PetAlert

Documentation for v. 1.0

Overview

This is a program I decided to write after missing many of my fishes' birthdays. I like to keep track of how old my fish are. This program really can be used for lots of different things.

PetAlert keeps track of up to 200 pets (or plants, or books, or whatever) and their cost, birthday, etc. By "birthday" I mean "whatever date you want to use." It saves files with the *.pet file extension.

Requirements

• A computer running Windows 3.1 or higher.

Terms of Use

PetAlert is freeware, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.

Pet List Page

When you edit a pet, the edit window comes up. This has several fields:

• Name/Type: The name or type or both of the pet, e.g. "Neon tetras" or "Goldie" or (if you are a nerd) "Phenacogrammus interruptus."
• Source: Where you got the pet, e.g. "Bob's Animal Kingdom"
• Birthdate: The date you got the pet.
• Time: The time you got the pet.
• Price Info | Price Ea.: The price of one of the pets.
• Price Info | Tax Rate: The tax rate effective where you bought the pet.
• Quantity | Actual: The actual number of this type of pet you got.
• Quantity | Calc: This is the number PetAlert uses for calculating purposes. This is useful for "2 for the price of 1" deals or "a dozen guppies for $1.17" offers. You would put 12 for the Actual number of guppies, but 1 for the Calc number. PetAlert takes the Price Ea. times the Calc number. So you could still put $1.17 for the Price Ea.
• Status Box: Self-explanatory. Is your pet Alive? Dead? Otherwise Gone?

PetAlert keeps track of the total number of pets you have, as well as the total amount of money you spent on pets, taxes, and both.

Reminder Options Page

This page is what puts the "Alert" in "PetAlert." PetAlert goes through your pet list to see whether it is near or on any of the pets' birthdays. Then, based on these options, it will alert you. This is also what the Test button on the Pet List page does.

General Options

• PetAlert Loading: If this is checked, PetAlert will do this testing whenever PetAlert loads. PetAlert automatically opens the last pet list opened, and tests the pets.
• Don't Test Dead Pets: If this is checked, PetAlert will skip over the dead pets when it tests.
• Time Alarm: If this is checked, PetAlert will put up a message saying "HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Name of Pet)!" when the exact time of that pet's birthday is encountered. For example, if Rover was purchased at 4:23 a year ago today, and 4:23 rolls around, the message will pop up. Even if PetAlert is minimized.

Loading Options

• Advance Reminders: If checked, PetAlert will alert you when it is nearing the pet's birthday. If the current date is close enough to the pet's birthday, it will let you know. Close enough is determined by Days Before.
• Same Day Reminders: If checked, PetAlert will let you know when it is the pet's actual birthday.
• Belated Reminders: This is identical to Advance Reminders except that it lets you know after the birthday has passed. The amount of time after is determined by Days After.

Parameters

PetAlert will accept several command line parameters:

• TEST: If the command line reads "petalert.exe test" PetAlert will load the last opened pet list, test the pets, and then shut down.
• HIDE: If the command line reads "petalert.exe hide" PetAlert will load, and minimize itself. It will still test the pets when it loads if PetAlert Loading was checked.

These parameters are useful for putting in the Windows Startup group if you'd like PetAlert to check your pets on system start.

Feedback

Send suggestions, discovered bugs, encouraging remarks, or even hate mail to me at support@@spamsafezachbardon.com.

Thanks for downloading Life Workshop! Enjoy!

~Zach~
Brainfather, Zach Bardon Software