[Xerte-dev] Re: [Xerte] Re: plain text connector page problem in XOT

Mon Oct 29 14:21:17 GMT 2012

The editor is still flash though?

On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 2:18 PM, Julian Tenney
<Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:
> [moved from the xerte list]
>
> So here is the problem for us. We (Nottingham) don’t have any interest in
> supporting, or developing standalone Xerte anymore. From our point of view,
> very few people use it, and it’s flash, and is dead or dying.
>
>
>
> I cannot justify putting our time and effort myself into supporting the old
> stuff, and I think that if we try and keep the two things running we are
> just going to make a big mess. At the very least, it makes problems much
> more complicated. At some point, we need to let the standalone Xerte die,
> and I’m at that point. The future for me is with toolkits, we saw that at
> the event a couple of weeks ago when you asked ‘how many people use
> standalone xerte?’. It was hardly any, and they are almost all using
> templates anyway, and could do that on an xampp install of toolkits.
>
>
>
> Debate it or not, Nottingham’s position is not to put any time into the
> standalone / flash stuff anymore.
>
>
>
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp Johnathan
> Sent: 29 October 2012 12:01
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: plain text connector page problem in XOT
>
>
>
> The source of the list of pages in a project is different for Xerte projects
> and for XOT or Page Templates projects.
>
> XOT contains the data for all the pages in the project in a single .xml file
> so the connector pages access the page ID by
>
> extXML.firstChild.childNodes[i].attributes.pageID
>
> In desktop Xerte pages projects each page has its own separate xml file.
> Xerte builds an array rootIcon.pages from which the page data can be
> accessed e.g.
>
> rootIcon.pages[i].extXML.firstChild.childNodes[0].attributes.pageID
>
> The building of the array takes place at run time and has not completed by
> the time the rootIcon.onInit event is broadcast. So the data is not
> available to the xwd file to be able to offer a list of pages.
>
>
>
> However in desktop Xerte Julian modified the engine so that on changing the
> page title i.e. name attribute in the page's xwd form this value was
> transferred to the associated page icon's name attribute written  in the
> .rlo file. So in desktop Xerte the source of the page names would have to be
> the rlo file.
>
>
>
> Is it doable that the engine could be coded so that one solution can work in
> the xwd forms for the pages and for the page models, irrespective of them
> residing in Xerte or XOT?
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 29 October 2012 11:33, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> I can code it, the engine needs to do it, based on that type in .xwd
>
>
>
> <attName type=”pageList” label=”targetPage” …etc…>
>
>
>
> Then the wizard needs to build the list based on the data on the tree, and
> show the user page titles to choose from. When one is selected it needs to
> generate an ID if one doesn’t exist on the target page, and then link to
> that. I think that would work? I think also the user could screw it up by
> changing the ID later and breaking the link: the generated ID would be
> targ12398637562 or something like that, it would be better to prompt the
> user to create a friendly one if one didn’t exist.
>
>
>
>
>
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Pat Lockley
> Sent: 29 October 2012 10:52
>
>
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: plain text connector page problem in XOT
>
>
>
> Strikes me it better to offer a choice of valid options than to try to
> validate later on?
>
>
>
> No idea how to code it though
>
>
>
> Of course you could go crazy and connect to pages in other projects....
>
> On 29 Oct 2012, at 10:43, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Good idea. That would require some work in the engine, and a type in the xwd
> file of ‘pageList’. For attributes labelled as such, the engine would then
> present the drop down, and could generate IDs automagically if they didn’t
> exist…
>
>
>
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Pat Lockley
> Sent: 29 October 2012 10:34
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: plain text connector page problem in XOT
>
>
>
> Why not provide a drop down list of pages?
>
> On 29 Oct 2012, at 10:30, Kemp Johnathan <johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com>
> wrote:
>
> One problem may be that people are failing to locate the documentation that
> supports the Connector pages. Which does not surprise me as at the moment
> the only place I know they are accessible from is either the help folder of
> a desktop Xerte install, or from the SVN.
>
>
>
> It should be possible to check for page ID and then for page "title".
>
> When you say "page title" are you referring to the xml attribute "name" ?
>
> In desktop Xerte there is both a "name" and a "title" attribute but in XOT
> the label "Page Title" is used to refer to the attribute "name". So for
> Xerte use which would you want it to be?
>
>
>
> I am concerned that this approach may instead complicate things. By using
> only Page IDs for connections projects retain a consistency of approach and
> the connections are safe from side effects resulting from the renaming
> (retitling) of a page. Page IDs are free from having to do duty as a page
> title and so can reflect the logical structure of the connections.
>
>
>
> Perhaps an alternative solution is to include an info statement to remind
> people to set a page ID for their destination page.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 29 October 2012 09:35, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> People are missing the need to create a page ID? Is that the root cause of
> the problem here?
>
>
>
> I’ve wondered if the navigation stuff should use either the page title or
> the page ID? I’ve had feedback from people that the ID makes things too
> complicated / is easy to miss etc. If the code looked first for an ID, and
> if found, navigated to that, but if not found, it then checked the page
> titles, and if found, navigated to that, it would catch both situations?
>
>
>
> We have got to keep the ‘keep it simple’ mantra in mind here. Andy is an
> experienced user, and this should be a simple task. This tells me something
> could be improved.
>
>
>
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp Johnathan
> Sent: 27 October 2012 10:38
>
>
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: plain text connector page problem in XOT
>
>
>
> In principle it is possible to add this functionality to any page that has a
> text block.
>
>
>
> However this raises the question of when is a connector page not a connector
> page. For you could end up potentially with a list of connector pages that
> duplicated most of the existing pages. I would be personally inclined to
> treat the ability to link from text as in the Plain Text Connector Page as
> something that is not really a "Connector Page" if we ever went down the
> route of making this facility available to all text blocks. Almost all the
> other Connector pages offer facilities to control the navigation options of
> the destination page, a feature not offered when making a text based
> connection.
>
>
>
> I think the concept of connector pages is still in its infancy. There is a
> bit of tidying up that I am working with Julian on, to improve the options
> regarding navigation and setting navigation for destination pages. Then I
> think it will be worth waiting a while and seeing what the take up of the
> Connector pages is and getting a feel for how people use them.
>
>
>
> There is also the major issue of HTML5. Until I am clearer about the
> implications of converting existing Connector pages to HTML5 I am rather
> loathe to expand the range of Connector pages available.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 26 October 2012 16:32, Davidson, Andrew <Andrew.Davidson at warwick.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Thanks Johnathan – very helpful. Yes, it was a very simple solution – Dave
> showed me that I wasn’t inserting a page id where it was needed. Makes sense
> now but in the instruction I only could see about copying and pasting text
> with the page id – anyway, it’s a great addition for Xerte Online Toolkits
> and I wonder if it will be possible to add this function to other page types
> in XOT such as a page with graphics and text or a page with video and text.
>
>
>
> Best
>
>
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp Johnathan
> Sent: 26 October 2012 16:27
> To: Xerte discussion list
>
>
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: plain text connector page problem in XOT
>
>
>
> You have two ways to use the Page Models in Xerte 2.18 desktop. I hope that
> soon we will be able to improve the File / New menu so that all the options
> for creating a the different project types are listed there. However
> currently...
>
>
>
> If you want a page templates type project i.e. a toolkits style project then
> do
>
>   Pages / Create Template Project from Pages.
>
>
>
> Add pages in the same way as normal for Page Templates or XOT projects.
>
>
>
> If you want to use the new Pages type project that gives full access to the
> page models and also the editing environment then do
>
>
>
> Pages / Create New Page Project
>
>
>
> Add pages by selecting the "Interface" element in the project tree and then
> select the page type that you want to add from the range of page type
> folders that you will find off the Pages Menu.
>
>
>
> As to how to duplicate the problem that Andrew is experiencing, I am not
> sure since I am not sure what the cause of the problem is. It may be as
> simple as not having specified a page ID for the destination page.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
> On 25 October 2012 17:19, Dave Burnett <d_b_burnett at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Johnathan, how would one go about recreating Andy's situation in 2.18
> desktop?
>
>
>
> Thnx,
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:13:52 +0100
>
> From: johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com
>
> To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: plain text connector page problem in XOT
>
>
>
> The link to your project is not much help as I can't access the values you
> have entered into the form for the page.
>
>
>
> If you take a look at the learning object you should find it has an optional
> property of "Add Author Support". Add this attribute to your learning object
> and ensure the check box is ticked. Then play your project once more and try
> your hyperlink. You should see a message displayed "Page ID: somePageID
> could not be found in this project"
>
>
>
> Where "somePageID" will be the pageID you have specified in your link.
>
>
>
> Then check the destination page to ensure that you have given it an optional
> attribute of "Page ID" and that you have set the Page ID attribute to the
> value you have used in your link.
>
>
>
> That should sort it.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 25 October 2012 15:34, Davidson, Andrew <Andrew.Davidson at warwick.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I am trying to use the plain text connector page in XOT but for some reason
> I can’t get the link to work – http://xerte.warwick.ac.uk/play_116
>
> it highlights as a link on page 3 but does not link back to page 2. Here is
> the code I entered as a hyperlink
>
> asfunction:_level0.engine.fnTextCon,page2
>
> any ideas?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
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