Ok, so before you ask why on earth would you bother let me explain

As part of my work over at ClarionAddins I am always looking for way to improve the user experience as well as stretching my knowledge of .Net programming. I thought it might be nice to use WPF but since the Clarion IDE is targeting v2.0 of the .Net framework this is not so easy. Hence this example!

Of course there are many resources out there related to this topic, see below, but nothing I could discover specific to v2.0 so for me it took a little work to get there. I learnt a lot about reflection along the way!

• Walkthrough: Hosting a WPF Composite Control in Windows Forms
• WPF Tutorial – Using WPF In WinForms
• A XAML graphics viewer and validator for Windows Forms

This code assumes that the v3.5 Framework is installed on the target machine. For production it would of course be necessary to test for this and react accordingly.

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using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Windows.Forms;
 
namespace ClarionAddins.WpfTest
{
    public partial class WpfTestForm : Form
    {
        public WpfTestForm ()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            AddWpfControl();
        }
 
        private void AddWpfControl()
        {
            // You need a full AssemblyQualifiedName for the elementHost class
            string elementHostQualifiedName = "System.Windows.Forms.Integration.ElementHost, WindowsFormsIntegration, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35";
            // Using this it is possible to load the ElementHost class at runtime and create an instance we can use
            Type elemHostType = Type.GetType(elementHostQualifiedName, true);
            object ctrlHost = Activator.CreateInstance(elemHostType);
            // Dock this ElementHost into our WinForms control container
            MethodInfo info = elemHostType.GetMethod("Dock");
            elemHostType.GetProperty("Dock").SetValue(ctrlHost, DockStyle.Fill, null);
            // Finally, add the ElementHost to the WinForms list of controls
            this.Controls.Add((Control)ctrlHost);
 
            // Now, load the WPF UserControl to be displayed
            string currentPath = Path.GetDirectoryName((new System.Uri(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase)).AbsolutePath);
            string userControlPath = Path.Combine(currentPath, "WpfControlLibrary.dll");
            Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(userControlPath);
            Type userControlType = assembly.GetType("WpfControlLibrary.MyUserControl", true);
            // Create an instance of the UserControl and call the InitializeComponent method
            object userControl = Activator.CreateInstance(userControlType);
            info = userControlType.GetMethod("InitializeComponent");
            info.Invoke(userControl, null);
 
            // Last of all, attach the UserControl to the ElementHost !
            elemHostType.GetProperty("Child").SetValue(ctrlHost, userControl, null);
        }
    }
}

Here is a screenshot of this technique being used in an addin I am working on:

-brahn

The following is a simple example of running a native clarion win32 application as a cloud service.

Technologies used:

• Clarion6 by Softvelocity (C7, C8 whatever should work fine)
• NetTalk by Capesoft
• Windows Azure by Microsoft

For the Impatient

See it running – WazClarion (Waz – Windows Azure!)

Say what?!

Using the PackAndDeploy example from the Smarx Running the Mongoose Web Server in Windows Azure tutorial I have managed to successfully test and deploy a clarion application to the Windows Azure cloud service! Read on for some more info on the steps involved. Leave a comment or send me an email if you have any questions.

Prerequisites

Install the Windows Azure SDK to your dev machine.

Step 1 –  Git clone the PackAndDeploy to a dev folder.

See Step 1 in the Quick Walkthrough from Smarx.

Additionally I highly recommend following that example and making sure that your Azure SDK and emulator are setup and running correctly and get a little familiar with Azure before you start adding clarion to the mix.

Step 2 – Prepare your clarion APP

I used the “BasicBrowseAndForm” example that comes with NetTalk. Anything that can reply to HTTP requests should work fine.

There were a couple of changes to get the example working

• WebServer procedure, in ThisWebServer.Open, before parent

SELF.Port = Command(‘port’)
SELF._ServerIP = Command(‘ip’)

• WebServer procedure, in ThisWindow.Init

GlobalErrors.SetSilent(TRUE)

• In application global properties, file control tab set the access mode to ReadOnly.

Step 3 – Adjust the PackAndDeploy example to work with the clarion app

Delete all the files in the WorkerRole sub directory except for the Run.cmd

Edit the WorkerRole\Run.cmd file to look like this:

cd /d "%~dp0"
start /w web1.exe port=%PORT% ip=%ADDRESS%

Copy your clarion EXE and support directories into the WorkerRole folder. Anything in this folder gets included in the deployment package.

Step 4 – Deploy to the cloud

Use the “pack.cmd” from the PackAndDeploy example to create a package for upload and use the Windows Azure portal to deploy your application!

Step 5 – See it in Action!

http://wazclariontest.cloudapp.net/

Ok so it is not perfect yet, I had to tell clarion to only access the files in ReadOnly mode. You would need to look into the various storage options to fix that if you really want to use TPS, a better alternative will most likely be to use SQL server for your data needs. Error handling and diagnostics would need some forethought. There is a way to access a remote desktop session for debugging via a GUI if you want though. The pack and deploy process can probably do with some further automation too .

Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose. You’ll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features.

I must say that after a few days of use I totally agree! This is looking like the top contender to replace TextPad, something I have been trying to do for years without any success. TextPad is great but falls short in a few places and until now I have not found anything that comes close to its ease of use and performance…

Of course there is no syntax definition available for clarion files by default so I have made a start on one.

Disclaimer, I am new to Sublime Text as well as GitHub but I will plug away at it for a while and see what comes out!

You should take a look at the official help for creating Syntax Definitions before trying to understand the files in the GitHub repo. When it is a little more mature I will create a package that can be loaded easily, for now you will have to do it the hard way

Grab the code for SublimeClarion on GitHub.

-brahn

This one came to my attention a while back because of something that happens in the “Make all toolbars the same size” feature of my MainToolbarExtras addin. When the addin first adjusts the toolbar sizes it would trigger the HtmlHelp2 template to refresh its indexes. While not much of an issue depending on your hardware, this takes at least a little time and is annoying. Also, having a gazillion Pads in the IDE for a help system that is of no use just seems silly.

Normally you can just go to the AddinManager, select “Show Pre Installed Addins” and disable the addin you don’t want.

However, the HtmlHelp2 addin is a little bit special. It contains a special property in the addin definition; addInManagerHidden = "true" so you cannot actually see it in the Addin Manager!

The way to get rid of it is to delete or rename the HtmlHelp2 addin files.

1. Close the IDE
2. Navigate to \Clarion8\Bin\Addins\Misc\HtmlHelp2
3. Delete or rename the two *.addin files (if you choose to rename them, rename the extension e.g. HtmlHelp2.addin.bak)
4. Next time you start the IDE the HtmlHelp2 Menu items and Pads will no longer be there!

Of course you will have to redo this each time you load a new release from SoftVelocity…

Interestingly it should be possible for SV to “register” their help file so that it displays in the HtmlHelp2 UI but for some reason they have not done this.

-brahn

NOTE: This is still a work in progress but I plan to have it ready for release next week.

So far it is working for all the main property grids except those in reports. I am very excited to have got this code working and I think it will be a huge productivity boost.

The property grid state is saved on a per "context" basis. This means that, for example, all buttons in the window designer will have the same expanded/contracted categories in their property grid. Same with lists, prompts, etc.

This week I will be concentrating on stabilising and testing this new feature as well as making sure it also works in all areas of the IDE! If I get a chance some other ideas are: expand/contract all buttons, filter grid items, hide grid items.

Here is a short video showing how it works.

-brahn

Inspired by a recent newsgroup thread and my latest experiments in Clarion –> DotNet interop I have put together a simple program that shows you how to use the Zeta Color Editor from a clarion app!

The Zeta Color Editor is from an article in The Code Project and I have adapted it slightly to include a “Clarion Code” entry control as well as the “HTML code” it comes with. You may remember this control from the awesome InsertClarionColor addin.

This is the complete C# code used to call the Zeta Color Editor:

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using RGiesecke.DllExport;
using ZetaColorEditor.Runtime;
 
namespace ColorPicker
{
    internal static class UnmanagedExports
    {
        [DllExport("ShowColorDialog", CallingConvention = System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.StdCall)]
        static Int32 ShowColorDialog(Int32 lastSelectedColor)
        {
            string colorstr = string.Empty;
            using (ColorEditorForm cd = new ColorEditorForm())
            {
                ColorConverter cc = new ColorConverter();
                cd.SelectedColor = ColorTranslator.FromWin32(lastSelectedColor);
                if (cd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
                {
                    return ColorTranslator.ToWin32(cd.SelectedColor);
                }
            }
            return lastSelectedColor;
        }
    }
}

The clarion declaration looks like this:

  MODULE('ColorPicker.dll')
ShowColorDialog PROCEDURE(LONG lastSelectedColor),LONG,NAME('ShowColorDialog'),PASCAL,RAW,DLL(TRUE)
  END

The zip file contains a clarion 8 solution (app file, etc), compiled exe for the impatient, the C# wrapper (ColorPicker.dll) and the ZetaColorEditor.dll. This should be everything you need to do your own testing. The original source for the ZetaColorEditor is found at the Code Project link at the beginning of this post, my customisations can be found at the clarion-addins google project page.

Download:	ColorPickerTest.zip
Version:	0.1
Updated:	September 20, 2011
Size:	852.29 KB
Downloads:	36

http://clarionaddins.com

I plan to continue to blog here, the new site is more about making the addins easier to find and support.

Enjoy!

Here is a link to the blog:

Data Connection Dialog Source Code is released on Code Gallery!

And a link to the source code just in case:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Connection/

Enjoy,
Brahn

I am really sorry about this, I thought I had it fixed a few months back but it seems to have returned. Thanks to Alan or helping me track down the problem. It could be IE or it could be the plugin I am using for downloads. I will have another look into it tomorrow and hopefully find the cause.

In the meantime, Firefox seems to be fine and I guess other browsers too.

Oh, and I am still working like mad to get the new website up… this one is specifically for the addins and I am very excited about it. It is surprising how long the little details take though!

-brahn

Todays update: Index Defrag Script, v4.1

-brahn