Problems with Data Grid tutorial
Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:31 pm
I'm currently using the trial version of Revolution Studio to see if I want to switch from SuperCard. I was stuck in the Data Grid tutorial, and that's what this post was originally about. I've since figured out where I went wrong, but since the tutorial is so confusing, I thought I should post about problems I had with it, in case the doc authors read these forums and take suggestions for improvement. Some of the issues are minor, but when they're all added up it made for a frustrating experience.
(1) The section "Design the Row Template" isn't actually about designing the row template. The title should be changed to something like, "Sample Data Format".
(2) The "Design the Row Template" section says "This screenshot shows the properties for each row of the data grid." It's unclear why they're "properties". It just looks like data. If it's really properties, some explanation is in order. If it's just data, the word "properties" shouldn't be used.
(3) The "Edit the Row Template Group" is confusing. Exactly what is the user supposed to select and click? The text says "it". The antecedent is ostensibly "the contents of the template group", but where exactly does that appear on the screen? The instructions don't say. The screenshot looks completely different from my screen, too. My screen doesn't have the word "label", and the fill color of my window is light gray. I eventually figured out that there's an *almost imperceptibly* slightly darker gray box in that window which is what I'm supposed to click. Neither the IDE nor the instructions make this clear. (In fact, it seems like the IDE ought to just preselect that item and choose Edit Group for the user anyway.)
(4) The instructions for "Rename Label Field" don't match my experience. It didn't warn me that after choosing "Edit Group", the IDE will inexplicably deselect the template group, and that what's shown in the inspector is for the stack. I finally figured out that I have to explicitly click the row template group yet again in order to continue.
(5) The instructions for the "Rename Label Field" are confusing. The word "Name" appears in three different places. Two of those places are user-editable. Am I to enter the word "Name" into both those fields, or just the first one? It seems like the instructions suggest the first one, because there's a huge red arrow pointing from that field to the template group. However, nothing shows up in the template group as indicated unless I also enter the word "Name" into the second field. I don't understand this section at all.
(6) The "Add Title Field" instructions don't work for me. I dragged the label field and changed its Basic Properties > Name to "Title", but the template group shows it as "Label:", not "Title", and it's aligned right, not left. I can fix this by choosing "Contents" from the popup menu and editing that, but I'm not sure whether this is appropriate or not.
(7) There appears to be a step missing between the "Add an Image..." section and the "Edit the Row Behavior" section. How does one get to the "Row Behavior..." button, after they've done the previous step? I'll guess that I'm supposed to close the "Editing template..." window and save changes, but it's just a guess.
(8) In the "Edit the Row Behavior" section, it would help to point out that if the button is dimmed, it's because the field is set to the Table flavor, not the Form flavor.
(9) In the "FillInData" section, I'm forced to retype all the code, because it's in an image and not selectable. That's the case for all code on this page, actually.
(10) The "FillInData" section says, "You don't need to worry about positioning any of your controls at this point. Just fill in the data." Huh? Neither this section, or the next section are about actually filling in data. This section is about writing a script that will fill data in the future, not now.
(11) The "The Results" section shows a different image for each record. But the previous step had the user code the same picture for each record.
(1) The section "Design the Row Template" isn't actually about designing the row template. The title should be changed to something like, "Sample Data Format".
(2) The "Design the Row Template" section says "This screenshot shows the properties for each row of the data grid." It's unclear why they're "properties". It just looks like data. If it's really properties, some explanation is in order. If it's just data, the word "properties" shouldn't be used.
(3) The "Edit the Row Template Group" is confusing. Exactly what is the user supposed to select and click? The text says "it". The antecedent is ostensibly "the contents of the template group", but where exactly does that appear on the screen? The instructions don't say. The screenshot looks completely different from my screen, too. My screen doesn't have the word "label", and the fill color of my window is light gray. I eventually figured out that there's an *almost imperceptibly* slightly darker gray box in that window which is what I'm supposed to click. Neither the IDE nor the instructions make this clear. (In fact, it seems like the IDE ought to just preselect that item and choose Edit Group for the user anyway.)
(4) The instructions for "Rename Label Field" don't match my experience. It didn't warn me that after choosing "Edit Group", the IDE will inexplicably deselect the template group, and that what's shown in the inspector is for the stack. I finally figured out that I have to explicitly click the row template group yet again in order to continue.
(5) The instructions for the "Rename Label Field" are confusing. The word "Name" appears in three different places. Two of those places are user-editable. Am I to enter the word "Name" into both those fields, or just the first one? It seems like the instructions suggest the first one, because there's a huge red arrow pointing from that field to the template group. However, nothing shows up in the template group as indicated unless I also enter the word "Name" into the second field. I don't understand this section at all.
(6) The "Add Title Field" instructions don't work for me. I dragged the label field and changed its Basic Properties > Name to "Title", but the template group shows it as "Label:", not "Title", and it's aligned right, not left. I can fix this by choosing "Contents" from the popup menu and editing that, but I'm not sure whether this is appropriate or not.
(7) There appears to be a step missing between the "Add an Image..." section and the "Edit the Row Behavior" section. How does one get to the "Row Behavior..." button, after they've done the previous step? I'll guess that I'm supposed to close the "Editing template..." window and save changes, but it's just a guess.
(8) In the "Edit the Row Behavior" section, it would help to point out that if the button is dimmed, it's because the field is set to the Table flavor, not the Form flavor.
(9) In the "FillInData" section, I'm forced to retype all the code, because it's in an image and not selectable. That's the case for all code on this page, actually.
(10) The "FillInData" section says, "You don't need to worry about positioning any of your controls at this point. Just fill in the data." Huh? Neither this section, or the next section are about actually filling in data. This section is about writing a script that will fill data in the future, not now.
(11) The "The Results" section shows a different image for each record. But the previous step had the user code the same picture for each record.