How to notarize your merged 4D application (macOS 12 & Xcode 13)
Note: Update for macOS 12/Monterey and Xcode 13. For Xcode 12 and older, see this blog post.
With Monterey (macOS 12), it’s highly recommended that you notarize applications distributed over a public network. A significant number of developers transfer their applications using a connected storage device or via file-sharing; notarization isn’t required in these cases where the user already trusts the developer. Notarization aims to assure users that the application isn’t malicious and is only required for applications downloaded from a website.
Using our built-in signature feature when building your applications with 4D v18, your application is ready to be notarized. This process is conducted outside of 4D. It involves adding an electronic signature to your application and submitting your signed application to an automated inspection service. Here’s everything you need to know:
Tag your comments, a feature by developers for developers
Comments are essential in a developer’s life. When we work on a new feature, we often add comments that are reminders. For example:
- to validate a part of code with a colleague,
- to refactor a function,
- to fix code that is slowing down the performance,
- to split a method or a class into sections,
- to prepare the skeleton of a class and add a todo comment inside each function.
Even if you write some straightforward code, try reading it months or years later. Will it still seem simple, or would you wish you’d added comments?
4D v19 R4 takes comments to a whole new level with comment tags that enables you to better organize your comments.
Improved productivity with Object check syntax
Auto-completion for classes is available since 4D v18 R4. This feature simplifies code writing and limits errors in function names, for example. But it doesn’t avoid them entirely; it’s easy to reverse two letters or to forget a capital letter, and then have to spend time looking for why your code doesn’t work.
So what better way than to ask 4D to check if the classes or functions already exist?
Starting with 4D v19 R4, a warning is displayed in the code editor if you call a function that does not exist.
ORDA – Say Hello to Aliases
4D v19 R4 is shipped with a new ORDA concept: Aliases. They are the logical and complementary continuation of computed attributes.
This blog post explains what aliases are and highlights their advantages, especially when to use one or the other… or both.
Quickly jump to different functions of a class
Classes were introduced with 4D v18 R3. They allow you to organize your business logic and separate it from the UI part more quickly.
Classes are composed of several functions of varying lengths, so it’s not always easy to find the function you want to modify, or to move from one function to another. You can use the explorer, which displays classes and functions, but when you’re coding in the editor window, you don’t want to waste time changing windows.
With 4D v19 R4, the list of functions in your class is displayed in the code editor toolbar, allowing you to easily jump to a specific function.
4D v19 R4 Beta starts today
Yet another release, but not just any other release ?
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of beta testing for 4D v19 R4, which incorporates many features you requested, plus features we believe will be delightful to use!
Without further ado, let’s take a look and see what it has in store for you:
- Upon your request, we supported high-resolution displays, such as 4K displays, in Windows. This results in better text and image quality.
- Another highly requested feature is at your disposal, the possibility to launch an external process asynchronously to enhance your users’ experience.
- What about pessimistic lock management via REST? YES, we have that too.
- As for the 4D language, we couldn’t be more excited to share the many improvements we made available with you to elevate your coding experience.
- 4D Write Pro is embracing the dark (mode)! And enabling you to add page breaks inside table rows.
- Speed up your development process with 4D View Pro “templates.”
- The code editor has its share of features. For example, comment tags, quick access to different class functions, and syntax error checking.
- And much more (see below)!
4D v19 R3 is Here
We’re thrilled to announce that 4D v19 R3 is now available! One of the richest feature releases we have shipped so far.
Here’s an overview of what this feature release has in store for you:
- Say hello to Computed Attributes in ORDA, Classes, iOS, and Android. Your business logic will love this new feature.
- Speaking of ORDA, blobs are fully supported, just like any other type, enabling ORDA developers to use BLOB type attributes in operations with entities.
- 4D for iOS is released with features allowing to interact with native Apple apps and build even more advanced UI’s.
- As for 4D for Android, we’re giving you a way to test your Android app on an actual device before releasing it to users.
- Enjoy a simplified cross-platform client/server applications building on Windows.
- 4D Write Pro is shipped with an image setting dialog, the possibility to have different numbers of columns on the same page with continuous section breaks, and additional options to manage formula visibility.
- Out-of-the-box security boost with the support of the bcrypt algorithm for passwords. The best bit? There’s nothing to change in the code. Everything is automatic.
- More news for dark mode enthusiasts. After giving end-users a choice between dark and light mode for the appearance of their applications, it is now the turn of developers to choose between these modes during development on macOS.
2021 in Review: Our top 10 blog posts of the year!
It’s that time of the year where we take a look back at ten of our most-read posts. What a year it’s been! From native silicon support and the remarkable performance enhancements that came with it to a whole new Project mode set of features that will greatly enhance your programming experience.
2021 was filled with important product announcements and a plethora of exciting features! Let’s take a look at the topics that grabbed your attention in 2021:
ORDA: Thoroughly compare two entity selections
Since ORDA allows you to work with several entity selections simultaneously, we’re sure you take advantage of this by passing entity selections as a parameter to project methods or to functions of ORDA Data model classes.
To work efficiently with object-oriented programming using as few lines of code as possible, you need robust and optimized functions. That’s why with 4D v19 R3, we are 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. Let’s see the details!
Simplified navigation between development windows
When writing a new function or method, or when creating a form, the work is never linear. We usually need to:
- access the explorer to find the form in its folder
- access the explorer to write the documentation for the method
- read the documentation of a command on the 4D documentation website
- read the documentation of a component’s method
In this new version, we have added some menu items in the code editor and form editor to allow you to better navigate between the different elements of a project.
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