My team has been vigorously working on a CAD application for android. I will post some screenshots of the tool if anyone is interested, so please let me know.
It's currently being tested and developed using a Motorola Droid running 2.0.1. Although we can run the emulator and test different screens using it, we find great difficulty in knowing if the "feel" is nice on a smaller screen.
Anyway - current features that are working:
Objects: Line, Circle, Ellipse, Rectangle, 3 Point Arcs, Text Areas
Drawing Modes: Orthographic (including 45s), Grid On Off, Snap Mode On Off (Endpoints, Centerpoints, Midpoints, Quadrants)
Other Things: Undo, Redo, Erase, Modify (reshape & move), Pan, Layering System, Linetypes, Colors & Text Sizes.
In The Works: Zoom (Option for Pinch), Configurable Toolbar (Add/Remove Tools), Export to DXF & Linetypes.
We are looking for a few people that would be willing to get in on a "PRIVATE Beta" to assist us with the continued development. We have our day jobs, so this is a project that when we have time to work on, we do. However, we do spent quite a bit of time working on it .
Anyway - We want to be picky about the testers, simply because we need to have a nice round group of people. Not plumpy, just round. We need a couple guys that are good with input, finding problems, etc. And we also need a few that dont know anything about CAD and can help us to see if the average joe can figure it out.
We also need a couple good mathmeticians or programmers. Or even one would do. We are having some trouble computing certain boundaries (ellipses to be more precise) that we need to understand so that we can build in other commands like Trim or Extend. (Plus our select option on ellipses is a bit hokey, but knowing how to find an ellipse will solve that for us)
For now, the only assistance I can give you is through the board here, and help you get started. The tutorial will come soon, once we get the basics figured out as to how we want to make it really work.
Anyway - To make a long story even longer - let me know if you might be interested. I would be more than happy to post some screenshots if you like of its current state. So let me know if you are interested.
Thank you very much for sticking through the long a$$ read, or even for skipping through to the "thanks" is enough for me.
That being said - LMK! Thanks!
A capacitive touch screen doesn't seem a good candidate for controlling a smooth CAD experience. However on second thought, when coupling together this technology with a trackball, the possibilities really open up. Harness these well and I know you'll be onto something here.
Post some screens to show everyone the progress of your development and I'll let you know if I'd be interested in testing.
Cheers
Well if your looking for anyone with CAD knowledge, I have a degree in engineering with CAD, and Pro Engineer. I don't have much time to devote to beta testing, but I do have time every now and then. I run a ION with 1.6. Good luck on your software!
(Unfortunately - my account has not been enabled for posting outside links or images - so this is the best i can do for you until that is enabled)
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/11.jpg
Above is a screen shot with a couple drawn elements, and the right side of the toolbar tools.
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/09.jpg
Above is a screen shot with a couple drawn elements, and the left side of the toolbar tools.
There are a handful of more screenshots posted up on my site, the links are as follows:
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/01.jpg - Layer select screen
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/02.jpg - File Operations
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/03.jpg - Display Settings
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/04.jpg - Samle Help Screen (Line)
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/05.jpg - Snap Settings
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/06.jpg - Color Picker
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/07.jpg - Snapping to Midpoint
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/08.jpg - Selection of Ellipse
talon-designs.net/android/andcad/10.jpg - Text Input Screen
That should be plenty of screens to keep interest.
@Lancealot - Thank you very much, and I completely agree, that when we started this, there was some doubt as to how precise you could actually be using a "touch based" screen. The good news, through playing with it, and given ability to set tolerances based on the size of your "touch area" as well as snapping options, we found that you can actually be quite precise.
Ill fiddle with it a little today, put together a drawing and give you a nice example of something that can be made with this.
Keep in mind, this is a work in progress, and although much of the functionality that is currently built into the tool, is at a "finished" state, there is certainly room for input and comments from others that may find use in this tool.
Anyway - here are the screenshots as promised, let me know if you have any further questions.
(Again - sorry about the inconvenience on the links)
(edit to update image types to jpg instead of png)
@zul8er - we are certainly interested in your input. Check out the screenshots and let me know if you are still interested. We dont need a huge commitment, but anything that you might be able to provide would certainly be a big help.
Android 1.6 is the minimum OS currently supported. We need to do some work on the graphics to go as far back as 1.5 to compensate for screen size, and we intend on doing so.. Just not at this current time.
I would be interested in trying out your CAD program. I've been doing CAD for ove 10 years now, started with AutoCAD but have been using Solidworks for the last 8 years.
In addition to using the touch screen for input, will you be able to enter X and Y coordinates using a keyboard or virtual keyboard?
What format will it save the files? DXF, JPG, or what?
Noob Squared said:
I would be interested in trying out your CAD program. I've been doing CAD for ove 10 years now, started with AutoCAD but have been using Solidworks for the last 8 years
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Seems there are more and more of us creeping out of the woodwork on a daily basis
Noob Squared said:
What format will it save the files? DXF, JPG, or what?
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Currently the file format is a proprietary format. But we are currently (today actually) working on saving out to a DXF format to be able to reload your files into AutoCAD or other supported softwares.
The ability to import is also in the works, but will require some massaging on the users end to make sure the DXF file is not binary etc. (MTEXT may not be supported either)
Noob Squared said:
In addition to using the touch screen for input, will you be able to enter X and Y coordinates using a keyboard or virtual keyboard?
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We have toyed with the idea of being able to put in specific dimensions on objects, and also work with x/y coords, but at this time, it only supports point to point drawing. We arent completely sure if we intend on building a "FULL ON CAD" application, or an application for people to use to simply get an idea of what they need to do for a job. The other key, is to keep the application at a price range that is reasonable for people. Most "PocketCAD" applications run around 50 bucks a copy - and rightfully so. To keep the tool at a reasonable range (below 10 or 15 dollars) it may need to be a bit lighter weight than those. Most people cringe at a 2.99 app..
IF we could devote our time 100% i am sure we could build a really nice full blown cad app Unfortunately as with most of us, the day job prohibits some of that time.
Its a WIP I'll put you on the list. Thanks for the input.
Are you looking for beta testers?
Hi, are you looking for beta testers. I'm a long year CAD user, and I'm sure I can help with the app development.
[email protected]
Have you tried using some of the java based cad software as a source for your project? There are many and some might be open source.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ycad/
Yeah I am still interested. It will be neat to play with and see how it works. The coordinate input is a good idea, also, ever play with Pro Engineer? They have a cool way of building an initial drawing. You just sketch, regen, and then input your dimensions to make the object to your liking. Makes things a lot faster and easier to edit a shape if changes need to occur.
I dont know how in depth you want to go, or if that idea can be used.
My email is [email protected]
Nice
Give me a couple more days to get a good product out for you guys to test. Currently we are cleaning up a few little "we'll get that later" issues, and should be good to go by mid/late next week.
Thanks for providing the contact info, I will shoot you a message through email shortly.
Thanks agian for the interest.
@zul8er: nice. Look forward to hearing how you like the feel of it. I havent had a chance to play with ProE, as AutoCAD has been my forte for the last couple decades. Ill see if i can any kind of demo for ProE, and get an idea of how it works. Who knows Anything to make it easier for everyone is a good thing.
But yah - the indepth thing is the issue. We keep tossing with ideas and putting them "on the list" in case people start asking for them. I guess it just depends on how people really want to use this tool. (and of course, how much time we can continue to devote to it) - bah i hate day jobs
I enjoyed the screen shots that were posted. Any idea whether you guys will support rendering/raycasting, or physics with inverse kinematics? Either way it looks great; Sign me up!
haha Not sure if we are going to go the IK way. Maybe as a different project, something more suited to 3D, but for this app, we are only intending on running the 2D route.
My lack of knowledge about the OpenGL portion, really limits us with regards to 3D implementation. I spent a good 3 days just trying to get ahold of loading in a 3D model.. Still never got there (or would have probably released a 3D model viewer first).
At any rate, its hard to say where this will go. It mostly depends on the overall interest i suppose. Its certain that the sky would be the limit, if time were as available as the sky
But cool.. Glad I was able to keep your interest.
Currently (as I type even) I am finishing up all of the help documentation for the app, the inline tutorial, and what not.. A couple more days on the file handling (DXF in particular) and should be set to go for a BETA run. ('couple more days' - like we all havent heard enough of that)
@lancelot - can you send me your email address via private message? That way I can do the BETA communications through there (link to files etc). You are welcome to email me as well:
support AT talon-designs.net
cheers!
Hey, I'm a high school student that has just started learning CAD, does that count as average Joe? I'd love to help beta test, I really want android to overpower iPhone 3.0 lol. My e-mail is [email protected] I use g1 with cyanogenmod 1.6...so idk if that qualifies. But anyways, Good luck!
This really sounds promising. In the last few weeks, I really had the need for a good drawing software on my mobile device. But my Tytn II lacks of power. As I soon will get the Desire, I will hopefully have a quite powerful device for all day use (my Tytn II really sux atm). And because I have the re-occurring need of a drawing app, this could be it.
I mean I don't need it for simple drawing, but for constructing things CAD style and on the go Graphics of furniture or something with measures and all that stuff.
Hey guys.. just wanted to pass you an update on status (which is so much more than I seem to be getting from Verizon on the 2.1 update).
Small rant, but its done now.
Ok - status..
DXF Export is working now, supporting layers, linetypes, colors, and elements throughout the drawing. Am having some issues with getting ellipses to export via DXF (and im not alone - faulty specs are at fault), and that combined with the other issues regarding the math behind finding ellipse edges, we decided to comment out the ellipse alltogether for now. Not that it wont be back, but having so many rules with "you can do this to anything - except an ellipse" left us with no other choice.
It's coming back, just not right now.
We have saving and opening completed (simple proprietary ascii format, but it works for what we need it to do).
Zoom is currently partially working (difficult to complete the recalculation on the elements, but its really close) touch events for zoom are coming up as well. Maybe a pinch zoom even, considering that all devices are getting the 2.0+ upgrade - but we will see.. We dont want to keep anyone excluded from being able to use the tool.
@Balrog82 - we have definately taken this tool a long way since its initial conception. We hope to be able to bring more features that are more "CAD Specific" to the application, and will if it becomes a tool that gets used. We want to release it initially as a "basic" drafting tool, and see what kind of input we get. If we see that a lot of people are using it, and would like the ability to put in dimensions the same way that cad does (within limits) we will certainly look into it.
That being said - I hope the tool is still something you would be willing to try out. I find a lot of enjoyment with working with a tool at its early conception (started using paint shop pro at version 1.42) and now its on to version 14 or something and owned by corel. I just kinda get into that sort of thing, and hope that you all will do.
Good thing is, we hope its a draw to the tool, we plan on releasing it at the market both as a free version (no saving abilities) and a full version at a low price. As the tool grows, the price may increase a bit.. Keeping of course the original buyers at a place that they can keep updating the software at no cost to them. We think that will help the advancement and development of the tool quite a bit.
Anyway - It is right around the corner for initial testing. Please to all interested - send me a PM with your contact information (just an email would be great) I am going to see if i can start a private discussion here to invite you all to as well.
@Lancealot - i got your PM.. Am very happy that you are interested in helping. Expect to hear from me again soon..
Until we can see a working model of this app, I thought I would throw out an app that has some great drawing capabilities. The paid was is called "Picso" by Tiki Move, but I used the free version to try out; it's called "Picso Lite".
It's not a CAD app, but it's different from the other Paint apps on Android in that it has tools the other ones don't. It has the usual tools a CAD user would need, such as Rectangles/Squares, Circles/Ellipses, and Lines. You can change the colors and widths of these entities.
What I like about your program is that it has snaps, and the tools are on the bottom of the screen so they are easy to get to: /talon-designs.net/android/andcad/07.jpg
A feature Picso needs is a Zoom tool so you can zoom in to an area and draw whatever you need to and then be able to zoom full screen. It also needs a text tool. Since there is no dimension tool, you could put a text for the dimension.
P.S.,
I want to try your app, but I am only posting this to show how someone else has put these tools on their app and also to have a comparison on ease-of-use. One other thought, you mentioned the files your CAD app will create will be proprietary file types. Will you be able to save-as .jpg or .png so you can email or text-message a sketch to someone? That way if your on-site you will be able to send someone back at the office whatever it is to explain your ideas, and also they would not have to have an Android phone to view it.
Idea sounds great. Good luck with it!
Sorry for being away for so long.. but we had something going on that we had to attend to..
http://developer.att.com/developer/index.jsp?page=event&id=6.3_v1_9700324
More news as it allows.
Android Category Winner
Talon Designs, AndCAD
This application allows users to create simple geometric shapes, combined with notes, to describe plans associated with the art, architecture, engineering and manufacturing industries. Many of the tools familiar to CAD users are incorporated into this utility, meaning that fluent CAD users will feel right at home using this tool. However, the interface for this tool is simple enough for even the most novices of users to understand. This enables certain users (Contractors, etc) to be able to take notes while on a job site and associate them with vector elements within the drawing.
talondesigns said:
Sorry for being away for so long.. but we had something going on that we had to attend to..
More news as it allows.
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AT&T Open Call-Apps for All! Contest
Thank you to all the participants in the 2010 AT&T Open Call—Apps For All! Contest. This year's contest was filled with many great entries. AT&T reviewed over 90 applications this year ranging from games to business applications. The winners from each category will receive $10,000 and co-marketing opportunities with AT&T.
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Did you get $10,000?
Hello to all!!
It has been a while since I possess telephones under Windows mobile and also, since I navigate it fabulous forum!
When I discovered this forum, I was really very satisfied to have purchased my first one HTC because I had the impression to be a member of a big family!!!!
I thank all the active persons and all the developers on this forum which allowed me to return my phone different from the others and to pull the best!!!
But today, I have to say that I am a little disappointed … I have purchase since a few months a HTC HD Mini because this phone is in my opinion, the best compromise between power, technology, size and still under Windows mobile 6.5.
The HD2 pleased me a lot, but too big for my use … Thus this small phone was really the one that I waited!
Why am I disappointed? Simply because the screen of this phone has a HVGA resolution screen (320x480) and because this one is not current. Everything the magnificent developments which are realized today continues to support the resolution QVGA / WQVGA / VGA / WVGA but not the HVGA.
I find it very it's a pity. Today, I have the impression to be thrown rejected by this HTC community simply because I possess a telephone which is slightly different from the others. And nevertheless, as I said it higher, it is a HTC, he possesses characteristics to envy nothing to the others and he turns under Windows mobiles 6.5. His only defect (if we can say that it is a defect) is the resolution of its screen.
Sirs developers, you who often put your efforts in the service of the others by carrying your applications in various resolutions, could think to us? We who are not competent to develop but who we who support you and we who as want you to pull the maximum of their Windows mobile phone???
Thanks to all by advance !!
Sorry for my English…. It is a resverso translation
You just speak right out of my heart!!!
Devs, please think of us!
In my perspective, I think the hardest part of creating a program, is that he run according to the expected result. The hardest part is to encode the program algorithm.
Then, adapt the same program at different screen sizes is much less difficult! Especially when that program is already adapted to a resolution of 240x320 (QVGA) and a resolution of 480x640 (VGA). From there, I think adapting this program to the resolution of 320x480 (HVGA) is no longer a question of difficulty, but just a question of willingness.
Please gentlemen developers and programmers, think of us when you create your great applications!
Maybe it is true that we are not likely to have a HD Mini, but the fact remains that it's a great phone, branded HTC and running Windows Mobile 6.5.
I do not want to offend anyone, I just want to share my sentiment.
Kind regards, JBS68
Sorry for my English…. It is a google translation
please think of us!
TT_TT
Helle to all !!
Just a small message to promote the subject!
Unless a moderator wants to stick it?
Yes, it can be done, but it can be an awful lot of extra work. If you are going to try and develop an application that will run on as many different platforms as possible, this will have to be done at design time before you have written a single line of code. Trying to retro fit this to an app you have already created, can almost involve a complete rewrite.
Firstly, if you do not have such a device to hand, on which to test the program, you will have to get Visual Studio to create a device with the correct screen size for the emulator to run. HVGA is not one of the stock emulator images. Having created it, when you start it up under the emulator, even Windows Mobile gets a bit confused, see the attached image HVGA. It tries to centre the WM 5.0 stock wallpaper in the screen area, leaving the pale blue gap visible at the top and bottom.
Running the 6.5.3 images as 320x480 makes them virtually unusable, as the Titanium user interface completely screws up; see the second image HVGA65. The 6.5.3 Windows icon 'Start' button does nothing when pressed, you are completely stuck, because you cannot get control panel to run in order to turn the Titanium stuff off.
At least you can test programs against WinMo 5.0 on 320x480.
In the list of applications in my signature below, 5x5 will run perfectly on a HVGA device. Originally, users of Samsung Omnias (240x400) just got a blank screen. The program was originally hard coded to deal with standard QVGA screens in landscape or portrait. Ooooops! Large parts of the program had to be rewritten. It is now designed to dynamically scale the grid to 90% of the shortest side of the client area, and centre itself accordingly. It will now run on any sized screen, even those that have not been released yet! It was a lot of work to make it do this.
Sudoku player will work, but it does not resize, it just positions itself in the middle of the screen. To get this to scale to full size as per 5x5 would involve an enormous amount of work. The drawing would have to be made dynamic as would the font(s) used by the program. It currently gets away with just using the system font, yes let's hear it, lazy programming. It only just fits on a square 240x240 screen.
Siglog is just an app that fills text areas with data; its main purpose is to display and log data; the UI is not that important. It is not optimised for any screen layout, and will just appear in the top left 240x320 area of the screen.
At some stage I might improve Sudoku Player and Siglog so that they have totally dynamic displays, but I have to ask myself, is it really going to be worth all the effort involved?
stephj said:
Yes, it can be done, but it can be an awful lot of extra work. If you are going to try and develop an application that will run on as many different platforms as possible, this will have to be done at design time before you have wriiten a single line of code. Trying to retro fit this to an app you have already created, can almost involve a complete rewrite.
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To begin, thank you for taking the time to read and answer my thread !
I must say that I too am a bit of development. Of course, not at the level of what you do, but I trained alone and I develop professional visual basic macros (especially for Excel)...
On the first point, I completely agree with you, if the resolution was not taken into account at the begin, it is often difficult to integrate in the future without having to write everything.
For the second point, I did not that you need an emulator for other resolutions, and looking at the pictures, I understand that it is not easy to exploit these emulators!
Now, I'm not asking that all applications be re written to make them work on my phone, but when you develop new applications, consider this resolution (if possible!)
I see that there are applications that are developed with the interface SENSE. And although those can easily be adapted (I think).
Another example, when an application interface is based on a skin with areas for displaying datas (example, with a XML file format) could also adapt more easily.
In conclusion, thank you for taking the time to reply to this topic and thank you for trying to take into account this resolution in your developments.
Of course, you may also make use, it is my pleasure to test your beta applications and to return you feed-back about them !
For the latter point, it depends: do you want a maximum of community HTC uses your applications? So the answer is yes ....
Anyway, thank you for everything, cordially, JBS68
to use the stylus to write directly onto a word document with just a jpeg picture on with the pressure sensitivity. this would be incredibly useful and worth the price tag alone.
Do you have to be a guest to attend the london launch event tonight?
as soon as someone confirms this is possible I will go ahead and purchase it. Nb I don't even need the ability necesserily to converrt with the device as I can do that on my computer but to write on the word document is what I need.
If there ar any developers as such who read this could you please do some research because Im sure others would love this feature, saving edited word documents big respect to all the kitchen people, this device is going to be incredible.
n e one know about this. Well I guess I will just have to spend the money to found out come tomorrow. The most amazing thing will be, if i teamviewer my homepc when away from it using whatever teamviewer apps android have hese days and it recognizes the samsung stylus as wacom compatible then i can write on all my home documents when away from the 'office' as it were.
this would be incredible and i will try it out, to continue the conversation with myself. surely this is something a german would have though of by now though... ,.... cheers
im going to edit this thread for at least two weeks with creative ideas like for an application to capture every page of a word document, say if there is 100 pages automatically then save it in one large folder as jpegs or png which will allow the user the draw on word documents effectively.
Isn't it more simple to convert a word document to a PDF file and make notes in the PDF file? There are even already PDF converters and PDF edititng apps with which you can draw notes available in the market.
yes i can, but then i would have to convert back to a word document, only doing to by saving the pages as jpegs then inserting them into word without OCR recognition.(because ocr recognition or anything similar messed it up[see below for specifics]) I do this though because then I can see my notes over three large monitors whilst all pdf viewers like adobe for windows only allow you to see two pages at a time clearly on one screen.
Having amassed allot of notes into jpg formatt, which is actually quite useful. editing them with a wacom pen is quite bliss. Although most pdf to word converters claim to work, I believe it is very hard and having searched high and low for years they never render the text acurately enouph , specifically tables , graphs, maths language etc.
So you are right in that I could convert my word document s back to pdf , ocr ecognize them in adobe and then draw on the with the samsung. Then, convert them back to word in jpegs to see 6 or more documents at a time although the transition of when i get back to my office from a day 'out' taking notes will be quite unpractical in that I have to spend a while saving my pdf's into jpeg format and overwriting my older file,,then having to convert back again when i go back 'out' to make notes.
This is presuming I can edit my notes when I get back to the office, and knowing the wacom pen works with the samsung im sure this shouldnt be a proble as i ave a wacom intuos 4.
Having said that... ... brain stops thinking. I should patten my idea of an application that screen captures every page in a document automatically or series of documents. If i knew how to program id make a few bucks...hint hint anyone who reads this with broad android knowledge. I've never used android before
also i've sent consirable time snipping parts of pages in pdfs to insert as jpegs into word and this takes up 50% of my time editing them in word. So, your right I think in that 50% of the time for those native files i have in pdf I'm sorted otherwise im not considering the stamp feature to amnually put in 100 stamps for each document .... . I asked a guy on youtube if he could test a word document for me.
in terms of development if you'd like me to specify what i mean about teamviewer and the current use of wacom pens in word 2010 id be happy to screenshot and show you. But ideally the world wants this feature on release(with an app). Same goes for the editing word documents fingers crossed i guess as there is no light as of yet in the note specific apps or what is in the device by default specifically . cheerz
Hello everyone, I hope you are fine.
I want to make an inquiry about android application development, because I need to create an application that can capture the battery consumption in smartphone, and read the basics and programming in Java but still not know where to start, if anyone have idea of codes that serve me, help me sources, or any type of information related to this topic, I appreciate it.
I should design the application should look like Battery Mix Battery or Monitor Widget.
Greetings.
L2008 said:
Hello everyone, I hope you are fine.
I want to make an inquiry about android application development, because I need to create an application that can capture the battery consumption in smartphone, and read the basics and programming in Java but still not know where to start, if anyone have idea of codes that serve me, help me sources, or any type of information related to this topic, I appreciate it.
I should design the application should look like Battery Mix Battery or Monitor Widget.
Greetings.
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Assuming you understand basic Android app development, I recommend you give this a solid read-through. It has some very helpful info on how to get battery level, and how to monitor it, or even have some code ran when the battery level has changed.
http://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-state/battery-monitoring.html#MonitorLevel
As stated in the documentation, constantly monitoring the battery will more than likely have a larger battery-consumption rate than a normal app. I think you should use a time:consumption ratio within a service to monitor and display battery usage. I haven't specifically dived into this myself, but here is a basic idea:
1) Get the battery charge level, as well as the time (or possibly the entire date using Calendar class, but I doubt this amount of precision is necessary)
2) Save the battery level, and the time it is retrieved at this level. SharedPreferences is a quick and easy way to integrate persistent data into your app.
3) Using BroadcastReceiver, you can run some code when the battery level has changed (saving charge level, how much time it took to discharge that amount, and doing your calculations/displaying info), as well as when the device has been plugged in or unplugged.
If anyone has some better ideas, please share or improve on mine. I'm still a beginner myself in many ways (Receivers and Services being relatively unfamiliar to me) and constructive criticism is welcomed.
This should at least give you a solid start. Depending on what else you are aiming to build into your application, I may be able to help. I'm not able to get to my computer right now due to moving into a new household, but I can try to point you in the right direction.
Happy coding!