I don't think that anyone ever asked or said whether the version 1
projects will be importable? I know that the forms are completely
incompatible, but it would be nice to be able to get the core of layout
and hierarchy in the new form editor, with the events and properties
copied as much as possible. I'd hate to have to start over with some of
my forms.

Having said that, I'd be happy to wait a month for such, so 1.1 would
be fine. That way we can get to know the capabilities, and import a
week later. 8-)

Matthew

"Matthew Jones" wrote:

>>Having said that, I'd be happy to wait a month for such, so 1.1 would
>>be fine. That way we can get to know the capabilities, and import a
>>week later. 8-)

+1

I have asked that question... response from Tim see link... but things may have changed.... his response was 6+ months ago... Aug, 2014


http://www.elevatesoft.com/forums?action=view&category=ewb&id=ewb_general&page=1&msg=5101#5101

Walter

Matthew,

<< I don't think that anyone ever asked or said whether the version 1
projects will be importable? I know that the forms are completely
incompatible, but it would be nice to be able to get the core of layout and
hierarchy in the new form editor, with the events and properties copied as
much as possible. I'd hate to have to start over with some of my forms. >>

As of right now, it's probably *not* going to make it into the initial
release.  I'm still hoping to get something done in this regard, but the two
products keep deviating more from each other day after day.  My main concern
is giving anyone the impression that a conversion will result in a usable
application.  IOW, it may compile, but it won't necessarily work correctly
and it most certainly will *still* require a complete audit in order to make
sure that everything is set up properly.  Combining that with the fact that
the UI is completely different leads me to think that it may be better to
just force everyone to re-do their forms and move over the underlying code
by hand.  I know that sounds like a really crappy thing to force on
everyone, but the number of exception cases for component/control behaviors
has become quite large.  For example, the OnChange event for edit controls
behaves differently now, but you wouldn't know it by just looking at the
event handler.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

On 05/03/15 05:43, Tim Young [Elevate Software] wrote:
> As of right now, it's probably *not* going to make it into the initial
> release.  I'm still hoping to get something done in this regard, but the
> two products keep deviating more from each other day after day.  My main
> concern is giving anyone the impression that a conversion will result in
> a usable application.
>
>

Tim, does this mean that EWB1 will continue to be maintained as a
separate product or do you intend on retiring it as soon as EWB2 is
available?

I imagine that there will be no new enhancements for EWB1 but just
wondered if bug fixes will still apply.

--
Rick

Tim Young [Elevate Software] wrote:

>  My main concern is giving anyone the impression that a conversion
> will result in a usable application.  IOW, it may compile, but it
> won't necessarily work correctly and it most certainly will still
> require a complete audit in order to make sure that everything is set
> up properly.

I'm happy with that. I had a ponder about all this, and I wonder if
there is a way that the conversion tool could be open sourced to help.
Depends on how much core code there is of course.

I thought about where I am, and where I would go without a tool. I have
two "major" projects in EWB1. One is my web shop, and I'm happy to keep
this in v1 for a while - stability is all for such a purpose. Maybe it
will be there for years. But if I was to convert it, then it is very
much like my other application that I want to use Touch with, and it
has a lot of refined panels (without borders) and controls positioned
just so in the hierarchy, with all the events and what have you. To
start over would be a major undertaking, and would basically be like a
new project. To have as much as possible done automatically, and a list
of the things that didn't get converted (like events or something that
aren't compatible) would be a big step toward making it easy. Of course
it wouldn't look the same, but that will be easy to see and thus
correct.

Of course I don't know how many people would benefit from this - if
there are just five of us, then it perhaps doesn't make sense. Or
perhaps it should be a charged extra, where it costs another $100 for
the import tool. Or heck, a $100 service fee where we send you up to 25
forms and you send back a conversion, caveats accepted about
exceptions. That way you'd not have to put the usual polish on it.

But if I can save a few weeks of re-making my UI, I'd really like to do
so.

Matthew

Rick wrote:

> Tim, does this mean that EWB1 will continue to be maintained as a
> separate product or do you intend on retiring it as soon as EWB2 is
> available?
>
> I imagine that there will be no new enhancements for EWB1 but just
> wondered if bug fixes will still apply.

Interesting question. Tim has been doing updates for v1, but my feeling
is that it should probably only continue for a month or so. The browser
will end up becoming incompatible, and EWB2 is a better foundation for
things. If v3 needed another complete file format change, then
conversion would be a key requirement, but I suspect that it can be
done "incrementally" now. I hope so! So mothballing v1 allows stable
use for those who have applications in it, and v2 is the way forward
for new stuff. (IMO of course)

I have just converted my V1 project to V2 and am glad that I redid the
forms from scratch as the layout options available in V2 with anchors,
stretching and consumption direction make the form layout so much better
with regard to different screen sizes and for mobiles and tablets being
in portrait or landscape.

Chris Holland
[Team Elevate]

On 04/03/2015 18:43, Tim Young [Elevate Software] wrote:
> Matthew,
>
> << I don't think that anyone ever asked or said whether the version 1
> projects will be importable? I know that the forms are completely
> incompatible, but it would be nice to be able to get the core of layout
> and hierarchy in the new form editor, with the events and properties
> copied as much as possible. I'd hate to have to start over with some of
> my forms. >>
>
> As of right now, it's probably *not* going to make it into the initial
> release.  I'm still hoping to get something done in this regard, but the
> two products keep deviating more from each other day after day.  My main
> concern is giving anyone the impression that a conversion will result in
> a usable application.  IOW, it may compile, but it won't necessarily
> work correctly and it most certainly will *still* require a complete
> audit in order to make sure that everything is set up properly.
> Combining that with the fact that the UI is completely different leads
> me to think that it may be better to just force everyone to re-do their
> forms and move over the underlying code by hand.  I know that sounds
> like a really crappy thing to force on everyone, but the number of
> exception cases for component/control behaviors has become quite large.
> For example, the OnChange event for edit controls behaves differently
> now, but you wouldn't know it by just looking at the event handler.
>
> Tim Young
> Elevate Software
> www.elevatesoft.com
>
>
>

Chris Holland wrote:

> I have just converted my V1 project to V2 and am glad that I redid
> the forms from scratch as the layout options available in V2 with
> anchors, stretching and consumption direction make the form layout so
> much better with regard to different screen sizes and for mobiles and
> tablets being in portrait or landscape.

Hmm, thanks. It may indeed make sense to re-jig it all. Made me find
out. I have 708 objects in 23 forms in the shop application. The other
one is 282 objects in 10 forms. Actually more amenable to manual
conversion on the one that matters, the latter.

WOuld be interesting to know what numbers others get (count of "object"
in *.wbf).

Rick,

<< Tim, does this mean that EWB1 will continue to be maintained as a
separate product or do you intend on retiring it as soon as EWB2 is
available? >>

If I don't do a form conversion utility, then I'll probably keep it alive
with bug fixes for another year.  It's not a big deal, especially since it
won't require updates for new versions of Delphi, etc.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com