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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Vanessa Talbot
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Automate repetitive tasks and more with form macros!

If you’re a fan of macros in the code editor, then 4D v18 R5 has some good news for you …  because now macros are also available in the form editor!

Let me start by telling you how useful macros can be for you. Have you ever needed to use formatting or naming rules in your application, then apply them to each new form? Or maybe you’ve had to work on existing forms created by someone else, and always need to do the exact same checks and analyses before getting started. If you’ve ever encountered one of these scenarios, then 4D v18 R5 is for you because it gives you the ability to create macros and save time on predictable, repetitive tasks.

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Vanessa Talbot
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Coder-friendly syntax for class functions and methods

Using $1, $2, and $n variables in your code not only makes the code less readable, it can also increase confusion since the human brain can find it difficult to remember what these variables correspond to. The solution is to create a variable with an understandable name and assign it the value of $1, $2, or $n.

4D v18 R5 has good news, you can now name your parameters when declaring:

  • a project method,
  • a trigger
  • a database method
  • a form method
  • a constructor of a class
  • a function of a class.

 

Let’s see how!

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Vanessa Talbot
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Preview your CSS directly in the form editor!

In 4D v18 R5, you can preview the final CSS rendering in the form editor WITHOUT running your dialog. Yes, you heard that right. Standardizing and reviving your forms has never been easier!

If you haven’t yet heard about CSS in 4D, now’s the perfect time to learn more! Introduced in 4D v18 for project applications, this concept includes enhanced and quick style sheets based on CSS. I recommend taking a look at this blog post.

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Vanessa Talbot
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Select 4D Write Pro Interface pages to display

The two 4D Write Pro Interface widgets continue to be enhanced with more abilities and functionalities in each release. For some of your applications, not all the widget pages are useful. For example, you use 4D Write Pro to format your emails, so you only want to display a few pages to simplify the interface and make the user’s work easier.

4D v18 R5 lets you display only the desired pages. Keep reading to learn how!

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Vanessa Talbot
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4D Write Pro interface widget: Import & Export

You asked for a way to import and export different document formats via the 4D Write Pro widget and once again, 4D listened!

In addition to the 4D commands that already allow you to import and export documents in different formats, such as export .docx format with 4D v17 R4 and PDF format with 4D v18 R4. Now, 4D Write Pro can import and export different document formats via the widget from the toolbar and sidebar.

 

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Vanessa Talbot
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New declaration syntax for an intuitive autocompletion

Have you ever wondered about 4D’s autocompletion feature or asked yourself why 4D suggests all functions used in the code? Since an object is a very generic type, 4D only knows what it’s really storing at runtime. However, that doesn’t help much when you’re writing your code.

4D now offers a new, alternative syntax which will greatly enhance autocompletion when declaring your variables.

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