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Thread Numerous minor releases in 2016
Tue, Mar 21 2017 9:43 AMPermanent Link

Doc

Effective Monday, January 18th, 2016, the price to renew your Elevate Web
Builder subscription will increase from $99.00 to $159.00.  The price
increase reflects the additional value provided by the numerous minor
releases of Elevate Web Builder 2 coming in 2016.

numerous minor releases in 2016 was in my case 1 (one), Version 2.05.
Or did I miss anything ?
Tue, Mar 21 2017 9:57 AMPermanent Link

Matthew Jones

Doc wrote:

> Or did I miss anything ?

From what I can easily see, 2.04 came out late Dec 2015. 2.05 build 4 was released in Sept 2016, so that implies 4 updates. The full list of major changes are at:
http://www.elevatesoft.com/download?action=info&category=ewb&type=ewb&majorversion=2&version=2.05

Plus 2.06 has been in Beta for a while, with a few good improvements too. For the money, EWB is one of my best-value tools.

--

Matthew Jones
Tue, Mar 21 2017 10:08 AMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com


<< numerous minor releases in 2016 was in my case 1 (one), Version 2.05.  Or did I miss anything ? >>

You do not need to renew your subscription if you don't see the value in doing so.  Subscriptions are not mandatory.

2016 didn't turn out the way that we wanted to in terms of the number of minor releases, primarily because the database changes for 2.05 took way longer than anticipated.  There's not much that can be done about that.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
Tue, Mar 21 2017 11:25 AMPermanent Link

Doc

Yes, I know that I do not have to renew the subscription.
Just wanted to point out that I took the "additional value provided by the numerous minor releases of Elevate Web Builder 2 coming in 2016" as sort of a promise.
And I expected more than one minor release from the word numerous. And I don't count the builds as minor releases but as bug fixes.
Tue, Mar 21 2017 11:54 AMPermanent Link

Matthew Jones

Doc wrote:

> Yes, I know that I do not have to renew the subscription.
> Just wanted to point out that I took the "additional value provided by the numerous minor releases of Elevate Web Builder 2 coming in 2016" as sort of a promise.
> And I expected more than one minor release from the word numerous. And I don't count the builds as minor releases but as bug fixes.

Tough crowd! I see what you mean, but the builds were usually in response to issues that we as users of the product had, helping us get more from it. Plus some bug fixes of course.

The funding of software tools is a hard problem IMO, and I have one product that has an annual maintenance and didn't touch it for three years. Really. As it worked, I didn't buy the maintenance, but I did buy it again when I needed the update that they actually released after a while. Web Builder on the other hand is not a static product, and is improving all the time. 2.05 did bring some big benefits, and 2.06 brings more. Things have sometimes taken longer than one might like, but I've been glad of an already stable product and have been developing with it all the while.

I guess the action for Tim is to change the wording on the renewal, to offer only updates, not numerous updates. And if you think the product is not worth renewing and supporting, don't renew. If you think it is worth it, renew - I think it has fantastic value just for the support you get from Tim in the newsgroups.

--

Matthew Jones
Tue, Mar 21 2017 12:19 PMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

<< Just wanted to point out that I took the "additional value provided by the numerous minor releases of Elevate Web Builder 2 coming in 2016" as sort of a promise. >>

I'm sorry that you took it that way, but our plans are just that, our *plans*.  They sometimes work out as expected, and other times do not.  As I said, 2.05 took way longer than expected to get finished, and then way longer than expected to get all of the issues sorted out.  That's the stage of development that EWB is in: all of the really hard problems like intra-form component references, extended layout management features, extended web server features, etc. were not addressed initially due to time constraints, and now they're needing to be dealt with, resulting in longer lead times on minor releases.  Sometimes, *way* longer lead times than expected.

If you don't need the technical support provided by an active subscription, then simply wait until the minor releases/new features reach whatever point you feel is sufficient value for your money (or the money that you spent on your subscription in 2016), and then re-subscribe at that point.  That should resolve your issues with getting the perceived value for your subscription cost.

Finally, I'm not sure what your motives are in posting this on our *technical* support forums, but, in the future, if you have an issue with your subscription, this is definitely not the place to bring it up.  Contact Sam in sales (sales@elevatesoft.com) with your issues and she will deal with it accordingly.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
Tue, Mar 21 2017 12:28 PMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

Matthew,

<< I guess the action for Tim is to change the wording on the renewal, to offer only updates, not numerous updates. >>

It was a one-off email that Sam sent out when we increased the price from $99 to $159 a year. It's not something that is mentioned anywhere on the web site, and it was based upon 2015, which saw *5* minor releases, with the features detailed here:

http://www.elevatesoft.com/download?action=info&category=ewb&type=ewbtrial&majorversion=2&version=2.05

2016 was an anomaly, plain and simple.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
Wed, Mar 22 2017 9:09 AMPermanent Link

Doc

So, if I get you right, it is all my fault. I should not take such an email literally.
Or it is because I'm not English and not able to understand your elevated English.
I just understood: Pay more (+ 60 %), get more (additional value: numerous minor releases in 2016, where numerous = more than one),
but that would be too simple, stupid me ! Seems I have always to expect "alternative facts".
My subscription will end in June (at least I think so). Is there a chance that there will we a next minor release before that date ?
Wed, Mar 22 2017 9:17 AMPermanent Link

Walter Matte

Tactical Business Corporation

Doc:

Tim answered you graciously.  There is no need to continue this thread.  He asked you to talk/email Sam directly.

I can speak to a similar situation where I discussed my concerns with Tim and Sam and they are responsive, ethical, honest and they do the right thing.

Please contact them via email.

Walter
Wed, Mar 22 2017 9:38 AMPermanent Link

Tim Young [Elevate Software]

Elevate Software, Inc.

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Email timyoung@elevatesoft.com

<< So, if I get you right, it is all my fault. I should not take such an email literally.
Or it is because I'm not English and not able to understand your elevated English.
I just understood: Pay more (+ 60 %), get more (additional value: numerous minor releases in 2016, where numerous = more than one),
but that would be too simple, stupid me ! Seems I have always to expect "alternative facts". >>

I've already explained to you what happened and what your options are.  And, as I stated, this isn't the place for such issues, so you need to take it up with sales via email (sales@elevatesoft.com).

<< My subscription will end in June (at least I think so). Is there a chance that there will we a next minor release before that date ? >>

You'll probably see two more minor releases by then.  2.06 is about ready to go:

========================

The following are breaking changes in 2.06:

The auto-sizing functionality in the foundational UI layer has been extended so that it can also handle auto-sizing of parent elements based upon the bounds of child elements. This has also resulted in many modifications to how the existing control interfaces were designed. In 2.05 and prior releases, many controls executed code to perform the auto-sizing of various UI elements in response to size changes, whereas these controls now use a control interface that provides auto-sizing declaratively within the control interface itself. If you have created customized control interfaces, then you will need to merge these changes into your customized control interfaces using a compare/merge tool such as Beyond Compare from Scooter Software:

Scooter Software, Inc.

The layout functionality has changed slightly so that BeginUpdate..EndUpdate blocks suspend layout and measurement locally within a given control/UI element. In contrast, in 2.05 and earlier, BeginUpdate..EndUpdate blocks would only suspend DOM and designer updates until the local update count, and any parent update counts, reached zero. Layout and measurement would be triggered on each update to the state of the control/UI element. This was extremely inefficient and caused way too much code execution for little-to-no benefit. With the new changes, layout and measurement are only triggered once the local update count for a given control/UI element reaches zero. DOM and designer updates are still only triggered once the local update count, and any parent update counts, reach zero. However, this could cause some existing code to break, especially if the code relies on updated control/UI element bounds within the context of a BeginUpdate..EndUpdate block. Fortunately, there are new methods that will allow the code to force a layout/measurement update, even within a BeginUpdate..EndUpdate block:

TElement ForceUpdate

TControl ForceUpdate

The default control interfaces have been moved to the "default" subdirectory under the "interfaces" subdirectory. This was done to accomodate the fact that the product now ships with a new set of desktop control interfaces (see new features section below).

Google has changed the requirements for using the Google Maps API:

Google Maps Standard Plan Updates

and the TMap control now includes two new properties to accomodate the new API key requirements: APIKeyRequired and APIKey. If you were using the Google Maps API successfully with your application prior to the new requirements, then your IP address will be grandfathered in and you can set the APIKeyRequired property to False and leave the APIKey property blank.

The AutoSize property has been changed from a Boolean property to a TAutoSize class property with independent Width and Height properties.

 Any existing forms can be used without issue going forward, but if you modify any forms and/or control interfaces using 2.06, then these forms and/or control interfaces will not be able to properly load the new AutoSize property with 2.05 and prior versions of Elevate Web Builder.

All Icon properties have been consolidated under a new TIconProperties class.

 Any existing forms can be used without issue going forward, but if you modify any forms using 2.06, then these forms will not be able to properly load the new Icon property with 2.05 and prior versions of Elevate Web Builder. Also, the new TIconProperties class contains additional icon Height and Width properties that may need to be adjusted after a form is first used with 2.06 or higher.

The TToolBarButton AutoWidth property now defaults to False.

The TMessageDialogClient control interface has been combined with the TDialog control interface to create a new TMessageDialog control interface for the TMessageDialog control. The MessageDialogClient control interface is no longer used.

The TGridColumn OnHeaderClick event is now a function that returns a Boolean to allow the developer to control whether header clicks are allowed/disallowed.

The clElevateFillGray color has been changed so that it is slightly darker.

The TGrid control does not automatically add a grid column to the current sort when the grid column's header is clicked. You now need to use a shift-click in order to do so, and the default behavior is to clear the current sort whenever a grid column's header is clicked without the shift key being pressed.

The following are new features and enhancements in 2.06:

As mentioned above, the auto-sizing functionality has been improved so that parent UI elements can automatically change their size based upon the bounds of their child elements. This allowed for the elimination of a lot of code in the component library that was dedicated to this type of functionality. Also, as part of this enhancement, the TBasicPanel control now contains an AutoSize property.

The drawing performance of the designers in the IDE has been greatly improved.

The loading performance of applications at run-time has been improved, largely due to the layout performance improvements noted above in the breaking changes section.

The event management now supports handling composition events for IME (Input Method Editor) for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indic character input so that data-bound controls behave properly with this type of input.

There is a new set of control interfaces for desktop usage included with the product. These control interfaces can be found in the "interfaces\desktop" subdirectory under the main installation directory.

New clElevateHot* colors have been added for the built-in clElevate* Red, Green, Blue, Black, and Orange color variations.

Control icons are now managed using the common TIconProperties class. This allows the developer to have more control over the height and width of the icon and consolidates all icon-related properties, including those for font icons, in one location in the Object Inspector.

There is a new THTMLLabel control for displaying arbitray HTML content at run-time.

There are new TMenuBar and TMenuBarItem controls for implementing horizontal menus.

There is a new SubMenu property for the TMenuItem and TMenuBarItem controls to allow for implementing cascading menus.

There is a new TSpinner control for implementing animated spinner icons.

The TPagePanel control now includes a new OnPageChange event.

There are new TDataSet BeforeLoadColumns, AfterLoadColumns, and OnLoadColumnsError events for handling the loading of dataset columns at run-time.

There is a new TFormatSettings StartOfWeek property for specifying which day is the first day of the week. The TCalendar and TDateEditComboBox controls use this property when displaying the calendar.

There is a new TMultiLineEdit SpellCheck property for enabling or disabling spell-checking at run-time. In addition, the TGridColumn control includes a SpellCheck property that is used when the TGridColumn ControlType property is set to ctMultiLineEdit.

There is a new TCanvasPoint class for working with floating-point coordinates instead of integer coordinates.

The TAlertLabel control now includes a new AutoHeight property.

The TButton control now includes a new AutoWidth property.

The TCheckBox control now includes a new AutoWidth property.

The TRadioButton control now includes a new AutoWidth property.

The TListBox, TEditComboBox, and TButtonComboBox controls now include a new Sorted property. In addition, the TGridColumn control includes an ItemsSorted property that is used when the TGridColumn ControlType property is set to ctEditComboBox.

The TApplication component now includes a new IsWindowsPhone property.

The TViewport component now includes new ScrollTop and ScrollLeft properties for getting and setting the scroll position of the browser window.

The TViewport component now includes new OnScroll and OnSize properties for detecting when the browser window scrolls or resizes.

The TEdit, TMultiLineEdit, TEditComboBox, TDateEditComboBox, and TDialogEditComboBox controls now include new SelectionStart and SelectionEnd properties for specifying a selection range for the editable text (inherited from the base TEditControl control).

The TGridColumn ControlType property now includes a ctHTML member that can be used to indicate that the content of the column should be displayed as HTML. This control type is read-only.

========================

This is several months worth of work and could have been split into multiple minor releases.  I guess that would have made you happy, since you seem to be hung up on the number.  Personally, I'm more concerned with the "what", not the "how many".

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com
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