Viewing and Organizing Your Applications Online
Any Scratch application projects that you upload to the Scratch website are stored on your home page on the website, as demonstrated in Figure 13.8.
Figure 13.8. Once logged onto the Scratch website, you can view, execute, and manage all your applications.
From here you can run your application, post comments for it, add additional tags, and create galleries into which to organize your applications. You can also delete any projects that you have uploaded and view comments posted by other members of the Scratch community.
Running Your Application
Once they are uploaded, you can view and execute your applications online by clicking on them. This opens the application and makes it ready for execution, as demonstrated in Figure 13.9.
Figure 13.9. Your online application can be run in exactly the same way you run it on your computer.
Once it is opened, you can interact with and run your application in exactly the same manner as you did when running it on your local computer. For example, the green flag and red Stop Everything buttons are both clearly visible in the upper-right corner of the online stage. Once they are started, you can interact with Scratch applications using the mouse and keyboard as well.
Adding Comments
You can share additional information about your Scratch application by posting comments. To do so, scroll down the screen as demonstrated in Figure 13.10 to expose the Add a Comment entry field.
You can enter any text that you want into this field and then click on the Add button to post your comments. Once posted, your comments, as well as any comments that other members of the Scratch community post about your application, are visible. For example, Figure 13.11 demonstrates how comments look once posted.
As you can see, comments are posted at the bottom of the web page, as is the account name of the individuals who post them.
Adding Tags
In addition to adding tags to your application projects when uploading them, you can also add them online. As demonstrated in Figure 13.12, tags are displayed to the right of your application once it has been opened.
You can add new tags, one at a time, by keying them in to the Add Tags field and then clicking on the Add button. You can also delete any tag that you no longer consider useful by clicking on the [x] characters located just to the right of the tag.
Creating Galleries
As you begin to upload your Scratch applications, you may find it helpful to organize them into different galleries. A gallery is a collection of Scratch applications. Typically, most Scratch programmers group their applications into related collections. For example, you may create one gallery to organize your games and a separate gallery for your other applications.
To create a gallery, go to your home page and scroll down and click on the Create link located in the Galleries section on the left-hand side of the web page. This will display the Create New Gallery page, as shown in Figure 13.13.
Figure 13.13. Creating a new gallery where you can store your Scratch applications.
To create a gallery, you provide it with a name and description, and you specify who can add projects to it. You choices of who can add projects to your gallery include:
Only Me
My Friends
Everyone
You can access your gallery by clicking on its link, which automatically adds a Galleries area to the bottom-left side of the page, as demonstrated in Figure 13.14.
Figure 13.14. You can access your new gallery by clicking on the link at the bottom of the web page.
You can add a Scratch application to one of your galleries by opening the application and then clicking on the Add to a Gallery link located just below the stage area. When you do this, the web page expands to include a Where Do You Want to Add section, as demonstrated in Figure 13.15.
This section displays a list of all your galleries. To add the application to a gallery, select the check box control to the left of the gallery’s name.
You can display a listing of all of the applications stored in your gallery by opening the gallery. For example, the gallery shown in Figure 13.16 currently has a single application stored in it.
In addition to viewing your own gallery, you can browse any gallery on the Scratch website by clicking on the Galleries button located at the top of any Scratch web page. In response, a list of galleries is displayed. By default, 10 galleries are displayed at a time, and you can navigate through the entire list using the navigation controls located on the right-hand side of the page, as demonstrated in Figure 13.17.
The most recently created galleries are displayed first. However, by clicking on the buttons located near the top of the page, you can display galleries based on which ones have the most projects, or you can view featured galleries.
Removing Projects
If you decide that you want to remove any of the applications you have uploaded to the Scratch website, you may do so by displaying your list of projects, selecting one or more using the application’s check box control (located just underneath it), and then clicking on the Delete Selected Project button, as shown in Figure 13.18.
Figure 13.18. Deleting an application that you have uploaded to the Scratch website.
Updating Your Projects
If after uploading one of your Scratch applications to the Scratch website you decide to make changes to it that you would like to share, you may do so by simply uploading it again, using the exact same name that you used to upload it the first time. If you want to keep the original copy of the application intact on the Scratch website, then you will need to assign a different name to the updated version of your application before you upload it.
Other Scratch Website Features
The Scratch website supports many other features related to the sharing of Scratch application projects that have not been discussed in this chapter but which you may want to investigate and learn more about. For example, you can change your personal profile information by uploading a picture to represent who you are. You can also change your password. As you browse the website, you can add applications that you really like to a favorites list, making them easy to return to and find again.
You can delete your galleries by clicking on the Delete This Gallery button when viewing one of your galleries. You can add projects that you have uploaded into galleries by opening the gallery that you want to place the application into and then clicking on the Add My Project button. This displays a list of your projects, allowing you to select which ones you want to move into the current gallery. You can even upload a custom graphic from your desktop to be used to represent your gallery.