Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Usbong Update (Feb. 5, 2013): Usbong Visual Novels for Responsible Voting (work-in-progress)



Hi everyone,
Here's the latest update on Usbong.

It's been awhile since our last update,
but rest assured, the past few weeks
have been quite exciting.

We've gotten in touch with AJWCC 
(Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center)
and PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting),
and we've also done our first pilot-test with high school students
who created choose-your-own-adventure stories and graphics
as a follow-up to PPCRV's comics, CHAMPS.

You may download their free comics here:

We're now in the process of converting the stories
into Usbong trees that can run on Android devices.

In line with this, here are Usbong's technical updates:

Tasks accomplished:



  • +clickable image display node = OK 
    • see attachments for details
    • pressing the image causes an alert message to appear
    • the message can have links (or use HTML tags)


Example:
<task-node name="clickableImageDisplay~frame_3~More info can be found here: {a href='http://www.ateneo.edu'}Ateneo de Manila University{/a}">
<transition to="end-state1" name="Any"></transition>
</decision>

//frame_3 is the name of the .png file

  • text and clickable image display node = OK
Example:

<task-node name="textClickableImageDisplay~frame_3~More info can be found here: {a href='http://www.ateneo.edu'}Ateneo de Manila University{/a}~This is sample text.">
<transition to="end-state1" name="Any"></transition>
</task-node>

  • decision tracker container = OK
    • includes B, which stands for Back presses
    • e.g. Y;N;B;N;Y
    • work-in-progress: what format should the data be when sent to Twitter, etc

  • back to main menu alert = OK
    • --> shown after pressing the return key on the device
    • --> shown after pressing back when in the first node on the usbong tree

Tasks working on:

  • browser-based GUI to create Usbong trees using HTML5
    • aims to reduce barrier to entry/learning curve
    • (no need to download Eclipse and jBPM)

You may find the latest src code at Google Code.
I've also just upload the latest .apk onto Google Play.
It should be available for download within 24hrs.

This is all for now.
 
If have questions, comments,
or would like to collaborate,
feel free to get in touch with me.

Hooray, Mike