DemoPad.com

DemoPad wrote:[... We will put the ability to set a label equal to any of the time parameters in the next version of the app, but the purpose of implementing it with numbers was not to display it on screen (the time is already on the top status bar anyway). The purpose was to give you access to the time/date components so that you can fire custom number actions to set flags (eg a 'daytime' flag, or a 'winter' flag, or a 'weekend' flag), to allow you to, for example, only dim the lights after pressing a 'turn cinema on' button when it is nighttime, or only perform other actions in summer, etc etc. It just so happens that you can also display the values on screen if you want by using a label, but this is a side effect.

For those of us who want to display time in 24 hour format, it would be helpful to be able to set a label to #CURRENTTIME and get the following literal, "HH:MM", including the colon. Trying to achieve this with #CURRENTHOUR and #CURRENTMINUTE, because they are numbers, ends up for example with 18:5 instead of 18:05, unless one gets into custom actions against a number (0 to 9 : concatenate a leading 0, 10 to 59: display as is).

Side question: in the next release, how will you handle the setting of a label to a time parameter when that parameter can be 1 or 2 digits? My personal preference would be a 2 digit label.

cv27 wrote:

DemoPad wrote:[... We will put the ability to set a label equal to any of the time parameters in the next version of the app, but the purpose of implementing it with numbers was not to display it on screen (the time is already on the top status bar anyway). The purpose was to give you access to the time/date components so that you can fire custom number actions to set flags (eg a 'daytime' flag, or a 'winter' flag, or a 'weekend' flag), to allow you to, for example, only dim the lights after pressing a 'turn cinema on' button when it is nighttime, or only perform other actions in summer, etc etc. It just so happens that you can also display the values on screen if you want by using a label, but this is a side effect.

Side question: in the next release, how will you handle the setting of a label to a time parameter when that parameter can be 1 or 2 digits? My personal preference would be a 2 digit label.

Any comments, DemoPad, to my 'side question' above?

Side question: in the next release, how will you handle the setting of a label to a time parameter when that parameter can be 1 or 2 digits? My personal preference would be a 2 digit label.

I second that request for full time format.

Thanks, Wayne

Hi,

How could be an simple example?

For example to specific hour execute an action.

Thanks

To set something to occur at a specific time, use custom actions on the number & specify the same min & max - which would be the time you want the action to occur, eg 2100 for 9pm. Make sure you update your number parameter every 60 seconds, or you'll miss it! Note, setting the app to perform actions at specific times is not recommended, as the app would need to be running in the foreground, with the iOS device turned on, for it to work.

Side question: in the next release, how will you handle the setting of a label to a time parameter when that parameter can be 1 or 2 digits? My personal preference would be a 2 digit label.
Any comments, DemoPad, to my 'side question' above?

If setting a label, you get 2 digits. If you just want 1 digit, use a number, then convert the number to a label. You'll also be able to use any of the following on a label: (version 1.4.4 of the app onwards):

#CURRENTTIMETEXT eg "01:13"
#CURRENTTIME eg "0113"
#CURRENTHOUR eg "01"
#CURRENTMINUTE eg: "01"
#CURRENTSECOND eg "01"
#CURRENTDAYOFWEEKTEXT eg: "Monday"
#CURRENTDAYOFWEEKTEXTSHORT eg: "Mon"
#CURRENTDAYOFWEEK eg "01"
#CURRENTDAY eg: "28"
#CURRENTMONTHTEXT eg: "January"
#CURRENTMONTHTEXTSHORT eg: "Jan"
#CURRENTMONTH eg: "01"
#CURRENTYEAR eg "2013"

You don't need to remember all these options, in the next version of the PC software they are all in a drop down list for both setting labels and numbers

DemoPad wrote:If setting a label, you get 2 digits. If you just want 1 digit, use a number, then convert the number to a label...

With the above, are you referring to the current or next version?

My experience with the current version is this:

• - set a number variable, "Current_month", to #CURRENTMONTH
  - set a label variable, "Current_month_display", to that number variable (i.e. set it to [Current_month])
  - during April, "Current_month_display" will show up as 4, not 04

What am I missing?

That is with 1.4.3 of the app, where you can only set numbers. 1.4.4 of the app (not released yet) lets you set labels directly, when you will get leading zeros.

DemoPad wrote:That is with 1.4.3 of the app, where you can only set numbers. 1.4.4 of the app (not released yet) lets you set labels directly, when you will get leading zeros.

Great stuff, thanks.

DemoPad wrote:That is with 1.4.3 of the app, where you can only set numbers. 1.4.4 of the app (not released yet) lets you set labels directly, when you will get leading zeros.

Just tried 1.4.4 with this and I'm not getting the expected results.

I have a text object associated with a dynamic label Current_time_display. On page loads I have tried setting Current_time_display both to [#CURRENTHOUR]:[#CURRENTMINUTE] / [#CURRENTMONTH] and #CURRENTHOUR:#CURRENTMINUTE / #CURRENTMONTH. The variable #CURRENTMONTH seems to get ignored by 1.4.4 as I get the literal instead of its value.

What is the correct syntax for this?

[edit] After some more testing, it appears that setting a label to one of the real time clock variables is restricted to setting that label to only one real time clock variable, no concatenation allowed as I was trying to do. Is this right?

Correct, you can't do concatenation with time values in one operation. You can however do it with several operations using label variables, if you are after "hours:minutes / month / year" you could do the following:

SET MONTH label to "#CURRENTMONTHTEXT"
SET YEAR label to "#CURRENTYEARTEXT"
SET MYLABEL to "#CURRENTTIMETEXT"
SET MYLABEL to "[MYLABEL] / [MONTH] / [YEAR]"

Thanks for confirming.

Can you expand on the "minor improvements" of 1.4.4 ? Hard to take advantage of them unless they're known

And what about "scrolling sub-pages" ? How does this work?

cv27 wrote:Thanks for confirming.

Can you expand on the "minor improvements" of 1.4.4 ? Hard to take advantage of them unless they're known

And what about "scrolling sub-pages" ? How does this work?

All will be revealed when the PC designer software version is released that allows you to take advantage of the functions....later this week in all probability. Scrolling subpages are basically for long menus, lists, or large sets of buttons, you make the subpage say 1000 pixels wide, but the scrollable area 100 pixels wide - when you place on a page, you only see 100 pixels at once - and you can scroll left/right to get to the other 90% of it.

DemoPad wrote:

cv27 wrote:Thanks for confirming.

Can you expand on the "minor improvements" of 1.4.4 ? Hard to take advantage of them unless they're known

And what about "scrolling sub-pages" ? How does this work?

All will be revealed when the PC designer software version is released that allows you to take advantage of the functions....later this week in all probability. Scrolling subpages are basically for long menus, lists, or large sets of buttons, you make the subpage say 1000 pixels wide, but the scrollable area 100 pixels wide - when you place on a page, you only see 100 pixels at once - and you can scroll left/right to get to the other 90% of it.

Cool. Can't wait to hear the revelation...

Never mind, I figured it out. Hardly intuitive, lol.