[Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Thu Nov 19 12:03:01 GMT 2009

>Pages now take a transition property as well, which works the
same way.

 Beauty.

ICON has a method makeTransition(transition) which takes your
string or variable and sets up the delay – so all icons can do this.

>Can you give it a good test for me please, in all combinations.

 First variation:Wipe works fine.Dissolve does graphics, but seems to ignore text blocks.Strange. 

//default_transition = 'wipe(\'in\', 2, \'None\', \'easeNone\', 2);';

default_transition = 'dissolve(\'in\', 3, \'None\', \'easeNone\',10, 10);';

>I think weird things might happen if you simultaneously try and
run transitions on both a page and one of it’s children..?

 Looks like they happen sequentially with the page trans taking precedence over the child.

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 6:23 PM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

OK, one last thing and I'll be out of your hair.

{default_transition} works as an icon property.

But the parent erase route requires a code string:

decpage.wipe('in', 3, 'None', 'easeNone', 2);

I't'd be great if I could also use that same global var in there:

Tried 

decpage.default_transition;

but no go.

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:22:18 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

Can you wipe the parent,
rather than individual icons?

Wipe is an ICON method
– all of them can do it, as are the other transitions

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 4:18 PM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

That may kill the split second, but I can see it getting hairier the further we
go.

Then I think it would require algorithms to compute various areas vs wipe times
so they appear to wipe synchronously.

It just may be an inherent incompatibility because of the multi-asset .vs
single asset per icon difference AW <-> Xerte.

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:52:21 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

No good then. You need a
catcher function in the engine that can then set up the delay.

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 3:50 PM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

That works AFA wiping the entire area, but has the unfortunate side-effect of
rendering everything on screen for a split second, then proceeding with the
wipe in.

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:33:13 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

Yes, of course it does,
because your code doesn’t break. Letting the icon handle it allows the
break to work, calling the function directly doesn’t. Try an interaction
timer response set to 0.

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk]
On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 3:31 PM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

The torture never ends.

It now works perfectly when set as an icon transition property

{default_transition}

But if I remove that transition property and add a script icon below:

i66423.wipe('in', 3, 'None', 'easeNone', 2);

it goes back to the half-wipe behaviour.

I was trying this approach in order to synchronize wipes of multiple icons.

So somehow those css dimensions are not broadcast.

Not to worry, I'll use the singleton properties.

Just thought I'd give you something to mull late at night. ;-)

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:52:51 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

Yep. Same reason.

In Flash, code executes in
frames. In each frame, firstly all the code is executed, and then the display
is updated, so it is possible for code to run that needs to measure something
that hasn’t been drawn yet, even though the object exists. Executing code
cannot be interrupted.

Mostly it’s not a
problem because the properties of the object are usually correct, even if it
hasn’t been drawn, but not in this case because the CSS stuff must happen
later. 

I’ll add that to the
build – nice one.

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk]
On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:47 PM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Yowza!

That seems to do the trick.

Sort of like a 0 second AW wait icon to allow vars to update.

;-)

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:39:32 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

Give this a shot…

There’s a 0 millisecond
delay in there now, which will give the engine an opportunity to come up for
air. I don’t have your CSS example, so can’t try that.

If it fails we’ll try
it with a longer delay….

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 11:50 AM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Thanks for all this Julian.

You're probably working on something more interesting, and I know by experience
it's a drag to re-open old code.

As soon as I get this converter tuned, I'll d/l the Xerte source and dig into
it.

Dave

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:19:57 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

That’s helpful.
I’ll look into it – either delay the transition by a frame, or make
sure things happen in the right order. The CSS stuff is done automatically by
the Flash Player though – it’s not something the Xerte engine
messes with.

Busy this morning, I’ll
have a look later,

J

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 11:01 PM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Good
thought.

Yep, that seems to function as expected.

I removed the default fontsize from the LO and the transition from the icon
itself.

Does that point to anything?

A transition applied directly to the icon is executing prior to the css render?

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:59:47 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

did you try running the
transition using a button after the text has rendered? Create an ad-hoc
button, add a script to iconID.wipe(...blah...) and then click it once the text
has been rendered? Does that make any difference?

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk on behalf of Dave Burnett

Sent: Tue 17/11/2009 17:29

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Excellent. Cheers!

Still wish I could figure out why the css is ignored by the transition engine.

Setting the default font to the largest used in the piece lets the transition
function, but of course on smaller fonts it still thinks the area is much
larger.

The effect is that the same transition applied to smaller fonts appears to move
much slower. (As it is wiping a non-text area for a while before it hits the
visible text.)

It must be ignoring the css font def, and uses the default text size it it's
place.

Couldn't reproduce in Flash, and not a peep out of the Flash lists I queried.

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:56:07 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

OK, got it.

Download the latest build
from the website.

Create a new piece.

Add script 

trans = "wipe('in', 2,
'None', 'easeNone',2)" ; //so you can define popular transitions upfront
and reuse them throughout the piece

then in the transition field
of the icon put {trans}

cheers,

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Julian Tenney

Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 9:44 AM

To: Xerte discussion list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Hmm. Not easy to add the
variable route. Either set the icon proeprties ahead of time, or call
IconID.wipe(…) afterwards. You can call the transitions dynamically
afterwards iconID[‘wipe’](..blah..);

Have you tried you transition
sometime after the icon has rendered? Is it a timing issue – i.e. the
tranition is being called before the screen has updated with the
textField’s contents?

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett

Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 9:27 PM

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Cool,
but I guess that means I have to pop a script icon above each icon I want to
transition:

icon.nextSibling.attributes.transition = trans_var;

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:15:40 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

At the minute it takes a string,
but you can set what that string is:

icon.nextSibling.attributes.blah = "my
value for the icon's property when it gets parsed"

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk on behalf of Dave Burnett

Sent: Mon 16/11/2009 20:24

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Well, I asked about it in a couple Flash type places and got no response, so I
went back to brute force and discovered:

If I set the default font size on the LO to the largest I'm using in the CSS,
the transition works on all fonts that size and below.

??

and

This alters the speed of the transition. (I guess it thinks it is dealing with
that larger size font).

Which leads me to the next question:

Can I use a variable in the icon "transition" parameter?

I've tried a bunch of variations and no go.

No way to even "eval" a variable into that spot?

Dave

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:49:43 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

I dunno.

This si what the engine does:

   if (transition !=
undefined) {

    script(this+'.'+transition, engine);

   }

so that basically runs the script
iconID.wipe(...blah...), which is here:

IconID.wipe:

ICON.prototype.wipe = function(dir,
duration, easing, easeType, startPoint) {

 var direction = dir == 'in' ? Transition.IN : Transition.OUT;

 var tween = TransitionManager.start(this, {type:Wipe,
direction:direction, duration:duration, easing:mx.transitions['easing'][easing][easeType],
startPoint:startPoint});

 tween.mc = this;

 tween.onMotionFinished = function(){

  this.mc.broadcast('onMotionFinished');

 }

};

After that? I haven't a clue. 

I would build a very simple Flash file,
recreate the situation ( a text field in a movie clip with your styled test in,
and then wipe that) and find out if transitionManager fails even when it's not
suppposed to, before you take it any further. Take Xerte (and everything else)
out of the picture. I don't think this is a Xerte problem, as Xerte doesn't
really do much other than act to pass on the transition to the transition
manager - check the values of the parmeters getting sent?

From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk on behalf of Dave Burnett

Sent: Sat 14/11/2009 15:19

To: Xerte list

Subject: RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Forget
the .fla, I found it in google code.

The AS is over my head, but as far as I can make out:

The transition AS files get imported.

The guts are in

Transition.as

TransitionManager.as

They seem to use getcontent() as one of the means of determining the area to be
affected. An overlay clip is built and that is what is erased off.

So the overlay is being built to the correct size, but the erasure function is
using some other value, not completing the "wipe" of the overlay.

Any Flashmeisters care to tell me how far off base I am before I start
fatfingering class files?

;-)

Subject:
RE: [Xerte] FW: Transition setup?

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:23:51 +0000

From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk

To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk

Interesting. I'm not a big user
of styles as we tend to use the default interface.

In this situation, I would open up the
XMLEngine.fla, look into how the transition works, put some debug statements in
there and see what things look like as it runs, and see what I can figure
out...