Idea: Random activity program for windows

[stonedofmoo]

Hi all

I've been trying to find a program for windows that makes decisions for me and my wife from a pre-determined list of activities we wish to write. Without going into detail we've been married a while and it's for bringing some excitement and spice to our life :-)

What we'd love is a program that randomly picks from programmed selections for us. It needs to be full screen or large window 1080p, adaptable so we can easily write the contents without being a coder, and ideally each screen needs to allow us to apply a JPEG picture for each randomly displayed choice because as is said, a picture paints a thousand words.

I guess what I'm looking for is this. Firstly I put a basic flowchart together and attached it to this post.

1st screen title page with customisable text and pic. OK button to continue

2nd screen choice between 2 options, in this case our names, customisable text and pic for each choice so a pic of us and our name. You either select me or her by clicking our picture or name, OR press a 'random' button and the app chooses one of us (and therefore the flowchart path). The result of the choice is highlighted and then pressing OK advances you to screen 3

3rd screen another choice between 2 options. Customisable text and pic for each choice so a pic of us and our choice text. You make the choice between the two options by clicking on that picture/text and that moves you onto the next screen (and path)

4th screen choose between another 2 options. Customisable text and pic for each choice so a pic of us and our choice text. You make the choice between the two options by clicking on that picture/text and that moves you onto that path and the next screen where you get a random activity from the flowchat path you just picked.

5th screen is where you press a button to randomly select an activity from a list that can be pre-programmed somehow. The selection would only come from the path you selected with your earlier choices.
For the list of random activities this could be from an excel spreadsheet in the app folder or whatever else would work for the designer. My only requirements would be the text we type as activities and is displayed when the app is running is easy and clear to read, and each activity allows us to display at least one picture such as JPEG from a local folder location.

There would also be a button here to either continue by randomly picking another activity or starting again at step 2, or exiting the program

Does any of this sound feasible? It sounds easy in my head, but I wouldn't know :-)

Regards

[mouser]

This sounds like it might be an excellent candidate for a coder to take on for our NANY 2017 event..

I really like the idea of a generic tool that lets you design a create an arbitrary "flowchart", where each item has an image and text, and then walks you through the process of choosing a path through it.

If no one else codes it, I might.

[stonedofmoo]

Yes it has many uses :-)
The key I think is getting the random bit right when the app selects an activity from your predefined list.

[stonedofmoo]

No takers? 

[mouser]

Have patience.. I suggest you post a link to this thread in the NANY 2017 idea thread: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=42977.0

[stonedofmoo]

Good idea, I've done that. Hopefully it sparks someones imagination

[stonedofmoo]

Any takers guys?

[stonedofmoo]

Still hoping someone could put this together for me and others.

[skwire]

I've started preliminary work on this.

[stonedofmoo]

Brilliant!

[skwire]

Please give this very early proof-of-concept a try:  http://skwire.dcmemb...snacks/MooChoose.zip

Some notes:

• Right now, it's hardcoded to look in the "images" folder to determine the paths it can take.  Future revs will allow you to choose which folder it starts from.  This way, you could easily make many different "flow paths" to choose from.  For instance, you could make one that suits a particular set of flow paths related to a game or whatever.
• The current hardcoded path notwithstanding, the application is designed to work off an open-ended folder structure with open-ended image filenames.  You can name your folders and filenames whatever you'd like.  However, for each "choice" folder, the application will only display the first image file it finds.  It should support the following formats: jpg/jpeg, bmp, png, gif, & tiff.  Double-clicking an image brings you into that choice folder and displays the first image in any subfolders it finds.
• If there are no subfolders, it assumes that this is the final folder and displays all images found in it.
• I know this sounds confusing but please study the included folder structure and I think it'll become clear.  I based it off of your example so that should help.

Please let me know what you think.

[stonedofmoo]

Hi there

Yep I see how it works. Helped me to change some of the image files to I can follow the path
For example once choosing him or her, the first choice for us would be indoor or outdoor activity so I named the image pics to include that.

As a rough draft it's a great start, just don't forget I'll need to be able to type in text as well as have a picture(s) to support the text.

Best regards
Chris

[skwire]

Please redownload:  http://skwire.dcmemb...snacks/MooChoose.zip

With this version, you can create a text file (.txt) in the same folder as a given image and it will display up to four lines of text.  Due to limitation of the listview, please try to keep the lines short-ish.  Just play with it and you'll see what I mean.

Is this what you had in mind?

[stonedofmoo]

Thanks, OK so looking at it yes and no. Being able to enter text for each choice is what I need certainly, but also the screens themselves would ideally be dressed up and have a heading, maybe background pics etc as it's as much about it being a visual thing to get excited about as it is the random nature of the choices.

For example, after choosing who is picking the activity on screen one, I'd imagine the first choice would be will the activity be indoors or outdoors leading to those particular tree's of activity on my flow chart. It would be great if the screen could have some nice graphics, coloured backgrounds that kind of thing so it looked something like this attached.

Regards
Chris

[skwire]

Somebody else might have to take a crack at this because your vision is probably best done in something like a web browser which, unfortunately, is not my strong suit. 

[stonedofmoo]

That's OK, I appreciate you having a go. I can mock up some pics if it helps anyone work out what is needed.
Failing that, I'd best learn to code lol

[mouser]

May I suggest that if anyone else decides to implement this, they adopt Skwire's "api" of using folder paths and file naming convention.  That way you could have multiple implementations of this idea that share the same underlying user "data".
As far as a browser-based version of this idea, it would make a fun challenge for a new javascript/php coder.