Tips

Build a web-based monitoring dialog, step by step

Want to recreate the 4D Server Administration Window with a web interface? Want to conveniently check what’s happening in the 4D Server without needing to go to the server room, to use a remote desktop, or to consume a 4D Client license? It’s now possible to view all of 4D Server’s main parameters(e.g., memory usage, drive space, users, processes, and even the real-time monitor) via the web.

In this blog post, we’ll walk you through a set of commands that 4D delivered over various R-releases to build your own web-based server administration dialog. Additionally, the regional technical manager of 4D Hispano (Angelo Caroprese) has provided a complete component to be used right in your applications.

 

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4D Write Pro now supports virtual structures!

Understanding end user needs and creating user-friendly interfaces are high priorities for every application developers.

And as you may know, the 4D language lets you alias table and field names in order to make them more readable for end users. This allows easier translating and readability in standard dialogs (query, sort, and formula editors), but also filtering out any table or fields that should be kept away from end users sight. 

During 4D Summit 2018, we had requests to extend this feature to 4D Write Pro. Well, we listened and it’s now available with 4D v17 R4!

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Name your ranges and formulas in 4D View Pro

4D v17 R4 is on the way with a cool new 4D View Pro feature: named ranges and formulas. If you need to use formulas with references to cell(s) or constant(s), this feature can be a great help!

With these new commands, your formulas are more readable and easily accessible with 4D View Pro’s automatic completion.

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Easily synchronize your processes

Preemptive processes are very useful for performing extensive calculations in parallel, using all of the cores in your CPU, but sometimes you need to delegate tasks to a cooperative process (e.g., using a non-preemptive command). With the New signal command, you can pause a process and wait for the response from another process!

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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 – Say hello to Vertical ruler

We’re pleased to announce that a new feature has been added to 4D Write Pro. In page mode, a vertical ruler can be displayed on the left side of the page! This lets you graphically manage the vertical margins. And if your document contains headers or footers, the spaces between them and the body of your document can be modified easily thanks to this ruler.

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Get and Set cell content in 4D View Pro

The ability to interact with a document via programming is an important part of using 4D View Pro. Now you can fill your documents by programming. You can set data as labels, database fields, or formulas in your document. Of course, if you can set, you can get too! You can also retrieve cell formulas or values entered by your users.