Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

[feilong]

Ok, here goes:

Every now and then we use a videokiosk with digital camera to shoot short videomessages, around 30 secs. The filename of the recorded message is linked to the name the person typed on the touchscreen. For example you get: john.mpg, dennis&peter.mpg, mike.mpg, jamie.mpg etc. etc.

After a night of shooting, we have around 50 videomessages that we have to present on a cdrom, and we use Autoplay to create that with.

The thing is, it is very time consuming to create this cdrom, and are looking for a way to speed this up a bit. What we do now is put al the videofiles in the distributionfolder and manually add labels to the buttons. So the first button, labelled JOHN links to john.mpg, the second button is labelled DENNIS & PETER.mpg and links to dennis&peter.mpg.

Now for the question: is it possible, that Autoplay retrieves the buttonlabel from the filename, and making it somehow possible to speed up the process of creating a cdrom (for 50 mpg, it now takes around 1 hour)

Thanks for any tips you might have, and sorry for the long post,
Dennis

Nb. Ideally, we're looking to create a template which automatically links the files to the buttonnames and calculates how many pages it shoud create. We now place 5 buttons on a single page, and manually add the same page for additional buttons. Very very boring.. :-(

[Worm]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

I played around a bit... I didn't have any movie files to work with, so I built this using text files. The concept is there, and it seems to work. This is the first actual scripting I've done in AMS4, so I'm sure I took the long road in the way I did some of functions. Maybe the others can optimize this a little more and make it even more functional.


Best of Luck,
Brad

14339-DynamicFile.zip

[feilong]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

One word: Whoooow!
It's hard for me to believe that this is indeed your first AMS scripting. The results (for me) are incredibly usefull.

I changed .txt to .mpg in the file.search path and copied some mpgs to the distibution folder. Amazing...still can't believe it.

I'm going to intergrate this is the design I made and play with it some more.

I sure know who to contact if I have any more questions,
thanks again

[Worm]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

Your welcome!

It is my first real attempt at scripting in AMS4. However, I have programmed in Visual Basic for several years now, which makes it a bit easier to grab the concepts. At least I think so.

If I can help in any other way let me know.

[Worm]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

I just noticed that I left the file extensions on the Text Labels, this will take the file extensions off.


14350-DynamicFile.zip

[Worm]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

The one nice thing about using the script though is that it makes the application totally dynamic. If you wanted to add more videos, you'd simply place them in the folder and it's done. Getting a macro to do that would be tough.

On the other hand, I have no idea how the whole thing will perform if you started getting a large number of videos/files.

[feilong]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

Indeed it is very dynamic! I combined it with the design template I made for presenting the videofiles. I copied the 50+ video files to the distribution folder, and everything worked like a charm.

Isn't this a script / a situation that is usefull for more persons and perhaps put it in the videopresentation template?

Still have a question concerning the filenames? When recorded the file names don't contain any space, but instead use underscores: feilong_and_worm.mpg for example. I guess it would be a small change of script to convert te underscore to a space.....

Thanks once more for the script, I could even delete my question concerning the file extension which I offcourse dont want people to see.

[Corey]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

Nice work Worm, as always.

Adam:

I think most people here including myself have no clue how to write or use macros. You guys explained it once but I think the explanation left most people including me more confused than before. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software

[Worm]

Re: Linking buttons with files (or something like that)

Yeah, a small change. You can use the replace function to change the underscore to a space. I have attached the updated version.


14364-DynamicFile.zip