PowerPac v12.560 Released

Announcements of new releases, function enhancements and bug fixes.

PowerPac v12.560 Released

Postby Clifton » Fri Jan 30, 2015 7:17 pm

Changes since v12.131:
NEW HTML Video plugin called Range Slider enables the user to select a predefined portion of a video to play.
The new plugin is completely accessible via htmlVideoControl().

Here is a screenshot of a video playing using the the new plugin:

Image 5.png
Range selector video capture
Image 5.png (117.17 KiB) Viewed 23639 times

The new plugin supports these properties and methods:
  • showSlider will show the range slider plugin and allow user manipulation of the start and end points
  • hideSlider will hide the range slider plugin while allowing all methods to be accessible via htmlVideoControl()
  • lockSlider will prevent users from changing the start and end positions of the slider
  • unlockSlider performs the opposite effect of lockSlider. Lock and unlock are evident in that the slider will change from yellow to a red color.
  • setValueSlider accepts two item stack of integers in milliseconds which define the start and end points to set the range
  • getValueSlider retrieves the position of the current range as a two item stack as integers in milliseconds
  • playBetween begins playback at the position defined by a stack of two integers in milliseconds which define the start and end points of the range
The new plugin sends user events to the field which contains the video when it reaches the end of a playback range. It also works with any additional timeMarkers that may be defined for the video at the time the video range is played.

To play with this new plugin in real time:
http://www.pgsoftwaretools.com/powerpac/assessments/html5_player/dev_rs/index.html

Other changes in this release:
  • Progressive JavaScript code optimizations
  • VideoJS video component upgraded to v4.11.4.
  • createDraggableObject(): added new parameter called realTimeNotify to permit sending user events CONTINUOUSLY DURING the dragging of an object AND when the drag has completed.
  • htmlVideoLoader(): changed default allowFlashFallback to "auto" to attempt loading video as HTML 5 first and if that fails, fallback to using Flash. Generally, this will always result in videos loading as HTML 5 in browsers that support it.
  • All cookie functions: optionally can use the local storage available in all HTML 5 browsers. The browser local storage saves data between browser sessions and is not limited by string size (previous 4kb) OR by variable type.
  • mergeTBObjects(): minor bug fixes.
  • htmlVideoControl() updated to more gracefully handle manipulation of videos. When getting the status of a video, the function will return "paused", "playing", "waiting", or an empty string ("") for an "uninitialized" video.
  • pgDateFormat() enhanced, optimized code and fixed some bugs to ensure predictable results.
  • browserExitWarning(): bug fixes to restore functionality for modern versions of Firefox and Chrome browsers.
  • pgGotoURL(): added support to ensure IE renders PDF source content properly while maintaining compatibility with all other supported browsers.
  • Optimized the dynamic object referencing engine to support additional ToolBook catalog objects.
  • userProperty() enhanced to support mouse events with redirection of user event notification to other objects on the page. Better group support added.
  • NEW FUNCTION called validateEmail(): Function verifies that an email address entered into a field is valid based on Internet Messaging Standards "RFC822" or "RFC2822" and returns true (valid) or false (invalid).
  • Dynamic Help (authoring mode) clarifications.
  • Added Parameter API Help menu item to the PowerPac menu as well as some additional hotkey combinations. Viewer opens in main window and permits free navigation between all the various functions available in the PowerPac system for quick browsing. Viewer remembers last open index and function. All viewers close when book is exported as this improves export time considerably.
  • Bug fix to pgStringEncrypt() to gracefully handle empty strings. Previously this would throw an error, but it seems prudent to no longer treat an empty string as an error.
  • Updated VideoJS plugin for YouTube support to latest available version.
  • Bug fix to pgTBObjSet() to repair broken answered property support for fill-in-the-blank questions.
  • Bug fixes to recent improvements to the dynamic referencing engine.
  • NEW FUNCTION called randomizeObjPositions(): Function searches the page for objects based on a filter string and moves them to random positions aligned over objects in an anchor group.
  • Removed depreciated function pgSetFlashVariable().
  • Fixed a bug related to the PowerPac SBK for ToolBook version 9.01 which was introduced in a previous beta. The bug caused an exception error due to missing or expected code in the PowerPac menu.
  • Bug fix to setPageContentPosition() to restore supported behavior that was broken in a previous beta.
  • Removed "Disable PowerPac ..." in PowerPac authoring menu as it was basically redundant. PowerPac is enabled/disabled based on whether the "Enable PowerPac ..." item is checked.
  • Fixed a minor editable textarea sizing bug in IE when run in standards compliant mode (HTML 5).
  • Bug fixes to the setCalendar() function.
  • Enhancement to pgExtFiles() to permit notification when files have finished loading. User events can be sent to any object, or callback functions can be executed from within the loaded files. To access this feature, set the new parameter called notifyOnLoad to the name of any ToolBook object. The notification method used is fully cross-browser/device compatible and works in legacy browsers like IE8.
  • Fixed a bug in getGroupObjects() which was caused by a previous beta (v12.220). The bug caused the function to return an inaccurate list of objects in some cases.
  • Fixed some default function behaviors when values are left unset.
  • Fixed a reported positioning issue when objects are merged with mergeTBObjects().
  • Bug fix which affected content <= v9.01 where text in a field was not selectable in HTML 5 mode (document standards) in some situations.
  • Fixed a textarea sizing bug related to IE when in HTML 5 standards compliant mode.
  • Improved isNumber() action replacement so " " (multiple space empty strings) are not detected as a valid number 0.
  • v12.353 or greater: PowerPac now supports all text indent features in ToolBook authoring mode. This includes left/right/first line indents and line spacing. v12.363: additional tweaks to this new feature when used in conjunction with pgStyleObject().
  • v12.366: Added popup help page for pgLoadFlashStream().
  • v12.369: Changed default cursor in createDraggableObject() and made it possible to specify a group name for the bounds parameter.
  • v12.376: NEW FUNCTION called pgSetTableDataCell() permits changing the contents of any table loaded with setHTMLTable() or setHTMLContent().
    To view example: http://www.pgsoftwaretools.com/powerpac/assessments/pgsettabledatacell
    To download example:
    PowerPac_pgSetTableDataCell_Example.zip
    pgSetTableDataCell Example
    (40.12 KiB) Downloaded 1925 times
  • v12.501: Last minute change to XMLHttpRequest() and pgExtFiles() when notification is used. Increase time out from load acknowledgement and actual sending of user event notification.
  • v12.502: Last minute change to Dynamic Help for buildComboBoxOptionsList(). Added support for submitting optionsList as a string OR array.
  • v12.503: Last minute change to Dynamic Object Referencing Engine to recognize the page or background object as a DOM object that can be styled using pgStyleObject() when its name is submitted.
  • v12.505: Last minute modification to pgExtFiles() to improve notification when a css or js file has finished loading.
  • v12.518: Fixed some bugs where sequential calls to htmlVideoControl() would fail to work properly.
  • v12.519: Fixed a bug in createDraggableObject() where combo boxes and list boxes would no longer receive on property change events when a selection was made.
  • v12.521: Updated JSPowerPac.exe compiler to v3.3.15.0
  • v12.524: Fixed a couple of minor bugs involving setBrowserWindowStyles().
  • v12.528: Improved notification on load for pgExtFiles(). Function now loads external files synchronously (one at a time) to avoid dependency errors because a previous file has not finished loading yet.
  • v12.532: Bug fix to correct a condition where an audio mp3 could not be advanced by clicking the progress bar. Situation only occurred if the audio was run from local hard drive content or from a local server application.
  • v12.542: Bug fixes to htmlVideoLoader() and pgExtFiles() and VideoJS range slider plugin that affected loading video in IE9.
  • v12.544: Updated setWebFonts() to use the new pgExtFiles() notifyOnLoad when the fonts have been loaded. This is much more efficient and reliable than the previous approach which used timers and idle checking.
  • v12.546: Optimized support for pgExtFiles() notifyOnLoad feature throughout all related functions that benefit from this feature.
  • v12.548: Cosmetic improvements and code optimization to subModal(). Also fixed a regression error related to IE8.
  • v12.556: Fixed a bug in ToolBook exports with writing viewport meta tags.
  • v12.560: Code optimizations and tweaks to pgExtFiles() and its notifyOnLoad feature.
Click here to download the installation file for this version.
Clifton
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Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:04 am

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