Friday, August 15, 2008

MyExperience Script Playground

MyExperience uses a heavily modified version of the Simkin scripting language described on our Wiki here. I've uploaded a program for Windows, called ScriptWindow, to the Wiki. ScriptWindow allows you to play around with the scripting language a bit and get used to its syntactical structure. Note that this runs in Windows (e.g., XP or Vista) and not on the device. Thus, it's a nice little sandbox with which to experiment with loops and conditions among other operations.


You can download ScriptWindow here.

Troubleshooting

When dealing with technology, inevitably not everything works the way we expect it or want it to. MyExperience offers a few ways of tracking down errors, which are described in the Troubleshooting section of the How do I? documentation on the Wiki.

If you are experiencing an issue with MyExperience, the easiest and fastest remedy may be to email the MyExperience Users mailing list (sign up here, view archives here) with a description and log file of your problem. The log file can be found on your device: \Storage Card\MyExperience\MyExperienceLog.txt.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

MyExperience Version 0.8.2 Released

You can download version 0.8.2 of MyExperience here, which includes over 58 changes from the last release (if you want the source as well, click here).

Some of the highlights that were fixed/added in this version.
  • Quicker transitions between survey panels and the desktop toolbar no longer pops up for a few milliseconds during the transition
  • Added GetResponses() method to ExecutableBase that allows the survey designer to obtain all the responses for a given question. It returns an array of Response objects. Call Response.Value to get the raw value.
  • Fixed the IsActionTypeExecuting method so that it appropriately returns false/true
  • Fixed bug where after TimeOutForm is closed via tap/keypress, SurveyForm would not show up
  • Fixed region specific bug.. Although this was originally marked as an issue with language, it is actually an issue with the regionality configuration of the device. I blogged about this issue here.
  • Added GetTrigger() method to TriggerExecutable thereby allowing trigger scripts to get access to the trigger itself
  • Added ability to automatically change the startup image. New startup images can be defined by placing a PNG called "Startup.png" in the application directory.
  • Fixed the improper handling of negative number definitions in Simkin (e.g., i = -1 threw an exception because Simkin saw this as a subtraction sign rather than a negative sign)
  • Added the ability to get access to actions via the GetExecutingActions() and GetExecutingActionsOfType() methods in ExecutableBase
Click here for the full release notes.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

How Do I?

Jennifer Beaudin has done a terrific job recently creating a very useful documentation section on the MyExperience Wiki called How Do I...? This is sort of like a hybrid FAQ/Getting Started guide that covers some of the most important points about MyExperience and will surely save you time if you give it a read. I strongly recommend taking a look here.

Note that the Wiki is constantly improving. As we find the time, we continue to add more helpful content and fill out incomplete sections.