The Home-Made PageHistory List

1. The Home-Made PageHistory List Tamer Çatalkaya TU Braunschweig Department of Integrated Circuit Design t.catalkaya@tu-bs.de

2. Contents • Introduction • The Authorware history list • The Concept of the home-made PH list • Implementation highlights • Conclusion

3. Introduction • the Authorware history list helps to track the activation of icons attached to a framework icon

4. Introduction • most of the tracking work is controlled by Authorware • the user has the option of the following settings • window title of history list • amount of list entries to hold • whether the list should be closed after selecting a page • beyond these options it is not possible to control the list

5. Introduction • however, the author might prefer to control the following in addition: • font of list entries • strings entered into the list • whether to add an entry, independent of the order in which the icons are called • to scan or search the list entries

6. Introduction Example: Unwanted problems • two framework icons are used within one application • 1st framework icon holds some pages • 2nd framework icon holds some special procedures, which are called out of the pages

7. Introduction Example szenario: • jump from 2nd Page to Colorsand further on to Updater and back to 3rd Page

8. Introduction Example szenario: • jump from 2nd Page to Colorsand further on to Updater and back to 3rd Page • this gives you an entry in the history list, which can’t be avoided

9. The Authorware history list • to develop the home-made PageHistory list, first we have to analyze the behavior of the AW history list Question is: “How does the Authorware history list behave?”

10. The Authorware history list “How does the Authorware history list behave?” • the history list appears in its own window, separate from the application window • every time a new page is entered, the list gets an update • the new entry gets on top as the first element • by double-clicking a list entry, the application jumps to the according page • by minimizing the application window, the history list disappears, too, and comes back if the app. is called out of the taskbar

11. The Authorware history list • In fact this is nothing else than a interprocess communication between two applications.

12. The Authorware history list • This can be done by two Authorware applications, too.

13. Concept of the home-made PH list • the idea is to create two Authorware applications • the home-made PageHistory list, which can be simply used within other projects, too • a test environment showing the functions to be included into your own application, to run the home-made PageHistory list

14. Concept of the home-made PH list • Every time the user changes the page, the application must submit the page name to the history list

15. Concept of the home-made PH list • Every time an entry is selected out of the PageHistory list, the application must change to the according page.

16. Concept of the home-made PH list • the PageHistory window can be moved and closed independently from the application window • by minimizing the application window, the PageHistory window hides, too, and gets back to the screen by maximizing the application window

17. Concept of the home-made PH list • for the listbox implementation we use the HListBox.U32 • easy to use Listbox functions • with a complete function set to manipulate a Listbox • is part of the Authorware Attain package • to do some system calls we use functions out of the BudAPI.U32 and the WinAPI.U32 • both are very powerful libraries

18. Concept of the home-made PH list

19. Concept of the home-made PH list

20. Concept of the home-made PH list

21. Concept of the home-made PH list

22. Implementation highlights Show me how it works! (a short demo)

23. Implementation highlights The “Write out” of the list • the name of each page is added to a variable by calling the page • if one of the pages should not appear in the list, simply don’t add its name to the list • if a different name should appear, simply add another name than the page name to the list* *need some small modification

24. Implementation highlights • to detect a chosen entry in the PageHistory list, the application is watching the gotoPageFile • if SystemSecond > watchTime than “have a look” • calculate the new watchTime • if gotoPageFile exists, then “jump” to the according page The watchDog of the AW-App

25. Implementation highlights The watchDog of the PH-list • while waiting for some interaction, the PH-list tracks the status of the AW-App window • every time the timer triggers • the status of the PH-list is set according to the status of the AW-App (minimize or hide) • in addition the presence of the file loadHistory is checked, which indicates an update of the PH-list

26. Conclusion We have seen how to implement the home-made PH-list • after some small modification the PH-list can be used as a • bookmark list • content list • glossary list, etc. This example shows you: • how to implement two different types of timers • how to pass values by writing them out and reading them in, and via the clipboard • how to call system functions with which the state of a target window can be tracked

27. Conclusion Thank you for your attention. The PageHistory list demo and the sources are available at: • the EuroTAAC Site • www.cs.tu-bs.de/eis/catalkay/aw4.html