SDI mode and list boxes enhancement with 4D v17-KEISUKE from the 4D Summit 2018
The User Experience is an important step in the design process. However, you don’t often hear about it until something goes wrong! 4Dv17 can provide multiple tools to help you design applications that adapt to your users’ needs, starting at the early stages of conception. Thus, delivering an interaction that’s robust and more intuitive. User Experience was a key topic during the 4D Summit 2018. In addition to the List Boxes, another major feature was presented: The SDI mode. The #1 requested feature on Windows.
Watch the UX video from the 4D Summit 2018 featuring Keisuke Miyako where he presented all the advances of list boxes and the newly added SDI mode.
4D Methods editor with dark theme
Humans have different taste preferences. For instance, some people prefer white over all other colors, while others find black to be more majestic … hence any new color trend tagged as ‘the new black’!
In order to accommodate different preferences, 4D enables you to personalize the method editor theme!
In the 4D preferences dialog, you can set several parameters for the editor such as the color of the background or each type of code element (i.e., commands and comments).
Thanks to these different options, you can completely customize the method editor to your taste. Whether you’re a fan of light or dark themes, 4D’s got you covered!
Here’s what a dark theme looks like:
Keep track of your formulas with this new command
Imagine you have a list of formulas containing table names and some fields … then days later you decide to rename your tables. Now your formulas are no longer valid, which is totally understandable!
Well, good news: the new Parse formula command allows your formulas to remain valid when renaming 4D language or structure elements.
Breathe life into your 4D Write Pro documents with pictures
Unless you’re Stephen King and planning to write the next best seller, you may want to avoid long block of texts. And you can do this by using illustrations and images in your documents! Luckily, working with pictures in 4D Write Pro is evolving with every release, and these graphic-related features allow you to breathe life into your drab black and white text documents. In this blog post, we’ll explain the different types of pictures in 4D Write Pro, their use, and how to take advantage of them to create visually compelling documents!
Times inside objects… (and everywhere else)
Objects are at it again, continuing to demonstrate their utility to ease your life as a developer.
Using time (or duration) values inside of objects is now smoother and more intuitive. Beginning with 4D v17, times inside objects are set as seconds – and not milliseconds!
4D v17 Release Candidate
We are pleased to announce the release candidate for 4D v17.
If you haven’t already downloaded it, it’s not too late! Now’s the time to run your applications on 4D v17, and take advantage of the many features this release has to offer.
How to display a multilevel collection in different list boxes!
Starting with 4D v17, the content of a multilevel collection can easily be displayed in different list boxes. Meaning that you can bind several list boxes to display nested details … without a single line of code! This can be achieved by simply using an object or a collection as the data source for another list box!
With the new list box collection type, the “Current item” and “Selected items” properties have been added. Keep in mind that the “Current item” property allows you to get an object, while the “Selected item” property returns a collection.
How to create a generic form with dynamic forms
Imagine that your database contains several tables of types or categories. These tables are very simple, often with only an identifier and a text field. For demonstration purposes, let’s say it’s a shoe management database. To qualify the products, we need to define their type, color, pattern, material, season and so on.
It’s cumbersome to manage each of these tables in a list form and an input form and associated methods. In this case, the use of a generic form is essential to avoid duplication and simplify maintenance.
And that’s where dynamic forms and JSON pointers are come in handy!
Display an entity selection in a list box
4D v17 introduces a new concept: ORDA. If you’re not familiar with ORDA yet, we’ve created a series of blog posts to explain how to use and take advantage of ORDA. When working with ORDA, you’re going to use entity selections, which are basically objects containing references to entities belonging to the same dataclass (i.e. table). One of the main benefits of ORDA, is the very simple and powerful ability of binding with forms.
In this blog post, you’ll learn how to display an entity selection in a list box. In fact, it’s very simple.
Shots to remember from the 4D Summit 2018
4D Summit 2018, which took place in Paris, France and Washington, D.C. recently, was filled with huge product announcements and a lots of exciting sessions. In case you missed it, catch up on the important revelations and technical announcements here.
In this blog post, we’ll take a look back at 4D Summit 2018 and reminisce with some vivid videos!
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