This week’s meeting had us learning more specifics about the design and requirements for the project.  Also discussion on several issues.  It was decided that we will from the start plan on having this program be reusable for the museum.  It will be much easier to switch away from such a design if it is found unusable than trying to modify a one use program into reusable after all the code has been done.

We came up with a list of tasks and teams were chosen to work on each one.  The code we are doing now is more to get a feel for what is possible and not code to go into the final project.  So all the groups more or less testing the waters right now and seeing what we can do and hopefully some concept on how long things will take.

My task for this week was to do some research into two programs that we planned to use in this project.  The first being kiosk pro and the second being phonegap.  To see what their features are, what if any limitations they have, and finally if there was any cost or licensing issues with them.  I also spent time looking into possible alternatives for each if needed.

Kiosk Pro, I found that this program had all the functionality needed for the museum.  It is designed to work with HTML, CSS, and Javascript coding.  After a set idle time it will go back to it’s set homepage, it blocks all internet sites except for allowed domains (so even if they got to and address bar they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere), blocks use of hardware options(the home button), toggle off sleep/auto lock mode, show or hide address bar, navigation bar, and status bar.  This can all be done by their free version.

There is however two levels of paid versions.  The first at just $5 per iPad gives the likely needed capability to store files locally that it can seamlessly shift to if there is a loss of internet.  Also allows for settings of the program to be changed remotely and the app will send an e-mail if the kiosk looses connection to it’s power source and starts using battery power.  For the local files I would say this is likely the minimal needed for the project.

The third option is their Kiosk Pro Plus, at $40 per iPad it is significantly more expensive but does add some nice features to the app.  First it has power saving options, such as dimming on the home screen and the ability to have set times for the iPad to sleep and wake.  This would avoid the need to go in and turn on/off the iPads every day. as they can be set to not be active when the museum is closed.  Also this version has the ability to update and change of local content.  This means with this version once set the museum would have no real need to remove the iPads from their kiosk inclosures unless they needed actual maintenance or repair.

The negatives about Kiosk pro I don’t believe are very high but some that may or may not cause problems.  One is that for best usage it will require some money, though cost is minimal and a one time purchase cost.  Also I found that the program does not work with Flash, so we would have to avoid using Flash in any of the activities.  Finally, is that it can’t run other apps of any kind.  So we would not be using Phonegap to convert our coding.  This app is designed to work with websites.

Searching for alternatives to Kiosk Pro took a lot of time, mostly because there aren’t any.  There are other kiosk apps yes, but they either do not have near the functionality or they cost considerably more.  Most opinion online is that this is the best program, especially at our level of need.  If one of the drawbacks can’t be tolerated more research will need to be done to see which of these will give us at least basic functionality.

I did research on Phonegap still though not as extensive.  I found that it is free to use and there should be no licensing issues for our project.  Consensus seems to be this is the superior free program for what we need.  There were some worries about fees or limitations but I found these only applied to the version of phonegap that works with the Cloud.  If we were to do a conversion this does seem to be the program to go with.

My personal suggestion would be to use the Kiosk pro and leave the code as website.  The cost is minimal and purchase not monthly, and the functionality with the kiosk program is needed for what the museum wants.  I would also think that at least once we start working on definite code we will want at least one iPad to be loaded with the program so that the code can be tested as we go.  While I did not find any indications official or through comments of other restrictions, it would be best to test as we go instead of risking a large chunk of code being found unusable at the end of the project.

Unfortunately due to blizzard conditions the college will not be open for class tomorrow, and the following monday is a holiday.  The class will try to meet tomorrow through irc, hopefully this will lesson the impact this delay will have on our time table.

From the blog murrayandrewt » cs-wsu by murrayandrewt and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week was fairly productive. While I might not have to much to show for my work, I accomplished a good chunk!

I have created a very simple web page using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. I learned how to format the page and create a basic layout. I have also created my own github repo where my code is being stored and I can now access it using there software on my computers. I have tried and succeeded at creating the test phonegap app. However, I’m still having issues with phonegap.

Phonegap seems like it will be very helpful to get our job done. There are some weakness I can see from using it so far though, and coding hasn’t officially begun yet. Hopefully we’ll be able to avoid any headaches. The first issue that we should be able to fix soon is that we don’t have a key yet to compile down and test any app on an iPad. This is a major downside right now. The other issue is, I’m still having trouble getting phonegap to recognize files that need to be converted. All phonegap asks for is an HTML5 file to convert to an app, but I’m finding that it won’t compile mine. Maybe it is an issue with me syncing up my Github files. Also, once it is compiled I have no way of testing it now since we can’t use an iPad and I don’t own an Android tablet device.

More to come in the future! Hopefully the effects of the blizzard won’t get in the way of this week.

From the blog Sean » cs-wsu by shorton1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello again,

So it’s been a crazy week, I spent countless hours trying to figure out how this whole html5, css, and javascript project thing works.  Who would have thought it would be so confusing, just trying to figure out how to set up a test project?  To only then realize you were foolish for ever thinking it was difficult.  Great, right.  I guess what I am trying to say is things are progressing steadily though perhaps not as smoothly as  I had originally intended.  
    This past week, I scoured the internet for every fragment of information involving coloring to an html5 canvas I could find.  Ah, that reminds me, this week we chose teams for our Worcester Art Museum project; I chose to be on the coloring book team because I thought it would be challenging but fun as well.  I am delighted to say there are a vast amount of web development resources available on the Internet.  I found a tutorial that helped me work through some of the html5 canvas basics, but after detailed study into a few of the subtopics, I opted to change a vast majority of the code I started with.  
    One choice I have made is to avoid jQuery, I know what your thinking why?  jQuery is so useful.  Especially know that I have learned “how all the cool kids call jQuery” a quote taken from some random site, for an idea which they in turn took from the widely known boilerplate template.  Let me explain; it may come as a surprise to some, perhaps not many, but jQuery is nothing more than a javascript file with a vast amount of helpful tools; about ten thousand lines of tools, uncompressed.  However if you only need a very small portion of the library it make more sense to make up your own solution, rather than sacrifice load time.  Or at the very least just take what you want from the jQuery library.  Probably no big deal if your on your own laptop, but everyone browses the internet on their phone know so performance is key.
    Any way now to the progress.  This week, I designed a very simple coloring web page based on html5 css javascript and jQuery, which I later discarded for the homegrown solution, no jQuery.  Thus far, as of friday night 2/8/13 I have a fully functional drawing to app which draws whether you click the mouse or not, functionality lost to the abandonment of jQuery, but soon to come back, …just saying. With a palette of nine colors and an eraser I call the refresh button lol, me and Beto; my team partner a poised to strike a blow in the name of free source code.  
    I must say it is nice to finally work on a project that has a value to the public.  I suppose the only thing that brought my pure jubilation of having a working webpage back to reality, was when I gave it to my daughter to test. Within ten seconds she asked where is the eraser, to which I replied just hit the refresh button and be quiet.  She’s five.

Till next week.

Jason

From the blog jasonhintlian » cs-wsu by jasonhintlian and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

So far our team has decided to look into the possibility of running our app for the Worcester Art Museum on top of a SQL Lite database, after doing some research into how to use and manage a SQL Lite database it seems like it would be a decent idea, so far our concern with this is whether or not PhoneGap will support this type of database. I’ve done some research on the commands for creating and managing the database and it seems like I will be able to pick this up very quickly.

In addition to my research on the database I progressed with my learning of Javascript and ventured into the world of Objects; which thankfully are very similar to Java objects, at least in my mind.

From the blog CS:401 » CS-WSU by dcarlin2013 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This past week, there were some complications. I could not make it to class on Monday due to some car troubles. My car had to be brought to the mechanic, and I did not have another way to get to the campus. I read online that we were breaking up into groups this week, and later on in the week I talked to a few classmates about the database. I feel that I will most likely be joining in with this group. This was not a very eventful week for me, seeing as I could not make it to class. Other than this, during the week I looked at some links that Professor Wurst provided. This coming week will be much more productive.

From the blog bchaban » cs-wsu by bchaban and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Did a little more research and found someone created one using HTML5 and JavaScript to create a jigsaw puzzle for the web. I am thinking the best route will be using JavaScript and HTML5 because like in my last post JavaScript has the snapfit feature which will be helpful for younger children using the application.

If anyone is looking to use PHP (jQuery) in eclipse I downloaded Eclipse Helios PHP which has plugins for those librarys. I looked for plugins for jQuery on Eclipse Juno and was having no luck. I then found they had a Helios version and installed that to try it out. Just if anyone is thinking of using jQuery.

From the blog rwilliams5262 » cs-wsu by rwilliams5262 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This week myself and 2 other classmates selected to work on the Puzzle section for the WAM Idea Lab Application. I started to do a little bit of researching on what it will take and what languages people have used to create similar application features such as puzzles etc. I noticed a lot of people used jQuery, JavaScript, and HTML5 to create this feature. Just going to describe some of the examples I found.

jQuery: After searching a couple different sites, I found that jQuery has a library such as: jqPuzzle. This library within jQuery lets you bring in any image as a .jpg and it will create a sliding image to make a puzzle. It seems pretty straight forward once you call the jqPuzzle library inside the code all you need to do is then apply the class to any image to use theses features. Basically this sort of library will allow you to slide images around inside the square until the image is complete. It is not like a jigsaw puzzle where you can move images anywhere you would like and they would have a snap fit when they are in the correct location.

(Ex: <img src = “apple.jpg” alt=”Apple Logo” class=”jqPuzzle”/>

http://www.jqueryplugins.com/plugin/81/

javaScript has a tool called snapfit.js. This tool could be used to snap the image to the correct location when they are in range. All you need to do is set the snapfit on the image. It is a fast and easy way to work with any image. This tool does not  need any other resources to run.

http://www.netzgesta.de/snapfit/

I think theses are some good tools to be used within the code for this feature and I feel that the snapFit feature will be the most efficient for the children using it because when the certain piece they are moving is close to the correct spot the piece would light up green and then snap to the location and if the image is in the incorrect spot it would highlight red and they will have to re try that piece again.

Just a couple ideas that should be thought about. I know we said we be using JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS for this application. But I think we will need to add in some jQuery libraries to be implemented with the JavaScript code.

Will post more when I get in touch with the rest of the group.

From the blog rwilliams5262 » cs-wsu by rwilliams5262 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

If you’ve noticed, GitHub offers three ways to access a repository, two with read-write access and one with read-only access. For this project, each user is granted push-pull access (read-write) so eac of us can contribute code. The two methods which provide both read and write access are HTTP and SSH.

Using HTTP you can download an application and gain access using your GitHub credentials. As a member of the project you’ll be granted write privilege with these credentials (the project is open source and therefore, anyone already has read privileges). 

The other option is to use SSH, which allows you push and pull directly from the command line. In order to do this, however, you need to copy your public ssh-key into the ssh section on your GitHub account. Once the key to your computer is in the settings on your GitHub account you’ll be able to push to the database.

Once I have some more time to sit and work on it, I am planning to provide some steps to accomplish this. I thought having the information now would be helpful for those who would like to look into it more individually.

From the blog CS 401 - Object Oriented Design » cs-wsu by dillonmurphy10 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Hello again,

If you are using a mac and have problems running an HTML5/JS project using the HTTP preview localhost to test internally within eclipse 4.2 Juno, do the following:

1. Choose the web perspective.

2.Create a new Static Web Project.

3.Type your project name and click in the new runtime tab. That should bring another dialog

with a list of servers (HTTP Preview, HTTP server, J2EE preview). The problem I referred to in my previous post was with the HTTP preview, for which there is a fix for another version of eclipse namely Helios. If you want to be able to test within Juno, select the “J2EE preview” and click the “Create a new local server” box, then click on finish.

Continue setting up your project as usual, and you should be able to run and test your app from within eclipse now.

Hopefully this helps.

for another version of eclipse (Helios)

From the blog betoluna » CS WSU by betoluna1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.