Hey guys here is a list of features/enhancements I would like to see added to ZP. Some are far
more important than others but I would personally like to see a lot of these added.
The big ones already discussed on the forums and all due for release:
1) Update debug mode - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?4430-BIG-TIMESAVER!!!-Speed-Up-The-Debug-Process
2) Scheduler - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?6649-Scheduler
3) Macro like builder/alternative - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?5955-Bring-Back-the-Macros
An alternative has kind of been added with the C# action but nothing like the old macros. It's a real pity because the old macros can 1) be used inside other actions easily so templates can be cut down in size and run more efficiently and 2) are very easy to use and require no knowledge of C#
4) Ability to use sub templates - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?6224-Ability-to-launch-another-template-from-one-template
Other features I feel should/could be added (This is in no particular order). Many of these are to do with speeding up workflow:
1) Easily use the profile variables in the action designer value box quickly. Right click in the action designer value field and use profile variables just like you can in the normal browser window.
2)Automatically pull values into the action designer attribute value field. When I select 'outertext' for example the attribute field below it should automatically be populated with that value. This saves going over and back copy and pasting in values from the 'select element properties' window.
Great addition that was added in 4.5.0.1 - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?9276-New-build-4-5-0-1-(06-March-2013)
3) We should be able double click the inputs/outputs connector on one action and drag it to another instead of having to delete it and pull another one.
4)It's hard to connect actions if they are not on the same screen. It should auto scroll when you are trying to pull a connecter to another action that is off screen or out of view. At the moment you have to move the action then connect to the other one before moving the action back where it was.
To do the above see No.1 here - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?7243-Simple-Operational-Tips-For-Newbie
5) Should be able left click, drag to highlight branches and then right click copy and paste them into the same canvas or into another template you have open. Not just groups but groups,actions,all connectors and associated variables.
Also when you click and highlight you should be able hit delete to delete everything that is highlighted as well.
6) Expand on the search by picture so instead of just having the options to left click, right click etc you should have a option to click keystroke emulation with a text box to type in your keystrokes all in one go. This box should work just like the normal keystrokes action so you can use control+space but you can also click 'test' to test your keystrokes before adding it to the project. When it is saved ZP could then add the two actions to the editor window.
7)Add option to confirm all links that match your regex in the receive email action (instead of just one).
Why? Let's say you create a template for any platform out there and you run your registration. At the moment ZP has to register and then run the email action for every site you want to sign up on. If you want to use one email to signup across all the sites you will be blocked out in no time and run into problems so you are forced to use a ton of emails to try and get around it.
It would be so much better if you could run your registration template and when there are no sites left in your list to sign up on you would have your template run the email action once! How? It would login to your pop3 one time, find all the emails that match your 'how to find email' regex and then save them all to a list. After that we could just have ZP loop through and go to each line/confirmation link on the list.
Makes perfect sense to me. I can't be the only one that wants to use one email to signup across a load of sites. Think about it.
Added in 4.3.5.0
Mouse emulation. Right now it takes 5 actions to click one button with it and it's completely laborious to setup. Tutorial video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPOlad-pHhg
Wouldn't it be a lot better if the mouse emulation worked during the recording process.
So you use the action designer to find whatever you want to click. Select rise, then under the event drop down select a new option 'emulation'. Click 'add to project' and up pops the mouse emulation action window with the X and Y 'from' coordinates automatically filled with the 'LeftInTab' and 'TopInTab' values respectively.
You then enter in the 'to' values e.g X+50 and Y+15, decide if you want normal/equally spread clicks etc and click 'done', the window disappears and the action is added to the recording. When you stop recording your mouse emulation action is added to your editor, done in one action.
Note: Please watch the tutorial above if you are not familiar with how the mouse emulation
works. Afterwards you will see the benefit of this feature idea.
9) Ability to create global variables directly from the input settings window. At the moment when you use input settings to take in data you can only add that data to local variables. Afterwards you have to add a variable processing action for every local variable you want to use globally just to convert them into global variables. In the 'Save to Variable' drop down if there was another select option called 'New Global Variable' to create Global variables right away it would work way better.
10)A variable for the action id. I was going to suggest a new log action so you can gather all the log errors for each template easily but the bad end will work fine. All that needs to be added is the ability to output the action ID when a action fails. How useful would it be to be able to output a log file for each of your temps that would look something like this:
{-variable.site-};{-action.ID-}
Anybody creating any platform temps etc would love this. You could run your temp in Zennoposter and then go through your template log file to see what sites failed and then have the exact action ID for each of them to find what action it failed on in PM.
Other useful variables to do with actions that could be added are {-action.comment-} and {-action.group-}.
{-action.comment-} would output the default action comment but if you are using your own comments it would output that instead. This would make it easier to see straight away where your temp is having problems in your log file.
{-action.group-} would output the action group name. If none exists then it would be blank.
Example log output using {-variable.site-};{-action.group-};{-action.comment-};{-action.ID-}
This great feature was added in 4.3.7.0 here - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?8733-New-build-4-3-7-0-(17-01-2013)
Some extra miscellaneous ideas:
1) Ctrl + and Ctrl - should allow us to zoom in and out of the canvas. The canvas blurs a lot when it is zoomed out at the moment making it hard to work with/read actions when not in the default zoom.
2) Ability to minimize the top toolbar in the editor and top toolbar in actions recording window. At the moment we can either see all the icons and text or else hide the ribbon. I just want the ability to save as much space as possible and still have easy access to the buttons.
So basically quick minimize button just like there already is for the bottom bar in the editor window that contains tables, lists etc would do it perfectly. I'm sure a lot of users don't need anything more than minimized icons and it will add a significant amount of much needed extra space to both windows.
Cheers,
Boxcutter
more important than others but I would personally like to see a lot of these added.
The big ones already discussed on the forums and all due for release:
1) Update debug mode - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?4430-BIG-TIMESAVER!!!-Speed-Up-The-Debug-Process
2) Scheduler - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?6649-Scheduler
3) Macro like builder/alternative - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?5955-Bring-Back-the-Macros
An alternative has kind of been added with the C# action but nothing like the old macros. It's a real pity because the old macros can 1) be used inside other actions easily so templates can be cut down in size and run more efficiently and 2) are very easy to use and require no knowledge of C#
4) Ability to use sub templates - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?6224-Ability-to-launch-another-template-from-one-template
Other features I feel should/could be added (This is in no particular order). Many of these are to do with speeding up workflow:
1) Easily use the profile variables in the action designer value box quickly. Right click in the action designer value field and use profile variables just like you can in the normal browser window.
2)
Great addition that was added in 4.5.0.1 - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?9276-New-build-4-5-0-1-(06-March-2013)
3) We should be able double click the inputs/outputs connector on one action and drag it to another instead of having to delete it and pull another one.
4)
To do the above see No.1 here - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?7243-Simple-Operational-Tips-For-Newbie
5) Should be able left click, drag to highlight branches and then right click copy and paste them into the same canvas or into another template you have open. Not just groups but groups,actions,all connectors and associated variables.
Also when you click and highlight you should be able hit delete to delete everything that is highlighted as well.
6) Expand on the search by picture so instead of just having the options to left click, right click etc you should have a option to click keystroke emulation with a text box to type in your keystrokes all in one go. This box should work just like the normal keystrokes action so you can use control+space but you can also click 'test' to test your keystrokes before adding it to the project. When it is saved ZP could then add the two actions to the editor window.
7)
Why? Let's say you create a template for any platform out there and you run your registration. At the moment ZP has to register and then run the email action for every site you want to sign up on. If you want to use one email to signup across all the sites you will be blocked out in no time and run into problems so you are forced to use a ton of emails to try and get around it.
It would be so much better if you could run your registration template and when there are no sites left in your list to sign up on you would have your template run the email action once! How? It would login to your pop3 one time, find all the emails that match your 'how to find email' regex and then save them all to a list. After that we could just have ZP loop through and go to each line/confirmation link on the list.
Makes perfect sense to me. I can't be the only one that wants to use one email to signup across a load of sites. Think about it.
Added in 4.3.5.0
Mouse emulation. Right now it takes 5 actions to click one button with it and it's completely laborious to setup. Tutorial video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPOlad-pHhgWouldn't it be a lot better if the mouse emulation worked during the recording process.
So you use the action designer to find whatever you want to click. Select rise, then under the event drop down select a new option 'emulation'. Click 'add to project' and up pops the mouse emulation action window with the X and Y 'from' coordinates automatically filled with the 'LeftInTab' and 'TopInTab' values respectively.
You then enter in the 'to' values e.g X+50 and Y+15, decide if you want normal/equally spread clicks etc and click 'done', the window disappears and the action is added to the recording. When you stop recording your mouse emulation action is added to your editor, done in one action.
Note: Please watch the tutorial above if you are not familiar with how the mouse emulation
works. Afterwards you will see the benefit of this feature idea.
9) Ability to create global variables directly from the input settings window. At the moment when you use input settings to take in data you can only add that data to local variables. Afterwards you have to add a variable processing action for every local variable you want to use globally just to convert them into global variables. In the 'Save to Variable' drop down if there was another select option called 'New Global Variable' to create Global variables right away it would work way better.
10)
{-variable.site-};{-action.ID-}
Anybody creating any platform temps etc would love this. You could run your temp in Zennoposter and then go through your template log file to see what sites failed and then have the exact action ID for each of them to find what action it failed on in PM.
Other useful variables to do with actions that could be added are {-action.comment-} and {-action.group-}.
{-action.comment-} would output the default action comment but if you are using your own comments it would output that instead. This would make it easier to see straight away where your temp is having problems in your log file.
{-action.group-} would output the action group name. If none exists then it would be blank.
Example log output using {-variable.site-};{-action.group-};{-action.comment-};{-action.ID-}
This great feature was added in 4.3.7.0 here - http://zennolab.com/discussion/showthread.php?8733-New-build-4-3-7-0-(17-01-2013)
Some extra miscellaneous ideas:
1) Ctrl + and Ctrl - should allow us to zoom in and out of the canvas. The canvas blurs a lot when it is zoomed out at the moment making it hard to work with/read actions when not in the default zoom.
2) Ability to minimize the top toolbar in the editor and top toolbar in actions recording window. At the moment we can either see all the icons and text or else hide the ribbon. I just want the ability to save as much space as possible and still have easy access to the buttons.
So basically quick minimize button just like there already is for the bottom bar in the editor window that contains tables, lists etc would do it perfectly. I'm sure a lot of users don't need anything more than minimized icons and it will add a significant amount of much needed extra space to both windows.
Cheers,
Boxcutter
. 
Will purchase full version soon.