Give the latest 3.2 beta a spin...

[Dean Roddey]

It's time, well beyond time, to get the 3.2 release out. So if anyone is interested in trying out the latest beta, it's always in a sticky thread at the top of the Beta Discussions section. It should be quite stable now, and there are some much requested new bits available:

• Global Actions. You can now create global actions (system wide, stored on the master server) to do common activities and then invoke them from interface widgets, scheduled/triggered events, IR commands, etc... So it allows you to get rid of a lot of replicated stuff potentially and keep it in one place.
  
• Reconfigure Drivers in Place. You can now reconfigure a driver without removing it, so you don't have to load any configured triggers and any previous configuration becomes the defaults for the new configuration pass, so you don't have to remember what the old settings were.
  
• Action Parameters. When invoking a global action, or a popup in the interface system, you can how pass in parameters without putting them into global variables. Sometimes you'll still use global variables for other reasons, but for simple stuff you can just pass a quoted comma separate list of values. They will show up in the global action or the OnLoad/OnPreload as local variables named LVar:CQCActParm_1, LVar:CQCActParm_2, etc... Since they are locals you don't have to manually clean them up, so it's quite convenient, particularly for things like generic Yes/No, Make a Selection, Enter a Value type popups.
  
• Hierarchical Template Storage. So everything doesn't have to be in a single directory anymore. That means you can better organize things. And, it also means you could switch between multiple parallel sets of templates. If you invoke them all something like %(GVar:TmplBasePath)\Weather or something like that, then GVar:TmplBasePath could be changed any point to point another directory, i.e. from \User\GreenTheme to \User\BlueTheme or some such thing.
  
• Pure Client Systems. You can how install any combination of just the client tools and no service will be installed, so no background programs and therefore nothing to prevent the system from sleeping and such. Previously this was only doing with the special 'standalone viewer' or 'standalone RIVA' scenarios. Now those are no longer special scenarios, and any installation that just includes client tools will be a 'standalone' type of system without any background service.
  
• Multiple CQCs on the same Network. Mostly an advantage for integrators or folks with showrooms where they need to run multiple CQC systems on the same network without them interfering with each other. They won't see each other's event triggers and such.
  

Actually, that's a lot of the very highly requested stuff taken care of. I hadn't really seen them all together in a compact list like that so far, so I hadn't realized how many of those A List items had been whacked this time.

So, anyway, we'd like to get 3.2 out but want to make sure it is completely solid, so if you'd like to have any of these new features, give it a shot and let us know how it's working for you. A fair number of folks have been using the recent betas, so it's obviously quite stable. But it's always better to have more feedback.

[Dean Roddey]

I've got a first cut at the 3.2 web site contents, which is here:

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/BetaWS/

I may have missed a thing or two, so let me know if you come across something. It's easy to do. The technical docs linked to are the ones for 3.2 as well. There's new stuff under the Try/Buy tab in preparation for the new pricing/licensing scheme, though the 3.2 download link there won't work yet until the actual formal release is done. Until then get the betas in the Beta Discussions area as usual.

Of course as of 3.2 we'll be openly selling the DIY product again, and in theory everything on the web site has been updated to reflect the new upcoming changes. Let me know if you see anything that implies or says otherwise.

[Dean Roddey]

I'm just going to shoot for a June 1st release, so seven days from now. So if you are looking at buying or want to pre-purchase some maintenance fee coverage before we do away with that, then you'll need to do it by then.

As for 3.2, it will be free for anyone whose coverage would have extended up to the end of May or more. Otherwise, i.e. you are over a month out of coverage by the release date, we'll just calculate your pro-rated fees you would have had to pay to get covered up to the June and that will be your 'upgrade cost'. If you are way out of date, the pro-rata price will include any of the standard multi-year discount deals that the period you need to cover would fall within.

[LesAuber]

And if you're paid up till the end of the year?

[Dean Roddey]

And if you're paid up till the end of the year?

You'll continue to get new stuff as before until it runs out.

[Ron Haley]

Did any of the new cab movie queries make it in? Like movies by actor etc?

[Dean Roddey]

Did any of the new cab movie queries make it in? Like movies by actor etc?

Not this time. It should be reasonable to get some new ones into the next one.