A Request for Features on the Menu Bar. OSx.

Suggestions/comments/criticisms are welcome here

Lazarus

Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:13 am

Post by Lazarus » Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:11 am
Hi guys, I've been using Viscosity on my Mac for a couple of years now and would like to thank you for such a great piece of software. Thanks.

I have a few requests for various features that could be displayed on the Mac Menubar.

1. I have tried to find a bit of third party software to display the session's 'connection time' on my Mac's menu bar but with no real luck. The connection time is displayed in the Viscosity 'Details' pane but I'd rather not have the pane up all the time so is there any chance of putting a toggle option in the preferences somewhere so that this feature could be displayed hh:mm:ss next to the Viscosity icon on the top menu bar? Personally I'd find this feature really useful. Hope you don't mind the suggestion.

2. It would also be really useful to be able to display the 'Client IP' on the menubar. I've found a couple of apps that do this but not with customisable options. An option to display the 'Server IP' and even the IP of the Primary ISP connection could also be of use. If each of these could be toggled on/off then the user could set it to his/her preferred state.

3. Colour and size customisation of IP info on Menubar. The MenuMeters app has an interesting Network menu which puts incoming and outgoing KB/s data one above the other in customisable colours in the menubar. If adopted as the format for IP displays this would obviously reduce the space required for the data.
Last edited by Lazarus on Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lazarus

Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:13 am

Post by Lazarus » Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:35 pm
After I had made the previous post I made further searches to try and find third party software that would display the information I wanted in the Mac Menubar. In case what I found is of interest / use to anyone I thought I'd post it here.

Connection Timer

I have been using 'Thyme' (free software available - http://joaomoreno.github.com/thyme/). This is a handy piece of software that runs a simple stopwatch facility which displays in the menubar. I have used Applescripts to launch, start and close the application as a tunnel connection opens, remains active and closes. It is a nice simple piece of software which could be put to a multitude of uses.

If you too wish to use Thyme to display a connection timer in the menubar you will need to use the Viscosity / Preferences / Advanced pane and write three applescripts:

1: You will need a short script…

tell application "Thyme"
activate
end tell

which can be linked to the "Before Connection Script:" option in the Viscosity Advanced pane and then…


2: use a second script...

tell application "Thyme"
start
end tell

which is linked to the "Connected Script:" option in the Viscosity Advanced pane.


3: and finally a third script...

tell application "Thyme"
quit
end tell

which is linked to the "Disconnected Script:" option in the Viscosity Advanced pane.


Originally the software only opened and closed with scripts but following contact with the developer, João Moreno, additional script support was added to the software which enabled users to use a 'start' script to fully automate the program's operations.

……………………………..


IP in menu bar

I found a piece of 'donation-ware' developed by Christian Schmitz called 'IP in menu bar'. This did not quite have the required display options but following an exchange of emails over a couple of days Christian very kindly sent a version of the software to me with minor amendments which can now display the 'Client' or 'Private' IP address in the menubar. Better still the option displays the designated IP provided by the ISP company but switches to the 'private' IP once the tunnel is connected and then reverts to the ISP IP if and when the tunnel is disconnected. The IP data is all derived from within the computer so no external site connection is 'pinged'. Use the 'Display / Use Last Network Interface...' option.

Personally I find this a useful menubar tool. If anyone else is interested in a copy then email Christian at:

[email protected]

The new version of the software is only available from him directly at the moment. He said he is happy to email it to anyone on request. Christian also told me that the latest changes will be incorporated into the next version of 'IP in menu bar' (v4.4) at some point in the future after which it will be available through the monkeybread website (http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de).
Last edited by Lazarus on Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:31 am, edited 3 times in total.

Lazarus

Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:13 am

Post by Lazarus » Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:23 pm
Thymes developer, João Moreno, has now added additional script support to his software that enabled users to use a 'start' script to fully automate the program's operations (my last post has been amended in line with this development). The revised version of Thyme is now available here:

http://joaomoreno.github.com/thyme/


Many thanks to João for making the script additions and for making his excellant software freely available.

James

User avatar
Posts: 2313
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:27 pm

Post by James » Thu Nov 15, 2012 5:16 pm
Hi Lazarus,

Thanks for the constructive feedback - much appreciated. I'm sure Viscosity users will find your contributions handy as well.

We are planning some big updates to Viscosity's menu for a future version - we'll take your suggestions on board while we plan what we want to do. :)

Cheers,
James
Web: https://www.sparklabs.com
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