Author: Vanessa Talbot

Vanessa Talbot
• Product Owner •Vanessa Talbot joined 4D Program team in June, 2014. As a Product Owner, she is in charge of writing the user stories then translating it to functional specifications. Her role is also to make sure that the feature implementation delivered is meeting the customer need.Since her arrival, she has worked to define key features in 4D. She has worked on most of preemptive multi-threading new features and also on a very complex subject: the new architecture for engined application. Vanessa has a degree from Telecom Saint-Etienne. She began her career at the Criminal Research Institute as a developer for the audiovisual department. She has also worked in media and medical fields as expert in technical support, production as well as documenting new features.
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Project databases: More than a collaboration solution

Dreaming of a way of to work collaboratively? A way to work wherever you are in the world, with team members in different locations, and no one has to question where to find the latest version of a file or project? A different way to test new features and roll them back if they don’t work out, while being able to choose a restore point from which you want to roll back instead of running a full file backup. Your dreams are becoming a reality, these scenarios are now possible thanks to 4D v18 and project databases!

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Power of objects and dot notation

With 4D v17 R5, we showed you how easy it is to manipulate an object to retrieve the attributes of a file or folder. Things have gotten even easier thanks to object notation! In this blog post, we’re providing you an HDI with a user interface to manage files and folders. This isn’t new in 4D since you could do it with classic 4D commands, but now you can do it easier and with fewer lines of code!

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Easily customize the entry order of your dynamic forms

The power of dynamic forms was introduced with 4D v16 R6, allowing you to build your forms on the fly by building them in an object or loading them from a text file. This is very convenient in a world where forms are frequently changed to meet an application’s needs.

In 4D, the entry order typically follows a z order for both binary and dynamic forms. With 4D v17 R6, you can now define an entry order that’s not necessarily associated with the z order. 

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Object notation to handle files and folders

4D already provides commands to handle files and folders, but what about new commands that take advantage of the power of object notation?

Objects have changed the way many 4D developers write code, making it more generic, flexible, easier, and faster. Now this wave of change is extended to files and folders. In this blog post, we’ll show you how easy it is to manipulate an object in order to retrieve the attributes of a file or folder (rather than calling several commands and storing the information in multiple variables). Things are getting a lot easier!

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Convert an existing database into a Project

As of 4D v17 R5, you can create a database project. One of the greatest benefits of projects is how easy it makes collaborative work for distributed teams … by storing the source in a source control system in plain text files. Whether you’re a single developer or part of a team, this opens a new world of possibilities. 

But what about existing databases? Can they be converted to projects? Yes! This blog post is all about showing you how to do this and making you aware of a few things to know before proceeding.

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Formula: More power behind simplicity

The Formula command is available since 4D v17 R3. So far you might have thought of assigning a formula as a method to an object or building smart objects that can calculate values or do anything you need. That’s really great, and there’s more than meets the eye!

I had a great demonstration from Vincent de Lachaux – Developer and expert 4D – on how he uses this command. For this blog post, I compiled different scenarios from that demo to give you insight on a different dimension of this command.

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New server administration commands

4D continues to deliver features to help you create your own applications to monitor your servers. From programmatically retrieving information about sessions, processes, and the application server, to getting information about the web server.

Having already provided you commands to read about statuses, 4D v17 R4 now gives you the ability to change statuses. You can now create your own administration interfaces as dialogs on the server, client, or even as HTML pages for web access. It’s up to you. These commands allow you to perform the same actions as the standard 4D administration interface. For example, you can send a message to your users to notify them of scheduled maintenance, or block new connections to the application server while you perform an operation on it.

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4D Write Pro: WP commands and beyond

We’ve received comments on the forum and TAOW about features that previously existed in the 4D Write plug-in but seem to be missing in 4D Write Pro. Yet, they’ve been available for a long time!

In this blog post, we’ll go through a list of existing abilities in 4D Write Pro that seem to have gone unnoticed. In another words, 4D Write Pro features you didn’t know existed.

After all, 4D Write Pro is not limited to WP commands!

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