[Xerte-dev] Connector update

[Kemp Johnathan]

The last thread was getting very long and complicated, so time for a new
thread.

I have attached a page templates project that implements pretty much all of
what I think has been discussed on the flash side of things. I am
presenting this as a prototype which if everyone is happy with I will use
as the basis for modifying all the Connector pages.

It features the following


   1. A new option for the learning object navigation attribute of
   "historic" which implements a home button, historic back button and next
   button.
   2. A new attribute "Navigation Buttons" to allow every page type to
   offer the author control over what navigation buttons are displayed when
   that page is viewed.  "Navigation Buttons" is an optional attribute for
   standard pages and mandatory for the original Connector pages. This allows
   the author to select from 5 navigation options "all,back and next, back
   only, next only, none".
   3. Code in the .rlt file (on the onInitComplete and onOpenPage events
   sets the navigation buttons based on the "Navigation Buttons" attribute
   correctly whether the learning object navigation is linear, historic, etc.
    Where a page does not have the "Navigation Buttons" attribute set the page
   defaults to "all". It works a treat and only requires the addition of one
   line to each page's xwd and no change to the page model. (This was
   implemented to support the new context menu "Page Link" option, but it also
   really simplifies the Connector pages as they no longer need to handle any
   navigation button settings for destination pages)
   4. Use of pageList controls for selection of links in Connector pages
   (see the new way to set up a list of pages for the menu connector.

Have a play with the navigation options to see what you think.

There are a few minor issues that need resolving though

a) It appears that the historic back button is currently broken as no
navigation takes place when it is clicked

b) Despite looking in the flash code and inspecting the rootIcon I cannot
find the identifier for the mask that is persisting to display a blue
circle when you use the historic back button. As I moved the back button a
little it is currently showing behind and to the left of the home button
and I can't get rid of it :-(

c) advanced and language check boxes are broken at present in xwd

d) I agree that the plainTextConnector is redundant now that we have the
"Page Link" feature in the context menu. I think this is a real game
changer which necessitated the introduction of the "Navigation Buttons"
attribute mentioned above. I recommend that as a result of this ability to
create links in any page type (in XOT if not in Xerte) that we also retire
from XOT the Redirector Connector (keep it Xerte only) as it is redundant
now and retire the Tabbed Navigator Connector as it pretty much does what
the Tabbed Navigator page does but with links that can now be added using
the pageLink context menu item.


I agreed with Julian to prototype the Connector page changes prior to
committing anything to the svn.
Julian if you are happy with the prototype I will now do the following



i) Update the rlt code in the svn to handle the historic navigation
attribute and the setting of navigation button options
ii) Add the extra line to every xwd file in the svn that will provide the
optional "Navigation Buttons" parameter.
iii) Modify the rlm and xwd files of each of the following connector pages
in the svn to use pageList controls and "Navigation Buttons" settings

( In order to enable the current Connector pages to use pageList controls
and still work with Xerte I will create two xwd files e.g.
connectorMenu.xwd and connectorMenu_XOT.xwd. The _XOT one will be used for
building templates.xwd. Currently this poses a minor problem since all .xwd
files must have an identically named .rlm file to be included in the
templates.xwd file created by Tom's script. Tom is going to implement a
test to check for a modelFile="" attribute (e.g. modelFile="connectorMenu")
in the xwd file that can be used to over-ride the file name.  )

   - Menu Connector
   - HotspotImageConnector
   - MCC Connector
   - Scenario Connector

iv) Flag the following connectors as excluded from XOT

   - Tabbed Navigator Connector
   - Redirector Connector
   - Plain Text Connector

Kind regards

Johnathan
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