A new version! We changed / added / fixed a lot again in version 2.3. Check it out below.
New Mainscreen sections
We have added a lot of new functionality which can be accessed from the main screen.
Values (Pro Upgrade required)
We just renamed the Custom state to Values as we think it will be a better naming for it for all our users to understand what it can be used for.
In this new overview your Values can be managed. You can give them a color to better see your specific states. You can also see the current value they have and when it changes you will see it change here as well.
Events (Pro Upgrade required)
A long awaited addition to Touch Portal. No longer the need to have your page opened on your mobile with the buttons containing events that not necessarily need to update the button itself. With global Events you can create event based functions that will work no matter on which page you are on.
On this screen you can add events. Each event can have a cooldown, which means even if it is triggered during that cooldown time it will not execute the code. It will just ignore the event. You can also queue the event so that they are being triggered but only when the previous occurance has finished.
In the editor for the Events you can setup your Event and add actions to the event. Not all actions can be added to these Events as they run not attached to pages or buttons. Action like Set-Button-State can not be used for example.
In the example above we have an Event that listens to whenever there is a new message that contains "!test" and when it does, it gets triggered and it will save that chat message to a specific file.
To be able to use Event in a more dynamic environment we have also added the action to enable or disable Events. This will allow you to only activate certain events when you want them to be active.
Check out the guide for this:
Guide on Events
Flows
Flows are a collection of actions that can be used in other flows as one single action. You can for example place it in the On Press flow of a button. When triggered it will execute all actions within this Flow. When you make changes in this flow, all occurances of where it gets triggered will also use the new changed Flow.
Every Flow is listed in this screen and can be editted and deleted.
This is the Flow editor. You can add as many actions as you like to this Flow. This template is used to hide a lot of sources in OBS. Using this Flow will reset my Scrum environment so I can restart the correct sequences after this.
This shows how you can use the Flow in an action. Instead of having all those hide actions in this On Press flow, I now have one clean readable action that does all that. I use this same Flow in several other buttons. Allowing a faster and cleaner experience of create Action Flows throughout Touch Portal.
Check out the guide for this:
Guide on Flows
Asset Gallery
You can now download assets showcased on our website directly into Touch Portal. The list is automatically retrieved from our website and shows an up to date list of all pages and iconpacks share by us and the community. Not all assets are listed, only the ones we host ourselves and thus have a direct endpoint we can use.
Guides & Help
We have added the guides and FAQ from our website also as a section to Touch Portal to quickly find answers to questions you have.
Logs
We have made it easier for our users to check the logs to see what is happening and why something may not be happening.
Additional improvements:
- Ability to only log for certain categories
- Improved logging for PowerShell scripts, File IO and many more
- The Logs are groomed with a higher interval, reducing the file size and resource usage.
Automatic page switching (Windows only)
You can now get a page automatically activated on your mobile device when you change the application you are using actively on Windows. We have added a few actions you can take in this:
- Switch page based on current process file name.
- Block automatic switching when you are on a specific page.
- Auto navigate to a page when current process is not assigned to a specific page. This will allow you to go back to your main page for example whenever you activated an application that you have not assigned a process to auto navigate.
Whenever you make another window the active one in Windows, Touch Portal will check how you have set up your system and will act on it, showing the new page that you have selected if you have added this process to a page. If not it will go to the default auto-navigate page if you have set it up. If you have blocked the current page from changing, nothing will change it other then your user input to change a page using an action in a button.
Check out the guide for this:
Guide on automatic switching pages
New Upgrades (Graphics Upgrades)
This version of Touch Portal will come with a new type of Upgrades, Graphics Upgrade. Graphics Upgrades are upgrade that allow the user to easily add new graphical elements to your buttons and pages. This version we introduce 3 Graphics Upgrades. Each Graphics Upgrade allows you to add graphical elements to buttons and pages quickly and efficiently.
You do
not require the Pro Upgrade for adding these upgrades. Each Graphics Upgrade has its own price and for the three we have added in this version the price
will be around $1 for each depending on your country and your tax system.
Edge Graphics Upgrade
The Edge Graphics Upgrade lets you add all sort of border related graphical elements. Our Infographics below will show you what you can do with this Graphics Upgrade:
RGB Graphics Upgrade
Where the Edge graphics has only static elements, the RGB Graphics Upgrade has more dynamic elements. You can have pulsating borders and gradient animated borders:
RetroLC Graphics Upgrade
A personal favorite, the Retro LC themed Graphics Upgrade pack. Create your own retro space graphics with this Graphics Upgrade. This Upgrade contains all sorts of shaped background elements for your buttons to create pages such as the example page. This Upgrade does not have page enhancements.
Reworked and improved usability
We have looked a bit to some of our usability issues and have done a lot of work to create a better user experience
Reworked selecting and handling buttons and actions
We have removed the not widely-known Ctrl+M multi-selection-system. It was not very user friendly and a bit confusing for our users. We have replaced this with a simpler system. From this moment on you can select both Actions and Buttons with holding Control and clicking on the actions. When you have selected the Actions or Pages you can right mouse click and all options that can be done will be available.
Because
Ctrl+Click is now used by this system, we have changed the executing page actions from within the desktop application to the combination
Ctrl+Shift+Click
Because
Ctrl+Shift+Click is now used to open page actions on the desktop, we have changed the test executing of buttons to the combination
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Click
You can now select all by using
Ctrl + A, you can copy
Ctrl + C and of course paste
Ctrl + V. Note that if you want to insert paste the copied actions you can also right click on the location of the action flow list and select "paste all copied actions". You can deselect the actions and buttons by pressed the
Esc key.
Overview of hotkeys in Touch Portal
We have created a document for our guides page to
list all hotkeys currently available within Touch Portal
Improved list representation
We have improved a few lists with added categories such as the IF statement:
You can now find more easily the states you want to compare from the categories that are available. But we have also done this for the adding of custom states to text fields like this:
And Also:
- Added are-you-sure messages for the delete actions in the popup menus, no more accidental deletion of buttons or actions.
- You can now set a page as the default page to load, no longer the (main) has to be it.
- Added the option to duplicate a page, no more copying from page to page.
- Added the option to duplicate actions, quickly add multiple of the same action
- Yes or No message boxes now show up on the same screen as the screen that is calling is on.
- We added additional info and images to the onboarding flow to inform new time users better.
- Added the ability to double click on the main screen to maximize your screen or return to the normal view again.
- Maximizing the main screen will now maximize it on the screen it is on, not the default screen anymore.
- Closing the mainscreen and opening it through the system tray will open it on the same location and screen again. It will not go to the main screen anymore.
- Changed action number selector visuals
- Added more visual cues such as arrows for the dropdown menus
Streamlabs OBS for MacOS!
Version 2.3 will now also support Streamlabs OBS on mac. Because Streamlabs OBS's Windows communication protocol has not been implemented on Mac we could not connect to Streamlabs OBS on Mac when they released. We have reworked the communication protocols to use the Mac enabled protocol, so from this version we use a different communication protocol on the background.
Besides the change in the core to also be able to control Streamlabs OBS on Mac, we have also done the following:
- Added the Execute Studio Mode Transition action
- The state of the scenes, source, streaming and recording will be up to date when the first connection to Streamlabs OBS is made
- Fixed a bug where sources were not visible anymore after saving the button.
- Fixed a bug where Streamlabs OBS integration would consume high amounts of CPU when disconnected.
Run Apple script action (MacOS Only)
We have added an action that runs the content of that action as an Apple Script. This will open up a lot of new possibilities for using Touch Portal on your MacOS. You can just put the script code in the action and it will be executed.
OBS Updates
We have also extended the OBS integration this version.
- We added the OBS take screenshot to file action
- We added OBS warnings when not connected
- We added OBS scenes as sources in certain actions
- Added OBS Media start pause play
- Added OBS Media stop
- Added OBS Media reset
- Added OBS Media next
- Added OBS Media previous
Twitch Updates
We also did some Twitch updates this version:
- Added Subscription types (Sub, Re-Sub, GiftSub and Anonymous GiftSub) in the new subscribers event
- Added Tiers (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) in the new subscribers event
- Added VIP user type for the Chat event
- Added the last name and message states for Vips, Mods, Subs, Staff and Broadcasters
- Fixed trailing spaces issues with for Channel Points ids
- Fixed all Twitch states now correctly usable in IF statements
- Fixed the multiple connection bug resulting in triggering events multiple times.
- Fixed the bug where Twitch chat connection lost.
- Fixed the event for new Subscribers not working properly
XSplit
In the previous version the XSplit integration did not follow the new version correctly anymore. We have reworked the XSplit core quite a bit because of this and did the following as well:
- Added more broadcast options to the streaming actions
- Added the On Scene change event
- Added on recording state event
- Added Push To Live action
- Fixed the recording action to not trigger a stream as well
Philips Hue
We have reworked Philips Hue a bit:
- Added Set Brightness action
- Added Set Color Temperature action
- Added Change Color Temperature action
- Reworked Hue actions to inline as well
- We have improved the performance of retrieving source information from the Hue Bridge
- Fixed constant error when trying to connect to bridges when in a different network.
- Reorder Philips Hue sources in a alphabetical order
Control Windows Audio Sources
We have introduce direct control to Windows Audio sources:
- Mute and Unmute your Windows input and output sources
- Set volume of your Windows input and output sources
- Increment and decrement the volume of your Windows input and output sources
Action flows improvements
From this version on we have updated the action flow system internally. This results in some nice possibilities:
- IF statemens are now allowed in Events!
- Each event is now really executed async, no more waiting on other events when triggered in the same button!
- All flows of actions will be started async and finished.
New Actions and improved actions!
We have added a few new actions as well
Value calculation action
With this you can use calculation changes to your texts and numbers.
This example will write the text "Result = 7". You can use this action to do several things, here is a table with the results in different situations:
| Value 1 | Function | Value 2 | Result |
|---|
| 4 | 1=Add | 3 | 7 |
| 4 | 2=Subtract | 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 3=Multiply | 3 | 12 |
| 4 | 4=Divide | 3 | 1 |
| text | 1=Add | 3 | text3 |
| text | 1=Add | foo | textfoo |
| text | 2=Subtract | foo | text |
| text3foo | 2=Subtract | 3 | textfoo |
| text3foo | 2=Subtract | foo | text3 |
| | | |
URL content to File action
Store the full content of a URL endpoint into a file with this action.
Improved Mouse Click action on Windows
We have added a new method of clicking on Windows. This new method allows you to use the action also on mixed scaled screens on Windows. Using the mouse action with 4K screens will work with this new method.
Performance boost & improvements!
- We improved the app start up time with an average of 60% reduced time it takes to start up. On our test computers it went from 4 seconds to under 2 seconds! This all depends on all the services being connected of course during startup and your own computer specs.
- We improved the Android page loading speed by up to 70%. On older devices running old Android versions this can be the difference of the feeling you have to wait and the feeling of smooth transitions. For example, one of our old test tablets the test page loaded in 420 ms instead of 1284 ms before this update.
- We improved the loading speed of pages in the desktop environment.
- We have made all flows that are executed fully async. This means that certain events will no longer wait until the previous was finished. Everything is triggered right away and run separately. This improves the responsiveness and the predictability of all executed flows.
- We have introduced the possibility to disable logging which for some low-end users will not use resources anymore not necessary for Touch Portal to run.
- We have optimized parts of the app to use less memory
- Loading the backups information is being done async so the settings page will load right away and will not hang anymore.
Updated visuals
This version we have again upgraded and fixed some visuals in our app
Selection of Custom Fonts
This version has a collection of custom fonts that you can use for the buttons.
Better page rendering and relative distances
We have improved the way pages are rendered and some of the settings that affect the rendering. All pages will be centered from now on. This means on screens with a few left over pixels will not left align the pages but will render it in the middle of the screen. All borders and margins will be percentages of the elements. This will ensure that every page and background is rendered correctly on most devices which will reduce the amount of rework after you downloaded a page from someone.
And also:
- We reworked the menus with show and hide on selected category.
- All subwindows also have an icon from this version
- We have updated a lot of texts to better represent the situation for the user. having clearer texts will help in understanding the situation.
- We have changed the Pro Uprade wall with new visuals
- We have changed the scale of the button margins
Plug-in system updates (Touch Portal API)
We have added new functionality to Touch Portal for our API:
- Sends page change events to plug-in
- Allow plug-in builders to add settings to Touch Portals Settings page. The devs can include settings that the user can edit and that the plug-in can use but the devs can also create fields that are just to show data. This data cannot be changed. Here an example of the Touch Portal VLC Plugin:
- Plug-ins can now make use of the On Hold functionality
- Plug-in states can now be used in text fields
- Added a minimum and maximum value for number data
- Added UTF-8 support for plug-ins
- Added plug-in controls being able to add state variables
- Fixed plug-in categories without actions or events will no longer be shown in the action category lists
- Fixed plug-in state usage in IF statements
- Fixed duplication of categories and actions when re-adding a plug-in
- Logging plug-in messages no longer requires the command line functionality but can be set in the log screen
- Fixed import message when unsuccesfull with import
- We have fixed for the plug-in system on mac not correctly running commands.
- Fixed plugin higher than and lower than checks not working
We have updated the
documentation for the API
What else ?!
- We cleaned up our code base a bit to allow for better and faster development for future releases.
- When renaming pages, the original name is filled in already
- We added the ability to play mp3 from an URL.
- We removed all the begin tutorials from the main screen and the Button edit screen.
- We added the ability to add States to an action to more actions.
- We added a reconnect button for when using the USB connection type. No more changing the network adapters to reconnect.
- We added the functionality to store a Value into another Value.
Bugfixes
Most bug fixes are already mentioned in the sections above but we also fixed some bugs not in those categories:
- Timer actions no longer hog your CPU.
- In the previous function we did not store the settings correctly and this resulted in situations where the settings sometimes were not accessible anymore. This resulted in a reset of the settings in Touch Portal. When the lock on the file was removed, the settings were restored. To fix this we are now using a different way of storing the settings.
- Fixed the Repeat X times bug where IF statements were not handled correctly
- On MacOS the windows firewall checks are no longer being done. No more confusion.
- Using "(main)" in page names no longer possible.
