Customize your DataEase!
One of the things that has constantly been a headache for DataEase developers, has been the intrusiveness of DataEase when used on vertical applications. DataEase has been around for over 25 years and in this time hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of specialized applications have been created, sold, distributed and used all over the world.
As much as the developers love DataEase as a development tool, it would be nice to deliver an enduser application that is more "their own" than DataEase's.
In 7.2 we have made some small changes that makes the distribution of DataEase applications easier, more efficient and least but not last, make the product your own. In 7.2 you will be able to set your own Application caption, customize the login dialog, make your own Splash screen and we will also offer a distribution service - DataEase distributes for YOU! where you can upload your application to us, and we will wrap it with the latest released version of DataEase, serialize it and mail a download link to either you or directly to your customer.
The way this work is as follows:
Application Caption
We have introduced an Application variable called "ApplicationCaption" in the application.ini file. This file is named in the traditional DataEase fashion and will typically be RDRRXAA.INI, where X is the first letter in your application name. When 7.2 first opens an application it will check for this variable and insert it if it doesn't exist. When first created it will put in the standard DataEase : Application Name. If this variable is customized by you, this will override the standard and this will now be your new Caption.
Login dialog
As we guess you have already discovered, the startup of 7.2 has radically changed from earlier versions. The ugly login dialog that has followed DataEase since the introduction of Express back in the early '90 has now finally been replaced with a picture. To customize this, just take the picture rdrrXlogin.png that you find in the Customization catalog under DataEase 7.2. The only thing you can't change is the position of the 2 fields, the 2 buttons and the size of the login. When you try to open an application, DataEase will look in your application catalog for the file rdrrXlogin.png, and replace the standard login if this exists.
Splash
If you try to start an application directly from the commandline in 7.2, DataEase will look in the application catalog for the file rdrrXsplash.tif and display this instead of the standard splash. You will find a template for the splash with the correct measurements in the Customization catalog.
By: Ulrik Jacob Hoegh - Krohn posted: 30th June 2009 - 15:04