Revamp the "Static" Form (Savage) - Revision history

Rob at 09:35, 18 December 2008

2008-12-18T09:35:54Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:35, 18 December 2008
Line 7:		Line 7:
	===Replace Content ===		===Replace Content ===

	The Skeleton data files provide a "static" ~~panel~~ with some standard, basic elements that we'll revise and adapt. The character name should almost never need to be changed, and we can definitely leave it untouched for Savage Worlds. Since Savage Worlds also supports multiple races, we can also leave the race chooser in place. For the remaining elements, we need to determine what users will find most helpful to have visible for Savage Worlds. While there is no "right" answer, we're going to settle on showing the character's health, power points, and Bennies.		The Skeleton data files provide a "static" form with some standard, basic elements that we'll revise and adapt. The character name should almost never need to be changed, and we can definitely leave it untouched for Savage Worlds. Since Savage Worlds also supports multiple races, we can also leave the race chooser in place. For the remaining elements, we need to determine what users will find most helpful to have visible for Savage Worlds. While there is no "right" answer, we're going to settle on showing the character's health, power points, and Bennies.

	Looking at the contents of the "static" ~~panel~~ within the data files, there are three visual elements (portals and templates) that comprise the layout. All of the information that we're going to be replacing is found within the "stActor" template, so we'll focus our attention there. For each piece of information, there ~~are two portals~~ involved: a ~~static~~ label that ~~identifies the contents~~ and ~~a dynamic label that presents~~ the character data. We'll follow the same logic, resulting in three ~~pairs of~~ portals. For the health and power points, we can display the summary fields that are already being synthesized on the "Actor" component. For the Bennies, we'll need to directly access the value we want to display. The net result is the following.		Looking at the contents of the "static" form within the data files, there are three visual elements (portals and templates) that comprise the layout. All of the information that we're going to be replacing is found within the "stActor" template, so we'll focus our attention there. For each piece of information, there in one portal involved: a dynamic label that incorporates both a identifying prefix and the character data. We'll follow the same logic, resulting in three portals. For the health and power points, we can display the summary fields that are already being synthesized on the "Actor" component. For the Bennies, we'll need to directly access the value we want to display. The net result is the following three portals.

	<pre>		<pre>
	~~<portal~~
	~~id="lblhealth"~~
	~~style="lblStatic">~~
	~~<label~~
	~~text="Health: ">~~
	~~</label>~~
	~~</portal>~~

	<portal		<portal
	id="health"		id="health"
	style="lblStatic">		style="lblStatic">
	<label		<label>
	~~field="acDmgSumm"~~>		<labeltext><![CDATA[
	<~~/label~~>		@text = "Health: " & herofield[acDmgSumm].text
	<~~/portal>~~		]]></labeltext>

	~~<portal~~
	id="~~lblpower~~"
	~~style="lblStatic"~~>
	<~~label~~
	~~text="Power: "~~>
	</label>		</label>
	</portal>		</portal>
Line 39:		Line 25:
	id="power"		id="power"
	style="lblStatic">		style="lblStatic">
	<label		<label>
	~~field="acPPSumm"~~>		<labeltext><![CDATA[
	<~~/label~~>		@text = "Power: " & herofield[acPPSumm].text
	<~~/portal>~~		]]></labeltext>

	~~<portal~~
	id="~~lblbennies~~"
	~~style="lblStatic"~~>
	<~~label~~
	~~text="Ben: "~~>
	</label>		</label>
	</portal>		</portal>
Line 57:		Line 37:
	<label>		<label>
	<labeltext><![CDATA[		<labeltext><![CDATA[
	@text = hero.child[trkBennies].field[trkUser].~~value~~		@text = "Bennies: " & hero.child[trkBennies].field[trkUser].text
	]]></labeltext>		]]></labeltext>
	</label>		</label>
	</portal>		</portal>
	</pre>		</pre>

	===Positioning Everything===		===Positioning Everything===

	The positioning of the various portals within the template is quick and painless. All of the portals use the same style, so they all have the same height characteristics. Consequently, we can ignore vertical alignment altogether. Along the horizontal ~~plane~~, the portals simply line up, left to right, with suitable gaps between them. The final ~~thing~~ we need to do is determine the dimensions of the template based on the contents within, so we simply determine the extent of the rightmost and bottommost portals. The only thing special we need to accommodate is that a character without an arcane background should not show any power points, so we need to hide it when necessary. This yields a Position script that looks something like the one below.		The positioning of the various portals within the template is quick and painless. All of the portals use the same style, so they all have the same height characteristics. Consequently, we can ignore vertical alignment altogether. Along the horizontal axis, the portals simply line up, left to right, with suitable gaps between them. The final task we need to do is determine the dimensions of the template based on the contents within, so we simply determine the extent of the rightmost and bottommost portals. The only thing special we need to accommodate is that a character without an arcane background should not show any power points, so we need to hide it when necessary. This yields a Position script that looks something like the one below.

	<pre>		<pre>
	~position the health ~~portals horizontally~~		~position the health portal on the left
	portal[~~lblhealth~~].left = 0		portal[health].left = 0
	~~perform portal[health].alignrel[ltor,lblhealth,5]~~
	~position the power point ~~portals~~ horizontally or hide ~~them~~ if not applicable		~position the power point portal horizontally or hide it if not applicable
	var x as number		var x as number
	if (hero.tagis[Arcane.?] <> 0) then		if (hero.tagis[Arcane.?] <> 0) then
	perform portal[~~lblpower~~].alignrel[ltor,health,15]		perform portal[power].alignrel[ltor,health,15]
	~~perform portal[power].alignrel[ltor,lblpower,5~~]
	x = portal[power].right		x = portal[power].right
	else		else
	~~portal[lblpower].visible = 0~~
	portal[power].visible = 0		portal[power].visible = 0
	x = portal[health].right		x = portal[health].right
	endif		endif
	~position the Bennies ~~portals~~ horizontally
	portal[~~lblbennies~~].left = x + 15		~position the Bennies portal horizontally
	~~perform~~ portal[bennies].~~alignrel~~[~~ltor,lblbennies,5~~]		portal[bennies].left = x + 15
	~our ~~dimensions are~~ the extent of our portals
			~hide any portals that don't fully fit within the visible horizontal space
			if (portal[power].right > width) then
			portal[power].visible = 0
			endif
			if (portal[bennies].right > width) then
			portal[bennies].visible = 0
			endif

			~our height is the bottommost extent of our portals
	height = portal[bennies].bottom		height = portal[bennies].bottom
	~~width = portal[bennies].right~~
	</pre>		</pre>

Rob: Revamp the "Static" Panel (Savage) moved to Revamp the "Static" Form (Savage)

2008-12-18T09:26:59Z

Revamp the "Static" Panel (Savage) moved to Revamp the "Static" Form (Savage)

← Older revision	Revision as of 09:26, 18 December 2008
(No difference)

Rob at 09:25, 18 December 2008

2008-12-18T09:25:49Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:25, 18 December 2008
Line 3:		Line 3:
	===Overview===		===Overview===

	The area across the top of the main ~~Hero Lab~~ window is referred to as the "static" panel, and now is an excellent time to re-work its contents for Savage Worlds. The ~~panel~~ contents are defined within the file "~~panel_static~~.dat".		The area across the top of the main HL window is referred to as the "static" form (or sometimes panel), and now is an excellent time to re-work its contents for Savage Worlds. The form contents are defined within the file "form_static.dat".

	===Replace Content ===		===Replace Content ===

Rob: Revamp the "Static" Panel (Skeleton) moved to Revamp the "Static" Panel (Savage)

2008-12-18T07:53:43Z

Revamp the "Static" Panel (Skeleton) moved to Revamp the "Static" Panel (Savage)

← Older revision	Revision as of 07:53, 18 December 2008
(No difference)

Rob: New page: {{context|Authoring Examples|Savage Worlds Walk-Through}} ===Overview=== The area across the top of the main Hero Lab window is referred to as the "static" panel, and now is an excellent...

2008-12-17T07:28:46Z

New page: {{context|Authoring Examples|Savage Worlds Walk-Through}} ===Overview=== The area across the top of the main Hero Lab window is referred to as the "static" panel, and now is an excellent...

New page

{{context|Authoring Examples|Savage Worlds Walk-Through}}

===Overview===

The area across the top of the main Hero Lab window is referred to as the "static" panel, and now is an excellent time to re-work its contents for Savage Worlds. The panel contents are defined within the file "panel_static.dat".

===Replace Content ===

The Skeleton data files provide a "static" panel with some standard, basic elements that we'll revise and adapt. The character name should almost never need to be changed, and we can definitely leave it untouched for Savage Worlds. Since Savage Worlds also supports multiple races, we can also leave the race chooser in place. For the remaining elements, we need to determine what users will find most helpful to have visible for Savage Worlds. While there is no "right" answer, we're going to settle on showing the character's health, power points, and Bennies.

Looking at the contents of the "static" panel within the data files, there are three visual elements (portals and templates) that comprise the layout. All of the information that we're going to be replacing is found within the "stActor" template, so we'll focus our attention there. For each piece of information, there are two portals involved: a static label that identifies the contents and a dynamic label that presents the character data. We'll follow the same logic, resulting in three pairs of portals. For the health and power points, we can display the summary fields that are already being synthesized on the "Actor" component. For the Bennies, we'll need to directly access the value we want to display. The net result is the following.

<pre>
<portal
id="lblhealth"
style="lblStatic">
<label
text="Health: ">
</label>
</portal>

<portal
id="health"
style="lblStatic">
<label
field="acDmgSumm">
</label>
</portal>

<portal
id="lblpower"
style="lblStatic">
<label
text="Power: ">
</label>
</portal>

<portal
id="power"
style="lblStatic">
<label
field="acPPSumm">
</label>
</portal>

<portal
id="lblbennies"
style="lblStatic">
<label
text="Ben: ">
</label>
</portal>

<portal
id="bennies"
style="lblStatic">
<label>
<labeltext><![CDATA[
@text = hero.child[trkBennies].field[trkUser].value
]]></labeltext>
</label>
</portal>
</pre>

===Positioning Everything===

The positioning of the various portals within the template is quick and painless. All of the portals use the same style, so they all have the same height characteristics. Consequently, we can ignore vertical alignment altogether. Along the horizontal plane, the portals simply line up, left to right, with suitable gaps between them. The final thing we need to do is determine the dimensions of the template based on the contents within, so we simply determine the extent of the rightmost and bottommost portals. The only thing special we need to accommodate is that a character without an arcane background should not show any power points, so we need to hide it when necessary. This yields a Position script that looks something like the one below.

<pre>
~position the health portals horizontally
portal[lblhealth].left = 0
perform portal[health].alignrel[ltor,lblhealth,5]
~position the power point portals horizontally or hide them if not applicable
var x as number
if (hero.tagis[Arcane.?] <> 0) then
perform portal[lblpower].alignrel[ltor,health,15]
perform portal[power].alignrel[ltor,lblpower,5]
x = portal[power].right
else
portal[lblpower].visible = 0
portal[power].visible = 0
x = portal[health].right
endif
~position the Bennies portals horizontally
portal[lblbennies].left = x + 15
perform portal[bennies].alignrel[ltor,lblbennies,5]
~our dimensions are the extent of our portals
height = portal[bennies].bottom
width = portal[bennies].right
</pre>