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Introduction
   Program Overview
   List of Features
   What's New

Creating software without scripting
   Getting Started Tutorials
   Some Techniques and Tips
   Creating puzzles without scripting
   Creating third person games
   Creating interactive 360-degree panoramas
   Creating software for PSP
   Creating software for iPhone and iPod touch

Creating software with VBScript
(Full Edition only)
   Introduction to VBScript
   Language Reference
   Objects Reference
   VBScript Techniques and Tips
   Sample Source Code

Pictures, sounds and music
   => Creating Pictures
   Music Maker help
   Creative Painter quick help
   Sounds and Music
   Videos, Icons, Cursors

Plugins (Full Edition only)
   Overview of the Plugins System
   Downloading/Uploading Plugins
   The Plugin Properties window
   About the Flash Plugin

Tips
   User Interface Tips
   Reducing the project size
   End-User System Requirements

Advanced tutorials
(Full Edition only)
   Creating a custom startup menu
   Using ActiveX components (ocx)

Troubleshooting
   Common issues and solutions
   Known bugs and limitations

About us
   Credits
   Website
   Contacting us
   Helping out

"iPhone" and "iPod" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Inc. "PSP" is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

As of the release date of this version, Adventure Maker is NOT affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc., Sony Corporation, SCEI, or any Apple or Sony subsidiary.

USING CUSTOM ACTIVEX COMPONENTS WITH ADVENTURE MAKER (FOR ADVANCED USERS) (FULL EDITION ONLY, WINDOWS ONLY)

The advanced users can greatly expand the power of Adventure Maker by using custom ActiveX components (OCX files) inside their projects.

  
I.QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
   - Where to find the components
   - How to install the components on my computer
   - How to install the components on the end-user computer
   - How to use a component inside Adventure Maker
   - How to modify a component property
   - How to call a component method
   - How to intercept the events of a component inside Adventure Maker
   - How to know the ProgID that corresponds to a given OCX?

II. DESCRIPTION OF EACH FUNCTION
   - Action.AddComponent
   - Action.RemoveComponent
   - Action.IsComponentInstalled
   - Action.DoesComponentExist

I. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Where to find the components:
The activeX components that you can use in Adventure Maker are files that have the .ocx extension. They are usually located inside your c:\Windows\System32 folder (or  c:\Windows\System if you are using Windows9x), but they can be located anywhere on your hard disk (if you open the System32 folder with Explorer, you will see that there are a lot of them).

You can either use existing components (some are free, others are very expensive), or you can create your own (most object-oriented Windows programming languages allow doing so). If you download some components from the Internet, make sure NOT to download ActiveX components for web pages, because they are usually not suited for applications or games. If you don't know, just download components that work with Visual Basic 5 or 6, which are fully compatible with Adventure Maker.

  
How to install the components on my computer:
In order to be able to use them, the components must be installed on your computer. Some components are probably already installed (like the Flash component), but others may require you to install them manually. For example, if you download an OCX file from the Internet, it is very likely that you need to install it manually.

The are two ways to install a component:

1. First way: just copy the ocx component that you wish to install into the "Plugins" sub-folder of the Adventure Maker folder, and then restart Adventure Maker. The program will automatically install all the ocx components that are located inside the "Plugins" sub-folder.

2. Second way: click the Start Menu, click "Run...", type the following code and then click OK:
regsvr32 "FULLPATH"
where you must replace FULLPATH with the path of your OCX file (e.g. c:\Windows\System32\MyComponent.ocx). If it works, you should get a message like "DllRegisterServer succeeded". Otherwise, if you get a different message, there are three main possibilities and solutions:
   - The file was not found -> double-check the FULLPATH.
   - The file has been already registered -> good news, it's ok.
   - The file does not need to be registered -> bad news, it is likely that you cannot use that component with Adventure Maker.

  
How to install the components on the end-user computer:
When you distribute your project, you must make sure that the components are installed on the end-user computer. Adventure Maker allows you to include the components in the distribution package of your projects. To do so, just add the corresponding OCX files to the list of files that is under the "System Files" tab of the "Distribution Options" window of Adventure Maker. At the end of the installation, the OCX files will be automatically copied to the Windows\System32 folder and registered.

  
How to use a component inside Adventure Maker:
First of all you need to know the ProgID that corresponds to the ActiveX component that you have installed. For example, the ProgID of the Flash component is "ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash". If the component has been developed by you with Visual Basic, the ProgID will follow the PROJECTNAME.CONTROLNAME convention.

Once you know the ProgID, you can load the control by executing the following VBScript code (from everywhere in your project):
Action.AddComponent "PROGID", "COMPONENTNAME"
where you must replace PROGID with the actual ProgID, and COMPONENTNAME with any string of your choice (it will be used to identify the component), provided that it does not contain any spaces or special characters.

To make the control become visible (default is hidden), you can then use the following code:
Component("COMPONENTNAME").Visible = True

To change the size of your component, you can use the following code:
Component("COMPONENTNAME").Move LEFT*15, TOP*15, WIDTH*15, HEIGHT*15
where you must replace LEFT, TOP, WIDTH and HEIGHT with the actual values in pixels (note that those values are multiplied my 15 in order to be expressed in "twips": 1pixel=15twips).

If you are familiar with Visual Basic, you will notice that you can modify the properties or call the methods of a component in the very same way as you modify the properties or call the methods of a Visual Basic object (like the Label, TextBox, PictureBox, etc.).

To remove the component, you can use the following code:
Action.RemoveComponent "COMPONENTNAME"

  
How to modify a component property:
To modify a property of a component (such as its color, position, etc.), just use the following syntax:
Component("COMPONENTNAME").PROPERTYNAME = NEWVALUE

Here are some examples of properties that you can usually modify in that way:
Align, Cancel, CausesValidation, Container, Default, DragIcon, DragMode, Enabled, Height, HelpContextID, Left, Name, Parent, Tag, ToolTipText, Top, Visible, WhatsThisHelpID, Width

For example, if you want to change the position of the component named "MyComponent" to x=100, y=230, you should type the following code (note that you must always multiply the numbers by 15, because of the units system that is not in pixels):
Component("MyComponent").Left = 100 * 15
Component("MyComponent").Top = 230 * 15

Important: if you want to modify a property that belongs to the component only (i.e. a property that is not listed above), you must use the ".Object" keyword, as shown in the following example:
Component("COMPONENTNAME").Object.PROPERTYNAME = NEWVALUE

For example, some of the properties that belong to the Flash component are: FlashVars, FrameNum, Loop, Menu, Movie, Playing, Quality, Quality2, ReadyState, SAlign, SWRemote, TotalFrames, WMode.

  
How to call a component method:
To call a method of a component, just use the following syntax (note that the number of parameters depends on the concerned method):
Component("COMPONENTNAME").METHODNAME PARAMETER1,PARAMETER2

In case the method has a return value, use the following syntax instead:
RetValue = Component("COMPONENTNAME").METHODNAME(PARAMETER1, PARAMETER2)

Some of the available methods are: Drag, Move, SetFocus, ShowWhatsThis, ZOrder

Again, if the method belongs to the particular component, you must use the ".Object" keyword, as shown below:
Component("COMPONENTNAME").Object.METHODNAME PARAMETER1, PARAMETER2

or, if the method has a return value:
RetValue = Component("COMPONENTNAME").Object.METHODNAME(PARAMETER1, PARAMETER2)

For example, if you want to call the "LoadMovie" method of the Flash component named "Flash1", you should type:
Component("Flash1").Object.LoadMovie 0, "c:\filename.swf"

Some of the methods that belong to the flash component are: Back, CurrentFrame, FlashVersion, Forward, FrameLoaded, GetVariable, GoToFrame, IsPlaying, LoadMovie, Pan, PercentLoaded, Play, Rewind, SetZoomRect, Stop, StopPlay, Zoom

Read the Flash component documentation for details on each of those methods.

  
How to intercept the events of a component inside Adventure Maker:
To intercept the events of a component, just add the following code to the VBScript Global Procedures:

Sub COMPONENTNAME_EVENTNAME(p)
      CODE
End Sub

where you must replace COMPONENTNAME with the name that identifies the instance of the component (read the description of the AddComponent function for details), EVENTNAME with the name of the event that you wish to intercept and CODE with the code that you wish to execute when the event is intercepted.

For example, if you want to say "Hello" every time that the player clicks on the component created under the name of  "MyComponent", you should add the following procedure to your VBScript Global Procedures:

Sub MyComponent_Click(p)
   MsgBox "Hello"
End Sub

Another example: if you have created a Flash component under the name of "Flash1" and you want to trap the "FSCommand" event that it raises, you should add the following procedure to your VBScript Global Procedures:

Sub MyComponent1_FSCommand(p)
      Msgbox p(0).Value & NEWLINE & p(1).Value
End Sub

Note that you can replace the variable "p" with any variable of your choice. It will become an array that will contain all the parameters returned by the event. For example, p(0).Name will be the name of the first parameter, p(1).Name will be the name of the second parameter, etc., whereas p(0).Value will be the value of the first parameter, p(1).Value will be the value of the second parameter, etc.

If you don't know what parameters a given event returns, you can use the following procedure to get a list of all the parameters with their corresponding values:

Sub COMPONENTNAME_EVENTNAME(p)
   Dim i
   Dim s
   Do Until i >= p.Count
      s = s & p(i).Name & " (value = " & p(i).Value & ")"
      s = s & NEWLINE
      i = i + 1
   Loop
   MsgBox "This event has " & CStr(p.Count) & " parameters."
   MsgBox "Those parameters are: " & NEWLINE & NEWLINE & s
End Sub

where you must replace COMPONENTNAME with the name that identifies the instance of the component and EVENTNAME with the name of the event that you wish to analyse (do not replace the keyword "NEWLINE", because it is a constant that means "line feed and carriage return"!).

  
How to know the ProgID that corresponds to a given OCX?
If the component has been developed by you with Visual Basic, the ProgID will follow the PROJECTNAME.CONTROLNAME convention. If someone has created the component for you, you can ask him to tell you the ProgID. Otherwise, if you know nothing about the OCX except the filename, you must follow the instructions below to retrieve its corresponding ProgID.

Note that you must first install the OCX on your computer. To do so, read the answer to the question "How to install the components on my computer" above.

After having installed the ocx, you have mainly two ways to retrieve its ProgID:

1. First way: download the freeware named "ProgID Browser". You can find a copy here, under the "Windows" section. The program will show you all the ocx components that are installed on your computer. Just find the right one and you will read the ProgID from the panel at the top of the program main window.

Note: The program requires no installation, but you need the files COMCTL32.ocx and TLBINF32.DLL to be installed on your computer. If you don't have them, you can download them from the same page where you downloaded the program.

2. Second way: manually find the ocx ProgID on the Windows Registry. To do so, click the Start Menu, click "Run...", type regedit and then click OK. When the Registry Editor window appears, press F3 and search for your OCX (enter the filename of the OCX and then click OK). For example, you can search for MyComponent.ocx. If you cannot find the file, it is very likely that it has not been installed properly (in that case, read the answer to the question "How to install the components on my computer" above). The file should be located in the registry under a folder that has a long name, like "{02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B}". That folder should contain a sub-folder named "ProgID". You will find the ProgID there. 

II. DESCRIPTION OF EACH FUNCTION