Advanced Slidshow With Bullets ( Related to Toggle Buttons)

[sameer valva]

Hi all,

I have been working on a project months ago and its huge project for me and important step for me.
It took this time because of design issues and other tasks that made me not giving the project the time it needs.
Now I’m dedicated to finish it and I need the forum help for some problems I’m facing.

Project description:

It’s a slideshow of max 10 Categories, each category has 1 picture, and max 10 pages , each page has 3 bullets.
Users have the choice to add categories as much as they need till 10 Categories, and the choice to add pages to each category till 10 pages

Notes:

1. I’m so sorry for my bad English language, and so sorry for this long Post and I appreciate any help and the Valuable time of users.
2. The design in the sample project is just for you, the real design is completely different.
3. System monitoring area is just for watching the records and tracking the functionality.
4. I used Encode Plugin from Ulrich to Encode the final CSV to UTF-8. (thanks to Ulrich)
5. All Functions are on Page (on Preload) and (on Show).
6. The Grid will be hidden and will not be shown for users.

Help I need:

1. Improve the way I built the project and enhance the Codes if there is better way to do it faster and more efficient.
2. All Categories Buttons are working fine, but Some Buttons on Pages area have issues:
   • Navigating between buttons ( it doesn’t stop on the last page added)
   • Removing and adding pages will not read the correct cells unless you are on the same page you are removing or on the last page that will add after.
3. Better way to highlight Cells, I tried to do it with one code but didn’t work, so I made one to highlight and on to return cells to white.
4. Better way to call Bullets Data from their corresponding cells

Link for the project ( forum Upload didn't work):
https://****************/open?id=1fI...iA5XS2pe-Op81e



Regards

[sameer valva]

Hope you guys are looking at the project and trying to find solutions

@sidiamur
@BioHazard

and other members

[BioHazard]

Will be happy to take a look at it, dude - just a little tied up at the moment. Currently working on telco's 'Listbox to Textfile' issues - which'll take at least several more days (And work/sleep in between. LOL, life'd be perfect if not for that annoying chore called 'earning a living').

Dig helping out if/when I can - but only so many minutes of spare time each day. Hang tight, my man - and will get back to you on it eventually.

[sameer valva]

I'm really embarrassed, and i don't know how to thank you.

After entering this domain i appreciate every second you guys spend on helping others.

Take your time

[BioHazard]

@sameer,

Okay bud - finally nailed telco's Listbox stuff. So now finally had a chance to look over your app. Sorry for the wait. You asked for some 'constructive' criticism / feedback, yeah? So here you go:

Unless there's a particular reason for having all those custom functions on Preload, I'd move them over to Globals. Why have your app go into labour-pains before it even hits the screen? Or am I missing something, there?

Lua is case-sensitive, so avoid using ALL CAPS when naming variables. As a convention, uppercase letters are reserved for internal global variables used by Lua. Ditto when naming custom functions. Instead, use the format: MyFunction or my_function and myVariable or my_variable. You'll avoid conflicts this way. (You'll also find that the built-in AMS code editor will often try to correct UpperCase variables to TitleCase automatically, when tabbing).

You'll find it a lot easier to analyse & debug your own code, if you start formatting it correctly. That is to say, TAB all code which proceeds a Control Structure, and align 'end' statements with the Control Structure to which they refer. (The general rule of thumb is: "tab do, after blue").

Eg. your code:


Vs. correctly formatted code:


If done correctly, the final 'end' statement will always realign to the left margin. Which for the purpose of debugging, makes it heaps easier to see where loops and code-blocks end/begin. IP actually has a free code-formatting app on his website which'll do a pretty decent job of formatting code automatically, here.

As for GUI design - it's largely a personal taste thing. But there are core tenets which form basic good practice. Personally, I'm not a fan of bright or multiple colors on a GUI. From my own visual perspective, light-greys or white backgrounds that employ the 'golden ratio' (1:1.618) work best. Buttons & Objects sized correctly to suit an 8, 9 or 10-pt font in Arial, Tahoma or Verdana are usually best choices. Colors should be subdued but with sufficient contrast against page background These general design rules should factor & scale your GUI for this particular project in at around 800 x 495, quite nicely. If you need to enlarge or shrink the page, maintain the 1:1.618 ratio as closely as possible. And try to apply the same principle to the layout of objects on the page itself. There's a reason why nature maintains this ratio in everything it expresses - is the fingerprint of God!

Can't presently comment on the functionality of your code, 'cause at this stage don't understand exactly what this application does. But have attached a modded-version of your app which is closer to how I personally would've chosen to do design it. But when all's said-n-done, these things are but a personal perspective issue.

Happy coding, brother!

[sameer valva]

I'm so happy you find time to check the project, and the notes to gave are very important, but you gave the design more time than digging in the real problems.

The design in the sample is only for the forum, i eliminated a lot of buttons that may distract you, so i built it again to simplify it .

I don't know if you solved some of my issues that i mentioned in the post, but i will check your sample,

If you can go back and try to check my points , it will be easy to track my problems in the project.

Again and again I'm very thankful and i appreciate your great help.

Note : I attached the real design, i will be glad to take comments .

https://****************/open?id=1i4...ngbR-lAJhs0c1M

[BioHazard]

There's a lot of custom functions in your project - on which your button actions rely. Trying to debug, from an 'outsiders' point-of-view, is time-consuming because it means tracing back through ALL of them to understand they're exact purpose. Is different from the designer's point-of-view (yours) because as the designer, you already have familiarity with purpose.

If u want help with debugging code on such a large project, u need first to identify and isolate the problem functions (or code blocks) and present each of these, individually - so that others have a specific piece of code to focus on and work with. Do this foremost - and the help ye seek - shall be forthcoming!

[sameer valva]

That's what i was planning to do, but i thought this will take long so i decided to share the whole thing at once .

I will dissect the project to solve each problem alone and Finlay i will grab everything together.