iTrace-NotepadPlusPlus

iTrace-NotepadPlusPlus (or iTrace-Notepad++) is a plugin for the Notepad++ Text Editor. The plugin will establish a connection to the iTrace-Core desktop application. Once connected to the Core, the plugin will accept eye-tracking information from the Core and translate it to editor-specific data and output said data to an XML file.

Installation

1. Download the latest version of the plugin. It will be a .dll file.
2. Open Notepad++, and select Plugins->Open Plugins Folder...
3. Create a folder for the plugin. The folder must be named the same as the .dll file. By default, the folder should be named iTrace-NPP.
4. Drag and drop the .dll file in the folder.
5. Restart Notepad++. The plugin should now be installed.

Usage

To use iTrace-Notepad++, make sure you have iTrace-Core installed.

1. Open any files you wish to view in Notepad++.
2. Run iTrace-Core and set up the parameters of your tracking session.
3. Select Plugins->iTrace-NPP->Connect to iTrace Core. Alternatively, press Alt+I.
4. iTrace-Notepad++ should now be connected to iTrace-Core. A notification should appear in the bottom left notifying you of any errors in connecting.
5. Once a tracking session is started, iTrace-Notepad++ will begin writing to a file in the location specified in iTrace-Core. When the tracking session is finished, two files will be present - one from iTrace-Notepad++ and the other from iTrace-Core.

How to Build From Source

If you want to build the plugin from source, follow these steps:

1. Download or clone the source code.
2. Open /vs.proj/iTrace-NPP.vcxproj using Visual Studio 2022.
3. The code should now be open in Visual Studio.
4. To build the .dll file, select Build->Build Solution. The .dll will be created in /vs.proj/x64/Debug/.

Further Steps

After gathering your data, you can use our other tools iTrace-Toolkit and iTrace-Visualize to analyze and process the tracking sessions.