Big Sur compatibility for all 4D v18 customers!
At 4D, we’re excited about Apple’s Big Sur. In order to provide extensive support to our customers to test and run the new operating system with your 4D applications, both the 4D v18 LTS and Feature Release product lines are macOS Big Sur compatible!
4D v18 is here
Our most spectacular major release yet is now available! 4D v18 is bursting with advanced functionalities, upgrades, and enhancements.
This cutting-edge release opens a lot of possibilities for your 4D-based applications. Though by no means exhaustive, here’s a list of features we’ve got in store for you:
- Project database for version control: A solution for collaborative programming, enabling you to store your code in plain text files within a source control system (e.g., Github, Perforce, etc.).
- Encryption: Built-in data encryption tools on a per-table basis. Whether via the UI or programming, your application’s protection is at its finest.
- 4D for iOS: A product fully integrated into 4D to easily extend your business applications to mobile.
- ORDA: Optimized performance, extra commands, and remote datastore.
- The 4D language: Staying compatible with the classic language, the 4D language is making great strides towards becoming object-oriented with member methods to access files (or folders, zip archives, or emails), the ability to build your own member functions and use the new formula object, enhanced debugging features, etc.
- 4D Write Pro: Style sheets, a feature-rich toolbar, more table-related features, and the list goes on.
- 4D View Pro: A powerful ribbon toolbar, .xlsx import/export, more commands to handle your documents by programming, and much more.
This list is far from exhaustive, see all the blog posts for 4D v18!
Deployment made easy with 4D v18
4D v18 introduces a new architecture for files and folders to keep your deployed macOS package and Windows application folders intact. In a nutshell, the logs folder and all user-based settings, including 4D backup settings, are now stored next to the data file. In fact, the settings exist twice; one next to the structure to use as default settings for new data files, and one beside the data file, storing user changes.
As a result, the folder containing the structure can be read-only, since nothing is modified inside (*). Deployment becomes easier because the structure folder can simply be replaced, nothing within it needs to be copied beforehand.
(*) only in project databases. In binary databases the user & password tables are stored in the structure, so the folder must not be read-only.
4D v18 beta starts today
Beta testing for 4D v18, our most spectacular release yet, is starting today! And we couldn’t be more thrilled to share all the novelties we’ve prepared for you. More than +90 advances, including major enhancements to existing features, as well as new ones that were designed to ease your development journey and take your applications to new heights. And in case you want to have an overall idea on this release full potential, we’ve put together this extensive library of examples (HDIs).
Buckle up and let’s discover some of what 4D v18 Beta has to offer:
- Project database – Version control: a solution for collaborative programming. Enabling you to store your code in a source control system (e.g., Github, Perforce, etc.) in plain text files.
- Built-in encryption: protection at its finest with built-in data encryption on a per-table basis.
- 4D for iOS: a product fully integrated into 4D to extend your business applications to mobile with ease.
- ORDA: enhanced commands, enhanced performance … and then there is remote datastore.
- 4D language: extra 4D commands to enlarge your programming capabilities.
- 4D Write Pro: Style Sheets. Tables. Toolbar. Word Export. And much more.
- 4D View Pro: Ribbon Toolbar. Excel import/export. And the list goes on.
- And much more (see below).
4D v18: The story behind the logo design
When it comes to major product releases, 4D pays close attention to the color of the logo for each one. Since 4D v18, one of 4D’s most revolutionary releases is just around the corner, we’ve decided to reveal the story behind the choices made not only for the logo color but also for modifications to the shape of the icons! Here’s everything you need to know about 4D v18’s logo color, as told by creative designer: Julien Banon.
4D for Mobile : Get Mobile Users’ Cookies
As you probably know, scalable sessions have been available since 4D v18 R6. They’re a web session type that is able to handle several processes in preemptive mode. This means they can handle several user-agent requests simultaneously and share data between these processes.
Well, 4D v19 R7 greatly enhances this feature and makes it available to 4D for Mobile.
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.
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)!
Debug on the server with scalable web sessions
Scalable web sessions were a significant improvement brought by 4D v18 R6. They allow you to use 4D tags, 4D actions, and REST API in preemptive processes, even in interpreted mode, on a 4D server. However, to debug such programs, you needed to open your development environment on the server to make it switch to cooperative mode, as the debugger window cannot be opened with preemptive processes. This way, until v19 R2, you could debug REST, 4D actions, or 4D tags. From v19 R3, all of this has become much easier, and you can debug on the server-side simply by attaching the debugger to it, as usual.
Contact us
Got a question, suggestion or just want to get in touch with the 4D bloggers? Drop us a line!
* Your privacy is very important to us. Please click here to view our Policy