Over the last few weeks this newsletter has been filled with exciting information about U3. The good news is that Revolution U3 is almost with us, and is due to be released in early August. Let's take a look at some of the new features you can expect to see in Revolution 2.7.3.
We're adding support for the zip archive format. This means that you'll be able to use your Revolution apps to create and manage zip files. You'll be able to compress and extract archives as well as list and add to their contents.
Also being added is control over application instancing on Windows. Ordinarily if a user opens a Windows application when it is already running, Windows will run a second copy of the program. You can now prevent this by specifying your project as a single instance application.
When you attempt to launch another instance of an application on Windows
(for example by double clicking on a document while Revolution is running),
a reLaunch message is sent.
on reLaunch pCommandLine
-- the path to the document and any other flags are stored in pCommandLine
-- insert code to open a document here
If you don't pass the reLaunch command then a second instance will open. If
you want to load a document into the current instance, put this at the end
of the reLaunch handler:
pass reLaunch
You can also look forward to a few bug fixes and other minor improvements. For example, we're modernising the player object to include support for longer file names. There are several enhancements to the IDE, for example, you are now better able to interrupt running applications when you need to debug them.
Of course, by far the biggest feature is the introduction of U3 support with 2.7.3. You'll be able to deliver your application for the U3 platform with just one click. Not only will they run off U3 smart drives but you can write applications that affect the U3 environment: controlling drive eject, configuration, install and uninstall.
The engine can now be invoked with new command-line switches that allow you
full control over U3.
u3start -- Adds a parameter to the startup message to tell you to
configure your application to run from U3 and configures the engine to
handle shutting down on device eject
u3stop -- Sends a u3eject message with either "safe" or "physical" as a
parameter.
u3install -- Tells your application it is being installed on a U3 device.
u3uninstall -- Tells your application it is being uninstalled from a U3
device.
-u3configure -- Configure your application.
-u3cleanup -- Clean up your application.
Because we're so excited about this imminent release, we're making you a special pre-release offer. If you purchase Revolution Studio or Revolution Enterprise between now and August 17th you can also purchase a years worth of upgrades for half the normal price, that's a saving of $50 (£33 outside the USA) off Studio upgrades and $148 (£99 outside the USA) off Enterprise upgrades. This means that not only will you get Revolution 2.7.3 with U3 compatibility as soon as it is available, but you'll get every other Revolution update that we release in the next year.
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