Visual CE 12.2 - Release Notes - SYWARE.COM Visual CE is the award winning, mobile database that allows you to build custom mobile database applications for any Windows Mobile, Pocket PC, Smartphone, or Windows CE device. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- To get the most out of Visual CE, we recommend that you look at the Quick Tours which can be found in either the desktop on-line help file or the printed documentation. Technical support can be found in the SUPPORT section of http://www.syware.com Most of these enhancements were requested by you, our customers. We actively encourage you to submit your suggestions for future enhancements. If you have any suggestions, please contact us at http://www.syware.com/contact/forms/contact.php ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visual CE Add-on Tools ---------------------- The following useful utilities are available, free of charge, from our web site: - Rebuild: Rebuilds a destop table definition given only a form. - Backup: Backs up/restores a table to/from a '.ced' file. - Expunge: Expunges a form (form, shortcut, registry entries, database). - Clean: Removes extaneous desktop table definitions. - Index CDB: Adds/removes indexes in a .cdb file. - SSCE Util: Allows you to enter and execute SQL commands for SQL Server CE (requires sqlceEnable). To download them, go to SUPPORT | DOWNLOADS at http://www.syware.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 12.2 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Bug fixes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 12.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Bug fixes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 12.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - A macro debugger - Tabs - Data can be modified in list mode - Data in a grid can be modified - The synchronizer can synchronize different tables to differnt databases - SKIP macro step: GO TO << label >> - SKIP macro step: IF << condition >> THEN GO TO << label >> - Faster macro execution - Header line in OPTION | EXPORT and OPTION | IMPORT can be suppresed - The currently selected item in a grid can be controled within a macro - Forms can be locked during the creation of a redistributable - Lookup controls can retrieve Boolean (Yes/No) values - New GPS functions: @fixtype, @sat, @hdop, @geoheight, @diffgps, @diffref - Better detection of the screen size ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 11.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Bug fixes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 11.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Incoming SMS message can launch a form - XML export and import - Play sound commands can play .WAV files - "Publish" synchronization operator - Install from a storage card. - Macro steps to open / read / write / close text file - Macro step to delete a file - RECORD | SEARCH "record not found" detection and handling - OPTION | FILTER | PREDEFINED "record not found" detection and handling - START flag can be hidden - Form event when screen has been rotated - Form event when record is displayed - Autonumber does not reset if all records in table are deleted - New functions: @landscape, @endoffile, @listview, @battery, @backupbattery - Suppress jumping on double click ofa grid control - File selection on click (edit controls) can designate OPEN or SAVE - Edit controls can mask passwords (******) - Textual description of the form, controls, macros, and variable usage - Double clicking expression box brings up larger window - Stoplight control can be used on "always connected" form to show status - Stoplight control can be used to only show status - Import / Export all table columns - COM9: and COM10: support - Support for Intermec scanners - mEnable Get File establishes an mEnable connection if need be - mEnable Put File establishes an mEnable connection if need be ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 10.4 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for mEnable 3.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 10.3 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for Windows Mobile Standard (a.k.a. Smartphones) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 10.2 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for Windows Vista - DIAL operator for macros and command buttons ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 10.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - New installer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 10.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Macro Editor - Events: ACTION, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, hardware buttons, form startup moving off a record, grid-line selected - Custom colors - Support for Windows Mobile 5's Camera API - Grids - selection chnage fires an event - Grids - can display data from the same table as the form - Grids - value from selected record can be stored in a variable - Grids - column headers - Grids - "sort by" column can be specified - Navigational dropdowns - All controls can be "relative to frame rectangle" - FILE | DOWNLOAD TABLE allows you to setup multi-handheld synchronization - Development Environment: specify where new control is created - Development Environmant: Marquee select - On hanhdeld, tap and hold on edit control brings up cut/copy/paste menu - Message Boxes with user data - ABORT command button - TIMER command button (fires an event) - x, y, width, height of current control on status bar - Database name displayed on status bar - Users can be prevented from adding/removing indexes Note change in user interface in development environment: to move framing rectangle, hold down the SHIFT key (in previous versions the SHIFT key did not have to beheld down) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 9.3 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for HP 6515 camera ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 9.2 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for Windows Mobile 5.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 9.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for mEnable 2.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 9.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Events: set focus, lose focus, value changed - Wizard to create distribution disks - Custom Menu bars - Image control can be used to display an HTML page - Macros can launch other macros (subroutines) - Search command buttons can do exact match searches - Search command buttons no do not have to prompt user from search value - Center aligning of controls (in addtion to left and right) - Left/center/right alignment on text controls - Cut and paste mutiple controls - Image controls connected to text fields and cameras: Visual CE takes the picture and generates a file name for it - Command button to set focus to a particular control - Command button to set focus to a show/hide some other control - Import/Export Command buttons allow you to specify filename - mEnable on and mEnable synch command buttons can supress the dialog - Get/Put files via mEnable - @serialnumber function added - @fileexists function added - Columns can be tested for NULL ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 8.2 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Northwind Mobile Traders ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 8.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for SQL Server CE Databases (requires sqlceEnable) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 8.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Alarms can be set on records - Sending SMS messages - Built in support for Socket Communication scanners (to make use of this, make sure the SocketScan application is not turned on) - Variables can be used in filter conditions - Controls can be connected to variables - Lookups, jumps, grids, and dropdown contents can be keyed on a variable - Forms need not have an underlying table - Record count can be removed from the title bar - Message Command Buttons can have a Yes and No button - Summations of values displayed in a Grid Control - New synch operator: <-x copy to desktop and delete from handheld - Large OK and CANCEL buttons added to number pad - In date picker, the current date is shown in red - Ability to synchronize to a desktop table with an autonumber column - Images on buttons - Buttons that play sounds - Increased number of variables from 8 to 100 - /f and /F switch - The color of the text in list mode can be changed - Control order can be set through the use of a list of controls and up/down buttons (as well as the original way of clicking on the controls in the correct order) - Columns of type Picture can be used in an expression. If there is a picture, it resolves to 1; otherwise it resolves to 0 - An ASSIGN Command Button can assign to a Picture column. Regardless of what the expression returns, it will clear the picture. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 7.2 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Suport for Pocket PC 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 7.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for FileMaker Pro - @power() now allows floating point exponents ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 7.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - New features Personal Edition: - Starting with release 7.0 all the "Pro Edition Only" features have been added to the Personal Edition. The only thing unique to the Professional Edition is the redistribution rights. - New features in all editions: - New control: an Image Control that can be used to display bitmap, JPEG, and GIF images - Command buttons can now read GPS information from a serial port - The color of buttons can be set - Up to eight global variables (set by assign, serial port receive, and GPS command buttons) can be used in expressions - It is possible to synchronize many handhelds to the same desktop table - New functions that can be used in calculated controls: String functions: ASCII, CHAR, INSERT, LCASE, LEFT, LENGTH, LOCATE, LTRIM, REPEAT, REPLACE, RIGHT, RTRIM, SPACE, SUBSTRING, UCASE Numeric functions: ABS, ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, ATAN2, CEILING, COS, COT, DEGREES, EXP, FLOOR, LOG, LOG10, MOD, PI, POWER, RADIANS, RAND, ROUND, SIGN, SIN, SQRT, TAN, TRUNCATE Date Functions: DAYNAME, DAYOFMONTH, DAYOFWEEK, HOUR, MINUTE, MONTH, MONTHNAME, QUARTER, YEAR GPS Functions: LONG, LAT, ALT - Command buttons can now open the serial port, read and write characters, and close a serial port - The menu/button bar can be hidden - Is it possible to disallow duplicate values - The runtime installer can be configured to do a synchronization immediately after the installation. This can be used to pre-load data onto the handheld. (Pro Edition Only) - The synchronizer will create tables on the handheld if it does not exist - Command buttons for mEnable off, mEnable synch, mEnable on - Command buttons delay for a specifed amount of time - Command buttons can be used to change the sort/search order - For Symbol handhelds, if the control immediately after the control being scaned into is a button, that button is pressed immediately after the scan - The rows in a grid are ordered by the value in the first column - When developing forms on the desktop, if the handheld is removed from the cradle and reconnected it is not necesary to close and re-open the development environment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 6.2 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for Report CE 3.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 6.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for Pocket PC 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 6.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - New features in Personal, Pro, and Enterprise Editions: - Create / modify forms on the handheld as well as on the desktop - Run forms on the desktop as well as the handheld - New features in Pro and Enterprise Editions: - Grid control - Macro programming capability - Cascaded deletes - New features in all editions: - Pop-up word lists - Beaming records - Predefined filters - Multi-select dropdowns - Font selection (typeface, size, and style) - Calculations (including concatenation) on string values - Calculations can be displayed as a number, date/time, or string - Better use of the Soft Input Panel (SIP) when the form runs - 'Match All' or 'Match Any' in filter criteria - Autocompletion for user-can-add dropdown lists and pop-up word lists - List-mode searching on multiple letters - NULL numeric values - Improved interface to specify time values - Radio buttons and dropdowns can be marked as "required" - Allows you to specify the number of entries visible in a dropdown - Write-once calculated controls - Write-once timestamp controls - Other notes: - What used to be called "Column Order" is now called "Control Order" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 5.2 adds the following features to Visual CE: - New features in Lite Edition: - When running the form designer on an H/PC Pro device, FILE | NEW FORM is now enabled. To create a table, use Pocket Access and create the table in the Windows CE Store. - New features in Pro and Enterprise Editions: - In the synchronization setup dialog, you can type in the name of the handheld if your handheld does not appear in the "Handheld" dropdown list. - Eliminated background "flicker" when jumping from one for to another. - Support for mEnable (see mEnable documentation for details) - New features in all editions: - RUN Command Buttons can have multiple commands. Separate them with semicolons (;). - Forms with dropdowns that have the "Include values from tables" and/or "User can add" property load faster. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 5.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - New features in all editions: - FILE | DOWNLOAD TABLE can download views (queries) as well as tables - Some features, previously only available in the Pro Edition and Enterprise Edition, are now available in the Personal and Lite Editions: - Command Buttons can now be screen-relative or form-relative. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 5.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - New features in Pro Edition and Enterprise Edition: - New control type: Lookup controls. Allows you to display the value from a column from a different table. Say you have an ORDER form, each record being one item in the order. You might want to have a dropdown with the item numbers and, when you select an particular item number, the handheld reads the description and price from the "inventory" table and displays it. - You can specify min/max values for edit controls connected to a numeric or date/time. You can specify a min/max length for edit controls connected to a text field. You can use this to make fields required (just set the default outside of the legal range). - In autonumber controls, you can specify the maximum number - Some features, previously only available in the Pro Edition and Enterprise Edition, are now available in the Personal Edition: - Buttons to launch other programs - Buttons to launch reports - Buttons to do menu commands - Drop-downs with values from other tables - Import/Export of text files. - Clear a table - Auto-recalc - New features in all editions: - Contents of a drop down can change based on the value selected in another column. It is alot like the current dropdowns that get their value from another table, but you just don't get all the rows. For example, if department 1004 had doctors Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones and department 1630 has doctors Dr. Miller and Dr. Clarke, you can arrange it such that if the user specified the department to be "1004", only Smith and Jones would show in the dropdown list. If the user specified the department to be "1630", only Miller and Clarke would be in the drop down list. You could use a dropdown (or any other control) to select "1004" or "1630". - When launching another program using a Button, you can pass the value of a text column as an argument. - For edit controls connected to text fields, you can specify that a file selection box appears when the control is clicked - These last two (launching with an argument and file selection), taken together make it possible to do the following: (1) take a picture with a digital camera (not included) (2) click on a text control and find the file the image went into (3) Press a button on the form and show the picture. - Synchronization is significantly faster, easier to setup, and you get more control over what it does. - Downloading data from third-party applications has been made easier. - In calcualated expressions "if..then...else" is allowed: Syntax if then else can have AND, OR, and NOT sub-expressions. - When running on the Pocket PC, forms have the full Pocket PC look and feel. - When used with a Symbol PPT2700 device, when focus is on an edit control, the built-in barcode reader is enabled. - In design mode, you can pick several controls at once and set the position, size, font, background color, foreground color, "include in list", and "include when printing" properties for all of them at the same time. - Optionally, no boxes around radio buttons - Import is more forgiving about the import format, particularly for date/times. - Starting with version 5.0, we are introducing a Lite Edition. The Lite Edition will have all the functionality of the Personal Edition with the following difference: - It will only work in tables in the Windows CE Store. It does not work with Pocket Access databases (.cdb files). - FILE | SYNCHRONIZE and FILE | DOWNLOAD are not supported - The ODBC driver is not included - Other notes: - The Pocket Access Edition no longer is available. - In the Pro and Enterprise Edition, support to read and write xBase files has been deprecated. Existing forms that already use xBase files will continue to work. - What used to be called "Tab Buttons" are now called "Command Buttons" - In the Pro Edition, edit controls connected to text columns no longer have the "required" check box. To make it required, set its minimum length to a non-zero value. The Personal Edition (which does not allow the user to specify max/min) still has the Required checkbox. - Visual CE no longer supports Windows CE 1.0 devices. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 4.1 adds the following features to Visual CE: - Support for the SH4 processor - If you select FILE | PRINT when running MyForm.vce, Visual CE looks for a file called MyForm.rce in the same folder at MyForm.vce. If it finds it, Visual CE will launch SYWARE's Report CE on the current record (using MyForm.vce as the report definition). - (Pro Edition) A Tab Button can now launch SYWARE's Report CE on the current record. The report definition to use is a property of the button. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release 4.0 adds the following features to Visual CE: - The ability to filter records to only show those that meet certain criteria. - Color - The ability to "hunt" for a text string anywhere in the database. - You can build forms for tables in Pocket Access databases. - On H/PC Pro devices, you can build the form right on the Windows CE device. - In calculated controls, the ability to use functions in the expression: @NOW The current date and time @COUNT The number of record in the table. If filtering is active, the number of qualifying records. @SUM(column_name) : the sum of the values in a column in the table. If filtering is active, the sum only includes the qualifying records. - The option to write a the result of a calculation to the database. - Allow dates, time, and date/times in edit controls (as opposed to just dates). Also a short date format is supported. - On the P/PC, the up/down switch will move you between records. - On the P/PC, the print button was replaced by an insert button. - The option to arrange radio buttons horizontally. - The option to remove the title bar to save screen space. - You can selectivly pick which columns show in list mode. - The option to specify that a field is "required". - The option to put a password on a form. - The ability to delete a range of records in list mode. - When in list mode and ordered by a text field, pressing a letter on the keyboard will reposition you to that record. - On the desktop, right clicking a control will display its properties. - There is still a limit of four indexes, but if you reach that limit and request another sort order, you are asked which one to discard in oder to make room for it. In addition to the above, release 4.0 adds the following features to the Pro Edition of Visual CE: - The ability to develop forms without the handheld attached. - An "autonumber" control - The ability to launch another Windows CE application from your form. - Allow the creation of command buttons. - Removed the text "Visual CE" from all dialogs as well as the Icon of a form. - When jumping, the ability to only show matching records. - When jumping, always creating a record (even if a matching one exists). - When jumping, disallow the jump if not matching records exist. Note: What Microsoft used to call a "database", they now call a "table". To be consistent, we now call our databases "tables". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Starting with Windows CE 2.11, what Microsoft previously called a "database" is now called a "table". Microsoft now uses the term "database" to refer to a Pocket Access database file (a .CDB file). In order to be consistent with this change, what we used to call a "database" we now call a "table". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1995-2010 SYWARE, Inc. All rights reserved. SYWARE, Visual CE, Report CE, mEnable, and sqlceEnable are trademarks or registerd trademarks of SYWARE, Inc. Other brands and their products are trademarks or registerd trademarks of their respective holders.