Design Question

[William Prothero via use-livecode]

Folks,
I’m refining an application I used to teach Plate Tectonics when I was a 
working prof. The application’s core is access to Earth data (that scientists 
used to develop the theory of plate tectonics) and capturing and annotating 
plots that can be incorporated into student writing.

I am adding features that give the student (and teacher) more direction about 
how to use the material. The final student product would be some kind of short 
writeup with figures, that presents student results of their exploration using 
the data in the application. The major goal is to have students learn about the 
process of doing science and writing about their results.

However, I am thinking hard about how to proceed. It seems the effort to make 
this app work with learning management systems would be huge, something I’m 
definitely not up for. Yet, an assignment with text and figures needs to be 
packaged in some way that is easy for students to use, but can be transmitted 
to the teacher (who will make comments, assign a grade, and return it to the 
student) in some efficient way. What I’m thinking, at the simplest level, is to 
export the text and figures of the student’s work and let the student create a 
final product using word, Pages, google classroom, or some other application I 
haven’t thought about  but which they would normally have access to.

I’d love to have any of you teachers’ ideas and/or experience with great ways 
to proceed.

Thanks,
Bill

William A. Prothero
https://earthlearningsolutions.org



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Re: Design Question

[William Prothero via use-livecode]

Jim:
What I’m thinking is that my app would allow students to write their text and 
create the images. I would export the “composition” in pdf format. That would 
be imported into the LMS or sent to the teacher external to my app. The teacher 
could then comment on the writing either in the LMS or an email to the student. 
One thing I'm careful of is making it difficult for a student to copy work from 
the web, so I try program to forbid paste operations. All of the figures also 
have the student’s login name on them.

I thank everyone who’s commented on this and in the process I’ve gotten some 
clarity on the best path forward.
Best,
Bill

William A. Prothero
https://earthlearningsolutions.org

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 12:45 PM, Jim Lambert via use-livecode 
>  wrote:
> 
> 
>> The application's core is access to Earth data (that scientists used to 
>> develop the theory of plate tectonics) and capturing and annotating plots 
>> that can be incorporated into student writing.
> 
> If the 'student writing' is created in some other program then wouldn't it be 
> sufficient to allow a student to copy text, data and plots from your program 
> and paste them into whatever writing program the student uses?
> 
> If the 'student writing' is created in your program could their work be 
> exported as PDF that is then imported into the 'learning management system" 
> and/or shared with the teacher?
> 
> Jim Lambert
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Re: Design Question

[William Prothero via use-livecode]

Scott:
You are absolutely correct. I have noticed, though, that busy profs prefer to 
use apps they are already familiar with and adding an app to look at student 
work for a single assignment would most likely put them off. So, I’m wanting to 
get student work in a format that can be either viewed with common apps (e.g. 
word, excel, etc) but possibly with a custom livecode app as an option.

I’m still working to finish the student part of the app itself, but this design 
rumination is very helpful.
Best,
Bill

William A. Prothero
https://earthlearningsolutions.org

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 4:42 PM, scott--- via use-livecode 
>  wrote:
> 
> For getting it FROM the student, why not just use a livecode stack file. It 
> could contain everything and be highly editable. For returning it TO the 
> student you could use a pdf. 
> --
> Scott Morrow
> 
> Elementary Software
> (Now with 20% less chalk dust!)
> web   https://elementarysoftware.com/
> email sc...@elementarysoftware.com
> booth1-360-734-4701
> --
> 
>> On Nov 17, 2020, at 11:18 AM, William Prothero via use-livecode 
>>  wrote:
>> 
>> Richard,
>> I kinda like the pdf idea. Seems it would give me a way to encapsulate and 
>> format the text and images and perhaps a fairly defined pdf format would 
>> make it straightforward to edit it using Livecode as well.
>> Best,
>> Bill
>> 
>> William A. Prothero
>> https://earthlearningsolutions.org
>> 
>>> On Nov 17, 2020, at 10:10 AM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode 
>>>  wrote:
>>> 
>>> William Prothero wrote:
>>> 
 It seems the effort to make this app work with learning management
 systems would be huge, something I’m definitely not up for.
>>> 
>>> It may not be.  I've made standards-compliant courseware in the past (a 
>>> while ago; the data format was XML ), and it wasn't as bad as I'd 
>>> thought.  With so much work on the modern standards I'd imagine they're far 
>>> better documented and based on more common conventions than they were in 
>>> yesteryear.
>>> 
>>> But maybe the key question is: are your customers asking for LMS 
>>> interoperability specifically?
>>> 
>>> In some segments it can make the difference between being a contender and 
>>> not being considered at all.
>>> 
>>> But I've seen many other segments that seem to have abandoned hope of a 
>>> standards-driven world of interoperable courseware, quite happy to kludge 
>>> together whatever they need to eventually arrive at a means of tracking 
>>> assessment.
>>> 
>>> If no one's asking you for LMS compatibility, there would seem to need to 
>>> bother.
>>> 
>>> If PDF suffices, it's certainly easy to do in LC.
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Richard Gaskin
>>> Fourth World Systems
>>> Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
>>> 
>>> ambassa...@fourthworld.comhttp://www.FourthWorld.com
> 
> 
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Re: Design Question

[David V Glasgow via use-livecode]

Oooh!  For once I might make a contribution!

I had the same issue in a healthcare context.  These IT systems vary 
tremendously between services, are complex and often hard to connect with - 
either by design, or by lack of interest in supporting other software.

I found the best way to get a combo education and training/clinical app to be 
accepted was to create it with no dependencies (local or online), no attempt to 
connect with management systems, no writing of data anywhere, just the ability 
to copy and paste charts and data that nurses can incorporate into other 
reports.  Although clinical information systems are hostile to most actions, 
they have to allow pictures (like x rays and other scans) and spread sheet data 
to be pasted into the record.  Ironically, they almost all allow Word documents 
to be incorporated into the clinical record too.  Nurses don’t need to be shown 
how to do these things, because they wrestle with ugly, poorly designed 
clinical information systems on a daily basis.

In other words, you’re on the money, I think.

Cheers,

David G

> On 16 Nov 2020, at 11:28 pm, William Prothero via use-livecode 
>  wrote:
> 
> Folks,
> I’m refining an application I used to teach Plate Tectonics when I was a 
> working prof. The application’s core is access to Earth data (that scientists 
> used to develop the theory of plate tectonics) and capturing and annotating 
> plots that can be incorporated into student writing.
> 
> I am adding features that give the student (and teacher) more direction about 
> how to use the material. The final student product would be some kind of 
> short writeup with figures, that presents student results of their 
> exploration using the data in the application. The major goal is to have 
> students learn about the process of doing science and writing about their 
> results.
> 
> However, I am thinking hard about how to proceed. It seems the effort to make 
> this app work with learning management systems would be huge, something I’m 
> definitely not up for. Yet, an assignment with text and figures needs to be 
> packaged in some way that is easy for students to use, but can be transmitted 
> to the teacher (who will make comments, assign a grade, and return it to the 
> student) in some efficient way. What I’m thinking, at the simplest level, is 
> to export the text and figures of the student’s work and let the student 
> create a final product using word, Pages, google classroom, or some other 
> application I haven’t thought about  but which they would normally have 
> access to.
> 
> I’d love to have any of you teachers’ ideas and/or experience with great ways 
> to proceed.
> 
> Thanks,
> Bill
> 
> William A. Prothero
> https://earthlearningsolutions.org
> 
> 
> 
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Re: Design Question

[ELS Prothero via use-livecode]

I’m re-sending this because I used the wrong email server.
Bill

William Prothero
http://es.earthednet.org

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 8:46 AM, William Prothero  wrote:
> 
> David and Graham,
> One approach that occurred to me is this.
> There are 2 components to the work that students would “hand in” to their 
> teacher. It would consist of simple text and images. So, would it be 
> practical to create a simple pdf as a single file that includes these 
> elements and send that to the teacher as an attachment? The teacher could 
> then either base grading on that pdf alone or use another small app that I 
> write (or other pdf editing software) to add comments and/or a grade to the 
> pdf and return it to the student.
> 
> I haven’t tried to create PDFs in Livecode, but from some of the postings, it 
> seems practical. I’m not sure about the deconstruction in a Livecode app, but 
> a quick google search shows a lot of apps for annotating PDFs.
> 
> Tnx for any comments or wisdom.
> 
> Best,
> Bill
> 
> William Prothero
> http://earthlearningsolutions.org
> 
>> On Nov 17, 2020, at 2:15 AM, David V Glasgow  wrote:
>> 
>> Oooh!  For once I might make a contribution!
>> 
>> I had the same issue in a healthcare context.  These IT systems vary 
>> tremendously between services, are complex and often hard to connect with - 
>> either by design, or by lack of interest in supporting other software.
>> 
>> I found the best way to get a combo education and training/clinical app to 
>> be accepted was to create it with no dependencies (local or online), no 
>> attempt to connect with management systems, no writing of data anywhere, 
>> just the ability to copy and paste charts and data that nurses can 
>> incorporate into other reports.  Although clinical information systems are 
>> hostile to most actions, they have to allow pictures (like x rays and other 
>> scans) and spread sheet data to be pasted into the record.  Ironically, they 
>> almost all allow Word documents to be incorporated into the clinical record 
>> too.  Nurses don’t need to be shown how to do these things, because they 
>> wrestle with ugly, poorly designed clinical information systems on a daily 
>> basis.
>> 
>> In other words, you’re on the money, I think.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> David G
>> 
 On 16 Nov 2020, at 11:28 pm, William Prothero via use-livecode 
  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Folks,
>>> I’m refining an application I used to teach Plate Tectonics when I was a 
>>> working prof. The application’s core is access to Earth data (that 
>>> scientists used to develop the theory of plate tectonics) and capturing and 
>>> annotating plots that can be incorporated into student writing.
>>> 
>>> I am adding features that give the student (and teacher) more direction 
>>> about how to use the material. The final student product would be some kind 
>>> of short writeup with figures, that presents student results of their 
>>> exploration using the data in the application. The major goal is to have 
>>> students learn about the process of doing science and writing about their 
>>> results.
>>> 
>>> However, I am thinking hard about how to proceed. It seems the effort to 
>>> make this app work with learning management systems would be huge, 
>>> something I’m definitely not up for. Yet, an assignment with text and 
>>> figures needs to be packaged in some way that is easy for students to use, 
>>> but can be transmitted to the teacher (who will make comments, assign a 
>>> grade, and return it to the student) in some efficient way. What I’m 
>>> thinking, at the simplest level, is to export the text and figures of the 
>>> student’s work and let the student create a final product using word, 
>>> Pages, google classroom, or some other application I haven’t thought about  
>>> but which they would normally have access to.
>>> 
>>> I’d love to have any of you teachers’ ideas and/or experience with great 
>>> ways to proceed.
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> Bill
>>> 
>>> William A. Prothero
>>> https://earthlearningsolutions.org
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ___
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>>> use-livecode@lists.runrev.com
>>> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your 
>>> subscription preferences:
>>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
>> 


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Re: Design Question

[Richard Gaskin via use-livecode]

William Prothero wrote:

> It seems the effort to make this app work with learning management
> systems would be huge, something I’m definitely not up for.

It may not be.  I've made standards-compliant courseware in the past (a 
while ago; the data format was XML ), and it wasn't as bad as I'd 
thought.  With so much work on the modern standards I'd imagine they're 
far better documented and based on more common conventions than they 
were in yesteryear.


But maybe the key question is: are your customers asking for LMS 
interoperability specifically?


In some segments it can make the difference between being a contender 
and not being considered at all.


But I've seen many other segments that seem to have abandoned hope of a 
standards-driven world of interoperable courseware, quite happy to 
kludge together whatever they need to eventually arrive at a means of 
tracking assessment.


If no one's asking you for LMS compatibility, there would seem to need 
to bother.


If PDF suffices, it's certainly easy to do in LC.

--
 Richard Gaskin
 Fourth World Systems
 Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
 
 ambassa...@fourthworld.comhttp://www.FourthWorld.com

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Re: Design Question

[William Prothero via use-livecode]

Richard,
I kinda like the pdf idea. Seems it would give me a way to encapsulate and 
format the text and images and perhaps a fairly defined pdf format would make 
it straightforward to edit it using Livecode as well.
Best,
Bill

William A. Prothero
https://earthlearningsolutions.org

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 10:10 AM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode 
>  wrote:
> 
> William Prothero wrote:
> 
> > It seems the effort to make this app work with learning management
> > systems would be huge, something I’m definitely not up for.
> 
> It may not be.  I've made standards-compliant courseware in the past (a while 
> ago; the data format was XML ), and it wasn't as bad as I'd thought.  With 
> so much work on the modern standards I'd imagine they're far better 
> documented and based on more common conventions than they were in yesteryear.
> 
> But maybe the key question is: are your customers asking for LMS 
> interoperability specifically?
> 
> In some segments it can make the difference between being a contender and not 
> being considered at all.
> 
> But I've seen many other segments that seem to have abandoned hope of a 
> standards-driven world of interoperable courseware, quite happy to kludge 
> together whatever they need to eventually arrive at a means of tracking 
> assessment.
> 
> If no one's asking you for LMS compatibility, there would seem to need to 
> bother.
> 
> If PDF suffices, it's certainly easy to do in LC.
> 
> -- 
> Richard Gaskin
> Fourth World Systems
> Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
> 
> ambassa...@fourthworld.comhttp://www.FourthWorld.com
> 
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Re: Design Question

[Jim Lambert via use-livecode]

> The application's core is access to Earth data (that scientists used to 
> develop the theory of plate tectonics) and capturing and annotating plots 
> that can be incorporated into student writing.

If the 'student writing' is created in some other program then wouldn't it be 
sufficient to allow a student to copy text, data and plots from your program 
and paste them into whatever writing program the student uses?

If the 'student writing' is created in your program could their work be 
exported as PDF that is then imported into the 'learning management system" 
and/or shared with the teacher?

Jim Lambert
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Re: Design Question

[scott--- via use-livecode]

For getting it FROM the student, why not just use a livecode stack file. It 
could contain everything and be highly editable. For returning it TO the 
student you could use a pdf. 
--
Scott Morrow

Elementary Software
(Now with 20% less chalk dust!)
web   https://elementarysoftware.com/
email sc...@elementarysoftware.com
booth1-360-734-4701
--

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 11:18 AM, William Prothero via use-livecode 
>  wrote:
> 
> Richard,
> I kinda like the pdf idea. Seems it would give me a way to encapsulate and 
> format the text and images and perhaps a fairly defined pdf format would make 
> it straightforward to edit it using Livecode as well.
> Best,
> Bill
> 
> William A. Prothero
> https://earthlearningsolutions.org
> 
>> On Nov 17, 2020, at 10:10 AM, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode 
>>  wrote:
>> 
>> William Prothero wrote:
>> 
>>> It seems the effort to make this app work with learning management
>>> systems would be huge, something I’m definitely not up for.
>> 
>> It may not be.  I've made standards-compliant courseware in the past (a 
>> while ago; the data format was XML ), and it wasn't as bad as I'd 
>> thought.  With so much work on the modern standards I'd imagine they're far 
>> better documented and based on more common conventions than they were in 
>> yesteryear.
>> 
>> But maybe the key question is: are your customers asking for LMS 
>> interoperability specifically?
>> 
>> In some segments it can make the difference between being a contender and 
>> not being considered at all.
>> 
>> But I've seen many other segments that seem to have abandoned hope of a 
>> standards-driven world of interoperable courseware, quite happy to kludge 
>> together whatever they need to eventually arrive at a means of tracking 
>> assessment.
>> 
>> If no one's asking you for LMS compatibility, there would seem to need to 
>> bother.
>> 
>> If PDF suffices, it's certainly easy to do in LC.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Richard Gaskin
>> Fourth World Systems
>> Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
>> 
>> ambassa...@fourthworld.comhttp://www.FourthWorld.com


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Re: Design Question

[Richard Gaskin via use-livecode]

Scott Morrow wrote:

> For getting it FROM the student, why not just use a livecode stack
> file. It could contain everything and be highly editable.

^ this

LiveCode stack files are an underrated document format.


--
 Richard Gaskin
 Fourth World Systems
 Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
 
 ambassa...@fourthworld.comhttp://www.FourthWorld.com

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Re: Design Question

[Lagi Pittas via use-livecode]

Hi,

I had 70 PS POS systems in the field and I saved the  list of items and
other info  after each addition it worked 99.9% of the time. But when it
failed (4 or 5  times a year) usually the same
customer (same hardware same windows 7 )I had to log in and copy a blank
livecode stack. In the end I had to save the info in the Sqlite database -
No problems since.

The stackfile never seemed to damage because of a power failure/outage or
anything - but had a greater chance if that was the case. The funny thing
was if you did switch the power off  off
without doing a proper shutdown there was no damage 99.9% of the time.
Never did get to the bottom of it.

Regards Lagi

On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 at 00:50, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode <
use-livecode@lists.runrev.com> wrote:

> Scott Morrow wrote:
>
>  > For getting it FROM the student, why not just use a livecode stack
>  > file. It could contain everything and be highly editable.
>
> ^ this
>
> LiveCode stack files are an underrated document format.
>
>
> --
>   Richard Gaskin
>   Fourth World Systems
>   Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
>   
>   ambassa...@fourthworld.comhttp://www.FourthWorld.com
>
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-- 
KIndest Regards Lagi
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Re: Design Question

[Bob Sneidar via use-livecode]

Does your stack auto-save anything at any time? If power fails during a save 
operation, there will be another stack file of the same name preceded by a 
tilde (~). Deleting the tilde will restore the prior version of the stack file.

Sometimes a power outage can damage the partition of the HDD. I would have UPS 
backups on all the systems you deem critical, and check these UPS systems every 
three months or replace them outright every three years (typical life 
expectancy of a lead acid battery).

Bob S


On Nov 18, 2020, at 2:20 AM, Lagi Pittas via use-livecode 
mailto:use-livecode@lists.runrev.com>> wrote:

Hi,

I had 70 PS POS systems in the field and I saved the  list of items and
other info  after each addition it worked 99.9% of the time. But when it
failed (4 or 5  times a year) usually the same
customer (same hardware same windows 7 )I had to log in and copy a blank
livecode stack. In the end I had to save the info in the Sqlite database -
No problems since.

The stackfile never seemed to damage because of a power failure/outage or
anything - but had a greater chance if that was the case. The funny thing
was if you did switch the power off  off
without doing a proper shutdown there was no damage 99.9% of the time.
Never did get to the bottom of it.

Regards Lagi

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PDF Manipulation was Design Question

[John McKenzie via use-livecode]

 Comments people were making to William in the Design Question thread
have caused me to question some things and I am going to the list here
to get an answer.

 Can Livecode edit existing PDF files? I would think this far beyond
its scope and just not the sort of thing it would be involved with. Am
I wrong on that though?

 At my work we have a, frankly stupid, situation that could be made so
much easier if we had software do a simple function. All that is needed
is that a PDF file that comes to me gets some of its text changed and
the changes are according to a specific pattern.

 I thought about getting around to making something that would do that
in one of the more powerful scripting languages. However, if I could use
Livecode it would have some advantages. Namely it would be easier to
create and be very multi-platform.

 So here I am having assumed that Livecode is not a tool that could
do what I want but now asking can I use it to automate editing text in a
PDF file?



 The edits are simple, BTW. I work at an airport and it would just need
to replace a flight number with the flight number and code next to it.
The code is always the same for a particular route.

 So for example, if the incoming PDF has the text "WS252" on it I would
want it changed to "WS252 LV". Each file would have 20-30 flights to
change like this.

 Thanks.

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Re: PDF Manipulation was Design Question

[John McKenzie via use-livecode]

 Bob S:

 Thanks for replying to my post. It seems the situation is as I thought
although making a GUI with Livecode to activate an external library is
easier than using other tools to make a GUI for an external library.
When I started this conversation I assumed I would something like that.


 No, it is not form data we are dealing with. A static, non-secure, PDF
file is sent to us. We print it, scan it, label the flights with the
needed codes by hand, scan the printed copy with the labels and email
the scan to someone.

 Hoping to improve the situation to at least the point where they send
the PDF file and then we run a programme that creates a new PDF which
is sent back to the originator.



 I have successfully used the FDF data format for something unrelated
but at work in the past. It would be great if it were the case here, but
alas, it is not.









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Re: PDF Manipulation was Design Question

[doc hawk via use-livecode]

*IF* the pdf files are simple enough, there are some substitutions that you can 
“just make”.

A string literal can be replaced with a string of the same length.  It could 
also be replaced with a shorter string and space-padded for the extra space.

You want to put a string that is three characters longer, as I understand.   
*IF* there are three characters of white space or comment before the linefeed 
preceding the next “real” data, you could also substitute.

Encryption would obviously stop this.

Also, it’s common in some autogenerated forms to find things like “T e x t” 
instead of “Text”, or even spacing information between characters.


When my ambition comes back, I’m working on livecode to “layer” pdfs for form 
filling.   I just have to get the hang of the spacing.

It seems that a pdf can be included as an object in another pdf.

If the pdf widget could actually, well, output a pdf, rather than a 
screen-density image of it, my life would be *so* much easier and I could sell 
this thing I’ve put together over a decade tomorrow . . .

Or look at the source code of PyPDF2 (it’s BSD/Free licensing, not GPL, so you 
don’t get contaminated), which has all kinds of pdf manipulation stuff (I’ll 
leave it to others to comment on the effects on your health of reading that 
much python . . .



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Re: PDF Manipulation was Design Question

[Bob Sneidar via use-livecode]

On Nov 18, 2020, at 10:34 AM, John McKenzie via use-livecode 
mailto:use-livecode@lists.runrev.com>> wrote:


Comments people were making to William in the Design Question thread
have caused me to question some things and I am going to the list here
to get an answer.

Can Livecode edit existing PDF files? I would think this far beyond
its scope and just not the sort of thing it would be involved with. Am
I wrong on that though?

Short answer, no. Long answer, it depends. On a Macintosh, AppleScript can be 
used to manipulate form objects, but as far as the actual “burned in” content, 
I do not think so. This is on purpose, as if this were possible, PDFs could not 
be secure. Also if the PDF has been secured, nothing can modify it.

On a PC, there are libraries for C++ and Java that allow manipulation of PDFs, 
again dependent on the PDFs own security settings.

In either case, Acrobat has certain security features built in, so that some 
things cannot be modified by an API if it does not have the proper security 
context. It is kind of like variable scoping, but from a security point of 
view. That may not be a great analogy, but to get more info read the Javascript 
API to learn what I am talking about.

https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/js_api_reference.pdf

Bob S


At my work we have a, frankly stupid, situation that could be made so
much easier if we had software do a simple function. All that is needed
is that a PDF file that comes to me gets some of its text changed and
the changes are according to a specific pattern.

I thought about getting around to making something that would do that
in one of the more powerful scripting languages. However, if I could use
Livecode it would have some advantages. Namely it would be easier to
create and be very multi-platform.

So here I am having assumed that Livecode is not a tool that could
do what I want but now asking can I use it to automate editing text in a
PDF file?



The edits are simple, BTW. I work at an airport and it would just need
to replace a flight number with the flight number and code next to it.
The code is always the same for a particular route.

So for example, if the incoming PDF has the text "WS252" on it I would
want it changed to "WS252 LV". Each file would have 20-30 flights to
change like this.

Thanks.

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Re: PDF Manipulation was Design Question

[Bob Sneidar via use-livecode]

If you are talking about form data, there IS a way to configure a PDF so that 
it reads a data file contains just form data and populates with the new data. 
This works with Mac and Windows, and I assume with Linux, but the caveat is 
that the PDF has to be configured to do this first.

The format is not difficult to grok. I use it in my Forms Generator app 
extensively to fill blank forms with data from an SQL server. I have handlers 
for reading and creating these files (they end in .fdf). It get’s a little more 
difficult to understand when dealing with things like check boxes and radio 
buttons, and especially tables. For instance the two default values for a 
checkbox (unless you modify the checkbox object in the PDF) is false and yes.

My application has an interface for importing a pre-existing fillable form 
(preconfigured to read the pdf file of course), creating relationships between 
the database columns and the form objects, and saving those relationships along 
with the binary data to recreate the pdf on demand, in the SQL database.

Is that what you need?

Bob S


On Nov 18, 2020, at 12:02 PM, Bob Sneidar via use-livecode 
mailto:use-livecode@lists.runrev.com>> wrote:

At my work we have a, frankly stupid, situation that could be made so
much easier if we had software do a simple function. All that is needed
is that a PDF file that comes to me gets some of its text changed and
the changes are according to a specific pattern.

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Re: PDF Manipulation was Design Question

[Bob Sneidar via use-livecode]

That should have read preconfigured to read the FDF file (stupid spell correct!)

Bob S


On Nov 18, 2020, at 12:15 PM, Bob Sneidar via use-livecode 
mailto:use-livecode@lists.runrev.com>> wrote:

preconfigured to read the pdf file of course

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App-Design question, was: how to resize icons when resizing objects?

[Tiemo Hollmann TB]

Perhaps I've asked the wrong question. If you have a resizable screen-layout
(with additionally chooseable textsize), is there an approach to also resize
the buttons, if they have graphical icons? Ok, most programs I know don't
resize the buttons, when resizing the window or the fields, but I would like
to resize also the buttons proportional to the window. But the buttons have
graphical icons, which don't resize, when resizing the button. And even if I
could resize the icons they would lose their quality when resizing.
What I am thinking about is to make the app / buttons better accessible for
example on a touchpad (Windows 8) when scaling my app window to full screen.
The only approach I see right now, would be to create at least two sets of
buttons (or at least of the icons) and switch them at a certain size of the
window, but that doesn't look very straight forward.
Am I looking for a no go or don't I see the obvious? Any experiences?
Thanks
Tiemo


 
> Hello,
> 
> I have a stack, which the user may resize and all objects are resized and
> positioned dynamically. This works fine. Up to now, I kept the size of the
> buttons with assigned icons locked, because I didn't find an approach, how
> to resize the assigned icons dynamically? Or don't you do that at all in a
> dynamic layout and am I looking for a no go?
> 
> Thanks for any hints
> 
> Tiemo
> 


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Re: App-Design question, was: how to resize icons when resizing objects?

[Terry Judd]

On 15/03/2012, at 07:42 PM, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:

Perhaps I've asked the wrong question. If you have a resizable screen-layout
(with additionally chooseable textsize), is there an approach to also resize
the buttons, if they have graphical icons? Ok, most programs I know don't
resize the buttons, when resizing the window or the fields, but I would like
to resize also the buttons proportional to the window. But the buttons have
graphical icons, which don't resize, when resizing the button. And even if I
could resize the icons they would lose their quality when resizing.
What I am thinking about is to make the app / buttons better accessible for
example on a touchpad (Windows 8) when scaling my app window to full screen.
The only approach I see right now, would be to create at least two sets of
buttons (or at least of the icons) and switch them at a certain size of the
window, but that doesn't look very straight forward.
Am I looking for a no go or don't I see the obvious? Any experiences?
Thanks
Tiemo

If the image you use for the button icon is at least as large as the largest 
size icon that you want to display then you can resize it within a 
resizeControl or resize stack handler. Just lock the image (it can be 
invisible, off screen or on another card or stack) and then adjust its size 
proportional to your new stack or object size in your handler.

For example

on resizeControl
   set the width of image id (the icon of me) to the width of me
   set the height of image id (the icon of me) to the height of me
end resizeControl

Terry...



Hello,

I have a stack, which the user may resize and all objects are resized and
positioned dynamically. This works fine. Up to now, I kept the size of the
buttons with assigned icons locked, because I didn't find an approach, how
to resize the assigned icons dynamically? Or don't you do that at all in a
dynamic layout and am I looking for a no go?

Thanks for any hints

Tiemo



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Dr Terry Judd
Senior Lecturer in Medical Education
Medical Eduction Unit
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
The University of Melbourne



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AW: App-Design question, was: how to resize icons when resizing objects?

[Tiemo Hollmann TB]

Hi Terry,
Thanks Terry, thats how I could do it, though it's a lot of work with all
buttons and all states of icons...
But would you do that? Actually I haven't seen much interfaces of this kind,
is it absolutely unusual or would it be helpful? What do you think?
Tiemo

> -Ursprüngliche Nachricht-
> Von: use-livecode-boun...@lists.runrev.com [mailto:use-livecode-
> boun...@lists.runrev.com] Im Auftrag von Terry Judd
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 15. März 2012 10:36
> An: How to use LiveCode
> Betreff: Re: App-Design question, was: how to resize icons when resizing
> objects?
> 
> 
> On 15/03/2012, at 07:42 PM, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:
> 
> Perhaps I've asked the wrong question. If you have a resizable screen-
> layout
> (with additionally chooseable textsize), is there an approach to also
> resize
> the buttons, if they have graphical icons? Ok, most programs I know don't
> resize the buttons, when resizing the window or the fields, but I would
> like
> to resize also the buttons proportional to the window. But the buttons
have
> graphical icons, which don't resize, when resizing the button. And even if
> I
> could resize the icons they would lose their quality when resizing.
> What I am thinking about is to make the app / buttons better accessible
for
> example on a touchpad (Windows 8) when scaling my app window to full
> screen.
> The only approach I see right now, would be to create at least two sets of
> buttons (or at least of the icons) and switch them at a certain size of
the
> window, but that doesn't look very straight forward.
> Am I looking for a no go or don't I see the obvious? Any experiences?
> Thanks
> Tiemo
> 
> If the image you use for the button icon is at least as large as the
> largest size icon that you want to display then you can resize it within a
> resizeControl or resize stack handler. Just lock the image (it can be
> invisible, off screen or on another card or stack) and then adjust its
size
> proportional to your new stack or object size in your handler.
> 
> For example
> 
> on resizeControl
>set the width of image id (the icon of me) to the width of me
>set the height of image id (the icon of me) to the height of me
> end resizeControl
> 
> Terry...
> 


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