What's new in MMB4.9.5?

MAIN ADDITIONS AND REPLACEMENTS :

MMB Video object:

MMB Video object is now completely rewritten! The days of an obsolete and not reliable MCI video playback are counted! The MCI object still remains there and unchanged (for technical experts), but the Video object is now a fully featured and easy to use DirectShow player. Of course, there are some dependencies on the installed video codecs; however, if you have installed Windows Media Player 7 or higher, you should have all the usual codecs installed. Now it is possible to run multiple video objects on a page at the same time!

Bitmap object enhancements:

Added a lot of new Image related scripting commands and designer enhancement. Now you will be able to preserve the Image size, or stretch image to fit window, resize/rotate the image and preserve its aspect ratio and lots of other things. Look at the detailed  Bitmap Object description.

Polygonal Hot-spot:

Added a polygonal hot-spot object. Irregular hot spots are now possible!

ZoomTool:

Added Zoom Tool for magnifying the selected part of MMB workspace.

MMB Script:

A lot of new scripting commands were added to work with strings, date/time, video, image/hotspot/polygon object resize and rotation, and many others. BTW, complete list of all MMB functions, CBK variables and predefined functions is now accessible over the right-click menu in MMB scripting dialog (both basic and enhanced windows) and scripting functions are no longer case sensitive. Check the Scripting Unleashed chapter in help. This chapter is really important to all of you who want to understand MMB Scripting. We really recommend you to check this chapter (thanks Bokzy! :)

OTHER ENHANCEMENTS:

• Added tooltips and ability to change the default cursor on some next objects (Bitmap, Polygon objects, Matrix, Text and Text Edit).
• Added the ability to change the color of HTML status bar and progress bar (designer).
• Added the option to run just one instance designer/compiled application.
• Added a button to delete all guide lines (menu Edit>>> Edit Guides).
• Added buttons and shortcuts to Page Manager for inserting (INS) and deletion (DEL) the publication pages.
• Added the ability to change the colors of AudioVisualization object - Equalizer (both from designer and script).
• Added a Minimize button to the standard project window.
• Added the ability to completely disable the Flash right click menu.
• Added the ability to load Flash file in its original size and maintain its aspect ratio.
• MMB4.9 files can now be saved in 4.8 compatible file format. All 4.9 related things will be removed and scripts will be amended.
• Each change in a Dimension tool can be confirmed by Enter and not only by "Apply" button as previously.
• FMOD audio library updated to version 3.6.2.
• Restored the ability to change the Player.exe icon (Compile dialog).
• The main Object toolbar is now redesigned to popups (according common features). However, if you don't like the popups, you can switch back to the previous long toolbar (View>>>Toolbars>>>Object Toolbar (simple)).
• Video Object now supports audio playback (mp3,ogg, mi, mi, midi, rmi, wav, snd, au, aif, wma, asf), but without the ID tags!
• Added the option to enable/disable multiselection, item numbering and audio time in a ListBox object.
• LoadVideo and  ReplaceImage functions now supports OpenFile button in the "Path" parameter. You will no longer need to Copy and Paste the absolute paths from somewhere else (i.e. windows explorer).
• ListBox object now supports Drag&Drop from outside of MMB application (e.g. from windows explorer).
• Added the option to load the audio and video files as a parameter of a compiled MMB application. Of course, if you want to run a video from command line a video object must be available in the running application.
• Added On Load, On Start and On Stop/Finish events to the Video object (check the Run Script option in Video properties).
• Polygon object can now be resized.
• Already opened and changed projects are marked with * mark in the MMB title bar (behind the project name).
• Added the option to compile final application without the FMOD audio library (NoFMOD option in Compile dialog).
• MMB internal playlist (m3l) now supports Video files storage.
• All windowed objects (Flash, HTML Browser, Binding, ListBox or AV) can now be added on Master Page and Master Top Layer and controlled via script! This allows you to use single Flash object on the Master Page as a project menu or single ListBox for entire project.
• Significantly improved "Snap To Grid" feature. Snap To Grid now works with all objects as expected (including creating objects and dragging the object corners! ;)
• ZoomTool floating can be disabled by toggling ZoomTool button OFF/ON (and not only by Ctrl+Space shortcut as previously).
• Improved speed of Enhanced Script window.
• Multiple embedded sounds can be now played at the same time.
• Message box caption is now set according the project window title (Project>>Project Settings menu).
  
  

SCRIPTING ENHANCEMENTS:  

• Added commands to resize/rotate Bitmaps, Hotspots (w/o image) and filled polygon objects.
• SearchForSong now supports file extension filtering... SearchForSongs("C:\",”mp3,ogg,wav").
• Added a lot of new CBK_Time  and CBK_Video related commands.
• Added <Temp>, <Windows>, <System> predefined variables.
• All <> variables (like a <SrcDir>, <CD>, <System>) can now be expanded to a string variable.
• RunScript and ScriptTimer commands can now be called from the Master Page or Master Top Layer - RunScript("Master Page::Script")
• Added some new predefined functions ( WinVer , ScreenCol , PubWidth , PubHeight , UsingWinNT , ...)
• Added new CBK variable for obtaining the current page name - CKB_PageName .
• WMA and ASF now returns correct CBK time variables.
• Audio CBK now supports reading OGG tags.
• Added two new CBK variables for obtaining the total time of songs in the internal song list -  CBK_TotalList and  CBK_TotalSecList .
• Added many new string handling functions .
• Added PageExit event.
• FMOD and Flash Error/Warning messages can be disabled (Compile page) and then handled by CBK_Error variable.
• Predefined functions ObjectX , ObjectY , ObjectWidth , ObjectHeight and IsVisible now supports string variables as a parameter i.e. ObjectX(object$).
• Added new ListBoxSort("object","param") function. Possible parameters: NAME, TIME, REVERSE and RANDOMIZE.
• Added new ListBoxMoveItem("ListBox1","PositionNum").
• Added FMODConfig function for changing the configuration of FMOD audio library (DX, SW or None + MPEG accurate playback) at runtime.
• Added three new predefined functions for checking the actual mouse state - MouseLButton(), MouseMButton() and MouseRButton() Returns 1 if mouse is pressed and 0 if released.
• If..End conditional loop finally supports Else ;)
• Added WAIT parameter to Run command. This will cause pausing the MMB application until external application is running. Usage: Run("C:\WINNT\notepad.exe","WAIT") or more advanced example  Run("C:\WINNT\notepad.exe","TOPMOST,WAIT c:\your.txt")
• Transparent parts of the bitmap objects will not detect the mouse clicks.
• Scripts can now be saved/loaded to/from external files (Designer option...sorry guys, but the runtime loading of external script files is not yet available ;)
• Added BackgroundPlay , BackgroundPause and BackgroundStop commands for controlling the Background music at runtime.
• Added a syntax completion to MMB script. However, because this feature doesn't need to satisfy everyone, you can turn it OFF by right click menu in script window.
• Function SongListSave now allows you to save the internal songlist to file with any extension you want to use. But the file format of the saved list will be still plain txt (or MMB internal m3l format if you want) SongListSave("SongList","c:\test.aaa").
• Added CBK_URLPath for obtaining the actual path from HTML object.
• Predefined String functions can now be merged within the single line of code e.g. s$= CHR(55)+ CHR(60)
• SongListLoad now supports loading of m3l, m3u, pls and txt file formats.
• Object arrays (e.g. TextBTN[n]) now works with every function, which supports Object label.
• "Master Page::", "Master Layer::" and "Page::"prepositions now works with every function, which supports Object label. LoadText("Page 2::TextBTN","kuk...")
• Functions Hide/Show/Invert and MoveObject/MoveTo now works with stopped as well as running video.
• Predefined functions now supports Object/String/Integer arrays. ColW=ObjectWidth(Bitmap[i])
• Page Exit now works with RunMBD command.
• Speed improvements regarding the Image object and MoveObject/MoveTo command.
• MMB now installs (and embed) Macromedia Flash Player 7.
• Pressing Cancel button in ColorPicker() dialog sets CBK_SelColor = 0.
• ListBoxParam() function to setup some of ListBox properties in a runtime (like a Background and Text color, enable/disable Drag&Drop, etc.).
• ColorPicker() function with CBK_SelColor to selecting and storing colors.
• Added Drag&Drop event tab to the ListBox script dialog.
• Possibility to change the colors of a Menu Item button style (in a design time). 
• Run command now returns the return values from the running applications (of course if return codes were implemented in these applications). The return codes are displayed in CBK_ReturnVal.
  
  

CHANGES:

• Predefined functions are no longer case sensitive. You can type " objectwidth() " or " ObJecTWidth() " and it will be automatically converted to ObjectWidth().
• Function ListBoxAddItem no longer supports RANDOMIZE parameter. Use new ListBoxSort("object"," RANDOMIZE ") function instead of previous ListBoxAddItem with RANDOMIZE parameter .
• Predefined functions ScreenWidth and ScreenHeight are no longer filled after the publication start-up. If you want to obtain the actual screen width/height size, use the new ScreenWidth() and ScreenHeight() functions. All older scripts that use the old syntax must be updated!
• MXCOL and MXROW Matrix variables are no longer filled after the publication start-up. They are filled only if a Matrix object is used.
• MouseDown/MouseUp events are now performed only above parental objects. If you, for example, click and hold the mouse button above an active object (e.g. button), then you move mouse over another active object and release the mouse button above it, the MouseUp event of the second (target) mouse will not be called.
• String variable used as the first parameter of the LoadText function will no longer load the contents of a second LoadText parameter. The variable used as a first parameter of LoadText can be now used as a name pointer to an object. This will allow you to dynamically replace the text in a series of text objects or buttons.
• String Arrays are finally unified (we hope)! All older scipts should work as previously, but it would be safer to check and fix them to match their syntax unified. Everywhere you need to use arrays use this syntax:

 

Numeric arrays:

    NumVar[n]

 

String Arrays:

    StrVar$[n]

 

Object Arrays:

    TextBTN[n]

• TRUE/FALSE are now keywords (automatically colored and converted to uppercase format).
• StrToFile predefined function now supports 1/0 or TRUE/FALSE in Append/Linefeed parameters StrToFile(filename$,string$,1,0)
• <Temp> now returns path to Windows temp directory and <Embedded> returns path to MMB temp directory.
• SongListSave by default save internal SongList <List> (you no longer need to declare it in first parameter).
• SearchForSong is renamed to SearchForFiles. All older scripts are automatically updated to this new name.
• MMB now insert blank lines between the If..Else..End statement, when you type "If" into the script window.
• When you type a function to the script window and the function is auto-completed, then cursor now remains inside the parenthesis or quotes.
• ViewJPG function now support loading the BMP files and is renamed to ViewImage  ;)
• Numbers and times in ListBox can now be disabled (in designer as well as in runtime by script).
• Improved fast clicking detection in hotspot object.
• SongListTime , CBK_Total, CBK_Time, CBK_VTotal, CBK_VTime now returns their values in hh:mm:ss format.
• Added "Search for ID tags" option to the ListBox properties. This option is useful in cases when a non-audio content of the <List> is loaded. Disabling this option can significantly increase the speed of loading.
• Better rescaling algorithm is now used in ViewImage function.
• Improved ListBoxAddItem parameters:

Example:

str$= 'item 4#item 5#item 6#'

sep$=CHR(35)

param$=str$+','+sep$

** previously only this worked...

ListBoxAddItem("ListBox1","str$,#")

** but now you can use also this..

ListBoxAddItem("ListBox1","str$,sep$")

** or this

ListBoxAddItem("ListBox1","param$")

FIXES:

• In cooperation with Bokzy, we found a true reason of occasional crashing in MMB designer. The reason of this issue are some Delphi plugins. The good news is that it can be fixed, however, the bad news is that it will require a rebuild of most of all Delphi plugins. And as you may know or not, some of the plugins are no longer developed by their authors, developers disappeared and the source codes of these plugins are not available too. In short, some of the plugins cannot be fixed and they may still crash the MMB designer.
  Bokzy (as the author of Delphi SDK fix) will probably release (in a near future;) an improved Delphi SDK with description how to fix the current Delphi plugins.
• We also found (in cooperation with mni) a solution to another serious issue reported by some Win98/ME users. Some of them reports no sound or crashes with Flash, Video, Embedded or external applications or a general problems with internal MMB audio when running multiple instances of MMB applications at a time. Believe or not, the right reason of this issue are old sound card drivers! For more information about this issue and how to fix it check FAQ chapter in MMB Help.
• Fixed a serious memory leak if ObjectWidth was used with Text object, or looping ScreenWidth/Height/Colors and some other functions. If your project crashes from time to time after and without any visible reason, this memory leak was the most probably cause of these crashes :)
• Fixed another potentially dangerous place in MMB code, which was cause of many strange and non-reproducible crashes and behaviors. They could happen in cases if your application jumps between mbd projects (via RunMBD) or between pages, and at the same time it runs some background scripts in loops (both finite or infinite).
• Each change of an mbd project should invoke the "project is changed" event and then mbd file should not be closed without Save request.
• Right click menu (Undo, Copy, Paste,...) in script editor is now back.
• Fixed Alpha button preview in the Alpha button load dialog.
• Fixed bug in Run command, which prevent correct parsing of the program parameter.
• EditBox variables are now correctly refreshed when they are filled via LoadText or DisplayValue functions.
• DisplayValue function can now fill the EditBox with a numeric value (not only Text object as previously).
• ObjectWidth / ObjectHeight now returns the correct numbers for Video object.
• Fixed a long time reported, but never found, the load bitmap crash..uff..it was really tremendous ;)
• Fixed some CBK audio related problems.
• Fixed a ListBox destroy problem after RunMBD use.
• Fixed a ListBox numbering problem. Sometimes happened, that the 10th item in the ListBox was numbered as 1.
• Fixed crash when trying to run an non-mbd file from the command line as a parameter of compiled MMB application.
• Fixed a refresh problem in a Dimension tool.
• Fixed CBK_Total a CBK_TotalSec for continuos CD playback.
• CBK text objects now work correctly if they are placed on Master Top page or Master Layer.
• CD stop should now work correctly with the audio CBK related variables.
• Fixed scroll bars in designer.
• Fixed some memory leaks in Flash and Text object;)
• Fixed a problem that cause 1+1=1 ;)
• Fixed bug in PlaySound and MIDIPlay that cause playing midi files in loop when the LOOP parameter was not turned ON.
• Fixed conflict between Matrix object and GetArrayItem function.
• Fixed bug in OpenFile command that prevents to open OpenFile dialog with a predefined path.
• Fixed bug in EditText object, that prevent to use array variables in the numerical output variable.
• Fixed bug in "Project Settings", that cause leaving an empty space at bottom of screen (the same size as taskbar).
• Fixed bug that prevents to replace MMB icon with custom one if project is compiled with NoFMOD player.
• Fixed an issue in PlugiRun, which causes reloading plugin into memory every time PluginRun has been used. This fix also significantly speed up the PluginRun.
• Speed optimization for non-overlapped objects. This is noticeable if the Flash, GIF, Dynamic FX or shadows are used in the same project window and they are not overlapped.
• Fixed Clipboard GET/SEND on Win2k/XP systems.
• Fixed some double-click highlight problems in Script wizard (Win98/ME related)
• Fixed [Tab] jumping over the EditBoxes. EditBox no longer remains highlighted when you select an EditBox by TAB and then you click into another EditBox by mouse.
• Project window can now be moved out of the visible area of the screen even with "Full Screen Background" option enabled.
• EditBox now doesn't allow variables/arrays with incomplete brackets..like this one:
  myTrickyString$1234]
• Fixed bug in <Embedded> macro. It finally returns path to MMB temp folder (<Temp>+\MMBPLayer)
• Fixed bug with saving/loading mbd project from 4.9.5 to 4.8 format and then back to 4.9.5.
• Fixed bug in "Compress&Export" which producing unreadable files.
• Again (and we hope for the last time ;) fixed a ListBox numbering problem. Sometimes happened, that the 10th item in the ListBox has been numbered as 1.
• Fixed CBK_Volume alignment.
• Fixed some Video mask problems.
• Fixed bug in ListBox and StrFromFile which fails on the first row if the rows starts with numbers.
• BackgroundPlay now works with AudioFX object.
• Pressing F1 no longer trying to start Windows Help for given project.
• SongListEdit can now be used in project compiled with NoFMOD player.
• Fixed refresh of Group objects placed at Master Page and Master Top Layer
• Numeric array can now be used in CHAR function:

test[1]=10

i=1

c$=CHAR(test[i])

• Fixed "Path Replace" tool (menu Project >>> Path Replace...). Path Replace now works with all objects and scripts including the string variables.
• Fixed ORD function to work correctly with numbers > 128.
• Fixed "Failed...SetWindowPosition..." error if you try to scale video object without a loaded video.
• Fixed problem with outline shaper and right-bottom border of some images.
• Fixed some "Video in FullScreen" problems.
• Fixed ListBox bug with scrolling items without enabled scrollbars.
• Fixed ListBox bug with multi selection and moving items Up/Down.
• MCICommand again works with <This> macro MCICommand("open <SrcDir>\data\video_01.mpg alias MPEG style child parent <This>").
• MCICommand parameters are now correctly passed to Script Wizard dialog (after double click on command).
• Loading video between the MMB pages should work without the blinking. In fact, it still blink, but much faster now and not as noticeable ;)
• Fixed crash if project was compiled with NoFMOD player.
• Fixed problem with number rounding.
• Fixed Mask in Video object.
• Windowed objects (ListBox, HTML, Binding, ... ) no longer grabs focus from the EditBox if Left/Right button is pressed.
• Fixed some Video OnLoad/OnStart event problems.
• Fixed bug in ListBox OnSelection event, which affects ListBoxGetItems and ListBoxGetDelectedItems.
• Fixed various problems with syntax highlighting (Win9x/ME).
• Numeric variables now support adding numbers and parsing predefined functions (with arrays) in one line

sel=1

selX=ObjectX(TextBTN[sel])+5

• Fixed IsMinimized function.
• Fixed MoveTo command (stop working when Type of movement was not entered).
• Fixed several String array problems.
• Fixed "Allow only one instance in Designer" bug.
• Fixed bug with Image scrollbars (when Image object is moved).
• Fixed bug with <Embedded> macro and plugins.
• Fixed some next syntax highlighting issues.
• Fixed AudioOpen vs. "Buffer is too small..." warning. Buffer is now increased from 4 to 16kb ;)
• Fixed memory leak in Designer when Custom Shape was used.
• Fixed LoadText trimming.
• Fixed artist and song title problem with '&' character.
• ListBox now insert numbers for all items (not only for audio files as previously). This can be disabled over ListBox properties dialog or ListBoxParam function.
• Fixed DisplayValue bug that cause wrong text alignment.
• Fixed a problem in Flash player "live" installation that cause non-working flash until application restart.
• Fixed FMODconfig initialization bug that prevents to disable FMOD on some Win9x/ME systems.
• Fixed some syntax highlighting glitches.
• Fixed a problem in GetArrayItem that prevents to use space and comma as delimiter. Now you can use hexadecimal codes of the given characters (e.g. GetArrayNum(test$,'0x20') where 0x20 means 'space' character). For more hexa codes check the ASCII character table (for example here http://www.asciitable.com/).
• GetArrayNum and GetArrayItem now works with the string arrays:

x = 2

array$[x] = '1#2#'

number$ = GetArrayItem(array[x]$,#,2)

LoadText("TextBTN","number$")

• Fixed bug that prevents to group the ListBox objects.
• Fixed bug in ListBoxDeleteItem that prevents to delete items from ListBox.
• Fixed some ListBox problems when ListBox is resized.
• SongListSave now correctly save internal list <List> (e.g. SongListSave("< List>",""))
• Fixed a bug that prevents to move Line object.
• Fixed "Go to next page" option in Video object properties.
• Fixed "Can't find plugin..." error message if plugin was loaded from an external directory (outside the MMB\Plugin folder).
• Fixed bug  in "Allow only one instance" option, that prevents to run multiple different MMB exe's.
• Fixed a problem with disappearing mouse cursor after ReplaceImage command.
• Empty string used in LoadText function again clear the Object caption or String variable contents.
• Decimal separator is no longer dependent on a Regional and Language Settings.
• StrToFile now supports <> macros (<Temp>, <SrcDir>, ...)
• Fixed a bug in FMOD file type detection that cause a MMB to crash in some very special cases (loading non-standard MP3 files).
• Scrollbars in Image object no longer remains visible, when the Image object is hidden (via Image object properties).
• Fixed rotation algorithm to give much more accurate results.
• Fixed a bug in StrDel function.
• Fixed Text object Alignment if the Antialias option is enabled.
• CBK_Month and CBK_Day now returns their values according the "Regional and Language Options".
• Fixed Edit box refresh.
• Video object cannot be run in full-screen mode from the first page of your publication by Page Start script. It can be run from the second page, but not from the first.
• Fixed FullScreen toggling via the Script object with the assigned shortcut.
• Fixed a bug in BrowseForFolder function (opening the multiple instances of the BrowseForFolder dialog).
• Fixed bug in a ListBoxDeleteItem function.
• Fixed a problem with WMA/ASF playback (right after the MP3/OGG playback).
• Fixed some script highlight issues.
• Fixed a bug with reseting UI.
• Fixed a Copy/Cut bug in the Script right clik menu.
• Fixed an object width bug when the "Default text" is deleted from the Input text.
• Fixed "Allow only one instance" bug on w2k computers.
• Fixed bug that prevents to change the Video object Width/Height after video load.
• Fixed crash when ProcFreq() predefined function was used.
• Fixed a problem when < SrcDir > and < SrcDrive > macros were used in path to Video in Video properties dialog.
• Fixed a MMB freeze when a predefined function was used in If ... Then statement.
• MVM file extension in VideoLoad dialog is now corrected to WMV file extension ;)
• Fixed bug in StrToFile predefined function that prevents parsing String$ parameter and adding empty lines to the output file if the append/linefeed parameters are TRUE.
• <> macros (e.g. < SrcDir >) can now be assigned to the string variables without the need to use quotes...for example test$=< SrcDir >
•  Double click on a function now pass all parameters to the Script wizard. Previously, some parameters were not passed e.g. ScriptTimer("TimerA=MoveTrackSlider1"," 50 ")
• "Fill With Color" in Bitmap properties dialog now works correctly when "Keep Aspect Ratio" option is used.

KNOWN PROBLEMS:

• ASF/WMA file formats don't work with CBK_MP3EOF. Unfortunately, these MS file formats don't support the EOF detection. However, there is a way (even a little tricky) how to detect end of file. Check this example file.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS:

Q: Some objects placed over the "windowed" objects (like a HTML, ListBox, Binding, Video or Flash) does have an ugly white rectangle around them.
A:
It's because MMB4.9 allows only the rectangle objects to be placed over these special objects. Then if you place for example a circle over the HTML, it will still appear as a circle inside the ugly white rectangle. We will try to do something with this limitation in any next version of MMB.

Q: WMA, ASF audio formats don't fill the CBK variables.
A:
At the moment only the MP3 and OGG files have the complete support for CBK variables.