.hta help

[shiva]

Finally may have some spare time, so been looking at upgrading se4 to a better menu system than what it has now. I'm looking at using the .hta format for a menu based system, so wondered if people here have used hta for multiple selections within a multiple page setup, and how successful they were in getting vbscript and javascript to work within it.

The menu system will have to read, write and load values, and should be fully usable. Though I am a bit rusty, I have found a few examples, and seems easy enough, but if others have found resources or better non-microsoft examples/tutorials etc for hta files, please let me know by posting here.

If it looks possible, I may have a crack at it, and see what I can come up with.

 

[Steely]

I think using .hta/html is a great idea for an interactive table menu.
I've been playing with this sort of thing for awhile and it's not to difficult to do and has a lot of potential.

I did post at PO about this after seeing your request, before I was a member here. Maybe you saw that.

I think hta is ms/IE only, I could be wrong.

If you have any specific questions fire away, I might be able to help.

 

[shiva]

Thanks

It appears that my membership has been deleted at PO, as my username has disappeared. I have a month free, as my kid will be away, and wanted a new engine for my personal projects. if it's usable by others, then be a bonus, though others don't seem to be beating down the door to help out what could be a huge benefit to everyone.

I will configure a webspace I have, as it has loads of storage for files, and lots of bandwidth, as a container for the resources. Once that's done, I will plan out and re-write the feature list and set a flow chart of the code, based on the existing code. Should be done in time for when my kid is gone, then I have 30 days to work solidly without "interruptions".

I will send out a link to those that are actually interested in helping on this, as I do not think I can code and test a new engine in 30 days, especially one that will write and run a table that requires no scripting by the user. se4 is modular, so it's pretty easy to add new stuff, and it's existing framework is very solid and very flexible. Several ideas in your post had already occurred to me, and I wrote the se4 code to handle that in the future, I was just unsatisfied with the menu system.

There are somethings won't be able to do though, recognizing collection objects automatically, as well as table object names, but it does recognize collection amounts, which is a bit of a breakthrough for it's time. Still a couple biggies, but going through .hta may give workarounds. Shame Randy never gave us the ability to automatically recognize and list sound, image and table objects.

 

[Steely]

hmm, It's easy enough to read and parse text/script from a existing table file. I'll do some poking around. I imagine there's a way to extract object names. Just knowing if it's a spinner, wall, target, etc... would be key.

Don't hold your breath, I'm a novice at this stuff.
I have figured out how to extract highscores from nvrams (cpu code) on my own, for I like to explore. :)
I'm sure you know more about this stuff than I do, but I'll have a look see.

 

[shiva]

Maybe not, most of my stuff came from happy little accidents, to quote Bob Ross. I would always try to do one thing, fail, and then realize that I had managed to do something else entirely different...

 

[shiva]

Wow, I am actually on schedule with the website. Amazing...

Pretty basic setup compared to say this site, but don't need a advanced system, just something that does the job as simple and fast as possible, but did add a bug tracker and features request module, so that should help in keeping track of it.

Minor stuff to fix, and do graphics to replace the non-transparent ones. I will start gathering resources for .hta codes tomorrow and then by Friday will start recoding the engine. Thinking about it, I think the easiest way is to just put in the basic code for each scoring object, so a absolute beginner with no coding experience can use it, and then build it up as time goes on. Have different levels with more advanced scoring and object code added, maybe a wizard based system down the road.

 

[Steely]

The whole idea of an advanced script engine to create script intrigues me. A graphical one with flow charts that connect would be cool too.
I've been playing with dhtml/javascript for a visual graphic interaction, as appose to just checkboxes and text inputs. The html/htm is perfect for that.
Weather or not, if I could help out depending on my knowledge and available time, I would be interested in seeing your results and/or progress.

I've had no luck yet deciphering the hex code and no happy little accidents either. (at least ones that stand out.)
What I've learned in coding though is "there's more than one way to skin a cat."

 

[shiva]

The whole idea of an advanced script engine to create script intrigues me. A graphical one with flow charts that connect would be cool too.
I've been playing with dhtml/javascript for a visual graphic interaction, as appose to just checkboxes and text inputs. The html/htm is perfect for that.
Weather or not, if I could help out depending on my knowledge and available time, I would be interested in seeing your results and/or progress.

I've had no luck yet deciphering the hex code and no happy little accidents either. (at least ones that stand out.)
What I've learned in coding though is "there's more than one way to skin a cat."

see the se2 code for "there's more than one way to skin a cat part"

Boy am I rusty. Be a while, so looking at extensions for Dreamweaver to help out on that end. Got tons of sample scripts though, it's just understanding it before I dive in, something I've never been known to do before, and may be smarter now.

As it is, the basic se4 can change variables through the existing menus, it's just the menu's suck.

 

[shiva]

Very first test. Not bad for a hours total experience I guess. maybe I should update this thread as I progress.

If you wish to try this out, click the file in the zip file.

It should call up IE, and you can see how it looks. I added the code to show the top bar, so you can actually exit out the window, (whoops...) and there are some very basic examples, but I will be adding to them as I go along, and expanding each one.

This just uses VBScript, but you can also use JS, dhtml etc. I found a way to even insert a flash player or media files as well. cool...

If this screws up your computer, blame Microsoft. :)

<html>
<head>
<HTA:APPLICATION 
     ID="objsetest"
     APPLICATIONNAME="test page"
     SCROLL="yes"
     SINGLEINSTANCE="yes"
     WINDOWSTATE="maximize"
>
</head>
<SCRIPT Language="VBScript">
' Adds the message box
Sub RunScriptInput
	' set opening textbox popup
	strAnswer = window.prompt("Please enter the name of your table.", "MyTable")
    If IsNull(strAnswer) Then
        Msgbox "You clicked the Cancel button"
    Else
        Msgbox "You entered: " & strAnswer
    End If
End Sub
</SCRIPT>
<body>
<br>
List box sample - list 1 is selected<br>
<select size="1" name="List1" multiple><option selected>item1</option><option value="item2" >item2</option><option value="item3">item3</option></select>
<br><hr><br>
Sample text field for writing in code or instructions if needed<br>
<textarea rows="4" name="sample text field" cols="20">sample text field</textarea>
<br><hr><br>
Radio test  - radio 1 is selected, but will unselect if radio button2 is selected<br>
<input type="radio" value="a" name="group1" checked><br>
<input type="radio" value="a" name="group1">
<br><hr><br>
Checkbox, both checkboxes can be selected or unselected.<br>
<input type="checkbox" name="check1" value="on" checked>check 1<br>
<input type="checkbox" name="check2" value="on">check 2
<br><hr><br>
Input field test - useful for naming a table the first time a table is run. This will pop up a box when you click the button.<br>
<input id=runbutton  class="button" type="button" value="Your Table Name" name="run_button"  onClick="RunScriptInput">
<br><hr><br>
symbols - &gt;&nbsp;&lt;&nbsp;&ge;&nbsp;&le;&nbsp;&asymp;&nbsp;&ne;&nbsp;&equiv;&nbsp;&sect;&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;&infin;&nbsp;&pound;&nbsp;&euro;&nbsp;&copy;&nbsp;&reg;&nbsp;&trade;&nbsp;&bdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;&nbsp;&laquo;&nbsp;&raquo;
<br><hr>
</body></html>

well, it's a start at least...

 

[shiva]

test2

Second example. I'm splitting my time, half to do the script, the other half to study scripting (which may actually be helpful one of these days, you never know) but I did do some extra code, though I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

Think I sussed it out, at least there are no errors, and it does work. This is just on list boxes. The first was already in place. The second is a multiple selection box, if you hold the ctrl key down, you can select multiple selections, and then click the button and a msgbox will display the selections. This is very handy if you want to assign multiple values to a table object, like a score and add a bonus, or start a timer as well as light something else like a extra ball.

The third example is a list box that loads the contents of a external file into the list box for selection. I've included a simple "computers.txt" file with it, just make sure that these two files are in the same place in a folder. You can open up the txt file and add more if you want, I stopped work before I tested it completely, but it's pretty simple.

Everything is commented for the VBScript portion, so pretty easy to follow. I also started a basic numbering structure that will match the actual menu page structures in case you were wondering what that weird 8 string number is. Since there could be multiple pages down the road, by assigning a 8 string number based on the actual structure, it allows me to be able to find the exact page I need to look at just by looking at the number, or define code that has multiple instances throughout the script.

Next is to get the save values in, make it so you can write in new values to the text file, and then do list boxes that can be activated or deactivated in code depending on a selection.