Animated scrolling text

Creating an animated scrolling text can be achieved by livecode in two ways:

• text manipulation
• graphic manipulation

We'll see both ways.

TEXT MANIPULATION

Just create a field and put this code in it:

on movingtext mytext, myspeed
   set the realtext of me to mytext
   set the realtext2 of me to mytext
   stripspaces
   set the text of me to empty
   createspaces
   put the realtext2 of me into temp
   put the text of me before temp
   #put the text of me after temp
   set the realtext2 of me to temp
   set the text of me to temp
   set the cyclet of me to true
   cycleText myspeed
end movingtext

on stopcycle
   set the cyclet of me to false
end stopcycle

on stripspaces
   put the realtext2 of me into temp
   if the last char of temp is space then
      delete the last char of me
      set the realtext2 of me to temp
      stripspaces
   end if
end stripspaces

on cycletext myspeed
   put the realtext2 of me into temp
   put the number of chars of temp into nt
   set the text of me to temp
   repeat for nt times
      delete char 1 of me
      if not the cyclet of me then exit repeat
      wait mySpeed sec with messages
   end repeat
   if the cyclet of me then send "cycletext " & myspeed to me in 0 sec
end cycletext

on createspaces
   set the dontwrap of me to true
   put space after me
   if the formattedwidth of me < the width of me then
      createspaces
   end if
end createspaces



Now you have the following messages to use:

• movingtext TEXT,SPEED: you use this message to change text, start scrolling setting the scroll speed
• stopcycle to stop scrolling text

GRAPHIC MANIPULATION

Create a field and put this code inside it:

on cycleText myText, mySpeed
   lock screen
   set the locktext of me to true
   set the dontwrap of me to true
   set the pcontinue of me to true
   set the text of me to myText
   clone me as "clonefield"
   put the ID of the last field into tID
   set the pcloneid of me to tID
   set the width of fld id tid to the formattedwidth of fld id tid
   set opaque of field id tid to false
   set showFocusBorder of field id tid to false
   set threeD of field id tid to false
   set showborder of field id tid to false
   set lockText of field id tid to true
   set the left of fld id tid to the right of me
   set the top of fld id tid to the top of me
   create graphic "cycleR"
   put the id of the last graphic into tID2
   set the pgr of me to tID2
   set the style of graphic id tid2 to "rectangle"
   set the rect of graphic id tid2 to the rect of fld id tid
   set the opaque of graphic id tid2 to true
   set the backgroundcolor of graphic id tid2 to the backgroundcolor of this card
   set the linesize of graphic id tid2 to 0
   clone graphic id tid2
   put the id of the last graphic into tid3
   set the pgL of me to tid3
   set the right of graphic id tid3 to the left of me
   set the top of the graphic id tid3 to the top of me
   set the prealText of me to the text of me
   set the text of me to empty
   set the pmyspeed of me to myspeed
   unlock screen
   cycle2 mySpeed
end cycleText

on cycle2 mySpeed
   put the pcloneid of me into temp
   if exists(field id temp) then   
      set the left of fld id temp to (the left of field id temp - 1)
      wait myspeed sec
      if the right of fld id temp < the left of me then
         set the left of fld id temp to the right of me
      end if
   end if
   if the pcontinue of me then send "cycle2 "& mySpeed to me in 0 sec
end cycle2

on StopCycle
   set the pcontinue of me to false
   set the text of me to the pRealText of me
   put the pcloneid of me into tid
   put the pgr of me into tid2
   put the pGL of me into tid3
   delete field id tid
   delete graphic id tid2
   delete graphic id tid3
end StopCycle



RESULTS

You can see results in the following video, the text mode is confinde in it's space but it sn't constant due the difference in size of each letter, on the other hand the gaphic mode is smother but needs on the left and on the righe no other object, because we have to cover the text: