What's New in Alpha Five Version 8

Improved Performance

Improved Appearance

Layout Editors

Browse Improvements

Working with SQL Databases - AlphaDAO

Tasks Lists

DragDrop List Improvements

Script Editor Improvements

Action Scripting Improvements

Web Applications Improvements

Field Rules

Improvements in Queries

Miscellaneous Improvements

What's New in Xdialog

New Xbasic Functions and Methods

Improved Performance

Alpha Five V8 performs better than any other version of Alpha Five. Performance improvements have been made in several different critical areas.

Speed Improvements - In a word, Version 8 is fast! Alpha Five V8 is significantly faster than previous versions of Alpha Five. Significant speed improvements have been made across the board - Alpha Five loads much more quickly, databases are opened more quickly, you can switch between open windows significantly more quickly, tables are opened more quickly, and forms repaint more smoothly. The user experience with V8 is considerably more satisfying than any previous version of Alpha Five.

Xbasic is Faster - In general, Xbasic scripts in V8 will run faster than in previous versions of Alpha Five.

Application Server is Faster - The Application Server in V8 is faster than previous versions of the Application Server.

Much Smoother Screen Repainting - Forms now open much more smoothly than in previous versions of Alpha Five. This is achieved by using a technique called 'double buffering' in which screens are drawn to an internal memory location and then only displayed when the form has been completely redrawn. This results is extremely smooth transitions from one form to another. Also, when resizing forms, there is no flicker. When running in maximized mode, the improvements are especially noticeable. In addition, when in maximized mode, switching from one form to another is now significantly faster than in previous versions of Alpha Five. Double buffering does require extra RAM and it can be turned on or off using the following Xbasic commands:

? a5.System_Mode_Get("form_double_buffer")
"True"
a5.System_Mode_Set("form_double_buffer","false")
a5.System_Mode_Set("form_double_buffer","true")

 

Resource Utilization - When Alpha Five is in an idle state, it no longer consumes as many CPU cycles as previous versions of Alpha Five. This results in less drain on your computer and faster performance of Alpha Five, and other applications that are running at the same time as Alpha Five.

Improved Appearance

Version 8 has a completely new look. It looks fresh and modern and the applications you create will look stunning.

There are several different themes, designed to match your operating system theme. When the standard XP theme is selected, Alpha Five uses a blue theme:

When the Olive Green Windows theme is selected, Alpha Five uses a green theme:

When the Silver Windows theme is selected, Alpha Five uses a silver theme:

Gradient Fills - Gradient fills can be used throughout on Layouts. For example, form can have gradient backgrounds, buttons can have gradient backgrounds, frames can have gradient fills. etc. This gives your applications a cutting edge look. For example, this form has a gradient fill on the form background, on the buttons and on the title bar across the top of the form. Over 20 different gradient fill styles are supported.

Gradient Fills on Browses - Gradient fills can even be used in Browse layouts. For example, in this picture, alternating row colors, using a gradient fill have been defined. In addition, the title bar is using gradient fills. Gradient fills can also be used in the row selectors.

Layout Editors

There have been substantial improvements in all of the Layout editors (Forms, Reports, Labels, Letters and Browse).

Gradient Fills - Almost all objects now support gradient fills, giving layout a much more professional look.

Fill Style Picker - A new gallery control makes it easy to pick the control's fill style.

Buttons Shapes - New button shapes have been added and a new Button Shape gallery control makes it easy to pick the button shape.

Advanced Frame Object - The Frame object has been substantially improved. You can now create great looking frames to highlight different sections of your form.

Here is an example of an 'old' style and a new, modern style frame. Notice that the modern frame has gradient fills in both the frame body and the frame title.

Static RTF Fields - Now support transparent background colors.

Improved Color Picker in Layout Editors - More Color Choices - The color picker in the layout editors (Form, Browse, Report, etc.) is now greatly improved. You are no longer restricted to the built-in colors defined in Alpha Five, or the other colors you defined manually in View/Settings. You can now choose any color that you want, and the color picker gives you access to a "Custom" palette that you can easily define, and also to a palette of your recent choices.

Color picker shows the standard "System" colors as well as tabs for the user-defined "Custom" palette and a tab for your recent color choices. The "More Colors" button opens up an extremely powerful and easy to use color picker - see below.

Advanced Color Picker - The color picker that displays when you click the "More Colors" button in the in the Layout Editor color picker, as well as in other parts of Alpha Five, (such as designing CSS style sheets, Web Components, etc.) is now significantly improved. In addition to picking colors of a standard color map (shown on the HLS - Hue, Luminance, Saturation - tab below), you can also pick "relative" colors (shown in the image with the "Relative" tab selected).

Stylesheets - There have been several improvements in stylesheets for Form, Reports, Labels, Letters and Browses.

- new stylesheets that take advantage of the new gradient fill features in V8 have been created.

- older stylesheets are still available by checking the 'Show legacy stylesheets' checkbox when you apply a stylesheet.

- stylesheets can now be used in the Report, Label and Letter editors.

- when you drop a label object on a layout, you now get a sub-menu asking you to choose the style of the control.

Style menu allows you to pick a style for text objects

- when you drop a frame object on a layout, you get a pop-up menu letting you choose the frame style

Frame menu when dropping a frame object on a Layout	Resulting frame object after selecting the 'Styled' option.

Layout Editors - Interactive Window - The Layout editors now have a new 'Interactive Window' which is available as one of the Task Lists in the editor's Task Pane. The Interactive Window operates in the same session as the layout that you are editing. Because the Interactive Window and the layout share the same session, you could (for example) type this in the Interactive Window shown in the Task Pane:

LastnameLabel.text = "Last Name"

This would set the text shown in the 'LastnameLabel' control on the form to 'Last Name'.

Setting properties for objects in the layout in the Interactive window is equivalent to setting them using the properties dialog boxes and toolbars.

The image below shows off several new features of the Layout editors: 1. The Interactive Window task pane is visible, allowing you to execute Xbasic commands against the layout object that is being edited, 2. The form editor is displaying a new 'advanced' frame object with rounded corners, a gradient fill for the frame title section, and a gradient fill for the frame body and 3. a static RTF object with a transparent fill (showing that the frame's gradient fill shines through).

Browse Improvements

There have been a large number of improvements to the Browse object in Version 8. Both the stand-alone browse, and the embedded browse have been improved. The improvements fall into the following categories:

- performance

- appearance

- events

Alternating Row Colors -  (Professional and Enterprise Edition) You can now define alternating row colors. The row colors can use gradient fills to create a very modern look. You can specify up to 4 alternating colors (e.g. color1 for row 1, color2 for row 2, color3 for row 3, color 4 for row 4 etc.). A genie makes defining alternating row colors very easy.

For example:

The Default Browse Style	The 'Alphasports' Style

Right click on the Browse and select Properties. Then click the 'Row Color Properties' button to bring up the Genie.	The Genie lets you set up to 4 alternating row colors.

Advanced Cell Formatting -  You can now put images, and buttons in browse cells. (Professional and Enterprise Edition). For example, this browse shows buttons that will open a detail view of each customer, and other buttons that will dial the phone number for each customer.

The image to use or button text to display for each row in the browse can be conditional - based on other data in the current browse row.

Browse Line Styles -  (Professional and Enterprise Edition) You now have control over the line style and colors of the vertical and horizontal lines in a browse, as well as the lines under the titles and in the row selector (at the left edge of the browse).

Browse Images - (Professional and Enterprise Edition) You have complete control over the various standard images used in the Browse. You can set the image used for marked records, the record that has focus, the ascending and descending sort icons, the image used in the top left corner, and the new record image.

Browse - Row Selector - When you define the color/fill style for the row selector in a browse object you now have much finer control than you previously had. You can define different styles for the selected rows, the row with focus and all other rows. The row selector can use gradient fill styles.

Browse - Title Colors - When you define the color/fill style for column titles, you now have much finer control than you previously had. You can define different styles for when the column is selected, has focus or is neither selected nor has focus.

Browse - Mouse Wheel - Previously, when using the wheel on the mouse, when you got to the last record, using the wheel would move into the new record. Now, the wheel will not move you from the last record to the new record.

Browse Events - New Browse Events - Several new browse events are now supported for both stand alone and embedded browse layouts. OnSave - fires when a record in the Browse layout is saved. CanSave - fires when the user tries to save a record. The event can be cancelled by calling the cancel() function. <Column>_onChange - fires when data in a browse column is changed. The <Column> events are defined by inserting the appropriate functions calls into the Browse, Events script. For example, here is how to define an event handler for the 'lastname' column in a browse:

For a stand alone Browse, select Browse, Events, Events. For an embedded Browse, select Object, Event, Event, or right click on the Browse and select Events, Events

In the 'Events' script, define this function:

function lastname_OnChange as v ()

    ui_msg_box("On Change Event for Browse. Browse name is: ",this.name())

end function

Note that the 'this' alias refers to the browse object that contains the browse column.

Browse - Column Heading Click Behavior - Column Title Events  - You can now define different behaviors for responding to clicks in a column heading a Browse object. In V7 the only behavior was to select the column. Now you can specify that the data in the column should be sorted, or you can define an event that should be fired when the column heading is clicked (in this case the column heading behaves like a button). The behavior is set by setting the browse object's 'title.onclick_behaviour' property. For example:

browse1.title.onclick_behaviour = "Sort"

browse1.title.onclick_behaviour = "Select"    'this is the V7 option

browse1.title.onclick_behaviour = "Event"
 

To define the click behavior, open the Browse Properties dialog box.

Browse - Title section height - You can now explicitly set the height of the title section in a browse, or you can set the height to 'auto' which will cause the height of the title section to automatically adjust based on the font size or layout of the browse titles. You can set the title height by setting a property value in the Browse Properties dialog, or you can drag on the sizer where in design mode. The ability to set the title height is especially important in V8 because you can now define multi-line browse column titles, and you can insert images and buttons in browse column titles. The following example show how you can adjust the setting using Xbasic:

Browse - Titles - You can now define title font settings for stand alone browses. (You could previously define these properties for embedded browses).

Browse Layouts - Tab stop Property - You can now set a tab stop property for browse columns. If the tab stop property for a column is set to False, then the column will be skipped when you press Enter or Tab to move from column to column.

Browse Layouts - Field Rules - Skip Rule - The skip field rule is now honored in Browse layouts. Previously, it was only honored in Form layouts.

Browse - Titles - XP Themes - Browse titles can now be displayed using XP Themes. (Column titles in the Control Panel are an example of XP Themes - assuming that you are running under XP or Vista)

Browse - <Browse>.Fetch_Last() Method - This method has been improved. It now tries to keep as many records as possible visible in the browse window. Previously, the last record was displayed in the first row of the browse window, leaving the rest of the window empty.

Browse - <Browse>.Set_Viewport_row(n Rownumber) Method - This method allows you to set the active row in the browse window. The rownumber  must be between 1 and the number of rows shown in the browse window. This method is the Xbasic equivalent of clicking in a particular row in the browse window.

Browse1.set_viewport_row(5)

Browse - <Browse>.Get_Viewport_row() Method - Returns the row number of the active row in a browse window.

 rownumber = Browse1.Get_viewport_row()

Forms with Linked Browses - (Advanced Users Only) A form can contain both 'embedded' and 'linked' browses. A 'linked browse' is a browse that exists as a stand-alone browse (i.e. it is visible in the Browse tab on the Control Panel). When a form contains a linked browse is it now possible for advanced users to override some of the browse settings that are stored in the saved browse definition. This is done by setting the value of the Browse object's 'overrides' property at design time. Here are some examples of how the 'overrides' property can be set. Assume that you have a form with an linked browse. The form is called 'CustForm' and the browse object is called 'browse1':

CustForm:Browse1.overrides = "<browse style=\"<Ambient>\" />"

This causes the linked browse to use the same style sheet as its container form (i.e. the 'CustForm').

CustForm:Browse1.overrides = "<browse style=\"Dark Modern\" />"

This causes the linked browse to use the 'Dark Modern' stylesheet (regardless of the stylesheet used by the container form).

xmlstring = <<%xml%

<browse new_record_text="&lt;New record&gt;" showrowselector="yes" show_vscrollbar="yes" show_hscrollbar="yes"

gridline_horizontal="yes" gridline_vertical="yes" outline_level="1" data_entry_style="default" row_height="13">
    <border color="#147,147,147" style="Beveled-Single line" width="1" has_left_edge="yes" has_right_edge="yes" has_top_edge="yes" has_bottom_edge="yes"/>
    <shadow style="None" color="Black"/>
    <title showtitles="yes" color="Rose" accent_color="#249,249,249" fill_style="Gradient Horizontal"

    line_style="solid" line_color="#147,147,147" top="2" onclick_behaviour="Select">
        <font color="Black" name="Arial" size="8" bold="yes"/>
         <flyover color="#224,244,244" accent_color="#195,195,195" fill_style="Gradient Horizontal"/>
         <selected color="#249,249,249" accent_color="#221,221,221" fill_style="Gradient Horizontal" font_color="Black"/>
         <focused color="#249,249,249" accent_color="#221,221,221" fill_style="Gradient Horizontal" font_color="Black"/>
    </title>
    <background color="Tan" accent_color="Black" fill_style="Transparent"/>
    <row_selector color="Pink" accent_color="White" fill_style="Gradient Vertical Glass" line_style="solid" line_color="#147,147,147">
         <selected color="#249,249,249" accent_color="Black" fill_style="Transparent"/>
         <focused color="#249,249,249" accent_color="Black" fill_style="Transparent"/>
    </row_selector>
    <splitter color="Pink"/>
    <horizontal line_color="#221,221,221" line_style="default"/>
    <vertical line_color="#221,221,221" line_style="default"/>
    <separator_top line_style="default"/>
    <separator_left line_style="default"/>
    <separator_right line_style="default"/>
    <cells>
        <cell color="#255,255,255" accent_color="Rose" fill_style="Gradient Horizontal glass" font_color="#0,0,0" count="1"/>
    </cells>
    <selected color="System-Highlight" accent_color="Black" fill_style="Transparent" font_color="System-HighlightText"/>
    <focused color="White" accent_color="Black" fill_style="Transparent" font_color="System-HighlightText"/>
    <currentrow color="Win3D" accent_color="Black" fill_style="Transparent" font_color="System-HighlightText"/>
    <currentcolumn color="Win3D" accent_color="Black" fill_style="Transparent" font_color="System-HighlightText"/>
    <new_record_appearance color="Win3D" accent_color="Off White" fill_style="Transparent"/>
    <fill color="Rose" accent_color="#249,249,249" style="Gradient Horizontal"/>
</browse>
%xml%

CustForm:Browse1.overrides = xmlstring

This causes the linked browse to use the set of properties defined in the XMLString variable.

Working with SQL Databases - AlphaDAO

Note: To work with SQL databases (using either AlphaDAO or ADO, you must have the Enterprise edition of Alpha Five).

AlphaDAO - AlphaDAO (Alpha Database Access Objects) is a collection of objects that can be used to connect to, and interact with remote SQL databases. It provides a much easier to use and understand object model than ADO ('ActiveX Data Objects'). An important benefit of AlphaDAO is 'portable SQL' which allows you to define SQL statements using Alpha SQL syntax. By using portable SQL, your SQL statements will work on all supported remote databases. (Enterprise Edition only).

Passive-Link Tables - Passive-Link tables are regular Alpha Five tables (i.e. .dbf files), that are created by importing data from a SQL data source (e.g. an Access database, an Excel file, a SQL server database, a MySQL database, etc). The source from which the data was imported is stored in the table's dictionary, so that at any time you can right-click on the table and select the 'Refresh' command. This causes the SQL query that was executed to populate the passive-link table to be re-executed, thus repopulating the passive-link table with up-to-date data from the remote database. Any changes made to the data in a passive-link table are NOT made in the remote database, and are lost when the passive-link table is refreshed. Passive-link tables are therefore ideally used for reporting and analysis applications involving data in remote databases. You can create passive-link tables in several ways: 1) right click on the white space when the Tables/Sets tab of the Control Panel has focus, 2) use the AlphaDAO import genie, 3) right click on a table in the SQL Database Explorer. Passive-link tables can be easily identified in the Control Panel because they are shown with a special icon showing a red chain-link:

AlphaDAO Import Genie - (Enterprise Edition) The AlphaDAO Import Genie is replaces the ADO Import Genie in Version 7. (The ADO Import Genie is still available for backward compatibility). The AlphaDAO Import Genie allows you to define very powerful and flexible import operations to import data from remote SQL databases (including Excel files). Key features of the AlphaDAO Import Genie include:

- uses AlphaDAO to connect to the remote database

- ability to import tables as either standard Alpha Five tables, or as passive link tables.

- ability to specify any SQL statement to define what data gets imported.

- full graphical SQL query builder to help you define the SQL statement to select records from the remote database.

- use of arguments in the SQL statement to prompt for parameters at run-time.

- ability to consolidate all prompting for arguments into a single dialog. For example, say you defined an import operation that imported data into 3 different tables. Each of the 3 SQL Select statements might use arguments. Rather than prompting for arguments as each SQL statement is executed, all prompting could be consolidated into a single prompt.

- ability to control the field definition of each field in the imported table.

Database Explorer - Provides an expandable tree view of the tables in a remote SQL database.

SQL Query Genie - Allows you to build and edit SQL SELECT statements. The genie is a 'two-way' editor - meaning that you can paste make edits directly on the SQL statement, or in the builder. If you make edits directly on the SQL statement, Alpha Five will automatically parse the SQL and show a graphical representation of the query in the builder.

SQL Command Window - Allows you to enter any SQL command to be executed by a remote database server. In the case of commands that return data, the Result window will show the rows that were selected. In the case of an action query (such as an Update), the Result window shows how many records were affected. The command window can be used to execute both native and portable SQL statements. The drop-down connection box allows you to easily execute the same command against different backend databases.

Reporting - Reports, Labels and Letters can now be created using data from remote SQL databases.

AlphaDAO Connection Strings - Named and Evaluated Connections - When opening a connection to a remote database using AlphaDAO, you can use both named and evaluated connection strings.

Examples:

'Open a named connection called 'Northwind'

dim c as sql::connection

c.open("::Name::Northwind")

'If you are running on a machine called 'MainServer' use the 'RealAccountingData' named connection,

'else use the named connection 'TestAccountingData'

dim c as sql::connection

c.open("::Eval::IIf(api_getmachinename()="MainServer","::Name::RealAccountingData","::Name::TestAccountingData")

Tasks Lists

The Script Editor, Layout Editors, and HTML Editor all now support dockable 'Task Panes'. Task Panes are a major innovation because they make working in the various Alpha Five editors more efficient by making commonly used tools more accessible.

• Task Panes can be docked on the left, right, or they can float.
• When a Task Pane is docked on the left or the right, it can contain multiple 'Task Lists' in resizable windows. If a Task Pane contains multiple Task Lists, you can arrange the pane so that all lists are visible at once, or you can maximize one list so that the other lists just display their title bar.
• All editors that support Task Panes have a new top level menu item called 'Task List'  next to the View menu. This menu item allows you to turn various Task Lists on and off.
• When a Task Pane is docked on the left or the right it can be collapsed so that it is displayed as a narrow strip on the left or right side of the screen. By clicking on the band, the pane is instantly re-opened. This allows you to maximize your work area, but still get very quick access to your tools.
• You can collapse a Task Pane in several ways - from a drop down menu on the Task List title bar, by dragging to make the Task Pane narrower, or by double clicking on the title bar of a Task List.
• In the Layout editors, the DragDrop List and the Toolbox are now displayed as Task Lists in the Task Panes.
• In the Script Editor, the Xbasic Explorer, the Function Explorer, the Code Library, the new SQL Database Explorer and the new Script/Function list Explorer, are all displayed as Task Lists in the Task Panes.
• The Task List menu item has an option called 'Restore Default Layout' that resets the layout of all of the Task Lists to their default positions (before you started repositioning and resizing the various Task Lists).

Form Editor Task Pane shown in its default position. This shows the Task Pane in its 'un-collapsed' state. Note that the Task Pane shows two Task Lists - The DragDrop list and the Toolbox - each in its own resizable window. Clicking the 'Maximize' icon in the title bar of either Task List will cause that window to be maximized and the other window(s) to be reduced to just their title bars.
Form editor Task Pane shown in its collapsed state. Clicking on the 'Toolbox' button will display the Task Pane at its previous width (before it was collapsed) and will also maximize the 'Toolbox' Task List. Similarly, clicking on the 'DragDropList' button will maximize the DragDropList Task List.   However, clicking on the 'Restore' icon (at the top of the bar) will restore the Task Pane keeping the same layout that it had when it was collapsed.
Any Task List in a Task Pane can be pulled off the Task Pane and floated. Any floating Task List can be dragged on top of a docked Task Pane (on the left or the right) and it then becomes docked in that Task Pane.   In this picture, the Toolbox has been dragged off the Task Pane and is now floating.

DragDrop List Improvements

The DragDrop list in the Layout editor has been substantially improved and has many useful new features, as described in the images below.

This picture shows how different sections in the DragDrop List can be collapsed and expanded. This is useful when you are working with a Set that has many tables in it.
The DragDrop list now supports a right click menu. This menu allows you set properties for the list, such as: drag field and label drag field only drag label only group field and label, or un-group field and label You can sort the fields in the DragDrop list in natural order (the order in which the fields were defined), or in alphabetic order.   Notice the menu items 'Select object for INVOICE_HEADER->Pay_method' and 'Extend select object for NVOICE_HEADER->Pay_method'. In this case, the user has right clicked on the 'Pay_method' field in the 'INVOICE_HEADER' table. The first option will select any objects in the layout that are bound to the 'Pay_method' field. If any other objects on the layout were selected, they will become unselected. The second option will also select any objects on the layout that are bound to the 'Pay_method' field, but if any other objects on the layout are selected, they will  remain selected. This feature is extremely useful when you have a  layout that is based on a table or set with a large number of fields, and  you quickly want to find the objects that are bound to a particular field.
You can search for fields in the DragDrop list. This is very useful if you have a table with a large number of fields. The search feature supports wildcard characters. In this picture, the user has selected the 'Find fields that match...' command and has entered 'bill*' as the search criterion. This will find all fields that start with 'bill'. Notice that the search can be limited to a single table in the Set (in this case the 'Customer' table), or it can search in all tables in the Set.
After running the search, the DragDrop list now highlights the fields that were found.

Layout Editors- Drag/Drop List - Summary Field Genie - Previously, when you selected multiple fields from the DragDrop list and dropped the fields into a report summary section, the Summary Field Genie did not appear. Now, it does appear and you can select a summary option for all selected fields. This makes is much quicker to place multiple fields in a summary section.
 

Script Editor Improvements

Code Editor - Scripts/Functions Task List - The Code Editor now has a new Task List - the 'Script/Functions' Task List. This window displays a list of all of the global scripts and UDFs in the current database. Double clicking on any entry in the list will open the script or UDF in the editor. You can type a partial script name in the text box at the top of the list and it will filter the display, making it very easy to find a particular script or UDF when you have a large number of scripts and UDFs in your database.

Script Editor - Much Improved Undo/Redo - The undo/redo functionality in the script editor is now greatly improved. When undoing actions, Alpha Five now undoes 'blocks' of work rather than a single character at a time. Also, the number of undo levels has been increased to 50 from 20. Since undo works at the 'block' level rather than the character level, the effective increase in the size of the undo buffer is significantly bigger.

Script Editor Tabs - Rightclick Menu- You can now right click on a tab to close the tab, or save the script.

Script Editor - Switching Tabs - When you switch tabs from one script to another, Alpha Five remembers whatever text was selected when you return to a script.

Action Scripting Improvements

Action Scripting - Xdialog Genie - Set Dialog Background - The Xdialog Genie now allows you to specify the background for the Xdialog. You can specify a solid fill of any color, a gradient fill, or an image background.

Action Scripting - New 'SQL' Category - There is a new category in Action Scripting called 'SQL'. These actions all use AlphaDAO to connect to the remote database. Under this category the following new actions can be selected:

These actions are an ideal way for Xbasic programmers to learn the syntax for using AlphaDAO to work with remote databases.

Action Scripting - Forms Category - 'Open EmbeddedBrowse Companion Form' Action -  This action allows you to open a modal, pop-up form to edit the current record in an embedded browse, or to add a new record to the table whose records are shown in an embedded browse.

Action Scripting - Xdialog Genie - Property Grid Control - The Xdialog genie now allows you to create dialog boxes that contain property grid controls. A property grid is a very powerful way for collecting information from a user. Property grids can have multiple levels of headings (like a tree control), they allow the properties to be sorted and they allow you to define "builders" (i.e. pop up dialog boxes) to set the values of properties. See example in 'Learning Xdialog' for methods to set focus to individual items in the PropertyGrid and to control the open/close state of categories. There are seven different 'styles' available for the property grid. Shown below are 3 of the available styles:

Action Scripting - New 'Prompt using Check List Box Dialog' action - A new action allows you to create check box listboxes as shown below:

Action Scripting - Open Form/Browse Action  - 'Base' or 'User' Filter -  Now lets you decide if the filter that you specify in the genie should be applied as a "base" filter or a "user" filter. Previously the genie did not offer a choice and always applied the filter as a "base" filter. This meant that after the form/browse had been opened, the user could not remove the "base" filter - any filters defined by the user were applied in addition to the base filter. Now, if you choose the "user" filter option in the genie, once the form has been opened, the user is free to remove the filter and apply another filter.

Web Applications Improvements

Application Server - Speed - The speed with which the Application Server can serve up resources (i.e. images, linked CSS and JS files etc.) has been speeded up significantly.

Security Framework - The Security Framework allows you to easily add robust security to your web application. It creates log-in pages for users to log into the application and it lets you specify security for each page in your application. You can specify security down to the field level in a Grid components. Security is specified at the Group level. I.e. permissions are assigned to specific groups of users and then users are assigned to particular groups. The Security Frameworks automatically deals with issues such as lost passwords, 'remember me', session duration, etc. so that you don't have to program these behaviors yourself. If you are building a web app that uses a security framework, then V8 Security Framework will save you a huge amount of programming effort.

Grid Components - Arguments - Arguments are a major new feature that allow you to more easily define filter expressions that reference variables, or cookies. Previously, if you wanted to reference a page, session or cookie variable in a filter expression, you needed to use Xbasic to override the settings for the component in the .A5W page that loaded the component. Now, you can define an argument and specify where that argument gets its value from. For example, you could define an argument called :whichUser and specify that this argument gets its value from the session.user variable. When you define the Grid component, you can specify the Filter property as: Username = :whichUser. At run-time, if the variable that the argument is bound to does not exist, you can optionally tell your Web application to dynamically generate a page to prompt for the missing arguments.

Grid Designer - Selected Fields Show in Bold - The Grid designer now shows selected fields in bold. This makes it easy when you have a lot of fields in a table to see which fields have been selected, and which have not been placed on the Grid.

Grid and Dialog Designer - Show Icon for Control Type - The list of selected fields/controls is now shown with an icon representing the type of control that will be used to display the field. This makes it very easy to see, for example, that the City field in a grid is being displayed in a Dropdownbox control.

Grid and Dialog Designer - Complex Layouts - Multi-column layouts -   When you define a Columnar or Stacked style for a Grid or Dialog Component, you can now specify how many columns to use for the layout. Previously, (in the case of a Columnar layout), Alpha Five automatically assumed a two column layout (one column for labels, and another for controls). With a multi-column layout, you can specify that certain controls must always end a row, or must always start a row. The list of selected Fields shows where forced breaks have been inserted.

Here is an example of a Grid using a 3-column layout (using the column breaks shown in the above diagram):

Dialog Component - Layout Calculation mode - There are two modes - Standard and Pre-calculated. The pre-calculated mode computes the HTML at design time, and so at run-time, the Dialog component displays extremely quickly. Of course, if you use the pre-calculated mode, then you can't use any Xbasic that would recalculate the layout of the dialog in an event handler.

New Control Types - Blurbs and Headings (apply only to 'form' type layouts)

Dialog and Grid Components - New Layout Options - There are several new options that allow you much more control over the layout of Dialog and Grid components.

• Merge Cells - In Columnar Grids and Dialogs, there is a new Merge Cells Begin/End layout command.  Controls between [Merge Cells Begin] and [Merge Cells End] are all placed next to each other in the same cell.  Break Type (described below) is honored.  This is especially useful for entering multi-part data that needs to be split amongst several fields.
• Frames - A frame can be put around a group of fields by inserting [Frame Begin]/[Frame End] controls.  The frame can have a title or can act just like a border without a title.  Columns are honored within the Frame.
• Columns - Dialogs and Columnar Grids can be organized in multiple columns vs the current single column style by specifying the "Number of Columns" property on the Properties tab.  If number of columns is set to 0, the number of columns will be inferred from the Break Types (below) that are set.
• Break Type - When columns is > 1 or in a merge cell region, you can specify whether to force a new row before, after, or both before and after the current control.
• Simple Styles - A simpler version of the CSS styles for components that is designed for use with Dialog components, and Grids, when using a columnar style.
• Row Spacers - Inserts blank rows in the layout
• Column Spacers - Inserts blank columns in the layout.

Dialog Components - Client side calculations. You can now define dialog components that have client side calculations. For example, you might have a field called 'price' and another called 'quantity'. After the user has filled in these two fields, the total will be displayed in the browser without requiring a server round trip. Alpha Five automatically converts your calculated field expression into the necessary Javascript.

Dialog Components - Show/Hide - Enable/Disable - You can now define expressions that will automatically cause certain controls on your dialog to show or hide or become enabled or disabled without requiring a server round trip. For example, you might have a field on your dialog asking if someone has ever been pregnant. Your dialog component can automatically hide this control if the user entered 'male' as their sex.

SQL Reports in Web Applications - You can now create Web Applications that include SQL Reports (which are displayed in the browser as PDF files). Requires Enterprise Edition of Alpha Five. Previously, it was only possible to display reports that were based on native Alpha Five tables (i.e. .dbf files).

SQL Reports are standard Alpha Five reports, labels and letters that are based on data from remote SQL databases. Unlike reports that are based on native Alpha Five tables (in which the reports definitions are stored in the table library files - tablename.ddd, tablename.ddm and tablename.ddx, or the set library files - setname.sex, setname.sem and setname.sex), SQL report definitions are stored in the 'Database Library' files (databasename.alb, databasename.alm and databasename.alx - where databasename is the name of the Alpha Five database - the .adb file). When you publish your Web project files, these 'Database Library' files must also be published. The Publish dialog therefore has a new checkbox that allows you to publish the Database Library files.

The following sample .A5W page shows how you can print a SQL Report:

Notice how the fully qualified report name references the Database Library in which the report is stored (in this case 'sqlreporting.alb').

<%a5
Dim filename as c
filename = session.session_folder + chr(92) + "tempreport.pdf"
dim reportname as c
'The <databasename>.alb, .alm and .alx files (which contains the report definitions) are always published in the application
'root folder (same folder as the .a5i) file
dim libfolder as c
libfolder = a5_removetrailingbackslash(Request.ApplicationRoot) + chr(92)

' 'sqlreporting' is the name of the Alpha Five database that contains the SQL Report definitions.
reportname = "report1@" + libfolder + "sqlreporting.alb"
filename = report.saveas(reportname,"pdf","","",filename,.f.)
if file.exists(filename)
    response.redirect(session.session_url + "tempreport.pdf?" + time("hms3"))
else
    ?"Report 1 did not print"
end if
%>

In this next example, we show how argument values can be passed to the report. This example assumes that the SQL query on which the report is based contains an argument (e.g. SELECT * from Customers WHERE city = :whatcity).

<%a5
dim args as sql::arguments
args.set("whatcity","paris")
Dim filename as c
filename = session.session_folder + chr(92) + "tempreport.pdf"
dim reportname as c
dim libfolder as c
libfolder = a5_removetrailingbackslash(Request.ApplicationRoot) + chr(92)
reportname = "report3@" + libfolder + "sqlreporting.alb"
filename = report.saveas(reportname,"pdf","","",filename,.f.,null_value(),args)
if file.exists(filename)
    response.redirect(session.session_url + "tempreport.pdf?" + time("hms3"))
else
    ?"Report3 did not print"
end if
%>

When defining SQL Reports for use in a Web application, it is recommended that you always used named connection strings rather than hard coding a connection string into the report's data source. By using a named connection string, you can specify the actual value for the connection string in the Profile that is used to publish your web application.

Web Applications - Defining Profiles - Named Connection Strings - The Profile definition dialog now allows you to define different values for named connection strings for each Profile that you define. You can define named ADO and AlphaDAO connection strings.

The Xbasic code in an .A5W page can reference that value of a named connection string using the following example code:

For AlphaDAO connection strings: _A5_AlphaDAO_ConnectionStrings.get("myConnectionStringName")

For ADO connection strings: _A5_ADO_ConnectionStrings.get("myConnectionStringName")

Web Components - Grid and Dialog Component - Hyperlink Builder Genie - A typical requirement when building Web applications is to link from one page to another page that contains a Grid component, showing a filtered list of records in the target page. While this has always been possible, a new genie in V8 makes it very easy to construct the syntax for the hyperlink control.

Web Applications - Component CSS Files - Previously when the user modified style sheets for the Grid, Dialog and Navigation System components, the edits were stored directly in the Alpha Five program folder. Now, when a user wants to edit a style, a copy of the style (i.e. CSS files) is made and edits are applied to the copy. The copy can be made in the same folder as the current web project (this then becomes a 'locally' defined style), or in the parent folder of all of the web projects in the current Database (then then becomes a 'globally' defined style, and it  is visible to all web projects created in the current Database).

HTML Editor - Now allows you to open multiple documents in a single editor, with each document being displayed in its own tab. Previously, you could edit multiple documents, but each document opened a new instance of the HTML editor. The tabbed editor is much quicker and more convenient than multiple editors.

Format menu has 'Edit Style...' menu choice that allows you to edit embedded or linked CSS styles using the new CSS Style Builder.

Format menu allows you to attach CSS style sheet files to the current document.

Revert to Saved command

Html Editor - Source View - Source view now supports the same status bar as the Script Editor - this gives you single click access to any function in the .a5w page being edited in the editor.

HTML Editor - Editing 'Code only' Pages - If you open an .a5w page that contains only code (i.e. contains only <%A5 ...%> blocks, and no HTML tags), then the HTML editor will automatically open on the Source tab, regardless of what preference you have set in View/Settings/Preferences/HTML Editor/Default tab.

Web Components - Maintenance Component - The new Maintenance component is of use to users who build web applications against native Alpha Five tables (i.e. .dbf tables). It allows the tables on the server to be packed and re-indexed.

Web Control Panel - CSS Files - The Web Control Panel now has a new category, CSS Files. You can now create CSS files and save them as part of your project. Your .html and .a5w pages can link these CSS files. Alpha Five now includes a full-featured CSS Style Sheet builder. See "CSS Builder" for more details.

CSS Style Builder - Powerful new builder for editing and creating CSS style sheets.

• Two way editing - edit using visual builder, or edit CSS definition directly
• Import CSS from one CSS file into another - allows you to import the definition of a CSS selector into a corresponding selector in the current file. After an import, the number of CSS selectors in the current CSS file is unchanged. Contrast with Merge.
• Merge CSS from one file into current CSS file. After merge, the number of CSS selectors in the current file is equal to the number of selectors in the external file plus the number of selectors in the current file (minus duplicate CSS selector names)
• Edit Multiple CSS Selectors at once. Options include: change all attributes, change only attributes that are common to the selected Selectors
• Powerful search and replace feature.   
• Detect and edit Webform styles
• Access the CSS style builder from the Web Control Panel (to edit CSS style files) or from within the HTML editor (to edit either style files, or embedded CSS definitions), or from the Code, More Genies menu in the code editor.

Field Rules Improvements

Speed Glossary - The Speed Typing Glossary can now be dynamically changed using Xbasic. Previously, all Databases shared the same speed typing glossary. Now, using Xbasic, it is possible to dynamically populate the speed typing glossary. See description of the a5_load_speed_glossary() function for details.

Field Rules - Speed Typing Glossary - Previously, if a speed typing glossary had been defined, it was automatically used for all character fields, regardless of the setting for the 'Use speed typing glossary' checkbox in the Field Rules editor. Now, this setting is honored, allowing you to turn on/off the speed typing feature on a field by field basis.

Field Rules Editor - Field Selector - When you are editing field rules for a table with a large number of fields, navigating to a particular field to edit its rules can be difficult because the Field Rules editor lists the fields in natural order (i.e. the order in which the fields are defined). A new Field Selector dialog has been added that makes it very easy to go to any field in the table. To open the Field Selector, select Rules, Field Navigator from the menu. You can quickly find any field by typing into the Search box. Alpha Five will dynamically filter the list showing only those fields that include the search string that you type in.

Field Selector in the Field Rules Editor

 

Field Rules Editor - Find Errors Utility - If you have a table with a lot of fields and many different field rules, finding errors in your Field Rules can be very difficult and time consuming. A new utility is available in the Field Rules editor (Professional and Enterprise Edition), that automatically checks for invalid expressions in your Field Rules. To launch the utility, select the Rules, Find Errors in Field Rules command.

Find Field Rule Errors Utility in Field Rules Editor

 

Field Rules - Tables Lookups - New Fresh Look for Popup Lookup Window - The buttons on the lookup window have a more modern look and the browse rows automatically implement alternate row shading.

Field Rules - Table Lookup - Memo, Image and RTF memo fields can now be filled in by a lookup field rule.

Improvements in Queries

Forms - Queries - Query Genie and Query By Expression. When you run a query and there is already a query in place, Alpha Five currently gives you the choice of searching in all records, or in the currently selected records. A new option will allow you to extend the current selection of records. So, for example, if you have run a search for "State = 'MA'", and you now search for "State = 'NY'", and you chose the "Extend current selection of records" option, the resulting selection of records will have customers in both 'MA' and 'NY'. 

Query Genie - Searching on Date and Time Fields - The query genie now has many more built-in options when searching on date and time fields. The new operators are:

• in this year
• in year-to-date
• in previous year
• in quarter
• in quarter-to-date
• in previous quarter
• in this month
• in month-to-date
• in last month
• in this week
• in week-to-date
• in previous week
• today
• yesterday
• is anniversary

Miscellaneous Improvements

Window Bar - New improved look for the Window Bar on the main Alpha Five screen.

The Window Bar has a fresh new look.

Printing ActiveX Controls - Support has been added for printing activeX controls in layouts.

E-mail - SSL and TLS Support - V8 can now send mail through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security>). This feature is important because many SMTP servers require SSL or TLS connection when connecting remotely. Just as with web applications, SSL and TLS provide a layer of encryption when sending email. SSL SMTP connections ordinarily use port 465 and TLS SMTP connections use port 25. SMTP over SSL is sometimes referred to as SSMTP (Secure SMTP) or more recently, SMTPS.

Socket and SSLSocket Classes - Advanced developers who want to work directly with sockets can now use the new Socket and SSLSocket classes.
Alias Image Names - You can define aliases for image names. This is useful because you can change the images used in your code without having to change the code itself. You just change the alias definitions. For example:

ir = ImageResource.get()
nm = ir.GetBitmapNameMap()
nm.Initialize(<<%str%
a5_control:browse=$a5_browse
%str%)
ui_dlg_box("","{image=a5_control:browse}")
 

Memo field repair - You can now check the integrity of Memo fields, and repair damaged memo fields by right clicking on the table in the Control Panel and selecting the Utilities, Check/repair memo fields command.

Timer Object - A new high precision timer object allows for more precise timing of scripts. The following example demonstrates how to use the timer object:

Example:

Statusbar - The status bar that appears at the bottom of the main Alpha Five window has been substantially improved.

You can now put an 'Abort' button (or hyperlink) in the status bar so that the user can have the option of aborting long running operations. You also have complete control over the layout of the statusbar. In support of the new 'Abort' button, the statusbar object now has two new methods:

.abort_check() - returns true if user hit an 'Abort' area on the statusbar.
.abort_reset() - allows you to check if the user really meant to abort, and if not, reset the abort state

In addition to the existing placeholders ( '$p' (percent), '$c' (count) and '$o' (out of count)) which can be used in the statusbar.percent() method, there are now the following new placeholders:


$g - progress meter placeholder - allows the progress meter to be placed anywhere within the statusbar text. If omitted, the progress meter is placed before any text (as in all previous versions of Alpha Five).
$b - abort button  - text will be 'Abort' unless you specify alternate text in between '{}' delimiters (i.e. $b{Quit import...})
$h - abort 'hyperlink' - instead of an 'Abort' button, you can use a hyperlink. Hyperlink text is specified between '{}' delimiters (i.e. $h{Click here to cancel})

Example:

' Reset the abort button...
statusbar.Abort_Reset()
for i = 1 to 40
    statusbar.Percent(i,40,"$b $g count: $c of $o percent $p% - $h{You can also click this hyperlink to abort}")
    if statusbar.Abort_Check() then
        if ui_msg_box("Stop","Abort the loop?",UI_YES_NO) = UI_YES_SELECTED then
            exit for
        else
            'If the user did NOT want to abort, simply reset the abort state...
            statusbar.Abort_Reset()
        end if
    end if
    'If you don't put in a sleep, the loop will run so fast you won't see anything
    sleep(1)
    'allow the user interface to be updated
    ui_yield()
next i
statusbar.clear()

 

Statusbar - Setting Update Frequency - The frequency with which the statusbar gets updated can be controlled using Xbasic (or from View/Settings/Preferences/Statusbar). The Xbasic command is:

a5.System_Mode_Set("statusbar_refresh_rate","1")
 

Global Table Search Utility - The new Global Table Search utility allows you to search across all tables in your database for a particular piece of data. This utility is useful if you have many tables in a database and are not sure in which table a particular piece of data is stored. To access the Global Table Search, right click on white space in the Control Panel when the Tables/Sets tab has focus and select Utilities, Find tables that contain a specified data value. You can also launch this utility using the SearchTables() Xbasic command.

Global Table Search allows you to search for data across all tables

Table Finder Utility - The new Table Finder Utility allows you to search for the tables that contain a specified fieldname. Wildcard searches are allows. E.g. find call tables that contain the 'lastname' field. To access the Table Finder Utility, right click on the white space in the Control Panel when the Tables/Sets tab has focus and select Utilities, Find tables that contain a specified fieldname. You can also launch this utility using the Tablefinder() Xbasic command.

Command Line Switches to Start Alpha Five - Two new command line switches are supported when Alpha Five is started.

Example:

start /wait alpha5 “c:\test\batchcommandtest\batchcommand” –hide –nosplash –executeandexit –command=script_play(“MyCommand”)
 

What's New in Xdialog

Summary of New Xdialog Features

New Xdialog Commands and Features

Background Images - You can now specify an image to use as the background for an Xdialog. This allows you to create extremely nice looking Xdialog windows. You can specify an image filename (.jpg, .bmp or .png file), you can specify an internal image (i.e. an image stored in the Database - and shown in the Code tab on the Control Panel).

Xdialog with an image as the background

There are four different Xdialog commands for specifying image backgrounds. These are:

• {windowstyle=ImageAbsolute}
• {windowstyle=ImageTiled}
• {windowstyle=ImageBestFit}
• {windowstyle=ImageStretch}

For Absolute option, you can specify an image alignment option. The alignment options are top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right, top center, bottom center, right center, left center and center. For an example, "Images as Backgrounds" in the "What's new in V8" section in the sample "Learning Xdialog" database.

Background Colors for Regions. Previously the background color an an Xdialog could only be set using the {Background} command and the same color was used for the entire Xdialog. Now you can define a color for each region in the Xdialog. Regions are defined using the {Region} command. For an example, see "Learning Xdialog - What's New in V8 - Regions can have their own background colors."

Regions in Xdialog can now define their own background colors.

Background Gradient Colors - Xdialog boxes can now have gradient backgrounds. The new {windowstyle=GradientStyleName} command is used to specify a gradient style. Alpha Five ships with over 22 different gradient background styles. For more examples, see "Learning Xdialog - What's New in V8 - Different Gradient Background Styles."

Example of gradient background using the 'Gradient Horizontal Top' style and a blue color with a white accent color.	Example of gradient background using the 'Gradient Vertical Glass' style and a yellow color with a white accent color.

Clipboard Change Events - the {on_clipboard_change} Xdialog Command - Allows you to watch for changes in the clipboard contents and fire an event when the clipboard contents is changed.

dim clipb as c = ""
clipb = ""
dlg_title = "Clipboard watcher"
ui_modeless_dlg_box(dlg_title,<<%dlg%
{on_clipboard_change=clip}
[%M%.50,30clipb];
<&Close!close>
%dlg%,<<%code%
if a_dlg_button = "close" .or. a_dlg_button = "" then
a_dlg_button = ""
ui_modeless_dlg_close(dlg_title)
else if a_dlg_button = "clip"
a_dlg_button = ""
if clipboard.Has_Data()

    'we only want to respond to clipboard events if text was placed onto the clipboard.

    'if a bitmap is placed on the clipboard, for example, we want to ignore it.

    'clipboard.Has_Data() (with no arguments) will only be .t. if text is placed on the clipboard
    clipb = clipboard.Get_Data()+crlf()+replicate("=",30)+crlf()+clipb
end if

end if
%code%)
 

Colors  - Specifying Color Values and Tweaking Colors - You now have extremely fine control over colors when you specify color values in Layouts and in Xdialogs. You can adjust the hue, luminosity and saturation of any color, or specify an explicit red, green or blue content for any color.

The following table summarizes the codes for the different tweaks that can be applied to a color:

The following examples show more detail:

Example:

ui_dlg_box("Tweaking Colors",<<%dlg%
{region}
{background=-L10Red}
The background has been 'tweaked'
{endregion};
{lf};
{region}
{background=Red}
The background has NOT been 'tweaked'
{endregion};
%dlg%)
 

Color Picker Control - When you create an Xdialog that prompts for a color name, the %C% construct, which is used to turn a regular textbox into a color picker has been enhanced to call the new color picker. For example:

dim color as c = "White"
ui_dlg_box("Select Color",<<%dlg%
Color name: [%C%.40color];
%dlg%)

Comments in Xdialog - Adding Comments to the Body String - It is now easier to add comments to the body of an Xdialog. You no longer have to use the {comment=} command. You can now just type any comment as you would in a script, by starting the line with a single quote. The single quote must be the first character on the line, and the Xdialog body must include the {removecomments} command on a line by its self. For example:

ui_dlg_box("test",<<%dlg%
{removecomments}
'This is a comment - it won't show up because of the \{removecomments} command;
{lf};
Name: [.20Name];
{lf};
<10OK> <10Cancel>;
%dlg%)

Conditional Sections - {condition_begin=logical_expression} and {condition_end} Xdialog Commands - Allows you to make portions of an Xdialog visible if a logical expression is .T. This command is a variant of the {condition} command, and is particularly useful when you have nested {condition} statements. Each call to {condition_begin} adds the specified logical expression to the current 'ambient' logical expression (i.e. the logical expression which controls whether the controls in an Xdialog are visible or not). The corresponding {condition_end} command removes the most recently added logical expression from the current 'ambient' logical expression.

a = .f.
b = .f.
c = .f.
ui_dlg_box("",<<%dlg%
(a) A;
{condition_begin=a}
(b) B \(requires A is true);
{condition_begin=b}
(c) \(C requires A and B are true);
{condition_begin=c}
This is 3 conditions deep \(requires A, B and C are true);
{condition_end}
{condition_end}
{condition_end}
This is at the top level \(does not require that A is true);
%dlg%)

Here is how the same Xdialog would be created using the older {condition} command:

a = .f.
b = .f.
c = .f.
ui_dlg_box("",<<%dlg%
(a) A;
{condition_begin=a}
(b) B \(requires A is true);
{condition=a.and.b}
(c) \(C requires A and B are true);
{condition=a.and.b.and.c}
This is 3 conditions deep \(requires A, B and C are true);
{condition=.t.}
This is at the top level \(does not require that A is true);
%dlg%)
 

Contexts - The {Context} Command - A 'context' allows you to create menus and toolbars in memory without actually showing them. The menus and toolbars are created within a 'named' context, and are not actually shown until the ui_context_set() command is used to set the named context as the active context. Once a context has been created, switching between named contexts is extremely fast. The following script demonstrates how contexts can be created and activated. A more practical example of how contexts are used can be found in the demo 'Learning Xdialog' database. See the 'What's new in V8 - MDI Style windows' script.

menucode = "ui_msg_box(\"Command\",\"Command = \"+a_command)"

'Create a new context and create a menu and toolbar in the context
'Notice that when you execute the ui_top_menu() command the menu does NOT display and that when you
'execute the ui_modeless_dlg_box() command, the toolbar does NOT display. Notice also that the Xdialog definition for the toolbar
'includes the command {context} indicating that the Xdialog is being created in the context. Without the {context} command, the Xdialog would have
'been immediately visible.
ui_context_create("Context1")
ui_top_menu(comma_to_crlf("One,Two,Three"),menucode)
ui_modeless_dlg_box("test1","{context}{dockable=top}<one><two><three>")


'Now create another context and create a menu and two toolbars in this context.
'Again, nothing is visible yet.
ui_context_create("Context2")
ui_top_menu(comma_to_crlf("A,B,C"),menucode)
ui_modeless_dlg_box("test1","{context}{dockable=top}<A><B><C>")
ui_modeless_dlg_box("test2","{context}{dockable=top}<D><E><F>")



ui_modeless_dlg_box("Test Context",<<%dlg%
<set context 1!context1> <set context 2!context2>;
{lf};
<Close>;
%dlg%,<<%code%
if a_dlg_button = "Close" then
    ui_modeless_dlg_close("Test Context")
else if a_dlg_button = "context1" then
    ui_context_set("context1")
else if a_dlg_button = "context2" then
    ui_context_set("context2")
else if a_dlg_button = "restoreContext" then
    ui_context_set(currentcontext)
end if
%code%)

 

Cursor Icon - {cursor} Xdialog Command - Allows you to specify the bitmap to use for the cursor when the mouse is over a control for which a flyover format string has been defined .

To turn on a custom cursor insert the command {cursor=image name} in the Xdialog before the controls for which the command will apply. To turn off the custom cursor, use the command {cursor=}.

The following system cursor bitmap names can be used, in addition to any user defined or built-in bitmap:

$sys_cursor_normal
$sys_cursor_ibeam
$sys_cursor_wait
$sys_cursor_cross
$sys_cursor_up
$sys_cursor_size
$sys_cursor_icon
$sys_cursor_sizenwse
$sys_cursor_sizenesw
$sys_cursor_sizewe
$sys_cursor_sizens
$sys_cursor_sizeall
$sys_cursor_icocur
$sys_cursor_no
$sys_cursor_hand
$sys_cursor_appstarting
 

ui_dlg_box("Cursors",<<%dlg%
When button 1 has focus, the standard cursor is used:;
{cursor=}
<%B=N;O={J=C,C}{C=Blue}{F=Tahoma,8,u}Button1;OF={J=C,C}{C=Light Blue}{F=Tahoma,8,U}Button1%!Button1_clicked>;
{lf};
{lf};
{lf};
When button 2 has focus, the Windows 'hand' cursor is used:;
{cursor=$sys_cursor_hand}
<%B=N;O={J=C,C}{C=Blue}{F=Tahoma,8,u}Button2;OF={J=C,C}{C=Light Blue}{F=Tahoma,8,u}Button2%!Button2_clicked>;
{lf};
{lf};
{lf};
When button 3 has focus, the Alpha Five 'save' bitmap is used for the cursor:;
{cursor=$a5_save}
<%B=N;O={J=C,C}{C=Blue}{F=Tahoma,8,u}Button3;OF={J=C,C}{C=Light Blue}{F=Tahoma,8,u}Button3%!Button3_clicked>;
%dlg%,<<%code%
if left(a_dlg_button,6) = "button" then
ui_msg_box("Event",a_dlg_button )
a_dlg_button = ""
end if
%code%)

 

Note that this example could have been coded more easily using the new {hyperlink} command.

Drop-down Dynamic Buttons  (DDD Buttons) - DDD buttons are useful if you want to have a button perform several different actions (by allowing the user to select from a menu), but still have single click access to the most recently performed action (by clicking on the button). The images below indicate how a DDD button appears on an Xdialog. For examples of how to use DDD Buttons in an Xdialog see "Learning Xdialog - What's New in V8 - Drop-down dynamic buttons".

When the mouse is not over the  DDD Button it shows as a button with a drop down arrow.	When focus is over the button, the selection rectangle	When the down arrow is clicked, the menu appears.	After a selection is made, the button image is the last selection.

Foreground/Background Color of Controls - {color=foregroundColor On backgroundColor} Command - Allows you to set the foreground and background color for the following controls on an Xdialog: Textbox, Frame, Line, Radio Buttons, Checkboxes and Buttons. The background color setting is only honored for textbox controls. To turn off the color setting and revert to the system default colors, use {color=}.

The following example shows an Xdialog that uses the {color} command:

dim lastname as c = "Jones"
dim sampleText as c = a5.color_enum()
ui_dlg_box("",<<%dlg%
{font=tahoma,10,B}Color and Font Styles Demo;{font=}
{wrap=140}
The controls shown here \(line, frame, button, radio button, checkbox and textbox) use the default font color - WinText on Win3D background.;
{line=1This is a Line Control};
{lf};
{frame=1,1Frame}
{region}
<Button> Radio buttons: (num:One)(num:Two) Checkbox:(checked) {sp=5}Edit control: |[.40lastname];
{endregion};
{lf};
Here, we repeat all of the controls, but we set the color to Blue on a Yellow background. Note that the background color only applies to textbox controls.;;
{color=Blue on Yellow}
{lf};
{line=1This is a Line Control};
{lf};
{frame=1,1Frame}
{region}
<Button> Radio buttons: (num:One)(num:Two) Checkbox:(checked) {sp=5}Edit control: |[.40lastname];
{endregion};
{color=}
{lf};
Here we set some static text to Red on a White background. Note that despite the fact that we set the background color, the static text still has the same background color as the Xdialog. That's because the background color only applies to textbox controls. To create static text with a background color, you must use an 'owner draw' static text string.;
{color=Red on White}
This is red on white.;
{color=}
{lf};
{lf};
Here is a read-only textbox. Because the background color is Win3D, it suggests to the user that the control is read-only. Note however, that the control is not disabled. The User can still scroll the text.;
{color=WinText on Win3d}
[%M;R%.100,4SampleText];
{color=}
%dlg%)



 

Frame Object Improved - {blueframe} Command - Same as the {frame} command, but draws the frame using blue text.

ui_dlg_box("Blue Frame",<<%dlg%
{blueframe=1,1:Information}
{region}
Name: | [.20name];
Title: | [.20title];
{endregion};
{lf};
<OK> <Cancel>;
%dlg%)

Hyperlinks Buttons - {hyperlink} Command - Allows you to create buttons on an Xdialog that look like hyperlinks.

Example:

dim button1Enabled as l = .t.
dim dlg_body as c
dlg_body = <<%dlg%
When button 1 has focus, the Windows 'hand' cursor is used:;
{hyperlink=Button1!Button1_clicked?Button1Enabled};
{lf};
(button1Enabled) Enable button?;
%dlg%

ui_dlg_box("Cursors",dlg_body,<<%code%
if left(a_dlg_button,6) = "button" then
    ui_msg_box("Event",a_dlg_button )
    a_dlg_button = ""
end if
%code%)

Images - {ImageViewer} Command - Allows you to display image files on an Xdialog. See Learning Xdialog for an example

Improved Xdialog Layout Features - Easier Table Layout using the {CellSpillover} Command - Layout out Xdialogs is made easier now using the {cellspillover} command. This command allows you to achieve the same control over a tabular layout that the 'colspan' command gives one when laying out an HTML table. See "Simulating the HTML 'colspan' command using {cellspillover}" in the "What's new in V8" section in the sample "Learning Xdialog" database.

Property Grids  - Xdialogs can now contain property grid controls. A property grid is a very powerful way for collecting information from a user. Property grids can have multiple levels of headings (like a tree control), they allow the properties to be sorted and they allow you to define "builders" (i.e. pop up dialog boxes) to set the values of properties. See example in 'Learning Xdialog' for methods to set focus to individual items in the Property Grid and to control the open/close state of categories. Creating Xdialogs with Property Grids is easy, using Action Scripting. There are seven different 'styles' available for the property grid. Shown below are 3 of the available styles:

Show/Hide Events - {On_show} and {On_hide} Commands - Xdialog now has two new events, OnShow and OnHide that can be used when the Xdialog also includes a {Context} command. The {Context} command causes the Xdialog to automatically be hidden when the context loses focus, and to automatically be shown when the context regains focus. The OnShow event fires when the Xdialog is shown and the OnHide event fires when the Xdialog looses is hidden because the context looses focus.
Example:
To test this example, open the script editor and create a new script. Paste into the script editor and run. Then change to a different window and then return to the script editor.

ui_modeless_dlg_box("Test",<<%dlg%
{on_show=showit}
{on_hide=hideit}
{startup=init}
{context};
State: [.40state];
<close> <hide>
%dlg%,<<%code%

if a_dlg_button = "close" .or. a_dlg_button = "" then
ui_modeless_dlg_close("Test")
else if a_dlg_button = "init" then
state = "Initialized"
else if a_dlg_button