[Xerte] Re: xerte desktop 2.18 page templates question

Fri Jan 4 01:23:13 GMT 2013

Hello Jonathan:

Thanks.I did a once over of your instructions, will likely try this weekend.
You've obviously done a huge amount of work on this! I'll let you know how
it goes.

RonM2

From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp Johnathan
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 2:06 AM
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: xerte desktop 2.18 page templates question

Hello RonM2,

One further addition to my notes below.

When you open the wizard form for the page you have added manually you will
just see a "pageWizard" entry in the form. Click on the Insert button above
it and use the menu that displays to add a new Page entry for that type of
page.

Then everything should start looking like what you are used to. :-)

Kind regards

Johnathan

PS I will be out for the rest of the day but if you have any further
questions I will try to respond this evening.

On 3 January 2013 09:17, Kemp Johnathan <johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com> wrote:

Hello RonM2,

The key to using the new pages in an existing none-pages project is to
understand the difference between the new pages individual page templates
and the original pageWizards.

The original pageWizards are zipped files that contain a .rlm model file, a
.xwd form file and a .xml data file. In addition they contain any swf or
image files that the page uses e.g. to define buttons, the white panel
background etc. 

When you use a pageWizard the swf and image files get copied into the
project's common folder, if they are not already in there. The model file is
used by Xerte to create a page entry in the project tree (it defines the
structure of the page), then all three files (xwd, rlm and xml) are copied
into the folder defined by the page's templateData path. In practice the
copying of the rlm file into the templateData folder is unnecessary as its
only use is to construct the page structure. A pageWizard automatically
detects that it is in Xerte by testing for the presence of templateData at
the project level. If it is not there then it knows it is in Xerte.

The new Pages project model files cannot use this method of detection as the
Pages projects do have a templateData defined at the project level to enable
the new project look feature. So a new test is used. The Learning Object has
a new property "pages" which is set to 

true

If this property does not exist then the pages project model will think it
is in XOT and you will get undefined displayed when you preview.

If you want to use a pages individual template in your existing projects you
can do so but it may be a bit patchy in how well some of the pages work as
your project will lack the shared code to support some features like
narration. In addition the new Pages individual page templates are not
packaged as discrete zipped files, the model files for all the pages are in
one folder in your xerte install, the xwd files in another. However they now
all use the same .xlm file. The swf and image files required by the pages
are copied in one go to your project's common folder when you create a pages
project.

Despite these differences with a little care you should find that you can
get most pages working well in an existing project.

In the first release of the new Xerte 2.18 you could do file / new to create
a none pages project and still see the individual pages listed under the
pages menu. I think Tom changed that later as it caused confusion because,
as you have discovered, adding a pages page to a none pages project does not
work "out of the box". So it is possible that when you open an old project
that uses pageWizards you are unable to see a list of new Pages page
templates under the "Pages" menu.

If you can see a the pages listed under the Pages menu, then add them from
there, otherwise follow the procedure below. Be aware that it was not really
intended to use the new Pages page templates in an old Xerte project but
with a bit of care it should be possible.

How to use pages page templates in old Xerte projects

General set up that all pages will use

Select your learning object icon and in the properties panel type in a new
property name of 

pages

Then click the add button. 

Set the property value to 

true

This will ensure that the new Pages page models know they are in Xerte.

Now copy the contents of a Pages projects "common" folder into your existing
project's common folder (this will ensure that all the pages you add have
access to the .swf and images they use). You should be able to overwrite any
duplication of existing files but if you are unsure then don't copy in
duplicates.

Adding a new Pages Page

To add a new page model (if they are not listing under the "Pages" menu, use
File / Insert Model then select the model you want to add from your Xerte
install's pages/models folder e.g. c:\xerte\pages\models

As you would for a pageWizard, create a folder for the page to use and set
up the templateData property to that folder similar to the example below.

FileLocation + 'pages/page_002/connectorPlainText.xml'

Note the reference to the .xml file, The name of the .xml file must match
the model name. So in the above case the model file name was
connectorPlainText.rlm

Do not try to open the wizard for this page yet!

Now in the Xerte install's "pages/wizards/en-GB" folder you will find all
the wizards.

e.g. C:\xerte\pages\wizards\en-GB\"

Copy the wizard file for the pages page that you have added to your project
to the templateData path folder so in the above example you would copy
connectorPlainText.xwd into your pages/page_002/ folder.

Now for the xml folder.

In a text editor create yourself an file that contains just the following

<pageWizard />

and save it as universalPage.xml (you will use this for every pages page you
add to an old project)

Copy universalPage.xml into your page's templateData path folder and rename
it to match the name of your page e.g. in the above example you will rename
it to plainTextConnector.xml

Everything should now be ready to use your new page, Just double check that
your templateData value matches the folder you created for the page. To open
the Wizard double click on the page entry in the project tree.

Let me know how you get on.

Just to be on the safe side you might want to work on a copy of a project if
it is one that is valuable to you, until you are happy with what you are
doing.

Kind regards

Johnathan

On 3 January 2013 00:32, KnowledgeWare <knowledgeware at kccsoft.com> wrote:

The new page templates in desktop v2.18 look great and I'm anxious to use
them, but have a question about how I can do so in existing RLO's.

When I create a new file in 2.18 the page templates come up as 'undefined'
unless I create a new 'Page Project' which opens 'Pages.rlo', then
'template.rlt' when I'm building a template page. Do I need to build the
course in 'Pages.rlo'?

After working in 'Pages.rlo' I'm wondering how I can get some of the
template pages back into my original RLO. If I use any of the page templates
there they seem to build and get pasted in but preview as 'undefined'. Even
though my older RLO is in the same directory as 'pages.rlo' (which runs fine
with the templates pages I built) I don't seem to be able to copy/paste the
new pages back into my older RLO although the path to the templates is the
same.

Sorry I know this must sound very confusing.just wondering.do I have to
rebuild the older files in or as 'Pages.rlo' then save it to another
filename? Right now I don't see how else I can use the template pages in an
existing RLO.

Thanks

RonM2

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