SDI mode and list boxes enhancement with 4D v17 – KEISUKE from the 4D Summit 2018
The User Experience is an important step in the design process. However, you don’t often hear about it until something goes wrong! 4D v17 can provide multiple tools to help you design applications that adapt to your users’ needs, starting at the early stages of conception. Thus, delivering an interaction that’s robust and more intuitive. User Experience was a key topic during the 4D Summit 2018. In addition to the List Boxes, another major feature was presented: The SDI mode. The #1 requested feature on Windows.
Watch the UX video from the 4D Summit 2018 featuring Keisuke Miyako where he presented all the advances of list boxes and the newly added SDI mode.
4D Methods editor with dark theme
Humans have different taste preferences. For instance, some people prefer white over all other colors, while others find black to be more majestic … hence any new color trend tagged as ‘the new black’!
In order to accommodate different preferences, 4D enables you to personalize the method editor theme!
In the 4D preferences dialog, you can set several parameters for the editor such as the color of the background or each type of code element (i.e., commands and comments).
Thanks to these different options, you can completely customize the method editor to your taste. Whether you’re a fan of light or dark themes, 4D’s got you covered!
Here’s what a dark theme looks like:
4D Write-like toolbar example for 4D Write Pro
Moving to 4D Write Pro is a great evolution to make your applications ready for the latest (and future) operating systems. However, new tools can sometimes be intimidating. Do you miss the vintage 4D Write plugin’s toolbar? No problem, here’s a 4D Write Pro toolbar example that looks just like it!
Ready-to-use toolbar example for 4D Write Pro
You’d like to use 4D Write Pro, but don’t have the time to create a toolbar from scratch? We’ve created a sample application with a ready-to-use toolbar, including two icon families, so you can choose the toolbar style you prefer (flat design or classic). And on top of that, we also added a complete menu bar! Check it out and reuse it for your own applications!
Rearrange the object entry order in a single click
When working on a form, it often happens, for a reason or another, that you insert new objects within a group of existing objects in your form. In that scenario, the resulting object entry order often becomes illogical, and would let the user enter information in an awkward manner. This is where you need to restore the entry order to a logic one, and it can be a tedious task…
Use DIALOG instead of MODIFY SELECTION
There is an old saying: “Old is gold” meaning that new ways are not as good as the old ones. But the new way to say is “Old is gold but new is platinum“. We are not referring to jewelry here but two of 4D commands: MODIFY SELECTION and DIALOG.
Help tips on list boxes!
Help tips or hints are very useful, as they simplify the user interface and help users understand objects that sometimes aren’t self-evident. 4D supports help tips in most areas and inputs when hovering the pointer over them, but that was not the case with a list box object.
With 4D v16 R5 we have added the possibility to display a help tip on a list box cell thanks to the enrichment of two commands.
Automatic row height in list boxes, a new 4D View Pro feature!
Starting with 4D v16, you can set a different row height for each row in your list box. So with a few lines of code, you have a list box with rows that conform to the content. With this 4D v16 feature, we gave full control to the developer to precisely define the height for every single row of the list box.
With 4D v16 R5, we’ve decided to go further, and provide you with a fully automatic mode. It’s now possible to display lists in a gorgeous interface without any programming. You only need to set a few properties in the list box, and 4D does the rest for you. It’s magical, fluid, and again … not a single line of code!
Display your dashboard on a big TV screen
Today, big screens are everywhere. At the airport or train station for arrival/departure. In production areas for failure/success or production numbers. In call centers for activity or calls in queue. In stock exchange for a ticker.
Your first thought could be to use a normal computer, macOS or Windows, with a “27” or 30” screen. Expensive, but easy to do. But besides the high price, you need to run a 4D app, launch it, update it, all just to display a picture?
How to use Google Charts with 4D
According to neuroscientists, we respond better and faster to a visual form than any other type of representation. That’s why graphs and charts are clearly a key to a better understanding of data.
So if you’re looking to display bar charts, histograms, or pie charts which are modern and fully compatible with the leading browsers, but also more suitable for the way the human brain processes information, Google Charts is one possible answer. The available chart types in Google Charts is varied: from the classical bar/column/pie charts, Google Charts also offers elaborated graphs such as Treemap, Candlestick and Gauge charts.
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