Questions on HW7-Fall07

Questions on HW7-Fall07

Ask questions on Homework 7 here:

Question: When you select some topics from the GUI, does the collage generator select one random picture from each directory and assemble them into a collage, or does it select multiple random pictures from each folder?

Based on the current wording of the homework, I'd said that only the former one is required while the latter one is good to do for extra credit. Dawn Finney

Question: By filter, do you mean alter the pictures somehow (posterize, negate?)?

Yes. Joel Uthe

Question: Do we have to restrict 3-5 topics chosen or can we allow them to select as many as they want?

You don't have to restrict them, as long as it is easy to use. Joel Uthe

Question: I'm having trouble with the concept of having them enter in the media path. Would you have 2 GUI's and then when they click a "submit" button then it opens up a 2nd GUI with the choices and such?

That would be a fine idea. Think about looking around at the JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(..) which allows them to type in a path and returns it as a string. Joel Uthe

In my picture folders: I get a list like Is this a directory?
0.)1.jpg
1.)2.jpg
2.)3.jpg
3.)4.jpg
4.)5.jpg
5.)Thumbs.db

Will there always be a Thumbs.db?

I'm guessing this is showing up because windows explorer puts it there when you view the files in thumbnail mode. There is a .isHidden() method in File that you can use to limit the files just to the ones you can see. Joel Uthe

Question: I'm confused about the placement of things. If I'm putting all of the collage generator into one class, what kinds of things should be in the main method?

public static void main(String [] args){
  myCollageGenerator cg = new myCollageGenerator(FileChooser.getMediaPath(""));}

This is what I have so far. Is it necessary to have anything else inside the main method?

There is no way to answer this for the question is way too specific to your code. The answer depends on what you wrote the rest of your homework. Dawn Finney.

Question: We are having trouble using objects that are defined and created in the GUI Constructor class within the inner class (for an action listener). We got this error: "local variable list1 is accessed from within inner class; needs to be declared final". We tried to declare the variable as public in the CollageGenerator class outside the constructor but it didn't fix the error. Help?

That should've fixed the problem. Are you redeclaring the variable inside the constructor again? That is the only thing I can think of right now that may cause it to still not work. Joel Uthe
Ditto what REMOVEDel said. Dawn Finney.

Question: I have created a JFileChooser that allows a user to pick any directory (directories only) he or she wants on his computer. Afterwards, I am putting the directory through a wrapper method in another class that will increment through the array of all returned files and find out which index holds pictures, directories, etc... and return only the pictures.

When I am incrementing through my loop to check the contents on the user selected directory, do I need to account for non-picture file types or will the TAs only pick directories with pictures in them? I.e. do I need to find a way to filter out .exe's, .txt's, etc... from any selected directories?

I would suspect that TA's will only pick directories with picture files in them. But go ahead and make a note visible (maybe in a separate readme.txt file) that lists all of your user requirements. Joel Uthe

Question: Do both partners have to turn in the files, or does only one person have to do it?

Only one. If you turn it in for both people make sure it is the same files or you email your TA on which one to grade. Otherwise they may end up grading the wrong one. Joel Uthe

I can't seem to get rid of thumbs.db. My collage works fine even with the thumbs.db as long as i don't apply filters to it. Once i do, it just gives me lots of runtime exceptions and crashes. Help!!!

You are going to have to do something special in order to not perform your normal operation on it. Think if statement. isHidden() or f.getName().equals("Thumbs.db") are some options. Joel Uthe

Gracias for the tip on thumbs.db,my collage works to perfection now!!!

Fantastic ! Nice job. Joel Uthe

As stated in the homework "The TA's will have their own pictures arranged in the directory structure described above." So, their directories for the pics will always be under c:\cs1316\MediaSources\ ? we can go ahead and make the code in a way that the directories submitted will be always from c:\cs1316\MediaSources\ ? thanks.

Will we be determining the topics/directories, or should we have a directory-chooser for the TA to use? And related to the question above, should we assume the folders are in the working directory, use getMediaPath, or hard-code the directories assuming the folders are in c:\cs1316\MediaSources\?

Never hardcode in a path. Use the getMediaPath because your TA may be grading on a Mac which doesn't even have c:\cs1316\MediaSources. Anything you do should be documented and you should give directions for your grading TA. Joel Uthe

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Homeworks-Fall 2007 last edited on 23 December 2007 at 7:08 pm by adsl-152-173-97.asm.bellsouth.net