4D introduces SDI mode for applications on Windows!
Hot news! 4D applications on Windows are entering a new world thanks to 4D Windows 64-bit. Do you remember the grey-background main window which contains all other application windows? This main window is technically called MDI (which stands for Multiple Document Interface) and now there’s a way to get rid of it and move to SDI (Single Document Interface) where application windows are all independent…
Interested? Just activate the SDI mode with a single checkbox and it’s done…without a line of code!
The complete Windows 64-bit product line is now Altura-free
We are pleased to announce that 4D v16 R4 is the very first version where the whole 4D Windows 64-bit product line is no longer relying on the Mac2Win library from Altura! As announced in last April, in this strategy announcement post, we have done the work on 4D Server Windows 64-bit, which was the last step to reach.
Our Windows 64-bit product line can now fully take advantage of some modern technologies and make you benefit from it, such as support of Single Document Interface (SDI) windows for instance, also delivered with 4D v16 R4!
4D View Pro spreadsheet is here!
After the advanced list usage completely covered with 4D v16, 4D v16 R4 reaches a major step toward with 4D View Pro by providing our customers with the first step of our 4D View Pro spreadsheet solution, provided as a preview.
Add an hyperlink to your company logo in 4D Write Pro
A less well known usage of 4D Write Pro product is the production of HTML emails. In fact you can create a 4D Write Pro document including 4D expressions, text and images, then modify the document, paragraph or text properties and send it by email. In this context, a very common need is to add a link to a picture, e.g. your company logo.
4D Write Pro has been enhanced with 4D v16 R4 so that hyperlinks can now been added to text and/or pictures. Setting a link to your company logo or company name is now as easy as styling some text to bold.
Discover how object notation can simplify your developer’s life!
With the object notation, available as a preview in 4D v16 R4, your code is simpler to write, easier to read and more natural to think. That is true. But did you really see the full potential of the object notation?
Before 4D v16 R4, when you wanted to create a detail form to enter contact information from an object field, you had no choice but to write an expression like OB GET ([CONTACT]Info; “City”) in the variable data source. You could retrieve the attribute value, but it was not possible to change it. Moreover, you had to write a loadRecord method with the OB GET command for each attribute and a saveRecord method with the OB SET command for each attribute.
What does object notation change in this scenario? From 4D v16 R4, you just write [CONTACT]Info.City in the variable data source! This variable is available in Read/Write mode. OB GET and OB SET commands are no longer necessary. That’s it! Now you see the full potential.
4D Write Pro supports tables!
Your wish has finally come true, you can now insert and fill tables by programming in your 4D Write Pro documents. We are not talking about bar tabs mimicking tables here, this is all about “real” tables! Tables where the text will automatically wrap to fit into the column size you defined, that will not “break” when your data changes.
This feature is the first major improvement exceeding the old 4D Write set of functionalities. You will now be able to generate invoices containing tables, fully by programming and style them exactly as you want with a few line of codes! Another scenario is that you can now provide your users with a button in your application UI that will insert a table with a predefined number of lines and rows, a predefined size for each column then you can let the user edit and style the content by itself.
Another way of coding: Object notation
Objects are great, everyone says so. Beside their wonderful flexibility, they are unbelievably fast. You can search through millions of records in just a fraction of a second. 4D v16 even allows to order by object attributes, and to do calculations such as Sum or Average.
With 4D v16 R4, the 4D language has been drastically enhanced to make the usage of objects much more comfortable – with the support of the object notation. Fast, flexible, efficient and now elegant!
Get ready for Object Notation
You are looking forward to start coding with Object Notation? For sure, Object Notation will make your life easier as a developer. But before activating it in your existing application, you should make sure that your code is ready.
The new Object Notation syntax introduces some restraints as 4D language now considers the three following characters as reserved symbols: “ . ”, “ [ ” and “ ] ” (i.e. dot, opening and closing brackets).
As a consequence, once you have activated the Object Notation in your database, it is no longer allowed to use these symbols in variable names, method names, table names, or field names. And of course it is the same for your existing code!
So it is important to check that your application does not contain these symbols before activating this feature. But don’t worry the MSC can do it for you!
Security and Data Protection
Security is an important and fundamental topic for a database or business solution system. This article proposes an overview of how 4D protects your data. In fact, security is about data protection. And data protection is a huge area. Data needs to be protected for unwanted access, but also for loss.
More standard actions for Styled Text areas
You want to quickly create a toolbar for your Styled text areas. You want to change the font of the text or compute/freeze 4D Expressions without writing a line of code. It is possible using the new standard actions for Styled Text areas.
Just associate a standard action to each button object and 4D will handle everything automatically: action triggering but also the button activation or deactivation if the action is not available in the current context.