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.

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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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,

We have seen various examples on how to use Combo Boxes. So lets put together some of the examples into 1 APZ and make it into something more practical to use.

In this example, we will ADD/DELETE/EDIT a SQLite DB Table through the use of the Good Old Dialog and reflect all changes in a COMBO Box instantly.

This example affects only 2 Columns of each Row and shows the use of various SQL Queries. If you need to affect more Table Columns in a DB Row at one go, then replace the Dialog with DialogEx. Please refer to an earlier example on how to use DialogEx for Data Entry. Of course, you need to create more Column Names for the SQL Table. I leave it to your ingenuity.

Dialog To DB to Combo

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Hi,

We have seen most methods to populate  Combo.  I would like to share another way, which is an important one.

In this example, we will import Combo items from a Text File. This file has comma separated values ( techies call em CSVs ). In our case, each line in the Text File will contain Text and Data separated by a comma.

To separate each line into Text and Data and insert them into the Combo, we will use a function called DelimitedStringFunction ( available in the AMS software Script Gallery Folder ). I placed this function in the Global Panel.

For this example, I use a Button to import data from the Text File. If you want to load items directly as your App starts, just Copy the scripts in the Button and Paste it in the Page OnShow.

Screen Shot : Load Combo Items from a Text File

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Hi,

We’ve seen several ways to populate Combo items at runtime, namely from hardcoded Tables, DB, other Combo, Dynamically from Folders and Manually from Input Boxes on a Page.

This time, we see exactly how to get Text and Data from a Pop-up DialogEx and insert them into a Combo on a Page.

If you plan to use a lot of Pop-up Dialogs in data entry, then you need to understand this example well. The same concept applies in transfering Text or Data from DialogEx to other objects such as Grid, ListBox, Paragraph, Richtext, Input, Labels as well as SQLite DB. Just change the action relevant to the objects you plan to set the items with.

Screen Shot : Pop-up DialogEx to Combo

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We’ve seen how to populate Combo Items by using Tables, DB and manually. This time we will use another method to add items into the Combo Box.

We will populate a Combo Box by selecting any folder on the PC.  It will list all files from that folder automatically.

Then, when a File is selected from the listed Combo items, the File’s Attributes are shown in a Paragraph. The File can also be launched in it’s native app by clicking a Button.

For this example, we use more actions of Combo, String, File, Dialog, Button, Label and Paragraph.

By adding more features, you can turn this example into an easy-to-use FILE UTILITY.

Screen Shot : Combo Items On-The-Fly

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All of the previous examples use TABLES to populate items into Combo Boxes. This is an economical and quick method when dealing with items such as Dates, Names of Days, Names of Months, AM/PM, Gender, Number of Children, Race, Marital Status and other small list.

For larger lists, we prefer to use SQLite DB.

This example shows how to populate Combo from DB on program start-up and how to populate a second Combo from DB upon selection. When an item  in the second Combo is selected, data is pulled from DB and set into the Paragraph.

Please note that, when SQL files are located in AMS Docs Folder, it cannot be modified after compiling. To enable modifications, SQL File must be located on the writable space of user’s PC.

Fill Combo from SQLite DB

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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

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