Call for Experts: Logging through Lingo???

Greetings, List,

My firm is currently working on a kiosk project that, if our
current 
solution fails, might have to be done in Director. While I
can do 
simple Director work, I am a graphic designer, not a
programmer, and my 
Lingo skills are quite limited. As a result, should we turn
this into a 
Director-based affair, we will need to hire someone to do
the following 
(IF it is possible through Lingo):

- We would need some kind of solution that would track the
path of a 
visitor through various "pages" of content in
much the same way that 
Apache does for web sites; e.g., what buttons were clicked,
what movies 
were watched, dates, times, some way of differentiating
between 
visitors (probably time-contingent), etc.

- We would need to generate some kind of log of this
activity that is 
either written directly to a CSV file or can be easily
converted to 
said format. Also acceptable would be a log file like those
Apache 
generates that can be run through something like Web Trends
or Urchin.

Is something in this vein possible using Lingo? If you say
yes, 
awesome. If you could do this in a time-efficient and
cost-effective 
manner, you may be the answer to our prayers. We are not
interested in 
novices who will take four weeks and thousands of dollars to
develop 
this portion of the project; we've already wasted money on
someone who 
promised a lot and delivered little at an astronomical
price.

Again, this is not a guaranteed job; this is our fall-back
in case our 
current solution fails. If you can tell me if what I've
outlined is 
possible through Lingo, contact me via the list. If you are
interested 
in possibly working on this, please contact me off-list.
Also, if you 
are from/close to the Denver, Colorado area (or, even
better, Fort 
Collins!) I'm especially interested in hearing from you.

I hope sending this out to the list is not inappropriate; if
so, my 
advance apologies (but do note that a legit question is
incorporated, 
which makes this more than a mere wanted ad!). Many thanks
for 
considering this inquiry/call for experts!

Cheers,
Leila

Leila Singleton
Art Director
Kelly Rizley Advertising & PR, Inc.

[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest
mode, go to http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email
lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email owner-lingopenworks.com). Lingo-L is for learning and helping
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]

Liela,

The devil is in the details, but chances are Director can
display 
whatever media you have in your pages. And if it can do
that, setting up 
the tracking part would likely be trivial for many of the
developers on 
this list.

I'm not available, but I'm guessing you'll get a few
responses from others.

Good luck and I'm sorry to hear about that
"astronomical price" 
contractor. Ouch.

Dave Miller



Leila Singleton wrote:
> Greetings, List,
>
> My firm is currently working on a kiosk project that,
if our current 
> solution fails, might have to be done in Director.
While I can do 
> simple Director work, I am a graphic designer, not a
programmer, and 
> my Lingo skills are quite limited. As a result, should
we turn this 
> into a Director-based affair, we will need to hire
someone to do the 
> following (IF it is possible through Lingo):
>
> - We would need some kind of solution that would track
the path of a 
> visitor through various "pages" of content
in much the same way that 
> Apache does for web sites; e.g., what buttons were
clicked, what 
> movies were watched, dates, times, some way of
differentiating between 
> visitors (probably time-contingent), etc.
>
> - We would need to generate some kind of log of this
activity that is 
> either written directly to a CSV file or can be easily
converted to 
> said format. Also acceptable would be a log file like
those Apache 
> generates that can be run through something like Web
Trends or Urchin.
>
> Is something in this vein possible using Lingo? If you
say yes, 
> awesome. If you could do this in a time-efficient and
cost-effective 
> manner, you may be the answer to our prayers. We are
not interested in 
> novices who will take four weeks and thousands of
dollars to develop 
> this portion of the project; we've already wasted
money on someone who 
> promised a lot and delivered little at an astronomical
price.
>
> Again, this is not a guaranteed job; this is our
fall-back in case our 
> current solution fails. If you can tell me if what
I've outlined is 
> possible through Lingo, contact me via the list. If you
are interested 
> in possibly working on this, please contact me
off-list. Also, if you 
> are from/close to the Denver, Colorado area (or, even
better, Fort 
> Collins!) I'm especially interested in hearing from
you.
>
> I hope sending this out to the list is not
inappropriate; if so, my 
> advance apologies (but do note that a legit question is
incorporated, 
> which makes this more than a mere wanted ad!). Many
thanks for 
> considering this inquiry/call for experts!
>
> Cheers,
> Leila
>
> Leila Singleton
> Art Director
> Kelly Rizley Advertising & PR, Inc.
>
> [To remove yourself from this list, or to change to
digest mode, go to 
> http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, 
> email lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email 
> owner-lingopenworks.com). Lingo-L is for learning and
helping with 
> programming Lingo.  Thanks!]
[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest
mode, go to http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email
lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email owner-lingopenworks.com). Lingo-L is for learning and helping
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]

Leila,

I'm a little unclear as to what your "pages"
would be, but it should be 
pretty easy to do. If you are going to do it all in
Director, then you 
just send all of your navigation clicks through a function
that would 
write some information on what the user clicked. Or... you
could 
actually get that information from the marker they go to.
(Hint: you can 
enter multiple lines of text in a marker through the marker
window. For 
new lines it's Ctrl+Enter on Windows).

If your "pages" are web content then you could
use the Microsoft Web 
Browser ActiveX Control to display the web pages (I know
ActiveX - 
cringe-shudder). You can set the URL like this:
   sprite(1).Navigate("http://www.apple.com/"
;)
And track what the user clicks in a behavior on the ActiveX
Control 
sprite like this:
   on DocumentComplete pDisp, URL
     put URL
   end
I'm sure there are some third-party web browser Xtras
that'll do 
similarly as well.

Writing a CSV file will be pretty easy too since it's just
a text file 
and FileIO Xtra handles that pretty well. The biggest issue
will be 
managing the size of the log file. That sucka could get way
huge fast. 
You could monitor the size of the log file and when it
approach a limit, 
auto-generate a new one (log0.cvs, log1.cvs, log2.cvs,
etc.).

HTH

Jeremy Aker

Leila Singleton wrote:
> Greetings, List,
> 
> My firm is currently working on a kiosk project that,
if our current 
> solution fails, might have to be done in Director.
While I can do simple 
> Director work, I am a graphic designer, not a
programmer, and my Lingo 
> skills are quite limited. As a result, should we turn
this into a 
> Director-based affair, we will need to hire someone to
do the following 
> (IF it is possible through Lingo):
> 
> - We would need some kind of solution that would track
the path of a 
> visitor through various "pages" of content
in much the same way that 
> Apache does for web sites; e.g., what buttons were
clicked, what movies 
> were watched, dates, times, some way of differentiating
between visitors 
> (probably time-contingent), etc.
> 
> - We would need to generate some kind of log of this
activity that is 
> either written directly to a CSV file or can be easily
converted to said 
> format. Also acceptable would be a log file like those
Apache generates 
> that can be run through something like Web Trends or
Urchin.
> 
> Is something in this vein possible using Lingo? If you
say yes, awesome. 
> If you could do this in a time-efficient and
cost-effective manner, you 
> may be the answer to our prayers. We are not interested
in novices who 
> will take four weeks and thousands of dollars to
develop this portion of 
> the project; we've already wasted money on someone who
promised a lot 
> and delivered little at an astronomical price.
> 
> Again, this is not a guaranteed job; this is our
fall-back in case our 
> current solution fails. If you can tell me if what
I've outlined is 
> possible through Lingo, contact me via the list. If you
are interested 
> in possibly working on this, please contact me
off-list. Also, if you 
> are from/close to the Denver, Colorado area (or, even
better, Fort 
> Collins!) I'm especially interested in hearing from
you.
> 
> I hope sending this out to the list is not
inappropriate; if so, my 
> advance apologies (but do note that a legit question is
incorporated, 
> which makes this more than a mere wanted ad!). Many
thanks for 
> considering this inquiry/call for experts!
> 
> Cheers,
> Leila
> 
> Leila Singleton
> Art Director
> Kelly Rizley Advertising & PR, Inc.
> 
> [To remove yourself from this list, or to change to
digest mode, go to 
> http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email 
> lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email owner-lingopenworks.com). 
> Lingo-L is for learning and helping with programming
Lingo.  Thanks!]
> 
> 

[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest
mode, go to http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email
lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email owner-lingopenworks.com). Lingo-L is for learning and helping
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]

Jeremy Aker wrote:

> Writing a CSV file will be pretty easy too since it's
just a text file 
> and FileIO Xtra handles that pretty well. The biggest
issue will be 
> managing the size of the log file. That sucka could get
way huge fast. 
> You could monitor the size of the log file and when it
approach a 
> limit, auto-generate a new one (log0.cvs, log1.cvs,
log2.cvs, etc.).

When I did this, I generated a new log file per day, with a
name 
incorporating the date.

I found, however, that after a while, those responsible for
the kiosk 
maintenance just forgot about the logs.  It is probably
worthwhile to 
also delete all logs older than, say, a few months.

-- Mark Whybird


[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest
mode, go to http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email
lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email owner-lingopenworks.com). Lingo-L is for learning and helping
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]

On 31/3/06 2:24 am, "Leila Singleton"
<lsingletonkellyrizley.com> wrote:
> - We would need some kind of solution that would track
the path of a
> visitor through various "pages" of content
in much the same way that
> Apache does for web sites; e.g., what buttons were
clicked, what movies
> were watched, dates, times, some way of differentiating
between
> visitors (probably time-contingent), etc.
> 
> - We would need to generate some kind of log of this
activity that is
> either written directly to a CSV file or can be easily
converted to
> said format. Also acceptable would be a log file like
those Apache
> generates that can be run through something like Web
Trends or Urchin.

Hi Leila,

You can find part of the solution already in the History
Button behavior
that you can find here...

  <http://nonlinear.openspark.com/tips/behavior/updates/&g
t;

... and which is demonstrated here:

  <http://nonlinear.openspark.com/tips/navigati
on/history/index.htm>

This tracks which markers the user jumped to, and in which
order.  It is
intended to allow the user to retrace her steps through a
set of movies, but
it could be easily hijacked and made to write out a list of
buttons clicked,
markers and movies visited, dates and times.


I also have a version of my Multiple Undo script which
records all user
activity for a given session to an external file.  The file
for any session
can later be loaded and played back, showing the exact path
a user took
through a movie, including all the modifications.  This
script is not
currently on-line, but you can see how the standard Multiple
Undo scripts
work at:

  <http://www.director-online.com/buildArticle.php?id=1
131>.

Cheers,

James

[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest
mode, go to http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email
lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email owner-lingopenworks.com). Lingo-L is for learning and helping
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]

Many, MANY thanks to all of those who replied to my
desperate cry for 
help! We have solved our problem and all is well in the
world of the 
kiosk. This list is a fantastic resource, and I appreciate
such a great 
community of experts who are willing to share their
knowledge. Have a 
great week!

Cheers,
Leila

Leila Singleton
Art Director
Kelly Rizley Advertising & PR, Inc.
http://www.kellyrizley.com




On Mar 30, 2006, at 6.24p, Leila Singleton wrote:

Greetings, List,

My firm is currently working on a kiosk project that, if our
current 
solution fails, might have to be done in Director. While I
can do 
simple Director work, I am a graphic designer, not a
programmer, and my 
Lingo skills are quite limited. As a result, should we turn
this into a 
Director-based affair, we will need to hire someone to do
the following 
(IF it is possible through Lingo):

- We would need some kind of solution that would track the
path of a 
visitor through various "pages" of content in
much the same way that 
Apache does for web sites; e.g., what buttons were clicked,
what movies 
were watched, dates, times, some way of differentiating
between 
visitors (probably time-contingent), etc.

- We would need to generate some kind of log of this
activity that is 
either written directly to a CSV file or can be easily
converted to 
said format. Also acceptable would be a log file like those
Apache 
generates that can be run through something like Web Trends
or Urchin.

Is something in this vein possible using Lingo? If you say
yes, 
awesome. If you could do this in a time-efficient and
cost-effective 
manner, you may be the answer to our prayers. We are not
interested in 
novices who will take four weeks and thousands of dollars to
develop 
this portion of the project; we've already wasted money on
someone who 
promised a lot and delivered little at an astronomical
price.

Again, this is not a guaranteed job; this is our fall-back
in case our 
current solution fails. If you can tell me if what I've
outlined is 
possible through Lingo, contact me via the list. If you are
interested 
in possibly working on this, please contact me off-list.
Also, if you 
are from/close to the Denver, Colorado area (or, even
better, Fort 
Collins!) I'm especially interested in hearing from you.

I hope sending this out to the list is not inappropriate; if
so, my 
advance apologies (but do note that a legit question is
incorporated, 
which makes this more than a mere wanted ad!). Many thanks
for 
considering this inquiry/call for experts!

Cheers,
Leila

Leila Singleton
Art Director
Kelly Rizley Advertising & PR, Inc.

[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest
mode, go to http://www.penwor
ks.com/lingo-l.cgi  To post messages to the list, email
lingo-lpenworks.com  (Problems, email owner-lingopenworks.com). Lingo-L is for learning and helping
with programming Lingo.  Thanks!]