[Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name

[Kemp Johnathan]

Before I retired I put together a couple of routed applications using
Xerte, they weren't so much learning objects as performance support tools.

The hardest part wasn't implementing it in Xerte, once I had created the
routed page wizards, it was getting people to formalise the rules that
governed the business processes.

At the time I looked at a couple of free software tools to see if they
might be of use.

Synthis had a product called Adalon which they released for free once they
stopped supporting it, but it does not appear to be available anymore.

The other product I took a look at using was Compendium - a free download
from the Open University. This is still available and continuing to be
developed and might be bent towards modelling a routed project.

One thing I had thought of, having seen Ron's page that sends information
to the clipboard, was to try to build into the routed pages a facility to
output a project report that would list each page, its title and pageID,
plus the id of any page that the page linked to in the project. The first
bit - title and pageID should be straightforward. I am not sure how I would
crawl down through the layers of the xml definition for each page, given
that different page types have different structures, to identify all the
values for a specific property e.g. exitID.

On the subject of "Routed pages", it would be useful to agree a final name
for them.

The term route has common usage as in "bus route", maybe Routing Pages
would be better. Other ideas I had included "Multi Exit" pages,
"Non-linear" pages. I believe there is a listserv for the non-technical
Xerte / XOT users, perhaps we should post something there to see what they
think would have meaning for them. However I don't know the address of the
list.

Kind regards

Johnathan

On 20 February 2012 10:11, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>wrote:

> Using one page to link to a few others may not be much of an issue, but if
> you have a project in which most of the pages are routed pages then
> managing the links takes planning.
>
>
>
> Yes. One of the things I have thought quite a lot about over the years,
> and even tried a few times to build, would be some sort of ‘simulation
> builder’ that would allow the content creator to build up complex scenarios
> with branching and pre-requisites, adaptive presentation etc, and I’ve
> never really got anything off the ground – it’s hard to see how else it can
> be done. I think this is something that definitely needs careful planning
> on paper before the author starts trying to build it. pageIDs are the way
> to go I think. It could be that this could be best supported though some
> sort of planning documentation/ storyboard templates that help the author
> put together the whole thing on paper first,
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 17 February 2012 19:26
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> In Page Wizards I used the name field exactly because it showed up in the
> project tree, but in Xerte the name property does not have to do double
> duty as the page title. The whole idea of using a PageID is that you can
> change the page title as much as you like and not have to change the
> pageID. If you have several links to a page based on page title and then
> change the title you are going to have something of a problem tracking down
> which pages link to it.
>
>
>
> The ideal situation would be to use the property that displays in the
> project tree, if only it was not being used as the page title. Since it is
> there has to be a pageID to provide robust linking to other pages and to
> accommodate those situations where several pages may need to share the same
> page title.
>
>
>
> I could look at what you suggest, trapping both the pageID and name
> properties from the XML but I am concerned that people will use the page
> title and then get themselves in a mess. An easy and safer solution to the
> matter would be to simply paste the page title into the PageID field,
> making it easier to locate a linked page and the link won't break if they
> then modify the page title.
>
>
>
> Using one page to link to a few others may not be much of an issue, but if
> you have a project in which most of the pages are routed pages then
> managing the links takes planning. Careful, planned use of routing can
> deliver projects that can guide the learner to the information they need.
> It can also support the development of projects that work like simple
> expert systems as you can implement projects based on decision trees. It is
> this kind of project where the pageID values can take on a more logical
> value that reflects their position in the project structure, rather than
> reflecting the title of the page. It is also this kind of situation in
> which several pages may share the same title.
>
>
>
> At the moment my priority has to be to finish the work on the current set
> of pages that exist in pageTemplates so that they are ready for Xerte
> 2.18.
>
>
>
> Having developed a number of routed page wizards, which have been waiting
> in the wings for inclusion in the official Xerte release for almost 2 years
> now, I want to get things right first time when they are launched, rather
> than rush things at the eleventh hour. Which is why I suggested deferring
> their release until after 2.18. However once my work is completed on the
> core 2.18 templates I can start looking again at the routed pages. It may
> be that there will still be enough time to get them into the 2.18 release,
> which I believe is scheduled for a first quarter of 2012 making it only a
> few weeks away.
>
>
>
> I appreciate you are eager to start using routed pages in XOT now. I am
> happy to enhance the routed hotspot page so that it can offer the
> additional features that you would like to see. I cannot guarantee that the
> routed pages, when they are released, will be backwardly compatible with a
> page that you are currently seeking to create as I will be developing the
> routed hotspot page based on my original page and enhancing the code to
> provide your additional features. None of the original routed page wizards
> will work in their current form in XOT, but as indicated in an earlier
> posting I now have a solution for this.
>
>
>
> If you would like to talk this through via skype I am happy to do so.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 17 February 2012 17:01, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk> wrote:
>
> 1. what about 'Linking Pages' and move the Navigators > Links page and
> Navigators > New Window page into that menu? To me that makes sense e.g.
> where the page is aimed at clicking a link to go somewhere it goes in the
> Linking pages menu but where it's about loading content into the same page
> it's a navigator. For a brief moment I'm thinking chunkers and linkers but
> not seriously ;-)
>
>
>
> 2. global optional properties sounds good but aren't there too many
> examples where that wouldn't be relevant? e.g. a transition option would be
> good as a global property but that would only really be relevant to image
> pages?
>
>
>
> 3. My perspective is that anyone with the skillset to use the developer
> tool with or without page wizards can work with whatever is provided but
> XOT users and particularly teachers rather than learning technologists need
> the consistency of interface and options we have at the moment. When I
> think about the workflow of adding a routed image hotpot page in XOT
> teachers are more likely to look down the tree of page titles to remind
> themselves of what they want to link to and probably copy and paste that
> title rather than add a title and a page ID to those pages and then back to
> the branching page to add the ID. Perhaps the code should look for ID and
> if not found look for page title too to cover both options? My hunch is
> that user can live with the knowledge that if they change a page title
> they'll need to update the link rather than if they add an ID and then
> change a page title the ID must remain what it was or change both the ID
> and the routing link if you follow what I mean. Although I understand the
> concerns about reliability with page title in XOT it's visible in the tree
> and when viewing the LO and optional page ID wouldn't be and could only be
> seen in each wizard page.
>
>
>
> 4. Thanks will try what you've added at some point.
>
>
>
> 5. Yes agreed merging is the best idea but I want to make use of what we
> already have in XOT sooner rather than later. I wonder if we can agree some
> basics that won't change so that I can add what we have now with a combined
> hot spot image linking page to various XOT installations in the knowledge
> that it won't break with a future release? Happy to perhaps have a skype to
> discuss that?
>
>
>
> HTH
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Julian Tenney
> *Sent:* 17 February 2012 09:34
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> Do we want an ’Advanced’ category? This stuff is getting more like an
> elearning developers tools, rather than the simple content creation we tend
> to focus on.
>
>
>
> Do we want nested menus (he says a little nervously) on the insert menu…?
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [
> mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>]
> *On Behalf Of *Julian Tenney
> *Sent:* 16 February 2012 09:27
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> 1.      Yes, probably. ‘Menus’ category? Not sure ‘roued page’ is the
> right termfor end users?
>
> 2.      Yes, as an optional property, why not. We mought to have a
> section in the xwd for ‘global optional properties’, like narration, and
> the others that appear throughout the file.
>
> 3.      Yep.
>
> 4.      Can build that into the engine, and have some methods ‘showBack()
> etc. I need to find some time to do that.
>
> 5.      Merge the two between you, Ron has already said that seems
> sensible.
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [
> mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>]
> *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 15 February 2012 22:27
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> I am delighted to see the interest that is being shown in routed pages.
>
>
>
> In the Page Wizards I developed originally four routed pages that I plan
> to make available as individual page templates. These are
>
> ·        Routed Hotspot Image (very similar to what Ron has demonstrated
> here though currently lacking the optional parameter to change the link
> type to something other than another page in the project, but offering
> support to the author to help identify errors in destination specification)
>
>
>
> ·        Routed Multiple Choice Question - each answer option has its own
> destination page.
>
>
>
> ·        Routed Plain Text - Text page in which hyperlinks can be added
> to other pages in the project
>
>
>
> ·        Routed Tab Navigation - A tab navigator page that can display
> text, images, swfs including flash paper and can also have options on any
> of the tabs that provide a routed link to another page.
>
>
>
> The scenario page is a later addition that post dates the Page Wizards and
> has not yet been made publicly available. Whilst the other pages were based
> on existing pages but added the routing capability, the scenario page is
> like nothing currently available. The scenario page provides a page in
> which a text description of a scenario and an image / swf / flv can be
> displayed. The page also allows the defining of effects and actions in
> relation to the scenario. Props can also be located in the page that have
> actions associated with them. Actions have conditions which control when
> they are available and outcomes which take place when an action is taken.
> Outcomes can change the location of props, increment or decrement one of
> three author definable scores, and also result in being routed to another
> page in the project. A change of score beyond a specified value can trigger
> a "game end" situation either a successful completion of the scenario or an
> unsuccessful completion.
>
>
>
> The scenario page can stand alone, but it is designed with the intention
> that a project can be comprised of several scenario pages that combined
> together to deliver the full experience. A simple example could be a text
> based adventure in which you can move from location to location, collect
> objects and use them to complete tasks. Each scenario page would represent
> a single location. However the potential exists to create complex
> challenging projects with serious learning in mind e.g. a medical diagnosis
> and treatment scenario in which the correct diagnosis and treatment results
> in the patient getting better and inappropriate diagnosis or treatment
> results in the gradual decline of the patient, or even demise should the
> project author so wish!
>
>
>
> The matter of routed pages raises a few issues
>
> 1.     Where do we put the pages - Can I suggest that since these pages
> perform a significantly different function to the current navigator pages
> we should provide them with their own menu option i.e. Routed Pages?
>
>
>
> 2.     Whilst routed pages have been available for about two years as
> Page Wizards they will be new to most Xerte users. I believe it would make
> sense to ensure that they all use the same page property to identify a
> destination page so that they offer a consistent experience to the page
> author. The page name is already doing duty as the title displayed in the
> top left of the project window. As mentioned in an earlier post this raises
> the possibility of links from routed pages being broken by a late decision
> to rename a page, with no easy way of tracing this back to all the pages
> that route to it. With this in mind I have added to every individual page
> template that I have created an optional PageID property. I propose we use
> this.
>
> 3.      Any solution must be designed to operate in both the desktop
> Xerte (Individual Page Template) and XOT (project wide template)
> environments (I have already indicated in an earlier posting how we can
> utilise the PageID property to enable routing in both an individual page
> template and a pageTemplates / XOT environment).
>
> 4.     Navigation - Once you have routed pages the standard xerte
> navigation (Next and Previous) can become inappropriate. Rather than
> providing just a single menu, routed pages have the potential to provide
> branch points at multiple locations in a project. This provides the
> capability to provide a learning sequence and then test understanding and
> route the learner according to their response. They can allow the learner
> to take risks and learn the consequences of their decisions. Based on
> earlier work with routed pages I suggest the following navigation would be
> useful. A) a back button that worked like a browser back button i.e. a lifo
> queue. B) a next button that can be turned on or off so that it can be
> displayed during none branching sections of the project and hidden when on
> a routed page. The content menu would also be less appropriate, unless you
> wanted to allow the learner to exit the routing that was built into the
> project, so again you might want to turn that off. I probably need to
> review my current Page Wizards to refresh my memory as to how they handled
> this as you would probably want to have settings in a routed page that
> disabled navigation elements on opening the page and re-enabled them on
> page exit.
>
> 5.     We now have the luxury of two candidate routed Hotspot pages. Both
> Ron's page and mine do the same thing, but under the hood they do it in
> different ways. Each offer some features the other does not. I can't see
> much point in implementing two pages that do pretty much the same thing.
> What makes sense to me is to recognise that both Ron's page and my Page
> Wizard will need some reworking in order to work both as an individual page
> template and as part of a XOT project. If Ron is happy for me to do this I
> would like to have a go at implementing an individual page template that
> uses the pageID navigation approach and combines the features of his Page
> Template and my Page Wizard. This would ensure a consistency of approach
> between all the Routed pages whilst including  as much (hopefully all) of
> the functionality unique to Ron's page and the functionality unique to my
> page.
>
> What do you think?
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 15 February 2012 16:36, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>
> Glad you see the point - wasn't sure that would be clear without a proper
> example but yes I'm excited by lot's of possibilities with this.
>
>
>
> Yes I figured it was better placed under Navigators than Interactivity but
> happy to go along with what you think.
>
>
>
> I'm not sure what this has in common with Jonathans scenario page but from
> what I saw on the first of those two dev days this possibly meets a
> different need/user. My focus here really is the creation of a visual page
> where the visuals are created externally but the links are easily added via
> the interface. I'm pretty sure the staff I work with will like it and put
> it to good use.
>
>
>
> I'll have a look at the alternative controls options. I agree what I did
> there seems wrong but I searched the mailing list archive and found that as
> a solution. Will have a look at the other options and test and report back.
>
>
>
> So as you'll have seen the hotspot options at the moment include the
> following:
>
> internal link via page title
>
> internal link via dropdown e.g. next, prev, first, last
>
> external link
>
> sound
>
>
>
> The other thing I wondered about was having a pop up option where the text
> added to that nested page is displayed in a popup when clicked and the
> popup can be dragged around or closed. Is there anything existing for that?
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Julian Tenney
>
> *Sent:* 15 February 2012 15:57
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> I like what you’re driving at here, seems to work well. Not sure about
> hiding / showing the interface buttons (I prefer to grey out or dull
> inactive buttons rather than make them appear / disappear, and that would
> be consistent with other xerte design stuff).
>
>
>
> Is this a ‘Navigators’ page type?
>
>
>
> What does it have in common with Jonathan’s ‘scenario’ page?
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [
> mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>]
> *On Behalf Of *Ron Mitchell
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 17:05
>
> *To:* 'For Xerte technical developers'
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> It can be an ugly application too - especially late at night! ;-)
>
>
>
> With Jonathan's talk of branching on a regular basis and inspired by the
> recent rapid e-learning blog post about comic strip type interactions e.g.
> http://www.worldwarfighter.com/hajikamal/activity/ and
> http://www.brokencoworker.com/
>
>
>
> I've been working on an additional page template page that I've had in
> mind for years ;-) that for now I've called branching image. It's basically
> a revision of the image hotspots page which links to internal or external
> destinations rather than displaying hot spot panels. Here a quick test -
> I'm hoping you'll be happy to include this in the official page template?
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1388941/branching_image_example.zip
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [
> mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>]
> *On Behalf Of *Julian Tenney
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 16:35
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> >Xerte is such a beautiful application
>
>
>
> You made me smile there. It’s all good stuff, and I’m really grateful for
> all the work you’re putting in. Yes, these are all good questions for the
> future. It’s a bit like the old Authorware community: all these people who
> really got what AW was all about, how fast and easy it was to build complex
> stuff (to a point); it’s the same with the people who get Xerte (I like to
> think), unfortunately, they remain relatively few in number (but not a bad
> number for a marketing budget of zero). If you think back though, there
> was  time when Macs were only being used by a very small number of zealous
> maniacs…
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [
> mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>]
> *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 16:17
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> I can understand why the focus may be on how the data that currently
> exists in XOT projects can be output as HTML5.
>
>
>
> XOT offers a tremendous facility in which to develop learning resources
> that can be shared with other institutions, but not a friendly environment
> for the creation of new page designs.
>
>
>
> I believe that people will find in Xerte 2.18 (with the integration of
> individual page templates and availability in several languages) a really
> friendly and useful platform in which new page designs for XOT can be
> created. This opens up the potential for the Xerte / XOT project to benefit
> from the expertise of people all over the world who may develop and share
> their page designs.
>
>
>
> I hope that in all the thoughts about the future of XOT some weight will
> be given to how the wider XOT community might be facilitated to create new
> page designs as XOT moves over to HTML5. Xerte is such a beautiful
> application perhaps it might inform the solution to this question.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
> On 14 February 2012 14:44, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Yeah, carry on, you’re much closer to this than I am at the minute.
>
>
>
> We’re currently in a wait and see about some funding for HTML5 output from
> toolkits: in the long run that’s likely to be where my effort goes, and
> it’s something we’re going to do anyway – the funding will just help us
> prioritise the work.
>
>
>
> I don’t know what the answer is, but we do need to think about how those
> two tools (Toolkits, primarily outputting HTML5) and Xerte (making .xml for
> an AS2 runtime) complement each other. The wizard is possibly the only
> thing in common in the end: our first attempts will be to take the existing
> data from toolkits and run it into HTML(5) somehow. I can see the two
> things existing in parallel for a good while yet (think, maybe 3 – 5 years)
> but ultimately I can see toolkits de-coupling from Xerte. There is a lot of
> traction in toolkits, and a lot more potential if it didn’t rely on Flash.
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 14:36
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> I don't know if you have had a chance to work with the version of the
> Xerte interface that includes Tom's modifications for individual page
> templates, but it has really enhanced desktop Xerte as a development
> environment.
>
>
>
> I can pick a page from a menu and see hints and thumbnails, just as you do
> in XOT or a page templates project. When I select a page from the menu it
> creates a folder for the page, copies the page's xwd to the folder and
> automatically generates the xml for the page based on the xwd, saving it in
> the page's folder. In addition it adds a new page to the project tree using
> the page's rlm file.
>
>
>
> This then leaves me in the desktop xerte environment with each page having
> its own xwd and xml contained in its own folder. I can tinker with the
> page's icon structure or just consume the page as originally specified,
> whilst populating the page's data using the xwd form.
>
>
>
> I can edit the page's xwd in FlashDevelop to add extra features and update
> the page's structure to consume them. I have full access to all the
> project's pages and every page's icons.
>
>
>
> In desktop Xerte using individual page templates, once a page has been
> created any change to Xerte's copy of the xwd file or rlm file does not
> affect the page in the project, unlike in XOT where template.xwd and the
> set of  rlm files are accessed when the project runs, thus resulting in any
> changes to these files affecting all projects.
>
>
>
> It is a great environment in which to develop new pages from existing ones.
>
>
>
> Can you see any problem with the approach I am intending to take with
> respect to the routed paging? Are you happy for me to continue with this
> proposed solution to the issue?
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 14 February 2012 14:09, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> OK, maybe we’re just in slightly different worlds, me toolkits, you xerte.
> You paste in models through the editor? (I can’t remember) and then
> essentially don’t care about that model ever again: it’s just there waiting
> for some xml payload to drive it?
>
>
>
> Do you actually add the child icons (i.e. essentially the same thing as
> pasting in the model manually at design time? Or do you create a reference
> to an external model file a la toolkits?
>
>
>
> I can see it is tricky to set the icon property at design time.
>
>
>
> There must be a way to set the name property at runtime, but maybe not so
> easy of you’ve pasted the whole set of icons into the main piece – which is
> what I think you do..?
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 14:05
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> There may be something wrong in my understanding of how things are working
> here but my reasons for not going down this route were
>
>
>
> 1) The script you quote is from templates.rlt and does not exist in an
> individual page template project - though something similar could perhaps
> be added.
>
> 2) In an individual page template project there is no project wide
> external xml file, rather each separate page has its own external xml file.
>
> 3) I am seeking to implement a solution that works for both pageTemplates
> and individual page template projects.
>
> 4) Even if this can be made to work for individual page template files I
> am still wary of using the name property (title field in the xwd form) as
> the unique identifier as I think it is already being used to meet a
> different purpose that could compromise it as a unique id. A project that
> used routing could easily be compromised by a late decision to change the
> title of a page. Which would affect every page that had been set up to
> route to it. With a separate pageID used only as the identifier for routing
> purposes this issue is avoided.
>
>
>
> Since routed pages are not yet a feature of Xerte it makes sense to get a
> solution that is robust. Have I missed something in my approach? Is there
> anything in the approach that I am proposing that would be detrimental to
> the project?
>
>
>
> I have performed some limited tests with this approach using my scenario
> page in both  pageTemplates and individual page template projects and thus
> far it has worked reliably.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 14 February 2012 13:32, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > Part of the problem has been the lack of a suitable identifier for each
> page that could be set within an xwd form
>
>
>
> Why can’t you set attributes on the icon in the makePages script, in these
> bits of code?
>
>
>
> if (modName == 'xerteModel'){
>
>   newXML = new XML('<PG model="' +
> extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.modelFile + '"/>');
>
>   //is there an initObject...?
>
>   if (extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.initObject != undefined){
>
>     newXML.firstChild.attributes.initObject =
> extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.initObject;
>
>   }
>
> } else {
>
>  newXML = new XML('<PG model="templatePath + \'models/' + modName +
> '.rlm\'"/>');
>
> }
>
> newChild = newXML.firstChild;
>
> newChild.attributes.title = extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].
> attributes.name;
>
> newChild.attributes.linkID =
> extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.linkID;
>
>
>
> if (extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.linkID == _level0.linkID &&
> extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.linkID != undefined){
>
>   linkIndex = i;
>
> }
>
> ifc.appendChild(newChild);
>
>
>
> newChild is the xml that is added to the interface. The engine then loads
> up the modesl identified in each page attached, but does not replace the
> page icons you create here.
>
>
>
> You won’t see the changes at design time(i.e. populate the name property
> in the xerte editor), but they can be set at runtime, and thus be used for
> navigation.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 12:36
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> I have considered how to implement the ability to route pages for some
> time now. Part of the problem has been the lack of a suitable identifier
> for each page that could be set within an xwd form. In page wizards I used
> the "name" field of the page icon, but this is not definable from an xwd
> form.
>
>
>
> In pageTemplates projects the xwd defined name value is used as the page
> title and there is no way to set the page Icon name property. The page
> title is a bad candidate as a unique identifier as its main function is to
> be a a page title making it potentially lengthy, potentially liable to
> change, possibly even unique and probably more prone to error in typing
> when referring to it as a page destination.
>
>
>
> As part of the move to individual page templates I am including in every
> xwd file an optional property pageID the purpose of which is to act solely
> as an identifier to enable other pages to locate it in the project.
>
>
>
> I have a number of page wizards that I will be converting to individual
> page templates that offer routing i.e. the ability to specify a target page
> which the user will be taken to on completing an action e.g. making a
> selection from a multiple choice question, clicking on a link in some text
> etc. These will use the new pageID property.
>
>
>
> This is achieved by using the following code.
>
>
>
> In the rlm file's getPageID script the following opening is used for any
> page that offers routing
>
>
>
> if (extXML == undefined){ // Page Wizard
>
>     pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.extXML.toObject();
>
>     pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.templateData.pageWizard[0];
>
>
>
>     // routed pages only
>
>     pageID_array = new Array();
>
>     for (i = 0; i < rootIcon.pages.length; i++){
>
>
> pageID_array.push(rootIcon.pages[i].extXML.firstChild.childNodes[0].attributes.pageID);
>
>     }
>
>
>
> } else { // Toolkits
>
>    myXML = new XML(extXML.firstChild.childNodes[rootIcon.getPageIndex() -
> pgOffset]);
>
>    pageIcon.templateData = myXML.toObject();
>
>    rootIcon.setTitleText(templateData.learningObject[0].name);
>
>
>
>    // routed pages only
>
>    pageID_array = new Array();
>
>    for (i = 0; i < extXML.firstChild.childNodes.length; i++){
>
>      pageID_array.push(extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.pageID);
>
>    }
>
> }
>
>
>
> This makes available to the routed page an array of every page in the
> project with a value for pageID where it has been defined.
>
>
>
> Navigation to a page can then be handled in a manner such as
>
>
>
> // navigate to destination page
>
> for (i = 0; i < pageID_array.length; i++){
>
>    if (pageID_array[i] == destPageName){
>
>      pageFound = "true";
>
>      destinationIndex = i;
>
>      rootIcon.gotoPage(destinationIndex);
>
>    break;
>
>   } else {
>
>     pageFound = "false";
>
>   }
>
> }
>
>
>
> This will open up the potential to create a variety of "routed" pages
> which all use a standard method of page identification.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 14 February 2012 09:50, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Ah, the other gotcha is that those asfunc calls need the full path to the
> object.
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Ron Mitchell
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 08:24
>
> *To:* 'For Xerte technical developers'
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> :-)
>
> sleep worked!
>
> Got it working with _level0.engine.navToPage(pagetitletogoto);
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Dave Burnett
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 00:43
>
> *To:* xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> So much for in vino veritas.
> ------------------------------
>
> From: ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk
>
> To: xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>
> Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:31:28 +0000
>
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
> Thanks for the suggestion Dave
>
> but I've pretty much tried that but it's not working e.g. if I
> debug(myPageIndex); it's coming up undefined.
>
> Time to shut down and have another look in the morning.
>
> Cheers
>
> Ron
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [
> mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>]
> *On Behalf Of *Dave Burnett
>
> *Sent:* 14 February 2012 00:22
>
> *To:* xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: navigating to page name
>
>
>
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/pipermail/xerte/2010-April/004972.html
>
> ??
>
>
>
> I've had a couple pints, so I may be missing the point.
>
> :-)
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> From: ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk
>
> To: xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>
> Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:10:31 +0000
>
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] navigating to page name
>
> Hi
>
> I think I'm missing something silly here :-(
>
> In a script icon in a page templates project I want to dynamically pass a
> page title to navigate to that page.
>
>
>
> I know <a href="asfunction:_level0.engine.navToPage,yourpagetitle">Click
> here or some other wording</a> works in xot as a hyperlink but haven't
> managed to call the same function in a script icon?
>
>
>
> Or is there another/easier way of doing this e.g. navigating to a page
> title in a page templates project?
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Ron
>
>
>
>
>
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