Vorpology 101

The Vorpal programs are designed to create seating charts (Vorpal Stadium), assign customers to said seats (Vorpal Transfer) and track those customers in real time (Vorpal Ithingy).

A quick overview:

'Vorpal Stadium' allows the user to upload a png or jpg formatted image from their Mac that is a seating chart of a venue that requires assigned seating for customers and create overlays on each seat (green in color) that represents each seat. Each seat has to be named and given a class. In order to do this, the tools Create, Select and Move are provided. Once all the overlays are complete, the user can save them to disk. the name of the saved file will by 'vorpals.txt' and the name of the saved image file will be 'background.png'. Once ths is done, the user then moves to the next program ('Vorpal Transfer') to create and assign customers to each seat.

'Vorpal Transfer' allows a user to create and assign customers to seats. Additional information about each customer can also be interested (ie name, address, etc.). there is also a field to enter comments by or aout the customer. This program uploads 'background.png' and 'vorpals.txt' created by 'Vorpal Stadium' to begin its work. When a seat is clicked upon (double-dlicked actually), a screen is displayed that allows a customer to be added to the seat. After all information has been added, the user has a choice to export the data to either the pre event file ('vorpalsDB.txt" or the post event file ''vorpalsNewDB.txt'. The user also has the choice, once one of these files has been created to reload the data thus created when reusing the program (the <File->Import> option loads from the 'vorpalsDB.txt' while the <File-Vorpal->Import Mobile Data> loads from 'vorpalsNewDb.txt' file. After completing the customer assignment to seats (and saved_, the user can send the data to an Ipad. The data being sent will always be 'vorpalsDB.txt', 'vorpalsDBHead.txt' (header data) and 'background.png'. In order to send the data, the user will have to be connected to the network and have an Ipad connected at the same time. The user will know when the Ipad is connected, because the lightning bolt will change from red to blue.

'Vorpal Ithingy' Receives the data sent to it by the 'Vorpal Transfer' program. The user now has a list of all the customers and their assigned seating. All data about the customer is read-only except for the 'Event Notes' section. In this section, a user can write any important information either about or by the customer. In order to sent this data back to the 'Vorpal Transfer' program, the user will have to be connected to the network and the lightning bolt in the right side of the menubar is blue. A confirmation will be receieved when the data has been received by 'Vorpal Transfer'.

It is important to note that in all three programs, the user has the ability to zoom in and out of the screen. To do this, two fingers must be used on the touchpad or iPad screen (pulling the fingers apart will zoom ins while moving them towards each other zooms out). In the event that the desired part of the image is offscreen, the user can scroll around using one finger.

This gives an overview of all three programs and what they do. I'll be writing an FAQ about this sometime in the future.