LiveCode Forums.

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking about trying to create a new software using LC to simplify some testing activities of mine, please tell me your thoughts.

The idea is to create the following.

STEP 1
Step by step screens with indications for each test.
For example, PROXIMITY TESTING screen, with a static message "Do you have a 125Khz Proximity reader? if yes place a card near the proximity reader, does the media code appear on the screen? if yes press OK button", if the user presses OK the software switches to the next test.
If the Proximity device is not present the user can just press a "Not Present" button for that specific test.

I'm thinking of avoiding complex flows, using a straight approach, without "choices", at least to start with.

STEP 2
After completing all the tests, a final pdf-Word-Excel report should be generated with a list of everything that has been done and also those functions that were not present.
Somethins like the following example:
"SD card insertion check OK"
"2D barcode scanner test OK"
"Proximity reader NOT PRESENT"
and so on, based on what I pressed on each test screen in STEP 1.


Now, with regards to step 1, I think i have an idea of how to structure the screens, images and links betweek screens, but how can I deal with the PDF-Word-Excel report generation?.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

I'll take the chance to wish everyone happy 2021!!

Regards

M.

Hi.

Your best way forward here, I think, (and perhaps you already do as well) is to present a string of cards enumerating tasks and logging responses. Once the cycle is complete, a handler can gather all that data, and write to any other application.

Where do you need specific help? The reporting?

Craig

That sounds like an interesting and valuable project.

PDF support is built in, handled like printing. See the print command options in the Dictionary.

Word and Excel are a different story. Those are complex multi-part formats delivered in a Zip package. Change the file extension of any such document to .zip and poke around, you'll see what I mean.

You could create files in those formats, but it would be a lot of work.

Maybe simpler would be to export in intermediary formats that any office suite can handle, such as RTF for Word and tab-delimited for Excel.

LiveCode's rtfText field property will make the RTF export a breeze.

And anything displayed in a multicolumn LiveCode field is already tab-delimited, so that part's even easier.

Hi Craig, I was also thinking about the string of cards solution to get a hang of point 1.

The point of using a middle format such as rtf is really good, I will surely dig more.

Thanks for your help!

M.