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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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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Been some time. Was busy setting-up a new office in Kuala Lumpur. In between activities, I spared some time in transforming our previous project. Move over Text Files, here comes SQLite database.

The SQLite DB file is located in MyDocs (XP/P8/ME) or Documents (Vista) hosted in the folder named as MyResourceFolder. The folder and DB file will be created automatically when launching this App.

Mini Address Book with SQLite DB

Some minor changes were made to the interface. I’ve also added more details but the functions remain the same:
1. Add New Entry
2. Delete Entries
3. Edit Entries
4. Search Entries
5. Group Entries
6. Rename Groups
7. Delete Groups
8. Share Items between Groups
9. Make a New Group from Search Results
10. Validate All Entries

Mini Address Book with SQLite

Since this Project uses SQLite, we have removed previous concerns. We can now
1. Update Entries shared by several Groups all at once
2. Search every row in the DB directly without any help from ListBox.

Mini Address Book with SQLite

For each item ( every DB row ), you might only see 4 data on the interface. In actual fact, this project is prepared for more than 10 data per item. This includes the usual suspects like Address, Zip Code, Street Name, Country, Birthday, Description, Notation and etc. I encourage readers to try embed more entries at the interface. This is the way to learn.

Mini Address Book with SQLite

If you add Dermot’s Pop3 Plugin, you’re making an almost full-featured Email App. To learn more about SQlite DB on AMS, please view TJ Tigger’s Video.

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In the next topic on Mini Address Book, I plan to add 2 more features:
1. Photo for each Name
2. Calendaring.

We’ll see how it goes. If there is a request, I will make create another example just for the Search Function. Please use the comment in the Blog.

And please, leave your comments in this blog.

I’m back after a very busy week up North.

Let’s embed Validation function into our mini Email Address Book project. Changes must be done to the flow and therefore the scripts. But it is not that difficult to do if you understand the previous 2 samples.

Once the changes were made, I can now :
1. Validate Name entry
2. Validate Email entry
3. Validate Group Name entry

Each validation uses its own PATTERN. You can set this pattern by looking at the Globals Pane. This one is real easy to do.

Validate All Entries

I’ve made quite a few changes to our project. I’ve optimized the scripts to run faster. So you can find more functions in the Globals and less scripts in objects. I’m using a TEMP TABLE that collects data from ListBoxes and then WRITE the TextFiles from the TEMP Table. This way, I can add more features to the project ( and preparing it for SQLite Plugin as well.).

Validate Entries

If you take a look at the Screen Shot above and below, the project pops up a DialogEx for New Group Entries. This entry is also validated according to a set of PATTERNS. Once validated, I’ve also inserted the Good Old Dialog to WARN USERS about the implication of their next course of actions.

Good Old Dialog & DialogEx Working together

Once the New Group has been named, the DialogEx is closed and brings users to the front-end. Their latest Group will be auto-selected. This is easy to do. Look under the hood as proof.

Also, I’ve added a function to change the name of the GROUP as shown in the Screen Shot below. In fact, what we’re doing is changing the name of the Text Files.

Change Group Name

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Hi,

Been busy doing some work in the north of Malaysia. Helping a friend of mine starting up his Wood Plastic Composite factory. I coined it as a Save The Forest and Love Your Environment Industry. The factory transforms unwanted Rice Husks (which farmers normally burn) into multi-purpose Wood. In the midst of that, I spared some time in improving an important utility, i.e. the Data Entry Validation Function.

Data Entry Validation is important if we’re developing serious apps. We can use TABLES, For..Do and If..Or loops for this purpose. But in my opinion, using LUA is the easiest, fastest and efficient way. You’ll be surprised on how easy it is after looking at the codes.

I’m posting this function as a standalone example just in case some AMS users want to reference it for other apps. We’ll embed this Validation function in the Email Address Book in the next topic.

Form Validation Functions

This example shows 4 types of validation:
1. Alphabet Entries only
2. Numeric Entries only
3. Alphanumeric Entries only
4. Email Entries only

The Email Validation is the most complex to do. It uses lots of String Actions and ElseIfs. There are many ways to do it. Anyhow, there might be REGEX functions out there done by AMS users just waiting to share with us. In the mean time, I’ll share what I have.

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You can modify the functions according to your Validation needs. Just add or delete the characters in the LUA array to fit specific patterns that you fancy.

Side note:
I spent my spare time improving the Email Validation function at a blue-coloured wooden shack restaurant by a very clean beach at Pulau Sayak lagoon. Nice place, nice food and my 3G internet connection was very speedy there. Love it.

The Road to Pulau Sayak	Pulau Sayak : The blue shack	An associate checking emails
Pulau Sayak lagoon	The South Side	Anchored Fishing boats

Today we’re going to enhance our Mini eMail Address Book further. We’re going to create a utility inside a DialogEx Pop-up. With this utility, we can share items between different Categories. Technically, we are transfering items between Text Files bridged by List Boxes.

When we first started entering items into our Address Book, we might have only 1 category with scores of email addresses. As the list grows bigger, it becomes harder for us to quickly get an email address of a person. It would be better to group these addresses into Categories. Definitely we don’t want to retype. With this utility, we save time by just transfering email addresses into preferred Categories.

Share Items between Categories

From the above Screen Shot, you will notice I’ve placed another button called SHARE. This will open a Pop-up Dialog which contains 2 ListBoxes. Category selections are done using COMBO BOXES. We can multi-select Items in the SOURCE CATEGORY and transfer them to a TARGET CATEGORY.

Optimization of App
If you check the earlier example, we have lots of scripts written. Some of them are the same and for the same purpose at different places. Such codes can be transformed into Functions and placed in the Globals. When we need to use them, just place the function name where we need them to be at. This way, we reduce codes and relieve our minds to focus more on program logic. In this example, we’ll notice that our codes are far less, yet our project feature much more enhanced.

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In the next example, we’ll see how to enhance this project further with a Search Utility . We’ll make descriptive alerts using labels. We’ll also validate name & email entries. We can also rename Categories. Thus making this simple project into a more intelligent one. It will be the last one on ListBox-TextFile Interactions.

Heres the plan.
In the next series, we’ll see how to apply this project directly as a Playlist on a Media Player, a Slide Show Image sorter, a File Cataloger & Launcher, a Digital Image Album, a Web Browser Book Marker and a Planner. That’s six examples in the works. Each with different objects, actions and plugins embedded to it. This section is exclusively for registered users who have made at least 5 comments in this blog.

And here’s the next plan.
We want to make our apps feature-rich and even more intelligent. We’ll replace Text Files which contains only 2 items with Text Files that can hold lots of items per line. Then we will use the best alternative, i.e. SQLite Database. And for integration with Open Document Software, we’ll replace SQLite with XML.

More really basic examples coming. Hope I have the time.

I’m fulfilling a promise made to Lukas that I would post an example on how to Load ListBox Text & Data from a Text File. This will also help others who need this reference.

In this example, I’m not using the popular Delimited Function. The function looks daunting to some friends who are starting out with AMS. Instead, I’m using the following powerful Actions, yet very simple to use:
> TextFile.ReadToTable
> String.Find, String.Mid and String.Left

With only a few short lines of scripts, the task is done. Read CSV File, pass the Text & Data accurately to a ListBox.

I’ve also added 2 very useful ListBox features to this example :
1. Select an Item in the ListBox, a Label Object will show the Data
2. Double-Click an Item in the ListBox, a Webbrowser will open.

Load ListBox Text & Data from a Text File

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