When David Flanders visited he commented how it would be good to see something such as a twitter aggregator running in a web pane
on a slide containing other web content. At the time the plug-in was setup to only allow single web page integration into a slide. This week that changed now as many web pages as one may want can be integrated. In addition to this versions of the plug-in have been finished for PP2003 and PP2007. Took a bit of playing but the tool with these additions should be even more stable and user friendly. One of the annoyances with the plug-in was its insistance on a slide being selected in the left hand pane in PP before it allowed web content insertion, this has also now been solved.
Finally, a bit of time has been put into clearing up the WILD web interface with time to put in next week in addition.
A pretty happy successful implementation week.
Showing posts with label implementation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label implementation. Show all posts
Friday, 6 November 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
Better late than never!
Ok i haven’t been to good with the blog so time for an update.
First of all, JISCRI in Manchester, was for me, new Experience. for me. I have never had the opportunity to visit a developer conference before, and i enjoyed it. I don’t mind admitting that i was a little shy and left allot of the talking to Darren and Darren (from here on i should call them DnD but i feel the law suits from Wizards of the coast :) )
It was good to see the different things that where going on in the JISC world (though there was a LOT of stuff that seemed to do the same things (just my opinion!)). The project that caught my eye was the shuffl one. The use of JQuery to create index cards to store notes (with out database Backend) was very kool. only one thing JISC guy.... PLEASE don’t make me go to the city of Manchester’s stadium again..... unless the Red half of Manchester are playing there!
Ahem that aside....
Ok Bring the Project back up to date we have completed the first functional prototype consisting of:
• Plug-in for MS PowerPoint that can embed an web browser for Wild use or normal web use
• A PHP driven web Interface for a tutor to add, edit activities and create the URLs for the tutor to embed Into the PowerPoint Add-in.
• A PHP client Interface that works on most mobile devices and allows the client to repl to the correct activity
For the Tutor interface we are currently using a standard PHP/xHTML web site, i would like to use some JQuery to make it a little more dynamic, but we'll see.
The Display and the client pages are my little triumph, They are Both Static template that have the information needed for an activity inserted on the fly, simples! (heh) basically you put the Id of the activity into the client and the back end will search for that related activity details, like title, description and put then into the correct parts of the page..... we only need one page then ;)
The display works on the same base.
This morning we had a flying visit from David Flanders, He chatted with genuine interest and seem happy with the progress made, so if he’s happy.... I’m Ecstatic!
~Keith
First of all, JISCRI in Manchester, was for me, new Experience. for me. I have never had the opportunity to visit a developer conference before, and i enjoyed it. I don’t mind admitting that i was a little shy and left allot of the talking to Darren and Darren (from here on i should call them DnD but i feel the law suits from Wizards of the coast :) )
It was good to see the different things that where going on in the JISC world (though there was a LOT of stuff that seemed to do the same things (just my opinion!)). The project that caught my eye was the shuffl one. The use of JQuery to create index cards to store notes (with out database Backend) was very kool. only one thing JISC guy.... PLEASE don’t make me go to the city of Manchester’s stadium again..... unless the Red half of Manchester are playing there!
Ahem that aside....
Ok Bring the Project back up to date we have completed the first functional prototype consisting of:
• Plug-in for MS PowerPoint that can embed an web browser for Wild use or normal web use
• A PHP driven web Interface for a tutor to add, edit activities and create the URLs for the tutor to embed Into the PowerPoint Add-in.
• A PHP client Interface that works on most mobile devices and allows the client to repl to the correct activity
For the Tutor interface we are currently using a standard PHP/xHTML web site, i would like to use some JQuery to make it a little more dynamic, but we'll see.
The Display and the client pages are my little triumph, They are Both Static template that have the information needed for an activity inserted on the fly, simples! (heh) basically you put the Id of the activity into the client and the back end will search for that related activity details, like title, description and put then into the correct parts of the page..... we only need one page then ;)
The display works on the same base.
This morning we had a flying visit from David Flanders, He chatted with genuine interest and seem happy with the progress made, so if he’s happy.... I’m Ecstatic!
~Keith
Friday, 21 August 2009
Jscrip, Jquery PHP and God damit!
I am currently working on a feature for the wild project which I envisioned when I was drafted in to help. When a tutor wants to add, edit or embed an activity, they will need to get the correct one from an activity set. Let me put this context:
Dr. Livingstone (no not that famous guy) teaches the University of Hamburg(er). The good Doctor is building a presentation for a lecture on the African jungles, and has decided to use an existing activity from another lecture he made with the wild project. Doc L picks the Activity set in the tutor interface via a drop down list and selects the "jungle bells: stories from the green forests" activity set. The next selection drop down list is then populated with the activities from that set, in which Doc L picks "the hills of stranglethorn vale" activity.
On to my problem:
That "cannot" be done with PHP (I "" because I haven’t found an example of it been done) you can set up the query, but that’s about it. Now it can be done with Jscript and something called JQuery which is a Library for java script. I have been looking at Different examples of JQuery and I find it could be useful in a lot of different things for wild, but it something we will be looking at later versions.
I have done some searching around and found a good example of what I am trying to achieve:
http://remysharp.com/2007/01/20/auto-populating-select-boxes-using-jquery-ajax/
(Thanks Remy)
at the moment I am trying to follow the Example he has given but am struggling to get it working locally (not sure I have the correct code in the correct files Etc) but I am confident I can convert this to use a database Ids rather than the values of the select or use the Values of the select to reference the table ids.
~Keith
Dr. Livingstone (no not that famous guy) teaches the University of Hamburg(er). The good Doctor is building a presentation for a lecture on the African jungles, and has decided to use an existing activity from another lecture he made with the wild project. Doc L picks the Activity set in the tutor interface via a drop down list and selects the "jungle bells: stories from the green forests" activity set. The next selection drop down list is then populated with the activities from that set, in which Doc L picks "the hills of stranglethorn vale" activity.
On to my problem:
That "cannot" be done with PHP (I "" because I haven’t found an example of it been done) you can set up the query, but that’s about it. Now it can be done with Jscript and something called JQuery which is a Library for java script. I have been looking at Different examples of JQuery and I find it could be useful in a lot of different things for wild, but it something we will be looking at later versions.
I have done some searching around and found a good example of what I am trying to achieve:
http://remysharp.com/2007/01/20/auto-populating-select-boxes-using-jquery-ajax/
(Thanks Remy)
at the moment I am trying to follow the Example he has given but am struggling to get it working locally (not sure I have the correct code in the correct files Etc) but I am confident I can convert this to use a database Ids rather than the values of the select or use the Values of the select to reference the table ids.
~Keith
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Interface Design
First and foremost I am no designer, never have been, never will be. I have the artistic talent of donkey, so if this designs don’t look “pretty” go figure. :D
To start with I tried to make a “nice” design; I thought about themes and wanted something “wild” looking, as in wild life or jungle. So I came up with this:
To start with I tried to make a “nice” design; I thought about themes and wanted something “wild” looking, as in wild life or jungle. So I came up with this:
After been told off by my partner (she is a web developer) I was force to re-think, So I decided to go with something more simple and use more neutral colours. I also decided that I would like to move away from a traditional web site, and Try and make the site look more like a system interface, to make it feel more like a program and make the user forget it is really just a web client.
So I created this:
It’s not pink….its blue…I swear!
This interface was "built" in Photoshop and am hoping that i can use the layers to construct the full working interface from it.
~Keith
Monday, 10 August 2009
Diagrams and tools
This week (2) in the WILD house, the house mates created a large proportion of the UML and miscellaneous diagrams that are needed for the documentation and journal paper.
Diagrams that were created where:
- Class Diagram
- Sequence Diagrams
- Collaboration Diagrams
- Use case Diagram
- Interface Design
- Story Board
The UML diagrams have been create by a program called Visual Case (http://visualcase.com/index.htm). Although this program if not free, is a reasonable tool for creating UML diagrams. Other tools looked at were ARGO (http://argouml.tigris.org/) and Altova (http://www.altova.com/features_visual_tools.html) of which ARGO is free and powerful and altova is superb but expensive
Some major changes and ideas:
- We are no longer treating the system as just dealing with questions and answers. The system will focus on a wide range of activities and their responses (e.g. A tutor will ask his students to take pictures and send them to the embed)
- Limited action from the environment plug-in. The plug-in will simply open and close a web browser and automatically place a embed area in the presentation.
Working Environment.
KD has listed a short-list of possible environments to begin programming in. in this, we mean programs, not languages. Two environment picked to used were scite and eclipse. Scite is a free to use editor which a can work with most languages. Eclipse is also free, but has a PHP only software that auto fills tags, making typing code much faster.
KD will be opting for eclipse.
Work flow
DM - created and edited the journal, as when diagrams became available and edited them where necessary.
DS - Worked on XML DTD, helped on interface designs and worked on a schemer.
KD – Created UML and other designs, created some interface designs and finished the storyboard.
Sprint 1:-
The main objective of this 4 week period is to get the main bulk of the programming out of the way. The focus will be on the Add-in in the first week and possibly the second week. The remaining time will be aimed at getting a working beta of the client and tutor interface, including a working back end.
Next time on WILD tool:
Interface design: style, function and moving away from a web page.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Design Documentation
The draft Design Documentation is now complete and can be found at http://docs.google.com/View?id=dk34gp5_15r44fsd6.
Friday, 24 July 2009
Blog input developer Week 1 – Wild thing
Initial ideas written down, idea bounced with DM and DS, mostly about add-ins for PP and back end/tutor tool.
IDEAS FOR REDESIGN
Add-in that allows access to a web base server that can dynamically generate the question pages after user input, this system would include:
BETA
PHP based Web server that, in the beginning, allows a tutor to create questions he/she would be using during the presentations, these would be called into PP via an embedded xhtml add-in. the server would create the pages dynamically for the tutor before the call is made. It will create the necessary forms needed for displaying the answers i.e if it is a set of multiple choice questions, it will display the answers and which student picked answer. If it is a live test, as soon as the choice is made, it will be displayed on the slide.
A standards compliant client that can be accessed or installed on mobile devices. The student will be able to Log in with their student number and gain access to the correct lecture slides. The client must be able to return the generated xhtml questions from the server and display them, and then allow the student to answer them.
Add - in for Microsoft PP that allows embedded xhtml to load without having need for an input button. this will allow a tutor to imbedding slide (which will have the web server address embedded) and they can reference the question ID number to bring out the correct questions for that lecture (allowing the ability to pull the same question for lots of lectures)
This was initial ideas for a beta, the overall finish product maybe integrate the entire system in to a PP add-in. Open source would require us to create different add-ins for different packages.
Initial ideas written down, idea bounced with DM and DS, mostly about add-ins for PP and back end/tutor tool.
IDEAS FOR REDESIGN
Add-in that allows access to a web base server that can dynamically generate the question pages after user input, this system would include:
BETA
PHP based Web server that, in the beginning, allows a tutor to create questions he/she would be using during the presentations, these would be called into PP via an embedded xhtml add-in. the server would create the pages dynamically for the tutor before the call is made. It will create the necessary forms needed for displaying the answers i.e if it is a set of multiple choice questions, it will display the answers and which student picked answer. If it is a live test, as soon as the choice is made, it will be displayed on the slide.
A standards compliant client that can be accessed or installed on mobile devices. The student will be able to Log in with their student number and gain access to the correct lecture slides. The client must be able to return the generated xhtml questions from the server and display them, and then allow the student to answer them.
Add - in for Microsoft PP that allows embedded xhtml to load without having need for an input button. this will allow a tutor to imbedding slide (which will have the web server address embedded) and they can reference the question ID number to bring out the correct questions for that lecture (allowing the ability to pull the same question for lots of lectures)
This was initial ideas for a beta, the overall finish product maybe integrate the entire system in to a PP add-in. Open source would require us to create different add-ins for different packages.
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