DO NOT update the utilities and toolkits of a Version 4 or 5 system with the utilities and tool kits of a Version 6 release.

Transcription

1 ProvideX Version README File - March 28, 2005 Release Notes for Version 6.20 (CVSChngs^ ) Minor Release Best Software Canada Ltd 8920 Woodbine Avenue Suite 400 Markham, Ontario L3R 9W9 Tel Section 1) Language Level Enhancements, Additions, & Changes Section 2) WindX Section 3) NOMADS Section 4) Data Dictionary Section 5) Data Views - Add-on Package #20008 Section 6) NOMADS Customizer - Add-on Package #20007 Section 7) Smart Lists - Add-on Package #20005 Section 8) Report Writer Section 9) Utilities Section 10) WebServer & Internet Toolkit Section 11) Application Server - Add-on Package #20009 Section 12) Print Preview (Viewer) *** NOTES *** "New" or "Added" items in this readme may require a Version 6 activation key to work. Due to the extensive changes in the utilities and application tools (such as NOMADS) for Version 6 features, Best Software Canada Ltd. cannot guarantee that any of the utilities or tools will work on installations with earlier activation keys. DO NOT update the utilities and toolkits of a Version 4 or 5 system with the utilities and tool kits of a Version 6 release. Version 6.20 replaces Version 6.10 in its entirety. This readme contains all the changes to ProvideX for release Versions 6.05, 6.10 and Item numbers that begin with a * represent Version 6.10 changes. Item numbers that begin with a + represent Version 6.20 changes. Remaining unmarked items are changes from Version Examples: Modified this feature... <- This is a 6.05 change. *2.3 - Addressed that issue... <- This is a 6.10 change Added this new feature... <- This is a 6.20 change. Section 1. Language Level Enhancements, Additions, & Changes SSL (TCP/IP Secure Socket Layer) is now active in all Version 6 licensed copies of ProvideX (Basic / Professional / E-Commerce) Added automatic PDF compression for output to *PDF*. This requires the pvxzlib1.dll for windows, or libz.so.1 / libz.so for Linux/UNIX. UNIX / Linux versions of Zlib may be obtained from or some OS's come with it pre-installed (notably Linux variants). 1

2 1.3 - Modified COM Interface when setting a variant's type to "O" (letter Oh). When 'ExplicitByRef is set, this will force the variant object to contain a null interface pointer. This is useful for object methods requiring an out Dispatch parameter.! Example Usage: DEF OBJECT V, "*VARIANT" V'TYPE$="O" V'EXPLICITBYREF=1 OBJ'CALLMETHOD(*V)?V'VAL'* Made corrections for string data (both get/set) within *VARIANT objects, as data that had embedded nulls was being handled incorrectly Corrected a critical problem using the FILE directive to redefine a KEYED file when PRM('FF') is set to 3 or 4 (BBx emulation mode). Upgrading a Version 6.00 system to Version 6.05 is strongly recommended for any application affected by this issue Added SETDEV (chan) SEP=$..$ for setting the field separator on a file by file basis. If the string is "" or $$ then a dynamic separator is used Improved performance of EFF files by implementing the 'WD' (Write Deferral) logic Added new memory manager for Windows versions of ProvideX, memory allocations are faster, and avoids an issue with GPFs when rapidly manipulating large strings ProvideX Chart control Removed an 'eye' that was appearing in the centre of the chart Corrected an issue with pie charts where a 'slice' of size zero would be drawn a full 360 degrees instead of not being drawn at all Modified the client connections to a Server based TCP/IP socket, to set the buffer size for the client connections Corrected '*X', when using X$=MNM('*X', LFA) to return the correct value. A change in Version 6 was incorrect and was causing the querying of '*X' to be returned as "". NOTE: As of Version 6, the behaviour of the '*X' mnemonic has been changed in that the file being acted upon is NO LONGER CLOSED prior to the program specified in '*X' being called. If the '*X' program requires the file be closed, it must do so on its own Improved File I/O handling for files being accessed concurrently by a main line routine, and a COM control event processor Windows Printing Correction - Bitmaps were not always printing on specific OS's such as Win2000 Pro, and NT4, dependent on OS updates and Printer Drivers as to whether they would print or not Corrected a possible GPF that could be caused by accessing 'FMT$ for a list view before it was set Correction to PDF output for computing alignment of proportional fonted numerics. 2

3 Correction to the REDIM directive to properly handle redimensioning multiple variables by a single REDIM Changed Treeview to allow for bitmaps/icons with up to 32bit colour Corrected Treeview colour levels for State indicators Corrected memory leak during the use of Treeviews with pictures Removed an old limit on x$ *= nnnn which limited the value to Corrected a memory leak caused by adding lines to the top level program in a call stack from within a PERFORMed program. This could be caused by programs such as "*E" Corrected a problem caused by parsing invalid formats in a List box. If the character following the '{' wasn't a '}', the system would hang Added 16-bit colour recognition to Treeview / Listview / Reportview Lists Added support for SQLStatistics to retrieve all the defined indexes. Usage: read (chan,key="**tablename") A single asterisk (*) currently retrieves all the columns, now two asterisks (**) retrieves the indexes OCI - Improved extract support for OCI tables opened using a shared connection. Rather than requiring the user id and password on every open if no user id and/or password is supplied, the user id and/or password will be taken from the first connection to the database. The user id and password is required to open a secondary connection to the database to support the EXTRACT directive on an Oracle table Resolved an issue where the 'PvxEvents property incorrectly reported the OOP ID associated with Event Support for a COM object. This also addresses an issue which prevented the ability to change the OOP object associated with a COM object once Event Support was activated for a given COM object Resolved a problem attempting to define an Alternate Key on an EFF file comprising an External Key with Extended Key Segment options Corrected a possible GPF on Win98 systems that could occur when attempting to display a column in a Listview control that consists of only an ESC character Addressed an issue where executing a DEF OBJECT on a sub-object locally on a WindX client would prevent access to the properties and methods of the sub-object Added new internal Bitmaps for plus, minus, question mark, dot and X in a check box for use in Treeview states.!xinbox,!dotinbox,!emptybox,!checkedbox,!halfcheckedbox!halfxinbox,!halfdotinbox,!halfemptybox,!halfminusbox!halfplusbox,!halfquestbox,!minusbox,!plusbox,!questbox Corrected Direct SQL execution logic to ensure the Statement handle is reset after a manually-constructed SQL command. 3

4 Addressed an Error #29 that occurred during LOAD or SAVE operations if the current default background colour was an extended colour Corrected Multi-select logic for Listviews which could cause GPFs if too many items were selected and returned Fixed an FMT specification problem that occurred when column alignment and widths were given without a column title on Report Style Listviews. The change now forces a column break on a space, if a length preceded the space Improved screen repaint logic in Edit -> Mark/Copy logic to help assure screen is properly displayed Improved the positioning of the lines being drawn in PDF output when processing the '+S' mnemonic (draw Solid lines option) for ==,, and Improved support for "F" option on Dialogues to allow for manual resizing from Text plane size up to full screen Corrected a problem with preserving current file state when referencing remote objects. This error caused problems issuing a PRINT (nn) x'* where 'x' was a remote object since the request for the remote object information would switch the current file handle to WindX Corrected a problem with displaying bitmaps to the screen that were created using the SAVE *BITMAP* logic Corrected a problem with potential GPF on requesting ABOUT information box when last file accessed when requesting info was not the console Corrected a problem that would cause the loss of report view information (such as bitmaps, sort order, etc.) when changing the 'Fmt$ attribute Corrected a problem with the MSE system variable's window state (31,1), which when checked immediately following a window create will report the window as hidden. This was caused by the system deferring the display of windows until the next wait or user input request. The MSE variable was changed to force any deferred windows to be displayed, thus the state will properly reflect the window state Corrected a possible GPF when using KEY= with colon-separated values with an ODB or OCI channel. This problem was introduced in Version Added a NONULLS= option to the [ODB] channel. NONULLS=Y, y, 1, N, n or 0 can be added either in the [ODBC] section of the applications INI file or as part of the OPT= or path of an [ODB] open. The default setting for this option is disabled, or N. If NONULLS= is enabled then ProvideX will not insert nulls into the target database and will not generate WHERE clauses checking for IS NULL or IS NOT NULL. Fields are written as zerolength strings instead of as null when NONULLS= is enabled Correction to PDF file handling to ignore images that have no displayable area (start/end positions are identical). This problem occurred when the PDF file was sent to a viewer (e.g., Acrobat). The viewer would report an error when attempting to render the image with zero width/height. ProvideX was modified to simply ignore the image. It also reports errors with end points that are less than the start point (which were let through previously). 4

5 Addressed a potential Error #106 for EFF files with Extended Record support enabled and a BSZ in excess of 31K Added check for a secondary DEADLOCK error condition to return Error #0 Record/File busy for UNIX systems that return this status. * Added a NONULLS= option to [ODB] and [OCI] tags. NONULLS=Y, y, 1, N, n, 0, P or p can be added either in the [ODB]/[OCI] sections of the application's INI file or as part of the OPT= or path of an [ODB]/[OCI] open. The default setting for this option is disabled, or N. If NONULLS= is enabled, then ProvideX will insert zero-length strings rather than NULLs into the target database, and will not generate WHERE clauses checking for IS NULL or IS NOT NULL. "P" is for pre-version 6 functionality. If the application does not work correctly when moving from Version 5 to Version 6 then use the "P" option to have keys handled the same as pre-version 6. * Reverted back to the pre-6.05 style of Bitmap printing logic, which allowed a device driver to perform any image stretching and avoided memory problems with printers. The item 1.13 change to the printing logic pre-expanded bitmap images prior to sending them to the printer driver which could potentially result in sending more data than the printer was capable of handling. ProvideX will now have the driver stretch the image by default unless a new WINPRT option, PRESTRETCH=YES, is specified either on the open or during a WINPRT_SETUP WRITE PROPERTIES. * Addressed an issue where the KEF( ) and KEL( ) functions could return incorrect values for EFF files. * Extended the number of keys and segments for an EFF file to the maximum of 255 keys and 255 segments per key. * Revised the internal buffer cache algorithm for EFF files to produce more consistent results when there are insufficient buffers to write a single record to a file (e.g., more Keys defined than PRM('BF') buffers). * Restricted access to *pdf* to Version 6 or higher activation keys. * Added a report of an Error #13 when attempting to SAVE a program file using the same name as an existing KEYED file. * Corrected the potential for a GPF when attempting to open COM10 through COM99. * Added support to *BITMAP* for the MARGIN= option plus fixed MXC/MXL for same. The MARGIN=Left:Top:Right:Bottom option for *BITMAP* channels is the same as the MARGIN= support added in ProvideX V6.00 for Printer and PDF output. Please refer to the pvx600.txt read me file for details on the exact syntax and usage of MARGIN=. * Update to provide access to NOMADS Customizer for Systems will now produce a single warning message advising the user if they have not purchased the Customizer. See Section 6, NOMADS Customizer, item 6.2 for additional details. * *PDF* Internal PDF output processing has been enhanced so that JPG (JPeg images) will now be placed directly into the PDF file without converting the image to a bitmap. This allows for smaller PDF file sizes. Direct output of JPGs into a *PDF* output device works on all platforms. The Imaging Add-On is NOT required when outputting JPGs to *PDF* files, but would be required for all other access such as display to the screen 5

6 or output to a graphical printer. * Correction to *winprt* logic for handling inverted displays. The OPAQUE drawing mode was not properly set resulting in the background colour disappearing. * Reinstated the maximum of 16 keys for FLR and VLR formatted KEYED files. * Added logic to make sure that TIPs are never set to more than 511 characters in length. * Transaction Commit and Rollback for EFF files: Transactions provide the ability to group a series of file updates into a single operation. Once a transaction is complete, the application can choose to either commit (accept) the transaction or roll back (reject) all of the updates associated with the transaction. Syntax changes and usage: - SYSTEM_JRNL AUTO ON - Commit pending updates and turn off transaction processing - SYSTEM_JRNL AUTO OFF - Commit pending updates and start a new transaction - SYSTEM_JRNL BEGIN - Starts a transaction if not already in a transaction - SYSTEM_JRNL SAVE - Commits the current transaction - SYSTEM_JRNL RESTORE - Rolls back the current transaction - SYSTEM_JRNL READ NumVar - Determine current state of transaction processing Where: NumVar will return a value of 1 (one) when a transaction is pending otherwise, it will return a 0 (zero) - MID(FIN(chan), 27, 2) will return a bitmasked value of $0100$ if there is a pending update within the current transaction for the specified channel. Of the native ProvideX file types, support for transaction processing is available for EFF (Enhanced Format Files) only. There are no plans to support transactions with any other file types (e.g. FLR, VLR, INDEXED or SERIAL). All directives that create, erase or rename files will not be considered part of the transaction cycle. For example, any file created during a transaction will not be automatically erased should the transaction be rolled back. Issuing a BYE, END, QUIT, RELEASE or STOP (at program level 1) will result in an automatic rollback of any pending updates initiated by the transaction. Typing any of these commands from a console prompt when transaction updates are pending will result in a Warning #122: Transaction Update Pending -- Use SYSTEM_JRNL SAVE or RESTORE. Typing any of these commands a second time will roll back the current transaction. 6

7 Once a transaction has been started, any updates (INSERT, REMOVE, UPDATE or WRITE) to a file will result in the file header being locked for the duration of the transaction. Issuing an EXTRACT against a file will also lock the file header until the transaction has been committed or rolled back. Transactions are not supported across [RPC] or [WDX] connected files. Issuing a rollback will not preserve any pending record locks issued prior to the start of a transaction. Updates made to non-eff files during a transaction are not affected by a commit or rollback. It should be noted that information being updated within a transaction is hidden from all other tasks accessing the file until the transaction has been committed. Processing a file on multiple channels within the same task during a transaction will access the currently uncommitted information. ProvideX uses the full path name of the file to determine whether any given file is being accessed on multiple channels. For example, "c:\pvx\data\custfile" and LWD+"custfile" will open the same file, provided both resolve to "c:\pvx\data\custfile". In this case, reading records from either file will yield the same information whereas opening "c:\pvx\data\custfile" and "\\Server\Share\custfile" on different channels will not because the full path names are different. Attempting to CLOSE a file with pending updates prior to issuing a commit or rollback will report an Error #14. Issuing a CLOSE (*) will also yield an Error #14 should there be pending updates to any open files. * Cleaned up a resource leak to a Null Pen. This would produce the loss of 1 GDI resource in a single session for the duration of the session. * Correction to avoid a GDI resource leak when using WindX and embedding a 'FONT' mnemonic within a 'WINDOW' or 'DIALOGUE' mnemonic. * Corrected minor memory leak caused when using SETESC "prog". * Improved 'BM' MARKUP mode support to take into account fonts and LPI/ CPI mnemonics when requesting MXC and MXL. * Modifed PDF output slightly to truncate text on a character-bycharacter basis when printing within a region when the text does not fit. Also, forced the system to print at least one line even if the height specified is less than 1 line high (unless running with WRAP enabled). * Correction to the WATCH Window logic to minimize potential conflicts with running programs. * Added new syntax: "PRECISION nnn FOR OBJECT". This feature will allow an object to alter its default precision to something other than the default system precision. In prior releases, whenever an object method was invoked, the precision would be set to: a) The precision defined by the PRECISION directive in the CLASS definition to which the method belongs. -orb) The system default (normally 2) if PRECISION is not specified within the CLASS definition. This change will allow an object to issue a PRECISION nnn FOR OBJECT at 7

8 run-time. The precision specified will then be used throughout the execution of the object issuing the directive. * Resolved an Error #20 reported at run-time when a SETDEV IOL directive included a comment/remark on the end of the statement. * OCI, Corrected the return size of the key. ProvideX was returning the key data up to the maximum length of the key rather than the actual length of the key. NOTE: OCI may not return the correct data for key fields which are binary. * Resolved a potential issue with the 'QK' (Quick Key) lookup algorithm which could result in an endless loop while traversing the key tree. * Added message text including the statement number to MSG(-1) when the RENUMBER directive generates an Error #74 (Line number too big). * Corrected report of Error #2 from an [OCI] or [ODB] KEP(), not taking the END= branch. * Correction to handle pending data in the SSL receive queue. This was noticeable when using SSL for an app server session where the user would have to hit a keystroke twice in order for the key to be registered once. * Restricted the offset and length of a key descriptor segment to the maximum of 3839 bytes; e.g., [1:3839:1] is valid whereas [1:3839:10] is not. * Added a ";FORCE6X10=Yes" option to *WINPRT*, *BITMAP*, and *PDF*. Utilizing this option on the OPEN of the channel, forces ProvideX to handle its font calculations a bit differently, which produces more consistent results across the three different output devices. * Addressed a potential 'Corrected missing key' error with Compressed EFF records. * Increased the number of supported file segments from 32 to 124 for multi-segmented Keyed files. * Corrected an SSL issue that occurred on receiving data larger than the total allocated buffers when there was no data following. * Improved handling of segmented files when multiple ProvideX and/or ODBC tasks update files that are concurrently using different 'MB' system parameter settings. * Enhanced TreeView with state indicators to allow spacebar to toggle states. * Corrected a possible GPF that could occur on setting of the 'DF' mnemonic when the font is 1 point high or less. * Resolved a problem reading BBx files directly on files with field-based key definitions (e.g., [1:1:10]) with no field separators in the data area. * OCI - Fixed an issue with TOP=-1 that occurred when doing an update. It appended ROWNUM <= 1 as a second WHERE. * Corrected margin setting, which allows margins to be set to -1. * Addressed an issue where removing a record from an EFF file and 8

9 updating the same file during a 'WD' (Write Deferral) cycle could incorrectly affect live data pages and lead to damaging a block within the file. * Correction to LPI and CPI mnemonics when dealing with a graphical output devices. They did not properly reposition the output based on current line column and new line height/width. * New - Window's Printer Mapping to a ProvideX Device Driver. A new feature has been added, where a Windows Printer may be defined on a PC so that it appears in the Windows Printer Selection Dialogue, and if that printer is selected from within a ProvideX session, then ProvideX attempts to re-route the printer to a device driver. This allows Developers to create Windows Printer's on workstations for items such as the Preview, PDF, or HTML output from ProvideX. This feature works based on the name and properties of the printer. 1) The printer must have an output port of "NUL:" 2) The second word in the Printer's Name, will be parsed out and an underscore will be added to the beginning and end of the name - the ProvideX LIB directory will be scanned for a device driver that matches this name. If the device driver is not found, then the printer will not be mapped anywhere, and will simply output to NUL. EXAMPLE: Printer Name: "ProvideX Viewer" A search of the ProvideX Lib Directory for "_viewer_" will be made. EXAMPLE: Printer Name: "George's Vue" A search of the ProvideX Lib Directory for "_vue_" will be made. EXAMPLE: Adding such a Printer to a Windows XP Workstation: Step 1) Go to Window's Printer's and Faxes. Step 2) Select "Add a printer". Step 3) Select "Local printer". Step 4) Check the "Use the following port" for an entry of "NUL:". if "NUL:" exists, select it and go to Step 8. Step 5) Select "Create a New Port". Step 6) Set the "Type of Port" = "Local Port". Step 7) For "Port Name" enter "NUL:" (without the quotes). Step 8) From the manufacturer / printers dialogue, select "Generic" for a manufacturer and "Generic/Text Only" for the printer. Step 9) Select "Keep existing driver" Step 10) Enter a name for your printer, keep in mind, that the 2nd word in the name is what must match the device driver. For this "Printer Name", enter "ProvideX Viewer" Step 11) For the "Set as default printer", select "No". Step 12) For "Sharing", select "No". Step 13) For "Print a test page?", select "No". Step 14) Check your settings and Select "Finish". You should now have a printer named "ProvideX Viewer" as one of this workstation's printers. From within any ProvideX application, you will see this printer in the *WINPRT* printer selection dialogue. Whenever this printer is selected, ProvideX will re-route the printer to the specific device driver. 9

10 In the case of our example, we have created a printer named "ProvideX Viewer" which is connected to "NUL:". If selected from Printer Selection, ProvideX will automatically close "*WINPRT*" and open the file "*VIEWER*" instead. NOTE: This will ONLY work in ProvideX applications. If the user selects one of these special ProvideX mapped printers from another application (Word, Notepad, etc.), they will get NO output. This feature only works when running INSIDE a ProvideX session. * *PDF* Interface - Corrected two problems with rotated text: 1) Did not properly handle angles within text strings (only if given as a separate arg) 2) Rotated text around lower left corner instead of upper left corner. * Corrected TCP open logic to properly handle OPEN with a TIM= when using SSL secured ports. * factor computation for markup mode to consider LPI and CPI correctly. * Added logic in the WRITE processor to adhere to the NON-BUFFERED flag used by the PRINT processor. Now, if you PRINT '-B' to a channel, the non-buffering will also affect WRITEs. This applies only to Pipes and Serial files. * Corrected an ODB/OCI issue where performing a KEP() may fail, even though a previous key existed. * Resolved a problem where the key definition returned by the FIN function when in BBx emulation mode did not properly reflect field offsets beyond 256 bytes. * Increased the maximum value of the system 'PC' parameter from 40 to 100. * Corrected printing issues on Windows PCs involving the 'PICTURE'() mnemonic. Some printers and printer driver combinations on MS Windows PCs (most notably Windows 2000 and Windows XP) could experience issues when printing images to these printers, where the image may simply not show up in the printout. In some of these cases the picture did print when using a version of ProvideX prior to V6.00. The corrections to the picture printing involved: A) Replacing the pvximg.dll with a new version. The pvximg.dll was changed in the initial V6.00. As of V6.10 we have reversed the changes. NOTE: If necessary, you may use a copy of the pvximg.dll from this V6.10 installation or from any V5.xx series for existing V6.00 -> V6.05 installations. B) API function calls for printing have been given "FallBack" routines. ProvideX will first try printing the entire picture to the device and have the device stretch the image to size. If this fails, we will divide the image into 16 slices and then have the printer attempt to print and scale those slices. If the next try fails we will fall back to dividing the image into single bands, and stretching those bands, have the printer output the resultant band. With the changes to the picture printing the PRESTRETCH=YES option for *WINPRT* should no longer be necessary. * Corrected the SAVE logic for program libraries to include encryption for Owned programs. 10

11 * Addressed a problem where adding a record to an extended record file with an auto-increment key could result in an Error #11. * Corrected a scaling issue for images printed with the 'PICTURE'() mnemonic using options 5 and 6 * Corrected an issue when outputting JPG images to *PDF* where it was not recognizing all the different JPG types. * Resolved an Error #291 when issuing a RENAME to a file that already exists. This change only affects the Windows platform while running with the 'OR' system parameter enabled. * New Feature. Internal Events and Event Handling in ProvideX. Preliminary support for the internal generation and trapping of specific events within a ProvideX session has been included in this release. These events work similarly to the COM events, in that execution of the currently running program is suspended when an event occurs and, if a ProvideX OOP object has been delegated control of the event, the OOP method is executed. Once the OOP method completes, then normal processing of the originally interrupted program continues. Event Description: Event Name #1 - Timer Event "TimeOut" #2 - Data Available on Channel Event "DataAvailable" #3 - On Close of Channel Event "FileClose" #4 - On Open Event "FileOpen" #5 - On Class Load Event "LoadClass" Special - "Wait on Event" causes ProvideX to relinquish control until an event occurs from any object. New syntax added to ProvideX to enable and disable the handling of these events. Timer Event: (Windows Only) DISABLE EVENT ON TIME ENABLE EVENT ON TIM=NumSeconds Data Available on Channel Event: DISABLE EVENT ON DATA (ChannelNumber) ENABLE EVENT ON DATA (ChannelNumber) On Close of Channel Event: DISABLE EVENT ON CLOSE (ChannelNumber) ENABLE EVENT ON CLOSE (ChannelNumber) On Open Event: DISABLE EVENT ON OPEN ENABLE EVENT ON OPEN On Class Load Event: DISABLE EVENT ON LOAD CLASS ENABLE EVENT ON LOAD CLASS Relinquish control and Wait for Event: WAIT FOR EVENT 11

12 An OOP object has been supplied with this release which simplifies access to these events. Program: *SYSTEM.PVC Usage: myobj = new("*system") Methods: Settimer(Seconds) Will fire a "TimeOut" Event in ProvideX every X number of seconds. The timer will continue to fire TimeOut events until a Settimer(0) is issued. The handling OOP method will not receive any value when the event occurs. (Windows Only) SignalOnData(ChannelNumber, Enabled) Will fire a "DataAvailable" Event on the channel number given. Enabled is either 0 or 1 for off / on. The ChannelNumber must refer to only certain kinds of files: console, TCP, Serial Connection, pipes and I/O redirection. The handling OOP method will receive the channel number when the event occurs. SignalOnClose(ChannelNumber, Enabled) Will fire a "FileClose" Event for the channel number given when enabled. Enabled is either 0 or 1 for off / on. The handling OOP method will receive the channel number when the event occurs. SignalOnOpen(Enabled) Will fire a "FileOpen" Event whenever any file is about to be opened. The handling OOP method will receive the channel number and path name of the file being opened. SignalLoadClass(Enabled) Will fire a "LoadClass" Event whenever a class definition needs to be loaded into the system either through a NEW or LIKE directive. The handling OOP method will be passed the name of the class required. Once the Event is serviced the system will re-check to see if the desired Class is now present if not (or no event service provided) the standard load of a ".pvc" file will occur. WaitForEvent() Causes the system to wait for any event to occur. NOTE: Not all events are supported on all platforms. Additional events and cross platform support will be added in future releases of ProvideX where applicable. The syntax for enabling and disabling the internal events is subject to change. Please make use of the *SYSTEM object to turn event handling on and off, this will isolate any syntax changes from your programs. The following functions / features are currently not supported on UNIX / Linux: ON EVENT... PREINPUT CtlValue CTL Generation by Event SETTIMER() Timer Event OCX/ActiveX/COM Interface - pvxocx32.dll. An issue with a specific data type (an array of BSTR (VT_ARRAY VT_BSTRNOT)) was not being 12

13 reported correctly. In order to facilitate this, a conversion function was built to return an array of type variant from any OLE compatible safearray Pvxcom.exe - ProvideX OLE Interface. Implemented a new DropObject method call for the ProvideX.Script interface to assist with garbagecollection based languages such as jscript or.net. This allows developers to request the immediate release of resources associated with an object rather than wait for the garbage collection cycle to perform the necessary clean up. Example usage: Object.DropObject Set Object = Nothing ODB/OCI - Addressed an issue where connections opened as unique were being shared when a shared connection was requested after the unique open ODB - Fixed a possible GPF that may occur when specifying KEY="" on a database connection (no table) ODB/OCI - Addressed the inability to write-back AA-packed dates to an external database. An example of this format is "January 1, 2000", which would be stored internally as A00101 (AAMMDD) Corrected a problem with the use of wildcards (* or **) in the PREFIX directive Resolved an issue setting the FMT$ property to NULL ($$) in a Listview control Improved memory management to avoid excessive small blocks of memory Corrected logic to ensure that scrollable controls are always moved into view in a dynamically scrolling window Changed the input handler to fix a problem with INPUT X$:"XXX-XXX", Y$ where the system incorrectly applied a format to both inputs. Also, changes were made to the input validation logic INPUT X$:(""=...) so that, if used in conjunction with a format mask, the system would ignore trailing spaces (since the format mask will have padded the data) Added logic to check for picture paths prefixed with "!" in *pdf* and to retrieve them from *bmp Corrected a problem involving exponentiation that is exactly 10^ Addressed an issue that occurred when long strings were returned from WindX (strings > bytes) Modified PDF processing on UNIX to make sure that permissions on the output file are consistent with all other files created within ProvideX Implemented changes to ensure that extra signals are not returned from a control when destroying a window. An extra signal may have caused loss of focus during window deletion if the control has Signal on Exit enabled ODB - Addressed a potential GPF when using PREPARE=Y to access [odb] 13

14 tables which contained large fields/objects Corrected a problem setting margin values to -1. Setting any margin coordinate to -1 would result in all subsequent coordinates also being set to Resolved a potential Error #46 when issuing a REMOVE on an EFF file. This error could be reported if the REMOVE was issued prior to accessing the channel Changed the Adjacent control logic for setting Lines to -1. This will ensure that the line/column numbers are preserved properly Resolved a potential Error #26 which could be reported while updating records inside a SELECT/NEXT RECORD loop while the file was being updated by other tasks Resolved an issue with the FIN(chan,"Key_Definition") not returning the correct definitions for FLR/VLR files with more than 32 segments Implemented a change to compensate for a problem introduced by Microsoft's KB Security Fix. Any Windows 2000, XP or Server 2003 system that had this patch applied would no longer be able to create files on Mapped Network Drives to Windows 95, 98 or ME servers Added new NONUMADJ option for ODB/OCI channel. Set "NONUMADJ=1,y or Y" to enable. When using a REC= clause the default is to add 3 to the defined length of numerics to allow for decimal and sign, which causes record parsing of sub-stringed numerics to be incorrect. This option suppresses the +3 adjustment Resolved a problem where the value of the 'DP' parameter was being written to data files in place of the standard decimal (".") when using the DEC(x,y) format and the 'DP' was something other than "." Section 2. WindX Corrected an Error #41 that occurs when performing file I/O across a WindX connection with Version 6 WindX Increased the length of the delay to 45 seconds from 5 seconds for incoming data in the middle of a packet transmission. Previously, this would show as a CRC error, rather than a timing error. A higher-latency or congested network could see spurious CRC errors on WindX clients Corrected an issue where WindX in Telnet mode may not complete its connection to a server when setting the Terminal Type. This occurred when the telnet server daemon asked 2 or more telnet questions that require responses at the same time, when those questions happened to arrive together and the terminal type question was not first Addressed an issue that occurred when long strings were returned from WindX (strings > bytes). Section 3. NOMADS NOMADS Query 14

15 Query Definition - Fixed an issue involving key definition display for files with auto-incrementing keys Runtime Query - Fixed an issue resulting in Error #47 for files with auto-incrementing keys Fixed an issue where some application variables were being reset by NOMADS. Changed all occurrences of variable "P" to "_P" The override "FUNCTION" in menus and popup menus has been modified to use the default program if one is defined in the panel header definition Fixed an Error #75 that occurred when resizing a control that used User Defined Colours Fixed an Error #47 that occurred when assigning a custom or user defined colour to a query Fixed an issue where external programs (assigned to menu bar items) defined in Version 5.14 would not run in Version Control/Panel header properties - Fixed an issue where control text/panel header titles that were defined as an expression or message library reference would be reset to a fixed value when moving from the "Font/Clr" tab back to the "Display" tab Object Resizing - Fixed an issue where the height of disabled controls could be altered by dragging anywhere within the control Fixed an issue where user-defined resize logic that was set up in the user ctls utility did not execute on a concurrent window COM Controls - Stripped the version number from the OCX name, if one exists, and changed the error message that is reported when an invalid OCX is selected. The error message is now displayed using MSG(-1) COM Controls - Modified to handle different OCX versions. As an application may require a specific version of the COM control, NOMADS has been modified to allow the entry of multiple control names separated by semicolons. These controls names can be entered in the new multi-line labeled "Alternate control names to load at runtime if primary not found". This allows an application to specify the control name as "MSCAL.Calendar.7" and the alternate name as "MSCAL.Calendar". In this example, NOMADS will first try to instantiate MSCAL.Calendar.7, and if it fails, NOMADS will then attempt to load MSCAL.Calendar. In the case where an application required a specific version, then the entry in the COM control field will contain "MSCAL.Calendar.7" and the alternate name would be blank. To simplify the entry when using the Query on the COM control name, NOMADS will include both the version-specific and the generic name, provided both can be loaded. The generic name will automatically be loaded into the new multi-line followed by a semi-colon Folder Control - Fixed an issue where the wrong tab colours would be applied when using the scroll buttons to view the next or previous tab Fixed an Error #65 that occurred when resizing a panel with smart display fields. 15

16 Fixed an issue where the variable K$ (if used by an application) was being overwritten after the menu runtime program executed. K$ is now a LOCAL variable in the menu runtime program. * File Maintenance * When generating a File Maintenance panel, if a field has an associated query, the width of the corresponding multiline is increased by the value in %NOMAD_QRY_WIDE, rather than a fixed value of 2. * _winproc - Fixed an issue where the dependency count table was being cleared when doing a 'Jumpto' to another panel. * The active folder tab will no longer be drawn with a black background if the first fill colour consisted of a user defined colour and the user defined colour file ('Providex.clr') did not exist. * The frame style on a box/frame control can now be set up as an expression. The existing fixed values for the frame type are now available in a drop box. (A selection of radio buttons was previously used to display the various frame styles.) *3.5 - Query system - Changed the CTL values used by the run-time query program (*winqry) to use the range , currently reserved for use by NOMADS systems. Previously, *winqry used CTL values 10-17, , which could clash with those used with user-defined global buttons. * _winproc - Fixed an issue where pressing the up/down arrow keys would cause the contents of a locked multi-line spinner control to change. * Query system - Fixed an issue where expressions containing program names to be used for column formatting were not evaluated. * _winproc - Fixed an issue where pressing the up/down arrow keys on a control other than a multi-line would cause an Error #88. * Missed a few programs during our update. (*win/flmaint and *win/color.dsp) (related to item Fixed an issue where some variables were being reset by NOMADS. Changed all occurrences of variable "P" to "_P"). * Fixed an Error #41 that occurred during the fill colour assignment of a Shape control (rectangle) that had been created in an older version of NOMADS. * The 'Auto Close Files' feature when set globally using %NOMAD_AUTO_CLOSE=1 will no longer execute when a query window closes. This will prevent Error #14's from occurring when one of the closed files is accessed. * Modified *winproc to only check the versioning information of a remote workstation once. * Modified *winproc to set the 'B0' window parameter on the remote workstation, rather than display an message box that the server and the remote have different 'B0' (Window Numbering) settings. The parameter will only be set once when the first nomads panel is processed Fixed an issue where the 'Resizable/Auto Scroll' attribute was being reset when exiting the panel header properties Addressed "Default Graphical Font" and font alignment issues: 16

17 a) Wrong font alignment displayed on fonted text controls at runtime whose font definition consisted of "Default Graphical Font" and an alignment other than what was set in the panel header defaults. b) Incorrect font displayed for fonted text controls whose font definition consisted of "Default Graphical Font" and an alignment of right or center justification Modified the SHIFT-F2 logic in *winproc to launch the Query logic on a multi-line prior to invoking the "On Change" logic *winproc.grd - Resolved an Error #65 that occurred when dragging a column from one grid to another, removing it from the first grid and inserting it into the second Corrected an Error #65 that occurred when pressing the update or insert buttons in the folder definition Corrected a system performance issue by reducing the number of FIN( ) requests required to determine the current active window. These requests are now only issued for concurrent windows Fixed an issue where the user-defined color file 'providex.clr' was always being opened before a panel was displayed. The file is now opened only if %NOMAD_PALETTE_LOADED is set to zero Added a message library reference for the query tip. %NOMAD_QRY_TIP$ is no longer hard-coded to "Query". MSG("QRY_TIP") now replaces the fixed text Panel Resizing - Fixed an issue where the size of the controls on folders was slightly smaller when restoring to the original panel size Fixed an issue in the designer where controls with a height or width of zero could not be deleted without first resizing the control Added support for 'Pg Up'/'Pg Dn' keys in the designer. Controls can now be accessed at the bottom portion of panels that are larger than the monitor screen. Pressing the 'Pg Up' key will move the panel up 20 lines, pressing the 'Pg Dn' key will move the panel down 20 lines Modified the paste logic in the NOMADS Designer to position the controls relative to the top left control While in test mode the 'NE' parameter will now be disabled to allow errors in subprograms to be returned to the ultimate parent program (*winproc). This parameter will be restored to its previous setting when exiting NOMADS Resolved an issue where help files assigned to controls in a folder were not launched when the HELP key (Shift-F1) was pressed Fixed an issue that resulted in the generation of duplicate multi-line signals. This only occurred on multi-lines using the 'Signal On Exit' attribute and "On Focus" logic that changed the contents of the multi-line when an "On Focus" event was triggered Corrected an Error #12 that occurred when selecting a NOMADS library that contained a long file path name. If the path name was too long, the system inserted "..." but did not remove the dots and used the real name when the library was selected from the droplist. 17

18 Fixed an issue where it was possible to create a 2nd folder definition using the Copy/Paste functions Addressed a potential recursive error by removing the ability to assign the panel containing the folder control as one of the tab selections within the same folder Corrected a problem involving the Query Header Definition that occurred when trying to define a query against a database that requires authentication Query System - Addressed an issue where it was not possible to query an external database when running in a WindX environment Resolved an issue where a message library file was left open after exiting NOMADS. This occurred if the colour selection panel was launched when defining a folder control Shapes Control - Addressed an Error #23 that occurred as soon as a Polygon or Line was selected in the Shapes definition panel. The x/y values for these shapes are now validated when exiting the designer Grid Cell Logic - Corrected an Error #60 that occurred when assigning a cell logic record. This error occurred if the following steps were performed: 1. Enter a column and row 2. Click on the second row in the top grid 3. Click on another tab such as 'Presets' 4. Click on 'Cell Logic' tab again Fixed an issue where a library file was left open after exiting the NOMADS Designer. This occurred only when the popup menu assignment utility was invoked for a control Corrected a problem with background/foreground colours not being set properly on a group of radio buttons Fixed an issue where the message library reference was being cleared. This occurred under the following circumstances: 1) Panel A is invoked using the "Process" command 2) Panel A has pre-display header logic that activates a user-defined message library 3) Panel A contains a button control whose "When Button Pressed" logic launches another panel 4) When Panel B is closed the user defined message library is no longer active Folder Control - Addressed an issue with the left/right tab title alignment option. If an alignment of left or right was selected, then the opposite would occur and the title would be drawn partially off the tab Resolved a potential Error #28 that could occur in the Load On Demand logic at runtime Folder Control (Moving between tabs) Pressing the Ctrl+Page DoWN keys will now activate the next tab in the 18

19 folder control. Pressing the Ctrl+Page UP keys will now activate the prior tab in the folder control Panel Resizing - Fixed an issue where the query button on a multi_line located at line 0 of a folder panel was not deleted when another folder was selected. Section 4. Data Dictionary Data Dictionary Maintenance and Database Objects - Users may now specify a block size (BSZ= option) when creating a data file. This new feature allows the user to choose the default setting, or override this behaviour and set the block size to a specific value *dict/tblinfo - New property has been added for setting block size. Null value will set the block size to default Fixed an issue when loading an ODBC definition into the Data Dictionary Resolved an issue with Data Dictionary Compare using the wrong file for comparison Added ability to suppress details on new/deleted files in the Data Dictionary Compare. This will allow users to quickly target differences between Dictionary information Corrected an issue with FLR file types not being properly created as Fixed Length Record formatted files *dict/dd_updt - Added new option for D_FLAG$ - "B" - aborts if the block size is invalid Auto-update of embedded iolists in ProvideX system files (i.e., providex.ddf,.dde, etc.) Added additional error checking for duplicate records. *4.9 - *dict/dd_updt - resolved an Error #47 when attempting to update an EFF file. * Data Dictionary Maintenance and Database Object - Fixed an issue with creating field names or column names that begin with the reserved word 'fn'. * Data Dictionary Maintenance and Database objects - Fixed issue with EFF file types 1 and 2 not allowing more than 96 key segments. * Data Dictionary Maintenance - Fixed an issue with changing the key definition of an existing file and the key name at the same time Corrected a problem with Data Dictionary Maintenance. When changing a file's block size and then modifying the physical path, the block size was reset to 'Default' Resolved an issue where an incorrect message was displayed when a data class field was being imported into the Data Elements Fixed the *dict/database.pvc function where GetRecordTypes incorrectly returned 0 for the last table read because the read was using the wrong key number (KNO). 19

20 Section 5. Data Views Fileio.pvc class definition - Fixed an issue involving an Error #0 on the open( ) method when accessed more than once Data Source Maintenance Relationship Definition - Changed the Key Expression column to be a hidden drop box with a list of the variables that can be used in the definition for the key expression Add-on Activation (#20008) The requirement for activation to access View data has been removed from the run-time Views module. However, proper activation to use Data Source Maintenance and Views Maintenance is still required. At this point, Add-on activation is also required to access View data through the current ODBC driver (3.32) View Definition Filter Definition - Resolved a problem where a filter definition could become corrupted if its related value contains a MID( ) or POS( ) function View Description - The 'OK' and 'Apply' buttons are now enabled when the view description is changed View Object Added two new methods: GetRealColumnName$(ColName$) - Returns real column name based on View alias GetColumnAlias$(ColName$) - Returns the column alias based on the real column name. *5.6 - Data Source Maintenance * Fixed an Error #11 that occurred if the Data Source description was changed and the 'Create a View' button was selected without re-selecting a Data Source. * Addressed an issue where groups were not assigned properly when a new data source was added. * Resolved an issue where the 'Create Groups' treeview was not refreshed after adding multiple groups using the 'Apply' button, then quitting using 'Cancel' rather than 'Ok'. * Group Copy - Changed the Query to one that displays Groups. * Added missing title message for the Data Source Definitions report. * When printing a Data Source or View Definition report, an Error #12 is no longer generated if you press the Cancel button in the printer selection dialog box Fixed an issue which caused the beginning of the pvxview.itm file to be overwritten when the number of items exceeded *5.7 - Views Maintenance * Disabled the 'Filters' button until at least one item is selected. This prevents an Error #11 from occurring if the 'Filters' button is pressed with no items selected. * Addressed an issue where prefixes for related files were not nested properly when initially displayed. * Resolved an issue where the 'OK' and 'Apply' buttons were not enabled when group assignments were changed. * When the description of an existing View is changed, the data dictionary entry using the original name is now removed Run-time Views - Data generation - Fixed an issue where an Error #42 would occur after multiple view definitions had been opened and closed. 20