Monthly Archives: May 2014

9.1 Pre-release update

Clarion 9, Clarion News

In the next release we changed how launching of the on-screen keyboard for text-like controls behaves.

From the HELP file;
The Touch support is built in to the RTL, and no explicit code is needed for your program to respond to Touch input.  The RTL implementation is based on the Windows 8 API.

*Currently for Windows 8 and 8.1 Microsoft has removed the OS level functionality for Desktop apps to automatically show the On-Screen Keyboard when a text-like control (Entry, Textbox, Drop Combo, etc.) control gains focus.  We have added support in the “Enhanced Focus” template code to workaround this limitation.

To enable your programs to automatically display the On-Screen Keyboard go to Global Properties->Actions-App Settings and check the box for “Provide visual indicators on control with focus”.

Then choose the desired radio button for the On Screen Keyboard.

The options are:
On – Your program will attempt to launch the On-Screen Keyboard on any device.  If the On-Screen Keyboard isn’t available no error is displayed to the end user.

Off – Your program will not try to launch the On-Screen Keyboard.

Auto – Your program will ask the OS if the device supports Touch input.  If the OS indicates the device supports Touch input the On-Screen Keyboard is set to activate on text-like controls, otherwise it is set to Off.

 Enabling and disabling of the On-Screen Keyboard can also be set globally for the application at runtime by calling the SetOnScreenKeyboard() method of the EnhancedFocusManager class.

On screen keyboard

Clarion 9.1 Pre-Release

Clarion News

Today we are announcing  general availability of the 9.1 Pre-Release! While 9.1 is a minor version number change, it is a major change to the Clarion IDE and Runtime library. The 9.1 release has close to 300 changes/fixes and features, and has been through months of beta testing with close to 150 beta testers (nine alpha/beta releases, not counting this pre-release).

One of the most significant changes is the implementation of support for the Win8 API for accepting Touch input.  The Touch input support is built into the RTL, and requires
no changes to your code. When you rebuild your App with 9.1 your program is ready to accept and respond to Touch input on any Win8 device. The Touch support will continue to evolve as we get your feedback.

Another important feature is the new support for Registration-Free COM. This simply means that you can deploy your App that uses any COM controls without having to install and “register” the COM control.  More details here: https://clarionsharp.com/blog/9-1-and-reg-free-com/

There are many other new features, from IDE enhancements to the new TopScan and TpsFix, as well as hundreds of important changes and fixes, and you can read the complete list here: http://softvelocity.cachefly.net/C9/readme_9.1.11014.txt

We strongly encourage you to get the new release and get to work with it. We’ll be following your feedback as we move to the official gold release of 9.1.

Note: The 9.1 release requires a one-time rebuild of all your Binaries (DLL and LIB). You need to download the 9.1 versions of any 3rd party addons that you use.