ORDA and 4D Write Pro : The power couple!
4D Write Pro documents often contain formulas returning data or calculations depending on the database. Thanks to the use of contexts, associating that data with documents is now child’s play!
In this blog post, we’ll see how the combination of 4D Write Pro documents with data retrieved using ORDA makes the code clear and easy to maintain.
ORDA – Optimize performance with full control over REST requests
With a previous version, you discovered how ORDA REST requests had been automatically optimized to increase performance when working with a remote datastore and client/server configurations.
You learned that you can use contexts to take advantage of the automatic ORDA REST requests optimization.
That was a significant step, but now we offer to have complete control over the behavior of your REST requests. Since performance is a strategic concern, you must be eager to discover this new feature!
And that’s not all; new tools are now available to help you understand and debug your issues.
Keep reading for a complete presentation.
NULL value to blank value? No more default mapping
When you create a new field in your database, 4D allows you to choose to map NULL value to blank values or not. Starting from 4D v19 R4, in new projects, 4D will no longer by default map the NULL value to an empty value.
ORDA – Say Hello to Aliases
4D v19 R4 is shipped with a new ORDA concept: Aliases. They are the logical and complementary continuation of computed attributes.
This blog post explains what aliases are and highlights their advantages, especially when to use one or the other… or both.
ORDA: Thoroughly compare two entity selections
Since ORDA allows you to work with several entity selections simultaneously, we’re sure you take advantage of this by passing entity selections as a parameter to project methods or to functions of ORDA Data model classes.
To work efficiently with object-oriented programming using as few lines of code as possible, you need robust and optimized functions. That’s why with 4D v19 R3, we are shipping a new function available on the entitySelection object: the selected() function.
Thanks to it, you’ll be able to inspect and compare two entity selections. Let’s see the details!
A magic show awaits you with ORDA’s computed attributes!
It is often helpful or even essential that databases be adapted in a flexible and evolving way to users and their businesses in the computer world. The control of accessible data is also a recurrent and sensitive subject. From this point of view, developers use methods and formulas that are sometimes complex to give or restrict access to information, depending on the context or the access rights of the users.
Let’s take a simple example. In your application, you sometimes need to display a list of people. One of the columns displays their full names, but in your database, you have a first name field and a last name field. Currently, you write a formula in the list box column, and you have to manage the sorting on the column yourself. Wouldn’t it be great to have a computed field where you can define its calculation formula and sorting method, and have all the business logic inside the class and not in each interface?
Well, starting with 4D v19 R3, 4D provides a solution to this, with computed attributes.
Full support of BLOB in ORDA
Many of you have already taken the leap and started using ORDA. To ease your coding experience, we are glad to announce that Blobs are now fully supported in ORDA, like any other type. After the first step in 4D v19 R2, with the support of the Blobs in objects, 4D v19 R3 brings the support of Blobs in ORDA.
ORDA: Easy looping with a new 4D tag
You have probably already used a For each…End for each loop to work with ORDA entity selections or with collections. Its use is simple and straight forward. Would like to use it as a 4D tag in your SHTML pages? Or perhaps with the PROCESS 4D TAGS command?
As of 4D v19, you can! Keep reading to learn more.
4D Data Explorer in Action
Even though the 4D Data Explorer is still in Preview version (there are certainly more features to come in the next versions), we thought we’d show you the product in action and let you discover its capabilities.
This is a web browser interface usable by the administrator as well as the developer, remotely (in a secure way with an HTTPS connection) or locally on the same machine as your opened database.
Need to check your data during development? Need to find data that could cause bugs? The Data Explorer, with its powerful query engine and intuitive web interface, is made for you!
Let’s watch the video:
Your data live … in a web interface
As a 4D developer, you may have dreamed of visualizing your data immediately and easily while you update/create it. Or maybe you’re a 4D administrator and you need to quickly find a record that causes an error due to inappropriate data. This has been possible with 4D’s built-in query interface and output form, but it can take time to customize this form and you may need a more responsive tool.
How about a modern and user-friendly web interface to view your data? And for a cherry on the top, what if this interface comes with a powerful query engine? Dream no more! All this is now a reality thanks to Data Explorer, a new tool provided as a Preview for you to evaluate it and give us your feedback.
Of course, it will be enhanced in future versions.
Let’s discover it now!
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