reading/displaying text files

[tjiddy]

Back on 08-01-2000, Chris Wasley posted the question asking how to basicaly, load a text file into a Text Box. I have been trying to accomplish the same type of thing. In the setup program I am creating, I have many subdirectories, each of which has it's own info.txt file. I would like to dynamicaly load the .txt file contents into a text box, depending on which subdir they are in. In Adam (Moderator)'s response, he said "In version 3.0 there will be embedded text boxes available." Can this be done? Does 3.0 support this? please let me know.
Thank you,
Todd

[Adam]

Re: reading/displaying text files

tjiddy,

In version 3.0 there are embedded text box objects. In these objects you can specify the contents during design time (ie type in the information yourself) or you can load the file at runtime (ie put the text file on your CD and call it using %SrcDrv%\text.txt). I hope this answered your question, if not post more information and we'll figure it out.

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Adam Kapilik
Indigo Rose Corporation

[tjiddy]

Re: reading/displaying text files

Hey Adam,
I need to take that one step further. I want to create a page that has a text box, which will change dynamicaly. i.e. if I click on "Todd Johnson" then a variable, (%subDir%) is set to ToddJohnson. So far it's easy. Now, after the variable is set, I want to direct them to another page, which then pulls a text file in the %subdir% directory. ie %SrcDrv%\%subdir%\text.txt
that way I can use the same page to display all the different subdiretories' text.txt files. I hope this made sense, if not, I'll post more details.
I guess to make a long question short, is there a way to read in a file NOT when the whole program loads, but when individual pages are loaded?
thanks in advance,
Todd

[dallasfreak]

Re: reading/displaying text files

i think a different way of doing this would be instead of text files, use ini files. have it look for a certain ini file, read the contents of a certain variable (which would be entire contents of ur textfile) and display that .. i dont know much bout ini files yet, but it seems like that would be an option. now if u wanted txt files and not ini, then dont think that will work.

[Adam]

Re: reading/displaying text files

tjiddy,

You could use INI files to accomplish some of your desired functionality. You could set a variable from an INI file then display this variable in the text box object. Just a few thing to note, first after you set your variable you will need to jump pages for the variable to show up in the text box. Second INI variable are limited to 250 characters and will not pick up line breaks (must be one solid line of text). If you are unsure of how to use INI variables there is some information in the users guide, I could also answer any questions regarding the use of INI files.

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Adam Kapilik
Indigo Rose Corporation

[tjiddy]

Re: reading/displaying text files

so there is no way to read files from the filesystem after initial loading?

[Adam]

Re: reading/displaying text files

tjiddy,

The text box objects get set when the menu is opened so I don't believe that what you are asking is possible. There must be some workarounds though.

How about loading all possible files into text box objects and hiding them all at startup, then when needed you could show the appropriate object?? This might give you the functionality that you desire.

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Adam Kapilik
Indigo Rose Corporation

[tjiddy]

Re: reading/displaying text files

yes, I am pretty sure there are ways to work around it. What I was shooting for, however, was to create a "template" that reads in external files. The external files are already on the CD. So why reproduce them in an ini file? This means essentially, The exact same text files are all on the CD twice. Why even bother setting them to a variable? I assume that Autoplay has some sort of FileInputStrem. The fact that Autoplay can read from the filesystem upon loading tells me that the API exists. Just about all programming and scripting languages allow for input file reading during program execution, not just on loading. Do you know of any plans on making this API availbe during execution in future versions? Thanks for all your help.
Todd

[This message has been edited by tjiddy (edited 06-01-2001).]

[Adam]

Re: reading/displaying text files

There are currently no plans to update this in version 3.0, but we are going to start development of version 4.0 later this month and I believe that this functionality would be a good feature for this new version.

P.S. Now is a good time to get all of your suggestions (wish list) into the suggest new feature forum. As this is where we will look for user input into the new versions.

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Adam Kapilik
Indigo Rose Corporation

[tjiddy]

Re: reading/displaying text files

great ... thanks for all your help Adam
Todd