogrjqnpga14/Twilio.mp4?dl=0

Control Messaging App from a Vixen Sequence
https://www.dropbox.com/s/28egjk9qmxmo8fd/Control Messaging From Vixen.mp4?dl=0

Main Features:
- Audience can SMS Messages to be displayed on your Matrix/Megatree
- SMS with Twilio account.
- Start and Stop retrieving messages from within your own Vixen 3 Sequence using a Command Control. This is the best way to use the app if you don't have a dedicated Matrix for this as you can start the Messaging app when you Matrix is not in use with your Sequences.
- Customise the Text message with Font, direction, Position, line number and colour for each line of Text (including Random colour selection)
- Add multiple matrix/mega trees and direct local messages to selected matrix for display.
- Display a Countdown (for example: number of days to Christmas or to any date entered)
- Use Vixen 3 Sequences
- Filter messages with a Whitelist or Blacklist to ensure no profanities are displayed.

Firstly the following application is NOT supported by the Vixen Dev team so please do not create tickets or contact them for issues and information, please PM myself if you have any questions.

The software enables the audience to SMS (as long as you have an account with Twilio to SMS with mobile number) a message to be displayed on your Vixen 3 Matrix or Megatree with various effects..

All the audience will do is send an SMS to the Twilio phone number that was provided to you add the text to the display within only a few seconds. There is also the option to use a Blacklist or Whitelist to ensure dirty words are not displayed.

Vixen Messaging can also add sequences that you created in Vixen for the Matrix and can be used while no SMS messages are being sent from the audience.

There is also many options for the Text to be displayed such as Font, direction, speed and position.

Important Notes before installation:
I have Trend Virus software and it thinks Vixen Messaging contains a virus. This is not the case however you may need to add the "Install file", the "Program Files\Vixen Messaging folder" and the "c:\users\xxxxx\appdata\roaming\Vixen Messaging folder" to the exclusion list of your Virus program.

Cheers and I hope you enjoy.

A few screen shots:
 

Attachments

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  • Vixen Messaging Message settings.jpg
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  • Vixen Messaging Sequences.jpg
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  • Vixen Messaging Text Settings.jpg
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Last edited:

grahami2006

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Re: Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

Great videos Geoff.
My wife asked me this morning if there was any way that the emails sent to us could be delayed or could they be stored somewhere so that people could send them one day and see them on the matrix the next.
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

I have updated my App to include and provide support for SMS's using a Twilio account. This is a paid service but is very cheap and could be setup in Nov and cancelled in Jan.

It is very easy to setup and works really well.

Download the latest version from original links.

I have also added a feature that you can make settings changes from an email.

New videos have been added and another one will be added today that shows how to start and stop my application from within your Vixen Sequences, this allow you to only have the software running when your matrix is not in use. Very nice feature of Vixen that one of the guys pointed out.

Thanks.

Geoff
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

Just posted the latest update in first post.
 

SmartAlecLights

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

with the random messages, is there anyway to do a automatic countdown to santa as one of them messages?
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

smartalec said:
with the random messages, is there anyway to do a automatic countdown to santa as one of them messages?

I like it and it should be very easy to add it. Will look at it tonight.

What sort of count day format? Days, hours anything special?
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

gnarmstr said:
smartalec said:
with the random messages, is there anyway to do a automatic countdown to santa as one of them messages?

I like it and it should be very easy to add it. Will look at it tonight.

What sort of count day format? Days, hours anything special?

Added a countdown to the local messages. Just add a message and have the word "COUNTDOWN" in it and it will be replaced by the number of days until Christmas. COUNTDOWN is case sensitive and must be in uppercase. For example: COUNTDOWN days until Christmas. Remember any changes to the Local Messages must be saved.

You must download the latest version for the first post for this update to work.
 

fasteddy

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

With my experience using this type of technology we found that people can be very creative when trying to bypass profanity filters and why this is always monitored when used commercially and the messages are manually approved.

So depending on where you live and the kids around you may find that there may be some very offensive messages getting through if not monitored
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

Fasteddy said:
With my experience using this type of technology we found that people can be very creative when trying to bypass profanity filters and why this is always monitored when used commercially and the messages are manually approved.

So depending on where you live and the kids around you may find that there may be some very offensive messages getting through if not monitored

True however if you use the whitelist filter then only words that are included in the list will be shown so it's impossible to display bad words unless you have added it to the list.

However if you use the blacklist then it stops all words that contain what's in your blacklist, it is still possible for words that are not on the list to sneak through. However even if I have the word *^*^%# in the list and the user sends S.h.i.t then it will still not be displayed as it removes all non alphanumeric characters before checking.

Edit. I just noticed that the forum captured my dirty word but not the one with full stops.
Hope that helps b
 

fasteddy

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

gnarmstr said:
Fasteddy said:
With my experience using this type of technology we found that people can be very creative when trying to bypass profanity filters and why this is always monitored when used commercially and the messages are manually approved.

So depending on where you live and the kids around you may find that there may be some very offensive messages getting through if not monitored

True however if you use the whitelist filter then only words that are included in the list will be shown so it's impossible to display bad words unless you have added it to the list.

However if you use the blacklist then it stops all words that contain what's in your blacklist, it is still possible for words that are not on the list to sneak through. However even if I have the word *^*^%# in the list and the user sends S.h.i.t then it will still not be displayed as it removes all non alphanumeric characters before checking.

Hope that helps b

From our experience, mobile phone users most times will use abreviations and symbols to display their message, so by having a white list it then can limit what gets through that is legit, its a hard balance to try and keep

Now if i used 'SH it' then would that get through, we found some users made it their mission to try and get profanities through not realizing that it was monitored.

I think its more a case of location because some areas will have people that will be determined to beat it, but for most I doubt they will have the same issues as a large public display and the consequences of this happening would be much less than what we dealt with.
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

Fasteddy said:
gnarmstr said:
Fasteddy said:
With my experience using this type of technology we found that people can be very creative when trying to bypass profanity filters and why this is always monitored when used commercially and the messages are manually approved.

So depending on where you live and the kids around you may find that there may be some very offensive messages getting through if not monitored

True however if you use the whitelist filter then only words that are included in the list will be shown so it's impossible to display bad words unless you have added it to the list.

However if you use the blacklist then it stops all words that contain what's in your blacklist, it is still possible for words that are not on the list to sneak through. However even if I have the word *^*^%# in the list and the user sends S.h.i.t then it will still not be displayed as it removes all non alphanumeric characters before checking.

Hope that helps b

From our experience, mobile phone users most times will use abreviations and symbols to display their message, so by having a white list it then can limit what gets through that is legit, its a hard balance to try and keep

Now if i used 'SH it' then would that get through, we found some users made it their mission to try and get profanities through not realizing that it was monitored.

I think its more a case of location because some areas will have people that will be determined to beat it, but for most I doubt they will have the same issues as a large public display and the consequences of this happening would be much less than what we dealt with.

No it will not get through on both the Witelist or Blacklist as the code will first remove the space then do the filter and it will not pass. It also doesn't matter about if it's upper or lower or a mixture.

With the white list, if a legit word comes in but is not in the whitelist then it will not be display but a return email/SMS will let the user know it was rejected. Also the words are then logged so you can check each night and add the words in for future use. Currently I have around 9,000 first and last names plus another 3,000 common words. So most messages I sent through have been getting display. You can also send multiple words at once. You can add in abbreviation to the white list.

I feel I have done a pretty good job of the filters.
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

Also if a user has sent two rejected messages (will not be displayed) with the blacklist option they are automatically banned until my app is restarted. And they will not even be able to send an approved word.
 

fasteddy

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

Im sure you have done a great job on the filters and sound like you have, I just thought i would share some previous experiences with this technology and how we saw the public use it.
For us it was a large public installation that we could not risk having any vulgarities get through and the best way to ensure that was to have it monitored by a human.
 

grahami2006

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

Hi Geoff,
Hope you are getting permission to do all this extra work from the person that matters.
With the countdown message do I just add to local messages or is there a new update.
Tried just adding to local messages and only displays the message no number of days etc.
Thanks for all your hard work.
BTW Got your pm and I think the way around it is for people only to use sms.
 

ChristmasInKaralee

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Re: [Vix3] Vixen Messaging Application - Email/SMS a message to your Matrix/Megatree

grahami2006 said:
Hi Geoff,
Hope you are getting permission to do all this extra work from the person that matters.
With the countdown message do I just add to local messages or is there a new update.
Tried just adding to local messages and only displays the message no number of days etc.
Thanks for all your hard work.
BTW Got your pm and I think the way around it is for people only to use sms.
[/quote



Yes there was an update last night. If you check the original message at the start of this post from time to time as I will just edit that one.
 
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