JED Software

BLOG: You are reading the last post on this blog (it is moving)

2008-01-25T08:37:00.000+11:00

I have moved the contents of this blog and all comments over to my website.

This blog will no longer be updated, instead please visit:

http://www.jed-software.com/blog

A new series of posts will be starting soon.

Commenting

2008-01-23T00:33:00.000+11:00

Folks, comments to my blog are moderated. If you wish to comment on an older post and want me to reply - please include your email. I certainly won't publish the comment (that includes a private email address) under any circumstances.

Also if you have an issue with a utility I have released, saying that "XYZ" didn't run correctly is not really helping. At least send me a screenshot. My email address is available in the Profile Page and I endevour reply to every email I get.

QC Plus: Blah, blah

2008-01-23T00:20:00.000+11:00

In case you haven't noticed, I changed my mind about releasing an update on the weekend. Mostly this is because I had other things that were more important but also because I wanted to check out some memory issues and do a few more minor fixes.

One thing I had to do before resolving any memory issues (using FastMM4) was to fix this VCL bug.

Report No: 31683 (RAID: 244036) Status: Open
ActionManager Memory issue with FastMM4 installed
http://qc.codegear.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=31683

Which I managed to do. Probably not the most elegant of fixes, but it works and now I can get the full FastMM4 report readout.

As for when I will release the next update, well I changing my strategy for that question.

"When I feel it is ready" :-)

PS: Feel free to send any crash reports you get. I read them (and often respond to them) so don't think you are wasting your time.

QC Plus: New version this weekend

2008-01-19T11:03:00.000+11:00

I've finally decided to finish off a few things and release an update for QC Plus. There are two reasons for this update:

Support the new voting system

The way project platforms are loaded has changed (technically might not have changed but new lookup data has perhaps identified a false assumption on my part)

Voting changes

Previously you could allocate up to 10 votes within a project. Now non sysops can allocate up to 10 votes for a single report. Depending on a sysops level, they are allowed to allocate even more votes to a single report. For example, as a sysop level 2, I can allocate up to 20 votes per report.

Another change is that you can now vote against a report. You do this by entering in a negative vote number. So -10 will allocate 10 votes against the report.

Previously QC Plus had an allocate votes dialog that allowed you to type in the number of votes to set against report - I doubt it was used much though, because the other interface shortcuts were just too efficient.

With the new voting system, a new user interface was required. This user interface was created with TJSEditDialog and appears below. I did have a nice little image of a ballot box to the left of the instruction, however redistributing it was going to be a copyright violation.

The new voting system might see the demise of one QC Plus feature though, the Vote List. Given that you can now vote on every report in the system, this feature could consume a large amount of memory.

So new version is coming up. Stay tuned.

New Host - Site5

2007-12-09T12:22:00.000+11:00

This morning I changed hosts to a company called Site5.

They offer a very good value plan with many features. If you sign up before Christmas you also get a discount on the already competitive price.

If you are thinking about updating your host, then consider Site5.

My previous plan only allowed for 50 meg of disk space. With Site5 I now get 750GB of disk space.

Expect a few more videos in the future!

Now this is an Informative Dialog!

2007-12-09T12:07:00.000+11:00

I just installed 3rdRail. Went to create a new project and it asked for Registration.

Which is fine. I input the info and click the Register button.

... unfortunately the registration servers are down. After 4 more attempts I decide to instead click Cancel.

So I clicked Cancel and got some popup dialog with some text explaining something I wasn't interested in. Then this dialog displayed.

What would you do if you were presented with a dialog like this?

Oh and I tried to click on the Finish button, but it didn't do anything.

JSDialog - 1.0.043 Update

2007-11-14T20:51:00.000+11:00

If you haven't received the TJSDialog 1.0.043 update by now, it is because your email host has rejected the email. Please contact me directly to get this solved!

You need this version installed before you can begin using TJSEditDialog.

TJSEditDialog Update
All orders were sent last week. I'm just doing the necessary web page changes before the official announcement.

JSEditDialog - Preview

2007-10-27T11:23:00.000+10:00

You can now download a video which previews the new TJSEditDialog component. TJSEditDialog is a descendant of TJSDialog which adds edit functionality.

Think of replacements for InputBox and InputQuery but heaps better. The download is just under 15 meg in WMV format. It was about 35meg in flash format.

Created with the new version of Camtasia which has some nice new features.

While not officially released you can preorder. It does require a registered TJSDialog license.

Purchase the TJSDialog Pack for 80 EUR - Share*it!
Purchase just TJSEditDialog for 40 EUR (existing TJSDialog customers only) - Share*it!

Download the Video - Video Download
Download the Demo shown in the video - Demo Download

Enjoy!

Ann: QC Plus 1.0 now available

2007-10-16T01:20:00.000+10:00

QC Plus is the native windows QualityCentral client that I've been developing off and on since 2004.

It was windows client formally called JED, QC.

You can download the installation from the download page on my website:
http://www.jed-software.com/qc_download.htm

There are a heap of features in this version, but I'd hate to spoil the fun of finding them all by telling you what they all are.

There is a short video in the support section detailing a common question, that also shows a few features (if you can stand the first 20 seconds of my mumbling and indecision )
http://www.jed-software.com/qc_support.htm

It should play nice with existing JED, QC RC2 installations, if not, you may want to delete your cached data (steps on the support page).

There is a help file included that is actually quite full and has not only user interface features but also some info about QualityCentral in general.

There are some other articles in the works and hopefully I will be able to post a link to them soon.

If you find a bug in the client you can choose to do either of the following things:

1) Ignore it and get frustrated everytime you come across it
2) Email me about it (my email is in the about box)
3) Post it in QualityCentral against the "JED QC" platform in the QualityCentral project. Please search incase it is already in there though.

I'd like to take the time to thank the following folks for helping out:

* Dave and Levi from Clever Icons for donating the splash image and icons - www.clevericons.com
* Steema Software for donating TeeChart PRO to me to use - http://www.steema.com
* Sinan at InstallAware for the copy of Installaware Studio - www.installaware (The setup is really slick and shows what you can do with an MSI installation)

A special thanks to all the testers for the feedback, requests and for keeping me interested along the way.

Enjoy

QC Plus: Rating reports

2007-10-10T00:11:00.000+10:00

There is a lot of talk about voting and rating reports in QualityCentral on the newsgroups at the moment. A common issue is that people don't truly understand what each of these items are for.

I'm going to focus on report rating for this post because I've just unwillingly changed the user interface to QC Plus. About 3 days before the version 1.0 release because of this discussion.

First disclaimer: I like the original implementation of rating a report interface. If you know what rating a report means, there is nothing wrong with the user interface. If you don't take the time to find out what rating a report means, you could mess it up.

If you don't take the time to find out what the brake pedal does, you could die.

The new user interface is now the default user interface for report rating. You have to use the new interface at least once, before being able to revert back to the previous (or alternative) interface.

The changes made

Where possible when rating a report the text now mentions Quality. So instead of "Rate Report" it is "Rate Report Quality". Will that help, probably not.
The Rating / Voting group visible when viewing a report is now captioned as Feedback. When rating a report you are providing feedback to a) the report creator b) other users and c) your friendly neighborhood sysop.
Where previously you clicked on the value you wanted to rate a report, you now have to click a button captioned "Set Quality". Unfortunately Set Report Quality didn't really fit so a compromise for the caption text had to be reached. Will be interesting to see what the German translation of that text will be!

When you press the Set Quality button the following dialog displays:

Second disclaimer: Text isn't final. If you have suggestions feel free to post a comment or email me (available in profile).

You then select the radiobuttons text that you think best describes the quality of the report; then click OK. If you are playing the numbers game - "rating value") "rating string"

Useless
Poor
Average
Good
Excellent

If you want the old, better and more efficient (my opinion naturally) interface back - check the I prefer to use the alternate rating interface. The option only sticks when you click OK - so that is like confirming you now understand what rating a report really means!

I've also updated the help file that ships with QC Plus to include further detail and a little FAQ about rating the quality of a report. Clicking the link will take you to that specific page.

Naturally even with such a dialog guiding the user, abuse or neglect can still occur.

Clear as mud, eh?

JSDialog - Update now available

2007-10-04T00:50:00.000+10:00

As mentioned yesterday, the new version of TJSDialog has been released to registered users.

You can download a compiled version of the main demo for the component.

More information about the new release available from http://www.jed-software.com

To purchase your own license(s) visit the purchase page.

JSDialog - Check these out

2007-10-02T23:27:00.000+10:00

An update for TJSDialog should be available tomorrow. Here are a couple of dialogs you can create using TJSDialog the you can't with the native Vista API.

The native API doesn't even support a header section, let alone a header section with a gradient background.

The native API supports radiobuttons. TJSDialog supports radiobuttons and given the powerful nature of TJSDialog, it can also support checkboxes inplace of the radiobuttons. An extra component is even included so you don't have to handle the required events. All the work is done for you.

The commandlink control used in TJSDialog is more advanced than the default Vista implementation. You can assign an additional picture (such as what is displayed on the Copy file dialog) as well as assign the additional picture or glyph from a specific image list.

There are a number of other additional features in TJSDialog that isn't included when you use the native API, apart from the fact that TJSDialog works under Win2000 and WinXP (and should also work under Win95 and Win98).

The code for TJSDialog compiles in every Delphi version from Delphi 5 through to RAD Studio 2007 (except Delphi 8).

Custom Controls
With TJSDialog you can even use other vendors controls to keep a consistent look and feel for your entire application, including the dialogs. This means that if you use one of the custom Raize or Developer Express styles, you can replace the default Buttons on TJSDialog with a button from one of these vendors and not have your dialogs look totally different from your application.

Don't like the TJSDialog progress bar implementation, replace it with a thirdparty one.

TJSDialog is extremely powerful, it is just waiting for you to unlock it. It is so powerful that you will find that many custom forms in your projects can be removed and replaced with TJSDialog components. I have done this several times in projects of my own.

Component Editor
TJSDialog ships with a comprehensive component editor that offers preview functionality. This way it is easy to experiment with properties and easily check how the dialog will look.

You can visit the TJSDialog website for further information.

Visual Forms - Version 1.4 now available

2007-09-27T23:10:00.000+10:00

An update to Visual Forms is now available.

Some changes that are included in Version 1.4 is:

New Feature - Thumbnail quality selector added to options dialog
New Feature - Zoom preview
New Feature - Remember last zoom size and reload project with that zoom size
New Feature - Support for Italian translation (thanks Dario)
New Feature - Incremental search added to Select Form dialog
Update - Incremental search now brings a form into view
Fix bug where placing commands onto a toolbar might corrupt the images
Fix bug where only open forms are displayed was not being updated when a new form was opened
Fix bug where only open forms are displayed the Open Form dialog would only show open forms as well
Fix bug where Saving a new project would fail
Replace ActionManager toolbars with TToolbar

Quality Selector (Item 1):

Zoom Preview (Item 2):

Existing customers should have received notification of the new build a couple of weeks ago. If you have not, please contact me.

You can found out more about the Visual Forms IDE Expert from:
http://www.jed-software.com/vf.htm
http://www.jed-software.com/vf_screen.htm

An updated feature video is currently in the works.

NEW: Beyond Compare IDE Expert for BDS2006

2007-08-19T10:15:00.000+10:00

The Beyond Compare IDE Expert is now available for Borland Developer Studio 2006 (and Turbo Delphi PRO).

More information and download locations from the online readme file.

http://www.jed-software.com/docs/bc_readme.htm

NEW: FastMM4 Options Interface

2007-07-30T21:20:00.000+10:00

Today I am releasing a little application I wrote to help folks that perhaps don't have the confidence to read through the FastMM4Options.inc file and determine what options they want to activate/deactivate for their copy of FastMM4.

To download the full version of FastMM4:
FastMM on sourceforge by Pierre le Riche
To download the installation file:
FastMM4 Options Interface

This utility was written in CodeGear Delphi 2007
Installation program was created with InstallAware 7 Studio

Lets pad out this post with some images...

Regular options

Showing dependant options

UPDATE: I must add that Pierre has done an awesome job in creating and documenting each compiler option. The comments that are displayed are directly from the options include file. I have not added to any of the descriptions.

Let me know if you find it useful.

Beyond Compare IDE Expert now available

2007-06-28T01:11:00.000+10:00

I've tinkered away on the Beyond Compare IDE Expert a little this week. Thanks to everyone that responded to my call for Beta testers.

I've now made available the first public version of Beyond Compare IDE Expert.

You can read the readme file (which includes the Installation and User Guide) online at www.jed-software.com/docs/bc_readme.htm.

You can download the actual expert from www.jed-software.com/files/BCIDEExpert2007.zip.

This screenshot shows where the commands are available when the expert is installed.

CFBuilder: The Future

2007-06-28T00:58:00.000+10:00

Well to put it bluntly, it doesn't have one.

With CodeGear announcing the removal of the WinForms designers from the upcoming Highlander release, there really is no place of CFBuilder.

It was a fun tool to work with. It helped me learn a lot about many new IDE OpenTool API's I hadn't used before.

I really didn't expect it to be so popular (my ISP threatened to ban me because of the downloads!), although because of this popularity it got to the feature stage it was today.

I really must say thanks to Jeroen Pluimers for giving me the motivation needed to get the releases out to you guys and for his wonderful Class Helpers. His work with Class Helpers for CF specific features just proves how valuable they are for Delphi developers.

What does the future hold for Delphi and CF development, who knows.

I guess the burning question everyone is wanting to know is whether or not they will see my little game that I wrote for the CF framework. Well, I'll be honest and say a decision is yet to be made. Perhaps 60% (yes) - 40% (no) as I write this.

[Beta] Are you a Beyond Compare user?

2007-06-18T22:21:00.000+10:00

If you are a registered Beyond Compare^® user and also use Delphi 2007 and want to try something new. Send me an email.

Beyond Compare is an advanced file and folder comparison utility.

Beyond Compare is an indispensable tool for me. Only FinalBuilder beats it on my must have tools list.

TJSDialog: Version 1.0.031 now available

2007-05-19T02:22:00.000+10:00

The new version of TJSDialog was released today. Registered users should have received an email with the new version details in it.

If you have not received an email from me, please check your spam folder. If you can't find the email amongst your spam, please contact me.

Some of the new items for this version:

Improved Command Link Button appearance and sizing
Improved Dialog sizing when long strings appear in content
Support for Snap to default button setting
Accelerator prefixes not shown in message text
Accelerator prefixes only shown when supposed to on Command Link Buttons
Improved Classic look
Support for multiline footers
Ability to localise strings at runtime
Implement Picture property on Command Link Buttons
plus more...

To find out more about TJSDialog visit www.jed-software.com/jsd.htm.

JSDialog - Snap to it!

2007-05-17T21:08:00.000+10:00

One feature request for a future TJSDialog release was to support the feature in Microsoft Windows that moves the mouse to the default button when a dialog is displayed.

I'm pleased to announce that the new version of TJSDialog that should be released today adds support for this functionality.

This is feature I've generally glossed over and never really taken the time to get used to it. However since I had to have the feature switched on for testing, I've gotten used to it and I think I might keep it on.

Interesting footnote, why do two tabs have the hot theme style at the same time. That shouldn't happen!

NEW: ActionManager Style - VISTA

2007-05-17T18:56:00.000+10:00

Well I've been sitting on this style for about 6 or 7 months now and I've decided to share it.

This is a style the mimics the Microsoft Windows Vista menu style in Notepad and WordPad (amongst other applications). This style includes a menu bar with a gradient applied and menu items, sub menus are positioned different to previous menu styles.

Here is an example of the style in action:

The cost will be 10 Euros and payment will be via paypal (or can be arranged by other means if necessary).

I'll create a webpage with a downloadable demo app and post here when done.

A couple more blog posts still to come today...

Laptop is dying :-(

2007-04-10T11:24:00.000+10:00

Imagine my surprise when I went back to my laptop on saturday to see the screen filled with colour vertical lines.

Hmm, that is strange. So I shut it down, unfortunately my laptop doesn't shutdown by itself anymore (which is generally why I stand by it). So I have to hold down the on button for a couple of seconds to force shutdown.

Started it back up and a couple of coloured vertical lines appeared in the XP loadup screen. Hmmm. Eventually the login screen appeared and I did. However about 2 mins into the login process the screen started flashing on and off. Not good at all. I switched it off and didn't turn it on again until sunday morning.

No coloured lines and no screen flashing. I login and copy some of my files to my desktop for backup purposes. Unfortunately I get sidetracked for a couple of hours and go back to the machine and lovely coloured lines and flashing again.

Turn it off (have to go out anyway). Same thing happened monday morning, so hopefully I can get a clean login when I get home and get the rest of the stuff off I want. I'm going to hook up an external LCD tonight as well because this will let me know if it is a video card issue or a screen issue. I suspect it is a video card issue.

I need a new laptop anyway (this one would be almost 5 years old now), just wanted to hold out for a couple of months. Oh well.

So if you were expecting a reply to an email, or a new version of something - this is why you haven't heard from me yet. It has also set me back a couple of days in development time.

I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Now I get the fun decision of which Dell to get as a replacement...

Visual Forms - Version 1.3 now available

2007-04-06T17:22:00.000+10:00

A new version of Visual Forms is now available for download.

The update contains the following enhancements:

Automatically add and remove thumbs when forms are removed or added to the active project

Enhanced printing capabilities allowing for Headers, Footers and Descriptions to accompany printed forms

Delphi 2007 Support

Use Help Tip hints

Incremental search capabilities in windows

Existing users of Visual Forms can download the new version from the members section.

New users can purchase Visual Forms for 50 Euros here.

Access the Visual Forms help file online here

Visual Forms Home

JED, QC: The final post

2007-04-05T23:39:00.000+10:00

When the new version of my QualityCentral client is released it will not be called JED, QC.

The name has been changed to QC Plus (QCP, QC+). I was eagar to remove JED from the title and the name was selected from many put forward by some of my more vocal users. There was a version that some folks had that was called "Name Me"!

QC Plus has many new features and bug fixes. I've written a couple of new articles about these features and these will be available either before, or as soon as QC Plus is available to download.

Special thanks to Levi from CleverIcons, who not only donated the splash image and icon for QC Plus but took my "pen on paper" sketch of an image and made it look very good.

New Article on CDN (with cool example)

2007-03-30T10:59:00.000+10:00

A new article by me has been posted on the CDN site.

http://dn.codegear.com/article/33978

Extending the Project Manager Context menu

The article shows you how to create your own context menu items for use in the Project Manager.

The main sample addin adds a "Windows Explorer" context menu that has 4 submenus.
These are:

Copy Filename to clipboard (obvious)
Copy File Path to clipboard (obvious)
Command Line Here (opens a command prompt at the folder of the item selected)
Explorer Here (opens a explorer at the folder of the item selected)

Please read the article, post questions and rate it.

The CodeCentral download includes full source code as well as binaries (BDS 2006) for the add in. The binaries also work in Delphi 2007 with recompiling.

I've been using this in my own IDE version for about 5 months now and can't live without it. Hope you find it useful as well.

Enjoy!

New Delphi Blogger

2007-03-28T22:10:00.000+10:00

Sebastian Modersohn has started blogging here.

Definitely worth checking out (so far he's posted a few tips and tricks). You'll find that Sebastian is a level 2 QualityCentral Sysop - so be nice. He might even open a QC report for you ;-).

Spacely - 5 Things I like about Delphi 2007

2007-03-14T23:40:00.000+11:00

I've been away from reading blogs the last couple of days because I've been busy putting preparing for CodeRage and some other goodies and I missed being tagged by Steve Trefethen.

Here are my five favourite features of Delphi 2007 for Win32.

(in no specific order)

1. The new welcome page by Daniel Wischnewski
2. The overall performance increase of the IDE
3. Improved Code Insight* and Error Insight
4. New Vista Support
5. The addition of Build Configurations

and

6. My name appearing in the credits ;-)

I was going to blog separately about an enhancement to Code Insight but haven't found the time. Code Insight now displays the lists contents using the same syntax highlighting as your code editor! Very cool. It is one of those small changes that you like so much you think it has been there all along!

It was time for a Logo...

2007-03-10T10:50:00.000+11:00

Sometimes you just have to face facts and get a professionals help!

Recently this is what I did. I needed a nice logo for my very ordinary (yes I know) website. I contacted Dave from Clever Icons and gave him an idea of what I wanted.

I accepted the supplied quote and the next day I got an email from one of his designers with 6 potential logos. I chose two from the six and sent back some comments. The designer took my comments and created 5 variations of the two I selected.

From that I then made my choice for the style. I wanted to know how one other variation would look. I again received an email with six variations on it for my chosen style (some were the same as the previous ones).

From this list, I made my decision. The glossy effect was added and this is what the JED Software logo looks like. I'm really happy with it.

Also be on the lookout for an updated website using a layout created by Clever Icons as well. I just need to transfer the content.

I will admit that I put the guys at Clever Icons under a bit of pressure as I needed the logo for my CodeRage virtual booth.

I now have a vector based logo in a number of formats as well as the original EPS files. The great thing about vector based images is they are basically infinitely resizable. I also got several different colour variations (white on black x2, black on white x2, gray scale, colour and glossy).

If your looking for some custom image work, I thoroughly recommend Clever Icons.

New Website sneak peak

Spacely - It's non-breaking (mostly) and some DBExpress Info

2007-03-06T00:50:00.000+11:00

Spacely is a non interface breaking release with BDS2006. What this means is if you have DCUs for components, you shouldn't need the source code to use them in Spacely. The same is true for packages and also IDE add ins. Some add ins may not work correctly because of implementation changes but they should install without issue. If they don't work - be sure to contact your vendor!

I said mostly because Spacely ships with a new version of DBExpress (DBExpress4). Some of the DBExpress units have had interface changes, for example DbXpress.pas has been deprecated, SqlExpr.pas has changed and DBXCommon and some others are new.

The source to the DBExpress4 framework and to the drivers written in object pascal (or is it Delphi) will ship. The source to the old C++ drivers still won't be delivered.

DBExpress4 also includes Connection Pooling and Tracing driver which are delegate drivers written in object pascal. You get the source to those as well.

For more information on DBExpress4, it's best to go and read Steve Shaughnessy's CodeGear blog:
http://blogs.codegear.com/steveshaughnessy/archive/2007/02/16/31865.aspx

To show how non-breaking the Spacely release is, here is the current beta of Visual Forms (compiled in BDS2006) and running in Spacely.

Visual Forms is a form thumbnail IDE add in for Delphi 6 through Delphi 2007. Expect Version 1.3 to strangely be released around the time Delphi 2007 is released (which I honestly don't know when that will be - so don't ask!).

For more information on Visual Forms visit www.jed-software.com/vf.htm.

Spacely - Build feedback

2007-03-05T19:46:00.000+11:00

With the introduction of the new build system, MS Build it is now possible to select how much feedback you get.

In the Environmental Options page of the Options dialog there is now a dropdown in the Compiling and Running group. By default the value is set to Normal.

As you can see in the screen shot there are 5 different settings for the build Verbosity.

This build output is created on the new Output tab in the messages window. Final build information is still available on the messages tab regardless of the Verbosity set.

I've built a sample application in Spacely and set the Verbosity to each setting. Click on the link to that particular setting to open up a text file with the saved output. The text file will open into a new browser window. For interest sake I've also put the size of the output file in the table below.

Quiet	0KB	No text is output
Minimal	2KB	Example file
Normal	3KB	Example file
Detailed	7KB	Example file
Diagnostic	19KB	Example file

With one of these settings you should now be confident knowing what is actually being built when you hit the compile button.

Spacely - Tool Palette enhancement

2007-03-03T15:58:00.000+11:00

When the new Tool Palette was introduced in Delphi 2005 it seemed you either loved it or hated it. Most that gave the new Tool Palette a chance think that it is far superior to the older component palette. I am definitely one of those.

The best feature of the Tool Palette was the filtering ability. Click on the caption and begin typing and any components that start with the text entered are displayed.

An improvement to the Tool Palette in Spacely is that the search is now a "contains" search, so if I type in dialog all components that contain dialog in its name are displayed in the tool palette.

Don't like the new feature? Easy, just start all your filters with T.

It is also important to point out that the Tool Palette was the cause of some slowness in BDS2006. Especially when you had a large number of components installed. With Spacely there has been significant work on all things speed related. The Tool Palette received some attention and is now a very slick part of the IDE.

Spacely - Glass revisited

2007-03-03T15:35:00.000+11:00

Jeremy (not me) mentioned in a comment about black text not appearing on a glass enabled form. This is not an issue with Spacely.

Here are a couple of screen shots:

I've got a couple of other things about Spacely I want to mention in the coming days.

Spacely - Glass

2007-02-28T01:09:00.000+11:00

I have been given permission by CodeGear to discuss some of the new features and improvements in Spacely, the next release of Delphi. When released, Spacely will be known as Delphi 2007 for Win32.

One new feature added to the Spacely IDE is support for Glass. It is important to understand that Glass is only available under Vista when aero is active.

TForm now has a published property called GlassFrame. The GlassFrame property is a TGlassFrame which contains the following properties.

Bottom - Number of pixels from the bottom covered in glass

Enabled - The glass feature must be enabled before it is visible

Left - Number of pixels from the left covered in glass

Right - Number of pixels from the right covered in glass

SheetOfGlass - When true, the entire form is glass

Top - Number of pixels from the top covered in glass

Here is Spacely running under Windows XP. This form has the Glass feature enable around the edges.

As you can see in the screen shot, when glass is enabled the form area that will appear as glass under Vista is drawn with diagonal pattern.

Running this sample application under Windows XP, displays as a normal form. When run under Vista, it displays like the following screen shot.

The large version of the first screen shot gives clues to two other changes to the IDE for Spacely. Do you see what they are?

TJSDialog - Component Editor video

2007-02-27T01:53:00.000+11:00

As mentioned previously, here is a video showing the component editor in action.

Not that I used Wink (www.debugmode.com) to capture this video under Win2000 while Vista Business was running in VMWare. Sorry no Aero candy.

I'm surprised my actual machine can run it to be honest. It is an AMD1800+ with 1 gig. The VM has 512 allocated.

Anyway hope you get an idea of how the component editor works.

http://www.jed-software.com/video/TJSDialogEditor01.htm

Enjoy!

TJSDialog - Trial version update

2007-02-27T00:39:00.000+11:00

Registered users got a TJSDialog update a day or so ago, now I have updated the Trial/Non-commercial version on the TJSDialog download page.

http://www.jed-software.com
http://www.jed-software.com/jsd_download.htm

Fixes the case of the magical focus rect as well as some other minor issues.

Stay tuned as I'm about to do a short video capture of the Component Editor that is available in the registered version.

JSDialog - Live Templates

2007-02-15T22:29:00.000+11:00

The registered version of TJSDialog currently ships with four Live Templates. The templates are for MessageDlg and TaskDialog wrapper function calls.

There are four because each wrapper function has a template that displays a preview of how the dialog will look at runtime once you have typed in the template. The preview functionality is provided by a custom Template Engine which can be installed using the JEDSoftwareInstall (http://www.jed-software.com/jsd_install.htm) application.

Lets see the functionality in action. A short video demonstrating the functionality is available from the following URL:

http://www.jed-software.com/video/JSDialogLiveTemplates.htm

Some more Live Templates are scheduled, as well as improvements to the custom Template Engine.

You can download the TJSDialog here: http://www.jed-software.com/jsd_download.htm
Purchase the registered version and get the Live Template functionality (plus more) here:
http://www.jed-software.com/jsd_purchase.htm

TJSDialog - Trial and Free version now available

2007-02-15T01:31:00.000+11:00

Now available for download are the Trial and Free versions of TJSDialog. Please review the Free (non-commercial only) license to see if your usage qualifies you for the free version.

It is recommended that before installing the Trial (and Free) version you review the following documents.

Free (non-commercial) license

Trial Installation and additional info

Installing TJSDialog

So many properties, where do I start?

There are 6 demos included with the download, each demo includes full source so review these demo applications.

There are no NAG screens in the Trial version.

www.jed-software.com
www.jed-software.com/jsd_download.htm

I am currently working on some additional documentation (there is a help file included).

Forgive some of the new web pages, I'm in the middle of updating my site and didn't want to delay the release further because the website has an inconsistent look.

Tomorrow I will blog about a couple of items that aren't included in the Trial version.

TJSDialog: New release available for registered users

2007-01-26T05:00:00.000+11:00

I just mailed out notification of a new release to all registered users. If you didn't get one, please send me an email so we can work out why you didn't.

Free non-commercial and trial versions will be made available in a week or so. Demo application has been updated to use newer release.

Information now available on website:

Home: http://www.jed-software.com
Product: http://www.jed-software.com/jsd.htm
Screenshots: http://www.jed-software.com/jsd_screen.htm

JED, QC: New CodeGear domain changes

2007-01-03T01:52:00.000+11:00

To change the webservice URL and clipboard copy features to now use the CodeGear domain please do the following.

Start JED, QC
Click on Tools | Options
Select the Paths and URLs node on the left
Change the Borland text to CodeGear
Press OK
Shutdown and restart

Job done!

Visual Forms - Price change

2006-12-31T16:56:00.000+11:00

I posted this on the newsgroups a couple of weeks ago but forgot to post it here.

In January the price for Visual Forms will increase from 35 Euros to 50 Euros. This change will not occur before January 15th. Not sure how long a price change takes to be accepted in Share-It.

A new beta version of the next Visual Forms update should be sent to registered users in the next day or so. Initial beta will only be for BDS2006 users because of some severe Open Tools limitations I have to work around in previous Delphi versions.

Have a safe new years everyone!

Christmas Break

2006-12-23T05:26:00.000+11:00

I'm off for a couple of days over the Christmas period. Unfortunately orders cannot be processed over this time and support queries may also not be answered.

I'll be back processing orders and fulfilling support queries on the 27th of December.

Have a Happy Christmas and if driving a long way (or riding* in my case) - Drive Safely!

I'm just about to ride my bike 180kms this morning - at least I don't have to carry the presents with me!

Enjoy

TjsDialog - Released to preorders

2006-12-22T09:21:00.000+11:00

The initial release of TjsDialog has been sent to everyone that preordered. Thanks to those folks.

The free/trial version will be available in the new year.

I will also put up some comparison images at this time. Feel free to also send me images of Vista dialogs and I'll post the image, the TjsDialog equivalent as well as the required TjsDialog code.

TjsDialog: Release Info and Demo Application

2006-12-08T00:39:00.000+11:00

The TjsDialog component is almost ready for release and here is your opportunity to try one of the demo applications that will ship with the component.

How much does it cost?

The component costs 40 Euros per developer.
There is no site license available. If you require more than 20 licenses, contact me for pricing.

Want to preorder?

share-it link for purchase.
If you would prefer to use PayPal then you need to contact me before purchasing (helps to minimize false payments).

What does purchasing this component get me?

Full source
Additional controls used by the dialog
TjsDialog specific component editors
Priority support

What to try an exe-demo?

Download exe-demo of TjsDialog. The demo zip file contains 2 files. The executable (TjsDialogDemo.exe) as well as a warning.rtf file. The demo requires this file for one of the dialogs.

What to see a video about configuring TjsDialog?

Currently being worked on.

December 20th is the official release day. The free version should also be available on this day for those that want to trial the component first. Remember the free version is only for non-commercial applications. To view the non-commercial license, please click here.

Currently on BDS 2006 is supported. This includes the Turbo products. Delphi6, 7 and 2005 will also be supported with the full release version, as will a VCL.NET under BDS 2006.

The free version will not work with VCL.NET. You must purchase the full version to use with VCL.NET.

NOTE: This dialog does NOT currently wrap the official TaskDialog and TaskDialogIndirect API functions on Vista.

While this is planned as a free update to the dialog functionality, some options cannot be emulated by the official Vista API functions.

The importance of this feature will be determined by users.

TjsDialog: Dialogs and Vista

2006-11-13T17:37:00.000+11:00

One of the new features of Vista is TaskDialogs. These are more complex versions of the old MessageDlg functionality. In some cases a lot more complex.

You can read more about TaskDialogs from the following links:
http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/2006/06/vista-taskdialog.html
http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/2006/06/vista-taskdialogindirect.html
Task-Dialogs-in-Depth

Since reading these posts I've come up with my own Delphi component that mimics most of the behaviour of the TaskDialog functionality. Eventually all functionality will be covered.

To see what it looks like in action here are a couple of screenshots from an application:

old:

new:

old:

new:

The component is currently called TjsDialog but this name may change. It will eventually be available for purchase from my website. There will be commerical and non-commercial license options. One will be free (without source), the other will have a small cost and include source.

I'll post Vista pictures tomorrow plus perhaps even a demo application.

Visual Forms - Winners

2006-10-27T03:28:00.000+10:00

All winners should have been notified now.

Thanks to all the participants.

For the record:

Time: 8hrs 3mins 42 secs
Distance: 242.37 (yeah a little short)
Ave: 30kmph
Max speed: 70.1kmph

Visual Forms - Win a copy!

2006-10-06T23:09:00.000+10:00

Want to win a copy of Visual Forms? Of course you do.

Sunday October 15th I'll be participating in the "Around the Bay in a Day" bike ride (http://greatrides.com.au/topic.php?a=5&b=238). I'll be doing the legend distance of 250km (155 miles).

To win a copy is very easy. All you need to do is guess the time you think it will take me to finish. The time taken is the actual ride time. As there is a ferry crossing and no doubt stops along the way.

To help make it easier I will give you some details to try to make a better estimate.

Fruitloop ride (as mentioned earlier) 200km
Total Ride Time: 6hrs 35mins

Ride last weekend (very hilly and strong headwind for part) 125km
Total Ride Time: 4hrs 43mins

Ride previous to that (windy but not too bad) 112km
Total Ride Time: 4hrs 13mins

While the weather on the day could be perfect, it has a habit of being very miserable!

As an added bonus, I will also give a full license to the Help Tips components for the folks that can guess my maximum (fastest) speed for the day. I could tell you what my fastest ever speed was but that might make it a bit easy. Lets just say it is over 60kmph.

Final Weekend Ride
Distance 88km (strong headwinds)
Total Ride Time 3hrs 13 minutes

How to Enter
To enter just send me an email jeremy dot north at gmail dot com with the subject "VF COMP" - makes it easier to find the entries that way.

Good luck

CFBuild: Downloads

2006-09-19T07:28:00.000+10:00

I have moved the Compact Framework Build Helper into CodeCentral. I am currently 2gig over my limit on the hosting plan.

You will need a BDN login although if you are running Delphi 2006 you most likely have one anyway as a login is required when registering the product online.

Compact Framework Build Helper - Version 1.2
http://cc.borland.com/item.aspx?id=24129

Videos
http://cc.borland.com/item.aspx?id=24130

CFBuild: Version 1.2 now available

2006-09-16T10:43:00.000+10:00

Version 1.2 of Compact Framework Build Helper is now available.

This version has the following changes:

* Fix Bug where source files could be deleted
* Ability to load when just starting the Delphi.NET personality
* Fix Bug where \ is prefixed to the assembly path when no Assembly Path has been specified and the Use Class Helpers button is clicked in the options dialog.

This version supports BDS 2006 (with just the Delphi.NET personality loaded) as well as the new Turbo Delphi.NET PRO product.

This add-in does not support the Turbo Delphi.NET Explorer product.

http://www.jed-software.com/cf.htm
http://www.jed-software.com

Gone Cycling

2006-09-15T18:37:00.000+10:00

I'm going to be away this weekend cycling around in central victoria for charity (http://www.fruitloopshepparton.com).

This weekend the total distance will be 200km (http://www.fruitloopshepparton.com/images/maps/200km.jpg) with a bit of a hilly section which apparently goes for 14km which should prove interesting.

Just a little preparation before the "Around the Bay in a Day" ride (http://greatrides.com.au/topic.php?a=5&b=238) in October. For some reason I decided to do the 250km option.

Here's hoping I can walk sunday evening!

I'll be uploading a new version of Compact Framework Build Helper before I leave so stay tuned.

Visual Forms - Version 1.2 now available

2006-09-03T22:42:00.000+10:00

Version 1.2 of Visual Forms is now available.

Version history is available from http://www.jed-software.com/vf_history.htm

More information available form http://www.jed-software.com.

Now includes support for Delphi 5.

Also supported are the NEW Turbo Delphi PRO and Turbo C++ PRO products.

Visual Forms - Delphi 5 Support

2006-08-23T19:49:00.000+10:00

Delphi 5 support will be included in the next update for Visual Forms.

Here is a screen shot of Delphi 5 with Visual Forms loaded.

When is the next update going to be released? Real soon now.

Extending Action Manager Styles - updated

2006-08-18T19:34:00.000+10:00

I have updated the source code for the Extending Action Manager Styles article that was published on the Borland Developer Network site.

The original article link is:

http://bdn.borland.com/article/33461

This is the comment I also added to the article:

Hi all.

I have just updated the CodeCentral item to include a couple of bug fixes.

The updated CodeCentral (http://cc.borland.com/item.aspx?id=23960) now also includes full support for Delphi 7 (D7 specific zip included in download). If you are using Delphi 7 then extract the D7 specific zip and load the project group included.

The issues address are:

* Positioning of shortcuts on non-english systems was incorrect

* Display of Textual Separators initially wrong when windows hide menu shortcut was on

* Don't display content if the Hint is the same as the caption

You can revert this behaviour by commenting out the code mentioned in TXPExStyleRichContent.HasContent method

* Delphi 7 specific fixes

If you have issues please email me at jeremy.north@gmail.com - I don't check these messages very often.

I've also made a little progress on the new action manager style shown in the document. Here is a screenshot.

http://www.jed-software.com/images/RibbonProgress.PNG

cheers,

Jeremy

JED, QC: Notification Defaults

2006-07-16T03:43:00.000+10:00

Support for Notification Defaults will be in the next JED, QC client release. Just trying to squash some more bugs before releasing it.

The new notification system does make an option JED, QC has had for a long time though. This is the option to add the New Report you are creating to your watch list. This option appears on the summary page when adding a new report.

This option is not affected by the Notification changes and will still continue to function.

Visual Forms - Delphi 6 Support added

2006-07-02T17:32:00.000+10:00

Delphi 6 support is now available for Visual Forms. For more information on Visual Forms, visit the website - http://www.jed-software.com/vf.htm

JED, QC: Finding an appropriate area for your Report

2006-07-02T17:10:00.000+10:00

One feature JED, QC adds is trying to make it easier to place your report in the correct project area. You can do this in the new report wizard by entering in the first couple of characters (3 is needed to activate the filtering process) for a possible area match.

You can then either select the area you feel is most appropriate for your report, or enter in a new string.

Themed TDBGrid descendant - TThemeDBGrid

2006-06-22T13:50:00.000+10:00

I've uploaded a component to CodeCentral that draws a TDBGrid descendant as themed (when used within a themed application).

You can download this component and sample application from CodeCentral here.

Also includes a new property AllowTitleClick which allows you to enable/disable the visual nature of clicking on a column title.

Bug reports and Feedback welcome.

Full source and no license terms are applicable for this component.

If only DrawMove and DrawSizingLine where virtual.

Title Column Hot

Title clicked when AllowTitleClick is True

AllowTitleClick False and Column Moving disabled

IDE AddIn - Putting focus in the Code Editor by using a keyboard shortcut

2006-06-22T12:05:00.000+10:00

One of the most annoying things that happened when Borland Developer Studio first shipped was that when returning from a debugging session the Code Editor didn't have focus.

This was rectified in Update 2 although reseting your running application (Ctrl+F2) still doesn't reset focus back to the Code Editor.

I have always wished for a shortcut to set focus to the Code Editor (as much as I like the F12 and F11 dance) and because of the oversight with the initial BDS 2006 release I decided to do something about it. Using some code from my Bookmark Viewer Add In (its on CodeCentral for those interested - with source) I've created an IDE Add In that sets the focus to the Code Editor when I press Ctrl+ALT+E.

Source is included so you can modify the shortcut used if you want.

You can download this Add In with source from here. Please adhere to the license conditions.

If the Welcome Page is active then pressing the shortcut does nothing. A unit must be selected for the Units code editor to receive focus.

Visual Forms - Delphi 7 and Delphi 2005 support now available

2006-06-21T09:37:00.000+10:00

Visual Forms 1.1 is now available.

This upgrade includes support for Delphi 7 and Delphi 2005.
You can now also change the alignment of the toolbar and have more control over the layout of the thumbnails.

Delphi 7

Delphi 2005

Visual Forms website

Visual Forms - Demo Video now available

2006-05-19T00:48:00.000+10:00

Daniel Wolf (from http://www.delphipraxis.net) has uploaded a video of him demostrating some of the functionality in Visual Forms.

You can download an English and German version of the video from his website(http://www.delphipraxis.net/bds2006videos).

There are also some other videos available on his site and while the commentary for those are in German, Daniel uses an English version of the IDE.

Visual Forms - Share-It purchase option available

2006-05-18T20:51:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note to let you know that you can now purchase Visual Forms using Share-It.

Link available from the Visual Forms purchase page.

I am putting the final touches on the 1.1 release which will see support for Delphi 7 and Delphi 2005 included.

CFBuild: Next version and warning

2006-05-17T12:49:00.000+10:00

This post is to let people know that a new version of Compact Framework Build Helper is on the way. Probably release it on the weekend.

The release will fix 1 bug. This bug could cause your project file to be deleted if your compile ended in error. If you have been effected by this error you would have seen in the message output the message: Deleting .dpr

All delete actions are logged in the message output.

Also do not use unit names with an underscore in them. Unfortunately the MakeCFCompatible library cannot support unit names with underscores.

ie. Main_Unit.pas

I might also release a fix for the documentation since it appears I forgot to give a description of one of the options.

JED, QC: Sysop bulk promotion feature

2006-05-15T22:25:00.000+10:00

This is a feature aimed at Sysops (level 2 and above) of the Borland QualityCentral system.

A feature of JED, QC allows you to tag (mark) reports that are currently being viewed in JED, QC and promote them all at once.

Instead of having a delay each time you promote a report you can simply tag a report for promotion and then promote all the reports you have tagged at one time.

Here is a screen shot. (click to enlarge)

JED, QC: You need to download this version!

2006-05-12T09:28:00.000+10:00

Overnight the message of the day changed on the QualityCentral server. Unfortunately when I implement support for this I made some bad assumptions.

If you would like to continue using JED, QC for accessing QualityCentral, you will need to download this version.

Please note that the version you will be downloading is vastly superior to the current publicly available download. It is almost the complete version 1 build. Just fixing a couple more bugs before final release.

http://www.jed-software.com/preview/QCPreviewRC2.zip

I've enabled MadExcept in this version so if you get any errors, send them to me so I can rectify them.

Visual Forms - Now Available

2006-04-26T20:34:00.000+10:00

As of April 25, 2006 Visual Forms is available for purchase.

Visual Forms: www.jed-software.com/vf.htm
Screenshots: www.jed-software.com/vf_screen.htm
Purchase: www.jed-software.com/vf_purchase.htm

Currently the only purchase option is via PayPal however I am in the process of setting up a Share-It! account so you can also purchase using Share-It! if you prefer. This could be about a week away and I will announce when it is ready on my blog.

There will be some videos forthcoming that shows Visual Forms in action if you are unsure of whether to take the plunge.

Registered users will have access to priority support as well as any beta's of products I am currently working on.

Currently only BDS2006 is supported however as older IDE versions become available they will be included (for the product version you have purchased).

Where is the trial!
Currently there isn't a trial that can be downloaded. If I get sufficient requests for a trial I may consider creating one although this may impact on the end price. I don't want to have to do that though.

Hopefully the available information will allow developers to make a decision without the need for a trial.

NB. If you previously donated for either Compact Framework Build Helper or Delphi Configuration Manager (prior to April 24 2006) - if you haven't received an email from me before May, please contact me.

Ann: Introducing Visual Forms

2006-04-16T10:41:00.000+10:00

Shortly there will be a new product available for purchase from my website. It is actually a product that has been worked on inconsistently for over 18 months. Development began late 2004 and has gone through many interations and rewrites since the beginning.

The first version is only available for Borland Developer Studio 2006 users, however other IDE versions will be made available according to demand.

I describe Visual Forms as "a thumbnail viewer for the forms in your project". You can see some screenshots of Visual Forms in action on the website now.

Finally I must point out one current limitation, it will only work for Win32 (Delphi and C++Builder) projects. Dot Net support is being explored.

D2005-D2006: Unregistering the .NET help topics

2006-03-07T08:18:00.000+11:00

With Delphi 2005 and Delphi 2006 you can unregister the .NET related help from the help system.

Start Run...
cmd
cd <your install folder> (C:\Program Files\Borland\BDS\4.0\ by default)
cd Help\Common
RegHelp -2

RegHelp /? for more information

I posted this on the newsgroups yesterday.

D2005: Closing the IDE code editor tabs with a click of your Middle Mouse button

2006-03-03T18:35:00.000+11:00

I was looking for a particular project on my system last night while preparing the CFBuild D2006 release and noticed a directory called MiddleClickClose.

I was suddenly reminded of a little IDE Add in I wrote to make the IDE support closing of the Code Editor tabs by using the Middle mouse button click. Apparently because FireFox does it, everyone else should.

Well in D2006 it has this behaviour by default. So this download (with full source) is for the D2005 users out there that like clicking on the Middle Mouse Button to close your tabs.

Install Instructions:

Download the zip file (http://www.jed-software.com/files/MiddleClickClose.zip)
Extract the contents to a known location
Start Delphi 2005
Load the MiddleClickClose90.bdsproj project
Right click on the project in the Project Manager and select Install
Job done - you can now Middle Click to close tabs

Source has comments. Be sure to read the comment in the Register procedure.

As noted above, this is for Delphi 2005 only. It isn't necessary for Delphi 2006 anyway.

Enjoy!

CFBuild: Delphi 2006 Version Released

2006-03-03T01:16:00.000+11:00

Compact Framework Build Helper for Delphi 2006 is now available.

Please download it from: http://www.jed-software.com/cf.htm

Expect some posts on new functionality early next week.

BDN Article - TDockTabSet component usage

2006-03-02T23:53:00.000+11:00

Feel free to head over to BDN and check out my article on the TDockTabSet component which was introduced in Delphi 2005.

http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,33446,00.html

I actually wrote the original article in December 2004. It got put on the back burner for quite a while and it was only last week that I dedicated some much needed time to it (and basically rewrote it in the process).

Hopefully it makes sense.

The screenshots are actually from Delphi 2005 - it is pretty easy to tell this is the case. Does anyone know how?

D2006: What on earth are these Explicit* properties in my DFM

2006-02-28T19:00:00.000+11:00

If you need to make sure your application can still be compiled in previous Delphi versions you need to watch out for some new properties that are added by Delphi 2006 to your DFM. These new properties are for all TControl descendants and are called ExplicitTop, ExplicitLeft, ExplicitHeight and ExplicitWidth. These are not actually published properties; you won’t find them in the object inspector.

The Explicit* properties remember the previous bounds of a control before the Align or Anchor properties are changed from their defaults. The only time the Explicit* properties are not written is when the Align property is set back to its default value of alNone. This is when the Explicit* properties are actually used by the control to reset its bounds to what it was previously.

You can download the example here to play along at home if you like (executable included):
http://www.jed-software.com/files/ExplicitProps.zip

This example takes a TPanel and changes its align property value from

alNone -> alClient -> alNone

Example Usage:

Run the application
Click on the Get Values button
Values from Figure 1 are displayed in the Memo control
Click on the Align Client button
Click on the Get Values button again and Figure 2 displays the added Memo control contents
Click on the Align None button
Click on the Get Values button a final time and the Memo control should have the same values added to it that were added in Step 3.

So what has changed?
In previous Delphi versions if the align property was changed to alClient and then back to alNone, the control would stay as if it was aligned client still. These new properties mean that the original bounds is restored when this occurs. As noted with the example.

When the panel was aligned client it up the left over client area of the form; as expected. When clicking on the Align None button the panel was restored back to its size prior to setting Align to alClient.

If you want to know the specific conditions for having these properties written to the DFM check out the DoWriteExplicit function in the DefineProperties method for TControl.

Figure 1


Align is alNone

ExplicitTop: 40

ExplicitLeft: 256

ExplicitHeight: 185

ExplicitWidth: 329

Top: 40

Left: 256

Height: 185

Width: 329

----------------------

Figure 2


Align is alClient

ExplicitTop: 40

ExplicitLeft: 256

ExplicitHeight: 185

ExplicitWidth: 329

Top: 0

Left: 193

Height: 456

Width: 450

----------------------

D2006: How to disable the IDEs gradient toolbars

2006-02-28T09:16:00.000+11:00

A newsgroup poster recently asked if he could disable the gradient toolbars for BDS 2006. Unfortunately this is not possible within the IDE but it is possible with a little bit of code.

This post will probably not format too well!

Save the code below in a unit called TBCAddIn.
Create a New Win32 Package
Add the TBCAddIn Unit to the Package
Install the Package into the IDE
Making the change configurable is an exercise left to the reader...

I installed the package and it worked. Restarting the IDE also showed the gradient disabled. Making additional toolbars visible while running the IDE also showed those toolbars with the gradient disabled.

Generated with HyperDelphi

unit TBCAddIn;

interface

type
  TTBCConfig = class
  public
    class procedure SetGradient(const aVisible: Boolean);
  end;

procedure Register;

implementation

uses
    Classes
  , Controls
  , ComCtrls
  , Windows
  , ExtCtrls
  ;

procedure Register;
begin
  // disable the toolbar gradient by default
  TTBCConfig.SetGradient(False);
end;

{ TTBCConfig }

const
  MAIN_WND_CLASS = 'TAppBuilder';

class procedure TTBCConfig.SetGradient(const aVisible: Boolean);
var
  i: Integer;
  lWinCtrl: TWinControl;
  lWnd: Hwnd;
  lCtrlBar: TControlBar;
begin
  lWnd := FindWindow(MAIN_WND_CLASS, nil);
  lWinCtrl := FindControl(lWnd);
  if lWinCtrl <> nil then
  begin
    lCtrlBar := nil;
    // find the control bar on the app builder form
    for i := 0 to lWinCtrl.ControlCount - 1 do
    begin
      if lWinCtrl.Controls[i] is TControlBar then
      begin
        lCtrlBar := TControlBar(lWinCtrl.Controls[i]);
        break;
      end;
    end;
    if lCtrlBar <> nil then
    begin
      // disable/enable gradient for controlbar depending on parameter
      if aVisible then
        lCtrlBar.DrawingStyle := ExtCtrls.dsGradient
      else
        lCtrlBar.DrawingStyle := ExtCtrls.dsNormal;
      for i := 0 to lCtrlBar.ControlCount - 1 do
      begin
        if lCtrlBar.Controls[i] is TToolbar then
        begin
          // disable/enable gradient for toolbars depending on parameter
          if aVisible then
            TToolbar(lCtrlBar.Controls[i]).DrawingStyle := ComCtrls.dsGradient
          else
            TToolbar(lCtrlBar.Controls[i]).DrawingStyle := ComCtrls.dsNormal;
        end;
      end;
    end;
  end;
end;

end.

D2006: Disabling Breakpoints quickly

2006-02-22T08:56:00.000+11:00

I always found it very frustrating when disabling a breakpoint required me to right click on the breakpoint, navigate a context menu that really wasn't a context menu but an everything plus some breakpoint specific items. It was cumbersome and inefficient. I disliked it so much I requested a change in the form of a QualityCentral report.

In Delphi 2006 this request was addressed. It was implemented using the Ctrl key instead of the Shift key, but that isn't important. You can now disable breakpoints without having to invoke that horrid context menu.

Report No: 10468 ( RAID: 219303 ) Status: Closed
Shift clicking on an active breakpoint should disable it
http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=10468

This report is about the horrid context menu contents:

Report No: 25363 ( RAID: 205492 ) Status: Open
The breakpoints context menu has irrelevant items on it.
http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=25363

You might be aware that the breakpoint window got some improvements in Delphi 2005 as well by adding a checkbox next to the breakpoint for quickly enabling and disabling breakpoints. The problem with this is that it takes time to work out where the breakpoint you are currently looking at is in the list to disable it. I created a QualityCentral report for this also:

Report No: 11862 ( RAID: 221907 ) Status: Open
Breakpoint view should sync with selected breakpoint
http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=11862

Here are a couple of other breakpoint specific reports that I've made.

Report No: 15395 ( RAID: 238643 ) Status: Open
Breakpoint view should allow me to select several breakpoints and then add them all to a specific group
http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=15395

Report No: 15394 ( RAID: 46571 ) Status: Open
Breakpoint View should support multiple selection
http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=15394

Report No: 10484 ( RAID: 222329 ) Status: Open
The breakpoint view needs to have a column to show that line of code the breakpoint is on.
http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=10484

Report No: 25364 ( RAID: 205494 ) Status: Open
Add additional context menu items when clicking on a breakpoint.
http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=25364

Feel free to Rate/Vote on these items if you feel they could improve your productivity in a future Delphi release.

DCM: Version 3 UI Feedback requested

2006-02-12T00:05:00.000+11:00

As most are aware BDS 2006 introduces a new "personality" loading capability. It is this capability that has kept me from updating Delphi Configuration Manager to properly support 2006 (Well that, and the lack of donations...).

While I don't think the "personality" loading was implemented as well as it could have been by Borland I am going to support it in the next version of DCM. Doing so means that DCM requires a user interface change and a number of code changes.

I've been adding the support today and have taken screenshots of 3 possible user interfaces to represent a loaded BDS 2006 configuration.

Take a look and feel free to comment. All would require further refinement but hopefully the functionality is obvious (if it isn't let me know about that as well).

Personality specific packages are loaded under the Packages key. Packages that are not personality specific load as a child to the Package node, otherwise the package is loaded as a child of that personality. The Personality Filter combo box would allow you to just display a specific personality to modify.

Personality specific packages are loaded in another tree next to the Assemblies and Package listings. The Personality Filter combo box would allow you to just display a specific personality to modify in the Personality tree. The filter would not effect the tree in the left pane.

Similar to the second item except the personality view is displayed using a different widget which allows you to enable/disable actual personalities. This functionality would be available in the previous views also except it would be in the Menu or on the Toolbar.

Also expect to see the package description without having to select a package. It has been a common request that I will be implementing - just haven't gotten around to it yet.

As usual you can contact me directly or leave a comment.

I need 3 more beta testers...

2006-02-10T02:32:00.000+11:00

If you have some spare time to help test a couple of new Delphi/C++Builder components please send me an email. My contact information is available from http://www.jed-software.com.

What is it for you ask... Perhaps this link will provide some clues...

http://jedqc.blogspot.com/2005/12/jed-qc-gets-supertooltip-treatment.html

Name change

2006-01-23T22:26:00.000+11:00

Just changed the name and description of this blog to be a little more accurate.

CFBuild: Interested in the Source Code?

2006-01-12T09:30:00.000+11:00

If you are interested in the source code for Compact Framework Build Helper I am considering selling it.

I am thinking offering it in 2 ways:
1) With no redistribution rights (if you modify it you can't onsell your modified version)
2) Full redistribution rights (just say its based on CFBH and off you go)

The first way I would continue to update the project, the second I may not (depends on number of sales).
If the second way is done I will not probably stay involved (execept to give support on my code).

It might be possible for a combination of both but that would depend.

For the prices I am thinking about are are some clues:
1) $XX.00
2) $XXXX.00
Values would be in EUROS.

If you would be interested in exclusive rights to the code, contact me also.

No decision will be made until the end of January 2006.

Feel free to email me comments and suggestions.

D2006: From the component has a new property file... TTrackBar

2005-12-21T00:55:00.000+11:00

Finally TTrackBar uses can rejoice; you can now remove the range selection appearance of the TTrackBar.

Just set the new ShowSelRange property to FALSE. It is set to TRUE by default to keep the ugly trackbar users group in session (or it might have something to do with backwards compatibility).

Pick the odd one out...

D2006: Some of my Delphi 2006 examples

2005-12-21T00:44:00.000+11:00

You can download some Delphi 2006 applications that I've written from the following code central url.

http://cc.borland.com/Author.aspx?ID=205627

Note that some are duplicated as some were done for Delphi 2006 and Delphi 2005. The first 4 items in the grid are for Delphi 2006.

Popup Message Notifier- Simple implementation of the Outlook notification dialog. This new version is themes aware and drops a number of caption properties that were present in previous versions. Definite enhancement over the previous version and used within JED, QC.

Runs Compact Framework Application- This is a Compact Framework application that will run on the Compact Framework. Creating this application is what drove me to create Compact Framework Build Helper as working with the Compact Framework and the IDE drove me nuts. I actually wrote the initial version in C# and visual studio before porting and completing it with Delphi. Needs some work (I should really use a dataset instead of a generic XML file) but what you can download is about 1/6 of what it will become. Yes they are my running shoes in the splash screen - size 15!

TFlowPanel Demo Application
- Don't worry about downloading this one. It is already on your system (if you have Delphi 2006 installed).

Bookmark Viewer- Update to my Bookmark viewer from Delphi 2005. Includes support for the C++Builder personality now. I have plans for some significant changes for this add in but apparently you can't lease anymore time in a day.

JED, QC: Gets the SuperTooltip Treatment

2005-12-14T02:25:00.000+11:00

Here are a couple of screenshots of the next release of JED, QC.

I enjoy reading Jensen Harris' blog. You might see some influence in the screenshots displayed below .

Many features are displayed in the screenshots, including Images, Footers, Headers, Disabled commands with alternate descriptions as well as designtime support. There is also a component editor that lists all available actions in a tree and you can apply SuperTooltips to those actions by setting properties on the right.

D2006: New StrictDelimiter property

2005-12-13T21:49:00.000+11:00

The TStrings class has had a new property added to it in Delphi 2006. This new property is called StrictDelimiter.

Previously if you wanted to import a CSV (comma separated file) into your Delphi application using the CommaText property on a TStringList object you had to modify the output generated from popular spreadsheet applications.

This was because some spreadsheet applications don't quote ("") items when they contain a space in the text, nor should they have to, the comma is the delimiter not the space. Finally this issue has been solved in Delphi 2006 by the addition of the StrictDelimiter property.

The property is False by default to ensure backwards compatibility.

Example Usage:

Generated with HyperDelphi

procedure TfrmMain.bLoadClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  slTemp: TStringList;
begin
  slTemp := TStringList.Create;
  try
    // load the test string into the stringlist 
    slTemp.CommaText := eTestString.Text;
    // load the commatext value of the stringlist into the first memo 
    mStrictDelimiterFalse.Lines.Text := slTemp.CommaText;
    // clear the previous contents of the stringlist 
    slTemp.Clear;
    // turn on the StrictDelimiter property 
    slTemp.StrictDelimiter := True;
    // load the test string into the stringlist 
    slTemp.CommaText := eTestString.Text;
    // load the commatext value of the stringlist into the second memo 
    mStrictDelimiterTrue.Lines.Text := slTemp.CommaText;
  finally
    slTemp.Free;
  end;
end;

Example Output:

Verify how in the first memo the three four text have a comma separating them. In the second memo, you now see that three four are grouped together. I know I consider the second memo to contain the results I want.

CFBuild: Delphi 2006 Version

2005-12-13T21:43:00.000+11:00

I have uploaded a Delphi 2006 version of the Compact Framework Build Helper. It is a preview version because it still contains some references to Delphi 2005 and I am currently working on some enhancements.

http://www.jed-software.com/preview/CFBuildHelper100.exe

This download does not include documentation. If you want the documentation download this zip file.

http://www.jed-software.com/preview/CFBuild2005Docs.zip

Look for the official release before the end of the year.

D2006: Designtime Components support different image sizes

2005-12-06T18:18:00.000+11:00

Ever since the Delphi tool palette supported different button sizes the images on the Tool Palette where stretched. This unfortunately didn't look the best. This issue has been addressed in Delphi 2006.

You can now name your component image resources with a 16 or 32 after them to indicated that the image is to be used when displaying the Tool Palette in small or large button sizes.

For consistency if the images resource name is the component name then that image is used for the medium button size. This image is also used for the Form Designer. If the component name resource cannot be located then the default image is loaded, even if you have a 16 and 32 image specified.

Things always go better when you show some pictures so here you are:

The dcr file was built with the following script and compiled with brcc32 (from the bin folder of your installation).

TSomeComponent16 BITMAP TSomeComponent16.bmp
TSomeComponent BITMAP TSomeComponent.bmp
TSomeComponent32 BITMAP TSomeComponent32.bmp

This also works with VCL.NET packages.

D2006: Add New menu item in Project Manager context menu

2005-12-06T18:09:00.000+11:00

One of the many new features in Delphi 2006 (and perhaps lesser known) is the appearance of an Add New menu item in the Project Manager context menu.

When selected in a Win32 application you get a submenu that allows you to add either a New Form or a New Unit to the project. A very nice little shortcut for adding new units and forms to projects.

I like this new feature a lot personally.

Unfortunately it does have a couple of issues.

For .NET applications and packages it only displays the Other and Customize menu items.
The Customize menu item doesn't allow you to actually Customize the Add New menu but is a link to customizing the File File submenu.

Don't fear. I have QC'd both items already although they aren't visible yet.

CFBuild: Building your own deployment module

2005-11-30T01:09:00.000+11:00

To create your own deployment method in CFBH all you need to do is create an application that accepts the following parameters and react to each to aid with your deployment method.

Param 1 -> Device to use
This parameter is currently hardcoded for the Device Connectivity deployment method to "Pocket PC 2003 Emulator". For the ActiveSync deployment method an empty string is passed.

Param 2 -> Deployment type
-cr for Copy and Run
-c for Copy

Param3 -> Application to copy
Full path to the application being deployed. Currently this is only an exe file (but this will change in an update and it could then be a DLL).

Param4 -> Remote destination to copy to
Currently this defaults to "//". Attempts to create folders on the devices proved to be fruitess in my tests unfortunately and require revisiting at some stage.

Param5 -> Run Arguments for application being copied
Currently an empty string is sent for both Deployment methods

Parameters 1, 3, 4 and 5 are quoted as they might contain spaces

Examples:

Async Deployment Method
\DeployAS.exe "" -cr "c:\someapp.exe" "\\" ""

Device Connectivity Method
\Deploy.exe "Pocket PC Emulator" -cr "c:\someapp.exe" "\\" ""

Q) Steps to adding your new Deployment Method.
A) In the Smart Device Options dialog select the Deployment page. There are 2 methods of deployment that require a file to launch. Replace one of these methods (given the information above for best parameter fit) with the path to your Deployment executable.

Note: An update currently being worked on will be introducing a new parameter. This new parameter will be in the following form...

"file1,file2,file3" or "@filename" where filename is a file that contains a list of filenames in the following format:

file1
file2
file3

This parameter is being introduced to allow you the ability to deploy additional files with your application file. While you can already deploy an Assembly file (right click on the Assembly in the Project Manager and select the Deploy Reference menu item) if deploying to an emulator this doesn't currently work for the other 2 deployment methods (ActiveSync and Device Connectivity).

Any questions either leave a comment or email me.

DCM: Updating the beta to release

2005-11-25T11:09:00.000+11:00

Work is starting on updating the current DCM beta to a release version. Only some minor changes will occur and a new install will be built.

It would be an ideal time to contact me with any specific issues you are seeing.

As this will most likely be the final DCM release I might sneak in a couple (of the 42 currently listed in StarTeam) of features I've wanted to add previously.

Stay tuned.

CFBuild: Version 1 released - Website public

2005-11-25T03:04:00.000+11:00

Version 1.0 of Compact Framework Build Helper has been released.

For more details please check out the information at http://www.jed-software.com.
Getting Started, IDE Integration document and a Walk Through for two sample applications (source and precompiled binaries) included in the installation.

Enjoy!

pssst... wanna test cfbuild before release?

2005-11-14T23:40:00.000+11:00

If you have a Pocket PC or Visual Studio 2003 and want to test Compact Framework Build Helper for Delphi 2005 then contact me via email.

Email is available from www.jed-software.com.

Only apply if you are willing to give feedback over the next couple of days.

What will be tested:

Install and Uninstall
New Deployment Options
Other bugs fixed from previous builds

This is not a 2 week beta test - this is a "I don't want show stoppers found 2 minutes after installation of the release" test.

CFBuild: Deployment (next release)

2005-11-11T09:41:00.000+11:00

The next release of the Compact Framework Build Helper will support 3 methods of deployment for your compiled files.

To emulator storage card (how it is in the current release).
To emulator using Device Connectivity from Visual Studio (required). This deployment will also start the application you are deploying in the emulator.
To a real device using ActiveSync that will also start the device when deployed.

Deployment method can be set at the IDE level and can then be overriden of a project basis. I will also make it accessible from the toolbar so it is easy to change methods if required.

As for when it will be available... well I won't give dates but lets just say - within a week.

Many other enhancements and fixes are done as well.

CFBuild: Build and Run buttons disabled when reopening project?

2005-10-31T17:07:00.000+11:00

I have received a number of emails mentioning that the Build and Run buttons are disabled when you reopen a Compact Framework project. Unfortunately this is a bug in the current release (which is fixed in the next version).

To workaround this bug, perform the following steps:

Load project
Right click on the project in the Project Manager and select the "Compact Framework Project Options" menu item
A dialog will display with a checkbox on it. Check the checkbox and click OK
Build and Run buttons should now enable correctly

A new version is just about ready to be released that addresses this issue.

If you have any requests or bugs you have come across I suggest you send me an email about them real soon.

CFBuild: New Version of MakeCFCompatible now available

2005-10-31T16:59:00.000+11:00

I got a message from Chee Wee Chua today saying that he has updated the MakeCFCompatible download on Code Central. The change made was to automatically delete the "resources" line from the project file when the compiler complains about it.

What this means is that you should now be able to create a new Compact Framework application, modify the form and run without you needing to modify any files.

I'm unable to test the new version myself because I am currently away from home with limited internet access (none on my PC) but don't let that stop you!

Download the new version from CodeCentral.

JED, QC: Pickup and modify screenshots from clipboard

2005-10-27T00:11:00.000+10:00

Here is a preview of a new piece of functionality coming to JED, QC in the next release.

It allows you to automatically add a bitmap from the clipboard to your New Report. You can also make simple annotations to this bitmap to highlight particular items in the bitmap that might be of interest to others rating, voting and opening your report.

Everyone knows it is boring doing bug fixes all the time so I decided to add some new functionality. Well I say I decided, but this is actually based on a suggestion from Daniel Wischnewski.

While the grabbing of an image from the clipboard is not new functionality (it is actually hidden from the JED, QC standalone client) the ability to make simple modifications to the image is (new).

Here is a sample screenshot of the image (Note: Nothing is final yet).

A brief description of toolbar items:

Arrow - deselect drawing tool
Pen - freehand drawing
Text - write text to be displayed on the image
Ellipse - add an ellipse to image
Pen Width - set the width of the pen (used for pen and ellipse tool)
Pen Colour - set the colour of the pen (used for pen and ellipse tool)
Font - select a font to use when using the Text tool
Undo - reset changes made to image
Close - close the dialog and make sure changes are used

CFBuild: Video - WebServices

2005-10-24T03:27:00.000+10:00

Here is the video showing CFBuild help maintain two copies of the one application that connects to a couple of webservices.

The demo shows an application first connect to a Barnes and Nobile webservice to retrieve US Pricing information for a particular ISBN, then the application connects to a currency conversion webservice and converts the US price to the currency of your choice.

This video also shows how to use the InputPanel framework class and also make use of one of the class helper functions.

Download the video: CF06_WebServices (2.8meg)
Download the project source: WebServices Source (37K includes compact framework exe)
To compile the source make sure you have ClassHelpers support activated.

When running on PocketPC there is a bug... Can you find it? I'm not sure if it is my bug or a preview compiler issue. The error doesn't happen when using the desktop framework version.

CFBuild: Video - Using MakeCFCompatible.dll

2005-10-21T03:59:00.000+10:00

Just a quick video that carries on from the ClassHelpersIntro video. It shows the same application but instead of using ClassHelpers it enables the Auto Fix option which uses the MakeCFCompatible.dll.

Video shows how to easily enable/disable some of the Compiler Options that can be set.

Have a look: MakeCFCompatible Video (700k)

This video is pretty short and also uses timed dialogs.

Next video will be on WebServices. Should be up before this time tomorrow.

CFBuild: ClassHelpers Video

2005-10-19T09:48:00.000+10:00

Not sure what role ClassHelpers would play in the Compact Framework Build Helper integration? Be sure to check out this MUST SEE video. Not only will it show you the benefit of ClassHelpers, it shows how to combat some errors you might see along the way.

This is probably the best video yet to see so far. Don't worry that we have peaked too early - there is better planned!

Download this video http://www.jed-software.com/files/CF04_ClassHelpersIntro.zip (2.1 meg)

I cannot take the credit for the Class Helpers library. The Class Helpers were written by Jeroen Pluimers from Oosterkamp - www.oosterkamp.nl

CFBuild: Public Beta - AVAILABLE NOW

2005-10-18T01:39:00.000+10:00

Hi all,

A beta version of Compact Framework Build Helper for Delphi 2005 is now available for download. Be sure to read the included documentation thoroughly, but if you get stuck on anything don't hesitate to contact me. My email is available on my website at http://www.jed-software.com.

Why a Public Beta?
I want to make some more videos of functionality and I am not 100% happy with the feature set for a version 1 release. That being said, I also don't think holding it back more is a good idea.

Download the beta from http://www.jed-software.com/files/CFBHSetupB10.exe (1.2 meg).

Be sure to keep checking out my blog for more news on CFBH and other projects. Also there will be another video posted today on ClassHelpers - you wont want to miss out on that one!

CFBuild: The original video

2005-10-13T11:25:00.000+10:00

This video really hasn't been made public. It is of a very early version of the integration. From the other videos posted you can see how things have changed a little.

http://www.jed-software.com/files/CFVideo.zip (1.1MB)

This video shows the compilation of an application to target both the Desktop .NET Framework and the Compact Framework. Running the compiled application in an emulator and using the About gallery item. Note that the gallery layout in this video is old and has been changed.

A good way to find last minute annoyances with a product is to create video demos. This however should not delay the release. I'm sure it will be the 13th in some timezone for a number of hours yet!

CFBuild: 3 Sample Videos

2005-10-13T00:58:00.000+10:00

Compact Framework Build Helper for Delphi 2005 Sample Videos

3 Videos are available to download.

1. Environment Setup (416KB)
2. Creating Emulators (1636KB)
3. More Setup and Integration features (450KB)

Stay tuned, more videos to come.

JED, QC: Message of the Day and the Welcome Page

2005-10-12T22:10:00.000+10:00

Looks like a couple of messages have been added to the "Message of the Day" facility in QualityCentral. For those that haven't switched off the welcome page yet, you will see the visible delights of a bug with anchored controls when using Frames. Refer to this report for information on that:

Report No: 8423 ( RAID: 229510 ) Status: Open
Anchored controls on inherited frames don't resize when opened in designer http://qc.borland.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=8423

(Click the above link to open the report. If you installed and setup Redirector, it will open the report in JED, QC for you - Video coming up to show that).

Just so the JED, QC users don't feel left out (because of the CF invasion) here is a screenshot for 2 possible ways to represent these messages in the welcome page for a future release.

Either leave a comment here or send me an email with your choice or another possible alternative.

Note: Currently the dates are different but don't worry yourself with that minor detail. The control used at the bottom is one that I have recently created (like today) and it needs considerable polish before release.

Compact Framework Build Helper for Delphi 2005 - Release Date

2005-10-11T00:35:00.000+10:00

The Compact Framework build helper for Delphi 2005 looks set for a 13th October release.

I will upload an updated video a little later on today. Stay tuned.

Compact Framework Beta - CLOSED

2005-09-26T12:10:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note to let folks know the beta is full! The response has blown me away and it now has more than enough people to beta test this little add in.

I'll post some new screenshots and perhaps a video or two when I get a chance.