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.
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:
4D for Mobile: Build Great Mobile Apps Using Computed Attributes
As you probably know, computed attributes are available starting from 4D v19 R3. A blog post is available that presents this great new feature.
As we always propose the best and complete user experience to our mobile app developers, computed attributes are compatible with all your iOS and Android projects.
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!
A magic show awaits you with ORDA’s computed attributes!
It is often helpful or even essential that databases be adapted in a flexible and evolving way to users and their businesses in the computer world. The control of accessible data is also a recurrent and sensitive subject. From this point of view, developers use methods and formulas that are sometimes complex to give or restrict access to information, depending on the context or the access rights of the users.
Let’s take a simple example. In your application, you sometimes need to display a list of people. One of the columns displays their full names, but in your database, you have a first name field and a last name field. Currently, you write a formula in the list box column, and you have to manage the sorting on the column yourself. Wouldn’t it be great to have a computed field where you can define its calculation formula and sorting method, and have all the business logic inside the class and not in each interface?
Well, starting with 4D v19 R3, 4D provides a solution to this, with computed attributes.
Full support of BLOB in ORDA
Many of you have already taken the leap and started using ORDA. To ease your coding experience, we are glad to announce that Blobs are now fully supported in ORDA, like any other type. After the first step in 4D v19 R2, with the support of the Blobs in objects, 4D v19 R3 brings the support of Blobs in ORDA.
4D for Mobile: What’s new in v19 R3
We are pleased to announce that a new version of 4D is available with new features for 4D for iOS and 4D for Android.
WHAT’s in it?
For both 4D for iOS and 4D for Android:
- A new feature of 4D allows you to add computed attributes to an entity. These new attributes can also be used in the list and detail forms of your mobile application.
For 4D for iOS only:
- You can create action input controls of type choice list. The choice list can be a predefined list in a JSON or a dynamic list filled using a data source.
- In your actions and input controls, you can use computed attributes to simplify your code.
For 4D for Android only:
- The N to one relation is available, so you can display relative data in a list, and decide which field(s) from the related table to publish in your app
- You can test and debug the generated application on your device.
Several blog posts detailing the different features are listed in this post.
4D v19 R3 Beta Starts Today
We’re pleased to announce the launch of beta testing for 4D v19 R3! One of the richest feature releases we have shipped so far!
Without further ado, let’s take a look and see what this feature release has in store for you:
- Your business logic will love 4D’s new Computed Attributes in ORDA, Classes, iOS, and Android.
- 4D for iOS 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 a real device before releasing it to users.
- 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. What’s best, 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.
- And more (see below)!
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