Elevate Web Builder 2.05 is now available for download. If you're an existing customer, then you should be receiving an email shortly with download instructions.

This release contains several bug fixes, which are detailed here. In addition to these bug fixes, there are the following breaking changes and enhancements:

2.05 Breaking Changes

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The following are breaking changes in Elevate Web Builder 2.05:

• Elevate Web Builder now includes explicit database support in the IDE and in the compoonent library/runtime code. This will eliminate the need to define connection information for every defined dataset and, instead, you can define a single database (with connection information) under which multiple datasets can be defined. To support these architectural changes, there is a new Database Manager in the IDE that replaces the DataSet Manager in 2.04 and earlier. The dataset definitions from the prior versions will automatically be upgraded to use the new database format when starting up the 2.05 IDE for the first time. This is done by creating a database with the same name as the dataset.
  
  You will need to make adjustments to your existing database access code in order to allow them to work with the new architecture. Specifically, you will need to add this line of code before any database access (loading of dataset columns or rows, and/or transaction commits) occurs:
  
  

  Database.DatabaseName:=<Database Name>;

  
  where <Database Name> is the name that of the database that is automatically created by the 2.05 IDE when it is first started (see above). The Database instance in the code above is the global TDatabase instance that is automatically created at application startup, and has not changed from 2.04.
  
  Finally, the inclusion of explicit database names has caused the URLs used with database access to change, and they now include a "database" parameter with every request. This means that you must use the 2.05 Elevate Web Builder Web Server with any client applications compiled with the 2.05 compiler that perform database access, or you will experience errors. Likewise, if you are not using the Elevate Web Builder Web Server and, instead, are using your own web server application for handling database access, you must handle this new database parameter so that the proper database is being accessed.



• The TDatabase component now includes a new AutoTransactions property that allows you to perform inserts, updates, and deletes under transaction control without having to use explicit transactions. This property has a default value of True, so if you already use explicit transactions or do not want inserts, updates, and deletes to be committed to the web server application, then you should set this property to False before any such operations are performed.



• The URLS for BLOB loading have changed and are now always specified as relative paths instead of absolute paths. The use of absolute paths was a problem in 2.04 and earlier because it would cause cross-origin BLOB load requests to fail because they were referencing the wrong protocol/host name/port combination.



• The DataSets Resource Name setting has been renamed to the Databases Resource Name setting in both the external Elevate Web Builder Web Server and the internal web server in the IDE (Environment Options dialog). In addition, the default value for this setting has been changed from 'datasets' to 'databases'.



• The Custom DataSets Resource Name setting has been renamed to the Database Modules Resource Name setting in both the external Elevate Web Builder Web Server and the internal web server in the IDE (Environment Options dialog). In addition, the default value for this setting has been changed from 'customdatasets' to 'databasemodules'.



• The Custom DataSets Module setting has been removed from both the external Elevate Web Builder Web Server and the internal web server in the IDE (Environment Options dialog). The Custom DataSets Module setting was redundant because any module can be referenced directly via the TDatabase BaseURL property in client applications.



• All example applications included with Elevate Web Builder that use databases and datasets have been updated to reflect the new database architecture. You should re-install all example application using the instructions located in the manual under the Example Applications topic in order to make sure that the example applications work properly when compiled with Elevate Web Builder 2.05 or higher.



• The command-line compiler (ewbcc.exe) options have changed. There are new options for external files, HTML loader and Javascript output file names, and icon font options. Please execute the command-line compiler without any arguments in order to see an explanation of the parameters and how they should be formatted.



• Data-bound controls no longer overwrite their non-bound textual representation at design-time in the form designer. For example, a data-bound TLabel control with a Caption property value of 'Test' will still display 'Test' at design-time, even if it is bound to a dataset column. Previously, the the TLabel would display an empty string ('') when the form was re-loaded.



• The default indeterminate behavior for the TRadioButton control has changed. Now you have to set the SelectionState property to ssIndeterminate for the TRadioButton control whose SelectionState is equal to ssSelected in order for the group state of multiple TRadioButton controls to be changed to ssIndeterminate. As long as you have a TRadioButton control with a SelectionState equal to ssSelected, you cannot change the non-selected TRadioButton controls' SelectionState property to ssIndeterminate, only ssSelected or ssUnSelected.



• In all controls, the Focused control interface state now takes precedence over the Hot control interface state, and the Error control interface state now takes precedence over all other control interface states.



• The default key press interval for list/combo controls has been reduced from 500ms down to 200ms.



• The ShowMessage procedure now includes an optional DlgCaption parameter that can be used to set the caption for the message dialog. This is a breaking change because the DlgCaption parameter was inserted before the existing animation parameters.



• The Minimized state has been removed from the TPagePanel control interface. Also, the ApplyProperties.Border property for the Client element has been changed to False, so existing TPagePanel controls will need to have their interfaces re-intialized in the IDE via the layout toolbar in the form designer. Failure to do so will result in the TPagePanel controls losing their border.



• A new LeftGutter element has been added to the TTabBar control interface to accomodate padding the tabs on the left, and the existing Gutter element has been re-named to RightGutter. Also, a NoTabs state has been added to the control interface to accomodate a new way of handling hidding the tabs for page controls.



• The Padding and Margins properties have been changed for the Base and Client elements of the TDialog control interface, and a new Grip element has been added for implementing user sizing.



• A new Grip element has been added to the TSizeGrip control interface to store the sizing grip icon.



• New Icon and FontIcon elements have been added to the TDialogCaptionBar and TPanelCaptionBar control interfaces to allow for specifying icons in the caption bars of dialog and panel controls.



• A new Client element has been added to the TButton control interface to allow for the centering of the icon and caption as a group, resulting in a better look and feel.



• A new TGridMultiLineEdit control interface has been added for multi-line edit controls in grid controls.

2.05 Improvements

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The following are included improvements in Elevate Web Builder 2.05:

• There are new output file name settings for the HTML loader and Javascript files emitted by the compiler. You can find them in the Project Options dialog in the IDE.



• The IDE now contains a new Database Manager in place of the DataSet Manager that existed in 2.04 and earlier.



• The IDE now supports instantiating TDatabase component instances as containers for TDataSet component instances, as well as any other non-visual component. Please see the Creating and Using Databases topic in the manual for more information on creating and using TDatabase instances.



• The TDatabase component now includes an AutoTransactions property for enabling automatic transactions for row inserts, updates, or deletes.



• The IDE now permits TComponent reference properties, such as the DataSet property for data-bound controls, to reference TComponent instances on other form or database instances at design-time.



• There is a new Master-Detail Database Example included with Elevate Web Builder that shows how to use the new automatic transactions for updating datasets in a master-detail setup.



• A new "sizing grip" icon has been added to the EWB Icons icon font for use with the TDialog and TSizeGrip controls.



• The TGridColumn ControlType property now includes the ctMultiLineEdit member for specifying that a grid column should be edited using a multi-line edit control. In addition, there is a new TGridColumn Wrap property for specifying if the content in the column should wrap to multiple lines when exceeding the width of the column, and a corresponding TGridColumn Header Wrap property for the grid column header.



• The Ctrl-Alt-Down and Ctrl-Alt-Up keys now recursively expand and collapse nested properties in the Object Inspector.



• The TLink control now includes TabStop and TabOrder properties so that links can participate in the tabbling flow of controls.



• The TEditComboBox, TDateEditComboBox, TDialogEditComboBox, TFileComboBox, and TButtonComboBox controls now contain new ShowDropDown and HideDropDown methods for manually showing and hiding the associated drop-down control.



• The CaptionBar properties of the TPanel and TDialog controls now include Icon and FontIcon properties for specifying an icon.



• The TDialog control now includes a Sizable property for specifying whether the dialog should be sizable by the user via a sizing grip in the bottom-right corner of the dialog.



• The TButton and TIconButton controls now include a FontIcon property for modifying the properties of an icon font when one is used as the icon in the control.



• The TPagePanel control now includes a Border for specifying the border and a Gutter property for specifying the amount of space to show the left of the tabs for the page panel.



• The TComponent class now includes a new FindComponent method.

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Tags: Elevate Web Builder, New Releases

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Comments (2)	You must be logged in to comment
Trinione said...	Reply
Congrats to Elevate Software on this release of EWB! This has been a much anticipated release that provides significant improvements that sees this fine product getting better and better. Your efforts and work is most appreciated! Thank you.
Tim Young [Elevate Software] said...	Reply
Thanks !