News Update
   - OpenInsight 7.2.1 released
   - Controls in Edit Tables
   - Update on CTO
   - Latest Version Checker
   - Contact Us
 

OpenInsight 7.2.1 Released

1st February 2006 saw the release of OpenInsight 7.2.1, being the very latest release of the product.  Following requests from our customer base to slow down, the focus on this release has been on fixing issues that the OpenInsight developer community have been posting to the bug tracker and suggestions forums.  This release includes:

	Basic + and System Routines   COLOR_BY_POS and FONT_BY_POS messages in Send_Message now handle fonts and colours for Column and Row headings in edit tables.   A new property of UDPLIST has been added. This property will return an @fm-delimited list of user-defined properties for a control.   A new property of RTFTEXT has been added. This property allows one to set/get RTF text in/from an edit box.   Get_LH_Info now returns an eighth value-FileVersion.  A one is returned for ARev 1.1 files, a two is returned for ARev or OI files with a 4 gig limitation and a three is returned for files with no limitation.   The Create_Table subroutine has been modified to supply default file attributes if none are specified.  The default attributes are 1000, 400, 100, 1024, 80.  Please refer to the online help for the meaning of these parameters.   The SENDMAIL function has been modified to more correctly handle attachments of a type of ZIP.  Changes have been made to the mail header and content.   The Extended Precision mathematical operators have been added into Basic+. The operators, listed below, should be used when doing comparisons on numerics with more than four (4) decimal places.     _EQX   -   equal   _LTX   -   less than   _LEX   -   less than or equal   _NEX   -   not equal   _GTX   -   greater than   _GEX  -   greater than or equal   Ability to read greater than 16k records in QRYMETHOD has been fixed.
	DatabaseManager   The Form Language Configuration screen now supports test running of the screens in the different languages.   The DM_LH_INFO now displays the file version information for a file, as documented in the GET_LH_INFO routine.   A message of 'Index Update Complete' is now displayed in the Database Manager Status line when an index is rebuilt or updated.
	Pop-ups   When printing pop-ups the pop-up's actual caption is used in the printout, instead of the text 'Contents of the XXX popup'.
	System Editor   Pressing the Ctrl-Ins keys will no longer trigger a changed message to the editor.
	Table Builder   An Edit Calculated Column Attribute dialog box icon has been added.   Edit Calculated Column Attribute dialog box Test Symbolic functionality has been enhanced to highlight the line in error after an error message is displayed.
	User Interface Workspace   Pop-ups now support a Greenbar setting, which changes the colours of even and odd rows.  The developer may choose the colours by simply selecting the odd and even colour choices from a colour palette.

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Controls in the New Edit Table

Recent versions of OpenInsight have seen many enhancements to the Edit Table and which is becoming a more widely used control in modern applications.  These enhancements include the ability to pick up XP themes, force upper case, skip columns when tabbing,  return tens of thousands of rows in less than a second and to include some controls in columns.  This section will look at the process of adding tick boxes and drop down list boxes into columns.

It should be noted that at the time of writing it is not possible to define which actual cells the controls can be shown in.  This is because they are defined on a column basis, as shown in the image opposite.

Firstly you need to define your form and add onto it an Edit Table.  This should be configured in the usual way, providing one column for each control that you require.  I have included five columns here, one for my description of the permission to be set, three tick box options and a last column for my drop down.  Once this is completed you simply navigate to the Window's property sheet and click on the 'Events' button to open the QuickEvent window for the Window.  From the Event drop down select the 'CLICK' event and then click the 'Scripts' button.

It is within the code for the CREATE event that we shall define the controls and where they shall appear.  I shall take a look at configuring the two controls separately.

Tick Boxes

This example shall place a Tick Box in each of the rows in the second column of an Edit Table on our form, the Edit Table is simply called TABLE_1.  We initially declare our Send_Message function, as this will be used during the execution of the procedure, and then tell OpenInsight which table we want to play with (have our controls appear in).  We then need to define which column we wish the controls to be created in and then establish what kind of control will show, currently 0x10000 will create a tick box and 0x20000 will create a drop down. 

The line of code before our RETURN 0,  is used to define whether we want any text to display after the tick box.  In the example image above, I only wanted the tick box to show so I simply removed the words "Check this box" from between the quotes.

 If you then want to have another column with another set of tick boxes you simply copy and paste the lines of code again (excluding the declaration and Return 0 lines, change the column number and the wording to show and you are done.

Declare function Send_Message

EditTable = @Window:".TABLE_1"

ColStyle = Send_Message(EditTable, "COLSTYLE", 2)

ColStyle = bitor(ColStyle, 0x10000)

ColStyle = Send_Message(EditTable, "COLSTYLE", 2, ColStyle)

ColFormat =  Send_Message(EditTable, "COLFORMAT", 2, "Check this box")

Return 0

Dropdowns

As per usual in OpenInsight, once you have one concept under your belt you simply do the same again somewhere else.  So, create a form (or use your existing form) and drop onto it an edit table.  Using the CREATE event for the Window we use the following code to create a series of drop down list boxes that will appear when the user clicks on any cell in column 3.

Declare function Send_Message

EditTable = @Window:".TABLE_1"

ColStyle = Send_Message(EditTable, "COLSTYLE", 3)

ColStyle = bitor(ColStyle, 0x20000)

ColStyle = Send_Message(EditTable, "COLSTYLE", 3, ColStyle)

ColFormat = Send_Message(EditTable, "COLFORMAT", 3, "Item One":@VM:"Item Two":@VM:"Item Three")

Return 0

As before, we declare our Send_Message function and end the code with Return 0.  Between these two lines of code we simply tell OpenInsight which table we want to play with, etc. etc.  If fact, if you compare the two code examples you will notice that they are extremely similar.  If you want you could simply copy the code from the example above for the Tick Boxes and then make the following super quick changes:

 1) Change 0x10000 to 0x20000 to change the Tick Boxes to Drop Down List Boxes.

 2) Change the column numbers from 2 to 3 in lines 3,5 and 6.

 3) Replace "Check this box" with "Item One":@VM:"Item Two":@VM:"Item Three".

In line 3) above you would replace 'Item One' with whatever you wanted to appear as item one in your drop down and then Item Two, Item Three, etc.

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Update on CTO

CTO is a toolset that enables MultiValue developers to take a virtual ACCOUNT-SAVE of their existing application and restore the saved account as an application within OpenInsight.  All files will be created in a specified location, all dictionaries will be converted as best as possible and character-based programs will be able to be pre-compiled and run 'as is' under a VT100 emulation.

Over the last couple of months we have been working on further enhancing the CTO (Character to OpenInsight) toolset and the workstation version is now ready and will be launched at the International Spectrum MultiValue Conference and Exhibition in Long Beach, California in early March.  Several people have raised the fact that there is no concept of an ACCOUNT-SAVE and ACCOUNT-RESTORE in U2 and previously the workaround was to use T-DUMP and T-LOAD.  We are now pleased to say that at the time of launching CTO officially we will have a program called OUT2OI that will create a virtual ACCOUNT-SAVE from  an account created in Universe.  This new program is in beta and will make the process of using CTO with U2 just as easy as D3 and other MultiValue databases. 

For more information and a copy of the CTO evaluation software and our new 'MultiValue to OpenInsight white paper' please contact Martyn on +44 (0) 20 8912 1003 or by email mp@revsoft.co.uk.
 

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Latest Version Checker

*The Universal Driver is the new preferred driver for all ARev and OpenInsight based systems.  Please check the web site at http://www.revsoft.co.uk/universal_driver.htm for more details about this product and how it can benefit your system.

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We are always pleased to hear from existing, expired and potentially new Revelation developers and end-users alike.  You can contact us in many ways:
 

Post 45 St Mary's Road Ealing London W5 5RG United Kingdom Email info@revsoft.co.uk sales@revsoft.co.uk Telephone +44 (0) 20 8912 1000 Fax +44 (0) 20 8912 1001

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