3D
3D Photo Gallery (Part 1)
3D Photo Gallery (Part 2)

Audio
Poor Man's MIDI
Make A Metronome
iPod Tricks (Part 1)
iPod Tricks (Part 2)
iPod Tricks (Part 3)
Laugh Track Machine
Audio Player with Reverb
Shepard Melody
RB Phone Home
Build a Drum Machine

Custom Controls and Windows
Double Click Listbox
Draggable Metal Window
Double Click Canvas
Custom Buttons
Custom Buttons Part II
iTunes-style Listboxes
Custom Controls


General RB
Scrolling Windows
Using Mesage Dialogs
Case-Sensitive Word Finder
Introduction to Stacks
Wiggle Window
JPEG in PDF
Listbox Checkboxes
Background Applications
Listbox Auto-Find
Virtual Volumes
Time Tracker
Software Distribution (Part 1)
Software Distribution (Part 2)
Software Distribution (Part 3)
Software Distribution (Part 4)
Exceptions
Tips and Tricks
Text Clippings Made Easy

Graphics
Drawing a Simple Gradient
The SpriteSurface: Space Game
Image Spinner
Cropping Graphics (Part 1)
Cropping Graphics (Part 2)
Cropping Graphics (Part 3)
Cropping Graphics (Part 4)
Shimmer Graphics
Lissajous Figures
Simple Screen Capture
Vector Graphics
Kaleidoscope Images
Stegonography
Spirals!
Image Table
RB Magnifying Lens
Screen Capture
Color Picker Tutorial

Hacks
Ghost Grab
Speedy Mouse Extension
iTunes Plugins
iTunes Skinner

Mac OS X
Global Hot Key Event (Carbon Events)
Login Welcomer (Carbon Events)
Add/Remove Buttons
Resizable Sheets
Mac OS X Preferences Window
Using Sheets in REALbasic
Build a Bundle (Part 1)
Build a Bundle (Part 2)
Dock Your Passwords
Mac OS X Debugging
REALbasic Mac OS X Icon Tutorial
Animate Your Dock
RB and the Command Line

Menus
Window Menu
Templates Menu
Listbox Menu

Novelty
Guessing Game
Calendar Trivia
Tile Mixer
Zip Code Finder
Happy Valentine's Day
Merlin Simulator (Part 1)
Merlin Simulator (Part 2)
Merlin Simulator (Part 3)
Buzzword Machine
AppleSoft BASIC

Printing
Print to PDF

Registration
Registration Code Validation
Network Registration Codes

Resources
Picture Extractor (Part 1)
Picture Extractor (Part 2)

Serial
Caller ID (Part 1)
Caller ID (Part 2)
Caller ID (Part 3)

Speech
Speech Recognition

Socket Communication
Easy Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
MacPAD Version Checking
Display Web Image In Canvas
HTML IMG Tags
Version Tracking
Even Smarter Instant Messaging
Web Tiler
JavaScript and REALbasic
Stock Ticker (Part I)
Stock Ticker (Part 2)
AIM Mate

XML Manipulation
Simple XML Introduction

Video
Big Brother Video Capture

Note: All articles without a byline were written by Erick Tejkowski. When cleaning the site I removed them because the code differed from page to page, and I have yet to put them back in.

REALbasic for Dummies
by Erick Tejkowski

$19.99 @ Amazon

Files are in Stuffit 6.5 or earlier, or ZIP format.
Download Stuffit Expander

Tell us about a bad link.

iPod Trickery with REALbasic Part 3 06-20-03

Have you ever wondered how all those neat iPod utilities work? This week we'll continue our multi-week tutorial about using REALbasic to have some fun with your iPod. This week we'll finish up by showing how to view system information about a connected iPod.

If you'd like to follow along with this week's project, download a copy of last week's finished project and open it with REALbasic. You can also go back and read the original tutorial in case you missed it.

Enhance the Interface
Open Window1 and add a PushButton labeled "Info" to it. Uncheck the Enabled property of the button. The updated Window1 interface looks like this:

Next, create a new window by selecting File-New Window. This window will function as a drawer, so change its Frame property to "Drawer Window". (REALbasic 5.1 required). Open the new window (named Window2) and add an EditField control to it. Resize the EditField and its MultiLine property checkbox in the Properties window. Here's what my Window2 looks like:

Add the Code
Last week we added code to thread the iPod discovery and showed you how to copy files from the iPod. This week, we'll look at how to access some important system information. Like previous editions of this tutorial, this one is very simple. It turns out that each iPod stores its system information in a hidden text file. All you have to do is open the text file, read in its contents, and display it in a controll like our EditField. Basic stuff here. One small addition is that we'll want the drawer to open if its closed, and close if its open.

First, we'll want to enable the "Info" button when an iPod is found. Double click PushButton1 and locate this line of code

PushButton2.enabled=TRUE

Add one line of code immediately after this PushButton2 code to enable PushButton4.

PushButton2.enabled=TRUE
PushButton4.enabled=TRUE

Next, add the following code to the Action event of PushButton4.

dim f as folderItem dim textin as textinputStream dim s as string if draweropen then //close the drawer window2.close draweropen=false else //find the system info f = iPods(PopupMenu1.listindex + 1).child("iPod_Control").child("Device").child("SysInfo") if f<>nil and f.exists then textin = f.openastextFile s = textin.readall textin.close //open the drawer window2.showWithin self,2 window2.editField1.text = s draweropen=true end end if

As you can tell from this code, the system information is found in the file MyiPod/iPod_control/Device/SysInfo. One other new item is the ShowWithin method. When you call this for a Drawer window, it behaves as a drawer. The number 2 indicates that it will open on the right edge of its parent window.

Conclusion
That's it! Choose Debug-Run to see your work. Don't forget to mount an iPod before you test it, otherwise this project won't do much. Your Mac doesn't have FireWire, but the one in the other room does? You can always share an iPod over the network just like any other hard drive. Download the code for this week's project here. See you next time!

---

Please support ResExcellence by Visiting our Sponsors. One click makes a difference.

Download REALbasic and create your own software!