Scribe for AMPS

דף זה בעברית

Here's how it works: You install an app called autoscribe-amps on the computer running AMPS (steps 1,2,3).
You run this app during your session (step 4).
You visit certain web pages in a browser to see the dances, and you move the browser window to a big monitor for all to see (step 5).

Here we go. On the computer where you run AMPS, do this:

Step 1. Install Perl

We need an app called Perl. Click here and proceed as with any Windows install. Ignore any Norton Security warnings.
(If you get a compatibility error, try this link instead.)

Step 2. Get the app

Click here and you get autoscribe-amps.zip in your downloads folder.
Right-click it and select "Extract all...". In the popup, click "Extract" at the bottom.
The app is now at Downloads\autoscribe-amps\autoscribe-amps; you can move it if you want.

Step 3. Get a session name

To use Scribe you need a name for your session, a single word to keep your session separate from other users, like "chicago" or "mondance", or "maagalim".
Email me and tell me what you want your session name to be. While you wait you can use session name "test" for testing.
You can optionally send me a small picture to brand your display. As an example, look at Chicago's brand here.

Step 4. Run the app

Press Windows+R to open the Run box. In that window, enter "cmd" and click "OK".
In the new command window, type "perl Downloads\autoscribe-amps\autoscribe-amps sessionname" without the quotes and with your own session name. End with the "enter" or "return" key.
(If you moved autoscribe-amps you must change this command as appropriate.)
The first time you do this you may get a warning about Perl. Set it to always allow Perl.

The app will output a long line starting with "SUCCESS". If it does anything else see "Problems" below.
At the end of the session you can stop the app by closing the window.
You can also just leave the app running forever, but you'll have to restart it if you log out or reboot.

Step 5. Display the dances

A Scribe display is just a web page; you go there in a browser and move the browser window to a display monitor.
Your dancers can also watch the same web pages on their phones during the session!
Here are examples of some available displays. (Replace "omaha" with your own session name to show your own session.)

https://www.israeli.dance/upcoming/omaha - current dance, choreographer, photo, and year, plus the next four upcoming dances
https://www.israeli.dance/nowplaying/omaha - same as upcoming, but instead of upcoming dances shows composer, lyricist, and singer (if known) of the current dance
https://www.israeli.dance/alreadyplayed/omaha - same as upcoming, but shows previous dances rather than upcoming
https://www.israeli.dance/alreadyplayed2/omaha - same as alreadyplayed, but shows more dances
https://www.israeli.dance/pastandfuture/omaha - like upcoming, but also shows the most-recently-played dance
https://www.israeli.dance/pastandfuture2/omaha - same as pastandfuture, with larger fonts and no italics

All of these are in English. To show Hebrew instead, add "?hebrew=1" to the URLs above, like this: https://www.israeli.dance/upcoming/omaha?hebrew=1.
To flip back and forth between Hebrew and English, add "?flipLanguage=2" to the URL, like this: https://www.israeli.dance/upcoming/omaha?flipLanguage=2.
The "2" is the number of seconds between flips; change it for faster or slower flipping.

Any computer can display these web pages; it doesn't have to be the same computer that's running AMPS.
So if you have lots of monitors and computers to run them you can display as many pages as you like.
If you have improvements for these pages or ideas for other pages, let me know.

Advanced tip
When you're programming, you may want to play around with dances on the AMPS playlist, but not let dancers see them in the upcoming dances list.
Here's how: If a dance is named "SCRIBESTOP" (all caps), Scribe will not display it or any dances following it on the playlist.
So create an empty file called "SCRIBESTOP" and use it when you want to hide upcoming dances.

Problems

If you don't see "SUCCESS" when autoscribe-amps starts, something is wrong:

If the output starts with FAILURE it means you're not connected to the Internet. Scribe needs the Internet.
If the output says "Could not find file" it means your AMPS database is not where autoscribe-amps thinks it is. See AMPS database location below.
If the output contains "Can't locate DBI.pm in @INC..." then you have the wrong Perl on your machine. Get rid of it. Contact me if you need help.
If the output says "Data source name not found and no default driver specified", or if you get a popup saying "the operating system
is not presently configured to run this application", it means you need an ODBC driver for Microsoft Access. Try one of these:
- Install this package and try again.
- If (unlike me) you know a lot about ODBC, fix it and explain to me what I should tell people.
- If you know a little about ODBC, use the ODBC Admin Tool to set up a driver for connection string "Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)".
- If none of this works, contact me and I'll try to help.
If the output doesn't match any of these, take a screenshot and contact me.

Scribe is sensitive to how you name dances in AMPS. Dances whose names contain comments or other extra information will not display correctly.
If this happens to you, get in touch and I'll show you how to make it work perfectly.

AMPS database location
The app needs to know the location of your AMPS database.
Most people never touch the database so it's in its default place, C:\AMPS\database\4\MyLibrary.mdb.
If you've moved or renamed it, you must tell autoscribe-amps the new location.
autoscribe-amps is just a text file, so you can edit it with Notepad or anything else you like.
Change the third line of autoscribe-amps as appropriate. Notice that you must use forward slashes (/) instead of backslashes (\) inside autoscribe-amps.

Very advanced tip: Hebrew output of autoscribe-amps is garbage?
The SUCCESS line printed by autoscribe-amps may show garbage characters in place of Hebrew. You can ignore this. But if you want to see the Hebrew, here's how to fix it:

Get a new Run box with Windows+R, enter "regedit" and press Enter. The Registry Editor pops up.<\li>
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont<\li>
If there is already a String Value named "00", then create a new String Value named "000". If not, then create a new String Value named "00".
Right-click the new String Value ("00" or "000") and set the Value data to "Courier New", then exit the Registry Editor.
Right-click the top of the command window (the place where you run autoscribe-amps) and pick "Properties". Go to the "Font" tab and select "Courier New"
In that same command window, run "chcp 65001" before starting perl.

This should do it. You may possibly have to reboot your machine for all this to take effect.
If so, be sure to do "chcp 65001" in the command window before starting autoscribe-amps.
Note that even when you see the Hebrew it will be reversed, left-to-right.

So that's about it. Please contact me if you have trouble or comments or suggestions, or improvements to these instructions..