Instructor content

Chris Fullmer

Hey, I'm trying to add some simple content to the instructor. And so far its not working and SU is not returning any errors to hint at what I'm doing wrong.

I have a tool class. And I have defined the Tool.getInstructorContentDirectory method and it returns (I think) the correct path:

def getInstructorContentDirectory return "C:\\Temp" end

Inside the folder that it returns resides an html file index.html and a swf file that is embedded in the index file. If I open the html file in a browser, the video plays. So that appears to be working.

But when I activte my tool in SU, it does not show my instructor content. It just stays on the current content page.

Any thoughts? My first guess is that it is returning the path incorrectly. Files/paths and I have never quite gotten along in the ruby world.

Thanks,

Chris

Krisidious

nice to see you're working on this... hope someone can help sort it out.

Dan Rathbun

Could it be a Vista security issue not wanting to allow access to the Temp folder?

Did you try a "test" html page, that has no active content. Such as containing only text "My Tool Help Page" or similar?
This could verify that SU is finding the folder, and loading the index.html file.

If that works.. then the issue may be with the tag used for the video.
Is it a <APPLET> or <OBJECT> tag?

Chris Fullmer

I went ahead and moved the index.html to the root c:\ folder. Changed the return path in the method. I removed the embed tags from the html and just put the word "Hi" in it. No luck. It did not appear to attempt to load my instructor file.

Next I'll try to make a more simple tool. the one I am trying it out on is a very big file. For all I know I've messed up something somewhere else in the tool that is preventing the instructor content from loading. I'll let you know how a simpler tool works out.

Chris

Chris Fullmer

ok, I tried new tool from scratch. This is the complete script:

` class Clf_instructor
def getInstructorContentDirectory
UI.messagebox "working"
"c:\"
end
end

if !file_loaded?(FILE) then
UI.menu("Plugins").add_item("Instructor Tester") { Sketchup.active_model.select_tool Clf_instructor.new }
end`

It is calling the instructorcontent method for sure. It just is not displaying the index.html file. I wonder if there is a bug logged for this? or I'm probably just overlooking something simple (like my path might not be right, or my html might be unnacceptable?)

Chris Fullmer

I just supplied it with the path to the instructor content for the tape measure tool:

"C:\\Program Files\\Google\\Google SketchUp 7\\Resources\\en-US\\helpcontent\\tool\\21024\\"

But it did not work. So it appears it is not my html, it is something else.

Dan Rathbun

Chris.. Ruby does not like backslashes. You can convert backslashed paths to Ruby paths using File.expand_path(path_arg)

And.. since you'd normally want to be cross-platform, you need to use forward slashed paths for OSX anyway.

thomthom

In SU6 the instructor window goes blank - but I can also not get any content in the Instructor in any versions.

Dan Rathbun

I had no luck either.

I even tried to match the tool_id to the folder name, and had the helpfolder in the helpcontent folder where all the other tool helps are. No luck.

I even tried to fully specify the path with "/index.html" on the end. No luck.

So it's bug. There goes another couple of my uitility ideas, down the drain.

thomthom

It appear to have been broken for a long time.

Has no one ever made a tool with an Instructor?

Dan Rathbun

@thomthom said:

Has no one ever made a tool with an Instructor?

I have never tried it, but had some ideas I wanted to use the instructor because it's "snappy" and has the small toolwindow caption bar.

So it's either webdialog or native Win32 dialog (I'm leaning toward the latter... if Google is not going to bring the Mac Ruby up to date.. then screw it.. sorry Apple lovers.)

thomthom

@dan rathbun said:

So it's either webdialog or native Win32 dialog (I'm leaning toward the latter... if Google is not going to bring the Mac Ruby up to date.. then screw it.. sorry Apple lovers.)

What does the rube core got to do with the webdialog?

I had been thinking of adding an Instructor for a couple of tools - but it'd not been high on the list. I was about to add it to Vertex Tools - but due to the way I made the sub-tool system I could not. (should be way to force refresh the instructor window with other content.)

@dan rathbun said:

I have never tried it, but had some ideas I wanted to use the instructor because it's "snappy" and has the small toolwindow caption bar.

How would you use it? You can't use it to communicate back to Ruby...

I've been playing with the idea of using Win32API to change the window style of the webdialogs. But I'm not sure if I can manage it without getting a flicker of the original window frame first...

TIG

I have already written an 'Instructor' set of index.html/css/gif files etc for my new FreeRotate4.1 [not yet released] BUT it simply doesn't work... no matter what I do
At the moment it only works if you open the ../FreeRotate/index.html file in your web-browser...
The Instructor never recognizes the tool as being active/current...
I was thinking that perhaps you need to add a global_variable - setting it in the activate() and resume() methods, e.g.
$instructorContentDirectory = self.getInstructorContentDirectory()
BUT what that global_variable might be is a mystery...
I there a way to puts a list of global_variables ?
If you start FreeRotate whilst in Line tool the Instructor sticks on Line, then if you Orbit it changes to Orbit, until you exit and pick another tool ???
I've tried tool_id/pop/push et al with no positive results.
It is as if my tool isn't registering as the active/current tool at all...

thomthom

Anyone contacted Google yet?

TIG

Not me...
TT - it's your turn...

thomthom

I think they still have a backlog on all my issues - but I can nag them about this one as well.

bentleykfrog

seems like the response is relative to the help directory on pc

writing the following brings up the eraser tool

def getInstructorContentDirectory
  return "\\21019\\"
end

so looks like relative paths it is

bentleykfrog

hmmmm the following works well on pc too

def getInstructorContentDirectory
  return "../../../../Tools/etc/instructor/"
end

Chris Fullmer

Woohoo! That totally does it. that works in 7.1 also, I did not test anything earlier than that. Here is my code that uses it and points to a directory inside the plugins folder:

` class Clf_instructor

def getInstructorContentDirectory
return "..\..\..\..\Plugins\doc\"
end
end

Sketchup.active_model.select_tool Clf_instructor.new`

(that is just a snippet I was running from the webconsole, not actually part of a full file).

Thanks for coming back and posting that,

Chris

thomthom

The instructor works???
Nice find!