Topic group

Windows XP Themes

This version of dBASE Plus is the first to support Windows XP Themes and Visual Styles.

Upon opening dBASE, you should immediately notice its improved, more modern-looking interface - notebooks have a subtle gradient background, buttons are rounded instead of squared and colors generally appear more coordinated throughout the entire environment.

Your applications can also employ Windows XP Themes, lending a more up-to-date and consistent appearance when running under Windows XP.

This is accomplished through the use of a manifest file, a special XML-based file that enables System Themes in Windows XP.

For all dBASE Plus applications, the name of this file is "PlusRun.exe.manifest", and it must reside in the same folder as the dBASE runtime executable (PlusRun.exe)

To disable the XP look in dBASE Plus, simply remove or rename the “Plus.exe.manifest” file in Plus/Bin folder. To disable the XP look in applications you created in dBASE Plus, remove the “PlusRun.exe.manifest” file from the runtime folder.

The dBASE Plus Project Explorer can be used to deploy the manifest file for you by checking the, “Generate and include Windows XP manifest file”, checkbox on the Inno | Files tab.

We strongly recommend you use Windows System Themes. XP System Themes give your users enhanced control over the look-and-feel of your application and show your programs in their best light when running in Windows XP.

The System Themes feature is ignored under earlier versions of Windows.

dBASE IDE

Updated to use Windows XP Visual Styles in built-in tools and dialogs when running on Windows XP.

Form Controls

Form controls have been upgraded to auto-detect if Windows XP Visual Styles are being used and to adjust accordingly.

Ability to automatically match the background of form components to the XP Style background of Notebook controls when their colorNormal property settings match.

New Image Class properties

The imgPixelHeight and imgPixelWidth properties can be used to retrieve the actual size of an image in pixels. The image object's height and width properties can then be set to display the image at its actual size without clipping part of the image, or scaling the image to fit the image object.

PushButton

Ability to override automatic behavior of PushButton to use Classic or XP style via the new systemTheme property.

Ability to specify how to align an image and text on a PushButton via the new bitmapAlignment property

Ability to place both text and an image on an XP style PushButton.

Mouse Wheel Support

Added mouseWheel support in: Source Editor, Grid, Listbox, Browse, Editor, ReportViewer, Navigator and ComboBox.

Grid

Ability to differentiate between selected and unselected rows in the beforeCellPaint( ) and onCellPaint( ) events via the new bSelectedRow parameter

Ability to set color of lines between rows and columns via the new colorRowLines and colorColumnLines properties

Ability to determine and set the current leftmost grid column via the new firstColumn property

Ability to set the color of the checkmark in a columnCheckbox control

Grid’s columnCheckbox control now displays the checkbox in all rows of the grid, not just the current row

Rectangle

Added the transparent property to Rectangle

MousePointer

Added additional built-in mousepointer settings to include the vertical and horizontal splitter mousepointers.

Updated mousePointer option 5 - Size to use the standard Windows crossed arrows (IDC_SIZEALL) mouse cursor.

GETFONT( )

Ability to send default values to GETFONT( ) function. This allows you to initialize the GETFONT dialog with current settings.

ReportViewer

Ability to detect when a report has reached its last page in the ReportViewer class via the new onLastPage( ) event.

Error Dialog

Enhanced error dialog to support long error messages.

Exception Handling

Enabled ability to catch Memory Access Violations in dBL code using try...catch blocks.

Added ability to turn off enhanced Memory Access Violation trapping for applications where this caused compatibility problems.

Reports

Improved setting of default band height and of autoSort to improve backward compatibility.

ListBox

Added the vScrollBar property to turn on, or off, the vertical scrollbar

Enhanced Version Info in core product files

Added the build number, date, and optional comments to the version information viewable via Windows Explorer, "Properties" option.

Made version information viewable directly in Windows Explorer’s Details View via the “View Menu/Choose Details…” option.

Project Explorer

Added ability to create and deploy a Windows XP manifest file with an application.

Added ability to choose which runtime engine installer files to include with a deployed application.

dBASE Plus Installer

Improved setting of defaults for BDE maxFileHandles and for default dBASE table level:

Now sets BDE maxFileHandles to 255 on new installs or, if it is less than 255 at install time, sets the default dBASE table level to level 7 when the BDE is not already installed.

Apache Configuration Wizard

Upgraded Apache Configuration Wizard to work with the newest version of Apache Web Server v2.x