Yesterday on the WoW Gold Blogger Live Hangout Sapu, Lead Developer and Director of TradeSkillMaster, treated the bloggers in the hangout to a sneak peak at a new desktop application in the works for TradeSkillMaster.

First, let’s see what Sapu has to say about it.

In the past, we’ve released a desktop application which will automatically update your AuctionDB using Blizzard’s APIs. This application was widely used and helped countless TSM users avoid ever having to scan the auction house again. Fast forward a year, and we are thrilled to introduce the new TradeSkillMaster desktop application.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Features

(From the app’s webpage)

• AuctionDB Updater
  • Never scan the auction house again and keep your AuctionDB data up to date!
  • The application will automatically update your AuctionDB data for up to 5 realms.
  • Takes advantage of Blizzard’s APIs to provide you with the equivalent of doing a full scan in-game every hour of the day.
• Deal Notifications
  • Get notified when there’s a great deal on the auction house!
  • Similarly to AuctionDB, uses Blizzard’s hourly auction house updates for up to 5 different realms.
  • Automatically extracts your dealfinging lists from TSM_Shopping and allows you to customize which lists to alert you for.
  • Supports free email notifications! If enabled, will automatically send you an email whenever deals are found.
• WoWuction Updater
  • Similarly to AuctionDB, update your TSM_WoWuction data automatically every hour!
  • WoWuction provides both realm-specific market data as well as region-wide market data. The TSM_WoWuction module allows you to use this data in game.
• TSM Settings Backup/Restore
  • Automatically backs up your TSM settings!
  • Backup frequency configurable.
  • Old backups can be automatically purged to reduce the amount of disk space used by backups.
  • Settings can be quickly restored from backups from within the application.
• Report TSM Lua Errors and Bugs
  • Any lua errors or other bugs you encounter with the addon can be easily reported through this interface.
  • You can also track the status of your submitted tickets and provide more information if it’s requested.

With the addition of these features Sapu and his team have brought to the community a level of integration previously unseen for an addon. (Can it really be called just an add-on now? Isn’t it more of a system? A resource? I digress…)

Now, lets take this for a spin shall we?

Testing the New TSM Desktop Application

Before you download the app you have to create a profile on the new (soon to be launched by the looks of it) TradeSkillMaster site. It just takes a few clicks and you can use things like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and OpenID to login. You’ll then have to get a key generated for each device you will be running TSM from.

The app will try and find your WoW directory and guess what server you play. It did pretty well when I first launched it, but it guess my faction wrong (it had Horde preset, not Alliance) which isn’t a big deal since I just have to change the one thing in the drop down before I hit Add Realm!

The AuctionDB Updater is intuitive and easy to use. Once you have your five realms picked in the previous screen, you simply need to check which realms you want maintained and the app will update your add-on’s database directly from the Blizzard database. Excellent feature for those who are still having problems with the GetAll feature (a problem on Blizzard’s end), or, well, for anybody really it’s that awesome.

TradeSkillMaster also now offers email notifications which frankly is amazing, and they’re free! I’m not too sure how this works right now, but it seems to take your shopping lists from the TSM app (I currently don’t have anything listed in there, so I can’t properly test it out) and emails you when it polls the Blizzard database and finds matching deals. Right now you have to have the app running to receive notifications, hopefully in the future there will be something web based.

The TradeSkillMaster Desktop Application also still supports the TSM_WoWuction module for getting the price data from WoWuction.com for those who prefer this method. Again using this feature is super intuitive and super easy, simply check off the realms you want to sync, pop in your API key from WoWuction, and presto! Data sync.

Next up is the application’s backup and restore features (where have you been all my life?). This will allow you to, automatically if you wish, backup your TSM settings to a directory of your choosing. Best part is it looks like they’re time coded so you can keep multiple backups in the same directory and keep a history if you need. This tab also allows you to restore a previous backup quick and easily. (It’s unclear how this will all work over multiple computers at the moment, I assume they’re independent).

Finally the application allows you to submit tickets and view current tickets.

Summary

By the looks and feel of the application, and indications by Sapu, this app will be ready for public consumption in the near future. Look forward to the release, it will be a game changer.

Rating:

A+

Personal Message from Sapu, Lead Developer of TradeSkillMaster:

Related Posts

• Check Out The New TSM Theme I Designed – The Functional Gold Maker
• The Golden Crusade Shuffler Updated to V1.0.1
• 20 Days of Gold Making: Day 11–Are there any other lesser known gold making add-ons you use?
• World of Warcraft Gold Tweeters
• The Golden Crusade Shuffler Has Been Updated to V1.0.0–Release