Scribe for AMPS

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, or just leave it running all the time (step 4).
You visit certain web pages in a browser on any computer to see the dances, and you put the browser's window on a display monitor for all to see (step 5).

On the computer where you run AMPS, do this:

Step 1. Install Perl

We first need an app called Perl. Click here and proceed as with any Windows install. Ignore any Norton Security warnings.
(If you have a 32-bit machine you'll get a compatibility error message. Try this link instead.)

Stop 2. Get the app

Click here to get autoscribe-amps.zip in your downloads folder.
Open it and autoscribe-amps will appear in the same folder. It's easiest to just leave it there.

Step 3. Get a session name

To use Scribe you need a name for your session, a single word that keeps 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 personalize your display. As an example, look at Chicago's brand at the bottom here.

Step 4. Run the app

To run the app, open a command window by pressing 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 sessionname" without the quotes and with your own session name. End with the "enter" or "return" key.
(If you moved autoscribe-amps out of the Downloads folder you have to change this command to match.)
The first time you do this you may get a warning about Perl's digital signature. 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 (or typing ^C).
Or you can just leave the app running forever. You'll have to start it again if you log out, reboot, or close the command window.

Step 5. Display the dances

A Scribe display is a normal web page; you show it in a browser and put the browser window on a display monitor.
Here are some available displays; replace "omaha" with your session name.

https://www.israeli.dance/upcoming/omaha - current dance, choreographer, picture, and year, plus the names of the next upcoming dances
https://www.israeli.dance/nowplaying/omaha - same as upcoming, but instead of next dancees 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, 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 multiple monitors and PCs to run them you can display as many pages as you like.
If you have improvements for these pages or ideas for other display pages, let me know.

Advanced tip
When you're programming, you may want to play around with dances on the AMPS playlist, but not show them in the upcoming dances list.
Here's how: If a dance is named "SCRIBESTOP" (all caps), Scribe will not display it or any later dances 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", autoscribe-amps can't find the ODBC driver for Microsoft Access. Try one or more of these:
- Install this package and try again.
- If 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.

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, namely C:\AMPS\database\4\MyLibrary.mdb.
If you've moved or renamed it, you must edit autoscribe-amps to tell it the new location.
autoscribe-amps is just a text file, so you can edit 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 (\) in autoscribe-amps.

So that's about it. Please contact me if you have trouble or comments or suggestions for improvement.