4D v19 R2 Beta starts today

4D FOR ANDROID is Final

4D v19 R2 is shipped with 4D for Android, our mobile solution to build native Android applications.

Now you can not only build native apps for Android, but also build native apps for both iOS and Android from the exact same mobile project. For those of you who already use 4D for iOS, this is a big time saver: to get the Android version of your app, all you need to do is open your existing mobile project and click “Build”. 

In this feature release, 4D for Android comes with the most important features: Native app generation, plenty of templates and icons, multi-criteria search, formatters and custom data formatters, authentication, and offline support. And you can expect more advances in the coming releases.

CUSTOM DATA FORMATTERS FOR LIGHT & DARK APPEARANCES

Whether you or your customers prefer light or dark mode, 4D v19 R2 got you covered. Thanks to this new feature, you can make sure your images look good in both light and dark appearances. Using custom data formatters, you can adapt the appearance of your iOS or Android app in three different ways:

• using black and white colors
• using different pictures depending on the active mode
• mixing the above two options

Easily define the main color for your app

Starting with 4D v19 R2, you can define the main color of your iOS and Android apps by selecting it directly from a color picker that is fully integrated into the project editor. 

Improved handling of offline TASKS

The offline action feature has been available for some time now.  While offline, actions are put in a queue and automatically processed as soon as the connection to the 4D server is available again. With 4D v19 R2, we provide a way for users to identify, edit, then re-send the pending tasks that got rejected.

SORT THE CONTENT OF A LIST FORM

Several predefined actions that help your app users manage their content were already available in the Action section: “Add”, “Edit”, “Delete”, and “Share”. 4D v19 R2 introduces a new one: you can now create Sort actions to sort local app data.

NEW IMAGE DISPLAY OPTIONS

Thanks to the new wk image display mode attribute, 4D Write Pro documents benefit from seven new formatting types for inline as well as anchored images :

• Scaled to fit (by default)
• Truncated
• Truncated centered
• Proportional
• Proportional centered
• Replicated
• Replicated centered

4D v19 R2 also makes it easier to format the images used as background documents, sections, paragraphs, etc., thanks to the new wk background display mode attribute.

Pivot tables with SpreadJS v14.1

4D v19 R2 comes with a new version of SpreadJS that introduces pivot tables. If you have business people among your users, this feature is worth a try as it allows to easily summarize and analyze data directly from the 4D View Pro Ribbon.

delimited files IMPORT/EXPORT (CSV)

4D v19 R2 lets you import and export delimited files such as “.csv” or “.txt” files into 4D View Pro with the VP Import document and VP Export document commands so you can send them to another information system.

SHEET MANAGEMENT

It’s now possible to manage the sheets of a 4D view pro document by programming. The new commands allow you to create, rename, hide or remove a sheet, or simply know which sheet the user is currently on.

MANAGE PAGE BREAKs from the UI

What about a feature for more autonomy when printing? Yes, managing page breaks from the user interface is now possible thanks to two new entries in the contextual menu: “Add page break” and “Remove page break”. You can also show and hide the print lines using the new VP SET SHOW PRINT LINES and VP Get show print lines commands.

CREATE A BLOB ATTRIBUTE IN AN OBJECT

With the introduction of classes, the need for storing data in objects has increased, especially blob data. That’s why 4D v19 R2 now lets you encapsulate blobs in objects. Beyond the storage aspect, your memory management and speed performance will be greatly enhanced.

BYTE ORDER MARK (BOM) AND END OF LINE (EOL) MANAGEMENT

4D has evolved to follow best practices regarding managing certain invisible characters in text files. That’s why from now on, 4D writes text files without a BOM. And on macOS, 4D uses LF as an EOL character. This is completely automatic for all files written by 4D, such as 4DSettings, 4dm, 4DForm, and so on.

DEFAULT .GITIGNORE FILE IN NEW PROJECTS

Project mode allows you to easily track changes in your code with Git (the version control system). But often, you don’t want to track all your project files in your Git repository. With 4D v19 R2, 4D lets you define what not to track in a new project by automatically adding a default .gitignore file in the project folder with a list of default files and folders to exclude.

AUTOMATIC COMPONENT SIGNING ON MAC

With 4D v19 R2 and on Mac, 4D automatically signs built components using the certificates defined by the user or an ad-hoc signature if no certificate is specified. This will allow component developers to distribute signed components so other 4D developers don’t have to sign them before using them.

SHOW ONLINE DOCUMENTATION DIRECTLY FROM THE CODE EDITOR

With 4D v19 R2, you can access the details of a class function without searching for it on the documentation site. In the code editor, simply press the F1 key or click the “Goto definition…” item in the contextual menu, and the code editor will open the corresponding online documentation page in the browser.