This short guide was prepared to highlight the important features and functions of ezDialogs from Woll2Woll Software. For detailed descriptions of ezDialogs functions, please refer to the enclosed User’s Manual and addendums.

• What Is ezDialogs?
• Benefits of Using ezDialogs
• Quicker Application Development
• Professional, Consistent Design
• Faster Dialog Boxes
• More Usability For Your End-Users
• Fewer Windows Resources
• Library Source Code Included
• Distribute Your Applications Royalty-Free
• What dialogs and methods are included with ezDialogs?
• Table Lookup Dialog
• List Dialogs
• File Browsing Dialogs
• Input Dialogs
• Extended Locate Field Value Dialog
• Standard Windows Common Dialogs
• Memo Dialogs
• Clip Objects
• String Extensions
• Serial Communication core routines
• Performance
• ezDialogs Requirements
• Availability & Pricing
• Company Information

What is ezDialogs?
ezDialogs is actually two products in one. First and foremost, ezDialogs is a set of powerful, programmer customizable dialog boxes that can be plugged into your Paradox for Windows application by entering a few lines of ObjectPAL code. The dialog box categories provided with ezDialogs include List dialogs, Lookup Table dialog, Input dialogs, File Browsing dialogs, Customizable Locate Field Value, Informational dialogs and several standard Windows Common Dialogs with most categories containing several dialog boxes each.

The programmer specifies which dialog box to display, how it should be displayed, what its initial contents are and then ezDialogs takes care of everything else. It displays the dialog box on-screen, processes user selections and input, validates user-entered information, removes the dialog box from the screen and returns the values selected or entered by the user.

Second, ezDialogs contains a set of enhanced ObjectPAL functions. With only a few lines of ObjectPAL code, your application can perform extended String operations such as Forward and Reverse Search and Replace, Insert, Remove and Copy to Clipboard. The Serial Communications functions included with ezDialogs give your application the power to automatically dial your phone, if a modem is attached.

At its heart, ezDialogs is comprised of two Windows Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL’s) and an ObjectPAL library. This allows dialog boxes and functions to be added to both forms and libraries. To simplify the inclusion of a new ezDialogs function in your form or library, ezDialogs includes a program called ezAssist that scans an open form, or a saved form or library file, for ezDialogs function calls and automatically adds all necessary Uses and Type method code for you!

Benefits of Using ezDialogs
ezDialogs was designed with the help of professional and corporate Paradox for Windows developers. Concerns among this group of people range from consistency across individual forms and entire applications, to speed, ease of development and using as few Windows resources as possible. With these concerns in mind, the dialog boxes and enhanced ObjectPAL functions supplied in ezDialogs were carefully crafted in C++, for consistency, speed and limited Windows resource usage, and are provided to you as a Windows DLL embedded into an ObjectPAL Library.

Quicker Application Development
ezDialogs saves you time when developing Paradox for Windows applications because all you need to do is define a few parameters and write a single line of code to display an ezDialogs dialog box or call an ezDialogs enhanced ObjectPAL function. You don't need to spend hours or days designing a set of dialog boxes and library routines to be used across your applications because ezDialogs has already done all of this time-consuming work for you!

Professional, Consistent Design
Woll2Woll Software has taken great care in the graphic and operational design of the ezDialogs dialog boxes. 3-D surfaces and controls are employed, giving the dialogs a crisp, up-to-date, professional look. All dialogs are consistent in their design and conform to the normal Windows standard of dialog box operation and include your choice of Borland or Microsoft buttons (bitmaps or no bitmaps). When you choose the Borland style buttons, their appearance is controlled by your PW Desktop settings. This ensures that your end-users already know how to use ezDialogs dialog boxes without any additional training.

Faster Dialog Boxes
When using ezDialogs in your Paradox for Windows applications, you are tapping into the true power of Windows and the speed of C++, without writing a single line of C++ or Windows SDK code! This means ezDialogs dialog boxes are the fastest displaying and reacting dialog boxes possible and are many times faster than a dialog box created as a Paradox for Windows form. When called, an ezDialogs dialog box is displayed immediately and its response to end-user actions is also instantaneous.

More Usability For Your End-Users
ezDialogs dialog boxes not only make your job easier, but they also make it easier for your end-users to use the applications you create, due to their high speed, consistent interface design and their standard Windows look and feel.

Fewer Windows Resources
Since you don't need to create your own dialog boxes as Paradox for Windows forms, far less Windows memory resources are used. This provides all of your users’ currently running Windows applications with more resource memory which allows them to perform better.

Library Source Code Included
To protect your investment in ezDialogs and to ensure compatibility with future releases of Paradox for Windows, the entire ezDialogs ObjectPAL library is provided to you as source code, in an undelivered state. When you upgrade your version of Paradox for Windows, simply re-deliver the ezDialogs library file and it’s ready to go.

Distribute Your Applications Royalty-Free
The ezDialogs library may be distributed with your applications royalty- free. No runtime licensing, no additional fees, no hassles. Simply include the necessary redistributable files right along with your application.

What dialogs and methods are included with ezDialogs?

Table Lookup Dialog

1. Dynamically locates the entry in the table as the user types in the first few characters of the lookup value.
2. Supports Paradox pattern searching during incremental search. Search next pattern, prior pattern support. (Many customers have found this feature usable as a complete replacement for the PW Locate field value function, giving their users a much more robust, informative and usable Locate function. Simply call the OPAL Locate() method against your table using this dialog’s returned values.)
3. Supports secondary indexes, and user selectable sort order. End- users can view the lookup table sorted by any field.
4. Programmer has complete control over which fields are displayed and what format they are displayed in.
5. Provides four optional, programmer-defined buttons allowing the programmer to call additional forms, methods, reports or even give experienced users the ability to live-edit the lookup table data.

List Dialogs

1. Standard pop-up lists, two-column lists, multi-selection lists, checkbox lists and drop-down lists.
2. Lists can be automatically sorted either numerically or alphabetically.
3. Support for wide data fields in lists.
4. Optionally, automatically fill a list with values from a table.

File Browsing Dialogs

1. Optionally select multiple filenames at once (just added to PW in version 5.0).
2. Separate drop-down lists for disk drives and Paradox for Windows aliases.
3. Programmer-definable file types allowing multiple extensions for each file type.
4. Ability to pre-select one or more files, providing default selections to the user.
5. Consistent look and feel with the standard Windows file selection dialog box making it much more usable for your end-users.

Input Dialogs

1. Ask user to enter numbers, integers and passwords.
2. Ask user to enter one or more lines of text.
3. Ask user to enter their secret Username or Password. Asterisks are displayed for each character the user types.
4. All input dialog boxes have programmer-configurable limits and include built-in error checking.

Extended Locate Field Value Dialog

1. Programmer-defined fields that the end-user is allowed to search against, instead of every field in the table being listed. The fields are also automatically sorted alphabetically for you.
2. When entering pattern expressions, the user is not required to understand special syntax, such as "..." meaning any value.

Standard Windows Common Dialogs

1. Select Font dialog box, supports font color, typeface, style and size.
2. Select Color and Custom Color dialog boxes.
3. Select File, the standard graphical file browser and selection dialog box.

Memo Dialogs
Attach full 24 line memo-view and memo-edit dialogs directly to any object. This dialog allows you to conserve screen real-estate by showing only one or two lines of the memo field in your form, but still providing a way for your users to have a full 24 line editable view of the memo by clicking on this field.

Clip Objects
Just cut and paste any of ezDialogs ready-to-go clip-objects that reduce your coding to virtually nothing!

String Extensions
The Paradox for Windows String type has been extended to support the following:

1. Replace one ore more occurrences of a literal or pattern with a specified string.
2. Search for a literal or pattern.
3. Support for reverse searching of a literal or pattern.
4. Copy strings directly to the Windows clipboard.
5. Methods for returning the number of occurrences of a literal or pattern expression in a string.
6. Insert a string into the middle of another string.
7. Remove a specified number of characters from a string.
8. Extract specified number of characters from the right or left of a string.

Serial Communication core routines

1. Read and write to COM ports.
2. Auto phone dialer if a modem is attached.
3. Built-in dialog box to set COM port specifics, such as baud rate, stop bits, parity and data bits.

Performance
ezDialogs functions and dialog boxes are lighting fast since they are programmed in C++ and implemented as a Windows DLL instead of as Paradox for Windows forms.

ezDialogs Requirements
In order to use the ezDialogs dialog boxes or enhanced ObjectPAL functions, the target PC must contain a functional copy of Paradox for Windows version 4.5 or 5.0. ezDialogs does not have any requirements above or beyond those necessary to run Paradox for Windows.

Availability & Pricing
ezDialogs is available immediately at the price of $149.00, for a single-user version, or bundled with ezDOC and ezTools for $249.00. An unlimited number of developers Site License is available for $475.00. Check, money order, Visa, Mastercard and American Express are accepted.

The ezDialogs library and associated Windows DLLs may be distributed with your applications royalty-free, as detailed in the User’s Manual.

Company Information
Woll2Woll Software earned its reputation for providing solid, professional Paradox for Windows development utilities with its ezDOC utility product that graphically documents all aspects of a Paradox for Windows application. Founded in 1993 by Roy S. Woll, Woll2Woll Software is dedicated to producing high-quality, professional, easy-to-use and affordable Paradox for Windows development tools. One of the first commercial vendors to provide development tools for the Paradox for Windows database development market, Woll2Woll creates products based on corporate and independent developer requirements that are not met in the Paradox for Windows product.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, Woll2Woll Software’s products currently include ezDOC, ezDialogs, and Infopower for Delphi.

Woll2Woll Software
2217 Rhone Dr.Livermore, CA 94550
San Jose, CA 95122

Sales:
1-800-WOL2WOL (1-800-965-2965)
Phone: (510) 371-1663
Fax: (510) 371-1664

E-mail to: sales@woll2woll.com

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Phone (Sales):	800-965-2965 (Toll Free U.S)
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Last Modified:	Wednesday, 28-Jan-2004 10:17:11 PST