About Clarion

Clarion is a 4GL rapid application development (RAD) computer programming language that uses 'templates' to define the application. A computer programming novice can generate a relational database application literally within hours of opening the box; a small investment of time quickly pays off with easily maintainable Windows applications that suit your end user's needs. Clarion was originally designed and marketed by Topspeed Corporation; the company then sold the product to Softvelocity.

Clarion Tips & Tricks

I've created a page dedicated the various tips & tricks that I've learnt over several years of Clarion programming; click HERE

Fomin Report Builder (FRB)

One of the strongest challenges that every programmer faces is reports. Face it - the most important function of any database application is the ability for the user to extract information in a meaningful manner. Customer needs change, and while "hard coding" some reports (especially complex reports) makes sense, there is something to be said for your customers also being able to modify existing reports or create new ones on their own. Clarion (and the language's third party marketplace) has several report interfaces available (including one created and sold by SoftVelocity); however, for my money, FRB is the best tool for the job - period.

I created a Windows help file for FRB several years ago to educate myself on how FRB worked. Oleg Fomin, the author of FRB, thought highly enough of my help file that he offered to distribute it with his product, to which I gladly accepted.  My help file has been updated twice since then, and now includes a full tutorial that illustrates how to create a progressively more complex report for end users to learn from.
 

Imag'n OCX/DLL

In 1997 I created a shareware image viewing application named G-Filer (which became G-Filer32). The purpose of this application was to expedite the movement of graphic image files from one location to another by using a end-user maintained database of pre-determined folder paths.  At that time, Pegasus Software marketed an image viewing/manipulation OCX/DLL file named Imag'N. Even though G-Filer was written in Clarion 5.0, I still use the Imag'N DLL plugin with Clarion 6.3 for several other applications. I was so happy with how well (and quickly) Imag'N could display image files that I wrote an article on how to integrate Imag'N into a Clarion program. My article was published by ClarionMag magazine on 9 Apr 2002.

Clarion Links

Clarion programmers benefit from a robust third party marketplace with several highly mature companies that date back to the language's MsDos days. Listed below are companies that I have purchased templates from and can highly recommend: