Creating a preferences window

Question

Hi
I wonder if there is any way to create in Director a
preferences window (see example below).
http://www.guide.lancs.ac.uk/tellguidemyname.html
In particular what i would like to do is to allow my users to
select the things they want to select from the preferences window
and then when press save to get the appropriate movie.
If the user selects the language of the system to be English
then play movie English otherwise
if the user selects the language of the system to be Greek
then play Greek movie
and
If the user selects architecture + maritime related
information to play movie A (that contains the relevant content)
otherwise if the user selects History and architecture then
play movie B (that contains the relevant content)
I would also like to record the preferences selected in some
kind of text file that would tell what the user selected. Is there
any way to do that?
All ideas will be appriciated
Many thanks

Answer 1

I don’t have a simple dir I can post but Buddy
API’s help file has some code snippets that make good
examples. If you have trouble getting started let me know. What I
can post are some examples of how to use my scripts to code the ini
data, keep in mind that you only need to code the data if you are
allowing the users to type text strings to be stored in the ini
file, if all of your data is generated by lingo you can make sure
the data is ini safe yourself without having to code it first.
First the scripts, copy and save in a movie script cast
member:
on codeIniData cMode, iniString
case cMode of
"read" :
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"¬","=")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"¶",RETURN)
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"µ",";")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"§","#")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"«","[")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"»","]")
"write" :
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"=","¬")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,RETURN,"¶")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,numToChar(10),"¶")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,";","µ")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"#","§")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"[","«")
iniString = replaceField(iniString,"]","»")
otherwise : alert "Unknown mode in codeIniData."
end case
return iniString
end
on replaceField input, stringToFind, stringToInsert
output = ""
findLen = stringToFind.length - 1
repeat while input contains stringToFind
currOffset = offset(stringToFind, input)
output = output & input.char [1..currOffset]
delete the last char of output
output = output & stringToInsert
delete input.char [1.. (currOffset + findLen)]
end repeat
set output = output & input
return output
end
OK, lets say you create the following ini file using notepad
and save it with the name “foodPrefs.ini” in the same
folder as your dir movie:
[breakfast]
sue=coffee
bill=bagel
tom=eggs
[lunch]
sue=Chicken McNuggets
bill=Quarter Pounder with cheese
tom=Fries
If you want to read Bill’s lunch preference into
Director simply use the following:
myIniPath = _movie.path & " foodPrefs.ini"
billsLunch =
codeIniData("read",baReadIni("lunch","bill","Error",myIniPath))
if billsLunch = "Error" then alert "Error reading settings
file."
If you have an editable text cast member with the name
"suesBreakfast" and ask sue to type her breakfast order, to save
that order do the following:
myIniPath = _movie.path & " foodPrefs.ini"
suesOrder = codeIniData("write",member("suesBreakfast").text)
resultCode =
baWriteIni("breakfast","sue",suesOrder,myIniPath)
if not resultCode then alert "Error writing settings file."
The most common reason for getting the alert when reading or
writing to the ini file is either an error in your path or having
the ini file open in notepad at the same time Buddy API is trying
to access it. For best results quit notepad before testing.
Storing the contents of an editable text cast member is an
example of why you want to code the ini data. It is possible,
although unlikely, that the user will type characters that have
special meaning in an ini file, I simply temporarily replace those
characters with others that are impossible to type (well, not
really impossible, but very unlikely).
If you are curious, numToChar(10) is the linefeed character
which I replace with a standard RETURN. The most likely reason to
encounter a LF is because the user copied and pasted the text from
another source. Director doesn’t display LF’s in
strings, so replacing it with a RETURN keeps the formatting looking
like the original.