[Xerte] Re: Creating new template question

Thu Sep 6 11:28:55 BST 2012

A curse on you Nayland Smith, the world shall here from me again (exit to
evil laughter)

On 6 September 2012 11:19, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>wrote:

> We live in interesting times…
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 06 September 2012 10:27
>
> *To:* Xerte discussion list
> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: Creating new template question
>
>
>
> It seems ironic that we have just got to the point where Xerte and XOT use
> the same model and xwd files, and new pages developed in Xerte can be
> easily ported over to XOT at the same time as external factors are forcing
> the move of XOT to HTML5.
>
>
>
> October should be very interesting.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 6 September 2012 08:33, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> >It is certainly worth someone looking at it
>
> It might well be, but thinking ahead to an HTML5 world, I can see us
> de-coupling XOT from Xerte, which would make it moot. We need to talk about
> this in October.
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 03 September 2012 12:45
>
>
> *To:* Xerte discussion list
> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: Creating new template question
>
>
>
> It is certainly worth someone looking at it. I am not trying to be
> unhelpful here but I am not well up on the "under the bonnet" stuff.
>
>
>
> If there is a way of setting things up so that a simple function call sets
> up pageIcon.templateData appropriate to the environment it is in (perhaps
> by checking the project file extension i.e.  rlt or not rlt.) then this
> would simplify the models and might remove the need for additional flags in
> set up scripts of entry frames or adding project properties.
>
>
>
> However some of the pages e.g. the menu connector page have additional
> code in this section of the model that needs to be different depending on
> whether the page is in a pageTemplates / XOT environment or a Xerte
> environment and this would need to be handled in some way. So some pages
> might still need to begin with a block of code that could test the
> environment and then set things up accordingly. Ideally this test would be
> against a flag or indicator variable that had been set up automatically.
>
>
>
> Perhaps this automated setup could also trigger the the updating of the
> page icon's name and title properties when the xwd title is changed.
> Currently this is set to happen by adding the "pages = true" property to
> the learning object icon.
>
>
>
> This would make everything more automated.
>
>
>
> With respect to automation I have done some checking with regard to the
> minimum needed to get a page model working in a standard Xerte project.
>
>
>
> The bare minimum at present is to copy the common folder into the project
> folder, all other folders are already created automatically when needed
> (pages, media)
>
>
>
> Then a new property "pages" needs adding to the learning object with a
> value of true, and an entry frame needs adding with a single scriptcontaining the line
>
>
>
> rootIcon.projMode = "dev";
>
>
>
> This will provide enough to get the individual page templates working.
> However page specific features that depend on the availability of
> additional code such as narration, will not function. To have full
> functionality of all pages then using a "pages" project would be
> recommended.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 31 August 2012 09:20, Julian Tenney <Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> It would be much better to have this:
>
>
>
> pageIcon = icon.parentNode.clip();
>
>
>
> if (rootIcon.projMode == "dev"){
> // Page Wizard
> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.extXML.toObject();
> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.templateData.pageWizard[0];
> } else {
> // Toolkits
> myXML = new XML(extXML.firstChild.childNodes[rootIcon.getPageIndex() -
> pgOffset]);
> pageIcon.templateData = myXML.toObject();
>
> }
>
>
>
> put somewhere in the engine, and to have the model initialise itself with
> some sort of all to a function, maybe initModel(). Then the function can
> handle the specifics, and users don’t need to see code that doesn’t concern
> them, and we don’t have duplicate code in every model file. We have
> discussed this before, I recall some challenges in trying to make it work.
> Worth looking at again?
>
>
>
> *From:* xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Kemp Johnathan
> *Sent:* 30 August 2012 21:31
> *To:* Xerte discussion list
>
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte] Re: Creating new template question
>
>
>
> Hello Dave,
>
>
>
> Sorry for the confusion.
>
>
>
> The Page Wizards were never part of the official Xerte download. They were
> produced as a separate zip file that when unzipped created a set of
> folders, each of which contained several .xcp files. Each single .xcp file
> defined the xwd, rlm and xml file for a page. It is this separate add on to
> Xerte that has been retired.
>
>
>
> The new Xerte 2.18 includes for each page type a separate xwd that defines
> the form, and an rlm file that defines the model for each page. Look in
>
>
>
> Xerte \ pages \ models
>
>                       \ wizards \ en-GB
>
>
>
> to find them.
>
>
>
> Each of the pages in the original page wizards download had its own xml
> file that was already populated with data. Its data was enclosed in
>
> <learningObject> </learningObject> tags
>
>
>
> so the top level node that existed when Xerte converted the xml to an
> object was "learningObject"
>
>
>
> All the pages in Xerte 2.18 generate xml with their data enclosed in
> <pageWizard> tags so the top level node in the object is "pageWizard"
>
>
>
> It really doesn't matter what the top level node is called as long as you
> are consistent. I think when we moved to implement the individual page
> templates in Xerte 2.18 I changed from using "learningObject" as that is
> what is used in pageTemplates xml files as a wrapper to contain the data
> for a whole Xerte project and not just for one page.
>
>
>
> The important thing to realise is that in a pageTemplates (project wide
> template ) project or a XOT project there is only a single xml file that
> contains the data for all of the pages. Whereas in a Xerte pages project
> each page has its own xml data file (apologies if I am teaching you to suck
> eggs :-)
>
>
>
> Since the intention is to create a model file that can be used in either
> Xerte or XOT this raises a problem since the structure of the xml file
> differs between the single page for Xerte individual page and the one file
> containing the data for all the pages in a XOT or pageTemplates type of
> project.
>
>
>
> The opening section of the rlm file
>
>
>
> pageIcon = icon.parentNode.clip();
>
>
>
> if (rootIcon.projMode == "dev"){
> // Page Wizard
> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.extXML.toObject();
> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.templateData.pageWizard[0];
> } else {
> // Toolkits
> myXML = new XML(extXML.firstChild.childNodes[rootIcon.getPageIndex() -
> pgOffset]);
> pageIcon.templateData = myXML.toObject();
>
> }
>
>
>
> resolves this and the line highlighted in yellow effectively strips out
> the reference to pageWizard so that the rest of the model file can refer to
> pageIcon.templateData and thus be identical for both environments.
>
>
>
> The original Page Wizard files were only designed to work in the desktop
> Xerte individual page environment so this was not an issue at the time.
>
>
>
> What is now significant is that Tom has written some php code that will
> parse through all the xwd files in a xerte install to generate a new
> template.xwd file that can be used in XOT. Remember XOT does not use
> individual xwd files but instead uses a single file containing the forms
> for all the pages. I think this parser looks for the <wizard> and
> <pageWizard> tags that are contained in the individual xwd files to help
> identify the relevant sections to include when building the template.xwd
> file.
>
>
>
> You can develop new pages by creating a project using File / New
>
>
>
> However if you do so and then try using any of the existing model files
> you will run into a number of issues such as missing swf files,
> rootIcon.projMode will not be defined and some supporting code that is
> shared by several of the models e.g. narration support will not exist in
> your project.
>
>
>
> Alternatively if you start your project using Pages / Create New Page
> Project then all the items needed to support the models will be included in
> your project. So it kind of makes sense to use the Page Project option and
> then to create a new page by starting from an existing one. If you pick a
> page that has some of the features you want in your page you can add extra
> fields to the xwd form run the form and examine the xml file to see that it
> is being populated correctly. Then you can modify the page's structure to
> consume the new data.
>
>
>
> By keeping to the standard structures used in the new pages you will
> ensure that your new pages can be transferred to XOT if you wish to do that.
>
>
>
> I hope that is a bit clearer.
>
>
>
> KInd regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
>
>
> On 30 August 2012 18:59, Dave Burnett <d_b_burnett at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Thanks Johnathan.
>
>
>
> I just opened a new file in Xerte and then inserted the drag/drop .rlm I
> am trying to alter.
>
>
>
> so I added the templateData path in the LO and then used just
>
>
>
>   pageIcon.templateData = extXML.toObject();
>
>   pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.templateData.learningObject[0];
>
>
> to get the data loaded.
>
>
>
> Why am I using learningObject and you are using pageWizard
>
> I thought you had deprecated pageWizard.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:25:56 +0100
> From: johnathan.kemp at ntlworld.com
> To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> Subject: [Xerte] Re: Creating new template question
>
>
>
> You are using an old model file probably from a page wizard.
>
>
>
> The new model files use
>
>
>
> pageIcon = icon.parentNode.clip();
>
> if (rootIcon.projMode == "dev"){
> // Page Wizard
> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.extXML.toObject();
> pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.templateData.pageWizard[0];
> } else {
> // Toolkits
> myXML = new XML(extXML.firstChild.childNodes[rootIcon.getPageIndex() -
> pgOffset]);
> pageIcon.templateData = myXML.toObject();
>
> }
>
>
>
> A setup script off the entryFrame of a "pages" type project sets
>
>
>
> rootIcon.projMode = "dev";
>
>
>
> This ensures the model file behaves correctly for a desktop Xerte project.
> This value is not set in XOT projects which enables the same model file to
> be used in both Xerte and XOT. The idea being that people will be able to
> develop new page types in Xerte and then transfer them to a XOT environment.
>
>
>
> Refer back to my other reply for an idea of how I approach the creation of
> a new page. Even if you don't follow the same steps it should guide you as
> to what else you need to do.
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
> Johnathan
>
>
>
> On 30 August 2012 15:42, Dave Burnett <d_b_burnett at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> I'm playing with the new 2.18 version (Thanks to Johnathan and all!).
>
>
>
> I've made a new template and can load it onto the flowline.
>
>
>
> Now I want to alter the underlying model and to do that I need to get test
> data into it.
>
>
>
> So I open a new file and insert the .rlm from the models file.
>
>
>
> In the first script icon of the .rlm we have:
>
>
>
> if (extXML == undefined){
>
>   // Page Wizard
>
>   pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.extXML.toObject();
>
>   pageIcon.templateData = pageIcon.templateData.pageWizard[0];
>
>
>
> Am I missing something, e.g. if extXML is undefined,
> won't pageIcon.extXML also be undefined?
>
>
>
> What I need to do obviously is get data into pageIcon.templateData in
> order to get the model to function.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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