Earlier Upgrades - pre July 2004

Pre July 2003 versions of Showman used a different data processing system and are obsolete.

Feb 21st 2003 - Second Release of Showman version 2. Modified to allow users to set up their own 'Names' in place of the words 'Show', 'Class' and 'Classes'.

July 03 - Modified to permit 30 Sections and 999 Classes maximum.

Nov 12th 03 - the error that stopped Showman running with an 'Run Time Error 76, Path Not Found' message was fixed.

17th July 2004 - update fixing several bugs - as below

a) Save As ..

You could not to use 'Save As ..' to save a file in the Editor, if the file name contained a SPACE character, eg: My File - It was necessary to remove the space character eg: MyFile - this problem has been fixed.

b) Using a ' character in a search box.

If a ' was typed into a 'Search' box (eg you were looking for, say, O'Connel) the programme would crash. This problem is due to the way the Microsoft programme code works. I have added code to prevent the programme from crashing by blocking any ' character.

The Entries - Edit or Add routine allows you to have names that contain a ' - the problem above will limit your search to ALL entries starting with, say, 'O' - but if there are three search boxes, you can narrow the search using these other boxes.

c) Entries 'Add New' button

If you were adding New Entrants and moved away from this page to, say, 'Entries By Person', the 'Add New' button was disabled and could only be re-enabled by closing and restarting the 'Entries' programme. This has been fixed.

d) Progress Bars

Have been added to the 'Create Results' buttons in Winners and Prize Money routines.

e) 'Overflow' Error in the Editor

When importing 'Results' files, the editor sometimes crashed with an 'Overflow Error' message. It only happened with files above a certain size, and the only 'work around' was to use WordPad or other word-processor to open the file.

The fault was due to my not setting the code to accept a big enough character count. It has now been fixed.

January 2006 - version 2.5

This new release of ShowMan incorporates quite a few improvements and 'bug' fixes. The more important ones are documented here.

Because the underlying programme code has not changed significantly, the version number has remained at 2, but the sub-version is now .5, making the current release version 2.5

Programme and Page Access - Tabbed Page Operation Replaced

For a number of reasons I felt that the on-screen operation of ShowMan needed changing. The Integrator screen in the previous version used 'Tab' pages as a means for users to access the various programmes and routines within these programmes.

The programming component that provided the 'Tab' functionality was found NOT to be compatible with future upgrades and the available alternatives did not provide the functionality needed. Rather than purchase a component that would proably soon become redundant I decided to change the way the routines and pages are accessed.

As a result of these changes, the 'Tabbed Page' method of access to the groups of programmes has been removed and replaced by an 'Icon' panel, at the LEFT of the screen.

A side benefit of this method are that it is nicer to look at and slicker.

When one of the Icons is clicked, a related panel displays in the top half of the main screen. This panel carries an appropriate number of Icons (and associated text). Clicking the required icon will cause the associated routine to be opened.

Screen Resolution - preferred screen resolution

The change has however created a problem, related to screen resolution.

Resolution refers to the number of 'pixels' (dots) used by the screen. Common values of resolution are - 640 pixels wide x 480 pixels high, 800w x 600h, 1024w x 768h and 1280w x 1024h

• ShowMan 2 was designed to fit comfortably on a screen operating at 800w x 600h resolution, and the installer will not allow you to install ShowMan on screens with a lower resolution.

640 x 480 is now obsolescent, but may be found on very old PC’s. ShowMan will NOT be able to display correctly on machines using this resolution – but you may be able to change it – view information on Altering Screen Resolution and Web Browsing

Older machines may only be able to work at resolutions of UP TO 800w x 600h, depending on their age and specification.

Newer machines will be able to use 1024w x 768h and even 1280w x 1024h, OR HIGHER.

As you set your PC to higher resolutions TWO very important considerations come into play -

• You will be able to see more of a document or web page on screen
• Everything on-screen will be smaller To compensate for this screens have become larger in size. Around the mid-90's 14 inch screens were the norm. Now (2005-6) few PC's are supplied with a screen of less than 17 inch size (diagonal)

When I started to convert the programme to use the new Icon panel on the LEFT it soon became apparent that, in some of the routines* it was difficult to redesign the pages to fit in a screen of only 800 pixels wide.

* The Name and Address, Entries, ClassCards and Database Maintenance routines

In order to enable these four screens to fit in an 800 pixel wide screen, I have added an Automatic resize control that compresses the width of these screens when used on a screen of 800 pixel width - this results in some slight distortion of these windows - not serious.

• On higher resolution screens, there is no problem.

Auto Hide Taskbar

If you are using an 800w x 600h screen, I suggest that you set the Taskbar to 'Auto Hide', or disable 'Always on Top'.

This will prevent the Taskbar overlying the lower part of the 'ShowMan' screen.

To set these options - RIGHT CLICK the mouse on a clear part of the Taskbar, and choose 'Properties' from the pop-up list. Check 'Auto Hide' and then 'Apply'. After you do this, the Taskbar will hide itself and will no longer overlay the lower areas of screens.

To see the Taskbar again, just move the mouse cursor to the bottom of the screen.

Main 'Bug' Fixes and Alterations since last release

'Bug' fixes and Alterations are combined, because one often leads to, or incorporates, the other

1. Previously, if you wanted to search for a name containing an apostrophe eg O'Carroll - the programme crashed. This was temporarily fixed by trapping the character and posting a warning message. In the new release, you can use the character to find matches.
2. One user had a crash because, for some reason, the 'Temp' folder within a Section had disappeared. Now, if this folder is missing, the programme creates it.
3. Occasionally, an attached Printer doesn't respond when the user tries to print something. (This can occur in other programmes too). The reason is not known, but some solutions are offered in the 'Tips' file - accessable on the Integrator page. The Text on the 'button' that opens the 'Tips' file has been amended to remind users about this.
4. The programme would crash if NO PRINTER was installed on the PC and certain operations were attempted such as printing or creating certain results files. This has now been trapped and a warning displayed.
5. Printing Class Cards - an option has been added under Label Setup - Footer Options, to print the FIRST LINE of the Class Title as a footer on Class Cards.
6. Class Cards -Label Setup. When printing of options (eg Header, Logo etc;) is disabled, the information in the 'Layout of Items on Labels' panel no longer 'dissappears', but is 'greyed out' so that you can see that (not currently used) data is still stored.
7. Class Cards, Print Class Cards page - if 'Print in Class Order' is selected, the table now displays the Entrants' ID number in addition to the Class and Card data.
8. Class Cards, Print Class Cards page - the 'Select Info File Record' panel has been enlarged so that it can show longer Names in full.
9. Class Cards, Print Class Cards page - Selecting a different print option, switching pages or scrolling the selected template in the the 'Select Info File Record' panel now clears the list of records to be printed.
10. Address routine Edit or Add Record - if you edited a record and then tried to Exit or move to another page, you got a message to 'Cancel in Order to Save' your changes or 'Proceed and Loose them'. This message shouldn't have appeared as changes are automatically saved, but worse, the record in question was DUPLICATED. This problem has been fixed.
11. Address routine - an extra page has been added that allows users to Display, in a table, all records FOR or BEFORE a certain YEAR. It is then possible either to 'Select' certain records for deletion, or delete ALL records displayed.
12. Section Setup - Modified the 'Editor Imported Items' page to say what Units (Inches or Centimeters) are currently in use.
13. The default (ie; as installed) name for the (Single) Section when ShowMan is initially installed is 'ShowData'. This name can now be changed to your own choice - If you have a 'Multiple Section' registration version, select Single Section Mode on the Integrator page. And then go to 'General Setup', 'Setup Sections'. This effectively allows you to have 31 sections in total.
14. Editor - on the edit menu, if users tried to 'Save' some SELECTED text, the whole document was saved. This has been fixed.
15. Editor - if users tried to use 'Save As' to save to a file that contained a SPACE character in its' name, the operation failed with a 'file not found' error message - this has been fixed.
16. Editor - when importing the Money Prize files into the editor, the programme crashed with an 'Overflow Error' - this has been fixed.
17. Editor - Page Setup (on Edit menu) - interraction with the editor improved.
18. Page Setup (on Edit menu of editor) - this pop-up window now only allows users to alter the dimensions when 'User Defined' is selected. The correct, unalterable dimensions are displayed when predefined paper sizes are selected.
19. Progress Bars have been added to Winners, Create Results Files, Winners, Show Marking Progress and Money Prizes, Create Results Files.
20. Minor fix - First Prize Winners List column heading said 'Prize'. Now corrected to 'Class'.
21. Entries Add or Edit - the 'Add New Entrant' button didn't always work if users returned to this page from other pages in this routine - now fixed.
22. A user had placed entries into a class and awarded points to them. Subsequently that user decided to REDUCE the number of classes in that Show by one and duplicate the same entries and points into a lower class. The database however, still contained the data for the unwanted class. The Winners routine happily created a 'Results' file and the unwanted data could be seen in that file. However the 'Money Prizes' programme crashed when the user tried to create the Results Files. The programme now checks for this error and issues a warning. It won't complete the task until the excess data is removed, or the number of classes increased so that the data becomes valid again.
23. In another case, Winners had been allocated to a class, but, on the Money Prizes 'Edit Info File' page, that class had NOT been included in any of the Money/Class Range setups. This resulted in the programme crashing. It has now been amended to issue a warning and skip processing until the error has been corrected.
24. The suite 'Help' file has been updated and recompiled as HTML Help (ShowMan.Chm). ShowMan 2.5 now supports this help system.
25. All 'Brief Manuals' have been reviewed and updated where necessary.
26. All web pages have been reviewed and revised where necessary.
27. Database Routine - a number of modifications. The main one is that a Backup of the database is automatically created when any of the 'Compact', 'Rewrite' or Prepare for New Show Options' are used. The backup file is retained UNTIL one of the above commands is used again. This means that you can use other routines in Showman to check if the result is what you want, and to restore the previous database to try again if not.
28. Database Routine - this now displays the Size and Date of both the CURRENT Database, and the (LAST) backup copy.
29. Database Routine – the Database can now be ‘Rewritten’ at any time (see Help File for more information).
30. Suite General Setup - First Page - an option to select what should be printed on the SECOND LINE of the heading on RESULTS Pages created by the programmes. You can choose the SECOND Line of your Registration, or the Name of the Section. You can also choose to have additional text printed AFTER the Section name.
31. In ShowMan 2, the drive and folder to be used as the 'Backup' drive was set up on the 'General Setup' page. This has been moved to the 'Backup' page so that it is more accessible to the routine that uses these items.
32. Restore routine - modified to allow users to set the Drive and Folder to restore from instead of requiring the defaults to be changed by going to the 'Backup' page. Also modified Restore to permit ANY Section to be restored by entering the Name of that Section (assumes Multiple Section registration and also that the section in question is backed up.
33. For all routines that use an 'InfoFile', records in the Infofile used by that routine are checked for Class Numbers that are higher than the 'Number of Classes' set for that Section. If an incorrect value is found a warning is shown, and the error must be corrected before the routine can process the relevant actions.