Share My Creation Look4How

To share an application which is developed for my personal use, but happy to share the B4J source.

Look4How is a Knowledge Management Application to store & retrieve, from a database, information for a topic which is organized by themes with items, being categories and related memos. The items are sorted alphabetically.
The application is developed step-by-step. For those interested have a look at the code = a lot to explore.

The B4J source code is attached for Look4How and the Look4How uploader.

The B4JHowTo database is not included (too large to attach) and can be requested via email.

Change Log
Look4How Viewer WebApp ABMaterial [Post #13]
Look4How Viewer Raspberry Pi UI Liberica[Post #11]
v0.92 (Build 20180429) [Post #10]
v0.90 (Build 20180413) [Post #8]
v0.80 (Build 20180329) [Post #5]

 

[souzafo]

Amazing! Congratulations!

 

[Mashiane]

Tell me, your editor, can your editor do code highlighting on it? i.e. code for various langauges e.g vb, html, etc etc.

 

[rwblinn]

Tell me, your editor, can your editor do code highlighting on it? i.e. code for various langauges e.g vb, html, etc etc.

No - its one of the areas which is on the todo list. In post #1 mentioned looking into RichTextFX or other. Have not looked further into this yet ...

 

[rwblinn]

Update v0.80 (Build 20180329) [see Post #1]

Share development progress.
Look4How has (now) fully replaced my (good old) Delphi application (used for almost 10 years) for capturing and generating howtos and other information.
The latest version of the B4JHowTos is included in the download and loaded by default.

Spoiler: Change Log

NEW: Search Listview context menu: Copy titles - copy the titles found to the clipboard
NEW: Search Listview context menu: Copy content - copy the titles found with content to the clipboard
UPD: Search Listview - categories found are listed italic
NEW: Tools > Find item changed - searchs for items which are changed since certain date in format YYYY-MM-dd (i.e. 2018-01-01)
UPD: Tools > Search items changed to Find item
NEW: Tools > Stay on Top - set the application allways on top
NEW: Editor special functions Date Time, Date, Time
NEW: Main Form added button for quick access tasks
UPD: Main Form starts up faster by changing form maximized using primary screen method instead of API setmaximized
UPD: HTML ColorPicker color search also updates RGB spinner values; Improved color conversion routines
FIX: Menu item View HTML Source enabled linked to menu item View HTML Preview
NEW: Tasks context menu tasklist with copy (the selected task to the clipboard) and delete (the selected task)
NEW: Tasks option to hide completed tasks from the list
NEW: Tasks add On Hold as a priority (in addition to High, Normal, Low)
UPD: Tasks export HTML adjusted table size
Various minor improvements

Next
Explore if the JavaFX TextArea, used as the editor, can be replaced by a more advanced editor or ... leave as is because it serves it purpose although not that advanced.

 

[moster67]

Excellent work! I like it very much, both the program and the content you are sharing (so much useful information included).

One nice thing that you could perhaps incorporate within the program would be the possibility of synchronizing data from your website in order to have the content always up-to-date.

Thank you for sharing!

 

[rwblinn]

Excellent work! I like it very much, both the program and the content you are sharing (so much useful information included).

Thanks a lot for your appreciation

One nice thing that you could perhaps incorporate within the program would be the possibility of synchronizing data from your website in order to have the content always up-to-date.

A starter has been made = the B4J HowTos are generated by Look4How (Menu Theme > Export > HTML Navigation).
A dedicated unique HTML page is created for each category & memo and then manually uploaded to my website - I need to do that more frequently must admit.
Will look into uploading via Look4How, as a background task including removing HTML pages which are not required because the category or memo has been deleted.
Thanks for bringing up.

 

[rwblinn]

Update v0.90 (Build 20180413) [see Post #1]

Made good progress with Look4How = getting close to v1.0.
See the change log below. Made quite a bit of changes under the hood.
Decided NOT to look into alternatives for the JavaFX TextArea control = too much effort, external dependencies might cause issues, complexity.

Look4HowUploader
The biggest feature added, is uploading files via FTP using the new application Look4HowUploader (of course developed with B4J).
Notes:

• although developed for Look4How, this application can also be used as a generic simple FTP Uploader ... with some enhancements i.e. Select Local Folder, View File Content, Upload Time Information, Encrypted Password saving etc.
• tested successfully several times uploading 1100 files generated from the B4JHowTos.
• @b4x: Many thanks for especially the Resumable Subs feature ... and the great B4X Video Tutorials ... and information shared in the forums.

Spoiler: Change Log

NEW: Look4HowUploader to FTP upload files created via Theme > Export > HTML Navigation to a remote server. The uploader is a separate B4J application running standalone
NEW: Theme > Export > Navigation - Dialog to set options Show Files in Browser and Upload Files; Menu shortcut CTRL+F4
NEW: Menu Items - Added fontawesome icons to most of the menu items
NEW: Menu Search - Quick find item, Find item, Find item changed, Go to item... (first, next, prev,last)
NEW: Tab Search - Button to search from the search history list; max 10 items, the items are not stored when closing the application
NEW: Items List Search - Buttons to navigate through the list of items (first, prev, next, last) see also Menu Search Go to
NEW: Help > Author Website - pointer to view what else the author is exploring & making
NEW: Editor > Special Function > Insert File - Insert the content of a text file at caret position
NEW: View > Always on Top - set the application always on top
NEW: Settings JavaPath=java, FTPUploader=Look4HowUploader.jar
DEL: Menu Tools - Moved Quick find item, Find item, Find item changed to menu Search
DEL: Tools > Stay on Top - renamed to Always on Top and moved to menu View
UPD: File > Open Dialog title format set to lightgray
UPD: Tasks export HTML icon set same as HTML icon mainform
UPD: MainForm - All buttons style transparent
UPD: MainForm left split pane - max size increased from 300 to 400
UPD: Menu Search > Find Item Changed - for month or day < 10, a 0 is pre set to ensure complying the search condition yyyy-MM-dd
UPD: Help > Help > PDF documentation
FIX: Tasks search for task entry did not select all tasks meeting the search condition
Various minor improvements

 

[Mashiane]

You are one of the best people to be in this forum, thanks a lot for this. I have learned a lot from you.

 

[rwblinn]

Update v0.92 (Build 20180429) [see Post #1]

Getting on with Look4How = Many new functionality and updates made. Few to mention: new dialog for editor font selection, clipboard history, all tools layout redesigned and functionality enhanced. New menus for settings, select items, go to ID.
Tested a lot ... and fixed bugs ... probably (hopefully) only a few buzzing around ...
Note: I am using Look4How not only to capture know how related to various, i.e. B4X, Node-RED, openHAB, Arduino but also for tools like color and font selection ... more to come.

Spoiler: Change Log

v0.92 (Build 20180429)
NEW: Menu Category > Select - Select a category from the list of categories for the selected theme. The list is sorted by category.Keys handled: Enter, Esc
NEW: Menu Memo > Select - Select a memo from the list for the selected theme. The list is sorted by memo title. Keys handled: Enter, Esc
NEW: Menu Search > Recent - Search for an item from the search history list
NEW: Menu Search > Go to > ID - Go to an item Category or Memo by ID
NEW: Menu Settings - Editor (dialog which enables to set the font family, size, & tab size) (replaces Menu > Tools > Font size & Tab size), Clipboard History (to set its use), Markup (moved from Menu > Tools)
NEW: Menu Theme > Select - Select a theme from the list of themes for the current database. The list is sorted by theme. Keys handled: Enter, Esc
NEW: Menu View > Clipboard - Show the text content of the clipboard (if any)
NEW: Menu View > Clipboard History - Build a list for text copied from the editor. Item can be selected and copied to the clipboard
NEW: Markup map file part of the asset folder - is used when Look4How is started first time
NEW: Markup place holders - (enclosed in hash tags) LINE to show the current line, RB to replace blank, LINERB show current line with blanks replaced
NEW: Markup place holders - CODE /CODE (enclosed in brackets) converted into HTML tags CODE and /CODE and other examples (see file Markup.map)
NEW: Tasks - Added field Status; Reworked the layout, export HTML & text format to accomodate the status
UPD: Menu Memo > Delete - After deleting the memo, scroll to the first entry in the items list
UPD: Menu Memo > Move - Category list sorted; Menu title changed from Memo Move to Move
UPD: Menu Search > Find item changed - When items found, the Tools Search Tab is shown
UPD: Menu Theme > Export > HTML Navigation - Exporting to folder <application folder>\export\theme (the theme name blanks are stripped out)
UPD: Search history list increased items from 10 to 20
UPD: All Tools layout redesigned. Form style Utility is used instead Undecorated. Close button replaced by system close icon [X] (top right) of the window
UPD: Documentation (PDF format)
FIX: Menu Memo > Rename - Wrong category if no category selected prior rename - ensure memo category is set
FIX: Menu Theme > Export > HTML Navigation - Look4HowUploader refreshes remote file list after upload; No local file list is fetch is folder is empty
Various improvements

Screenshots Look4How Tools

 

[rwblinn]

Look4How Viewer for the Raspberry Pi

The goal is to view the content of Look4How databases (SQLite) on a Raspberry Pi by using B4J and the Liberica JDK.
This application is just out of curiosity if the Liberica JDK can be used with B4J.
The item (category, memo) content to be displayed as plain text because the WebKit is (currently) not supported by the Liberica JDK v10 (this might change, watch the Liberica developments).
The B4J UI application runs in full screen, is bit slow but manageable.

B4J Soure Code attached.
Note: The sqlite-raspberry.jar is required to run on the Raspberry Pi. Copy the jar to the B4J additional libraries folder. Can be requested via email.

Snapshot UI with Look4How Database B4JHowTo

Read more including Liberica JDK installation instructions.

What's Next: Look4How Viewer using ABMaterial running on the Raspberry Pi.

 

[Erel]

The goal is to view the content of Look4How databases (SQLite) on a Raspberry Pi by using B4J and the Liberica JDK.

Very interesting. Worth making a post about it in the tutorials forum.

 

[rwblinn]

Look4How Viewer WebApp using ABMaterial

The goal is to view the content of Look4How databases (SQLite) via webbrowser using ABMaterial framework.
The application has been tested on a PC, Smart Phone and also on Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 2B with good results.

Source Code attached.
Note: Not the full ABMaterial files are included, only the B4J project files to share as an example.

Snapshot UI with Look4How Database B4JHowTo and selected theme B4J Snippets

What's Next: Enhancing this solution: Search sidebar ActionButtons Search & Search History, Search History modal sheet with ABMList, copy content on headless Raspberry Pi ...

 

[rwblinn]

Look4How Debian Stretch PC

Tested Look4How running on a 10 years old Toshiba L350 notebook with Debian Stretch.
Used Debian Stretch version 4.9.0.6-686-pae as a base.
After setting up Debian Stretch, installed the openjfx:

sudo apt-get install openjfx

resulting in openjdk version 1.8.0_171.
In addition installed and started the B4J Bridge (see screenshot bottom right).

Notes

• Look4How runs in a window as designed, which I did not expect (SURPRISE) as thought would behave like a Raspberry Pi, i.e. full screen.
• The item webview in Look4How is also working.
• Tested some other B4J UI applications with different sizes and views. All running ok ... so far.
• Using this notebook with Debian Stretch to mainly experiment with Node-RED and Tinkerforge... but as B4J UI applications can be run as well, will include in the experiments
• ... would be interesting to know if also working under Ubuntu, Lubuntu or other Linux OS.