how to output a table into console or uiLabel

[EnzoF04]

I want to monitor the sysex i construct. I’m changing a table’s contents based on a chosen item in a combo. I store the value from the combo into a variable and i make a table with 8 bytes. I want to view this table but I don’t know how to print it in console.
This is the function i use when the combo is changed:

currentSmpNmChanged = function(--[[ CtrlrModulator --]] mod, --[[ number --]] value, --[[ number --]] source)
	sNmb = modCbSmpNum:getModulatorValue()
	midiMsg = CtrlrMidiMessage({0xf0, 0x47, 0x00, 0x04, 0x41, sNmb, 0x00, 0xf7})
	console(string.format(midiMsg))
	opSmpNum:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", tostring(sNmb))
	opSYXMsg:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", string.format(midiMsg))
end

The last line of code gets me an error. What am i doing wrong?

• This topic was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by EnzoF04.

[human fly]

if you make a button to trigger your method
eg: mousedown or onValueChange

you open the Lua Console before you run your function,
and whatever the output of console() is appears there.

it also appears in the window beneath the editor, but
i never quite know when it’s going to do it – i was
thinking about just this, writing output to a label,
to check the results from functions, before i moved on
to other stuff – concluded that i could write a fakeConsole
function, that sends the output via
setPropertyString(“UILabelText”,(your result))

i’m using this at the moment for muck-around things happening
in the panel, but haven’t yet tried it as a faux console
readout device.

this works:
getComponent():setProperty("uiLabelText", "some text", false)
(maybe could be “uiLabelText”,””..(variable))
and this also works:
panel:getComponent("init_result"):setPropertyString("uiLabelText",""..(ret))
(ret here was ‘return’ from a menu selection ie: can be whatever variable
you want etc.)
*as far as i could figure out* 😉

keen to hear how you get on with displaying your console results
on the workspace (that’s it, right?)

[human fly]

except i’m not sure offhand how one would do that.
if console() is a function that sends it’s result to the Console,
then fauxConsole(), what would the variables be, and how would you
invoke it?/include it in a method to fire off the output to the
UILabel?

[EnzoF04]

Thanks for the replies, Human! Well I need to know how i convert the contents of the user data / table variable to a form which is to be displayed in the uiLabel Text. So my question mainly was about how to convert the data in the (table) variable. I’ve tried string.format or tostring but this didn’t work.
The error i get with the last sentence of my code is attached.
opSYXMsg:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", string.format(midiMsg))

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[human fly]

bear in mind that i’m just finding this stuff out right now too..

yeah, so that’s because midiMsg isn’t a string – ‘string expected’.
i guess you have to make table (or memory block? see that topic
re convert decimal to hex, what Possemo and goodweather wrote)

look at the method called midiMessageReceived.
there’s a bit that goes PatchToneSyx = midiMessage:getLuaData()
-it gets quite hairy here tbh haha.

somehow you have to get your Lua data into a string, and then
you can send it over to your label.

oh: sorry, all change: have you tried
setPropertyString ("uiLabelText",""..(midiMsg))

[Possemo]

As far as I know “user data” isn’t a number nor a string. Lua can’t do anything with user data.

CtrlrMidiMessage({0xf0, 0x47, 0x00, 0x04, 0x41, sNmb, 0x00, 0xf7})

This seems to be an example of user data. CtrlrMidiMessage is a command and can probably not be displayed. As you see “console(string.format(midiMsg))” doesn’t work either. It won’t throw an error but it won’t display anything in the console.

So when you want to display the hex numbers I would do it like this:

currentSmpNmChanged = function(--[[ CtrlrModulator --]] mod, --[[ number --]] value, --[[ number --]] source)
	sNmb = panel:getModulatorByName("modulator-2"):getModulatorValue()
	sNmbHex = string.format("%.2x", sNmb)
	message = "f0 47 00 04 41 "..sNmbHex.." 00 f7"
	midiMsg = CtrlrMidiMessage(message)

	console(string.format(message))
	opSmpNum:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", tostring(sNmb))
	opSYXMsg:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", message)
end

As HumanFly’s example showed – yes you can exchange
:setPropertyString (“uiLabelText”, message)
with
:setProperty (“uiLabelText”, message, false)

setProperty will work with a string as well as a number. So you don’t have to convert a number to a string.

SetPropertyString expects a string
SetPropertyInt expects an integer number

[EnzoF04]

Thanks guys! Glad that I’m doing nothing wrong than putting undisplayable items. I’ll find my way round to show it.

Is there a place where I can read about the functions / commands like CtrlrMidiMessage and what it does and how it does?

[goodweather]

Hi!
Ctrlr has its own functions and is also using the Juce library.
All Ctrlr info (you need to learn reading the definitions of the functions (not the code itself) is at: https://sourceforge.net/p/ctrlrv4/code/HEAD/tree/nightly/Source/
For things coming from Juce, they are in Lua/JuceCLasses folder; for midi message in Midi folder…
Juce API doc: https://www.juce.com/doc/classes
FOr example, for memoryblock; click on M then scroll a bit.
You will find all functions of the memoryblock object and their syntax. Usually, all are ported into Ctrlr (you can check by looking at file LMemoryBlock.h in Lua/JuceCLasses folder).

You use CtrlrMidiMessage with a string or better a MemoryBlock. The advantage with memory blocks is that you handle directly the values as integer or hexa.
To remind you:
– 63 is a integer
– “3F” is a string representing the hexa value of the integer
– 0x3F is the hexa value
In the code above presented by Possemo, you handle strings.

In the code below, I’m handling only actual values:

-- Send device inquiry message
msg = CtrlrMidiMessage({0xF0, 0x7E, 0x7F, 0x06, 0x01, 0xF7})
panel:sendMidiMessageNow(msg)

Here I’m using a string

msg = string.format("F0 01 2C 05 %.2x %.2x F7", sBank, sProgram)
panel:sendMidiMessageNow(CtrlrMidiMessage(msg))

Here I’m using a memory block that I assemble from different parts `(LoadedProgramData is my unpacked sysex dump of a DSI program)
mbTemp= MemoryBlock ({0xF0, 0x01, 0x2C, 0x03})
mbTemp:append(PackDsiData(LoadedProgramData))
mbTemp:append(MemoryBlock ({0xF7}))
panel:sendMidiMessageNow(CtrlrMidiMessage(mbTemp))`

You view the content of a memory block with
console(LoadedProgramData:toHexString(1))
It gives you:
24 24 24 24 34 30 33 31 7f 7f 7f 7f 02 02 00 02…

When you recieve a Midi message, you get a memory block that you can further handle:
MidiMessageReceived = function(MidiMessage)
MidiMessage:getData() is a memory block
console(MidiMessage:getData():toHexString(1)) shows you the message
you can check a particular byte with
if MidiMessage:getData():getByte(6) == 0x2C then (for example)
You can extract a complete part (from byte 4 take 1171 bytes) with
MidiMessage:getData():getRange(4, 1171)

Good reading!

[Possemo]

yes that’s it. Just want to say that Roman ported the open source project to Github some time ago. I would look there:
https://github.com/RomanKubiak/ctrlr/tree/master/Source/

It is somewhat “less abandoned” 🙂 Unfortunately there is no comment / explanation. As a beginner you will have to guess a lot…

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Possemo.

[goodweather]

Thx Possemo, I missed that one…

[EnzoF04]

OK OK, dance of happiness! It works! I’ve got code working and i get response from the sampler. This is really great!!
Nice explanations guys! Especially the Goodweather explanation on constructing sysex as strings with spaces dividing the bytes. And the %.2x after the string for the variables is very helpful! the working code for the onChange of the uiCombo is:

currentSmpNmChanged = function(--[[ CtrlrModulator --]] mod, --[[ number --]] value, --[[ number --]] source)
	sNmb = modCbSmpNum:getModulatorValue()
	midiMsg = string.format("F0 47 00 04 41 %.2x 00 F7", sNmb)
	opSmpNum:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", tostring(sNmb))
	opSYXMsg:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", string.format(midiMsg))
end

I’m very visually orientated and i NEED to get feedback on a uiLabel so i can get the variable further. I’ll now go on with the dump of the data received into a uiLabel. That worked in a previous version. Many thanks, guys!

[human fly]

‘very visually oriented’ – yes! that’s the phrase i was looking for..
good news ! i’m ‘revising’ now, with yesterday’s tutorial.
i think goodweather showed us the way..

[goodweather]

Glad I could help.

Please note that the string based method above is fine for short sysex but will become more difficult to manage with long ones as full banks or patches.
Even if the string based method can work with any length I strongly recommend you to look at MemoryBlocks. For example, swapping patches between banks is done in just a few lines of code.

Visual feedback is indeed very important BUT, regarding sysex, only during development.
And, when developing, usualy one uses a debugger.
There is one in Ctrlr but I never succeeded using it so, for me, the debugger is the console even if a uiLabel works as well…
You find the console under Panel – Lua console

For the console:
– you type at the bottom, you get results on top
– you can execute line of codes as myVariable = 1 meaning you don’t need to run your panel to test a code; you can make shortcuts
– to display things, you use the console() statement. Just remember that it only accepts a string
– some statements:

iProgram = 24
console(tostring(iProgram))
24
iProgram = 0x3F
console(tostring(iProgram))
63
sProgram = "My patch"
console(sProgram)
My patch
-- concatenation
console(tostring(iProgram).." - "..sProgram)
63 - My patch
-- display of a MemoryBlock (previously filled in with data)
console(myMemoryBlock:toHexString(1))
24 24 24 24 34 30 33 31 7f 7f 7f 7f 02 02 00 02 00

[EnzoF04]

In a previous try I got an output of a received midi message to an uiLabel working. I lost that panel and I’m searching for the way I did this. (Bottom right uiLabel with visible name “output” in screen dump).

I do this

midiMessageReceived = function(MidiMessage)
	s = MidiMessage:getSize()
	midiFromS700Size = MidiMessage:getSize()

	midiFromS700 = MidiMessage:getData()
	midiFromS700String = string.format(midiFromS700)
	console (tostring(midiFromS700Size))
	console (midiFromS700:toString())
	opSYXRcv:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", string.format(midiFromS700))
end

It’s so frustrating to not be able to read some clear documentation on formatting of variables and formatting them to suit the output I’m putting them to. All in above code are attempts to get it working.

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[goodweather]

Well… the answer is in what I wrote above 😉

– MidiMessage:getData() is a MemoryBlock
– MidiMessage:getData():toHexString(1) gives you the translation in hexa as a string
– console() must have a string as argument

So… just do:

midiMessageReceived = function(MidiMessage)

	console (tostring(MidiMessage:getSize()))
	sMsg = MidiMessage:getSize():toHexString(1)
	console (sMsg)
	opSYXRcv:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", sMsg)

end

Provided you declared opSYXRcv before as opSYXRcv = panel:getModulatorByName(“something”)
I removed your variable assignments as you seem not to do anything with them but you can also keep them for testing size or…
Remember than writing sMsg doesn’t make the variable a string by default, it is the assignment to a string that makes the variable a string.

[EnzoF04]

Thanks!
OK, sorry for being too quick with my question.
But it’s quite inefficiënt to format the variable before using it? This way one needs to have multiple variables for one value. In stead of converting it at “use time” to the desired format?

Or am I wrong with my thoughts?
Thanks Goodweather!

[goodweather]

I don’t fully understand your question, sorry…
The principle with variables is that you use them (= you assign them) if you will use the calculation / conversion / … more than once later on.
In your code above you don’t do anything with size and you call 2 times getSize()…
So, as you are using it only once, the most efficient is just to use it when you display it in the console.
OK?

[EnzoF04]

I understand. It was for testing reasons why I pushed some (the size of the sysex received) into a variable.
What I’m trying to point out:
When I get a value from the sysex, lets say the sample number the device is sending to the panel, in this case it’s hex 0x00 (sample 1), and I store it in a variable as such, and i want to use it as a string for visual reference on what sample I’m working, that I need to make a new variable with the contents / formatting of string. So if I use this variable on 3 different locations in my panel I need to declare 3 different variables. It would be much more easy to convert the value to the desired data type ‘on use’ time?

[goodweather]

OK. No you don’t need to assign the variable three times.
In Lua, variables are global by default.
If you want to make them local, you put the keyword local in front of the assignment.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t need to do some further conversion depending on context.
For your example of sample number, if it is a number, keep it as number!
ANd of course, if you want to display it in the console or in a label then you convert it ad hoc without declaring a new variable.

-- Get the sample number from a midi message
iSampleNo = MidiMessage:getData():getByte(5)
-- Display it in console
console(tostring(iSampleNo))
-- Display it in a uiLabel
opSmpNum:getComponent():setPropertyString ("uiLabelText", tostring(iSampleNo))

Of course, if you don’t want to convert then you can also assign it directly to a variable and use that variable at different places
sSampleNo = tostring(iSampleNo)

I prefer to keep things as they are because I always remember what they are…
A sample number is an integer
A sample name is a string
…
and I convert ad hoc when needed.

[EnzoF04]

OK, that’s clear! Thanks for the nice explanation! I’m really getting forward! And i’m building it to my satisfactory too. BUT.. 🙂 (sorry folks…)

What’s the difference between
MidiMessage.getData()
and
MidiMessage.getLuaData()
or something like this.

I’m getting into the total blocks that a sample consists of so I can start putting these blocks into memory blocks and then put them into a file… But that’s quite far away from here… still.
I really appreciate all your help Goodweather and others!!

I’m doing all my calculations in the midiReceived method. I can think of a better way to calculate different parameters of my sample. But how…

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by EnzoF04.

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