[Xerte-dev] Re: use of info tag in xwd forms

Smith, John J.J.Smith at gcu.ac.uk
Wed Mar 6 12:09:21 GMT 2013 

Sure Tom, I suppose an alternative would be to funnel everything through help/index.php?language=XX&file=YYY and let it decide which to serve up...

I'm having to do similar with the api...

Regards,

John Smith
Learning Technologist
School of Health & Life Sciences
Glasgow Caledonian University


-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Tom Reijnders
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 11:05 AM
To: For Xerte technical developers
Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: use of info tag in xwd forms

It's not too much work to fall back to English if we need to,

So have a help/<language code> for the help forlder location like we have wizard/<language code> now.


The thing I have against mod_rewrites is that it's webserver specific.

So, now we only have to agree on the help file format. .pdf is fine with me...

Tom

Citeren "Smith, John" <J.J.Smith at gcu.ac.uk>:

> Why not just append the language code to the URL (new website) and mod
> rewrite the url. If there is a language file that matches send that,
> otherwise send the English one...
>
>
> Regards,
>
> John Smith
> Learning Technologist
> School of Health & Life Sciences
> Glasgow Caledonian University
>
> From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
> Julian Tenney
> Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2013 10:38 AM
> To: For Xerte technical developers
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: use of info tag in xwd forms
>
> What about languages? You might want help in several languages. But
> we can cope with multi lingual wizards, so why not multi lingual help?
>
> The form is a bit of a pain because now we have advanced / language
> options, redrawing the form is a bit of a pain, so thinking
> differently might be a good idea.
>
> From:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp
> Johnathan
> Sent: 06 March 2013 10:02
> To: For Xerte technical developers
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: use of info tag in xwd forms
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> What I would like to be able to achieve is a means of providing a
> link to a pdf file that the author can access to provide additional
> information to support the use of the page type. My original need
> was to support the connector pages and the inventory page with more
> information about how the page worked and how, in the case of
> connector pages they could be used in conjunction with other pages.
> However the help file could provide other stuff such as examples of
> use or pedagogical information.
>
> How that link is made available to the author I don't have a strong
> view on. It just seemed that the <info> tag already provided the
> functionality (except for this frustrating glitch). If resolving the
> glitch was a simple matter then the <info> tag might be a convenient
> way of doing this without involving much time input. If however the
> glitch is difficult to pin down then a different approach might be
> appropriate.
>
> By putting the link in the xwd file it keeps everything about the
> page in one place. However it does have the disadvantage of making
> it difficult to change the location of the help files.
>
> Perhaps an approach that assumed the help file would use the same
> stem as the model file but have a pdf extension (e.g. quiz.rlm and
> quiz.pdf), would allow a Xerte or XOT project to define a single
> folder location for all the help files. The specific help file for a
> page type would then be accessed by combining the single folder
> address with the model name and a pdf extension.
>
> This would allow help files to be either located on a remote server
> or on a local server, or even in a desktop Xerte installation folder
> e.g. Xerte\pages\help\. It would also make it easier to change the
> locations of the help files as there would be only one path to change.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Johnathan
>
> On 6 March 2013 07:50, Julian Tenney
> <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>>
> wrote:
> Maybe we should tackle this differently: rather than trying to
> display the <info> on the form, why not pop it up in a message or
> show it somewhere else?
>
> From:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>] On Behalf Of Kemp
> Johnathan
> Sent: 05 March 2013 17:53
> To: For Xerte technical developers
>
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: use of info tag in xwd forms
>
> The most recent version of the desktop would ensure you have the
> latest version of wizard.swf, but if you can see the Show Language
> Options I think that should be enough to demonstrate the issue.
>
> The "here is the help" text is the text contained in the info tag.
>
> If you click in the Show Language Options check box you will see
> that some additional fields are displayed in the form but that there
> is an expanse of blank grey form before the "here is the help" text
> is displayed.
>
> If you mouse over the grey area above the "here is the help" text
> you will see the mouse pointer change as it hovers over where the
> text entry boxes for the hidden language options are positioned.
>
> If you click on the Quiz2 page to open its xwd form the effect is
> clear as none of the fields are flagged as language options so as
> soon as the form opens you see that the display of labels and fields
> ends abruptly and then there is again the grey expanse of blank form
> before the "here is the help" text is displayed. You have noticed,
> in your second post that the entry below "single answer wrong" is
> cut short vertically. There are also more fields below this which
> are not displaying at all.
>
> If you edit the quiz.xwd file in the page002 folder to remove the
> "info" tag then all the fields defined in the form are displayed
> correctly. So it is the "info" tag that is causing the display issue.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Johnathan
>
> On 5 March 2013 10:43, Dave Burnett
> <d_b_burnett at hotmail.com<mailto:d_b_burnett at hotmail.com>> wrote:
> What version of desktop is required?
> The only language related object I have showing is "Show Language
> Options" in the bottom bar.
>
> (I do see  "Here is the help" in blue  near the bottom).
>
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2013 10:23:23 +0000
> From: johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com<mailto:johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com>
> To: xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: use of info tag in xwd forms
>
> If you include the info tag in an xwd form it can result in the none
> display of the last entries in the form.
>
> The info tag displays at the bottom of the form with a blank area of
> form above it where the missing fields and field labels should be
> displayed.
>
> If you move the mouse pointer over the blank area of the form then
> the mouse pointer will change indicating that the fields are there -
> you just can't see them.
>
> The easiest way to explain what is happening is for you to see it
> for yourself.
>
> I have attached a simple demo. The demo is a standard Xerte project
> (not a "Pages" type project - I have manually set up the xwd links
> for the pages) in which I have set up two copies of the Quiz page.
>
> 1.      Open this project in Xerte
> 2.      Double click on the Quiz page to open the xwd form
> 3.      Click on the language tab to display the language fields
> 4.      Scroll down the form - you will see the blank area where the
> hidden language fields should appear and the blue info comment at
> the bottom.
> 5.      The language tag is not significant to this issue.
> 6.      Double click on the Quiz2 page, you will see the same effect
> without the use of the language tag (I deleted them from this pages
> xwd file)
> I don't know if the cause is to do with layers or visibility
> settings. I don't know what happens when the info tag is actioned in
> the code.
>
> I hope this makes the effect clear (if not the cause :-( )
>
> Kind regards
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 5 March 2013 09:40, Julian Tenney
> <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>>
> wrote:
>
> What's the problem in a nutshell?
>
>
>
> From:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>] On Behalf Of Kemp
> Johnathan
> Sent: 04 March 2013 22:18
> To: Xerte Developers Discussion List
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] use of info tag in xwd forms
>
>
>
> On the 4th December I posted to the developer list an issue with the
> xwd forms relating to the use of the "info" tag.
>
>
>
> The inclusion of an info tag in the xwd form can result in space
> being allocated above the info tag for the display of the last few
> properties in the xwd form definition, but the properties are not
> visible in the form. You can however confirm their "presence" as the
> mouse pointer responds to them if moved over the input fields.
>
>
>
> You can test this out in Xerte (or XOT) by creating a page using one
> of the Connector page types. The info tag has been used in these
> pages to link to a pdf help file that is hosted on the Xerte
> community web site, but the "language" flagged form properties are
> no longer all editable, due to the presence of the info tag.
>
>
>
> This is a pity as the info tag could be used to provide a link to an
> external document that gives the Author useful additional
> information to assist them in making the best use of that page type.
> e.g.
>
> *         Information about what the page is designed to do
>
> *         Instructions on what the properties in the form are to
> help in completing the form created by the xwd file;
>
> *         examples of actual uses of that page type in real projects.
>
> *         examples of combining this page type with other page types
> to achieve a particular pedagogical approach
>
> *         guidance as to how accessible the page is with respect to
> particular types of user, or what features the page has as optional
> properties to provide additional accessibility
>
> However at present if the "info" tag is used then the ability to
> edit the language flagged elements of the page is compromised.
>
>
>
> Is this something that is intended to be addressed before the next
> release of Xerte / XOT?
>
>
>
> Sorry to be a nuisance, but it seems such a potentially useful
> feature it seems a shame not to be able to use it.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Glasgow Caledonian University is a registered Scottish charity, number SC021474

Winner: Times Higher Education’s Widening Participation Initiative of the Year 2009 and Herald Society’s Education Initiative of the Year 2009.
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/newsevents/news/bycategory/theuniversity/1/name,6219,en.html

Winner: Times Higher Education’s Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers of the Year 2010, GCU as a lead with Universities Scotland partners.
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/newsevents/news/bycategory/theuniversity/1/name,15691,en.html

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