4D v18 R6 Beta Starts Today

4D v18 R6 offers a preview version of 4D Data Explorer. 4D developers or administrators can now easily explore their application data in a web browser. 

Scalable web sessions

4D v18 R6 responds to today’s powerful machines and processors. This is why the 4D Web Server offers a new kind of web session management to greatly improve performance: scalable web sessions. They’re able to handle several processes in preemptive mode which means handling several user agent requests at the same time.

Improved iOS apps user experience

4D for iOS already lets you take advantage of your database relations to create dynamic and complex apps, but many of our 4D for iOS developers have asked for more … and once again 4D delivered!

Many-to-many relations are now available, allowing you to deliver iOS apps with better ergonomics than ever before! And that’s not all! Add interactions to a field by dropping a relationship onto it and display the corresponding record number from clicking on the one-to-many relations that are also available in this release.

New formats for interactive apps

We’re constantly working to provide you with features that make your apps more and more interactive, so in 4D v18 R6, new parameter formats are available: Signature and Barcode!

barcode scanner for improved navigation 

Barcodes and QR codes make things a lot easier since they save time, increase efficiency, and reduce human errors! As you’ve probably guessed, 4D v18 R6  allows you to go directly to the right view by scanning a barcode or QR code. This will greatly improve navigation and enhance the search experience by giving you the ability to build apps that are adapted to field situations (e.g., for warehouse inventory needs).

Working with strings

4D provides very versatile tools for searching and comparing strings, which can be adapted to various contexts and situations encountered by developers. With 4D v18 R6, a new command has been added and another one has been improved. Both commands allow you to use options for more accurate results. If you are required to manage specific searches or sorting, they will certainly be very helpful!

Write more code in less time

When it comes to simplifying the writing of code in the editor, 4D v18 R6 brings good news: The prototype of a function and a short description are displayed in the code editor! This allows you to speed up the development process and avoid typos.

Improved debugger

We never stop working to help make your debugging experience better. This time, we’ve added new options and additional information that will make it easier to trace and analyze your code.

List boxes: Manage clicks in edited cells

As a 4D developer, you’ve certainly used the on clicked form event which can be used in most objects, including list boxes in which clicks can be managed either at the list box level itself or within the column methods. Starting with 4D v18 R6, the on clicked form event is triggered whether a cell is being edited or not, giving you increased control and improving the interface.

OAuth 2.0 support

Lately, email servers have started to move to OAuth 2.0 authentication to increase security. Starting with 4D v18 R6, we’re providing a way to set the OAuth 2.0 authentication mode of a connection.

Flags and more flags

To allow your solution to integrate nicely with other email clients, you often need to add information such as “already seen” or “urgent”. The IMAP protocol allows you to associate a list of flags with a message to manage this additional information. With 4D v18 R6, we’ve added a set of functions to the IMAP transporter object to add or remove IMAP flags.

Save emails in a specific mailbox

When you send emails from 4D, your customers might expect to have a copy in the “Sent” mailbox displayed by Outlook or Apple Mail. For this, 4D v18 R6 has a new command for you.

UI improvements

The toolbar and sidebar continue to grow with more functionalities to help you create documents even faster and easier.

4D v18 R6 brings new enhancements in this area, allowing you to increment or decrement text, copy/paste the ruler, change the background color of a paragraph, change the style of a word (uppercase, lowercase, etc.).

4D Write Pro: use leading characters for tabs >

Find and replace feature

There are times when you initialize a 4D View Pro document, that you need to find some values or tags and replace them with data issued from 4D. Now it’s a breeze with the VP Find command. Thanks to this command, you can find data, formulas, or tags and replace them in the entire sheet or only a specific part of it.

It’s the end

When you load a large 4D View Pro document with a lot of formulas, the calculations can take some time. If you use an offscreen area and want to export the document as a PDF or Excel format, for example, you need to wait until these calculations are completed before doing so. In 4D v18 R6, we’ve add two new events to let you know when your calculations have completed.