ChangeLog

This is the change log for version 2.*

Version 1 Change Log

Version 1 is no longer being updated (the final Version 1 release was: 1.1.9.1)

A change log for various releases of version 1 can be found here: Version 1 Change Log

Version 2 official release

For older Version 2 Change Log entries, see the Version 2 Change Log archives.

Version 2.2.0.6

Core Program

New Look. Brand new look for VoxCommando's main screen UI. Tool panels (i.e., history, groups, and active plugins) have been moved to their own windows, which can be toggled on and off. Windows will be minimized and restored along with the parent main window, and tool windows will always stay on top of the parent window so focusing VC will ensure that all tool windows are visible as long as they're not hiding each other. VoxCommando will remember window positions and whether they're on or off between restarts. Actions to manipulate the tool windows may be added in the future.

Translations. Thanks to several volunteers, we have improved translations for the user interfaces in several languages (and will continue to improve them over time). Our sincere thanks to Kalle (de), Marcus (pt-br), as well as new user Pioneer (ru) and his friend who translated the complete UI from the ground up into Russian.

We are seeking more volunteers to verify French translations, and to help us translate into Spanish and Italian.

Also:

• Fixed bug introduced in 2.1.4.8, which resulted in the Sound.* actions not functioning for some users.
• Fixed action File.GetFiles to properly report errors for missing or empty folders.
• Added keyboard shortcuts for inserting new groups (Ctrl-Shift-G ), commands (Ctrl-Shift-C), or phrases (Ctrl-Shift-P).

Plugins

• Python. The Python log window (console) will now clean up after itself when text gets too long. The oldest lines will be removed when the total length is over 15,000 characters.

• TTS.GetLastText action added. Returns the last text that was spoken by the TTS plugin. If TTS selected text randomly because of the pipe symbol | it will return whichever string was actually spoken. If TTS plugin has not spoken yet, it will return an error.

• iTunes. GenXML functions no longer functioned because iTunes changed its internal XML. Plugin was updated to correctly generate payload XML for iTunes media based on its new XML format.

Version 2.2.0.7

• MAJOR BUG FIX. An immediate version update was required to resolve a significant payload-related bug. Thanks to Marcusvdt for calling our attention to the problem early.

• Note: not in this release is a fix for a minor bug affecting the new TTS.GetLastText action. If you need to use this action before the next official release, you can download the fix from the forum: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2299.0

Version 2.2.0.9

Core Program

• Configuration backups:
  • Backup function now stores.py files.
  • New action VcAdvanced.Backup allows automation of backups
• Scrape.Put:
  • Allow username without password
  • Fixed documentation xml to show header parameters.

• Fix Mouse.MiddleClick action. Middle-click mouse emulation was wrongly emulating a right click, not middle click.
• Fix Sound.GetVol action. Should now return a result when volume is 0.
• Fix SMTP.Send action. Should no longer cause file path error when trying to send an html message with the preceding parameter unspecified.

• UI Translations
• Minor updates to various languages
• NEW - Polish UI (about 70% finished) - Thanks to Piotr

Default Configurations

• Kodi 15 Isengard default configuration changes
  • New youtube search command, works with Isengard and allows youtube search via web when Kodi is not running.
  • When resuming movie now checks to see if you are at the beginning of the movie before announcing title and cast of movie.

Plugins

• Vera Plugin fix for action: Vera.SetLockState
• TTS Plugin fix for action: TTS.GetLastText
• RoboB small fix when showing list of active RoboBrowsers that do no have an URL

Version 2.2.1.3

Beta released 24-Dec-2015.

Standard Configurations

• Added a new "Examples" configuration. This includes groups of sample commands that could be helpful to new users. We will be adding more to this configuration in the future.
• Fix: Deleted duplicate "Show Help" command in JRiver configuration.

Core program

• If you reopen the Editor, it will now reselect the last command you were editing when you closed it.
• New button in the Editor to find and select the last recognized command.
• Within the macro builder (LCB), action parameters can now contain && (double ampersand) without being interpreted as two parameters.

Changes to variables:

• Removed the {TAB} variable because it was interfering with keyboard emulation actions for the tab key
• Added the more powerful {CHR.##} variable. Any character can be used by replacing ## with the decimal ASCII code for the character. http://www.asciitable.com/

Core actions:

• Scrape.Simple
  • Accepts only a single parameter: URL
  • This action is a test workaround for special cases. See http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2374
  • Uses same method as RegExTool
• File.GetDirectories. New action.
• File.GetFiles. Added new optional parameter to search subdirectories recursively and list all files found.
• VcAdvanced.OpenPluginWindow. New action.
  • Takes one parameter (the name of a plugin) and will open the plugin settings window.
  • This is mostly for me, to open a plugin automatically when VC starts if I am coding/testing a plugin.

VoxTools Addon and RepoVC

We are using a new repository for VoxTools which is now hosted on GitHub instead of Google's now defunct Google Code. There are also some changes to the addon itself but these will probably not affect the average user. See http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2381.msg20633#msg20633 for more information.

Plugins

DxInput plugin. Added new actions for mouse button click emulation.

xMySql plugin. Updates to default configuration and GenXML fixes.

MB3 (Emby) plugin.

• Bug fixes.
• Implements a new version of the Emby API client.
• Improvements to GenXML.
• Still needs more testing and development. Stay tuned.

Version 2.2.1.4

Version 2.2.1.3 introduced a bug that caused excessive CPU activity. This release addresses that bug. If you are using 2.2.1.3 please upgrade immediately to 2.2.1.4

Version 2.2.1.6

Beta released 21-Feb-2016.

Core Program

• Bug Fix: Sound.StopStream. Did not stop stream properly. Now it does.
• Bug Fix: File.Read should now be able to read a file even if it is open in another program, as long as it is not locked. In other words the program that opened it first must have done it in a "polite" way.

New actions

• System.GetVar. Retrieve various system-related variables such as: MachineName, OSVersion, SystemDirectory, UserName, EnvironmentVar, AllEnvironmentVars
• Tools.WeekdayToOffset. Converts a day of the week to an offset for use in plugins such as GgCal and Wunder. Useful for actions that expect the day to be expressed as an integer relative to today, where today is 0 and tomorrow is 1. For example if today is Wednesday you can convert Thursday to +1, or Monday to -2, etc. Previously users had to use Python scripting to accomplish this.

Command confirmation

BIG CHANGE! Commands that require confirmation will now also require confirmation even if triggered by an event. Previously, such commands only required confirmation when a voice command was issued.

Looping commands

• Looping commands can now be triggered by an event. As with a voice-triggered command, the command will continue to loop until another command is successfully called or the max loops value is reached.
• Looping commands that require confirmation will now work as they should, first requiring confirmation and then looping.

NOTE: Commands being executed for testing in the command tree editor or LCB will continue to ignore options for looping and confirmation. They will always execute once, and won't require confirmation.

Kinect Audio Streaming

• Added ability to select which Kinect sensor to use in the main VC/Options/Kinect tab. (experimental)
• When recognition fails due to the Kinect AEC being unable to read a locked audio output (e.g. WASAPI or pass-through is enabled on the audio output) the Kinect will attempt to fall back automatically by turning AEC off.

Default configurations

• Kodi: Removed commands for the CinemaExperience addon and added commands for CinemaVision addon in the English Isengard standard configuration.

TTS Plugin

• Bug fixes for differentiating voices in Windows 10 or that have similar names, when selecting and saving the default voice.
• Better events: tts.start and tts.end events will only fire once now if a command uses several TTS actions in a row.

Sonos Plugin

• Numerous fixes and improvements to Sonos actions.
• Previously Sonos.Player.AdjustVol prevented volume from being increased beyond 50% due to concern that users might damage their systems. I have removed this limitation so that users can make this decision for themselves.
• Revisions, corrections, and improvements to action documentation xml to help users understand how Sonos actions can be used.

Hue Plugin

• Bug Fix: Hue.Store. Fixed action and XML for parameters. User can provide a list of lights to store or if the parameter is left empty then all lights will be stored.

Version 2.2.1.7

Beta released 03-April-2016.

Core Program

• Minor changes to the PluginInterface.dll not of interest to end users.
• A new variable {LastInfo} returns the last information or error string from the previously executed action. This value does not persist like {LastResult} does. As soon as you execute any other action its value will change.

New actions

• Tools.Encode.URI (Converts {LastResult} or an optional parameter into a URI encoded string.)
• Tools.Encode.Base64 (Renamed action -- was previously Tools.EncodeBase64.)
• VcAdvanced.ClearLog (Erases all text that is currently in the log file.)
• VcAdvanced.EnableLog (Enable or disable logging on the fly.)

NEW Beam Plugin Alpha

• First release of the Beam plugin, to allow learning raw RF codes with the Beam IR/RF prototype (currently only available to a small group of beta testers).

Sonos Plugin

• Improvements to Sonos plugin, specifically with respect to zones and TTS functionality.
  • Sonos.TTS.Speak should work better with players that are in low power (sleep) mode.
  • Sonos.TTS.Speak now has a new parameter: volume (optional).

• New Sonos actions:
  • Sonos.Player.GetGrpVol (returns the average volume of a group and optionally the volume of each player.)
  • Sonos.GetGroupInfo (returns the name of the group a player is in.)
  • Sonos.Player.GetStatus (returns: Playing or Stopped.)

Version 2.2.1.9

Beta released 06-June-2016.

• Updated BEAM plugin.
• Improved friendly payloads ({PF.1} etc.). If you have a comma-separated list of phrases in your payload, Friendly payload variables will only show one of the phrases.
• New core action: VcAdvanced.Notify to show popup notifications.

TCP plugin

• Updated html for http post request form.

Vera plugin

• Fixed Vera.Get.HouseMode bug. Was generating an error unless users manually added a parameter field using the parameter helper.
• NEW: Vera.Set.HouseMode. Set Vera to one of four different modes.

Sonos Plugin

• Changes to help recover from Sonos players that disappear and reappear.
• We now have Sonos.TTS.Speak and Sonos.TTS.SpeakSync actions. Sonos.TTS.Speak will no longer wait for the Sonos to speak before continuing on to the next action in your macro.

GgCal plugin

• Added 2 new payloads when generating VC events based on Google calendar events:
  • {10}: Date the calendar event ends - format yyyy-MM-dd
  • {11}: Time the calendar event ends - format HH:mm (or the string "all-day" if this is an all-day event)

Version 2.2.2.0

Beta released 17-June-2016.

• Bug Fix. A small number of licensed users were affected by a bug in version 2.2.1.9 that deactivated VoxCommando temporarily. This has been fixed.

TTS & TTSMS Plugins

• Bug Fix. Changes to the default volume for TTS voices in the plugin options were not being saved upon quitting VoxCommando. This has been fixed.

xSQL Plugin

• Custom SQL querying to support payload XML needs beyond the core Kodi media databases has now been fully implemented in the xSQL plugin.

Version 2.2.2.1

Beta released 5-July-2016.

• Core program: user variable names can now contain underscore characters. Example: {var.my_var_one}
• Core program: new action: Group.GetEnabled checks to see if a group is currently enabled.
• Core program: Results.Replace and Results.RegexReplace can now use an optional input string instead of having to use {LastResult}. (Note: The results of these replacements will still be stored in {LastResult})

New Win Plugin

• A new "Win" plugin will make finding and manipulating processes and windows easier and more powerful.
  • Still in early development
  • Includes actions to find windows by process, class, or title.
  • Windows can be resized and moved, etc.

Audio Plugin

• Bug fixes for the Audio plugin (could not select output)

Version 2.2.2.2

Beta released 19-July-2016.

Core program:

• Fix drag and drop xml to LCB.
  • Now it's possible to drop actions into "then" and "else" blocks.
  • Now it will place the new actions where they are dropped instead of at the end.

Removal of old useless stuff

• Removed the Bing plugin.
• Removed the MsAgent plugin.
• Removed the core actions for Pandorabot.

Fix for Hue Plugin

In April of 2016 Philips made changes to the Hue bridge software that made it impossible for new users to connect to the Hue bridge using the VoxCommando Hue plugin.

• The plugin has now been updated to solve this problem.
• If you previously were using the Hue plugin it might be necessary for you to reconnect to the bridge (press the button on the bridge) after updating VoxCommando to the new version. I'm really not sure. I tried to make it so that you would not need to but I am unable to test it.

Updates to Win Plugin

Further development of new Win plugin including:

• Better window search, new key recorder and keyboard emulation similar to DxInput plugin.
• Drag and drop window identification.
• Changes to action names and action descriptions.
• Lots of other little bits of stuff. :)

Version 2.2.2.6

Beta released 7-Sept-2016.

Core program

• Internal changes for UPnP discovery that allow the new Wemo plugin to work.
• More actions will run asynchronously in threaded commands (that is, commands prefixed with '++'). Previously, VC.Pause was the only action that would run in its own thread for these commands. Now certain actions, such as TTS.SpeakSync and the Scrape.*** actions, will also run asynchronously in ++ commands. This means that VC will not freeze if these actions take a long time to complete. Users should still use caution with ++ commands, since multiple simultaneously executing commands can lead to unexpected results.
• Bug fix: VcAdvanced.EnableLog. Previously generated an error when set to disable logging (though the logging was still properly disabled). Error message fixed.

NEW MQTT Plugin

• First release of this plugin
• Designed to work with HappyBubbles BLE presence detectors and beacons.

Sonos Plugin

• New plugin version 2.0.2.5
• Update to Sonos plugin and the libraries it uses so that it will use less CPU when listening for Sonos updates.
• Modifications to actions Sonos.Player.AdjustVol and Sonos.Player.AdjustGrpVol. Each of these actions now includes a new, optional "Return Vol" boolean parameter. If set to "True" the action will return the new volume as {LastResult}.

Wemo Plugin

• New plugin version 2.1.0.0
• Now works with Windows 10 (and probably Windows 8, but this has not yet been tested).

Version 2.2.2.9

Beta released 1-Oct-2016.

Core program

• Internal changes for UPnP discovery that allow the new Wemo plugin to work.

AudioEndpoint Plugin

• New plugin version 2.0.1.1
• Fixes to work with Windows 8 and Windows 10
• Minor action updates

GgCal Plugin

• New plugin version 2.0.0.8
• Fix to GgCal.SetTimers when using default feeds (no parameters specified).

Wemo Plugin

• New plugin version 2.1.0.?
• Updates to improve discovery
• Manually add switches if discovery fails (uses polling to detect port changes)
• Switch generates events (uses polling)

Version 2.2.3.0

Beta released 26-Oct-2016.

Core program

• Added shortcut to Win plugin from LCB (Macro editor).
• VC no longer broadcasts UDP message to VoxWav. A client running VoxWav must first connect to VoxCommando via the TcpMic plugin and then all messages will be sent to that client only. If another client connects to VoxCommando, subsequent messages will be directed to that new client.
• In Options: Users can now specify duration (in milliseconds) that automated OSD messages remain on the screen. The default duration continues to be 6000 ms (6 seconds).
• NEW: The default Confirmation Command Phrases set in Options can be disabled by leaving either the Confirmation phrase or Cancel phrase field empty. This is helpful if you want to instead create custom confirmation commands in your command tree. (For example, see: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2655)
• Fixed: Looping commands set to a delay of 0 ms previously would loop forever. This is now fixed.
• Fixed: Exporting maps that have duplicate keys to payload XML using either an action or within the map editor. Previously, export would generate an error and fail if a map had duplicate keys. Now the payload XML will be generated but users will receive a warning if the resulting payload XML has duplicate phrases. You should fix those phrases in your payload XML or it's likely you'll experience problems.
• UI update: In the Command Tree Editor, events can no longer be marked as "optional" as this has no effect.
• VCadvanced.Notify. Users can now set a duration of less than 5 seconds. This may not work reliably on different operating systems. You can try it but we cannot guarantee it will work on every system.
• Spelling Dictation feature no longer puts spaces between letters unless the user actually says "space".

MQTT Plugin

• New plugin version 2.0.1.1
• Minor updates to logging
• Fixed signal strength payload when a beacon is discovered / enters a new zone

Version 2.2.3.2

Beta released 17-Dec-2016.

Core program

• Bugfix: Removed duplicate plugin dll that was causing a conflict in some plugins in version 2.2.3.0
• History window: added checkbox to enable/disable auto-scrolling

TCP Plugin

• New plugin version 2.2.0.4
• Added new mime-types for files such as external javascript files (.js) and css

xSQL Plugin

• New plugin version 2.1.0.5
• Added new default paths to dropdown list
  • Kodi 16 Jarvis
  • Kodi 17 Beta 1

Onkyo Plugin

• New plugin version 2.0.0.0
• Changes to command format to try to fix problem with newer models.
  • Don't know if it works because I don't have the hardware for testing and failed to get adequate feedback from users.

Version 2.2.3.4

beta released 2017-01-26

Core program

• VC.TellVox will now ignore any extra parameters after the first parameter, which contains the speech to emulate.
• New action added: EventGhost.SendNP which does not automatically append payloads to the EventGhost message.
• Scrape and Scrape.* actions no longer require the URLs to start with http://
• New configuration available for Kodi 17 Krypton.

TCP Plugin

• New implementation of the Simple Webserver.
• Addition of basic security (username and password but no encryption).
• Extra support for Amazon Echo, Dot etc.
  • New Action: TCP.WebServer.SetResponse which can be used to send TTS response back to Amazon Echo when AWS lambda script is configured correctly. Sample code to follow.

Wemo Plugin

• Added user configurable polling interval in plugin settings.

MQTT Plugin

• Added action: MQTT.Connect to allow user to reestablish connection to MQTT broker if lost or not present at start-up.

xSql Plugin

• Added new dropdown in plugin settings to configure automatic database paths for Kodi 17 Krypton.

Version 2.2.3.5

beta released 2017-02-19

Core program

• Fix SR engine not turning on again after failed emulation using VC.TellVox action

iTunes plugin

• Fix special characters when scanning XML song data
• Added better error info when iTunes is not configured to share XML properly

TCP plugin

• Fix TCP.Client not getting complete event payload from server in some cases

Beam Plugin

• Many enhancements to plugin interface

TTS Plugin

• New payloads in TTS.Speak events

Version 2.2.3.7

beta released 2017-05-22

Core program

• Updated Scrape.Post action to allow using some restricted headers: "accept", "connection", "expect","host","referer","transferencoding","useragent"
• Added German configuration for Kodi 17 Krypton
• Added event "Confirmed.*commandname*" after a command that required confirmation is confirmed.
  • The event is fired after executing the command that required confirmation.

Wemo Plugin

• Wemo fixes to deal with port changes
• Wemo added scan action
• Wemo removed modal popup window on error connecting to switch

Hue Plugin

• Hue: Added ability to delete scenes
• Hue: Fix bug when storing scene with unreachable lights

TCP Plugin

• TCP plugin: fix freeze or plugin failing to load when trying to start web server on port that is already in use.
• Added automatic port forwarding on routers that support UPNP forwarding.

Version 2.2.3.8

beta released 2017-07-18

Core program

• Changes to OSD windows.
  • OSD Windows are now destroyed and not hidden

MQTT Plugin

• Version 2.0.2.0
• Added option for multiple topic subscriptions in plugin settings.

Version 2.2.4.0

beta released 2017-10-18

Core program

• Corrections to activation system that caused some systems to revert to trial mode when unable to contact the activation server.
• Minor changes to confirmation command events: preventing timer-based Confirm.Cancel events from firing after command had already been confirmed or cancelled.

Hue plugin

• Fixed bug in lights editor of the Hue plugin (http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2762.msg23652#msg23652)

Version 2.2.4.1

beta released 2018-01-31

Core program

• Bug fixed: When "Show OSD when confirmation required" was unchecked in options/general then confirmation of commands was not working using either default confirmation or VC.ConfirmYes action. This should now work normally.
  • Reported here: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=2772.msg23878#msg23878

Version 2.2.4.5

beta released 2018-12-05

Serial Plugin (unofficial - NEW)

• User-contributed Arduino serial plugin now packaged with VC.

MQTT Plugin

Plugin version 2.0.2.1

• Bug fixes
• Added action MQTT.Disconnect

Plugin xMySQL

Plugin version 2.0.1.1

• Added option to specify non-standard port when connecting to database.

TCP plugin

Plugin version 2.2.3.2

• Added scripted web-template to access Google Chrome's speech recognition using the TCP plugin's simple web server and a new websocket implementation. Works in languages and dialects that are not supported by the built-in Windows speech engine or VoxCommando SP. Internet connection is required. This solution also provides a new way to handle open dictation in all languages, for users willing to creatively experiment with event-based commands. (Example commands may be posted on forum.) See also: Google Speech
• New security feature: Update to filter incoming requests by IP address.
• Bug fix: Simple web server will now load html pages that include spaces in the filepath/URL.

xSQL plugin

• Added new action xSQL.GenerateCustom to allow generating custom payloadXML files from any valid SQLite database file.

Plugin Watcher

Plugin version 2.1.1.2

• Fixed bug where files were not being deleted after reading actions

Plugin PY (IronPython)

Plugin version 2.0.2.4

• Updated to IronPython version 2.7.9
• Shipping with many new python libraries such as urllib

Version 2.2.4.5b

beta released 2019-01-19

TCP plugin

Plugin version 2.3.2.4

• Fixed character encoding in plugin's Options settings to allow non-Latin characters (Russian etc.) to be saved.

Version 2.2.4.7

beta released 2019-06-20

TCP plugin

Plugin version 2.3.2.7

• Fixed issues with Google Speech websocket when plugin options was never opened.
• Added persistent web server configurable in TCP options. This server will remain open and messages can be sent back to the last connected client. Tested by Kalle with Net.IO

DXInput plugin

Plugin version 2.0.2.2

• Fixed Key Combo duration setting in plugin options was not being saved correctly.

(See: https://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1986.msg24378#msg24378)

Weather Underground plugin (WU)

Removed because the free service API was discontinued by Weather Underground.

Note on unlisted updates Some of the changes or updates that were added between the 2.2.4.7 and 2.3.1.0 will be listed in 2.3.1.0 below...

Version 2.3.1.0

beta released 2020-12-22

Core features

• 64 bit versions of the executable included
  • Note that some features or plugins might work in only the 32 bit version and some might work only in the 64 bit version. There is no other real advantage to using one or the other that we know of. 64 bit is not faster or more powerful.
  • If you wish to use the DxInput plugin you must use the 32 bit version.

• Unexpected crash recovery: If VC encounters an unexpected crash (usually on a non-UI thread) it will attempt to create a new log file with the date and time of the crash (even if logging is disabled), and then restart VoxCommando

• Persistent User variables: VoxCommando can now save and restore user variables between restarts of VoxCommando. There is a new tab in Options named "variables" where this can be enabled.

• Translations: Some updates to language translations, Russian in particular.
  • If you notice text in the interface that starts with # that indicates a computer translation that needs to be verified by a human. Please let us know if you can help verify or do new translations for a particular language.

• RegExTool - force tool to evaluate \n as \r\n to match end of line characters as evaluated in Results.RegEx actions

• Audioendpoint was removed (did not work in 64 bit version) and core sound actions were added that allow to setting the Windows default input and output devices.

New IMAP plugin

Plugin version 2.0.0.5

• Generates real-time events for email received on an IMAP account
• Uses "IDLE" and does not require constant polling to generate events

RoboB plugin

(RoboBrowser)

• Minor but important bug fixes.

New GTTS Plugin

- Google cloud API TTS (experimental) plugin

• In development.

New AccuWeather plugin

Plugin version 2.0.0.7 Similar to WUnderground plugin which as discontinued See: https://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=928.msg24466#msg24466

New updates currently in progress

Some or all of these changes may appear in the next release. Some may not be included until a later release, and some might be dropped.

Other Plans

Other things I am considering or planning for a future release, but that might take a while.

A plugin to monitor Amazon echo for voice commands. No skill would be required to use this, but the problem is that Amazon will continue to try to do things with your voice commands that you may not want when you are tryiing to talk to VoxCommando.

Download

Where can I get the latest version with all these great changes?

The latest stable and new beta versions are always available on the DOWNLOADS PAGE