InForm Beta 8 update begins rolling out

[FellippeHeitor]

Hello, everyone.

The eighth beta version of InForm will begin rolling out today. I will start updating the official distribution channels soon, but the autoupdate files have already been refreshed in the server and anyone currently using Beta 7 should see a dialog offering to update their copy as soon as InForm is launched.

I will update this topic with more details soon. Please let me know if anyone has any trouble with the autoupdates, as this too is an experimental feature.

Fellippe.

[FellippeHeitor]

Here's the changelog for InForm's Beta 8 release:

Overall:

• New GIF player extension: Zom-B wrote a GIF player and shared it with the QB64 community (you can find his original code in our wiki). This release of InForm incorporates Zom-B’s code into the first extension to InForm. Just add a PictureBox control and load an animated GIF. The rest is done automatically for you.
• New .AutoScroll property for ListBox controls: This property will have the list automatically scroll when a new item is added. Although the property was already available in Beta 7, only now it has been made available in the Editor.
• .Value property of NumericTextBox controls now contains the current value entered: In the previous version, you’d have to read the Text() property of a NumericTextBox field and convert it with VAL() to use in calculations. This is now done automatically for you and all you have to do is read the .Value property of your control as in MyValue% = Control(MyNumericTextBox1).Value.
• New .AutoSize property for labels: Labels would automatically resize at design time, but now you can also set a single-line label to adjust at runtime by setting the .AutoSize property to True.
• New .BorderSize property: All controls that accept the .HasBorder property can now have their border size adjusted to up to 10 pixels.
• New SelectItem function for List/DropdownList controls: Can be used to select an item by contents instead of by index. If the list contains multiple identical items, the first is selected. Syntax: Found%% = SelectItem(ControlID, “Item”)
• Controls can now have a key combination assigned so they can be triggered using the keyboard: It’s also the easiest way to add a key combo to menu items.

UiEditor:

• Controls with boolean values now have a True/False list to choose from. No longer having to type 0 or -1 to set them at design time.
• System fonts and font sizes are now in lists for ease of selection.
• TCP/IP is now used to communicate between the editor and the preview window: The previous approach involved constantly reading a file on disk to exchange data. Now, because of the new technique, your operating system may ask you permission to allow InForm to communicate via TCP/IP, which you should grant in order to allow it to work properly.
• New Paste List button allows for easy filling of ListBox/DropdownList controls.
• Swapping of similar control types now possible: A menu bar item can be turned into a contextual menu, a text box into a numeric text box, a toggle switch into a checkbox, a listbox into a dropdown list. Look for the ‘Convert to’ option in the Edit menu or by right-clicking controls in the preview.
• Hitting ENTER is no longer required to apply changes to control properties.
• ContextMenus can now be easily created and associated with controls.
• Menus can now have sub-menus.
• Allows TrackBar controls to have their “ticks” hidden.
• File menu now contains a list of recently opened files.
• New “Save As…” dialog: Up to Beta 7, the forms you designed would be saved with an automatic name taken from the Form’s caption property and would be saved in QB64’s main folder. Now you can specify a file name and a path at save time with the new “Save as…” dialog.

[TerryRitchie]

Just fired up UiEditor and let it update to version 8. Very slick update process, went smooth as silk.

[FellippeHeitor]

Just fired up UiEditor and let it update to version 8. Very slick update process, went smooth as silk.

Great to hear! Thanks Terry!

[FellippeHeitor]

I'm a heavy user of my own products and this was something that really bugged me using InForm. You create a control with a certain type only to then change your mind and realize it'd have better been another type. I'd delete it and recreate it or I'd go to the .frm file and change it manually later on. Now that's not the case anymore.

Thanks! :-)

[FellippeHeitor]

Here are two videos showcasing what's new in Beta 8 (click the links, not the images).

A short (2:30) video with a quick overview:

https://youtu.be/HhhlRDhSvbo

And a longer (37:07) video with a detailed walkthrough narrated by yours truly:

https://youtu.be/S3D4zEUQ0sQ

[TempodiBasic]

Here my good experience

I launch UiEditor of Inform and I get the updating message box and then it stars well and finish well. (see attachement 1 and 2)
When I choose to start UiEditor I get warning of Windows Defender Firewall to let to communicate UiEditor in  private and/or public  networks.
Ans TADA... I got the Inform 8 version (see attachment 3)

Thanks Fellippe for your efforts to improve this your tool.

[FellippeHeitor]

Thank you so much TempodiBasic for sharing your update experience in detail!

BTW, you've been mentioned in the long video above (starting at 4:30 :-)

Fellippe

[TempodiBasic]

BTW, you've been mentioned in the long video above (starting at 4:30 :-)

Right!
Thanks

I think you can use this TimeMap for your long video because you show many different and interesting news in rapid sequence.

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. 00.11  Installer
2. 01.02  Inform interface
3. 01.12  True False controls
4. 02.30  Fonts on system
5. 04.05  Autosize Label control
6. 05.22  Deleting controls by keyboard and menu of UiEditor
7. 06.00  New Save Dialog
8. 06.40  Inform skeleton program code
9. 07.04  Making a simple first program event driven designed by Inform
10. 08.15  New adding item features for BoxList control
11. (09.00 Your cat pause)
12. 10.44  Switching between two similar controls (listbox vs droplist, checkbox vs toggle)
13. 13.03  Confirm changements of property of item just leaving it or pressing Enter, Esc to regret changements
14. 14.20  Context menu
15. 14.16  & in menu Caption
16. 16.42  A simple example for Context Menu shared among different same kind of  control, second program event driven designed by Inform
17. 22.14  Sub menu item in menu item
18. 23.00  Open Recent project (submenu list of last recent projects)
19. 24.18  creating a Divider in menu
20. 28.18  HotKeys associating Key or combo keys to the event triggered
21. 30.04  A simple example for Hotkey association
22. 31.06  Autoscrollable listbox
23. 31.44  GIF player
24. 34.34  Border size
25.  

[FellippeHeitor]

Wow! Thank you so much for that, Tempodi! I will update the video description as soon as I'm back home tonight.

[Qwerkey]

Fellippe, I ran Inform today (beta7) and it has automatically updated to Beta8 and running fine (I presume).  This is in my GL1.200(32-bit) folder.
Now I'm changing QB64 to 64-bit, will just copying all the Inform files & folders to my 64-bit QB64 folder work without effort, or will I have to do a new instal?  You will have noticed that I haven't done any Inform projects for a while - must add to my 2019 resolutions.

[FellippeHeitor]

Good to hear the update went smooth.

You should be fine just copying InForm files over to your new QB64 folder.

[KnotHead]

Beautiful!!!  Can't wait to try it out.

[FellippeHeitor]

Beautiful!!!  Can't wait to try it out.

Let me know how the experience goes! :-)