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.

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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The previous example on Search Function exposes the basic capability only. It shows basic SEARCH concepts for Newbies. But I dare not use this very raw function even on my PC. More features are needed before it can be distributed.

In this example, we refine the AMS Search Function further. This time, we can decide on what to do with the search results.
- We can save the results and group them.
- We can weed out irrelevant items.
- We can resave the modified list.
- We can reload previous search results or
- We dont have to keep the results at all.

With AMS, we can develop APPs according to our own delight and satisfaction.

Improved Search Utility

For this purpose, our Project will now create a HOST FOLDER on the desktop automatically. It will save the search results there according to groups. Each group has it’s own text file. You can change the location of the FOLDER.

Improved Search Utility

If the search resulted in hundreds of files, the LISTING of RESULTS in the ListBox may take some time. Our users may think that the APP has HANGED ( I dont know the right word ). This is not good for business.

Improved Search Utility

Lastly, it is your responsibility to add ERROR CHECKING for each AMS ACTIONS.

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PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT…..

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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Today, I’ve added a Search function to our Mini Email Address Book. Thanks to Reteset who helped me in correcting my codes.

A Clean-up for Mini Email Address Book

As you can see, I did a bit of cleaning up on the interface and add more buttons, including the Search Utility in a DialogEx. You will also noticed that I used Labels to show Number of Items in ListBoxes. It is auto-updated whenever any change occurs in the ListBox.

The Search Utility searches items in a List Box. The items belong to a Group selected by a ComboBox. The Search Results are displayed in another ListBox. By using Radio Buttons, you can choose whether to accumulate the results or empty it for new results only. By using a ComboBox you can choose to Search by Text ( Name ) or by Data ( Email ). Check Screen-Shot below.

Search Utility in a DialogEx

I’ve also optimized the scripts by transforming repetitive actions into functions. In fact, there are more that can be optimized but I leave that to you. I’ve decided to not include data verification at this time.

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Upto this stage, we still use Text Files with each line containing only 2 data, i.e., one for Name and another  Email only. So you can see that our Project need much more improvements if we want more features added.

Also please take note that, everytime you SHARE DATA between GROUPS or MAKE NEW GROUPS from a Search, there are overlaps of GROUP members. This basically means, an ITEM with the SAME INFO  are SHARED across many groups. The problem is, when we edit the info of such item in 1 group, we also need to update the same item if it is hosted in other groups as well. This redundancy issue must be resolved.

The best and efficient way is to use SQLite or XML. With SQLite and XML, we can set unique IDs for every ITEM. When we edit an item which belongs to several groups, we update only once for all groups. Saves lots of time and avoids confusion. And the best thing of all is that, we can add more details for every item. We’ll see this in the next topic.

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.

CAUTION. Please review the previous 3 LISTBOX EXAMPLES before you proceed. Otherwise, you might find this example a bit challenging.

ListBox & Textfile Interactions With Categories

From the Screen Shot above, you will notice that I have included CATEGORIES. Download and immediately modify this example to make your own mini Web Browser with BookMarker or Mini Email Address Book.

This small example is slightly more intelligent
I’m using a myriad of dialog box functions with if..else…loops. When you add a Category, it will search whether the Category already exist. If it does exist, it will ask you whether to overwrite or use a new Category name. You can also cancel if you decide not to save it. You can modify the Items in a Category and save them. You can have as many categories as you want. Each Category is 1 text file by itself. 10 categories means 10 text files.

Actions used : String, File, Input, Button, ListBox, Dialog, Text File, built-in AMS Constants, Functions

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In the next ListBox Example we will see how to SHIFT and SHARE items between 2 Text Files ( Categories ). With this function, we reduce the need to retype the same items. After 2 additional examples, we’re in good shape for more advanced features in this project.

IMPORTANT HIGHLIGHT
Upto this point, I have not used the Delimited Function to import and export items between ListBox and Text Files. To develop an advanced app where each item has many things hooked to it such as Birth Date, Address, Marital Status, Gender, Employee Number and many more, we need to use the Delimited Function plus Tables, SQLite or XML. But …… before we go that way, we MUST understand the fundamentals of how objects work at a basic level. So, do yourself a favour by running through the ListBox examples carefully. Cut & paste is bad for health.

In this installment, I’m combining 2 earlier ListBox samples to make a Mini eMail Address Book. However, this example is a very basic one with no categories and no annotations for each item.

Most important thing at this stage is to understand how to Import Text File Items into ListBox & to Export ListBox Items into Text File. The same basic function is used in Web Bookmarks, File Cataloger, MP3 Playlist, Photo Album, SlideShow App and etc.

I’ve also included some other functions, namely:
-> Edit or Delete Any Selected Item
-> Clear Listed Items
-> Sort Listed Items
-> Activate ListBox Double-Click Function to Open Default Email Software

ListBox & Text File Interactions

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