As work continues on OpenInsight 11 we’re still working on OpenInsight 10 to ensure that we’re fixing bugs and implementing a few new features wherever we can (and of course folding them into v11 as well).

OpenInsight 10.3 is the next release and about to hit Beta status, and we’ll announce the release date in due course. Originally we planned to release a smaller 10.2.5 version with just the bug fixes, but as we added a major component update and a few other new things, we decided to bump it up a little, so here’s what you’ll be getting:

An updated OIPI “Classic” (OCX) version

As you know, we supply two main printer engines in OpenInsight: One is based on OLE (OCX) technology (aka. Get/Set_Printer1) , and the other is based on .NET technology (aka. Get/Set_Printer2). The reason for adding the latter version to OpenInsight was mainly because the OLE version didn’t support Unicode at all, and this was becoming a vital requirement for modern applications. The big downside of the .NET version, however, was the speed, and it was generally slower than the OLE version, which was painfully noticeable on some long reports and print jobs.

The good news is that with version 10.3 we’ve implemented the following in the OIPI OCX version:

• Full Unicode support in the document object and PDF exporter.
• Support for compression, passwords and encryption in the PDF exporter.
• Improved the UI feedback in the PDF Exporter
• Vastly improved the speed of the PDF exporter (we had some reports go from 12 ppm to 600 ppm!)
• Added text-selection functionality in the Print Preview window to match the .NET version.

So hopefully with that you’ll get the best of both worlds – Unicode and speed!

Added the “Find” API to the WEBVIEW control

Microsoft finally added a Find API in the WEBVIEW control so we’ve now exposed that too. This means that you’ll be able to programmatically control the “Find” functionality in your WEBVIEW controls (You can even use your own Find dialog if you prefer closer integration with your normal OpenInsight GUI forms instead).

Added support for multiple-selection listboxes and drag-reordering

LISTBOX controls have always supported a simplified Drag and Drop ability via the ALLOWDRAGREORDER property, but it was always limited to single-select mode. Due to popular demand we’ve updated this to include multiple-selection mode too (And for those of you wondering, we’re hoping to get full OLE Drag and Drop finished for version 11, honest… ).

Of course there are several other bug fixes and performance improvements we’ve added as well, so be sure to check out the Beta release when it goes live!