Absolute Beginner's Guide - using PulpCore with BlueJ

[stemkoski]

Although tools such as NetBeans and Eclipse are quite powerful, this
short guide will hopefully help increase the audience of PulpCore
users to those who use BlueJ (from bluej.org: "an integrated Java
environment specifically designed for introductory teaching") and wish
to avoid ANT scripts.

***** Setting up PulpCore in BlueJ: *****

- Download the pulpcore zip file from the "downloads" section, and
extract all files.
- In BlueJ, from the menu bar choose: "Tools" --> "Preferences..." ,
to bring up the "BlueJ: Preferences" window. In this window, click the
"Libraries" tab.
- Click the "Add" button, and a new window will appears ("Select
directory or jar/zip file"). In this window, find the directory where
you extracted the pulpcore files. Within this directory, inside the
"build" directory, select the file "pulpcore-applet-release.jar", and
click the "Open" button. The "Select..." window will close.
- Back in the User Libraries list in the "BlueJ: Preferences" window,
there will be a new entry; in the "Location" column you will see the
path to the "pulpcore-applet-release.jar" file, and in the "Status"
column you will see the phrase "Not Loaded".
- In the preferences window, click "OK". A window will pop up with a
helpful message ("These changes you have made..."; click "OK".
- Quit the BlueJ program, and then restart BlueJ. (This enables the
new JAR library to load.)

***** (Yet Another) Hello World program for PulpCore: *****

Credit where credit is due:
This example is amalgamated form the tutorials from http://www.alexjeffery.org
(old code updated to work with PulpCore 0.11), and http://cloningtheclassics.com/
.

- In the BlueJ main window, click the "New Class..." button. Name the
class PulpyCore.
- In the source code window that appears, delete all the preset code,
and replace it with the following code:

import pulpcore.Stage;
import pulpcore.scene.Scene2D;
import pulpcore.image.Colors;
import pulpcore.image.CoreFont;
import pulpcore.image.CoreGraphics;
import pulpcore.image.CoreImage;
import pulpcore.sprite.Label;
import pulpcore.sprite.Sprite;
import pulpcore.sprite.FilledSprite;
import pulpcore.sprite.ImageSprite;

public class PulpyDemo extends Scene2D
{
FilledSprite background;
Label helloLabel;
ImageSprite logoImage;

public void load()
{
// Calculate coordinates of applet center
int centerX = Stage.getWidth() / 2;
int centerY = Stage.getHeight() / 2;

// Create a background
background = new FilledSprite(Colors.YELLOW);
add(background);

// Build a new label
helloLabel = new Label(CoreFont.getSystemFont(), "Hello
World!", centerX, 40);

// Center the label horizontally and vertically
helloLabel.setAnchor(0.5, 0.5);

// Add the label to the scene
add(helloLabel);

// Load an image
logoImage = new ImageSprite(CoreImage.load("logo.png"),
centerX, centerY);

// Center the image
logoImage.setAnchor(ImageSprite.CENTER);

// Add the image to the screen
add(logoImage);
}

public void update(int elapsedTime)
{
// this method has been intentionally left blank
}
}

- Compile the code.


***** Running the applet: *****

Because PulpCore uses a JavaScript file to help load, we will not use
BlueJ's built-in AppletViewer. Instead, we will set up the necessary
files manually.

- First, make a copy of the "pulpcore-applet-release.jar", rename it
to "myArchive.jar", and place it in your BlueJ project directory.
Open the JAR file using a program such as 7zip or WinRAR. Copy the
"PulpyDemo.class" file from your BlueJ project directory into the JAR
file. Close the JAR file.
- Create a new ZIP file (again, using either 7zip or WinRAR, for
example) called "myAssets.zip". This is where all program assets
(images, sounds, etc.) should be placed. For the demo program above
to work correctly, this ZIP file needs to contain an image file named
"logo.png".
- Copy the files "splash.gif" and "pulpcore.js" into your directory.
- Finally, open your favorite text editing program (such as Notepad+
+), and create a file called "index.html"; this will be the webpage
that loads the applet. Use the following code:

<html>
<head>
<title>PulpCore Demo</title>
<body>

<div id="game">
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
pulpcore_width = 450;
pulpcore_height = 250;
pulpcore_archive = "myArchive.jar";
pulpcore_assets = "myAssets.zip";
pulpcore_scene = "PulpyDemo";
pulpcore_splash = "splash.gif";
//-->
</script>
<br />
<script type="text/javascript" src="pulpcore.js"></script>
<br />
<noscript>
<p>To play, enable JavaScript from the Options or Preferences menu.</
p>
</noscript>
</div>

<div id="source">
<center>
Created with <a href="http://www.interactivepulp.com/
pulpcore/">PulpCore</a>
</center>
</div>

</body>
</html>

- Provided the files myArchive.jar, myAssets.zip, splash.gif,
pulpcore.js, and index.html are all in the same directory, the applet
should be ready to run. Open "index.html" in a web browser (FireFox is
highly recommended), and enjoy!

---------------------------------------------
Link to working copy of applet:
http://www.adelphi.edu/~stemkoski/pulpcore/index.html

Link to online version of this tutorial (includes applet):
http://www.adelphi.edu/~stemkoski/pulpcore/index-tutorial.html

FireFox browser recommended for above links.

Perhaps this would also be a useful addition to the PulpCore wiki?

- Lee

[jere_uy]

great work dude!!!! i've been using BlueJ with pulp for a while now,
and i've got to say it's got nothing on the "big ones"... it's quite
slick and comfortable...
your guide is one of the most clear i've seen, i hope it gets included
in the wiki.

cheers!

> This example is amalgamated form the tutorials fromhttp://www.alexjeffery.org
> (old code updated to work with PulpCore 0.11), andhttp://cloningtheclassics.com/

[stemkoski]

The BlueJ beginners guide is now on the wiki!