[Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)

[Kemp Johnathan]

We looked at leaving out <learningObject> in the xml in the early days of
Page Wizards.

I can't remember the details fully but I know it caused problems. I think,
though could be wrong on this, that one Page Wizard based page in a project
worked fine, but once you had a project with several Page Wizard based pages
in it set up without <learningObject> in the xml then things started to go
wrong. There was some conflict taking place.

Kind regards

Johnathan

On 21 April 2011 14:04, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>wrote:

> You don’t have to have <learningObject/> in your xml though. You have
> separate xml files for each model? Then make the root the page node, not
> <learningObject>
>
>
>
> Or am I missing something?
>
>
>
> We are probably due a zip of things. Unless we get any more feedback, we’ll
> go ahead.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 21 April 2011 14:00
>
> *To:* Xerte discussion list
> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)
>
>
>
> I am always a bit wary of changes in subversions in that things may be a
> little volatile, something being modified may then lead to side effects
> being found and then further changes resulting. Or alternatively one good
> idea leads to another and further improvements are made. I prefer to wait
> until things are stable and then make all the changes that have taken place
> available in a new release of the Page Wizards.
>
>
>
> My standard procedure is to take a new release of Xerte when it is made
> officially available and to create an empty Page Templates based project. I
> keep a similar project from the previous version and use this as a base line
> for comparison. I then compare both project folders using win merge which
> highlights all the changes for me in each individual file.
>
>
>
> I can then update the relevant page wizard files one file at a time to
> implement the changes I see in the latest Xerte release. The biggest problem
> is likely to occur when a significant change to the .rlt file is made as
> this will reflect code that many different page templates may call upon.
> This is why thus far I have limited the Page Wizards to the Page Templates
> and not extended them to cover any of the other project wide templates.
>
>
>
> What I find difficult sometimes is to identify when a new release has taken
> place as sometimes the last update date on the Xerte web site may not be
> updated, or version numbers displayed in the version information may not be
> up to date.
>
>
>
> I have read in the mailing list of a forthcoming release of Xerte On-line
> toolkits and am bracing myself now for a new release of desktop Xerte, in
> anticipation that it may create a fair bit of maintenance for the page
> wizards.
>
>
>
> I recall a while back there being some discussion regarding looking into
> how the PageTemplates project wide template and the Page Wizards could share
> the same set of files, this would significantly reduce the maintenance
> burden of the Page Wizards. The sample code below shows the key issues in
> achieving this.
>
>
>
> // code from getPageId from a typical page wizard
>
>
>
> pageIcon = icon.parentNode.clip();
> //myXML = new XML(extXML.firstChild.childNodes[rootIcon.getPageIndex() -
> pgOffset]);
> //pageIcon.templateData = myXML.toObject();
> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.extXML.toObject();
>
> //rootIcon.setTitleText(templateData.learningObject[0].name);
>
> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].dragDropLabel[0].narration !=
> undefined){
> narration = pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0]
> .dragDropLabel[0].narration;
> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
> nar.play();
> }
>
> The blue code is needed for PageTemplates use and the red for Page Wizards
> use
>
>
>
> I would have thought it might be possible to cover everything except for
> the inclusion of ".learningObject[0]" insertions by some kind of project
> wide flag and an if else block that tested the flag condition.
>
>
>
> Is there any way that pageIcon.templateData could be defined for Page
> Wizards so that it included the ".learningObject[0]" so that it does not
> need to be referenced every time a call to external xml data is made? If so
> this could then be included in the above mentioned if else block and the
> rest of the code could stand unchanged.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 21 April 2011 11:35, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Do you watch the subversion rss feeds?
>
>
>
> http://code.google.com/feeds/p/xerte/updates/basic
>
>
>
> That’s probably the best way of being kept in the loop of changes. I try
> and comment them. If there is no comment it’s usually a smaller bug fix
> rather than a  change. If you keep your svn synched up you’ll see the files
> that have changed on each update. If it looks like something you ought to be
> aware of, and can’t see what’s changed then send me a mail.
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 21 April 2011 11:32
> *To:* Xerte discussion list
> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)
>
>
>
> Hello Deborah,
>
>
>
> Thanks for the idea of adding the optional automatic narration parameter, I
> will aim to add it to all the page wizards that use narration in the next
> release.
>
>
>
> I remember some discussion on the mail list that suggested that there may
> be some changes to the code that is used to implement narration, but as yet
> the current version of Xerte still uses the same code. Hence I have made no
> changes to narrationHandler.rlm. Should there be any changes to how the
> PageTemplates project wide template delivers narration in a future release
> then there may be an update to narrationHandler.rlm.
>
>
>
> New Page Wizards cannot update existing pages in Xerte projects, as a Page
> Wizard is only used as a source of information by Xerte from which to create
> a new page, so existing pages are unaffected by an update to the Page
> Wizards.
>
>
>
> The changes to a Page Wizard that provide support for optional automatic
> narration are all within the code of the page wizard (an extra line in the
> xwd file to implement the optional parameter and a small change to the
> getPageId code block that adds an extra "if" condition to the section that
> implements narration) so no change to the narrationHandler is required.
>
>
>
> *Adding auto Narration to any existing page that offers narration*
>
> If you wanted to add auto Narration to an existing page in one of your
> projects then this would be a simple 2 step process
>
>
>
> Step 1 - add the optional parameter "narPlayback" to the xwd file. Simply
> open the xwd file in your favourite editor (not a word processor) - I use
> FlashDevelop and insert the line below, after the narration optional
> parameter, then save your change.
>
>
>
> <narPlayback type="ComboBox" label="Narration Playback" options="On user
> request,On page load" data="userRequest,pageLoad" defaultValue="On user
> request" width="150" optional="true"/>
>
> Step 2 - add an additional "if" block to the narration code in getPageId.
> Do this in Xerte by expanding the page structure and selecting the getPageId
> script icon.
>
>
>
> // Old page version - no auto narration option
>
>
>
> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration !=
> undefined){
> narration =
> pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration;
> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
> }
>
>
>
> // sample version from new version of gapFill Page Wizard
>
>
>
> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narration !=
> undefined){
> narration = pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narration;
> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
>
>     if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narPlayback !=
> undefined &&
> pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narPlayback ==
> "pageLoad"){
>     nar.play();
>     }
>
> }
>
>
>
> The bit shown in blue above could be added to any page wizard that offers
> narration, you would just need to edit the references to the page wizard
> name to match the current page wizard, e.g. for modelAnswer code shown
> earlier would become
>
>
>
> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration !=
> undefined){
> narration =
> pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration;
> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
>
>
>
>     if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0]. modelAnswer [0].narPlayback
> != undefined &&   pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0]. modelAnswer [0].narPlayback
> == "pageLoad"){
>     nar.play();
>     }
>
>
> }
>
> That should give your page auto narration option capability. Note the first
> two lines shown above are actually all one long line.
>
>
>
> *Updating an existing page to use the new version of a Page Wizard*
>
>
>
> If you wanted to update a learning object to take advantage of new features
> in a Page wizard then you could try the following.
>
>
>
> Given an existing page called currentPage with its files saved in folder
> pages / currentPage
>
>
>
> 1 . Create a new page using the new version of the Page Wizard saving its
> files to pages / newPage
>
>
>
> this would give you a folder pages / newPage containing the Page Wizard's
> .xml, .xwd and .rlm files
>
>
>
> 2. Rename the .xml file to something like orig.xml
>
>
>
> 3. Copy the .xml file from pages / currentPage to pages / newPage
>
>
>
> This should give you a new copy of your original page that uses the new
> code for the page, has the new xwd file but benefits from all the settings
> of your original page.
>
>
>
> But a word of warning. This should work in most instances of new page
> wizards, one thing could cause a problem.
>
>
>
> If the new Version of the page wizard includes any new parameters that are
> NOT optional.
>
>
>
> If the new version of the Page Wizard includes a non-optional parameter
> that did not exist in the previous version then the wizard may malfunction.
> To resolve the malfunction look in the original xml file (renamed to
> orig.xml above and identify the missing parameters. These will need to be
> copied into the active xml file i.e the copy from your original page.
>
>
>
> Whether it is worth updating a page will probably depend on the changes
> that the new wizard introduces.
>
>
>
> Hope this helps to answer your questions.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> PS. Don't worry about asking silly questions - just ask for clarification
> if my answers are not adequate to meet your needs.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 20 April 2011 11:20, Deborah Delin <admin at strivney.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Jonathan,
>
>
>
> Thanks very much for the new Page Wizards release.  Great to have an
> optional parameter to specify automatic narration!
>
>
>
> Sorry if this is a silly question:  I have downloaded the new release and
> replaced the files in my Xerte folder, but, in order for existing learning
> objects to be affected by the changes in the new release, do I have to
> re-create the learning objects from scratch?  The release didn't contain a
> new narration handler - wouldn't I need to add an updated narration handler
> to the rlo?
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for your reply.
>
> --
>
> Deborah
>
>
>
>
>
>
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