Clarion 7.1.6695 has been released, with some important bug fixes and a few new features. Here's a quick list; we'll have a review next month after the ClarionMag office reopens.

The new ClarionMag site has gone into private beta. David Harms discusses the process of setting up the site on a beta server, and looks at some complicated SQL code to fix a seemingly simple bug.

SCA Micro Templates 2.02 is now available; Changes include: A new template for sending browse data to Excel using Clipboard; Invisible Calculator and Cleartype workaround now support Edit-in-place; New local templates to disable code generation for one procedure; Templates tested for compatibility with Clarion 7.1 and installer updated. Existing customers can log in and download the update. The templates are US$39 and this price includes a one year subscription to receive new releases. All source code is included (no black boxes).

Important Security Update issued 30 December 2009: After consultation with Secunia Research (http://www.secunia.com) Tracker Software Products Ltd has issued an update to all versions of its Free/Licensed PDF-XChange Viewer product family including both end user and developer product ranges. On December 29th 2009, Secunia notified Tracker after testing, of the potential for malicious code to be executed to compromise users systems via PDF files, using a very specific means - though no such exploitation is known to have occurred to date. Within 24 hours an update was issued to all products blocking any such opportunity and all clients and developers are urged to update any versions of our PDF-XChange Viewer product to ensure that their systems are safe guarded. All PDF-XChange Viewer and Viewer SDK versions prior to release 2.044 should be updated to a later release.

For users of Tagkeys there is a new import file for vuFileTools 3.5. This Tagset has been completely redone and includes all vuFileTools functions (more than 150) and all of the variables needed for each function. Tagkeys not only inserts the function, it also shows the calling parameters needed and automatically highlights them for you (for easy replacement). Tagkeys is a Keyboard / Clipboard text insertion and management tool. It allows you to type tags in your documents (Word, Notepad, Clarion editor, etc.) and have those tags replaced by any text you want. A free version of Tagkeys is available.

CHT Build 14A.00 is now available. Some 60+ templates were either added or revised in 2009. Considering that most of these templates also use at least one underlying CHT class, that means that there were also lots of new and revised classes added during the course of 2009.

A new DMC blog entry is available showing version 2 progress and details. A feature survey is also available.

Noyantis Software has released a wrapper template for the nBit HTML Editor ActiveX control. The wrapper template enabled you to add a fully functional HTML Editor / Viewer into you application in just a couple of minutes. The capabilities of the nBit ActiveX control include: A simple word-processor type interface that presents a very slight learning curve for your end-users; Image uploading and manipulation; Hyperlinks; Cascading Style Sheets; Formatted HTML Code editing; HTML Table editing; An integrated FTP component for uploading images inserted into HTML documents; Customizable Toolbars; HTML DOM Tree Node Selector - Select any node of the current HTML DOM node and either edit the tag directly, set the CSS class or, in the case of TABLE elements, edit the layout properties of tables, rows and cells on a custom properties form; Switchable WYSIWIG view and raw HTML view; Spell Checker (depending on the existence of MS Word). The wrapper template includes both a template interface...

Super Import-Export 7.00 is available for download. This is a major upgrade, featuring: Job support to remember field assignments, automatic imports and exports, etc; Local variables can be included in list of exportable columns; User-specified formulas supported in exports; Extra #EMBEDs around list queue population; Improved handling of various unusual field and string delimiters; Add unlikely option of omitting fields when they are blank; FormatExportRecord CASE structure is broken into smaller chunks, to speed up compiles for very large export lists (and to enable exceedingly large export lists); When auto assigning fields using header record, matcher tries field names without prefix, uses UPPER, etc; Added ImportBasic_PreviousRecord function, as well as support for ?PrevRecord button; Increased maximum limits on record size, field size and field count.

Super QBE 7.00 is available for download. It's primarily a compatibility upgrade, making it work with Clarion versions 6.x through 7.1.

Super Import-Export 7.00 is available for download. It's a major upgrade, featuring: Job support to remember field assignments, automatic imports and exports, etc; Local variables can be included in list of exportable columns; User-specified formulas supported in exports; Extra #EMBEDs around list queue population; Improved handling of various unusual field and string delimiters; Add unlikely option of omitting fields when they are blank; FormatExportRecord CASE structure is broken into smaller chunks, to speed up compiles for very large export lists (and to enable exceedingly large export lists); When auto assigning fields using header record, matcher tries field names without prefix, uses UPPER, etc; Added ImportBasic_PreviousRecord function, as well as support for ?PrevRecord button; Increased maximum limits on record size, field size and field count.

Thin@ 1.24 is now available. changes include: Clarion 7.1 is now fully supported ( for Clarion7.0 thin@ files check .zip version of the installer; Command line scripts have been added to the setup dialog in the NetMonitor service (The default script allows starting / terminating thin@ service (NetServer and NetListen) if they become unexpectedly unavailable); Client side progress dialog function implemented; Prop:maxwidth and prop:maxheight attributes supported (allowing scrollable images); PressKey() and Press() function is now fully supported (6.3 on); Use ENTER keys instead of TAB template feature is now fully supported; Supported prop:join and prop:spread sheet's parameters; Spin controls up and down arrows now properly generate event:newselection event; Added functions Risnet:GetClientPath() AND RisNet:SetClientPath(STRING); Skip print preview report option is now working properly with Legacy templates

A 15.00% relative discount on Molebox is available until January 31, 2010. MoleBox is a software virtualization and protection tool that allows delivering your application as a portable stand-alone secure EXE file which runs instantly with zero installation. MoleBox packs all application files into a single efficient executable file that works without extracting packed files to the hard drive and creating temporary files. MoleBox also applies a number of protection techniques to packed files, including anti-crack protection for EXE and DLLs, resource protection, protection from modification for data files, and many more.

amazingGUI 1.2.0.3 has been released. Changes include: Fix for multi-DLL applications; A Clarion 7.1 installer. amazingGUI is available on Clarion Shop for $119.

Last fall SoftVelocity announced its planned architecture for .NET applications. How does SV's strategy dovetail with the state of the art in .NET application development? What kinds of choices face Clarion developers? What is the future of Clarion in .NET?