Group Maintenance

 

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to change events on the fly without having to open up the events screen, define the new one, replace the old one – erasing it in the process?  Groups allow you to do this.  If you’ve created an event yet, you’ve already worked with groups and might have not even realized it.

 

Portal© allows you to assign events to what are called “groups.”  These groups can then be activated or de-activated as you desire.  Only items associated with those groups are available for use.  All other events assigned to other groups simply lie dormant until you activate their group.

 

You can also quickly change the current group by typing the Activator Character followed by the letter “g” followed by a space followed by the name of the group you wish to activate into the command line.  So, if the semicolon is the Activator Character, and you wanted to activate the BASE and TEST groups, you would simply type “;g test”  You don’t even need to worry about capitalization.  The result of the group-change attempt will be written to the display as system text (i.e. whether it was a success or failure).  The BASE group is added automatically.

 

Player profiles are automatically created with the BASE group, which you cannot remove.  All text events assigned to this group are always active.

 

Status Events

Status events are a special exception.  Whatever status events that are assigned to the active group are the ones that will fire off.  If the BASE group is the active status group, the status events assigned to the BASE group will be the ones that will fire off.  If the active status group is the TEST group, then only the status events assigned to the TEST group will fire.  There is no overlapping of the active group and the BASE group for status events as there is in the text events.

 

Before going into detail on how groups work, here is the breakdown of the elements and fields on the Groups Screen.

 

Groups Screen Elements

 

 

Available Groups List

This list displays all groups that exist, but are currently inactive.  Double clicking on any event is the same as pressing the Add to Selected Button.

 

Delete Group Button

Pressing this button will delete the currently selected group in the Available Groups List.  You cannot delete the BASE group.

 

Note: If there are any text status events currently assigned to the group, you will not be able to delete it.

 

Add to Selected Button

This button will move the selected group in the Available Groups List over to the Selected Groups List.

 

Remove from Selected Button

This button will move the selected group in the Selected Groups List back over to the Available Groups List.  You cannot remove the BASE group from the selected groups list.

 

Selected Groups List

This list displays all groups that are currently active.  Double clicking on any event is the same as pressing the Remove from Selected Button.

 

Note: The order in which the groups appear in this list determine the Termination Order.  For more information on Terminal Events and the Termination Order, please see the help section on Events.

 

Up Arrow Button (green triangle pointing up)

Moves the selected group in the Selected Groups List up one position.

 

Down Arrow Button (green triangle pointing down)

Moves the selected group in the Selected Groups List down one position.

 

Active Status Group

Select the active status group here.  This group determines which status events (see the events screen) are currently active.

 

New Group Field

Enter the name of the new group you wish to create here.

 

Add Group Button

Adds the new group to the Available Groups List.

 

Activate Groups and Close Button

Activates all groups currently in the Selected Groups List as well as the Active Status Group, then closes the Groups Screen.

 

Using Groups

 

Groups can be very handy tools when it comes to complex events.

 

Groups and Events

 

Here’s how you should think of groups as they act with events.  You have up to ten groups active at any given time, one of them is always the BASE group.  This means that all text events assigned to the BASE group are always active.  If any other group (or groups) is active, then all events assigned to that group are active as well as those assigned to the BASE group.

 

So, let’s take these events that have been setup as examples:

 

Group:     BASE

Event:      boo

Action:     say hi

 

Group:     BASE

Event:      smush

Action:     grin

 

Group:     MARY

Event:      jingle

Action:     smile

 

Group:     HAPPY

Event:      smiles at you

Action:     dance $a

 

Now, what events are actually active depends on what group is currently active

 

Scenario 1: The BASE group is the active group

Only the events assigned to “boo” and “smush” are active.  Why?  Well, both “boo”  and “smush” are assigned to the BASE group, which is always active.

 

Scenario 2: The MARY group is the active group

Here, the events “boo” “smush” and “jingle” will all react actively.  Why?  Both “boo” and “smush” are assigned to the BASE group, which is always active.  The event “jingle” is in the MARY group, which is currently active.

 

Scenario 2: The HAPPY group is the active group

Here, the events “boo” “smush” and “jingle” will all react actively.  Why?  Both “boo” and “smush” are assigned to the BASE group, which is always active.  The event “smiles at you” is in the HAPPY group, which is currently active.