CHT Build 24B.00.00 is now available for CHT Subscriber installation as of today's date April 14, 2020.

Reinstated class modules:
HNDCDROM.CLW, HNDCDROM.INC, HNDCDROM.TLB

Reinstated example:
HNDCDROMEXAMPLE.APP (See your /HNDAPPS/ Subdirectory)

New Demo example:
HNDJUMPSTARTSBULK.APP (See your /HNDAPPS/ Subdirectory)

EmbedEncryptionFunctions

EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions

This application is a re-work of an older CHT demo called HNDCPYDM.APP which is now defunct and totally replaced by HNDJUMPSTARTSBULK.APP.

The name of this application issues from the fact that it contains procedures from which the following CHT Jump Start procedures are built. The JumpStart procedures named below now in this app, are fully revised and ready to be exported (by us) to .TXA files which will then act as stand-alone importable procedures accessed from our UTILITY TEMPLATE interface "AACHTJumpStartProceduresUtility3" on the "BULK" tab.

Note that at time of this release, these procedures have not yet been exported to the relevant .TXA files, although we expect they will be by the release of CHT Build Update 24B.01.00 (May 2020). Any developer wishing to incorporate any of these procedures into your own application can, in the meantime, simply import them from HNDJUMPSTARTSBULK.APP.

The procedures are all stand-alone in the context of CHT, in the sense that the templates populated on them are procedure scope and do not require you to populate other CHT functional templates into your app. Your own application, of course, must contain at a minimum, the following CHT GLOBAL TEMPLATES:
1) AACHTControlPanel
2) ApplicationImagesEx
3) INIFile
4) HandyVersionResource

** JumpStartBulkFileCompressExpandWithProgress()

-- Bulk file compression and expansion with optional encryption and decryption.

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedEncryptionFunctions, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions

** JumpStartBulkFileContainerizeWithProgress()

-- Bulk file compression from disk to a container (.HZO) file with optional encryption.

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedEncryptionFunctions, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions, EmbedHZOFunctions

** JumpStartBulkFileCopyWithProgress ()

-- Bulk file copying to a target directory.

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions

** JumpStartBulkFileDeContainerizeWithProgress()

-- Bulk file decrompression from container (.HZO) file to disk

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedEncryptionFunctions, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions, EmbedHZOFunctions

** JumpStartBulkFileDeleteWithProgress()

-- Bulk file removal.

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions

** JumpStartBulkFileEncryptDecryptWithProgress()

-- Bulk file encryption/decryption with optional compression/decompression.

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedEncryptionFunctions, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions, EmbedHZOFunctions

** JumpStartBulkFileMoveWithProgress()

-- Bulk file moving.

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions

** JumpStartBulkFileRenameWithProgress()

-- Bulk file renaming.

-- Relevant templates for this procedure: CHTBestPracticeEmbedClass, EmbedHNDDISKEXFunctions, EmbedHNDQueryBuilderFunctions, EmbedWindowFunctions

The last 10 years has seen an exponential increase in web-trolling-spiders and bots, some benign, and some of an intrusive nature.

By "intrusive" we mean in the sense that they are after your server data, or poking around for open ports or server directories or they may even be attempting to take down your server. The shape these exploits can take is multiform, sometimes clever, and sometimes outright juvenile.

There's no good way of telling if the IP's from which exploits originate are not PROXIES for entities located in an entirely different country or location. Filtering by IP address is not a great way to work, so we don't primarily do it that way.

We've been filing intrusive request profiles into data tables and have, to date, scanned and prioritized thousands of requests that have been hitting our servers. We have investigated the severity of non-benign requests based on reports by server managers around the world to: services like "AbuseIPDB" and similar abuse-tracking registries.

This current 24B.00.00 version of CHT provides you with a built-in, template-installed, mechanism to filter the "worst-of-the worst". This mechanism's filter criteria are currently compiled into your server application. Though that may/will not always be the case with upcoming CHT versions.

As we developed this, we considered providing a filtering mechanism in the form of linked-in DLLs. Still, pre-compiled-filters are not necessarily optimal since they are less flexible than a set of data tables that can be switched in or out of the server's field of vision and can be modified and added to as needed without needing to touch the server or take it down and relace the executable or run-time componentry.

All of the servers in our current demo set have been CHT-Template configured to incorporate our compiled-in exploits filtering. You can look at any of these .APPs to see how it's done. See, for example: HNDSLFSV.APP, or HNDCLIENTSV.APP amongst others. If you have any CHT servers in operation it's easy enough to set the necessary template switches and add the switch controls and recompile your app.

In near-future iterations of CHT templates, we'll provide you with a data-table based mechanism in addition-to or perhaps in replacement of this compiled-in mechanism. That will let you more easily, on the fly, expand or contract web filtering as required.

This build ships 84 HNDAPPS consisting of a wide variety of examples, utilities, servers, data browses and more.

If after updating and registering the latest template set, you run HNDCMP.EXE (CHT Clarion Project Builder) from /accessory/bin/ and then using its "File -> Open File" you load HNDCMPC10.TPS from directory /accessory/hnd/ you will see the latest, tested, and fully up-to-date CHT "HNDAPPS" suite of demo applications.

*** 1 *** You can load and test individual apps from this HNDCMP.EXE interface by selecting any app with your mouse cursor and clicking the triangle icon (7th from the left). This will start your Clarion 10 or 11 (depending on which HNDCMP.EXE you're using) and load the app.

*** 2 *** If you haven't done so in the past it will be necessary to configure HNDCMP.EXE by clicking the configure icon (gear icon) second from left. Just check through the defaults on this screen for directories and targets that are to your liking.

*** 3 *** You can compile a subset of these apps by selecting an app, say on row 1 and then control select (CtrlMouseLeft) on say row 5 to select just 5 apps. Follow this with a click on the lightning bolt icon (fourth from left) to begin compiling.

*** 4 *** You can compile ALL of these HNDAPPS in one batch if you're not going to be using your Clarion to work on the same machine for the next hour or you're going for lunch. Click the app in row 1 and then click CTRL A to select all, followed by the lightning bolt button to start compiling.

*** 5 *** These apps are compiled numerous times as we work on them and before delivery, so they WILL all compile correctly, assuming your CHT installation has gone as expected. If one app does not compile it will be marked with a red X and you can go back to it after the batch has been completed. To stop the batch immediately on encountering an error you can beforehand click every row in the "SOE" column. That stands for "Stop On Error" and will stop the batch when any app with SOE has a check mark. You can use instruction *** 1 *** above, to load the app into Clarion to check out the compiling from the IDE.

*** 6 *** Before doing that you can check the cause of any error by selecting the app and clicking the 8th icon form the left a bright-red image of any eye. That opens the IDE's compile log file stored by HNDCMP from compile-time output that's issued by CLARIONCL.EXE.

*** 7 *** After you successfully compile some or all of these HNDAPPS you can test run them individually from the HNDCMP.EXE interface by first selecting an app and clicking the "RUN" button (>), button 14, from the left.

*** 8 *** CHT Auto Backup Configurator runs from the next "Run" button #15, from the left. This app is HNDBACKUPCONFIG.EXE. It will list copies of all the apps you've just compiled assuming the backup directory can be found and/or created. You can, of course, change this value to something meaningful on your machine. This value can also be configured from inside any app from our templates One backup directory stipulated applies to all apps.

April 1, 2020