G-Cal 1.6 - by Gitano Software

by Tom Hebenstreit, Review Editor

Published 1999-03-01    Printer-friendly version

G-Cal, a $49 (US) product from Gitano Software, is a template set and function library which aims to provide pop-up calendars for date lookups as well as a full set of date related functions for use within your programs. It is compatible with both the Clarion (legacy) and ABC template chains in C4 and C5.

"But there are all sorts of free calendars -- why would someone want to pay for something like this?", you ask. Why indeed. There have been quite a few free popup calendars floating around for a number of years from the likes of Brian Staff, Mike Hanson, Tinman Development and others. Most of these do the basic job of allowing the user to pop-up a calendar and select a date, albeit with limited options for calendar style and so forth. I myself have used all of the above at one time or another, so it was with interest that I began my exploration of G-Cal.

Let's see if it does justify the expense...

Major Features

G-Cal provides five calendar styles:

1. Small single month
2. Small single month, even more compact
3. Medium sized single month with previous and next months
4. Larger single month with the same plus more bells and whistles
5. Single month with an image you specify (just like the calendars you hang on your walls).

Since I know that my descriptions here can't do the actual calendars justice, here is an animated GIF file I borrowed from Gitano's web site which illustrates all five varieties.

G-Cal Calendars

Note: If the image isn't cycling through the calendars, press the refresh/reload button on your browser and you should see them parade by.

Gitano also offers what they call 'schemes' for the calendars which let you (or your user) choose from a number of different color/background schemes for the calendars. Schemes also control the internal display logic for the calendars, allowing you to specify, for example, which day the week is to begin on. While you can build your own schemes using the G-Cal Setup program, version 1.6 of G-Cal came with thirty-six pre-defined schemes.

To speed date entry, G-Cal has an extension template that adds special hot keys to a date field. You can press a key to instantly fill in today's date, use the plus/minus keys to increment/decrement by a day, use the arrows to increment/decrement by a week and so forth.

In addition to the calendars and their associated templates, G-Cal includes over two dozen date related functions for use elsewhere in your code. Apart from the usual types which return days, months, quarters, etc., it also includes functions for determining a date plus days. Versions are supplied which can calculated either standard days or business days from a certain date, e.g., today plus 15 business days. All in all, they cover just about every basic need that I can think of.

New features in version 1.6 (which arrived just before this issue was released) include an option to let the user set some basic calendar options (see below).

User options

Installation

Installation was from a self contained EXE file downloaded from the Gitano web site. In a rather unique twist, it accommodates both C4 and C5 during the same install. It snoops out the correct paths for C4 and C5, and also lets you set an install directory for a helpful utility called G-Cal Setup (more on that later). You can then elect to install G-Cal for C4, for C5, or do both at the same time. Pretty handy, that.

The installation also reminds you to save any existing schemes you have created if you are upgrading, as the install will write over the default schemes file. A conversion utility is provided for older scheme files.

The only real improvement I'd like to see in the install process is for the help file to be displayed at the end so that you can become familiar with your new tool right away.

Implementation

Adding G-Cal to an application was as easy as adding a global template and setting few options such as the default calendar style, type and selecting an optional global calendar popup key. The global template is also where you enter your registration information for G-Cal (provided by Gitano when you decide to keep the package).

Adding a calendar to any field was simple. In the Window formatter, I selected the G-Cal control template and voila - instant calendar button (complete with nifty icon). Choosing the appropriate calendar type/size, adding a field specific caption, specifying the field to receive the selected date, it all was very easy and straightforward.

Ok, I hear you ask, so if there are so few prompts on the templates, how do I control all that other stuff you talked about earlier? The answer to that question is...

G-Setup - the brains of G-Cal

G-Cal gives you a tremendous amount of control over how your calendars will look and behave, and the source of that control is the 'schemes' file. As mentioned earlier, schemes give you the ability to change not only the look of a calendar, but the text (i.e., language), week begin dates, tooltips, wallpaper, help file links (per calendar style, if you want) and more. You can even specify how many (and which) work days a week contains - a rather unique feature which would be very helpful for companies which use flex-time.

The key to all of this is G-Setup, a utility that is installed along with the templates. It is a very nice little app that gives you complete control over your schemes, and it is where you manage your schemes file(s). You use it to create as many (or few) schemes as desired, and then distribute that scheme file along with your app. G-Setup also makes is very easy to test your settings as you are creating them, so you always know what your final scheme will look like for each calendar type. Here is a sample of the G-Setup scheme update form, showing the first tab (there are seven tabs in all).

G-Cal Scheme options

Note the buttons along the bottom which let you call up any of the five calendar styles to instantly see how your scheme in action. Also, the small circles beside the titles will pop up the color dialog so that you can set the colors for the headings.

As mentioned above, G-Cal comes with three dozen predefined schemes.

Performance

G-Cal worked as advertised and each of the calendars showed the visual flair (and taste) which I have seen in all of Gitano's products. I experienced no problems at all in my testing.

Documentation

Documentation is provided in the form of a standard Windows help file. While I usually prefer printable (or printed) docs, G-Cal is easy enough to use that the help file works out fine. The information you need most on paper (the date functions syntax and descriptions) is contained within a single help topic, so it was no problem to simply print that section.

Additionally, the G-Cal Setup program also documents and demonstrates each of the G-Cal functions interactively. How so? When you hover the mouse over a function description, it displays the syntax for using it. If you click on the function description, it executes it and returns a value based on dates that you previously designated. Another nice touch which is typical of Gitano products.

Technical Support

Gitano provides support for G-Cal via email only. In the course of writing this review, every email was answered promptly, every question satisfied, and most of my suggestions were greeted with a 'consider it done'.

What can I say? I love dealing with vendors like this!

Summary

Could G-Cal be improved? Sure, but I'm not going to go into my wish list here as it seems they will all be satisfied in the next release (which Gitano says will be out soon). In any case, most of them were small tweaks to usability - the basic product is solid and simple to use.

At the beginning of this review, I asked the question "Why would someone buy a product like this when there are so many free calendars?". By this point, you should see that G-Cal goes far beyond any other Clarion calendar templates, and is in my estimation a real value at $49 (less, if you purchase it as part of a bundle).

It offers a wide range of eminently useful (and good looking) styles, a large number of handy date related functions, and is simple to use for both you and your customers.

Now... if it only had scheduling, etc., to go with these gorgeous calendars (wait, do I hear something about a G-Cal Pro? Tune in next time...<G>) .

Category	Product Score
Ability to do the task	Excellent
Ease of use	Very Good
Ease of Installation	Good
Documentation	Good
Technical Support	Excellent
Modifies Shipping Templates	No
Black-Box DLLs/LIBs	Yes

Gitano G-Cal 1.6 lists for $49 US, and is available direct from Gitano at (805) 398-8553 or via secure web transaction at BMT Micro (https://secure.falcon-net.net/BMT/order1356.html). If you own other Gitano products, a discount is available. G-Cal is also available as part of two other bundles with G-Calc and/or G-Notes. Please see their web site for complete information, demos, ordering links and more.

Vendor Comments from Jesus Moreno of Gitano Software

By the time this is available so will version 1.7(be). New features and fixes prompted by Tom (thanks) will be included in this new version. Included in this version will be a new collection of schemes for both 256 and 16 color users. We are currently working on G-Cal Pro. To the included calendars add weekly, bi-weekly, and daily calendars linked to appointments, to-do's, notes, anniversaries, holidays, plus more. This is one product you are going to love! Buy G-Cal now and you will receive 100% credit from your purchase towards the price of the Pro version.

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942