Build a web-based monitoring dialog, step by step
Want to recreate the 4D Server Administration Window with a web interface? Want to conveniently check what’s happening in the 4D Server without needing to go to the server room, to use a remote desktop, or to consume a 4D Client license? It’s now possible to view all of 4D Server’s main parameters(e.g., memory usage, drive space, users, processes, and even the real-time monitor) via the web.
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through a set of commands that 4D delivered over various R-releases to build your own web-based server administration dialog. Additionally, the regional technical manager of 4D Hispano (Angelo Caroprese) has provided a complete component to be used right in your applications.
An ORDA Cheat Sheet
Blog post by guest author Cannon Smith, a 4D developer from southern Alberta, Canada:
The introduction of collections and entities has dramatically changed the landscape in 4D, giving developers new ways to map business rules to code. Just recently I refactored several thousand lines of code that were central to the business rules of our application, resulting in a significant speed improvement (5xs faster) which our users are very happy about. This refactoring was largely about moving from old code constructs to objects, collections, and ORDA.
Power of objects and dot notation
With 4D v17 R5, we showed you how easy it is to manipulate an object to retrieve the attributes of a file or folder. Things have gotten even easier thanks to object notation! In this blog post, we’re providing you an HDI with a user interface to manage files and folders. This isn’t new in 4D since you could do it with classic 4D commands, but now you can do it easier and with fewer lines of code!
Optimize your ORDA code with requests logging
Ever need to analyze the traffic of your ORDA requests between a client and the 4D server? Sometimes it may take a while to receive a response from the server, which can make you wonder if it’s due to network traffic or to an unoptimized request you’ve written! Thankfully, 4D v17 R6 makes it possible to determine the likely reason(s) for this latency with the new ORDA methods available on the ds object. They’re not only debugging functions, they also allow you to optimize your ORDA code with a better understanding of the sent requests.
Easily customize the entry order of your dynamic forms
The power of dynamic forms was introduced with 4D v16 R6, allowing you to build your forms on the fly by building them in an object or loading them from a text file. This is very convenient in a world where forms are frequently changed to meet an application’s needs.
In 4D, the entry order typically follows a z order for both binary and dynamic forms. With 4D v17 R6, you can now define an entry order that’s not necessarily associated with the z order.
4D View Pro: Get control over your 4D method settings
4D View Pro is getting more feature-rich with every R-release and 4D v17 R6 is no exception! A new command is available which allows you to specify a 4D method’s parameters, name, type, and a summary. Now your methods can be more informative and descriptive, helping end users to use them correctly.
Do you want to declare a date or time? What about giving a short description to help users understand what the method does? It can now be done with VP SET ALLOWED METHODS command!
Order an entity selection with this new ORDA method
In a previous blog post, you learned how to build sophisticated and complex search criteria by applying formulas in an ORDA query. To further provide you with complete and powerful development tools, a new ORDA method available: orderByFormula(). With the help of formulas, you can now order an entity selection using complex criteria in a project method or 4D expression.
CSS color strings for better readability
Improved and simplified 4D commands just keep coming. Now you can set colors in your form objects using CSS strings instead of numeric values. Previously CSS colors for objects were declared with a 4-byte longint (e.g., 0x00RRGGBB). But if you feel more comfortable writing BLUE instead of its numeric equivalent 255 (0xFF), we’ve got good news … 4D v17 R6 makes it possible!
Quick Report: Manage callback methods and subtotal spacing
Customize the style of your 4D View Pro documents
With 4D v17 R6, you can programmatically customize the style of your 4D View Pro documents. There’s three ways to go about it, you can: 1) use the default style commands to define the general style of a sheet, 2) use the stylesheet commands to define frequently used custom styles, and finally 3) use the cell style commands to define the style of specific cells.
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