One resource list from 2 different sources

[Sam Jones]

I have 2 sources, folders with different paths, for symbols I want to list in a drop down of a PIO.  I want to then select the symbol chosen from the list and import it into the document.

All of the various BuildResourceList functions will build a list from a specified folder, but I would like to build a resource list from 2 different folders.  I could make an array to hold the names from 2 different lists and display them, but I don't have a way to then specify the chosen symbol to be imported into the document.

Is there a way to make one resource list from 2 different sources, such that a subsequent ImportResource function will go to the correct place and import the correct symbol?

It might be possible to create a structure that holds the name of the symbol and indicator of which list to query, but I would really like to avoid that if I can.

 

As always, TIA.

[MullinRJ]

@Sam Jones ,

   There are a lot of "ResList_" calls that I've never used, so I don't know if you cay build One List to rule them all, but I will say that the way you don't want to go really isn't that hard to implement, and once built, it stays perfectly registered between Symbol Name and Source List. Also, extending this approach to handle several lists would be quite easy.

 

   Here's a very quick sketch of how it could look. Of course, it's not tested. I wouldn't want to deprive you of all the fun.  😉   It assumes you won't have duplicate symbol names. Hopefully you don't, but if you do, one entry will point to list 1 and the other will point to list 2. If you want to specify your directories by absolute path, use BuildResourceListN() instead.

Type
	SymNameRec = Structure
		SName :Dynarray of Char;
		LID :Longint;
	end;		{ SymNameRec }
Var
	I, NumItems1, NumItems2 :Integer;
	ListID1, ListID2 :Longint;
	SymArray :Dynarray of SymNameRec;


BEGIN
	ListID1 := BuildResourceList(16, <folderIndexA>, <subFolderNameA>, NumItems1);
	ListID2 := BuildResourceList(16, <folderIndexB>, <subFolderNameB>, NumItems2);
	
	Allocate SymbolArray [1..NumItems1+NumItems2];
	
	for I := 1 to NumItems1 do begin
		SymArray[I].SName := GetActualNameFromResourceList(ListID1, I);
		SymbolArray[I].LID := ListID1;
	end;		{ for }
	
	for I := NumItems1+1 to NumItems1+NumItems2 do begin
		SymbolArray[I].SName := GetActualNameFromResourceList(ListID2, I);
		SymbolArray[I].LID := ListID2;
	end;		{ for }
	
	SortArray(SymArray, NumItems1+NumItems2, 1);
	
	...

HTH,

Raymond

 

[Sam Jones]

Did that and got it to work, but it would be much nicer if I could AddResource to add one list's resources to another  list.

[MullinRJ]

You're welcome  🙂

[Pat Stanford]

Have you tried iterating through one list and using AddResourceToList to make a single list? According to the docs it looks like it should work.

[Sam Jones]

I did, and it didn't.  There is the caveat that I did not rigorously investigate the failure.  I ended up as I thought I might creating 2 lists with separate BuildResource command and then making an array of a structure containing the resource name and a pointer to the list

LabelList = STRUCTURE

      Name : STRING;

      List : INTEGER; {1=my list, 2=user list}

END;

A little tedious to use, but it has the advantage of being able to be sorted with the compiled VS command SortArray(), which has a much better algorithm and resulting speed than my simple bubble sort.