Hello faithful BuzzTouchers! I'm proud to announce my latest tool - one which many of you have been waiting for! List Menu Tool v1.0 This is a 4-in-1 Tool that allows you to quickly generate various types of list menus, without using up a lot of "screens" in your control panel. The 4 types of list menus it can create are: 1. Phone Tree 2. App List 3. Streaming Video List 4. Document List (html, pdf, doc, xls, ppt, txt, etc) The potential to create huge lists quickly (and replicate them throughout many apps) is endless! Like my other tools, it is a simple Windows executable (for mac users, I recommend Parallels, but boot camp and VMWare should work as well). I can't wait to see what you all can create with this one! Read more about it here: http://idevdepot.com/list-menu-tool-for-buzztouch-v1-0-released/

will get it probably today, im gonna go get a moneypak for my paypal, question, once i purchase it, do i get it right away to download?

yes, you will get an email with a download link.

ok great, 1 question, what does this mean, you said on the tool before using this tool, be sure your spreadsheet has exported your CSV file into the correct format. you can choose between a comma and a pipe for the delimiter all that stuff seems confusin

lol. I'll add a video tutorial on my to-do list. I can probably best answer this question if you tell me what type of spreadsheet software you have access to (excel, numbers, openoffice, etc). Most of my tools are centered around using a spreadsheet to quickly add/edit entries, which will be turned into app data (JSON).

im not sure what i have, i have windows 7, never used any of that, but yea a video tutorial will be awesome before i buy it, so i know what im doing

ok, its on my list. If you don't have excel, then the next best bet would be OpenOffice, since its free (LibreOffice also). But long story short, its pretty easy. I'll be adding spreadsheet templates tonight to my website to help things also. You can watch this video, which shows me exporting from Numbers for my AppListMaker tool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR_Gw3hT0HI The good news is, most spreadsheet programs default to using the comma as the delimiter, which works perfectly with my tools. Usually you just have to go to File > Save As.., or File > Export...

ok great stobe, thanks alot

The army knife of tools :) I've already used the applist maker! Once I have enough time I'll get really creative with it.

Very nice job as always, very straight forward.

@mysps The App List menu part of this new tool is different than the AppListMaker Tool. Different result, but same overall goal. I use both together in my apps: AppListMaker for my "Recommended Apps" page and App List Menu for a "Other Apps by..." menu @coderx: thanks for the kind words!

Thanks! I know there different I prefer using another method for regular json menu list.. I like the applistmaker for "more apps" etc etc. :)

using openoffice what are the settings wen you save your file to csv using your maps tool http://db.tt/V0pQ42Af

Sorry for the delay. I was half way through a calzone that even BuzzTouch couldn't get me away from... In your screen shot, just highlight the text delimiter and delete it. So for the full steps... Click on File Click Save As... Under "Save as type:" select "Text CSV (.csv)" Give the File a name Before clicking Save, check the checkbox for "Edit Filter Settings" On the next popup question, click "Keep Current Format" In the Export menu select the following options: - Character Set: Unicode (UTF-8) - Field Delimiter: , (a comma) - Text Delimiter: <delete the quotes> Blank Then Click "OK" Hope this helps

thanks it work

my pleasure. Be sure to share your results with me!

also getting your new tool list menu wohooo

can you add the videos from url on your next update

As always stobe, deeply impressed :) David buzztouchmods.com

Thanks David. (Reminds me, I need to add the tool to your site)

Hehe definitively, if you would have had the link in your first post, you could have seen how many are clicking on this baby ;) I'm half tempted to buy this myself... what's your next project?! David buzztouchmods.com

Looks great. Couple of questions though. So in the list maker tool can you put all of the screen customizing fields too (background color, image, nav bar, etc)? Also how much harder is it going to be to turn this into a searchable menu or a grouped style menu?

@MQCMobile: All the configuration of the list menu is done in the BT control panel. This tool creates the dataURL file to feed the menu. Basically, you configure one list menu screen in buzztouch the way you want it to look, and create all the sub-screens (videos, documents, etc) with this tool.

for the video streaming, how does that work out, like youtube and stuff? and will the videos always fit the size of the screen

for this tool, the "Streaming Video" is talking about the Streaming Video screen built into v1.5 Specifically using "included" videos, rather than URLs (as specified in the overview screenshots at idevdepot.com) I choose this method, since it works a lot better (IMO) than the youtube streaming, since it allows you to see it full screen without going through YT's site. It also allows you to see it fullscreen in landscape, even if you lock the rotation of the app in portrait.

oh thats good! nice

For the Phone List, you said it will be a "nested list menu". So will the first list menu list all the names as child items, and then when you click on each name, it will bring up the nested list menu for that person, listing their 3 phone numbers as child items?

@RonBo: Yes, You just have to create one list menu in your project (Phone Tree), and the tool will provide all the childitems (names), which each lead to a second tier list menu showing the phone destinations (home, office, cell, etc). And each of those lead to a phone dialer with the number preset. I'll hopefully be making a quick video later tonight showing how it works.

ill be looking out for that video thanks stobe

This is great, thanks. Does this tool have the ability to run via a command line passing it arguments? May want to schedule this to run every night as the CSV changes.

@RonBo Interesting idea. But I don't think I can make that work. You could set the "Save to" folder to a dropbox public folder, and anytime you re-run the program it will save over the old file which will update in everyone's app the next time they load that screen.

ok, here's a few videos I made real quick to show some of the features of the List Menu Tool. I still need to make a full video walkthrough, but this should at least show the output of the tool(s). First, is a comparison of the AppListMaker tool and the App List part of the List Menu Tool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2uY4GLxqLE&feature=plcp Next is a quick example of the four different type of list menus created by the new tool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_fRDhlV0E You can also subscribe to my youtube channel so you can be kept up to date with any new videos I create. Thanks!

Stobe, I bought your ListMenuTool.exe, and successfully created a PhoneData.txt file. (I even validated it and it's perfectly valid JSON format). So in BT 2.0: - I created one (Menu Simple) screen called PhoneData. The only configuration I set on that screen is Screen Data URL to my dropbox-based PhoneData.txt file. - I also set under Layout, Non-Tabbed, I selected PhoneData nickname. - I set an App Icon. When I run it in xcode emulator for iphone, the icon works, but I get the error message "There was a problem parsing some configuration data. Please make sure that it is well-formed". Let me know if I'm needing more settings, or if I'm off track here in getting your json file into BT.

I looked at it, and there is something wrong with your file. I'll look a little deeper. Maybe you could send me the CSV file that you used (you can email it to me stobe1 at gmail dot com) I'm also not 100% sure about BT 2.0's "menu simple". It looks like it takes the same type of config data, but it is certainly not as "mature" as the 1.5 list menu.

I copied and pasted your text into a file in my dropbox, and it worked fine in a v1.5 app. But the file URL you linked above does not work (something amiss with the file or URL, but not the data). I think I found a way that it might work in a v2.0 app, and am testing right now. If it works, I will release an update.

I got the phone tree working with BTv2.0! I will update the downloadable file and let you know when it is ready to re-download. I think the phone tree is the only part that will currently work with v2.0. To get the full use out of the list menu tool, I suggest using v1.5 apps.

Thanks, I'll test it out when it's ready. I generated that Dropbox URL by using the new Dropbox "get link" by r-clicking on the file. That URL opens in ie,ff and chrome for me, so not sure of how I can change the URL much.

Stobe - got the new download, and Phone Tree works perfectly in BT 2.0 app! I have successfully brought in about over 35 names each with 2-3 phone numbers, and this will grow to 300+. What a time saver!! (one suggestion would be to add a email column along with the phone numbers; I'm using this call-tree app for emergency situation, and we want to store personal emails, in addition to personal phone numbers). NOTE for Dropbox users: suggest you review http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=60101 - I had originally used "Get Link" in a non-Public dropbox folder, and this did not work from BT data url. I then moved that file to a Public folder on Dropbox, and used "Copy Public Link" and this worked in BT.

Great idea for the email option. I'll put it on the to-do list. Glad to hear its saving you time. That's the whole purpose behind these tools! Plus, with 300 contacts, that could have been over 1000 screens to make if you manually created them in BT instead of 1. Don't tell David I saved you all that money :)

"I got the phone tree working with BTv2.0!" = SOLD This looks really useful. I was bummed that this tool was 1.5 only. Can't wait to really get a good look and play with it after i download it. Many thanks for the time and effort into these tools! You're building me up a nice arsenal of features/options for my APPS :)

My pleasure Atrain. And I only ask a humble 5% cut from all your app sales :)

Here's another quick video showing the two different ways you can use the output from the List Menu Tool in your BT app. This would also apply to anyone using manually created JSON data in a List Menu. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDmwa3CLmWo

Great explanation video. Thanks

If you're taking votes, please update the other choices to BT2.0...Docs would be at the top of my list for priorities.

I'll have to research how 2.0 handles the different types of docs. In 1.5, they are all webviews called the same way. In 2.0, I'm sure its similar, but I think the plugin calls the screen a little differently.

ALso, I'm starting to add more Phone JSON feeds from your tool into my app. All I'm doing now for the "Starting ItemID Number" is to use "11111111" for my first one, then use "22222222" for the next and so on. Do you have any other ideas to insure that all the ItemIDs for the hundreds of screens are unique within the same app?

in that particular tool, it will use your starting number (11111111) and add 10, 20, and 30 million to it for the nested screens (21111111,31111111,41111111). To be truley safe, you should document your starting number for each config output, and perhaps change the length of the starting number. Using nine 1's, would use (111111111, 121111111, 131111111, and 141111111). Then there should be no fear of conflict.

Two feature requests for this fabulous tool: - Can you add in 2.0 support for Document List? - Can you add in the ability to run from a command line, passing in arguments? This would allow us to run on a scheduled basis as a scheduled task, and our menu lists will always be up to date whenever our CSV files are updated. The GUI is great, but automatic, scheduled updates would be even better.