If you want to use all the examples from AMS 5 to AMS 7.5 in your AMS 8 projects, please take note below.

AMS 8 is using an updated version of LUA 5.1. One of the most important change is the TABLE ITERATION.

This is the old code used in AMS 5 to AMS 7.5 for TABLE ITERATION ( loops )

-----------------------------------------------
mytable = {"One","Two","Three"};

for k, v in mytable do
Dialog.Message("Table Item", k .. "=" .. v);
end
-----------------------------------------------


If my examples are using LOOPS, you need to change like below:


----------------------------------------------
mytable = {"One","Two","Three"};

for k, v in pairs(mytable) do
Dialog.Message("Table Item", k .. "=" .. v);
end
----------------------------------------------


See the word “pairs” in red and the bracket, above?

Just add a BRACKET around your TABLE NAME and add the word “pairs“.

Then all my examples using loops will work.

lol ….. 99.9 % of my examples are using LOOPS.
You’ll definitely have to change the codes.

Hope this helps.

Hi,

Its been a long time since I last posted an article. Let me explain. I was shuttling between Saudi Arabia, China and Malaysia much of the time.  Finishing what I’ve started for a company which manufactures Green Products. It was hectic and no spare time to build more AMS Examples. So now, things are nearly settled.

Cropped Image Can Be Resized Properly

OK.  To oil my rusty AMS skills and warm-up a bit, I’ve revised the previous Image Edit Console. I did some clean-up from 2 errors and edited out redundant scripts from the Globals.

Errors :

(1) When resizing a cropped image bigger by using the [+] button, it will recall the original image selected from the ListBox.

(2) When centring a cropped image by using the <<center>> button, it will recall the original image selected from the ListBox.

So, for those using the previous Image Edit Console, it is advisable to download this one.

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+++ I noticed on occasions, that the Cropped Image wont redraw on the Edit Console stage and couldn’t save properly. I can’t figure out why and assumed that it is caused by low RAM. If anyone notices this and found a solution, please share with us.

In our prior project, we have refined the Search Image Utility.  After an image is found and we plan to use, we may need to edit it bit. Some reasons for editing images may include to edit out irrelevant objects or persons in the image, to reduce the size of an image or reposition the object of interest. Thanks to SSIDE and WORM for contributing the DLLs which made the editing possible via AMS.

This AMS example shows how a selected Image can be RESIZED, REPOSITIONED, ROTATED and CROPPED before any final usage. This Basic Image Edit Console will be embedded inside the latest Search Image Utility in the next article. Once thats done, we will finally insert this utility into our Mini Email Address Book.

Original Image before Editing

You may noticed that once you selected an Image, it will appear with ASPECT RATIO maintained eventhough it might be smaller than the original. NOTICED THE RED RECTANGULAR GUIDE? That guide is used to standardize all image sizes to be used in the Mini Email Address Book. The Image will be cropped according to the size of the Red Guide. You can get rid of this by the Click On & Click Off Button as shown in the screen shot below.

Red Guide is Off

Without the Red Guide, you can Drag the Left Mouse Button and select your own area to Crop. The area to be cropped will appear in a Yellow Guide. Then click the Crop & Save Button. The Cropped Image will be Saved in a Folder “EditedImage” on the DeskTop.

Drag Left Mouse Button

Lets say I keep the Red Guide in the Screen Shot below.  I can move and position the Image using Position Buttons. You can choose the move distance by Pixels by selecting the Position Combo from 1 to 10 pixels.

Image Moved to the LEFT

From the Screen Shot below, you can see that I have Resized and Moved the Image. You can Resize the Image by using the Resize Buttons + ( for larger ) and – ( for smaller ). Choose the Resize Percentage from the Percent ComboBox.

Image is Moved and Resized

The Screen Shot below showed the Cropped Image based on the Red Guide.

Cropped Image based on the Red Guide

The Screen Shot below shows an Image which is cropped based on Mouse Dragged area

Image Cropped based on Mouse Drag Area

So far so good. You can also ROTATE an Image when it is necessary by using the <<LEFT or RIGHT>> buttons.

And if you plan to use this Basic Image Editing Console for your projects, please make sure you put Error Check Functions. AND….. please leave a comment in this blog.

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We need to improve the Search Image Utility slightly before we go forward and insert it to our Mini Email Address Book. The previous examples shows how to search the whole selected drive. This time, we can drill down and choose our search to specific folder. This way, we don’t need to search the whole drives everytime. Now we have more control of our search.

If you check the screen shot below, you’ll see I’ve added 2 Buttons, 1 Check Box and an additional Label.

Search Image Utility

The Refresh Button :  refreshes any new storage media that was just inserted such as Thumbdrive and etc. It also clears the Selected Folder Path Flat Input Box.

The Folder Button : opens a Dialog of Folders within the Selected Drive. Select a Folder. The path will appear in the Flat Input Box. This input box is Read Only. So you can’t delete what you selected by typing into it. To delete it, you have to use REFRESH BUTTON. To choose another folder, just click the FOLDER BUTTON again.

The Check Box “Keep Previous Search” : will let you keep previous search in the Search Result ListBox. This is useful for doing lots of searches, trim what you dont need and save into specific Groups. This is where the new Label comes into play.

The Label “FOUND” : shows the total number of items found in the latest search.

The Label “TOTAL” : shows the total number of items in the ListBox.

Search Image Utility : Folder Drill Down

For the purpose of the Mini Email Address Book, the Image Size I plan to use are normally small. We have the choice of using our favourite Image Editing Tool. If we need to embed a basic image editing console, then the use of DLLs is unavoidable. So in the next article, I’ll be using some DLLs to :
1. Rotate Image
2. Resize Image
3. Crop Image

I will maintain the Images’ Aspect Ratio and then Save the Images into its special folder just for the Mini Email Address Book.

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Please leave a comment if you choose to download this example.

WARNING : This example needs advance familiarity with AMS objects and actions. Cut and paste will not help in improving your skills.  You need substantial understanding to place Error Check functions in the scripts. Advance skills is also needed if you plan to improve this example and repair my mistakes. SO…. if you are not familiar with AMS object and actions, please dig and understand Basic Examples I have posted earlier.  And use the HELP FILE as reference.

I noticed a lot of downloads for the Basic SlideShow. Safe to say that the posted sample is quite useful indeed. Thanks for downloading, but where are the comments? Even short comments would be much appreciated.

As promised, here’s the Search Image Utility with a SlideShow feature, alongwith of the Thumblist feature.

From the ScreenShot below, you will notice I’ve added a Slide Show button to the project. OnClick, a Temp Table is created by collecting info from the ListBox. Then the same action opens a DialogEx with a SlideShow object. OnShow, the DialogEx collects info from the Temp Table and inserts them (image path) into the SlideShow object. No big deal. The Temp Table is the KEY. It bridges info between objects. AMS & LUA rulez !!!!

Search Image with SlideShow

Your Search Results can be seen in a SlideShow. And if you select a Saved Groups, you can view a SlideShow of it as well ( shown on the screen shot below ). AND …………if you tweak this example further with RETESET’s, SSIDE’s, UPETER’s, WORM’s & DERMOT’s plugins, you’ll amazed yourself with a feature-rich Electronic Album.

Search Image Utility with Slide Show

Finally, if you plan to distribute APPs developed from project examples in this blog, PLEASE INCLUDE ERROR CHECK FUNCTION for each AMS action. It’s your responsibility to do that. Most of my examples are without error checking for the sake of clarity.

Please leave your comments in this blog.

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Let’s view a stand-alone Search Image Utility before we insert it into our Mini Address Book Project and use SQLite. Some AMS friends might want to view how it works and modify it for other projects.

Search & Save in Categories

This example searches for IMAGES only. Its a modified version of the previous Search Utility Example. I’ve enhanced it with the ThumbList Plugin and uses DialogEx to display ThumbNails. It is also a proof that DialogEx can host ThumbList Plugin.

Double Click An Item will open in default software

What can this project do:
1. Search for Images in PC based on file types such as JPG, BMP, PNG and GIF
2. List them to a ListBox
3. Click an Item on the ListBox, that Image can be viewed with Aspect Ratio at the left side
4. Double-Click that Item, it will open the file in a Default Image Software installed in the PC
5. Click on the Image or Button, it will open a DialogEx with ThumbList of the containing folder.
6. Select images from the folder ThumbList and add them to the ListBox
7. Save the Listed Images into Unique Categories for later referencing
8. View ALL the ListBox Images in its own ThumbList
9. As the Search Results in the ListBox contains Images from different folders, users can open each folder on native Windows Explorer from a Button.
10. A Double-Click on any image in the ThumbList, will open the Image in the PC’s default software.

Open Thumbs from the same folder. Set Selected to ListBox.

Explore Different Folders from a Button

Final note. You can enhance this utility further and make it into a very advanced Electronic Album with other functions including annotation, descriptions, dates, slide-show, delete, move, copy etc etc etc.

Double -click Thumbnails will open default software

And if you decide to use this sample, please leave a comment in this blog. Just say whether you like it or hate it or whatever IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE. Its a shame that very few leave their comments here eventhough the downloads are many. I’m beginning to feel that the examples are either too difficult to follow or probably of no value whatsoever.

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Hi,

So far, we have explored 19 possible uses of Combo with other objects.  Lets go further and pair-up Combo with a Grid object. We will combine previous examples together into one APZ file and add Grid to it.

General features of this example:

> Select a Category from a COMBO

> Populate the GRID  with items related for that category. The item info comes from tables and file search.

> Click an ITEM on the GRID

> A Pop-Up Message will ask you whether you want to view the Full Info or not.

> If you chose OK, a DialogEx will pop-up showing Image & Text.

> Click an ITEM from another column on the GRID

> A Pop-up Message will ask you whether you want to edit the Text File or not.

> If you chose OK, it will open the Text File for editing in Notepad.

Hope this example is useful.

Screen Shot 1 : Combo to Grid

Screen Shot 2 : Combo to Grid

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Please leave a comment about this example.

This example extends the previous example with an “active” ListBox.

> ListBox OnSelect will read a TextFile and fill the content into a Paragraph

> ListBox OnDoubleClick will open a Dialog Box containing Text and Image.

> Only 1 Dialog Box is used and will pull items on the fly.

Screen Shot : Combo to Active Listbox

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Our previous examples show how to call Dialogs from Combo Box. However, content are hardcoded into several DIALOGS.

Lets see how to use a single Dialog Only to insert different Text and Image into it when we made a selection. Saves lots of bytes and time. The IMAGE which is set into the DIALOG PAGE will maintain its aspect ratio by using Worm’s function.

Also, we use  BUTTON to open relevant TEXT FILE. This method can also be used to launch all types of files either resident in AMS Source Folder or PC. It will open in its native app. Knowing this will help us very much in development.

Screen Shot : Combo to Dialog OnTheFly

Right-click to Download the APZ file.

This simple example can easily become applications such as E-Album, E-Catalogue, E-Archive and DeskTop Teaching Software. To make it more intelligent, connected and interactive, add Dermot’s and Reteset’s plugins to it.

> From Combo, it pulls text to Labels.

> From Combo, it pulls relevant info from a Text File and set them into Paragraph.

> From Combo, it pulls relevant Image to the Page

> No Dialog Box

> We maintain the Image’s aspect ratio by using a Global Function created by Worm.

Screen Shot : Combo to Image

Right-click to Download this APZ file.