Bugs & Updates

• If the | symbol is placed at the beginning or end of the list of words for magnets, the Magnet Maker adds blank magnets to the list on page 4. In order to get your other colors to display correctly, you may need to select colors for these blank magnets.
• MagnetMaker may still have problems with certain special characters. For example, backslashes are not supported.

If you have any trouble with the Magnet Maker, or if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc., please contact the developer via email: daryl at spunkyenglish dot com.

• Create additional layout options for magnet interactions.

NOTE: If you experienced any of these problems with your activity, simply load your activity in the Magnet Maker, adjust any settings you want to change, and then resave the new activity file (.html) and new Flash file (.swf). The problems will be taken care of.

• July 21, 2012: fixed issue of Magnet Maker activities in certain languages not checking correctly because some characters weren't not being distinguished.
  Issue: the problem arose because the original programming was developed for English-language use, so the algorithm for checking without sensitivity to punctuation was stripping out some letter characters in addition to punctuation characters. New version should strip only punctuation characters, but may have the reverse issue - it may treat some punctuation characters in some languages as letters instead of punctuation. If you see this happen, please report the bug, including which punctuation characters are not handled properly.
• May 4, 2009: added "I forgot my Activity ID" link to send email with list of the ID #s and titles for all activities you created.
• February 7, 2009: better support for special/non-Roman characters.
  Issue: most special characters would not display in the Flash interaction. Updated method for cleaning strings to better allow special characters.
• February 7, 2009: fixed problem with extra spaces in forms.
  Issue: Textareas in forms were displaying extra spaces.
• February 7, 2009: fixed problem with updated database columns.
  Issue: MagnetMaker did not accept new users.
• August 12, 2007: fixed bug with case-sensitive/punctuation-sensitive settings.
  Issue: MagnetMaker did not "remember" preferences set for case-sensitive/punctuation-sensitive checking. These settings now work correctly.
• August 9, 2007: fixed bug with colors and random magnets.
  Issue: If user set custom colors for magnets and chose to randomize, the colors would not appear on the correct magnets. (They would be randomized, too. Oops!) This problem now fixed.
• April 28, 2007: added new layout.
  Issue: limited number of layouts. New layout added, with larger work area, and no buttons.
• April 27, 2007: added feedback survey.
  Issue: No way for users to let me know what they think! Created a feedback survey in Quia, added a link from the Magnet Maker home page. Looking forward to getting feedback!
• February 27, 2007: added new layout.
  Issue: Only 1 layout was available. New layout was added. Previously created activities can easily be changed to the new layout by editing the activity in the MagnetMaker and simply choosing the new layout on Page 2.
• February 27, 2007: updated scripting.
  Issue: The old version of the MagnetMaker required Flash 8 and worked only in certain browsers and only online. The new version of the MagnetMaker will work with Flash 6 and up, in more browsers, and can be used offline (e.g., on an intranet). If you edit any previously created activity through the MagnetMaker, it will automatically update it to the new version. When you finish editing, it's very important that you resave both the HTML and the new .swf files. The old .swf file that you have already saved on your computer will not work with the new HTML file.
• February 27, 2007: colors problem fixed.
  Issue: MagnetMaker did not "remember" colors set when reloading activity. This caused the colors to be reset to the defaults each time the activity was edited.
• August 2, 2006: randomization problem fixed.
  Issue: MagnetMaker did not set the randomization preference entered. Users who want magnets in their activities randomized may want to re-edit the activities in the Magnet Maker in order to set the preference to randomize.
• August 2, 2006: interaction load bug fixed.
  Issue: sometimes the magnets for some interactions wouldn't appear on the screen. This happened especially for activities with several interactions on the same page. Users who made activities with multiple interactions prior to 8/2/06 may want to reload their activities in the Magnet Maker (just type your Activity ID # in the "Display my activity" box on the main page) and resave them.