[Xerte] About frameworkTemplate.fla

Tue Jun 3 13:13:54 BST 2008

OK, I just wanted to know what sort of language to use in my response.

Taking apart the techDIS template and trying to change it to meet your needs is an interesting way of taking your first steps with the tool. It's quite an advanced piece. I'd stick to some simple prototypes to figure out the particular things you need to understand. Don't panic if this takes you a little while. Break down the problems into smaller ones.

The fla you sent won't open for me in Flash 8. Xerte is compiled for FP8 / AS2, so first of all make sure the swf you are trying to use is built with those settings.

It might help you to understand that the .rlo file is an .xml file. That .xml file is parsed by the Xerte engine to create the learning object. Each node in the xml file contains the data needed to instantiate classes. The class instances are all movieclips. For instance, a display icon in the xerte editor is really an xml node that loooks something like this:

<DIS name="graphic" id="img1" x="20" y="20" ...etc.../>

The engine reads through the xml file, node by node and creates the movieclips described in the xml. Each movieclip can be referred to with script, using the 'id' property you gave it in the xml file, and you can then accessit's properties / call it's methods. All icons have all the properties, methods and events that movieclips have, plus some extra ones. Each movieclip has a property called XMLElement which you can use to access the raw xml data used to instantiate the mc, and you can traverse the xml tree using the usual nextSibling / firstChild / childNodes[i] / parentNode properties.

So in the example above, in a script icon in Xerte, img1.XMLelement would be the xmlNode <DIS name="graphic" id="img1" x="20" y="20" ...etc.../>

The xml node of the page it belongs to would thus be

img1.XMLElement.parentNode;

The xml node of the framework it belongs to would be img1.XMLElement.parentNode.parentNode;

The number of pages on it would be img1.parentNode.parentNode.childNodes.length

You can use this knowledge to access the raw xml data for things like names, counts, etc.

Working directly with xml is not always convenient. Instead you can also refer to the methods and properties of the movieclips themselves. This is maybe what you find confusing. There are two hierarchies: an xml tree (the rlo file), and a hierarchy of nested movieclips (created from the rlo file).

Does this help?

-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Eloy Muñoz
Sent: 03 June 2008 12:12
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: Re: [Xerte] About frameworkTemplate.fla

I have fairly good experience with AS 1.0 and 2.0 and I am also very familiar with XML. I have no experience with AS3.0 and fery low with flash components,

I am not a programmer, I work in Marketing, but I have made myself learning objects before in flash that pull information from an external XML at runetime.

I believe I have for now a problem with the concept from Xerte, I am not sure what can I send from Xerte and how, and I dont know either what kind of information can I get in my swf.

I believe as soon as I figured out the how Xerte works, I will have no problem with the tool, I believe is a nice tool to use in the future.

Thanks,

 Eloy

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 12:48 PM, Tenney Julian <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:
> How much experience do you have with Flash, Actionscript and XML?
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk 
> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Eloy Muñoz
> Sent: 03 June 2008 11:33
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: Re: [Xerte] About frameworkTemplate.fla
>
> Hello all,
>
> I have been using Xerte for a few days and I am getting ahead in my learning curve, but some things are still a bit of a problem for me to understand.
>
> I have been working for hours trying to figure out how to insert a page count into my template (I am using the TechDis template as a model). I am still having a problem to understand the communication between the Xerte interface and my custom interface. I did try to apply the .rlo that Julian shared yesterday -when I look at it, it makes sense, but I am still unable to get the info from Xerte. I believe I am not clear on the hierarchy of elements in the Xerte interface.
>
> I have uploaded my template here:
>
> http://www.meymun.com/xerte01/latestVersion01v5.zip
>
> In sum, what I am trying to do here are two things:
>
> 1. Make a page count
> 2. Get the title of the Learning Object and the titles of each page into my template.
>
> If anyone can give me a hand on this I would very much appreciate it, I am hitting a wall here.
>
> Thanks a lot to everyone,
>
> Eloy
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 7:06 PM, Eloy Muñoz <eloyms at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks a lot for the effort,
>>
>> I will start playing with it.
>>
>> Chers,
>>
>> Eloy.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 5:49 PM, Tenney Julian 
>> <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:
>>> I just made a very quick example that you can find here:
>>>
>>> http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~cczjrt/custom.zip
>>>
>>> It shows passing through that info from the rlo to the custom interface. The fla is included. You should be able to work it out from there.
>>>
>>> The .xtp is a zip file. Just zip up the files and rename it.
>>>
>>> have fun,
>>>
>>> J
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Eloy 
>>> Muñoz
>>> Sent: 02 June 2008 16:17
>>> To: Xerte discussion list
>>> Subject: Re: [Xerte] About frameworkTemplate.fla
>>>
>>> Hello Julian,
>>>
>>> I wanted to ask you if you can give me further explanation on two things:
>>>
>>> - Importing the titles into my swf. I thought I had it figure out importing the nodes straight from the XML but I am still having problems, can you give me an example on how to do it with the standard Xerte settings with the id.clip.myFunction(params) function you recommended me?
>>>
>>> - I will also appreciate if you can send me the fla with the squared icon to count the pages you have on the standard layout.
>>>
>>> - Other question I have, how do I create the .xtp files for my template?
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot for all your help, I really appreciate it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 1:33 PM, Eloy Muñoz <eloyms at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hello Julian,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks a lot for your response, I got it up and running.
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Tenney Julian 
>>>> <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>>> In the swf you develop for the framework controller, you can place funstions todo whatevr you want, and call them from script in Xerte.
>>>>>
>>>>> Give the graphic icon you load the swf into an id; The timeline of 
>>>>> the swf you load can be accessed through id.clip;
>>>>>
>>>>> So you can call your own functions with
>>>>>
>>>>> id.clip.myFunction(params)
>>>>>
>>>>> Julian
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>>>> [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Eloy 
>>>>> Muñoz
>>>>> Sent: 31 May 2008 10:35
>>>>> To: Xerte discussion list
>>>>> Subject: Re: [Xerte] About frameworkTemplate.fla
>>>>>
>>>>> Hello Mark,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for your response. What I am doing is taking away the default interface and substituting it for a custom interface I am doing. For doing it I based myself on frameworkTemplate.fla The problem I have is the following:
>>>>>
>>>>> On this .fla, I don't have the page count icon and it wont load me the titles of the pages as well as the title of the learning object.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have seen on the .xml file of the example that there is a:
>>>>> LOtitle="This is the Learning Object Title"
>>>>>
>>>>> I was thinking that there might be a function already that I can use to send this parameter to my flash interface.Otherwise, any idea on how can I do that?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 11:19 AM, mark.tomlinson at acns-group.com <mark.tomlinson at acns-group.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Usint the default interface, the page titles are set for you based on the title properties of your pages you add.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Have a look at a page and change it's title property.  Is this what you are looking for?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mark
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>
>>>>>> From: "Eloy Muñoz" <eloyms at gmail.com>
>>>>>> Sent: Sat, 31 May 2008 10:38:28 +0200
>>>>>> To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>>>>> Received: 31-May-2008 09:41:41 +0100
>>>>>> Subject: [Xerte] About frameworkTemplate.fla
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hello all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am new to Xerte and I might be asking something very stupid, 
>>>>>> but, is there a frameworkTemplate.fla where I can see the 
>>>>>> rectangular icon with the page count and the instances to import 
>>>>>> the LOtitle and Page Title?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks a lot,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Eloy.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Eloy Muñoz Salinas
>>>>>> http://www.meymun.com/
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Xerte mailing list
>>>>>> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>>>>> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Xerte mailing list
>>>>>> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>>>>> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Eloy Muñoz Salinas
>>>>> http://www.meymun.com/
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Xerte mailing list
>>>>> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>>>> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Xerte mailing list
>>>>> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>>>> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Eloy Muñoz Salinas
>>>> http://www.meymun.com/
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Eloy Muñoz Salinas
>>> http://www.meymun.com/
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Xerte mailing list
>>> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Xerte mailing list
>>> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Eloy Muñoz Salinas
>> http://www.meymun.com/
>>
>> Thank
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Eloy Muñoz Salinas
> http://www.meymun.com/
> _______________________________________________
> Xerte mailing list
> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>

--
Eloy Muñoz Salinas
http://www.meymun.com/