AmigaOS knowledge-base

6 posts / 0 new
Last post
djrikki
djrikki's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 11 months ago
Joined: 2011-01-14 23:02
AmigaOS knowledge-base

Hello all,

Myself and Daniel Hutchinson are working on two semi-independent projects, Jack and Assist.

You may well have come across these two packages already on OS4Depot.net already.

As always time is always at a premium for both of us, if you would like to contribute towards the dictionary files for both of these applications I am sure we would both appreciate your help.

So how can you help? Simple really.

Both A-Zs of each program are somewhat similar in design and the goal is the same.

If you would like to contribute an article please post it on here in the fashion outlined below. If you wish to contribute images please send them to me at rikki.lake@ntlworld.com; also please use this address if you wish to contribute several articles at once.

  1. <key>F</key>
  2. <array>
  3. <dict>
  4. <key>Title</key>
  5. <string>FFMpeg</string>
  6. <key>Extended Title</key>
  7. <string>Video conversion tool</string>
  8. <key>Description</key>
  9. <string>FFMpeg is a useful tool for converting videeos into different formats, for example you can convert a DVD video into an MP4 video to playback on an iPod or capture still JPEG images from a video.\n\nIt is highly recommended that you also download the separate GUI package that compliments this command line tool. The GUI has options for changing resolutions and bitrates so that you can reduce the file size of a video and there are also some very useful presets for common tasks that can save you time.\n\nTo download the FFMpeg GUI simple search for 'ffmpeggui' in the App-Store or on OS4Depot.net.</string>
  10. <key>Open Local Description</key>
  11. <string></string>
  12. <key>Open Local Action</key>
  13. <string></string>
  14. <key>Video Description</key>
  15. <string></string>
  16. <key>Video Link</key>
  17. <string></string>
  18. <key>Webpage Description</key>
  19. <string>Visit FFMpeg site</string>
  20. <key>Webpage Link</key>
  21. <string>http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/index.html</string>
  22. <key>Download Description</key>
  23. <string>Download FFMpeg</string>
  24. <key>Download Link</key>
  25. <string>http://www.os4depot.net/share/video/convert/ffmpeg.lha</string>
  26. <key>Image 1</key>
  27. <string></string>
  28. <key>Image 1 Description</key>
  29. <string></string>
  30. <key>Image 2</key>
  31. <string></string>
  32. <key>Image 2 Description</key>
  33. <string></string>
  34. </dict>
  35. </array>

Here are some of the fields explained, sorry I haven't measured the maximum size available for all of them. If you wish to write an article please look for dictionary.xml inside the gtmooya drawer of the Jack installation and play around with it until it looks correct on screen.

First key at top: Every article needs a letter associated with it, in this case F for FFMpeg.

Title: Subject Heading, should be no longer than 15 characters.
Extended Title: Brief description of the title in question, no longer than 56 characters.
Description: A long description of the subject in question. Line breaks should be written as \n. I don't know the complete length, but if you intend to include screenshots please bare in mind they will eat into the available space.
Open Local Description: A short description of what local program will be opened.
Open Location Action: Path to the resource that will be opened. If the application is not available on the host system the icon will be ghosted out and unavailable. When refering to the OS partition always use SYS:
.
Video Description: A short description of what the video is showing.
Video Link: A URL to the online video, you should only link to videos you have tested will work via getvideo.rexx. Once again this option will be unavailable if the host system does not have getvideo.rexx installed so you don't need to worry if its missing.
Webpage Description: Usually I begin this field with 'Visit' followed by the website name.
Webpage Link: The URL to the website.
Download Description: A short desription of what will happen when they press the download button.
Download Link: A URL to the resource to be downloaded. Always use OS4Depot over Aminet or your personal site.

Image 1: Location of the image to display. This field must always begin with PROGDIR:gtmooya/.
Image 1 Description: Describe the image.
Image 2: Same as above.
Image 2 Description: Same as above.

So as you can see adding an article to the database is a piece of cake, so please help!

djrikki
djrikki's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 11 months ago
Joined: 2011-01-14 23:02
Feel free to refer to drawers

Feel free to refer to drawers in the Open Local field as I will fix that in a subsequent version of Jack and also hehe remove the forgotten debug output.

Other remaining bugs will be fixed in the next update of Jack.

AmigaOS.net - Discover Amiga, Discover AmigaOS.net
Jack for AmigaOS
Samba Idiot's Guide

trixie
trixie's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 months 13 hours ago
Joined: 2011-02-03 13:58
Is the XML the same format as

Is the XML the same format as the application.library PrefsObjects, or is it a modification?

AmigaOne X5000-020 / 2GB RAM / Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 560 / AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 2

djrikki
djrikki's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 11 months ago
Joined: 2011-01-14 23:02
This is the same XML format

This is the same XML format yes, however I have been unable to open it in PrefObjects - complains about duplicate items. So yes I have modified it slightly. I want to be able to add new 'articles' to the file without having to worry about keeping things in alphabetical order.

If you have a recommendation on how to open it up in PrefObjects feel free to provide a solution which meets my set criteria.

AmigaOS.net - Discover Amiga, Discover AmigaOS.net
Jack for AmigaOS
Samba Idiot's Guide

JosDuchIt
JosDuchIt's picture
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 4 months ago
Joined: 2012-01-08 20:57
Hi djrikki, could you give

Hi djrikki,

could you give some more info on what kind of articles you want to have?
Where will they appear? What is the relation with Jack & Assist?

djrikki
djrikki's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 11 months ago
Joined: 2011-01-14 23:02
Hi JosDuchIt, Thanks for

Hi JosDuchIt,

Thanks for responding. You can ignore my request as I have it sorted now.

The articles appear in Jack yes, press F2 or click the boing ball in the side panel.

As for the relationship with Assist, well its only minor. I liked what Daniel was doing with Assist, but it was developing slowly due to the time he could find to put into it. So I proposed to Daniel that I'd create a way for him to add articles more easily - but I don't think Daniel felt that comfortable with it and continues to explore the possibilities of Hollywood and have fun with it.

Just look in the gtmooya drawer inside the Jack installation for the XML if you want to have a closer look.

Over time Daniel just decided to revert back to the PDF so I just took ideas from there and elsewhere on the internet, Wikipedia for example, thoughts coming out of my head in what could or should be documented and constructed the articles into what it is today.

Users can also contribute to the knowledge-base simply by completing the form embedded in Jack.

As it happens no-one has even bothered submitting anything to me via this form and I bet Daniel has little if any help as well with his PDF.

The knowledge-base now has over 200 articles on anything Amiga-related, but there is always room for me.

AmigaOS.net - Discover Amiga, Discover AmigaOS.net
Jack for AmigaOS
Samba Idiot's Guide

Log in or register to post comments