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Text File | 1993-09-18 | 13.4 KB | 366 lines

PARADOX FOR WINDOWS 4.5 UPGRADE GUIDE ------------------------------------- This file summarizes new interactive features and enhancements to Paradox for Windows 4.5, and describes performance improvements. To learn about new ObjectPAL methods, procedures, and properties -- including the SQL- specific methods -- open the NEWPAL.DB table, which is placed in your PDOXWIN directory when you install Paradox. See "Using NEWPAL.DB" later in this document for information on using this table. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1. SQL Connectivity 2. Using NEWPAL.DB 3. ODAPI Changes 4. Serial Numbers 5. Using the Network Configuration Utility 6. The Desktop Properties Dialog Box 7. The Auto-Append Property 8. Command-Line Options 9. Other Additions and Improvements 1. SQL CONNECTIVITY ------------------- Paradox is now SQL-enabled. To use Paradox's SQL connectivity, you must install Borland SQL Link. After you install Borland SQL Link, a SQL button appears on the Desktop's SpeedBar, and the commands File|New|SQL File and File|Open|SQL File become available. When you use Borland SQL Link, aliases become more powerful. In addition to creating and using aliases for local or network directories, you can create and use aliases for remote databases. When you install Borland SQL Link you'll be able to use the Alias Manager dialog box to connect to and disconnect from SQL servers, and the SQL Editor window to create an interactive SQL session. See the Paradox Help system, Borland SQL Link documentation, and Borland SQL Link README for details. - SQL Tools: When you install Paradox, you have the option of installing the SQL Tool SpeedBar, which provides easy ways of performing common tasks on SQL data. To install the SQL Tool SpeedBar when you're installing Paradox, check the Install ObjectPAL Examples checkbox. The SQL Tool SpeedBar is installed into the C:\PDOXWIN\EXAMPLES directory by default. Refer to the SQLTOOL.TXT file for information on using the SpeedBar. NOTE: If you are using Paradox from a network installation, be aware that only one user at a time can access the SQL Tool SpeedBar. If you copy the SQL Tool SpeedBar to your local machine, you must also edit the [PDOXWIN] section of your WIN.INI. Edit the "SQLTDir=" entry to point to the new location of of the SQL Tool SpeedBar. When you've done that, choosing File|Open|SQL Tools opens the local version of the SQL Tool SpeedBar. 2. USING NEWPAL.DB ------------------ The table NEWPAL.DB contains information about all changes and enhancements to the ObjectPAL language. NEWPAL is installed into your PDOXWIN directory by default. NOTE: Some of the records in this table contain information about ObjectPAL methods that apply only to users of Borland SQL link. These records are identified by a Y in the SQL-Specific field. If you are not a licensed user of Borland SQL Link, you can either use a query or a filter to remove these records from your view of the data. A form, NEWPAL.FSL, has been provided as an alternate viewing mode for NEWPAL.DB. A report, NEWPAL.RSL, has been provided to produce printed output closely resembling the "ObjectPAL Reference" format. NOTE: If you delivered forms in a previous version of Paradox for Windows, you must use this version of Paradox to open their corresponding .FSL file, then recompile and re-deliver them from this version of Paradox. 3. ODAPI CHANGES ---------------- - In order to ensure that all Borland products that use ODAPI work seamlessly together and require as little disk space as possible, the ODAPI files are now stored in a central location. All files related to ODAPI are now installed in the C:\ODAPI directory by default. Paradox creates the directory C:\ODAPI if one does not already exist. When you install a new ODAPI, your existing settings are merged into the new files. - The ODAPI Configuration Utility has been upgraded. Refer to its online Help system for information on configuring your ODAPI settings. 4. SERIAL NUMBERS ----------------- - Serial numbers and user counts are no longer used by Paradox. Because of this, Paradox no longer requires you to enter a serial number when installing the program, and the Serial Number utility is no longer included with Paradox. If you are not a user of the Paradox for Windows Workgroup Edition and want to install Paradox on a network, follow the installation instructions in Chapter 15 of "Getting Started," but disregard any references to serial numbers or user counts. If you are a user of the Workgroup Edition, see the following section of this file. 5. USING THE NETWORK CONFIGURATION UTILITY ---------------------------------------------- If you are a user of the Paradox for Windows Workgroup Edition, the Network Configuration Utility is available to you. After Paradox has been installed and properly configured on a server, the network administrator can run the Network Configuration Utility on individual workstations to access the correct configuration. NOTE: Some options available in the Network Configuration Utility apply to the Workgroup Desktop. If you have not installed the Workgroup Desktop, ignore these options. To use the Network Configuration Utility, 1) Install Paradox to the network location of your choice. The Paradox Install program creates the NCONFIG.INI file in your system directory. 2) Use Notepad or another editor to open NCONFIG.INI. You'll see a five-section file. Edit this file to establish the default settings you want to use for each workstation you configure. - [PDOXWIN] contains the following entries: - USERNAME: The default user name. - COMPANY: The default company name. - WORKDIR: The default location for the working directory. - PRIVDIR: The default location for the private directory. - WGDir: The default location for Workgroup Desktop files. - AddrDir: The default location for the Workgroup Desktop Address files. - [ODAPI] contains one entry that identifies the default location for the ODAPI.CFG file. - [OBEX] contains one entry that identifies the default location for the Object Exchange component of the Workgroup Desktop. - [ICONS] lists each program component and a value of 1 or 0. When you set a program component to 1, the component's icon is added to the Paradox for Windows group. - [INSTALL] contains entries that identify where you've installed Paradox program components on the network. 3) At each workstation you want to configure, make sure that all network drives are mapped correctly and that the ODAPI directory is on the search path. 4) From each workstation, start Windows, choose File|Run and run the Network Configuration Utility from its network location. For example, if you installed Paradox to T:\PDOXWIN, run T:\PDOXWIN\NCONFIG.EXE. You'll see the Paradox for Windows Network Configuration dialog box. The entries in this dialog box reflect the contents of the NCONFIG.INI file. 5) Make any changes necessary (for example, change the User Name) and choose OK. The workstation is configured. 6. THE DESKTOP PROPERTIES DIALOG BOX ------------------------------------ - A bitmap, PDOXWIN.BMP, is included when you install Paradox. This is a suggested Desktop background bitmap. You can change the background bitmap using the Desktop Properties dialog box. - Tile Bitmap and Center Bitmap radio buttons have been added to the Desktop Properties dialog box. Use these to change the display of the background bitmap. - The Designer Style drop-down list has been added to the Desktop Properties dialog box. Use this list if you want to replace the existing prototype object styles for form and report design objects. The default style file is PXTOOLS.FT. NOTE: You can also choose a different style file from the Designer Properties dialog box, available from open Form Design or Report Design windows. Prototype object files are now listed in the PDOXWIN.INI file, and are accessable from any directory. 7. THE AUTO-APPEND PROPERTY --------------------------- The Auto-Append property has been added. Auto-Append controls whether moving beyond the last record in a table that you edit from a form automatically appends a new blank record to the end of the table. Auto-Append is checked by default. If you turn the Auto- Append property off, you must specifically insert a new record when you want to append one to the table. This prevents you from unintentionally adding records. To check or uncheck the Auto-Append property, inspect the table in the data model panel of the Data Model dialog box. 8. COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS ----------------------- The following command-line options have been added to Paradox: -n Do not write changes to WIN.INI. When you exit Paradox, the names of the working directory and the private directory are written to WIN.INI. Use -n to prevent this. You can place -n in the FLAGS= line of the [PDOXWIN] section of WIN.INI. If you do this and need to save changes to WIN.INI, you can override the -n option by starting Paradox with the -y option. For more information about starting Paradox with command-line options, see Chapter 14 in "Getting Started." -y Do write changes to WIN.INI -e Prevents Paradox from writing changes to PDOXWIN.INI and PDOXWORK.INI. This option is useful for developers who require specific settings in these files. -f Lets Paradox write changes to PDOXWIN.INI and PDOXWORK.INI. This option overrides -e if it is placed in the FLAGS= line in the [PDOXWIN] section of WIN.INI. -s Prevents users from resizing the Desktop. This option starts Paradox without a resizeable window border. It does not prevent the window from being resized by ObjectPAL applications. -t Lets users resize the Desktop. This option can be used to override -s if it is placed in the FLAGS= line in the [PDOXWIN] section of WIN.INI. When starting a second instance of Paradox from a second Paradox icon, use the -n command-line option (which prohibits Paradox from saving private and working directory settings in the WIN.INI file) and the -p option (which lets you choose a different private directory). 9. OTHER ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS ----------------------------------- This section contains information about a variety of new features available in Paradox. - Icons now appear in file lists to indicate whether the file is located on a local drive (a drive icon) or a remote server (a bin icon). - Press CTRL+F3 to force a data refresh on the active table. - When you use the Locate|and Replace command, you'll now be able to use the Found a Match dialog box to skip or change each occurrence of a value, or to change all values in one step. Additionally, performance time has been improved for Locate operations, both when performed interactively and when using ObjectPAL. - When you open a table that was created using dBASE IV 2.0, Paradox uses the language driver that the table was created with, rather than the language driver specified in your ODAPI configuration. - Paradox child windows open sized to fit their contents. This means that when you open a Table window, Paradox will not include blank space to the right of a narrow table or beneath a short table. A large table will fill the whole Desktop. - When you use the Add utility to add records to an unkeyed target table you might create a Keyviol table. This happens if the target table has validity checks, and you use the Append option. Appended records that violate the validity checks are written to Keyviol. - The Selectable property has been added to all objects in forms and reports. When you inspect an object and uncheck Selectable, you can no longer select it. You can still select any objects it may contain, and you can still inspect it. - The Columnar property has been added to multi-record objects in reports. When you inspect a multi-record object and check Columnar, each individual record expands or contracts individually when you print or preview the report. This means that the multi-record object does not display the records in a fixed-size grid. Using the Columnar property, you can usually fit more records on a single page than you can without the Columnar property. NOTE: When you check Columnar, the Record Layout dialog box must use the Top-Down, Then Left-Right setting. - A message line has been added to the Print File dialog box. This message informs you when your page and printer orientation don't match. - Warning messages are now displayed on the Desktop's status line. - When using field names in calculated expressions, you must enclose in quotation marks any field name that contains a period. - The maximum length of a custom format name is 14 characters. -----------------------END-------------------------