A new update for 7.1 is now available. One often requested feature was added; FEATURE: You can now set (via Tools/Options/General/Projects and Solutions dialog) if new projects should default to release or debug mode. Several good bug fixes, including a fix for a regression that popped up in build 6813. You can check the complete change log here.
And look for a new Clarion.Net release on this coming Monday!
Latest update for 7.1 has just been made available. This build works around a problem Clarion developers found on Windows 7 when the Alt Key was pressed. The problem reported was an apparent conflict with Windows 7 “Live Mail” or Outlook 2007. Both of these apps default to hiding the main menu and activating it upon pressing the Alt Key. The problem wasn’t unique to Clarion 7, the same conflict happens under Windows 7 with version 6 Clarion apps (and most likely prior versions too). We are testing a backport of the workaround for C6.3.x.
In the prior release we implemented code completion within the regular Embed Editor. In this release we have optimized the process so when working within the Embed Editor code generation of the procedure only occurs when something has changed that requires it, and the generated code is reused in the same edit session if possible.
We also tweaked a few things to make working with App based solutions and various version control systems a lot smoother. These changes mainly deal with detecting read-only files (Apps and Projects), and then shifting into a mode such that no merging occurs from the App generation process. Speaking of version control, we introduced a nice feature several builds ago; “Binary File auto-export/import”. What’s that? Well if you open Tools-Options-General you’ll see a node aptly named “Binary File auto-export/import”. On that tab you can specify individual Apps and DCTs (or entire folders if you have multiple Apps or DCTs), and whenever you are working with the named Apps or DCTs, an automatic export/import to TXA or DCTX format is executed in the background. This means when you open the App (or DCT) for editing the system looks for the TXA or DCTX format file and automatically imports it, and when you save the App or DCT the system exports your latest changes. Pretty slick and very useful.
The other notable change in this release is a change in how deleted controls affect embedded code attached to those controls. In this release whether you delete a control from within the Designer, or even from within the text editor when working with the window or report structure as text, any attached embed code will become orphaned (leaving it up to you to delete or preserve).
There are also several other changes and fixes, to see the entire change log click here
Emails are going out with download instructions for the latest update to 7.1 (build 6755). There are lots of good fixes and changes, and I already blogged on the significant new feature of Code Completion in the Embed editor. The only other new feature is the addition of the “Properties toolbar’ in the Report Designer. To activate it go to Tools-Options-Report Structure Designer and turn on the ‘Show Properties Toolbar’ option. To see the entire change log click here
There was much gnashing of teeth over the fact that the plain Embed Editor didn’t implement Code Completion – well now the next 7.1.x update implements Code Completion in the Embed Editor. We are also looking at adding the support for Code Folding, which as of today isn’t supported in the Embed Editor, and Clarion devs have asked that we also provide code folding for Control Statements such as IF, CASE, LOOP, etc. and we’re looking into this too.
In case you haven’t found this yet, you can define your own “folding regions” anywhere you like with this syntax:
!region SomeDescriptiveText
…….source code
!endregion
Check the Help file index for this topic: “Regions – Source Code” or just give it a try with the above syntax.
We’ve received some requests via email that have prompted us to start a new project this week; a secured website membership component. We have two goals to accomplish; first we’ll provide the ability to log in to our website and download products that you own, retrieve serial numbers for same, and get the newest updates to the Help files, and second you’ll be able to log in and have access to pre-release internal builds. We’ll make internal builds available for both Clarion 7 (Win32) and Clarion# (.Net). We have started the work on an implementation of a website membership project to be built on top of ASP.NET’s SQLmembership Provider with the UI built with AJAX. We’ll be using it to control the access to the product downloads and to the internal builds, and we’ll also be shipping the secured website membership component as source code with Clarion.Net (and of course we’ll be using it with the .Net App generator).
Access to internal builds will be open to anyone with a current subscription. Once the project is launched we’ll initially try to make internal builds available on a bi-weekly basis (weekly builds are also a possibility). You’ll have access to the change log, and if you see a fix or a feature become available that’s important to you – you’ll have the option to download the corresponding internal build. And by the way, if there happens to be a change to the RTL or compiler that would require your 3rd party tools be rebuilt (this is a fairly rare occurrence), it’ll be duly noted in the change log.
We’ll also be increasing the frequency of publishing maintenance releases (this too was requested in several emails), and we expect to make a new 7.1.x release available at the end of this week.
Emails are going out with download instructions for the latest update to 7.1. There are lots of good fixes and changes, as well as some nice new features. I’ll talk about a few of the highlights.
On the “Features” side we have implemented:
FEATURE: If you double click on a File, Field or a Key in the Data Pad while a Text Editor is open, the File/Field/Key label will be pasted into the text editor
– this one was a sorely missed feature present in the Clarion 6 IDE – that we didn’t know was so popular, but now its back
FEATURE: Template support to create/read/write INI and Data FILEs in specified CSIDL locations (ABC and Clarion chains)
– this lets you easily adapt your application to UAC compliance, and its backed up with a very easy to use Class so you can easily use it throughout your application
here’s a few screen shots from the template interface:
as you can see it’s very simple to use, with just a few clicks of the mouse you can choose to store INI or your Data Files in any of the CSIDL locations presented by the template (these are the Microsoft recommended locations) . You can also choose to store the INI and Data Files in different CSIDL locations – it’s your choice. The template and the supporting Class also make it very easy to choose any other CSIDL location, or any other Network location if that’s what you need.
FEATURE: Added template support for theme to change based upon the OS theme in use
– this is a new Menu style that at runtime matches the OS theme
CHANGE: Optimize writes to the App recovery log
CHANGE: A value of 0 for the auto-save limit disables the App recovery log
– these two relate to a problem that some users had whereby writes to the automatic App recovery log were taking too long, now its optimized and we don’t think you’ll even notice it happening, but if you do, then you can now turn it off
All told there are about 120 fixes/changes and features in this release, you can view the complete list here
We just released an update for Clarion#, the release features our new LINQToFileProvider along with a few examples that should get you going pretty well. We’ll post some documentation on the LINQToFileProvider here within a few days, but the examples are a good way to start getting familiar with this powerful tool.
Also if you haven’t already done so – be sure to look at the Class Diagrammer. Open any Solution select the Project node in the Solution Explorer and right-click to create the Class Diagram. You can use the Class Diagramer to create new class files or work with existing classes. From the design surface you can add fields,properties,events and methods, and a dbl-click on any element in the class opens the appropriate source file and positions to that element.
The Class Diagramer is a great tool for when you are creating custom user controls, and is especially useful for the Compact Framework. Our CF Form Designer can work with asmmeta files created in MS VS and vice versa MS VS CF form designer now can use CF user controls created in our IDE. We also added a new file template CFDesignerTimeAttributes that allows using our CF custom user controls in the MS.
The basic steps are:
– create a CF User Control project
– design the control in the Form Designer
– add a new item to the project using the Compact Framework Design Time Attribute File template
– use the Class Diagrammer to add all required information about the control’s properties and events attributes
– compile the project
– Genasm will be launched automatically and an appropriate asmmeta will be generated.
We’ll have a thorough tutorial on all this in the next update for the Clarion# By Example course. In the mean time explore it and see what it can do for your development.
Happy New Year to all in the Clarion community!
On behalf of our entire staff, we wish all of you a very Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year (and new Decade).
Our offices will close today at 2 P.M. and
we will be back on Monday, January 4th.
Thank you for your continuing support in 2009, and look for some great things to come in 2010.
On behalf of the entire staff here at SoftVelocity, we would like to wish all of you a happy and festive Holiday season. Our offices will be closed at 1 P.M. EST on Christmas Eve (December 24th) as well as Christmas Day (December 25th), and we will be back bright and early on December 28th. Thank You!
Email notifications with download links for the 7.1 release are on their way. Here are the few changes made after the pre-release:
FIX: FILETIME and WIN32_FIND_DATA declared in the WINSOCK.INC file were renamed to avoid duplicate symbol errors; new names are FILETIMEW and WIN32_FIND_DATAW
FIX: Greenbar effect didn’t work in ABC chain
FIX: wrong version of HTML help templates were released
FIX: PE install was missing files required for the Window Previewer
CHANGE: add Rtar_src.tpw to PE installation
The 7.1 add-on drivers (IMDD, DFD, IPDS) have already been released – contact sales if you didn’t get yours yet.
Another topic of interest, some users really like the theming capabilities of the C7 menus, while others want a menu with no owner drawn items. We are looking into the possibility of allowing to switch between owner-drawn menu items and standard menu items, we’ll keep you posted on that. We also already have a handful of additional changes in testing now for the next update to 7.1 and we expect to make the next update available in the beginning of January.
We’ll be working hard to get an update out for Clarion.Net before the Christmas break. If it doesn’t make it out, then it will be first priority right after the New Year begins.