Week 33
At this point in the Unit, you have the option of continuing to develop Paint Pot into a truly useful drawing program or deciding on your own path to a successfully constructed application. You will need to submit a proposal and receive approval to do this, but you won't be required to keep adding more features to Paint Pot.
Add a link to the DATA website on your About page...
To have your app open a web browser:
1) Add the non-visible component ActivityStarter from the Connectivity panel.
2) Copy and paste the following string into the ActivityStarter's "Action" field in the Properties panel:
android.intent.action.VIEW
3) Code a button for the official DATA website. The following is the best web address to use:
https://www.neisd.net/datams
Click HERE to watch a video demonstrating this
If you get that figured out, why not add a link to your Portfolio??
To continue with Paint Pot, rename the Menu button to Paint Pot +
These are some of the features that make plain Paint Pot into something users can truly enjoy:
A scrolling horizontal arrangement with at least 10 colors.
Instead of text, make them a % width and have the app SAY what the color is.
Use a Slider's "ThumbPosition" to determine line width and dot size
Make it harder to erase the canvas by accident by using a built-in Android tool called a "Notifier"
A "Magic" button that lets user draw with ever-changing colors
A Slider for Brush Size
Users absolutely must have a way to change the brush size or they will be scribbling away with lines that are only one pixel wide. The Slider we add to the design page changes the canvas dot size when .Touched and line width for when it is .Dragged.
Please note: These videos teach the same skills, but were not recorded with the Multi-App . Your Menu button must still be in the upper left. You can choose to place tools like the Wipe button and size slider at the bottom.
To avoid accidental wiping, we will confirm clearing the canvas by using a non-visible component called a Notifier that we add to the design screen. We only need have text for the question and text for a button that says "Yes". We can leave "cancelable" set to True instead of adding a "No" button. This sends the text from our choice (an automated variable) to an .AfterChoosing logic statement to make sure "Yes" was selected before we wipe the screen clean.
It makes sense to do the same for the Menu button, right?
Notifier for Confirmations
This older video demonstrates when we first started adding a confirmation of choice so that users don't accidentally wipe out their work.
Using the Title Bar
The blocks below show an extra touch - changing the Title at the top of the screen to tell users what the current value is. Notice the use of the join tool to combine text and numbers. We don't need accuracy down to the hundredths, so we also round off the value to an integer.
There is also an alternative method to adjust line width in the blocks that is different from the simpler method in the video - we can simply change LineWidth as the Slider's "ThumbPosition" is changed.