New features in build 0.9.6

Contents


The HBasic object model

With the HBasic package manager you may load components like Qt widgets that have been developed with C++ code and exported as a shared library. This components allow you to access the properties, methods and events of the loaded components within the HBasic sourcecode. With the new object model I want to implement the same capabilities for the data structures of the HBasic IDE and the data within your project.

This means if all this changes have been implemented you may list or change the properties of your forms, widgets or for example the project database with HBasic sourcecode statement or call methods that will normally be started with a mouseclick on an entry in the menubar. Therefore the old data structures and the access methods will be changed step by step to the new model so don't expect this new version to be complete and stable in version 0.9.6. When it's ready you may find substructures like forms and its subwidgets, databases, reports, queries and sql-statements but also elements of the IDE like menu amd toolbars or commands normally started with a mouseclick in the object model ready for using it from the code.

Let me give you a simple example how it looks like to call a command in the new object model. Commands are a substructure of the main application object and represent actions that will normally be started from the menubar and toolbar entries of the IDE. The currently available objects in the HBasic object model can be displayed as a tree structure starting with a base application object. Substructures of the application object are lists of commands, databases and project definitions. Elements in this list may export properties and methods to access and edit this structures or may have sublists themselfes. Each project in the project currently exports it's list of icons, queries, sheets and SQL statements. Remember there's more to come in following versions to implement full access to the project tree.

Application (substructures)
- commands
- databases
- projects
  -- icons
  -- queries
  -- sheets
  -- reports
  -- SqlStatements

Displaying the object model in the package manager

To get an overview which objects may be used in the current version of HBasic there is a new subentry in the package manager called HBasic objects. If you click on this entry in the package list all subentries of the main application object will be displayed in the Component list window. If you click on one subentry like commands you can see a list of the available entries in the commands list in the Member list window on the right side.



If the subentries of a list like projects have also subentries you can switch to them with a doubleclick on one entry in the Member list window.
The LineEdit widget above the component list displays your current "access path" in the object tree. The a mouseclick on the button to the left side guides you one step up in this tree (displays the application substructures in the example).

Using macros to access objects

Editing structures in you current project through HBasic objects normally should be executed immediatly without starting the compiler for all forms and sourcecodes. To implement this it is now possible to add source code blocks that will be called macros. Since macros are independent of forms that will be opened at runtime you have to add a global sourcecode document to your project to insert macro sourcecode definitions. Click on the project entry in the project tree window with the right mouse button and select "New global source" to create a new global source document.



A macro definition looks like a subroutine definition. It starts with the keyword Macro and ends with the keywords End Macro. In our example we want to start the command called ShowAboutDlg from the application object. This command represents the method opening the dialog which will normally be displayed whenever you click on the "About HBasic" menu entry in the menutree. To start a command every command object has a method definition called exec that may be used to start command execution. To start this exported method definition insert the following sourcecode into the source-code window for a global source document.
Macro mcrShowAbout()
   commands( "ShowAboutDlg" ).exec()
End Macro

Starting macros

If you want to execute a macro you have to reference it's name. Therefore HBasic has a new window to display the list of defined macros. You can open the macro list with a mouseclick on the menu entry "View macros" or the appropriate toolbar button. The macro window will display the list of all macro definitions it could find in the sourcecode. If you have added a new macro definition to your sourcecode you have to reopen the macro window to update the list of available macros names. To start a macro select it's name and click on the "Execute" button or double click on the macro name in the window. In our example this will popup the HBasic about dialog.



Using cell properties in sheet designer

If you have opened a sheet window you may now set some properties for the sheet in the normal property editor. Properties may be used to set the background or text color of a cell, to define the font of the cell text or the color, position and line style of the border lines. This is currently not very comfortable and will be extended in future releases. It could also currently only be used for single cells. The following image shows an image of a sheet where some properties for cells have been changed. The second image shows the property editor window displaying the properties of a sheet cell.

 

Message window

The new message window may be used by HBasic to display messages of successful finished actions or error messages. Currently this messages will be displayed with popups or in the status bar. This window may be helpful to display the history of messages  and maybe some more detailed information subentries. Currently you may only open or close the message window with an appropriate menu or toolbar entry.



Direct window

The direct window should be used to display output of the Print statement for sourcecode which doesn't have an appropriate form to display it's output. It may also be used to let you input commands which may be executed immediatly like a command line.

HBasic editor in sheet designer and report designer fields.

In older versions of HBasic the editor to insert sheet field functions and the editor to define the output of report fields could only handle some simple text strings. Starting with version 0.9.6 this has been changed to handle the text like HBasic sourcecode expressions. This expressions could use all features of the HBasic sourcecode like calling methods defined in the HBasic source or in shared components. The code to parse this expressions and the features like code completion must only be implemented once and could be used in different contexts this way. There are some bugs in the code for the 0.9.6 versions but some didn't want to wait longer for a new HBasic version so that this bugs will be fixed in the next version.