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#11: Creating your own wizards
You may have noticed the "Wizard" menu at the top of the GHS window. This
menu offers a collection of smart dialog box systems that help you perform
several tasks. These wizards are arranged in categories such
as "Geometry" and "Conditions". There's also a catchall category
where "All" wizards in the system are listed alphabetically. After opening
a category, you can select a wizard and "Run" it.
Did you know that you can create your own wizards and add them to
the "Wizard" menu? A wizard is just a run file located in the GHS program
directory with an appropriate file name and extension.
Normally a wizard run file defines and executes a series of TEMPLATE dialog
boxes that gather information, and then accomplishes tasks when buttons tied to
MACROs are pushed by the user. If you
are not familiar with the TEMPLATE command, it is fully documented in the
TEMplate help topic (use the Help pulldown menu to access this, or type
HELP TEMPLATE at the command prompt). Then take a stab at writing a simple
wizard run file, either from scratch or by copying and pasting code from
existing wizards. (See below for an example.)
Once you have a new wizard run file that you'd like to test, give it a file
name that matches how you want its description to appear in the "Wizard" menu
list. At the end of the file name, there should be the extension ".WIZ"
followed by a two-letter category code. The following codes are pre-defined:
GF - Geometry
CR - Criteria
TA - Tables
LI - Light Ship
CO - Conditions
SA - Salvage
MY - My wizards
You can either assign your new wizard an extension that will group it with
others in its category (for example, "Arrange Cargo.WIZCO" will be put in
the Conditions listing) or else end your wizard name with ".WIZMY" to put
it in your own personal "My wizards" collection. You can also categorize
"My wizards" by putting them in a separate Library Path directory, which
allows them to have other extensions besides ".WIZMY" (e.g. ".WIZGF").
The Library Path can be set using the File -> Setup paths -> User library
menu selection or the MESSAGE LIBPATH command.
Once you've got your wizard working, you can share it with other
GHS users so they can put it in their own GHS program directory. If you'd
like to keep private the inner workings of your wizard and prevent others
from editing it, you can do so by coding your wizard file using the
COPY /CODE command before distributing it.
`Simple wizard example
variable wantcg=1
macro LE
if "{GF}"="" then error "No geometry file has been read"
variable (str) s
if {wantcg}<>0 then set s="/CG"
load (*) edit {s}
/
template LoadEdit "Ready to edit loads"
"Current geometry file: {GF}"
"Include Condition Graphics_" check wantcg
"Edit loads" exit LE
"Cancel" exit
/
.LoadEdit
end
Copyright (C) 2012
Creative Systems, Inc.