FFcal - Plot News indicator

hello, hanover, this creation of yours more and more resembles a masterpiece. I hope one day my programming knowledge, creativity, ingenuity and generosity could reach your level.

btw, the zip file on the 1st page really is damaged, I've just downloaded it and it won't open.

Hi Bluefox,

It seems that this has been a problem with earlier releases also (see posts #295 thru 298 above). I've sent you a PM.

Thanks for your kind comments.

All the best,
David

Here is the issue i spoke to you about, hope you can make some sense of it. After i press abort the program encounters a problem and needs to close. On the left of my desktop you can see the calendar files it produces when it closes. Like i said i had a previous version running fine but it stopped working, when i updated to the latest version the same problem persists. Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you and thanks again for such a great tool!

Pipmaster, this is very strange.

The problem is the "File not found" error. The "program has encountered a problem" message is what I would expect to happen, after you click ABORT.

When I run this here with almost the same parameters, the error doesn’t occur. I say "almost" because I can’t reproduce your parameter settings. There are a couple of strange things. Firstly, if I reinstall the program into a new folder, the default settings I get are different. The FF calendar format (see blue area in screenshot below) should be set to 2, and you should not change this. Secondly, there should be at least one radio button checked ON in each of the red areas. I don’t know why you’re not getting these default values.

Having said that, it should not produce a "File not found" error. I suggest that you try the following:

Create an entirely new folder and unzip the FFcal128.ZIP file into it. Run FFcstart.BAT and make your normal entries, then note if you still have the incorrect default values (i.e. wrong FF calendar format, and/or radio buttons missing). If so, something very strange is happening.

Anyway, make sure the FF calendar format is set to 2, and that at least one radio button is checked ON in each of the red areas (preferably ‘Cols’ in the first area, and ‘Time’ in the second one). Then click OK as per normal, and see if the fault recurs.
If it does, then please try the following:

Uncheck the "Auto set" parameter in the blue area, and change the download date in that area back one day, i.e. to 6/07/2008. Again, make sure the FF calendar format is set to 2, and that at least one radio button is checked ON in each of the red areas (preferably ‘Cols’ in the first area, and ‘Time’ in the second one). Then click OK and let me know what happens.

Is there anything different running on your PC that might have triggered the error?
Did you install any new software about the same time the error started occurring?

Are you running Windows Vista? (I can only test the app on Win-98 and Win-XP here. Personally, I loathe Vista and refuse to upgrade to it).


Questions to ALL Plot_News users:

1. Have any of you ever encountered the same problem as Pipmaster, i.e. a "File Not Found" error (as opposed to "Path not found" or "Access denied"**)? And, if so, can you recall what you did to fix it?

2. Is anybody running the program successfully on Windows Vista?


[** NOTE: "Path not found" is caused by an incorrectly spelled Path name in the green area. "Access denied" occurs if you delete the "news.csv" portion, i.e. specify a path but not a file name]

Thanks,
David

Thanks for your quick reply. I have done what you said and the error is still occuring. It now comes up with the format entered as 2 and "char" and time selected as normal but i'm getting exactly the same error. When i press enter it starts to load as usual but after one loading screen the error turns up. I'm racking my brains as to what it could be. Could it be blocked by any type of programs? I'm running xp by the way. Thanks 8)

Did you try changing the date to 6/07/2008 like I suggested?
I recall somebody reporting a strange error several months ago (can't remember if it was "File not found", however), and adjusting the date by one day somehow fixed the problem.

What "File not found" is saying is that the program can't find the HTML file that gets downloaded from http://www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php
The file is called calendar.php@c=2&week=1212796800 where the long number represents the number of seconds after Dec 31, 1999, and is determined by the date you enter. The FFcal.EXE program is written in an old version of Clarion, which doesn't recognize file names > 8 characters. However, most of the later versions of Windows store an abbreviated version of the name (like the calend~1.php in the error message), and I program Clarion to look for these. Normally it works fine, but in your case it apparently can't find the file. I'm afraid I don't know why. (Sorry, I realize this technical explanation probaly doesn't help you).

Unless I can somehow reproduce the error on my own PC, it's almost impossible for me to investigate further.

David

Very good indicator, no more getting trades killed bc of forgetting the news

Thnx

Thanks for the help hanover, but i still can't get the calendar to work. I have tried setting it one day back. It just baffles me that it was working not long ago and just stopped for no apparent reason. Can you tell me; if i were to set my computer back a few weeks, would i loose saved data in excel and word etc, and any recent programs i have downloaded? Thanks.

Pipmaster, I am likewise baffled, even more so since nobody else has reported a similar error. I don't believe that changing your computer's date would fix the problem, though, because that will not alter the fact that it can't find the download file.

David

great indicator

This indicator will send a ringing Alert, warning you of each impending news announcement.


PARAMETERS

AlertMins: the number of minutes before each news event you want the Alert to sound. Default is 5 minutes.

NumTimes: the number of times you want the Alert to occur, for each news event. Default is 1.

The Alert will sound/display as soon as there is a ‘tick’ (price change) on the chart to which the indicator is attached, within the 5 minute (or whatever you specify) window immediately prior to the time of the news event.

Note that Alert_News.MQ4 gets its data from the same News.CSV file as Plot_News.MQ4, i.e. you must output this file from FFcal.EXE in the normal manner, prior to attaching the Alert_News indicator to your chart. As with Plot_News, you will need to refresh Alert_News (by editing the indicator, press Ctrl-I) after each time you instruct FFcal.EXE to output a new version of News.CSV

You should only attach the Alert_News indicator to one chart. Otherwise you will get multiple Alerts (one for each attached chart). The Plot_News indicator does not need to be attached, for Alert_News to function. The Alert will sound/display regardless of which chart(s) are currently in view.

Re-attaching Alert_News resets the NumTimes count, i.e. the alert(s) will sound NumTimes times all over again.


INSTALLATION

Page down to post #323, and copy the attached Alert_News.MQ4 file into the following folder
C:\program files\<mt4 broker name>\experts\indicators

Then re-start MT4.


Please note that I have done my best to test all of the above on both my Win-98 and Win-XP platforms, which run firewalls and anti-virus software. However, you download and run this software at your own risk. I accept no liability for any damage or losses that you might incur.

Please feel welcome to report any bugs, and post queries or suggestions in this thread.

David

Hi Hanover,

How u doing ? hope u doing great there.Thx for sharing the indicator.

Cheers

I've stopped it from displaying Alerts like "NEWS: 111110000"

Not sure why it was doing this, but I've included a check so that it now displays the Alert only if there's meaningful text in the news event's description.

You can download the fixed version from this post. The operational notes in post #321 remain valid.

David

Parlenk: all well here, thanks for your kind words. Good luck with your trading.

hi Hanover,

my plot news is error now ,can u help me ,it's just showing the dot until yesterday , today no more dot.what should i do ?

BTW thanks for your plot news ,is really great.

hanindo,

Am experiencing the same thing. Last event is from tuesday. Know it's downloading right 'cause I used the automaic setup and it did it four times.

Hopfully this is temporary situation. After months with Plot_News one can't go back to the old way. Feel completely naked. Oil Inventories: 10:35.

Hanover, HELP!

Hi David,

It's been a while since I last posted. I hope all is well with you.

Like the last two posters, there seems to be a recent glitch.
My last dot displayed may have a clue in that the description
contains an unusual character, "&" or "amp;". After that entry
there are no more news dots.

My last dot on 07/29/2008 displayed an ususual format:

16:00 USD L "Samp
P/CS HPI Composite-20 y/y"
9896
214.09 (This is the Price for the Arrow on my GBPJPY chart)

For the above the Name and Description fields were:
Name: 16:00 USD L "S&amp
Description: P/CS HPI Composite-20 y/y" 9896
(These are not what they should be for normal arrows)


A normal arrow format would have been just 3 lines:
16:00 USD L "Samp;P/CS HPI Composite-20 y/y" 9896
[Tue 07:00am] A: -15.8% | F: -16.1% | P: -15.2% | R: -15.3%
214.09



I then ran FFcal.exe and when it displayed the list of
news events, I selected the above event and pushed
Delete. I confirmed "OK" to delete the highlighted line.
I then got an error that it could not delete the item.
Now when I run it again, my older caldendar events are
apparently corrupted and gone, and I get a Runtime Error
when I try to delete a line. I get some access denied
messages and crashes if I try to rebuild or delete a line
or whatever, so it's now it a messed up state.


Hope you can identify the issue and solution from the
description.

Thanks,
Kent (Pips4life)

I love this indicator but...

But we have a bug on your indicator || Or some changes in the FF callendar.

Please check it out. It is not working on wednesday.
Suddenly after that bug posted above, the news is not showing anymore.

Is related to yesterday´s Hollyday´s?
Check it out, if yor' re using, Im sure you looking for some fix.

Good work.

gfcgamer

Kent (pips4life) is correct.

The news event he mentions contains a "funny" character.

Here is a temporary fix:

Press F9 to display the Event History database.

Find FF news event #9896 (date: 7/29/2008, descr: "S&amp;P/CS HPI Composite-20 y/y")

Highlight the news event and press Enter.

Then change the description to read:
"S&P/CS HPI Composite-20 y/y", i.e. remove the characters shown in red typeface above. (Apparently MT4 can't cope with them).

Click OK to save it, and verify that the description has been changed.

Then press Esc, and then F5.

Uncheck the parameter "Update Events History database from FF calendar" at the top of the screen. Otherwise, every time you access the calendar for the week beginning 7/27/2008, the bad data (red typeface) will be reloaded from FF calendar, and you'll need to repeat the above steps to fix it.

Click OK to output the data to News.CSV

Then refresh the Plot_News indicator on your MT4 chart(s). [Press Ctrl-I, then double click on Plot_News to edit it, and click OK, in the normal manner].

That is the temporary fix. When I get some time (hopefully over the next couple of days), I will fix the software so that it looks for, and automatically discards, the text in red typeface, as it downloads events form the FF calendar.

In all of the time that Plot_News has been operating, this is the first time that we've encountered this.

David

Hi Kent,

First, try to save whatever Events History database you have, by running a backup. See the "Export (Backup)" section here: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?p=1697453 for instructions. If the software continues to crash with errors, then I'm afraid you've lost your prior history, you'll need to later download it from the FF calendar, one (or more) weeks at a time, in the normal manner.

Run My Computer/Windows Explorer (or whatever file manager you use), and go to the folder where you originally unzipped Plot_News. There should be files there named:
CALENDAR.DAT
CALENDAR.K01
CALENDAR.K02
CALENDAR.K03

These are the files where the Events History are stored.
Delete these four files. That should hopefully reset everything.

Now, if you succeeded with a backup in the step above, refer to the "Import (Restore)" section in the link above to recover your news events.

Then apply the fix as described in my previous post.

Please post again if the above doesn't solve the problem.

David

__________________________________

NOTE TO ALL USERS:

It only takes a few seconds to run a backup of the Events History database. It's probably a reasonable precaution to perform one every week. Then, if your database ever becomes damaged, you can reset it (as described earlier in this post), and then recover the entire database.

See the link earlier in this post for instructions.