MCBase software:
General links:
Revision history
Website contents: copyright © 1993-2008, Harry Doldersum.
April 27th, '05 - Updated version 3.6.2.51 to 3.7.1.52: an important maintenance release.
- We were made aware of a serious problem with the reporting functions, that could prevented proper execution on Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems. On the systems in question, the length of the path name to the temporary storage directory (or folder) exceeds the length that QuSoft (the supplier of the library that has been used for the development of both the fixed reports and the User Report Designer, QRDesign) initially had anticipated.
This temporary storage directory is used to create the temporary metafile, that holds the report's actual information. On the systems where this error would occur, both the fixed reports and the reports in the User Report Designer would terminate after 2 or more pages with a message of "Access violation at ....", followed by a message "Metafile not valid".
With release V3.7.1.52, this problem has been corrected.
April 24th, '05 - Updated version 3.6.1.50 to 3.6.2.51: a maintenance release.
- A checking routine, added in V3.4.2.48 (which is verifying if the computer system has a printer driver installed or not, see below at june 7th, '03 notes) appeared to cause an error (i.e. runtime error 217, occuring at startup). It was noticed on a Windows XP system (without a printer driver), that this routine caused the application to terminate when it tried to verify the presence of the missing driver. (If a printer driver is installed & selected as the default driver, the routine worked correctly). This routine is also implemented in MCBaseUtilities, since it uses a common initialisation.
Since this error hadn't been noticed during earlier testing and hasn't been reported before by the users, it's occurance might be limited to certain specific conditions.
The mentioned routine has been enhanced to cope with the situation. Also, the support application MCBaseUtilities has been updated with this functionality as per V3.2.4.20. The remaining other utilities were not affected.
December 19th, '04 - Updated version 3.5.1.49 to 3.6.1.50: a new release.
- On some systems, the decimal point character (either the period "." or the comma ","), as generated by the key on the lower right-hand side of the numeric part of a standard keyboard was not accepted by the database system as the valid decimal separator in the "Time" field as used in the "Edit Song"-dialog, for example. As a result, the entry was not accepted by the "Time" input field until the correct character was entered.
This is caused by a difference in the Windows operating system configuration settings for "Country settings, numbers" and the actual configuration of the system keyboard. In these cases, the selected character for the decimal separator in "Country settings, numbers" is different from the character as generated by the actual key. For example: if the system is expecting a comma and the key is actually generating a period (or the other way around), then you will have experienced this issue.
MCBase will now look at the actual character generated by this key and check if it matches the character defined as the system decimal separator and will correct the character if so required. This modification has also been implemented in MCBaseUtilities V3.2.3.19, which is part of the MCBase V3.6.1.50 installation.
- Expanded MCBase's main window with a button-based menu, the "Quick access menu". As it's name implies, it is designed to provide a quicker means of accessing those functions that have been identified by some of our users as being the most frequently used and which were previously only accessible through the menu structure and their designated function-keys (hotkeys).
The Quick access menu can be switched on or off by making use of the toolbar-button with the "checkmark"-icon. Your preference, for wether or not you'd like to use this menu by default, is a configurable setting in the "Preferences" dialog.
- Both the Sound & Video memo containers are now equipped with a "Player Autostart" function. In previous versions, when a user indicated that a mediaclip needed to be retrieved from the database for playing, the clip would not actually start until the user would provide an extra click on the Mediaplayer's "play" button. (This was based on MCBase's initial setup where a user could choose from a various set of functions to perform on a clip, once it was retrieved from the database. Playing the clip was just one of these functions).
The new "Autostart" function now takes care of the requirement of providing the extra click on the "play" button: when retrieved from the database, the appropriate container can now automatically start playing the clip. Your preference for the use of this capability is a configurable setting in the "Preferences" dialog.
- The Video memo container is now also enabled to use any external multimedia player available on your computer system, allowing further expansion of the pallette of usable video formats. (Similar functionality had already been implemented in the Sound memo container in an earlier stage). Your preference for the use of this capability is again a configurable setting in the "Preferences" dialog.
- Other minor improvements include modifications to some of the menu and dialog command shortcuts and the toolbar appearance has also been slightly altered.
June 7th, '03 - Updated version 3.4.1.47 to 3.5.1.49: a new release.
- The MCBaseUtilities program has been updated to V3.2.2.18 (version 3.2, release 2, build 18). With this update, a long slumbering, but fortunately minor bug in the Song File Browser has been removed. This bug could cancel the removal of a songtitle, if that songtitle was NOT related to an albumtitle. Details of this error and it's solution can be found in the MCBase KnowledgeBase file.
- Due to changes in the main MCBase helpfile, some of the existing links in the seperate MCBaseUtilities helpfile were unable to link back to the main helpfile. This has also been corrected now, with the release of MCBaseUtilities V3.2.2.18.
- Added functionality to check for the presence of a default printer (driver) on the user's computer. Having a printer (driver) selected as the default on the computer system is required, since information is retrieved from the default driver for rendering the previews for all the printjobs. If your system did not have a default printer driver available, then this should generate one or more error messages. (This is added as a configurable option in the application's Preferences dialog).
- Added functionality to check for the maximum overall memory load (i.e.: system resource load). MCBase will now monitor the overall memory load during initialisation and will issue a warning when a maximum limit is reached.
(Since this limit is lightly to differ per machine, this has been implemented as a fully configurable option in the application's Preferences dialog. It's default setting is a value of 85% maximum overall memory load - if this load is reached, a user will be notified that his system is about to run out of resources. The user is then in control and can correct the issue, before their system runs into trouble).
A relatively large portion of our support emails are related to systems having insufficient resources available, causing problems for the application. Although most computers today tend to have sufficient physical ram memory installed, this issue can still occur if users install one or more large programs to remain running in the Windows taskbar at all times - even when they aren't used.
Please also see our free memory utility "RCheck - the Resource Checker", available from the "Knowledge Base" page at our site, at: http://www.doldersum.com/kbase/.
December 14th, '02 - Updated version 3.3.1.44 to 3.4.1.47: a new release.
- In V3.3.1.44 our new data retrieval method "SafeSearch" was implemented behind the scenes, to prevent the rare case of a long search through a database for a non-existing record (see V3.3.1.44 revision notes, item "g" for details). Now, we have added an option to switch this "SafeSearch" mode on and off, for diagnostical purposes. The "SafeSearch" mode switch is found on the "Special functions" tab pages in the "Preferences dialog". (Please note: "SafeSearch" is enabled by default. This switch is to be used only on instructions of MCBase product support).
- Minor improvement on the graphic memo containers. When responding to multiple calls from other MCBase dialogs, to display images, it could occur that an image was not properly scaled. This has now been corrected.
- The helpfile (which is also the manual) is now fully browsable, in order to improve readability.
- MCBaseRepair V1.3, part of the MCBaseUtilities program set, has been enhanced to remove "Key violation" errors from the MCBase database system. The update also introduces a new set of reports, the "ID Lookup reports". A descriptional .DOC file on their purpose, is included.
(This update was released as a seperate download in januari '02).
- The MCBaseUtilities program itself has been updated to V3.2, release 1, build 17. This utility has been enhanced with additional data import and export routines and it is now possible to import from and export to all previous versions of MCBase, general Ascii format (i.e. clean text) and dBaseIV database format. (The import routine will also handle dBaseIII format).
(This update was released as a seperate download in februari '02).
- The following is not part of the MCBase program as such, but we think it's still important enough to include here: we would like to introduce our new "Knowledge Base" section on our website. You can find it at theURL: "http://www.doldersum.com/kbase/". Here, you can find Ascii files (clean text), containing solutions to any problems that you might encounter while working with our programs. The "KB" section also contains some general support utilities that you may find helpful.
- The URD Basic reports have received shorter names and so have the new ID Lookup reports (which previously have only been available through the website). During testing the MCBase V3.4 setup file, it appeared that the very long path names (coming forth out of the long report names being merged with the installation path) now could cause a problem for the installation routine.
November 27th, '01 - Updated version 3.2.1.40 to 3.3.1.44: a new release.
- All graphic memo's have been extended with some new functions.
Added are:- Image zoom functions.
- Full screen viewer - a separate and maximized window, to view the active image in (also includes the zoom functions).
- Image import and export functions. Supported formats are .BMP, JPG, JPEG, WMF and EMF.
- Image editing, by utilizing either your system's default bitmap editor or a preferred bitmap editor of your choice (you may select your preferred bitmap editor on the "Preferences" dialog's "External functions" tabpage).
- Image zoom functions.
- Added an option to the "Special functions" tabpage in the "Preference" settings dialog, to indicate your preference on how MCBase should handle the addition of new songtitles to the database system. Previously, when adding new songtitles to the database system, the MCBase system requested you to confirm the copying of the current songtitle relations to the next new songtitle. (If declined, all fields for the new song remain empty). This is a real time saver when entering the songs of an (artists) album, where many fields have the same content.
This copying behaviour can now be configured at the users preference:- Copy songtitle relations after confirmation (still the default behaviour).
- Copy songtitle relations without confirmation.
- Do not copy songtitle relations.
- Copy songtitle relations after confirmation (still the default behaviour).
- Added an option to the Sound Memo Containers, to enable the use of external media players to play sound clips, instead of using only the standard Windows sound system. After this function has been activated on the "External functions" tab page of the "Preferences" dialog, the function can be invoked by clicking the button with the "speaker" icon (which will then have taken the place of the Windows sound system controls).
When executing this function, the external media player that is configured on your system as being the default player for the soundclip's filetype, will be executed to play the clip.
- Added "hotkeys" for all menu commands. Although all menu commands already allowed operation by keyboard (by using Alt-key commands), we decided to also add hotkeys in order to provide the user with more flexability in accessing the functions required.
- Added popup menu's for the information, remarks and graphics memo containers. These can be invoked by right clicking your mouse on the memo container's editor.
- Added a function to MCBase's main window to open a "Collection Notes" document (the button with the notepad icon). By default, no document is attached. Use your preferred editor or wordprocessor to create a document to hold your collection's notes, in any shape or form that you would prefer. Then access the "External functions" tab page in the "Preferences" dialog box and enter your new notes document in the "Collection notes - set preferred document" field.
- Corrected a bug in the MCBase listboxes. When working with an empty listbox, it could occur (under rare circumstances), that a user could instruct the listbox to issue a search command for an "empty" record. The routine to prevent this event from occuring, occasionally let such an erratic instruction pass through, instead of intercepting it. This functionality has now been improved.
- Modified the format of the text memo fields from fieldtype "formatted memo" to (standard) "memo", in order to improve compatibility with other database programs.
The utilities MCBaseGenerate.EXE and MCBaseRepair.EXE have been modified to provide and handle this functionality. The next time that you invoke the repair function (or create a new database), the memo field formats will be converted automatically.
The MCBase program itself, and MCBaseUtilities.EXE, do not require modification and can handle both fieldtypes without any problem. The change has been implemented only to simplify external access to the MCBase memo fields.
januari 2nd, 01 - Updated version 3.1.0.35 to 3.2.1.40: a new release.
- Corrected a bug in the Preference settings dialog. When switching between the tab pages of the Preference dialog, altered settings were being reset to the value as had been in use previously - overwriting any changes made. Now, all changed values remain as they should.
- Jump buttons to the "View album by title" dialog have been added on both the "(Edit) Song data dialog" and "View song by title" dialogs, to facilitate additional jumping and/or data switching capabilities while working with the collection's data.
- Added the "Media" and "Location" data fields to the "View album by title" dialog. These fields had already been present in the "(Edit) Album data dialog", but had been omitted from the "View..." dialog up until now.
- Added code to handle significantly modified settings for Windows Desktop appearance. Severe changes to these settings could cause elements, who's font and icon settings are controlled by these desktop appearance settings, to appear enlarged. Under circumstances, these settings could even cause some components to be shifted out of user's reach. (These modifications have also been implemented in the utility programs).
- Other minor changes to various sections of the program, the order information file and the helpfile.
august 27th, 00 - Updated version 3.0.2.31 to 3.1.0.35: a maintenance release.
- Modified the graphic memo containers to always maintain a correct image height/width ratio. During the container's "Fit = on" mode, images could get distorted when their image height/width ratio did not match the graphic memo container's height/width ratio.
- The standard MCBase printjobs were also updated with a similar image height/width ratio routine as mentioned above, to prevent image distortion during printing. (Custom made printjobs, within the User Report Designer, remain unaffected by this change).
- Added scrollbars to the graphic memo containers for use with larger images during the "Fit = off" mode.
- Minor modifications have been made to the online helpfile.
August 30, '99 - Updated version 3.0.1.30 to 3.0.2.31: a maintenance release.
- Due to the ongoing changes in the world of the online registration services (one moved to a different address, one left the business, one was taken over by a different firm), we needed to update our order information file ORDER.DOC. Please be informed that this new ORDER.DOC file supersedes all previous versions.
- Corrected a bug in the registration key routines that could cause a DLL to appear as missing. (Could occur under Windows NT only).
- Corrected a bug in the "View Songs by Title" routines: when returning from a memo record edit, the dialog could lose focus of it's (original) record and jump to another entry in the database. (Occurred in certain situations only).
- Corrected a cosmetic bug of the routines in the multi media memo dialogs: after an import/export function, the dialogs remained focused at the last directory/folder, while it would be preferable to focus on MCBase's own directory/folder again.
- Corrected a cosmetic bug in the "Producer data dialog": when adding a new entry, the "Overwrite record" message dialog could come up, which should not be the case.
- Corrected a cosmetic bug that caused the navigation comboboxes (selectors) in some of the dialogs to ignore the setting on the "Preferences" tab for the number of items to display.
Feb. 27th, '99 - MAJOR NEW RELEASE.
- Release of the new MCBase V3.0:
Harry Doldersum has released MCBase V3.0 for Windows95/98/NT, a program that assists music collectors in managing their multi media music collection.
MCBase V3.0 will not only store your music collection's data, but will also store graphics, sound and video clips of any format required. The collection's data itself is maintained according to the "relational" database model, where all your data is unique by nature: once you've entered a certain artist, producer or other item for the first time, you will not need to enter it again - you can simply reselect it for use in a next song or albumtitle by using selectors, provided for that purpose.
Apart from the various "standard" reports, built into the program, a User Report Designer has also been included. Using this User Report Designer, a user can create any specialized report required. The features of the User Report Designer include SQL capabilities, but other methods of data retrieval are also possible.
MCBase V3.0 costs US$30,=. (equals EURO 25,=. or NLG 55,=.). Upgrades are free, when downloaded from the support website at http://www.Doldersum.com
Click here for MCBase V2.x revisions