Heard it throught the Bit-vine - Notes and News about the products you use

by Tom Hebenstreit, Review Editor

Published 1998-02-01    Printer-friendly version

Hi all!

I see a lot of questions about what kind of third party products are available for Clarion, so I want to begin this month with a reminder to check out a great resource that you already have in hand - your C4 installation CD-ROM (you do have C4 by now, don't you?). There are 35 folders full of demos and other product information on it in the \THRDPTY folder, so don't just install C4 and then file the CD away!

TopSpeed included an easy to use browser on the CD which categorizes and describes the products. To run it, put your C4 CD in your CD-ROM drive, then run the program BRWACC.EXE in the root directory of the CD. The browser will also run the setup program for any demos you decide to install.

It should be noted that Linder Software's demos of their LSPack and LSP-SFX Builder products were somehow damaged in the process of getting them on the C4 CD (the files are zero bytes in size). Current demos of these products can be downloaded from www.lindersoftware.com.

Keep in mind, also, that all of these demos, etc., had to be furnished to TopSpeed before the C4 beta programs were completed, so many of them are still in their CW 2.003 or C4 Clarion templates incarnations (no ABC templates). Even so, they should still give you a good intro to the products.

One other drawback to the CD, however, is that it only includes products that TopSpeed sells through the Clarion Worldwide Accessories Program. This leaves out a few major vendors, most notably BoxSoft Development, authors of the extensive Super line of templates. For the latest demos of their products, check out www.BoxsoftDevelopment.com and/or their distributor: www.MittenSoftware.com. In addition, Mitten Software is the distributor of many other fine products that are not being sold through the Clarion Accessories program.

Speaking of websites, there are a lot of sites which offer useful Clarion tips and tricks, up to the minute vendor information, free goodies, and/or product demos. The problem is finding them all... and that brings us to the next topic.

Ring around the website

A relatively new phenomenon on the World Wide Web is the concept of a 'WebRing'. A WebRing is a set of related web sites that contain specific links to each other. These links are accessed via buttons on each site for 'Next Site', 'Previous Site', 'Random Site', etc. There is also a button for an Index of all of the sites in the ring. Once you have found any site on the ring, you can sequentially hop from site to related site. This can be much easier than trying to locate sites via search engines or the hit-and-miss 'links to friends' which many sites maintain. Anyone can create a WebRing, and sites are encouraged to add themselves to any ring that they are pertinent to.

Bet you know what's coming, don't you?

Yep, there is now a webring dedicated to Clarion sites, initiated by Troy Sorzano and the other fine folks at Information Packaging Unlimited (IPU). To access the ring, go to their CW SuperPage (www.CWSuperPage.com - a fine resource in its own right). Once there, you can read up about the CW webring and use the buttons to begin cruising it. There are currently around a dozen participating sites, with more sites pending. Be sure to thank Troy for taking the initiative on this!

By the way, if you have a site with Clarion information (either as a vendor or as a user who wants to share your experiences, etc.), you can add your site to the CW webring at the CW Superpage site. Join up and get visible!

If you are interested in the webring concept or other webrings, check out www.webring.org, the originators of this FREE service.

Coming round the mountain

It seems the floodgates are finally beginning to open. More and more vendors are announcing C4 versions of their products, many of them ABC compatible (see the 'Other news' section - you'll see what I mean).

Of special interest are some of the newer C4/ABC specific products that are coming down the pike, especially those that integrate tightly with the new C4 ABC class libraries. These are the products that will try to entice the rest of us into abandoning the trusty old Clarion (2.003 procedural style) templates in favor of the OOP collective...

One such product which I've had the opportunity to preview is Brian Staff's Xplore for C4 Templates - it seems to be able to make a standard C4 ABC browse do just about anything except stand up and talk. Features include the ability to resize, rename, move, color, hide, sort and otherwise manipulate every column in a browse. Each column can have its own locator (including the new filtered locators). Multiple view sort fields can be also be specified for each column. The browse font can be changed (affects the entire browse, a CW limitation). What's really neat is that most of these features (and a whole lot more) can be controlled by the user at run-time via a right click context menu. As a developer, you can also choose which features should NOT be changeable by the user. A nice touch is that after you've moved, colored, resized, hid and otherwise completely scrambled your browse, you can reset it back to the defaults with a single click. This looks like it is going to be a great tool for giving your users real flexibility in setting up their browses the way they want them to be.

Watch for a full review of the final release in an upcoming issue of Clarion Online.

Toolcraft Update

Toolcraft Corporation was one of the best early vendors of Clarion for Windows tools, and their Power Browse product earned a strong and loyal following (including me). Recently, though, they announced that they had decided to cease development of Power Browse after the last CW 2.003 update, due to personnel changes and the fact that C4 was beginning to incorporate some of the better features which Power Browse was designed to provide. Needless to say, this caused much anguish and teeth-gnashing on various Clarion forums. After much seeming confusion, though, here is what seems to be the final outcome for all of us Toolcraft product users:

Query Wizard

This product will continue to be developed and supported by Toolcraft. In fact, they just announced the availability of Query Wizard 4.0, a major upgrade. This version adds many new features, such as runtime fields, new operators (DOES NOT BEGIN WITH and DOES NOT CONTAIN), new ways of displaying results, the ability to let the user sequentially 'join' multiple queries, support for lookup functions, and many other nice enhancements. The new version works with CW 2.003 and C4, both Clarion and ABC template sets. Best of all, the 'black box' is no more - all Query Wizard source code is provided with the new version. See 'Other news' for upgrade information.

PowerBrowse

Christech Research Company of Colorado Springs, Colorado has now assumed full responsibility of the future advancement and support of the Power Browse Template Set and associated libraries. They have been working on a PB to CW 2.0 converter (currently in beta) for those who no longer wish to use Power Browse, as well as planning new features and upgrades for a C4 version. More information is supposed to be forthcoming on the Toolcraft web site (www.toolcraft.com), but the site had not been updated by press time. In the meantime, you can download PB2CDOCS.ZIP from the TopSpeed CompuServe 3rd party section. This is an introduction to the converter and their plans for PB. I suspect it will take them a little time to get ramped up and familiar with the PB code, but I, for one, am willing to give them some time to prove themselves (mainly because of the next item).

Christech has also made available a document detailing how to convert existing CW 2.003 Power Browse apps to C4 (using Clarion templates, not ABC). It provides instructions on how to copy and modify your existing PB templates (three changes) for C4 compatibility, as well as new PB LIBs that work with C4. There are no new features or bug fixes, but it will get your PB dependent apps up and running under C4. The file is PB2003C4.ZIP, and it, too, is available on the TopSpeed CIS forum. This update was provided free of charge, for which they are to be applauded.

Note: If you do the update, there is one step missing in the document. The Toolcraft installation program hard codes the locations of the template files into TC.TPL (the file which is registered under C4). If you simply copy the files to a new Clarion 4 directory, the old versions from your CW20 directory are what will actually be loaded into the C4 registry. The solution is simply to edit the TC.TPL file and do a global search and replace before you register the templates, replacing all instances of \CW20 with \Clarion4 (assuming you used the default names and drives when you installed CW, etc.).

Power Popup and Chart Wrapper

Both of these products will no longer be developed beyond their current state.

Other news

Here are some tidbits and announcements gleaned from the TopSpeed forum and elsewhere over the last couple of weeks. Contact the vendors directly for full details. In addition, if you see any products here that you would like to see scheduled for a full review in Clarion Online, let us know!

• INFOPC, the French edition of PC World, recently reviewed ForKeeps, Ragnar Hellspong's mail and messaging archiver, and gave it 5 stars (the highest rating). Check it out if you use email or download messages from CIS and the internet (hmmm, that includes just about everybody, doesn't it?). It is written in CW, and is a good demonstration of the power of Clarion. A demo is included on the C4 final release CD. Congratulations, Ragnar!
• Linder Software released a patch (designated as1200) for their killer compact installation creator, LSP-SFX 1.10. The patch fixes a couple problems and added a new feature - a 'Select Destination Directory' browse option. In their usual fashion, in adding the new feature they *decreased* the installer size again by 3K. More info is available at www.lindersoftware.com.
• ProDomus announced C4 versions of their entire product line: PD Drops, PD Lookups, PD Date Tools, PD Finance Lib, PD Worldwide Addresses, CwIntl and PD Translator. All except CwIntl are compatible with both the Clarion and ABC templates (CwIntl is Clarion only). More information and price/upgrade details can be found at www.tiac.net/users/prodomus/.
• J & S Software has released Mailmerge v2.0 for C4 (ABC and Clarion templates) and also v1.4 (for 2003 only). New features/templates include recursive tokens, passing filters to merge token lists, a Find/Replace dialog for memos (similar to Notepad) and more. Upgrade costs are dependent on when purchased and how much paid. Contact jeff@jssoftware.com for pricing information, and see www.jssoftware.com for more info on the templates.
  Note: See the Clarion Online November 97 issue (#4) for a full review of version 1.3 of these templates.
• Lee White of Lodestar Software announced that his Report Presentation Manager (RPM) product has been updated to work with the C4 Clarion templates. Upgrade costs are dependent on when purchased and how much paid. An ABC version is still in the works. More info is available at www.CWaddons.com/c4.htm.
• Lodestar also announced that the full C4/2003-ABC PNet install is available for immediate download as a free upgrade for current users. This product provides the capability to use USPS Postnet barcodes without using an OCX, VBX, or font. See the same www.cwadddons.com website for more info.
• Stealth Software announced that their new C4-compatible Mail and Fax Templates are now available (these were also known as the MAPI Templates in the past). They work with both the 2003-compatible and the ABC templates in C4. One major improvement that has been implemented is that OLE messaging is now fully supported. The update is free if you purchased the templates at or after 1997 DevCon in Florida, US$20 if purchased before then. Email Stealth at cliff@topspeed.co.za for more upgrade info.
• Vince Sorensen has posted a C4 version of the Free WinAPI Toolkit on his web page at www.dlcwest.com/~sorev/topspeed. This very handy set of free tools was featured on the December Bit-vine as the free template of the month. Check that issue for more details on these templates.
• Yes, Dave Harms has added another volume to his wonderful Unofficial CW OOP site. (At this rate, he'll have a new book on CW OOP done in no time.) The newest is 'ABC Internals Part 2 - The ABC Class Diagrams', and provides annotated ABC class diagrams. Go to www.incunabula.com/cwoop/index.htm - and bookmark it!
• Yoram Beer of Pragmatic Computer Solutions Inc. announced that C4 (ABC) versions of their Sticky Formats and Sticky Tabs template, the Copy Button for Browse template, and the DDE Hot Browse template are now available. The templates can be obtained via CIS/SWREG. A discounted upgrade price is available for current users.
• Princen IT has released their Send Internet Mail Template, version 3.0. It uses no OCX or MAPI calls, communicating directly with your internet connection via TCP/IP (the native protocol of the Internet). It sends mail using the SMTP mail standard and supports multiple attachments (all MIME types). Both CW 2.003 and C4 are supported. For more info visit www.Princen-IT.nl/Clarion .
• Princen also announced the release of Quick DDE 2.04, a nifty set of template tools for integrating CW programs with MS Office (and more). This update include numerous enhancements, some bug fixes, and is said to be fully compatible with both C4 and CW 2.003. See the Princen web (listed above) site for pricing info.
  Note: See the Clarion Online October 97 issue (#3) for a full review of version 2.02 of these templates.
• Toolcraft announced the availability of Query Wizard 4 (mentioned above). This release contains many new features, supports CW2 and C4 (both Clarion and ABC), and includes source code. Upgrade pricing is available. (Note: Toolcraft's web site has not been updated yet with the new information on Query Wizard and Power Browse, so your best bet is to contact them directly: lvaughn@sonnet.com).
• BoxSoft Development (Mike Hanson) has released an update to SuperSecurity, designated v2.02. According to the notice, this version contains various bug fixes and interface enhancements above and beyond the recently released 2.00. It is still compatible only with the C4 Clarion templates (and CW 2.003). A C4 ABC version (SuperSecurity 4.0) is scheduled for release soon. For the latest on BoxSoft products, check out http://www.BoxSoftDevelopment.com.
• Greg Berthume has released PowerRUN for C4, ABC Template Chain. It is a paid upgrade, and more info can be found at http://members.aol.com/Gberthume.

Can't beat that price...

Sorry, kids. Not enough room for a template this month, but then again, you should still be digesting the TinTools collection of templates from last month (all 20-30 of them!) and busy studying your ABC's.

Watch for next month, when we will be featuring another freebie to add to your toolbox.

About the Bit-vine

Each month, this column will provide you with the latest in Clarion news, tips, rumors, freebies and basically anything else that seems interesting about the going's on in the Clarion world.

So, who determines what's most interesting? YOU DO!!

Are you a vendor? Let me know about new releases, updates, betas, product plans or anything else you think Clarion Online readers might want to know about.

Are you a user (and who isn't)? Drop me a line about any cool nuggets of information you come across, free templates or examples worth sharing, or anything else that other readers might find useful.

What do you get for contributing? Well, you'll see your name up in lights (phosphor, to be accurate) here in the Bit-vine credits. For especially useful bits, you may even win an autographed GIF of an official Clarion Online shirt or other similarly valuable prize. Come on, how can you resist?

Let me hear from you! The magic address isTomH@ClarionOnline.com

The disclaimer

Everything in this column is the sole opinion of me, the author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of this magazine, its publisher, or even of myself (hey, I can change my mind, too!). Don't bet the farm on anything you read here: consider it a starting point for your own inquiries and research. The point here is that this column is intended to both enlighten and entertain, and that in the fast-moving world of software development this month's truth (or product release date) is often next month's "oops, did I say that...?".

'Nuff said!

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942