4D v19 R3 Beta Starts Today

Full support of BLOB

You asked, and we delivered! Starting with 4D v19 R3, Blobs are fully supported in ORDA, just like any other type, allowing ORDA developers to use BLOB type attributes in operations with entities. 

Computed attributes

A new way to gather even more of your business logic in Classes and ORDA classes! Times when you had to define business-related formulas (such as string concatenations or VAT computation) in your 4D UI are over. You can now define complex calculations directly in your Classes and use the result like you would for any other structure field in Rest API or in your ORDA-based user interface. Your business rules deserve Classes!

compariNG two entity selections

To work efficiently with object-oriented programming and write a few lines of code as possible, you need robust and optimized functions. That’s why, with 4D v19 R3, we’re shipping a new function available on the entitySelection object: the selected() function. Thanks to it, you’ll be able to inspect and compare two entity selections.

Action input controls

With custom formatters, you are already able to match text or images to the contents of a field, such as replacing male/female with an image or 1, 2, 3 with text labels. 4D v19 R3 makes things more exciting thanks to the introduction of action input controls that create a choice list with a predefined text. And what’s even better, this list can be dynamically filled using a data source, such as a list of employers!

Easily interact with Apple native apps

Another type of action input controls is available. They add modules that enable interacting with Apple native apps to your action forms. They were designed to make your users’ lives easier by opening up new perspectives through smooth interactions with the iOS environment. Several ones are already available, allowing you to search for a contact phone number or email directly from the Apple Contacts app or fill the current location of the app user with coordinates (latitude and longitude) and addresses automatically, for example.

Sort criteria and action parameters enhancements

Defining sort criteria and action parameters has been made quicker and more efficient. So what’s new?

Regarding the Sort action, you can now easily change action sort criteria using a simple dropbox, enabling you to choose another field among the available ones. A message indicates the field linked to the selected parameter at the bottom of the Action Parameters panel for the Add and Edit preset actions.

Run your app on a hardware device

So you built your Android app, it’s time to test it on a real device before releasing it to users. With 4D v19 R3, it’s straightforward:

1. Enable USB Debugging in the Developer Options settings
2. Once your smartphone is plugged in, select your physical device from the list and click “Build and Run.”

DebugGING on the server with scalable web sessions

Scalable web sessions were a significant improvement of the v18 R6. They allow you to use 4D tags, 4D actions, and the REST API in preemptive processes, even in interpreted mode, on a 4D server. As for 4D v19 R3, we are bringing a substantial debugging improvement: We simplified this debugging process on the server-side by simply attaching the debugger.

Accessing method parameters NOT PASSED

4D v19 R3 adds the possibility of accessing all the method parameters without error, even if some were not passed by a caller. This way, the code is more straightforward and more readable without the repeated “if” keyword.

Image setting dialog

The 4D Write Pro interface component offers a new feature that will speed up the creation of documents.

Say hello to the new Picture Settings dialog! It lets you easily define:

• the size of the image
• the display format
• the margins and padding
• the position on the page for anchored images

CONTINUOUS SECTION BREAKS

Starting with 4D v19 R3, 4D Write Pro supports continuous section breaks. A continuous section break creates a section without causing a page break. This allows, among other things, to have different numbers of columns on the same page.

FORMULA VISIBILITY MANAGEMENT

4D v19 R3 gives you new display options, making it easy to view external elements resulting from expressions or formulas while building a 4D Write Pro document.

EXPORT INTO SVG FORMAT

4D Write Pro documents can already be exported to different formats: pdf, plain text, Microsoft Word, HTML… To this list is now added the SVG format. This allows, for instance, to create a picture of the first page for a fast preview, useable on both platforms and in a browser or mobile device, or insert a 4D Write Pro block inside another document, such as a 4D View Pro document.

4D AND MICROSOFT 365 ACCESS

Following the introduction of OAuth 2.0 authentication to access emails through IMAP, SMTP, or POP3 transporters. 4D continues to implement the OAuth 2.0 protocol with 4D v19 R3 and provides a way to easily request authentication tokens from the Microsoft identity platform to connect to the API for Microsoft 365.

LZMA support, the new compression algorithm

With 4D V19 R3, the Zip Create Archive command supports a new compression algorithm: LZMA. It creates smaller archives than the standard zip compression algorithm.

BCRYPT SUPPORT FOR PASSWORDS

Starting with 4D v19 R3, all passwords are hashed with the bcrypt algorithm. This algorithm takes much longer to compute, enough to prevent brute force algorithms from recovering the original password. To put it in place, everything is automatic. You don’t need to touch any setting or any line of code.

SIMPLIFIED NAVIGATION BETWEEN development windows

In 4D v19 R3, more developer-oriented features have been added; the latest adds some menu items and a new list in the code editor, making it easier to navigate between the different elements of a project.

Simplified cross-platform client/server applications building on Windows

With the introduction of Silicon, building cross-platform client/server applications has changed. As long as you build your server on Mac, it’s not much of an issue, as you can compile for both Intel and Silicon platforms. But on Windows, it’s not possible to compile for Silicon Macs. 4D v19 R3  introduces new functionality that reduces the number of files to transfer from your Mac to your Windows machine. When building the client on Mac, 4D will also generate a Compiled Database directory. This folder contains only the compiled code for your application and is, as such, relatively small.

Webcam support

4D v19 R3 allows you to display video conferencing from different sources like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Kopano, and others, by supporting audio and video streams in web areas.

configuration file for logging

As part of our logs enhancement project, 4D v19 R3 adds two new functionalities:

• the ability to instantly pause logging
• a way for support teams to quickly help their customers configure their logs through a configuration file

DEVELOPING WITH 4D IN A DARK ENVIRONMENT ON MACOS

Since 4D v19, you can create applications on macOS that support dark mode, so you can please your users’ taste by giving them the possibility to choose either light or dark style applications. With 4D v19 R3, we are providing you, as a developer, the choice when developing your application. 4D Developer Edition integrates seamlessly with the light or dark look of macOS.