[Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)

[Kemp Johnathan]

I am not sure I can relate what you are saying here to a potential solution
for achieving a single .rlm file for page wizards and project wide
templates.

The project wide xwd and xml files that are used in conjunction with an rlt
file use learningObject tags.

My recent tests suggest that the biggest issue for Page Wizards is the need
to include learningObject tags in the xml and xwd files as they then have to
be included in any statements in the .rlm file that access the xml data.
However leaving out the learningObject tags causes the xwd file (and the xml
file?) to fail to deliver the wizard form correctly in two out of the three
Page Wizards tested.

Is the solution likely to lie with some change to the xwd and / or xml file
or is the solution likely to lie in a modification to the file that
processes the xwd file and xml file in order to display the wizard? If the
latter is the case then there is not much I can do to resolve this.

At present I can only produce reliable wizards if I include the
learningObject tags with the resulting knock on effect for the .rlm file.

There was some discussion last year regarding promoting the user development
of new templates for On-line toolkits. One thought at the time was that Page
Wizards might provide a route to this, particularly if they could share the
same models as those used for Project Wide templates. Has there been any
further considerations towards facilitating greater template contributions
from the wider community?

Kind regards

Johnathan

On 22 April 2011 08:21, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>wrote:

>  something.else and something[0].else are the same, but not exactly the
> same, if there is one something. THey are arrays. if myArr = ['jules']; then
> debug (myArray); gives jules, which is myArr[0], but myArr[0] is better,
> because it addresses the item, not the array. When things use strings for
> properties both work.
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [
> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp Johnathan [
> johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com]
> *Sent:* 21 April 2011 17:46
>
> *To:* Xerte discussion list
> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)
>
>  Must be a new usage of the word odious, never used it as an alternative
> to "helpful" before.
>
>  Just checked, not so much as a sniff (to keep things in like vein)
>
>  I wondered if it might be something to do with the code that processes
> the xwd and xml files to generate and populate the wizard.
>
>  Kind regards
>
>  Johnathan
>
> On 21 April 2011 16:37, Dave Burnett <d_b_burnett at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Just being odious.
>>
>> Did you do a global search for learningObject after?
>>
>> I have found to my chagrin that
>> something.more and something[0].more
>> will both work in some cases, but in others you get strange results (array
>> vs array index I guess).
>>
>>
>> Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:22:51 +0100
>>
>> From: johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com
>> To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>> Subject: [Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)
>>
>> I have just performed a few tests.
>>
>>  I took the following Page Wizards
>> Summary
>> Image Viewer
>> Quiz
>>
>>  For each one I unzipped the page wizard, edited the .xml file to remove
>> the learning object tags and any leading spaces, edited the .rml file by
>> performing a search and replace on ".learningObject[0]." replacing it with
>> "."
>>
>>  so that lines such as
>>
>>  align = pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].quiz[0].align;
>>
>>  became
>>
>>  align = pageIcon.templateData.quiz[0].align;
>>
>>  The xwd files were not altered in any way.
>>
>>  The modified files were then rezipped into Page Wizard .xcp files and
>> the wizards used in a new Xerte project.
>>
>>  The summary page appeared to work correctly.
>>
>>  The quiz page wizard failed to perform correctly in that when the quiz
>> item was selected in the left panel, the quiz properties were displayed in
>> the right panel but the link to add a new question was not displayed. When
>> the question option was selected in the left panel the question properties
>> were displayed in the right panel but only the link to add a new option was
>> displayed, there was no link to add a new question.
>>
>>  The image viewer wizard failed to display properly - whilst the wizard
>> appears to work correctly, when the wizard is opened spurious entries appear
>> in the left panel as shown in the attached jpg file.
>>
>>  I have no idea what could be causing these side effects, however they
>> appear to be consistent across each page wizard. That is to say that if I
>> create two quiz pages, they both fail to offer the link to add a new
>> question. If I create additional image summary pages they each display the
>> same strange entries in the left panel of the wizard.
>>
>>  Kind regards
>>
>>  Johnathan
>>
>>
>> On 21 April 2011 15:45, Dave Burnett <d_b_burnett at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Maybe a <learningObject> tag hiding out in an .rlm or something?
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:09:33 +0100
>> From: johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com
>> To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>>
>> Subject: [Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)
>>
>> We looked at leaving out <learningObject> in the xml in the early days of
>> Page Wizards.
>>
>>  I can't remember the details fully but I know it caused problems. I
>> think, though could be wrong on this, that one Page Wizard based page in a
>> project worked fine, but once you had a project with several Page Wizard
>> based pages in it set up without <learningObject> in the xml then things
>> started to go wrong. There was some conflict taking place.
>>
>>  Kind regards
>>
>>  Johnathan
>>
>> On 21 April 2011 14:04, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>wrote:
>>
>>  You don’t have to have <learningObject/> in your xml though. You have
>> separate xml files for each model? Then make the root the page node, not
>> <learningObject>
>>
>> Or am I missing something?
>>
>> We are probably due a zip of things. Unless we get any more feedback,
>> we’ll go ahead.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
>> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
>> *Sent:* 21 April 2011 14:00
>>
>> *To:* Xerte discussion list
>> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)
>>
>>
>>
>> I am always a bit wary of changes in subversions in that things may be a
>> little volatile, something being modified may then lead to side effects
>> being found and then further changes resulting. Or alternatively one good
>> idea leads to another and further improvements are made. I prefer to wait
>> until things are stable and then make all the changes that have taken place
>> available in a new release of the Page Wizards.
>>
>>
>>
>> My standard procedure is to take a new release of Xerte when it is made
>> officially available and to create an empty Page Templates based project. I
>> keep a similar project from the previous version and use this as a base line
>> for comparison. I then compare both project folders using win merge which
>> highlights all the changes for me in each individual file.
>>
>>
>>
>> I can then update the relevant page wizard files one file at a time to
>> implement the changes I see in the latest Xerte release. The biggest problem
>> is likely to occur when a significant change to the .rlt file is made as
>> this will reflect code that many different page templates may call upon.
>> This is why thus far I have limited the Page Wizards to the Page Templates
>> and not extended them to cover any of the other project wide templates.
>>
>>
>>
>> What I find difficult sometimes is to identify when a new release has
>> taken place as sometimes the last update date on the Xerte web site may not
>> be updated, or version numbers displayed in the version information may not
>> be up to date.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have read in the mailing list of a forthcoming release of Xerte On-line
>> toolkits and am bracing myself now for a new release of desktop Xerte, in
>> anticipation that it may create a fair bit of maintenance for the page
>> wizards.
>>
>>
>>
>> I recall a while back there being some discussion regarding looking into
>> how the PageTemplates project wide template and the Page Wizards could share
>> the same set of files, this would significantly reduce the maintenance
>> burden of the Page Wizards. The sample code below shows the key issues in
>> achieving this.
>>
>>
>>
>> // code from getPageId from a typical page wizard
>>
>>
>>
>> pageIcon = icon.parentNode.clip();
>> //myXML = new XML(extXML.firstChild.childNodes[rootIcon.getPageIndex() -
>> pgOffset]);
>> //pageIcon.templateData = myXML.toObject();
>> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.extXML.toObject();
>>
>> //rootIcon.setTitleText(templateData.learningObject[0].name);
>>
>> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].dragDropLabel[0].narration !=
>> undefined){
>> narration = pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0]
>> .dragDropLabel[0].narration;
>> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
>> nar.play();
>> }
>>
>> The blue code is needed for PageTemplates use and the red for Page Wizards
>> use
>>
>>
>>
>> I would have thought it might be possible to cover everything except for
>> the inclusion of ".learningObject[0]" insertions by some kind of project
>> wide flag and an if else block that tested the flag condition.
>>
>>
>>
>> Is there any way that pageIcon.templateData could be defined for Page
>> Wizards so that it included the ".learningObject[0]" so that it does not
>> need to be referenced every time a call to external xml data is made? If so
>> this could then be included in the above mentioned if else block and the
>> rest of the code could stand unchanged.
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind regards
>>
>>
>>
>> Johnathan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 21 April 2011 11:35, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Do you watch the subversion rss feeds?
>>
>>
>>
>> http://code.google.com/feeds/p/xerte/updates/basic
>>
>>
>>
>> That’s probably the best way of being kept in the loop of changes. I try
>> and comment them. If there is no comment it’s usually a smaller bug fix
>> rather than a  change. If you keep your svn synched up you’ll see the files
>> that have changed on each update. If it looks like something you ought to be
>> aware of, and can’t see what’s changed then send me a mail.
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
>> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
>> *Sent:* 21 April 2011 11:32
>> *To:* Xerte discussion list
>> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: . Xerte 2.n - Page Wizards (April 2011 release)
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello Deborah,
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks for the idea of adding the optional automatic narration parameter,
>> I will aim to add it to all the page wizards that use narration in the next
>> release.
>>
>>
>>
>> I remember some discussion on the mail list that suggested that there may
>> be some changes to the code that is used to implement narration, but as yet
>> the current version of Xerte still uses the same code. Hence I have made no
>> changes to narrationHandler.rlm. Should there be any changes to how the
>> PageTemplates project wide template delivers narration in a future release
>> then there may be an update to narrationHandler.rlm.
>>
>>
>>
>> New Page Wizards cannot update existing pages in Xerte projects, as a Page
>> Wizard is only used as a source of information by Xerte from which to create
>> a new page, so existing pages are unaffected by an update to the Page
>> Wizards.
>>
>>
>>
>> The changes to a Page Wizard that provide support for optional automatic
>> narration are all within the code of the page wizard (an extra line in the
>> xwd file to implement the optional parameter and a small change to the
>> getPageId code block that adds an extra "if" condition to the section that
>> implements narration) so no change to the narrationHandler is required.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Adding auto Narration to any existing page that offers narration*
>>
>> If you wanted to add auto Narration to an existing page in one of your
>> projects then this would be a simple 2 step process
>>
>>
>>
>> Step 1 - add the optional parameter "narPlayback" to the xwd file. Simply
>> open the xwd file in your favourite editor (not a word processor) - I use
>> FlashDevelop and insert the line below, after the narration optional
>> parameter, then save your change.
>>
>>
>>
>> <narPlayback type="ComboBox" label="Narration Playback" options="On user
>> request,On page load" data="userRequest,pageLoad" defaultValue="On user
>> request" width="150" optional="true"/>
>>
>> Step 2 - add an additional "if" block to the narration code in getPageId.
>> Do this in Xerte by expanding the page structure and selecting the getPageId
>> script icon.
>>
>>
>>
>> // Old page version - no auto narration option
>>
>>
>>
>> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration !=
>> undefined){
>> narration =
>> pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration;
>> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
>> }
>>
>>
>>
>> // sample version from new version of gapFill Page Wizard
>>
>>
>>
>> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narration !=
>> undefined){
>> narration = pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narration;
>> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
>>
>>     if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narPlayback !=
>> undefined &&
>> pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].gapFill[0].narPlayback ==
>> "pageLoad"){
>>     nar.play();
>>     }
>>
>> }
>>
>>
>>
>> The bit shown in blue above could be added to any page wizard that offers
>> narration, you would just need to edit the references to the page wizard
>> name to match the current page wizard, e.g. for modelAnswer code shown
>> earlier would become
>>
>>
>>
>> if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration !=
>> undefined){
>> narration =
>> pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0].modelAnswer[0].narration;
>> rootIcon.broadcast('showAudio');
>>
>>
>>
>>     if (pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0]. modelAnswer [0].narPlayback
>> != undefined &&   pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0]. modelAnswer [0].narPlayback
>> == "pageLoad"){
>>     nar.play();
>>     }
>>
>>
>> }
>>
>> That should give your page auto narration option capability. Note the
>> first two lines shown above are actually all one long line.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Updating an existing page to use the new version of a Page Wizard*
>>
>>
>>
>> If you wanted to update a learning object to take advantage of new
>> features in a Page wizard then you could try the following.
>>
>>
>>
>> Given an existing page called currentPage with its files saved in folder
>> pages / currentPage
>>
>>
>>
>> 1 . Create a new page using the new version of the Page Wizard saving its
>> files to pages / newPage
>>
>>
>>
>> this would give you a folder pages / newPage containing the Page Wizard's
>> .xml, .xwd and .rlm files
>>
>>
>>
>> 2. Rename the .xml file to something like orig.xml
>>
>>
>>
>> 3. Copy the .xml file from pages / currentPage to pages / newPage
>>
>>
>>
>> This should give you a new copy of your original page that uses the new
>> code for the page, has the new xwd file but benefits from all the settings
>> of your original page.
>>
>>
>>
>> But a word of warning. This should work in most instances of new page
>> wizards, one thing could cause a problem.
>>
>>
>>
>> If the new Version of the page wizard includes any new parameters that are
>> NOT optional.
>>
>>
>>
>> If the new version of the Page Wizard includes a non-optional parameter
>> that did not exist in the previous version then the wizard may malfunction.
>> To resolve the malfunction look in the original xml file (renamed to
>> orig.xml above and identify the missing parameters. These will need to be
>> copied into the active xml file i.e the copy from your original page.
>>
>>
>>
>> Whether it is worth updating a page will probably depend on the changes
>> that the new wizard introduces.
>>
>>
>>
>> Hope this helps to answer your questions.
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind regards
>>
>>
>>
>> Johnathan
>>
>>
>>
>> PS. Don't worry about asking silly questions - just ask for clarification
>> if my answers are not adequate to meet your needs.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 20 April 2011 11:20, Deborah Delin <admin at strivney.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jonathan,
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks very much for the new Page Wizards release.  Great to have an
>> optional parameter to specify automatic narration!
>>
>>
>>
>> Sorry if this is a silly question:  I have downloaded the new release and
>> replaced the files in my Xerte folder, but, in order for existing learning
>> objects to be affected by the changes in the new release, do I have to
>> re-create the learning objects from scratch?  The release didn't contain a
>> new narration handler - wouldn't I need to add an updated narration handler
>> to the rlo?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance for your reply.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Deborah
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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