HyperCard Address Stack Conversion

J. Landman Gay jacque at hyperactivesw.com
Fri May 21 16:05:38 EDT 2004


On 5/20/04 11:37 PM, WebSense at aol.com wrote:

> I have reviewed the Runtime Revolution archives, visited 
> numerous Runtime Revolution related Web sites, and talked to 
> several Runtime Revolution consulting firms as well as Runtime 
> Revolution technical support.  No one has been able to offer a 
> commercial product or an off-the-shelf solution.

Revolution is a developer's tool, so any solution would have to be in 
the form of a custom-made application or set of stacks.

> I was led to believe that I could use Runtime Revolution to 
> migrate these HyperCard Address stacks from my Macintosh to my 
> ThinkPad.  After downloading and installing Runtime Revolution 
> 2.2, I was able to convert my HyperCard Address stacks to 
> Runtime Revolution files.  Prior to conversion I compacted the 
> stacks three times.  However, I encountered several problems as 
> described below:
> 
> 1. I tried printing an individual card using the Revolution File-
>    Print Card command.  Revolution printed the card, but the 
>    result was not readable.  Revolution appears to be printing the 
>    text multiple times with a slight offset, making the text 
>    unreadable due to overlaid printing.  Either that, or Revolution 
>    has a problem with the fonts.

This happens when a transparent image is laid over or under a text 
field. When Rev imports the address book's background image, it creates 
it with the white areas transparent. This interferes with the field's 
text display. The solution is to either remove the image entirely, or 
recreate it in a different form that doesn't overly the text. If the 
graphics are not important to you, it is easiest to just delete the image.

> 
> 2. I tried generating a report using the Revolution Tools-Report 
>    Builder command.  However, I was not able to print a report.  
>    When I click the Print Report button at the bottom right-hand 
>    side of the dialogue box, nothing happens.

It's hard to say what happened without being there, but this is usually 
easy to fix. Had you saved the stack to disk? Sometimes with imported HC 
stacks, you have to set the hcAddressing property to false for some 
actions to work properly.

> 
> 3. The tried to search the card stack using the Revolution Edit-
>    Find and Replace command.  This command opened the Find 
>    and Replace dialogue window.  However, when I enter a text 
>    string in the Find field, and press the Find button, the system 
>    always reports "0 objects found".  This is true regardless of 
>    whether I am searching the This Card, This Stack, or This 
>    Stack File.

There is a bug in this menu item somewhere; I've had trouble with it too 
occasionally. However, the built-in "find" commands that are imported 
with the address stack will work fine. You may need to alter their 
keyboard commands or put in a button for it, since the HC menus aren't 
imported with the rest of the stack.

> 
> 4. I have inspected the scripts within the stack, and all of the ones 
>    that I need are working.  The problems that I am experiencing 
>    are limited solely to printing cards, generating reports, and 
>    searching cards for text strings.

None of these are show-stoppers, and most are very easy to implement. 
You do, however, have to do a bit of coding.

> 
> Given the above problems, is Runtime Revolution the right product 
> for the job?  If so, how do I get around these problems?  If not, do 
> you have any recommendations for a product that can satisfy my 
> requirements?  Again, the requirements are very simple as shown 
> below:
> 
> 1.    Convert HyperCard "Address" stacks from the Macintosh to the PC
> 2.    Provide the ability to create, delete, modify, and search cards
> 3.    Provide the ability to print a single card or to print an entire 
>       report of cards within the stack
> 
> If you have a solution to this problem, please post your solution or 
> send me an email.  I am willing to pay a reasonable price for an 
> off-the-shelf solution, but I am reluctant to engage in a consulting 
> contract to do customized work.  I would prefer to use a standard 
> vendor product. 

I don't think you will find any pre-made product for this, as the demand 
is very low. I've done a few address stack conversions myself for 
individual clients, and the task is very straightforward. What I've done 
in the past is create a stack that has the ability to import the 
HyperCard address book data from an existing HC stack. The client then 
clones the original on disk, opens it, and imports data from one of the 
HC address stacks. The process is repeated until all the user's stacks 
are duplicated.

Another option for you might be to use the Power Tools stack that ships 
with HyperCard. There is a text exporting utility in there that will 
write out all the card data to a text file using delimiters of your 
choice. You can then import that text file into any PC application or 
database you own. This solution would be totally free.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com


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