QUIC layer: the future of network communications
The most considerable production servers running with 4D accept more than a thousand simultaneous connections, and this number keeps growing. As a consequence, performance becomes an increasingly important focus of our teams. The QUIC protocol, used by the new version of the HTTP standard, has been specifically built to increase speed and reliability. As we are always looking for exciting technologies, we are working on replacing our low-level network protocol with the QUIC protocol.
For v20, you can switch to this network layer and check if it improves your performance. This is still in beta test, as we need your feedback before using it as our default network layer. As such, you will only be able to use it on beta versions of 4D.
4D Backup, VSS snapshots and the new commands to lock the datastore
4D provides you with multiple built-in ways to backup your data: 4D backup and the use of a mirror server. With 4D v20, 4D exposes internal commands to lock the datastore, allowing you to copy your data while 4D is running.
First, let’s speak about the different means to backup your data with 4D.
Latest Improvements of the HTTP Client
With 4D v19R6, we brought you a new way to perform HTTP requests: HTTP classes. At that time, some of the HTTP classes functionalities were not final, as we wanted to adapt them to the new syntax. It is now done! In v19R7, compressed responses, chunked responses, and redirections functionalities are now complete.
As a bonus, we also added a new way to log HTTP requests. And as it’s helpful to everyone, this new logging is available to the new HTTP classes as well as for the legacy syntax.
HTTP classes: A New Way to Perform Asynchronous HTTP Requests
In our constant effort to improve 4D syntax and functionalities, we have decided to bring you new commands to perform HTTP requests in 4D: the HTTP classes. They are available right in 4D v19 R6 and will feature many improvements over the coming versions. Let me show you how to use them right away.
Developing Concurrently on 4D Server in Project Mode
Since its release in 4D v18, Projects drastically expanded 4D’s capabilities by bringing compatibility with version control systems —among other things.
With excellent feedback, we couldn’t be prouder to see significant adoption of this feature among the 4D community. This pushed us to improve it to make it even better.
Your feedback included a request for the possibility to work simultaneously on a single development server as a team. Again, 4D listened, and we are thrilled to announce that with 4D v19 R6, you can work on a development server in project mode!
Reduce your 4D apps’ size with these new features
In our ongoing effort to improve the building of 4D applications, we’ve added a few functionalities to 4D v19R5 that you’ll certainly find useful.
The first one is the ability to remove some of the biggest 4D modules from your applications: CEF, Mecab, PHP, Spell Checker, and 4D Updater. If you don’t need some of these modules, you’ll be able to significantly reduce the size of your applications.
We also changed the final directory when you build a compiled structure, in order to accommodate those using multiple compiled versions of the same structure.
As for our Japanese customers, we have merged the Japanese version of 4D and the international one on MacOS.
Let’s delve into the details.
Evolution of the diagnostic log
Year after year, feature after feature, the diagnostic log has grown into a massive file on busy servers. With 4D v19R5, we included a new database parameter allowing you to choose the log level of the diagnostic log file. It will help you control the diagnostic log size by logging only what you really need.
A new command to get detailed information about licenses
It’s sometimes helpful to monitor 4D licenses on your server. That’s why with 4D v19 R4, we decided to provide you with a new command giving all the information about your license usage: Get License Usage. Let me introduce you to this new tool.
High DPI on Windows: Support for high resolution screens
At 4D, we take customer requests very seriously!
In previous meetings, customers showed great interest in supporting high-resolution displays, such as 4K displays, in Windows. Your wish has been fulfilled as we have added support for High DPI in 4D.
New text rendering in forms on Windows with DirectWrite
DirectWrite is the modern text rendering API on Windows. It improves text readability thanks to its subpixel quality, and is fully compatible with the most recent technologies. As such, it is a stepping stone to many improvements. Amongst them, the management of high-resolution screens (4K screens) we’re currently working on, and that many of you dearly expect. 4D list boxes moved to DirectWrite in v16 and we decided to make the switch for our text rendering inside forms in v19R3.
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