Rendering IQ Data to Java Cell Phone -- demo attached

Submitted by JJSlote on 2009/12/02 16:07

Greetings

As promised, an improved approach to rendering IQ data on mobile devices. I've redacted the previous script, and moved on to the terrific shareware program MJBook from MJSoft in Russia. MJBook creates the J2ME app from a text file that could easily be generated in InfoQube.

The .jad and .jar files are attached in IQDemo.zip . You can download and install them on your phone, or run them on the PC, in MicroEmulator, through the File menu. The .jar is rather large, because it includes several full-size images. Typically, MJBook uses ImageMagick to compress images for the device, but I've bypassed that capability for this demo.

An animated GIF is also attached, showing a session of IQDemo under MicroEmulator. The animation shows just the screen section, not the phone buttons clicked. You'll notice the links to "Items" tend to land a couple of lines beyond their intended destination; this may be because of font sizes, etc. Also attached is the text file from which the app is generated. MJBook generates a table of contents, with links of course, from headers in the text.

I think an export to text file would be a great option for IQ; calculated user fields would then provide the headers for the TOC. MJ's built-in TOC needs improvement, to break out the top-level categories, i.e. jump straight to Contacts links without scrolling through other groups.

Enjoy the preview.

Jerome

Update 12/17: A demo of reading IQ data, from a command-line VBS script, is attached as IQ-VBS-Read-Demo.txt .

It uses the ADO Recordset mechanism discussed below. To run it, edit it to refer to your own local test file, then save it with a .VBS extension.

Files:

IQ-to-Cell.txt

IQDemo1.gif

IQDemo.txt

IQDemo.zip

IQ-VBS-Read-Demo.txt

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Wow Jerome...

Pretty fancy stuff in there. Is there anything IQ could do to make your life easier, such as export to a tab-delimited file? (avoiding the HTML massaging)

Edit 12/09: comment and reply refer to previous script in Tinybook, since removed. For an MJBook app, the ideal improvement would be Export to Text.

>Pretty fancy stuff in there. Is there anything IQ could do to make your life easier, such as export to a tab-delimited file? (avoiding the HTML massaging)

Greetings Pierre

Thanks for asking that question! I'm actually hoping to move in the other direction, to a Java database which will retain field distinctions. Hoping that it would read IQ's Excel export, making the present massaging unnecessary.

I think the most useful enhancement for IQ in the download process would be to enable any IQ export request to be saved to a configuration file and run from a command line or script, even while the full IQ is active. Notice this script exploits that capability in HtmlAsText.

And the export spec should be able to stand on its own, with a self-contained query, as an alternative to being derived from the active grid and the user's manual selection process. Also an export to flat XML, which can easily be filtered by us amateur scripters, will probably be needed somewhere down the line.

Rgds

Jerome

You should be able to do this already:

Create a grid that contains the required items and field values. Name it so you know that this is not a grid to use, but only used for I/O. Uncheck "Show in Toolbar"
Create an ODBC connection to that Grid (I can help for that and will soon add a function so IQ can do this for you. Just ask and I'll do it !)
Your script can now access this dataset (createobject ADO.Recordset ...)

>Your script can now access this dataset (createobject ADO.Recordset ...)

So it would not require Access or Excel, from the sounds of it. We could read data records directly into fields from a command-line script.

No need to detour from mainline development. I'll try and figure it out from the Control Panel and report back. (Now that I've almost mastered that Zip thing you suggested.) Thanks.

Jerome

Correct, a simple command script can do it. Google vbscript, createobject, ado:

I'll add in File>>Properties, the connection string which you can use.

>Correct, a simple command script can do it. Google vbscript, createobject, ado:

Success! A demo of a VBS read using ADO is attached at top post, and here.

This method will indeed be much more powerful than converting from an HTML export. For the final script leading to MJBook, it'll be easy to make additional passes against the file for various selection criteria, and to build a table of contents. I can also remove fields unneeded in the MJBook source text. It's far more granular, as well as more fully automated.

Pierre, thanks for the guidance.

Jerome

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

[edit]

Predictive Dialer -- originally linked to www.livevox.com

[/edit]

SPAM

[quote=JJSlote]

>Correct, a simple command script can do it. Google vbscript, createobject, ado:

Success! A demo of a VBS read using ADO is attached at top post, and here.

Pierre, thanks for the guidance.

Jerome

[/quote]

Cool, I have been wanting to play with this for a while as an export route for tools like FreeMind and RTM. Even better to have someone blaze the trail for me :). Some other related stuff if you haven't seen it:

This talks about getting the ODC file 7. Live Links to IQ Grids from Word and Excel

This talks about the structure of the file Smart Folders/Fields (Query Equations) - discussion and doc change suggestions

A little more on the structure Smart Fields

Also, note that the SNDB is actually an MA Access file. So the easiest way to figure things out is to open it in Access (make a copy). Then you can view everything and use its designer to create SQL queries. If you don't have Access you can use any SQL client with access drivers against the same file.

Happy hacking!

Impressive, Jerome. Thanks for sharing your work with us.

(I don't have a cell phone though... (!) I must be one of the last one on the planet. I own an Ipod touch someone gave me. I send IQ stuff to my device just by copying + pasting to Outlook and then syncing. Or... emailing.)

>(I don't have a cell phone though... (!) I must be one of the last one on the planet. I own an Ipod touch someone gave me. I send IQ stuff to my device just by copying + pasting to Outlook and then syncing. Or... emailing.)

Greetings Armando

I was very late to them as well. In early '08 I finally relented and activated a dollar-store Tracfone for use in apartment-hunting. Candy-bar style, not really for carrying around, and no PC connectivity. I kept portable reference data on a Palm Z22 PDA, synched with Outlook. The device fit in a back pocket, mounted in a leather checkbook case, with room remaining for the checks.

This year Tracfone offered a decent flip phone, the LG 600G. Camera, Bluetooth connectivity, but no Outlook synch. I'm seeing it now for $20 US, one fifth the price of the cheapest PDA. Service is only about $1/week plus actual usage. I upgraded, and the LG shortly supplanted the Palm in my checkbook case. (I did actually shop around for a back-pocket case that would hold both devices. Gave up this effort when a clerk told me: "I don't think so, sir. You're either going to need a smarter phone, or a man-bag.")

But no, it turns out the phone is quite smart enough, even if the built-in software is sparse. MJBook apps run well on the LG, although the demo sometimes chokes on the large image. For more capable feature phones, MJBook follows the web links in your data and dials the phone numbers. It even password-protects your app. A script link to InfoQube and I'll be way ahead of where I was with the Palm, for PDA data as well as mobile communication. Cell phones are great gizmos, but you've gotta control the costs.

Jerome

[quote=JJSlote]

I kept portable reference data on a Palm Z22 PDA, synched with Outlook. The device fit in a back pocket, mounted in a leather checkbook case, with room remaining for the checks.

[/quote]

Yup ! That's what I had too ! a nice little device, and pretty cheap for all it did.

Unfortunately, at the school where I used to teach, a child jumped on it... The palm z22 was/is pretty sturdy, but... Like always, there are limits to sturdiness.

[quote=JJSlote]

A script link to InfoQube and I'll be way ahead of where I was with the Palm, for PDA data as well as mobile communication. Cell phones are great gizmos, but you've gotta control the costs.

[/quote]

I wonder if a similar script would work with the ipod touch/ iphone. I could investigate the question but wonder if that would be time well spent considering our Mastermind Pierre has something in the pipe line for syncing.

----

What do you think, Pierre ? (Not about the mastermind qualifier, but about the script link for the ipod/iphone... ;) )

>I wonder if a similar script would work with the ipod touch/ iphone. I could investigate the question but wonder if that would be time well spent considering our Mastermind Pierre has something in the pipe line for syncing.

While I'm sure the iTouch will cheerfully run a J2ME app, your device should already be able to browse IQ-exported HTML files and Excel files. So a script isn't essential, and a two-way synch is on the horizon.

My phone can't even read a text file in a directory; all text has to be compiled into the app, at least for apps that are "untrusted." A self-contained book reader app is probably as close as I'm going to get to mobile data on this modest device, and a script is a must.

Yes, you're right.

The ODC link Pierre referred to could be handy though. Will think about it...

>I'd like to attach the .jad and .jar files this program creates, if Pierre is OK with enabling those extensions in the Forum.

Simply Zip your files (right-click>Send to>Compressed folder)

>Simply Zip your files (right-click>Send to>Compressed folder)

Thanks. All I can say is, it was late.