When I get a new Clarion release one of my favorite things to do is pull out Beyond Compare and see what changes have been made to the shipping product. That won't tell me much if anything about the compiled part of the product, but as Clarion ships with a lot of template and Clarion source those comparisons are often revealing.
But first a quick note about using Custom Setup on install. Besides choosing an install directory, you can select up to five optional features. In the Clarion 9.0 install all but the Report Writer were selected by default. When I ran the 9.1 install all options were unselected by default. I manually chose the options I wanted.
The first new file I spotted was data\options\CodeSnippets.xml, but it turns out this is SharpDevelop-templates.xml under a different (and more appropriate) name. The contents haven't changed significantly, but I think it's still worth remembering what's here. The original file no doubt had the VB and C++ snippets; SoftVelocity added Clarion (CLW) snippets:
and ClarionSharp (CLN) snippets:
Some code snippets require you to select some text first. For instance, type MyClass then highlight the text and press Ctrl-J. Select the class declaration snippet:
Tada!
MyClass CLASS !, TYPE
CONSTRUCT PROCEDURE
DESTRUCT PROCEDURE
!Properties
!Methods
END |
You'll still need to declare and write any method implementations, of course.
If you don't select some text first you'll get a different result:
CLASS !, TYPE
CONSTRUCT PROCEDURE
DESTRUCT PROCEDURE
!Properties
!Methods
END |
But that's easily remedied - just stick a label in front of CLASS and reformat with Ctrl-I.
The file structure code snippet is similarly pretty simple:
MyFile FILE, DRIVER()
RECORD
END
END
|
I'm not sure I'll ever bother with snippets for IF statements and the like, and for classes I rely heavily on the ClarionLive Class Creator, But I'll keep an eye out for code I'm writing repeatedly that might fit the constraints of CodeSnippets.xml.
There is a new toolbar color scheme called Win8Blue. You can choose it via Options | General | Appearance.
There is a new template called SVCommunicationSupport. This template includes a global extension with options for sending email and text messages.
Both email and SMS are sent via SMTP. The two settings windows are almost identical:
There are matching control templates. Drop a Send Email button on a window and select Actions to fill in the remaining settings:
Here are the SMS settings:
There are a bunch of new source files, which I'll cover in alphabetical order.
The email files include:
ClaMail.INC contains three class declarations:
SMSMailClient CLASS,TYPE SMSClient CLASS(SMSMailClient),TYPE MailClient CLASS(SMSMailClient),TYPEThe release notes indicate that classes were added to make it possible to send email without needed to generate code via the templates, so presumably these are the classes in question.
Touch support is declared in the following files:
CWTouch.inc includes the following classes:
These classes are primarily data but each has a Next() method which, somewhat mysteriously, only returns NULL.
The following COM interfaces are also defined:
The H5 product, which was demonstrated in a very early form at the 2013 DevCon, promises to blend "the best features of Internet Connect (IC) and Web Builder (WB), joined with the jQuery family and HTML5/CSS". The idea is to allow you to deliver Clarion apps as private web apps to business users (as opposed to large scale web sites).
The SoftVelocity blog has more information: http://clarionsharp.com/blog/clarion-h5/
Although H5 is not yet fully included with Clarion 9.1, a number of files are shipping. They include:
The H5 classes include:
BrokerClass CLASS(WebDataSinkClass) BrowserManagerClass CLASS HtmlClass CLASS(TextOutputClass),TYPE HtmlFontClass CLASS,TYPE HtmlItemClass CLASS,TYPE HttpBaseClass CLASS HttpClass CLASS(HttpBaseClass) HttpPageBaseClass CLASS HttpPageBrowserClass CLASS(HttpPageBaseClass) HttpPageJavaClass CLASS(HttpPageBaseClass) JslEventsClass CLASS JslManagerClass CLASS, TYPE LayoutCellClass CLASS,TYPE LayoutHtmlClass CLASS,TYPE RangeClass CLASS,TYPE ReportImageClass CLASS(ReportItemClass),TYPE ReportItemClass CLASS(HtmlItemClass),TYPE ReportStringClass CLASS(ReportItemClass),TYPE ShutDownClass CLASS SubmitItemClass CLASS TextOutputClass CLASS,TYPE WebAreaClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebButtonClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebCaptionClass CLASS(WebAreaClass),TYPE WebClientAreaClass CLASS(WebAreaClass),TYPE WebClientManagerClass CLASS(WebClientManagerInterface) WebClientManagerInterface CLASS(WebDataSinkClass) WebControlClass CLASS(HtmlItemClass),TYPE WebControlListClass CLASS,TYPE WebDataSinkClass CLASS WebFilesClass CLASS WebFrameClass CLASS,TYPE WebHotlinkClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlButtonClass CLASS(WebButtonClass),TYPE WebHtmlCheckClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlCloseButtonClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlEntryClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlGroupClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlImageClass CLASS(WebImageClass),TYPE WebHtmlItemClass CLASS(WebMenuBaseClass),TYPE WebHtmlListClass CLASS(WebListClass),TYPE WebHtmlMenuClass CLASS(WebMenuBaseClass),TYPE WebHtmlOptionClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlPromptClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlRadioClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlRegionClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlSheetClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlStringClass CLASS(WebStringClass),TYPE WebHtmlTabClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebHtmlTextClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebImageClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebJavaListClass CLASS(WebListClass),TYPE WebJQueryButtonClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebJQueryCloseButtonClass CLASS(WebHtmlCloseButtonClass),TYPE WebJQueryListClass CLASS(WebListClass),TYPE WebJQueryStringClass CLASS(WebStringClass),TYPE WebJQueryToolButtonClass CLASS(WebJQueryButtonClass),TYPE WebListClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebLiteralClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebMenubarClass CLASS(WebAreaClass),TYPE WebMenuBaseClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebNullControlClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebPageClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebReportClass CLASS,TYPE WebServerClass CLASS WebStringClass CLASS(WebControlClass),TYPE WebToolbarClass CLASS(WebAreaClass),TYPE WebWindowBaseClass CLASS(WebControlListClass),TYPE WebWindowClass CLASS(WebWindowBaseClass),TYPE |
64 bit functions
Also new in Clarion 9.1 is a new set of RTL functions for dealing with 64 bit signed and unsigned integers. The functions are declared in i64.INC and provide the following functionality:
That's it for the new files. Next week I'll take a look at some of the many changes to existing files in 9.1.