[Xerte-dev] Re: Connector update

[Kemp Johnathan]

The question may be "How many people are using the latest version of Xerte"

After the build up over the Pages projects followed by the confusing menu
options that make it anything but clear how to go about using the new
feature I think few developers using Xerte would have taken the latest
version.

A better guide might be to fix the menu navigation so that File / New /

gives you three clear options
 Standard Xerte Project
 Pages Project (Page Templates and Editor Access)
 Page Templates Project (XOT Style)

Add the tidied up Connector pages and historic navigation and then
publicise the release and count the downloads.
If you get little recorded take up them it would be a good reason to
announce that this was the final version of Xerte, or alternatively to do
an "Adobe" and release Xerte to the community (i.e. no further development
unless done by others other than Nottingham)

At least Xerte's last version would be nicely rounded off.

It may be that few people are now using Xerte but I don't think we really
know how widely it is used.

The recent AGM was primarily a XOT AGM plus a day for people who wanted to
get involved, rather than a Xerte users AGM.

JK

On 19 November 2012 11:23, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>wrote:

> …and I get the same thing in my installed version.
>
>
>
> So, the question is: how many people are actually using xerte, if we
> haven’t heard about an issue with publishing projects in a version that’s
> been on the server for a couple of months?
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Julian Tenney
> *Sent:* 19 November 2012 11:17
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: Connector update
>
>
>
> I just checked in a new wizard with the advanced / language checkboxes
> rebuilt. I think they work (can’t think why they wouldn’t because all the
> code is in the main code), just keep an eye out.
>
>
>
> *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:* 19 November 2012 11:09
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: Connector update
>
>
>
> The cause of the phantom graphic is some very legacy code from the days
> when buttons had to be buttons and couldn’t be movieclips, so you couldn’t
> draw into them. So to fill the buttons with fillColour, you needed to
> create three movieclips and then sacrifice a goat.
>
>
>
> *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:* 19 November 2012 11:07
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: Connector update
>
>
>
> Its good the phantom background graphic offset behind the home button
> disappears when the help file icon is displayed. Its bad that the graphic
> offset behind the home button is displayed at other times.
>
>
>
> I only mentioned the effect of the help file as it might have pointed to
> the cause of the phantom graphic.
>
>
>
> JK
>
>
>
> On 19 November 2012 11:04, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > I have just discovered that the phantom circle behind the home button
> disappears when you add a help file and the help file button displays.
>
>
>
>
>
> Is this good or bad? I’ve added a help file, all looks fine?
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
>
>
> *Sent:* 19 November 2012 10:58
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: Connector update
>
>
>
> The back buttons works in this example: what are you doing differently?
>
>
>
> It looks like I need to use
>
>
>
> setNavigationStyle("menu");
>
>
>
> and not
>
>
>
>  setNavigationStyle("historic");
>
>
>
> I use the same techniques that you used to position the buttons using the
> btnPos array so that the Historic navigation button layout can accommodate
> the help and media buttons.
>
>
>
> I have just discovered that the phantom circle behind the home button
> disappears when you add a help file and the help file button displays.
>
>
>
> OK just received your latest posting - with a bit off luck I will finish
> this one before your next message :-)
>
>
>
> I will try the button move method out.
>
>
>
>
>
> *On a separate note* there is something else you might want to look at.
> The pageList control works like a ComboBox control but without access for
> the xwd designer to the "data" attribute as the data list is built on the
> fly. This causes a possible problem if the Author picks the first item on
> the list as when the page's xml is created the pageList attribute has a
> value of "" so no match can be made with the data list. You have to select
> anything but the first element to get a valid entry in the xml and then
> select the first element in the list.
>
>
>
> Try in my example to use the connector menu to set up a menu that lists
> the 1st and 3rd pages only. You will find that only the 3rd page gets
> listed unless you follow the above selection process. One solution might be
> to pad the data set by setting the first item in the list to a known value
> such as "no page selected" or "select a page" with a data value of
> "noSelect" or whatever. Then in the xwd a known value can be set for the
> controls default value and this problem will be avoided.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
> On 19 November 2012 09:57, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Nice one.
>
>
>
> a)      The back buttons works in this example: what are you doing
> differently?
>
> b)      This is  bit of pain: I’ll try and fix it, but it has something
> to do with being unable to draw into the buttons themselves, so code draws
> behind them on the stage. There must be a better way to do this, I will
> look.
>
> c)       Yeah, I think I did something to break them but I don’t know
> what!
>
>
>
> Let me look at b and c. Otherwise, it looks good.
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 18 November 2012 13:23
> *To:* Xerte Developers Discussion List
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Connector update
>
>
>
> 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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> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and
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> error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it.   Please do
> not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in
> any attachment.  Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this
> email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham.
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