Information on InfoPower Studio 2006

Woll2Woll Software

Jan 25, 2006

http://www.woll2woll.com

 

InfoPower Studio allows you to build both VCL.NET and VCL.Win32 applications using Delphi or C++ Builder. They are designed to be backwards compatible with earlier versions of InfoPower.  Woll2Woll has taken great care so that your Win32 applications can be ported to .NET with minimal effort on your part. 

The following document details some of the new functionality in InfoPower.

1.      InfoPower’s Masterpiece Grid

InfoPower’s masterpiece grid is one of the most powerful components in the InfoPower library, greatly expanding upon the capabilities of Delphi’s native grid component.

In addition to the functionality of the Delphi grid, InfoPower’s grid supports the following:

·         True Master / Detail Relationships displayed from a single grid

InfoPower brings you a new paradigm to display and edit your master/detail relationships. Detail tables can be initially hidden, and then expanded into full view when the end-user expands a expand/collapse button in the parent grid.   Each child-grid is fully customizable as in the parent grid, and the control preserves the liveness of each expanded detail grid.

 

·         Expand/Collapse buttons for composite calculated fields

Use expand/collapse buttons to allow the user to edit a composite field. You can display a calculated field such as full name (composed of first name + last name)., and then the user can expand the composite calculated field to edit the individual portions.

·         Improved custom control integration and flexibility

InfoPower allows you to embed a wider variety of controls in the grid.  You can now even embed non-InfoPower controls, such as the TDBImage. The grid also allows each custom control to do their own painting in the grid so that even graphics, richedits, etc. will be displayed for every row in the grid without any code on your part. The data inspector can  also be embedded in the grid, giving a multi-row record display. The new checkbox and radiogroup controls can also be embedded, which significantly improves the versatility of the grid.

 

Woll2Woll’s 1stClass buttons can seamlessly be integrated into the InfoPower grid, giving your grid a clickable component for each record.  In addition the button colors can be dynamically computed allowing the color to be different based on the record information.

·         Grid header enhancements

The titles in the grid can be displayed and managed hierachically. This allows you to group related fields together. Also for header dragging operations, the grid more clearing indicates the new placement of the column.

 

 

·         Allow grouping of related data in grid

In some cases you may have data that you wish to display as a group in the grid.  InfoPower allows you to display this information as a group by only displaying the text for the first instance, as well as removing the lines in between.  See the Company field below.

 

·         Ditto Capability

Allow the user to conveniently copy the previous record’s value into the cell.

·          Flicker-free display

The grid improves both its painting performance and visual effect with its new flicker-free display.

·         Background texture tiling

InfoPower allows your applications to further impress by adding support for background texture tiling. The component takes care of blending your tile with the color of the grid region, giving you a truly impressive and professional display.

·         Support for exporting from the grid to various formats.

InfoPower supports exporting to various formats to aid your end-users in extracting their displayed data to be used with other applications. In addition you can copy the selected records to the clipboard.   See the following for an example of the generated html.

http://www.woll2woll.com/infopower/exportexample.html

·         Clickable URL link support

Define columns as URL links (i.e. Email addresses). The grid will automatically handle its display and the opening of the link.

·         Native Alternating color

New property to automatically alternate the colors of the rows in the grid.  This provides a pleasing look to the end-user and helps differentiate one record from another.

·         Proportional column sizing

The grid can now automatically size all the columns to fit perfectly in the grid’s client area. If the grid is resized, all the columns still fit perfectly. Any trailing column space after the last column is removed.

·         End-user row sizing

User’s can enlarge the sizes of the rows by dragging the horizontal line in the indicator column

·         Fixed column enhancements

Editable fixed columns, resizable fixed columns

·         Line color customizations

You can now override the default line colors

·         Clickable Column headers

 

Title Buttons in the Column headers allow you to easily change the index or sort order of your dataset.

·         Define fixed, non-scrollable columns

Just set the FixedCols property to indicate the number of nonscrollable columns to display in the left-hand side of the grid.

·         Supports InfoPower’s powerful picture language:

·         Auto-sizing of column

Dbl-clicking the sizing line for a grid can automatically grow or shrink the column’s width, based on the widest displayed text in the column

Use picture-masks to assist and validate your data entry when editing cells in the grid.

·         Customizable cell-level hints

Customizable Cell-level hints when the cell’s text does not fit in the cell. Excellent when used with memo fields to display the entire contents of the memo just by moving the mouse over the cell.

·         Persist user’s grid settings

Saving and loading of the user’s runtime settings of the column positions and widths from the registry or an inifile

2.      InfoPower’s Vertical Grid (DataInspector)

InfoPower allows you to display a transposed grid where the data columns are vertical, instead of horizontal.  This brings your end-users a smart alternative to the left-right editing of a traditional grid. The vertical grid’s flexibility can be seen through its hierarchical view of data (similar to a tree).

·         Improved custom control integration and flexibility

InfoPower allows you to embed a wider variety of controls in the inspector.  You can now even embed non-InfoPower controls, such as the TDBImage. The inspector also allows each custom control to do their own painting in the grid so that even graphics, richedits, etc. will be displayed for every row in the grid without any code on your part.

·         Background texture tiling

InfoPower allows your applications to further impress by adding support for background texture tiling. The component takes care of blending your tile with the color of the inspector region, giving you a truly impressive and professional display.

·         Alternating colors for rows

New property to automatically alternate the row colors and to highlight the active column

·         Enhanced hierarchical display

When items are expanded., the inspector now paints tree lines supporting an elegant tree display.

·         Group Related fields together

Using this control you can group related fields together in categories. Thus providing an organized view of data. You can even display data from different datasets.

·         Use it Unbound (without a datasource) or with a single record.

You can even use this control unbound just like the Delphi object inspector.

 



3.      Superb Validation language

InfoPower gives you incredibly flexible and expressive picture masks which greatly assist in automatically validating your user's input. InfoPower's masks duplicate the Picture function that's been available in Borland's Paradox relational database product, providing the power of a full mask language instead of just a mask template. Picture masks greatly assists the end-user during data entry by intelligent auto-filling of characters where appropriate as well as informing them if they have incorrectly entered any data.   This allows data entry to be faster and easier.  Here are some examples of the power of picture masks.

 

·         Street Address Capitalization

The first letter of each word is automatically capitalized. For instance, if the user enters “235 quinault way”, InfoPower conveniently converts the input to “235 Quinault Way” as they are
typing.

·         Masks which contain optional sequence of characters

Such as an optional zip code suffix in a zip code.  If the user does not match the format defined by your mask, you can inform the user visually or prevent the control from losing focus..

·         Intelligent auto-filling of characters as the user types.

The user’s keystrokes can be minimized as the mask language can fill in the static characters.  For instance with a SSN mask of ###-##-####, the dashes (-) can be automatically filled in so that the user just needs to type in the numbers.

 

4.      Custom Framing & Transparent Edit Controls

InfoPower gives you the means to create elegant forms that look just like the real hardcopy form they are based on. You may see other component suites that allow you to turn on or off the borders, but do they allow you to see the background through the edit control for true underlined controls? InfoPower does. The new features that InfoPower has added to it’s edit controls are:

 

·         Different Border Styles

However the custom framing goes far beyond simple underline controls as you can display the borders in many different frame styles (bump, raised, box, single, etched, etc).

·         Selective Borders

You can selectively turn off the top, bottom, left, and/or right borders around InfoPower 2000 edit controls.

·         Focus and NonFocus Settings

What’s more is that you can customize these settings depending on the focus of the control.

·         Transparency

No other VCL gives you all this and the ability to have controls display transparently on your backgrounds. Drop a TImage onto the background of your form and place InfoPower controls and any other VCL Control and you will immediately notice the difference.

·         Custom Glyphs and Transparent Effects on Buttons

The combo buttons in the edit controls can also be displayed in a flat style and transparently as well for an extremely natural look. Notice the buttons in the edit controls in the screen-shot above, you can also load your own custom glyph in any of our combo controls.

·         Hot-tracking

Hot-tracking of border styles similar to Microsoft Office

 

 

5.      The Ulitmate Word Processing Control

InfoPower includes a powerful visual component greatly expands upon the capabilities of Delphi’s built-in richedit component. It is the most complete and powerful richedit control available. In addition to the functionality of TDBRichEdit, InfoPower’s control provides you with the ability to:

·         Bitmap and OLE support:

Embed bitmaps & OLE objects directly into the richedit control. You can even save these to your database.

·         Paragraph Ruler:

Set paragraph indentations within the pop-up rich-edit dialog using an accurate ruler.

·         Internet URL Links:

URL addresses in the rich-edit text are automatically underlined. The component will also automatically open the specified URL with the Internet Browser.

·         Import and Export to HTML

Import or Export to HTML, import from Microsoft Word. Also supports many other formats.

 

·         Database Search and Filter:

After storing RTF text into database blob fields, you can still have access to InfoPower's powerful database searching and filtering capabilities.

·         User-definable speed buttons:

Developer can add their own speedbuttons to the pop-up richedit dialog to integrate other 3rd-party tools such as RTF spell checkers.

·         Integrated RTF Word processor:

End-user can bring up InfoPower's powerful RTF word processor to give them a full WordPad-like environment.

·         Customize printer margins, orientation, and paper size:

Supports end-user customization of the page layout using the Win95 PageSetup common dialog.

·         Find/Replace dialog support.

·         Extensive pop-up menu support:

Right-click this component to see an example.

·         Design-time support for entering rich-edit text and OLE into the control.

Delphi's version cannot store formatted text into the a control during design time.

·         Seamless integration

Easily embed into InfoPower's RecordView components or attach to a TwwDBGrid to allow the enduser to use the popup wordprocessor to edit RTF fields in the database. The grid will display the unformatted text inside the grid cell.

·         Supports Transparency and Framing effects.

The richedit control can now be displayed transparently when it does not have the focus. Disable the control and set some of the framing properties and you can use this control as a RichEdit label.

·         User highlighting of text.

The end-user can now set the background color of selected text. This allows certain text to standout. User highlighting is integrated as a new button in the word processor.

·         Word processor supports bitmapped menus.

The word processor has updated the appearance of its menu by displaying bitmaps next to certain menu selections.

·         New events to customize the menus in the word processor.

You can now more easily change the behavior of the common menu selections from the word processor with the introduction of the following new events: OnMenuLoadClick, OnMenuPrintClick, OnMenuSaveAndExitClick, & OnMenuSaveAsClick.

·         Integration with Microsoft Office’s Spell & Grammar Checker (not supported for C++ Builder)

·         Header and Footer support

When printing the richedit contents, a custom header and footer can be part of the hardcopy printout.

 

6.      Flexible Checkbox Control

InfoPower integrates a versatile new checkbox control into its suite.

·         Support for your own custom bitmaps for the checkbox glyphs

·         Support for 3 states including integration with the InfoPower grid, record-view components, and data inspector.

·         Dynamic caption support – The text of the checkbox can change to reflect the underlying value or mapped value.

·         Custom framing and transparency support for a consistent look with other InfoPower edit controls

 

 

 

7.      New Custom Radio group Control

 

InfoPower integrates a  versatile radio-group control into its suite.

·         Support for your own custom bitmaps radio-button glyphs

·         Support for additional glyph for each radio item

·         Integration with the InfoPower grid, record-view components, and data inspector.

·         Custom framing and transparency support for a consistent look with other InfoPower edit controls

 

8.      Currency and Numeric editors

InfoPower brings consistency to editing your numeric and currency fields.  Its components give the end-user the ability to enter in the special currency or custom formatting symbols, and the component will automatically take care of stripping these formatting characters when it comes time to store the data.

For example, if the user typed in the string ‘$1,000.00’, the editors take care of stripping the commas and the dollar sign so that the input is converted correctly to a floating point value when storing.

The numeric editors also now support right-aligned editing.

 

9.      Smart and flexible Combo-boxes

InfoPower greatly expands the capabilities of a regular data aware combo-box. It has the following advantages over the native controls.

 

·         Combo-boxes with automatic history and MRU lists.

InfoPower gives its combo-box the ability to remember the user’s previously entered values.  The next time the user’s program is executed, these previously entered values are automatically filled into the combobox’s dropdown list.  You can also specify a separate MRU list so that the most recently entered entries appear at the top of the list.

·         Mapped Display Values

Allows you to enter mapped storage and display values so that you can display understandable text versions of stored codes in your table, instead of displaying only the codes themselves where users have to remember what they all mean.

·         Quicken Style Searches

All of InfoPower's lookup components support the 'Quicken' style display of the matching value, by simultaneously searching and displaying the matching text in the search control.

·         Additional Published Properties

Since InfoPower is derived from the InfoPower base editor class, you can access the following additional properties which are not available in Delphi’s native combo control: AutoSelect, AutoSize, BorderStyle, CharCase, MaxLength, and InfoPower’s validation language PictureMask property.

·         Framing and Transparency

Supports customizable borders, border styles, as well as transparency.

·         Flat and Transparent Button Effects

The combo buttons in the edit controls can also be displayed in a flat style and transparently as well for an extremely natural and updated look.

·         Custom Glyph for DropDown

The glyph in the combo is configurable through the control’s ButtonGlyph and ButtonWidth properties.

 

10. Advanced LookupCombo Controls

·         TwwDBLookupCombo, TwwDBLookupComboDlg

InfoPower gives you the most flexible component for selecting entries from a lookuptable. Here is some of what this powerful component can do.

·         Quicken style incremental searching

All of InfoPower's lookup components now support the 'Quicken' style display of the matching value, by simultaneously searching and displaying the matching text in the search control.

·         Multiple Columns in the DropDown Box or Popup Dialog

Select any number of fields to be displayed in the drop-down list along with defining their display width and optional titles. Also define in which direction the drop-down list should grow in width, either to the left or to the right, depending on where the component is located on your form.

·         ImageList Support in dropdown

With the ImageList Support you can display a column of images in the dropdown list.

·         Sorting flexibility

The values in the drop-down list are sorted in the order of the first field you select to be displayed, if it's a secondary index field, instead of being sorted in primary key order.

·         Support for many dataset types:

Fll a drop-down list with a table, query, QBE, ClientDataSet, and even parameterized queries.

·         End-user Usability enhancements:

Smart properties to auto-drop down the list upon a valid keystroke as well as a convenient way of clearing the Lookup Combo's Text.

·         Embed into InfoPower's Grid and RecordView components:

The component can be used in a TwwDBGrid component to replace any multiple-choice type of field in the grid, giving your end-users sophisticated lookup and fill capabilities within the grid or record-view components.

·         Use unbound or bound

The component does not have to be bound, or assigned, to a table's field (DataField and DataSource properties) which gives you greater flexibility in using this LookupCombo for general tasks where a source table is not involved.

·         Selectively filter the drop-down list

Show only the relevant records from the lookup table by attaching to a dependent table, using paramaterized queries, or filtering the dataset related to the drop-down list.

·         Framing and Transparency

Use InfoPower’s custom framing to customize how the controls borders and background are painted.

 

11. Fast Search and Filtering Components and Dialogs

12. Visual Filtering

InfoPower's elegant TwwFilterDialog is one of the most useful end-user components as it enables them with the ability to visually filter a dataset, modify the where clause of an existing SQL query, or even filter records in Delphi's TClientDataSets.

 

 

Simple for the end-user to use:
Even though the dialog is capable of sophisticated SQL generation, the dialog is simple to use as it completely hides the filtering and SQL details from the end-user.

·         Unmatched filtering power:

Your end-users can specify a search value, or a range, for any number of fields contained within the dataset.

·         WildCard Filtering within Fields

 Select a specific type of data match to be performed within the field, such as "From beginning of field", "Anywhere within the field", and "Exact match".

·         Special customizable keywords

Specify keywords such as "AND", "OR", "NULL" to specify multiple filter criteria for each field, such as... John OR Paul. InfoPower also allows the end-user to easily see all non-matching records.

·         Filter even on memo fields, or blob fields containing Rich Text Format

·         Fast performance

Support for filtering on the server side for fast performance! When using the component with a TQuery object, you can have the back-end perform determine which records should be included in the view.

·         Automatic Aliases for user entered text

You can now map user-entered text to a specific database value. This can allow the enduser to filter based on some more meaningful text even if that text is not stored in the database. For instance if the database was storing the codes 1, 2, 3, and they respectively represented the strings ‘ Visa’, ‘Mastercard’, ‘American Express’, you could allow the user to enter the string ‘Visa’ instead of ‘1’ to find all customers who used a visa card.

TwwKeyCombo
If your end-users want a way to sort or incrementally search on other fields, then just drop our database sort component onto your application.

·         Automatically displays all available indexes

The drop-down selection list is populated with the DisplayNames of all indexes available for the table that it is assigned to.

·         Support for all fields of a ClientDataSet or ADODataSet

You can incrementally search or sort-by any field in datasets that support local mode.

 

TwwIncrementalSearch
TwwIncrementalSearch is a visual interface component that provides your end-users with a means to incrementally search for values. As the end-user enters characters into the edit box, the component performs a search operation based on the characters currently in the edit box, moving to the record that contains the closest match

·         Perform Quicken Style Searches

Set ShowMatchText to true to have Quicken Style incremental searching by simultaneously searching and displaying the matching text in the search control.

·         Fast Performance

Automatically uses any available index to enhance performance when doing the lookups.

·         Supports InfoPower's flexible picture masks.

·         Framing and Transparency

Set the EditFrame property to customize how the controls borders and background are painted.

 

TwwLocateDialog
The TwwLocateDialog component itself is non-visual but when executed it provides your end-users with a dialog box that allows them to search for a value within any field, including Memo fields.

·         Perform Case-Sensitive or Case Insensitive Exact or Partial Match Searches

·         FindFirst and FindNext Methods

The built-in FindFirst and FindNext methods can be executed under program control without displaying the dialog box. This lets the developer assign any end-user keyboard key, button or icon to these methods, allowing the user to repeat the last locate command or start over from the beginning of the table without having to re-display the dialog box or re-enter their search criteria.

·         Wildcard searching

TwwLocateDialog provides your end-users with a dialog box that allows them to search or partial search for a value within any field, including Memo data type fields, calculated fields, and lookup fields.

 

TwwSearchDialog, TwwLookupDialog, etc.

InfoPower also includes other powerful and easy to use dialogs that are let your users find the data they are looking for. These dialogs support:

13. Date and Time Controls

TwwDBDateTimePicker:
InfoPower provides the most flexible and usable DateTimePicker for Delphi. DateTimePickers support drop-down calendars to assist the user in selecting a date. InfoPower's version includes the following functionality.

·         Embed within InfoPower's Grid, RecordView, or FilterDialog components.

·         Use with or without a database.

·         Smart data entry : Auto-advances when enough characters have been entered, and auto-fills the date and time when the space key is entered.

·         Display the date in the format of your choice using a format mask. Also supports International date-time formats.

·         Spins up/down with the arrow keys and preserves the display format during spinning.

·         Numerous display options for controlling the look of the drop-down calendar, such as display of week numbers, display of current date, automatic circling of current date, and support for event based determination of which dates should be in bold.

·         Support for simultaneous entry of both date and time in the same control.

·         Framing and Transparency
Set the EditFrame property to customize how the controls borders and background are painted.

TwwDBMonthCalendar
InfoPower's MonthCalendar control allows you to display a calendar to the end-user.

·         Hide/Show the Week Numbers, Today String, and Today Circle in the Drop Down Month Calendar.

·         Display one or more months of a year in a single InfoPower calendar control.

·         Change the colors and fonts of the calendar.

·         Supports configurable pop-up menus when clicking on either the year or the month

·         Code-based determination of which dates should be displayed in bold. For instance bold-face weekends, holidays, and paydays.

·         Use with or without a database.

14. Spin Edit Control

The end-user can modify the contents of the TwwDBSpinEdit by clicking on the up and down icons. Alternatively they can use the UP Arrow and DOWN Arrow keys. On Date, Time, and DateTime fields the spinedit will highlight the text that is changing while spinning, so the user will visually see what is changing.

 

15. Dynamic Custom Record Viewing or Editing

TwwRecordViewDialog and TwwRecordViewPanel
These InfoPower components provide a convenient way to view or edit a record's contents. The component dynamically creates a form based on your DataSet's field properties. It removes the necessity of building custom record editing forms or the need for using experts for each table. The main difference between these two components is that one is a popup modal/nonmodal dialog, while the other is a panel that can be embedded directly on your own form. Some of its features are:

·         Supports embedded controls

The record-view will automatically use the TwwDBDateTimePicker control on date or time fields, and the TwwDBRichEdit control with RTF memo fields. It also contains support for embedding custom controls and 1stClass controls.

·         Flexible detailed display options

InfoPower's recordview components come with a ton of property settings that allow you to:

·                     Control the spacing between labels and controls for that consistent look and feel.

·                     Choose from a vertical or horizontal layout for the fields.

·                     In vertical display mode you can make all the edits have the same width.

·                     Change a single property and you can display readonly fields in another color, hide readonly fields, hide calculated fields and much more.

·                     You can also easily display background images using techniques listed on our tips page.

·         Picture mask support

Set PictureMasks, add custom menus, grid integration and much more!

·         Labels beneath the controls

Set the Options | tvoLabelsBeneathControls to true to place labels underneath their related edit control. See picture below for an example of this.

·         Framing and Transparency

Set the EditFrame property to customize how the controls borders and background are painted. For instance, simply set the EditFrame.Enabled and EditFrame.Transparent properties to True to display the edit controls transparently. Put an image in the background for truly quick and amazing professional results.

 

InfoPower allows you to embed the checkbox and radio-group controls within the record-view components. In addition, the record-view also supports the new InfoPower framing styles.

 

16. Extendable and Flexible Database Navigator

Infopower includes a extendable DBNavigator component (database navigator to move through and manipulate the data in a dataset), which supports user-definable images and actions, integration with InfoPower’s dialogs, flexible control over the layout, user-definable page sizes, and support for multiple rows of icons.

·         Extendable:

Add additional speed buttons to the navigator to execute your own custom code.

·         Additional standard icons

Contains built-in navigator buttons such as bookmarks, InfoPower dialogs, and PageUp/PageDown.

·         Display vertically or horizontally or combine navigators to get just about any look you want.

·         4-State Custom Glyph Support

Contains built-in support for animated icons when an enduser moves their mouse over the navigator button. Set numglyphs to 4 and store the Default, Disabled, Down, and MouseOver glyphs in the navigator's ImageList.

·         Flexible design tools and resource efficient.

·         Supports Transparency

The InfoPower 2000 navigator updates its appearance by allowing you to transparently display the navigator and its related buttons. This helps your applications present a very professional and polished look.

·         Action List Support

To help ease the use of customizing the navigator’s actions, action list support is now supported for each navigator button.

 

  

See http://www.woll2woll.com/Ordering.html for further details on ordering InfoPower, and special upgrade pricing.