[Xerte] Making a page counter in Xerte 1.8 - Solved

Tue Oct 30 19:01:33 GMT 2007

Thanks for the tip on using the XML nodes. I no longer need the Time
Limit interaction. I would like to make my script more generic, so that
I don't need to refer to any specific icon ids, but I haven't found the
right property or method to determine the index position of the current
node. Is there an analog to childIndex() [which is an AS3 method for
XMLNode] that I can use?

I currently use this to print "Slide x of y":
slideCounter.setText('Slide ' + (prereqs.currentPage + 1) + ' of ' +
(icon.parentNode.parentNode.childNodes.length - 1));

-- note that prereqs is the id of my framework icon.

and I would like to make something like this:
slideCounter.setText('Slide ' + (icon.parentNode.parentNode.childIndex()
+ 1) + ' of ' + (icon.parentNode.parentNode.childNodes.length - 1));

Thanks,
Paul

________________________________

	From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Tenney Julian
	Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:52 AM
	To: Xerte discussion list
	Subject: RE: [Xerte] Making a page counter in Xerte 1.8 - Solved

	Paul,

	You're really getting into the innards of things here. The
reason is this. The .rlo is a hierarchical xml file. The engine parses
it, by looping through each node, then all of it's children, and so on,
and then on to the next node. As it encounters each node it says 'what
have I got here? Oh, a node that defines a Graphic icon - better add a
graphic to the screen. What's next?"

	So, when you execute code in page one, page two doesn't exist
yet.

	Each icon can be thought of as two things: the xmlNode in the
rlo file, and the resulting MovieClip on the stage. Each MovieClip keeps
a reference to it's corresponding XML node, in the .XMLElement property.
This can be useful sometimes.

	Also, note that the XML file is fully loaded before it is
parsed. So whilst rootIcon.pages.length will be 1 in the first page
(because the parser hasn't added the other pages yet),
icon.parentNode.childNodes.length WILL contain the right number of
children for the framework. Alternatively
rootIcon.XMLElement.childNodes.length will do the same thing. Sometimes
it is more convenient to use the XML to figure things out than the
MovieClips. You always have all of the XML. You don't always have all of
the MovieClips (items inside an interaction response for example).

	This brings us to an important point for the more hardcore Xerte
developer. Because the XML hasn't finished parsing, you can manipulate
it at runtime before it is parsed to create dynamic pieces on the fly.
Try a script before a text icon that sets it's attributes:

	icon.nextSibling.attributes.x = 100; //when the parser parses
the next icon, it will create the movieclip with _x = 100;

	A real world appliaction of this might be something like a
dynamic layout:

	if (align == 'left'){
	  icon.nextSibling.attributes.x = 20;
	} else {
	  icon.nextSibling.attributes.x = 400; 
	}

	Of course, you could position the MovieClips with a script after
them as well. There are some things that are much more convenient to do
on the XML though, for instance adding dragItems to a target area
response. You might not know ahead of time how many items to add, or
what their IDs are.

	So, you have a script above a graphic above an interaction with
a target area on it. You can create as many graphics as you need:

	icon.nextSibling.duplicate(numOfItems - 1);//because you already
have the first one. Do something similar to set the url attribute to
load different images

	//now set their IDs and build a string for drag items
	dragItemsStr = "";
	for (i = 0; i < numOfItems; i++){
	  icon.parentNode.childNodes[i+i].attributes.id = 'item' + i;
	  dragItemsStr += "item" + i + ",snap,0~";
	}

	//now set the dragItems attribute of the target area's xml node
before it is parsed
	icon.parentNode.lastChild.firstChild.attributes.dragItems =
dragItemsStr;

	This technique opens up VERY powerful possibilities, akin to
creating Authorware icons at runtime, particuarly when loading a
seperate XML file to drive a template.

	Have fun,

	Julian

________________________________

		From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Paul Swanson
		Sent: 29 October 2007 21:21
		To: Xerte discussion list
		Subject: RE: [Xerte] Making a page counter in Xerte 1.8
- Solved

		Correction: it is a Time Limit interaction, not Tries
Limit. (But you probably already guessed that...)

________________________________

			From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Paul Swanson
			Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 2:10 PM
			To: Xerte discussion list
			Subject: RE: [Xerte] Making a page counter in
Xerte 1.8 - Solved

			It seems to be a timing issue. I added a 0.1
second Tries Limit interaction before the script that prints the counter
on the first page, and it correctly prints the number of pages in the
framework.

			- Paul

________________________________

				From:
xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Paul Swanson
				Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 1:48 PM
				To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
				Subject: [Xerte] Making a page counter
in Xerte 1.8

				I've been working on creating a page
counter within a Framework, and when you get to the first page of the
framework, the total number of pages isn't calculating correctly.

				I have an empty text icon with an ID of
'slideCounter' that is in the Entry Frame of the framework. The
framework ID is dbInst. I am placing the following code in a script icon
on each page (not in the Entry Frame):

				slideCounter.setText('Slide ' +
(dbInst.currentPage + 1) + ' of ' + dbInst.pages.length); 

				On the first page of the framework, this
prints 'Slide 1 of 1'. Moving to the second page, it correctly prints
'Slide 2 of 20' and returning to the previous page, it prints 'Slide 1
of 20' -- so it isn't giving the correct value for the length of the
pages array on the first pass, but correctly does so after that. And if
that wasn't strange enough, if I use Ctrl+F5 to open Page 1, it displays
the correct values, but if I navigate to this framework from the page
prior to it (or use Ctrl+F5 with the Framework icon selected), it
displays the incorrect value.

				Is there a better way to do this? 

				_____________________________ 

				 Paul Swanson 
				 Harland Financial Solutions 
				_____________________________ 

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