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What's New in
Visual DataFlex
12?
Visual DataFlex contains significant
technical advances. As enhancements and changes were implemented, care
was taken to make them easy to use and easy to integrate with existing
Visual DataFlex applications. Building new solutions with Visual
DataFlex 12 and upgrading existing applications and transitioning code
from prior revisions is, by design, simple and fast.
The centerpiece of version 12.0 is an all
new Studio / IDE that delivers the key features that developers in any
environment expect and need including...
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Easy for new users to learn, adopt and
use quickly
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Instantly more productive for existing
users
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Operationally fast, simple and intuitive
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Intelligent - it "discovers" information
from application source code and uses it to aid the development process
and the developer
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Visually attractive
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Extensible - it forms a solid foundation
for the future
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More suitable for team development
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Backward compatible, easy to upgrade
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The clear choice for building business
solutions - fast & easy.
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Features of the new
Visual DataFlex 12 Studio
New,
Customizable Interface -- All new menus, toolbars and docking
windows support all the features you would expect from an enterprise
class development environment:
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Nested Grouping
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Tear Off Tabs
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Sliding Auto Hide
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Pinnable Windows
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Float and Dock
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Drag-n-Drop Positioning
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Remembers all settings when closed
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Extremely configurable
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Code Editor
-- The new Code Editor supports a wide range of new editing features,
including:
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CodeSense is a set of Studio features
that intelligently assist you in writing code, providing lists of
context sensitive options and information
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Always shows “live” source (no source
view vs. outline mode)
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“Go to Definition" allows you to jump to
the source location where the class, method, variable, constant, etc is
defined.
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Undo/Redo (unlimited levels)
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Incremental Search
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Font size zooming
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Visible control and expression blocks
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Integrated
Debugger -- Debugging is fully integrated in the Studio and
all of the debugging widows are fully configurable. When the Studio is
in Debug mode, your program is either running (executing), or in break
mode. All debug windows are available when the Studio is in any of these
debug modes, and accessible from the Debug menu.
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Always shows "live" source code (no
special debugger view)
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Drag-able watches (expressions and
variables)
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Tree view for structs and arrays
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Remembers all breakpoints and watches
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Workspaces
-- Workspaces are easier to use and configure and many of the
restrictions have been completely removed.
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A new Studio Worskspace file
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No requirement for workspaces to be
registered
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No registration of components within a
workspace
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Library workspaces simplify the sharing
of class libraries
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Sub-directory support to allow for better
organization of source code files
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Other New Windows in Studio
Web Services Enhancements
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Low level SOAP Header support
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Support for more WSDLs (union, import)
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...and a long list of user suggested improvements and bug fixes.
Features added to
Visual DataFlex 11.1
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Start Center
Start Center is a new facility of Visual DataFlex Studio that guides
developers though the steps needed to build solutions for the Windows
desktop, for web deployment and web services. It helps developers do the
right thing at the right time; it makes solution building fast and easy.
Start Center…
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Delivers readily-accessible information
to help new users become productive quickly
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Provides readily-accessible "how to"
information for many common application requirements
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Provides a direct, on-line interface to
the latest product, feature and event information
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Enables rapidly launching new application
and component building tools and wizards in Studio
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Enables rapidly opening existing
application and component in Studio
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Guides developers to up-to-the-minute
on-line resources related to Visual DataFlex and other Data Access
Worldwide products
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Can be positioned anywhere on the
developer’s desktop that compliments his personal style (including
outside the boundaries of the main Studio panel)
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Crystal RDC
Report Integration
To provide business solution developers with more power and capability,
revision 11.1 includes a new set of classes that fully integrate the
Crystal Reports Report Designer Component (RDC) into Visual DataFlex.
The RDC uses Crystal’s Craxddrt.dll automation library, CRViewer.dll
ActiveX report viewer and CDO32.dll automation library. As with the old,
now-unsupported CRPE32.DLL based API, with a Crystal Reports XI
Developer Edition, developers can distribute the new RDC components
royalty free. The new Visual DataFlex classes implement the RDC object
model, which is made up of many objects with simple interfaces.
Existing applications that depend on the
Crystal CRPE32.DLL and Visual DataFlex CrystalReport class can still be
used in Visual DataFlex 11.1 as long as the developer provides the
correct legacy Crystal components in both development and deployment
environments.
The new Crystal RDC implementation includes…
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Providing developers with a simple,
effective way to view reports within an application
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A new Crystal RDC Report Integration
Wizard in Studio
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Use of the standard Crystal RDC object
model and interface – the standard method for working with Crystal
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Easy access to the most commonly needed
Crystal COM objects via a new Visual DataFlex wrapper class, cCrystal
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Simplification of the object aggregation
process
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Helper interfaces to make it easy to do
the most commonly required reporting tasks
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Thorough examples to demonstrate methods
and techniques for completing more complex report integration tasks
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Better looking
Windows solutions
Visual DataFlex applications now have an improved look and feel when
running with Visual Styles (i.e. XP Themes) due to the following changes
and enhancements:
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The selected Visual Styles border is
applied around Visual DataFlex Form, dbForm, Grid, dbGrid and dbList
controls.
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The selected Visual Styles border and
scrollbars are now applied to the Visual DataFlex RichEdit and
dbRichEdit controls.
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Support for hot-tracking is applied to
prompt buttons.
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Fixed the bug that displayed a white
rectangle (almost like a border) around buttons using Visual Styles.
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Studio now automatically creates the
manifest file for Visual DataFlex applications and test modes.
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Expanded Array
Function Library
The usability and performance of Arrays has been expanded by adding a
set of Array functions to support common actions such as sorting,
searching, initializing, etc.
Additional Help System Integration Capabilities
The HTML Help class can now reference specific pages in the help file
without the need for Help_IDs (Map IDs). This enhancement includes:
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An updated cHtmlHelp class (and related
classes).
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Support in the Studio to model the new
class. It is displayed on the Non-Visual page of the Controls Palette.
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A new psHTMLHelpTopic property has been
added to all the appropriate classes.
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A new section on Adding Help to Your
Windows Application has been added to the Quick Start section of the
Tutorials.
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Studio Improvements
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New Studio Start Center
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New Crystal RDC Report Integration Wizard
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Automatically generates manifest files
for applications and test components
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The new Crystal RDC classes and the
expanded HTML Help class are fully modeled in the Studio and have been
added to the Controls Palette
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Connectivity
Improvements
As more developers connect to existing SQL databases, the need to
support system tables that have no indexes has increased. Visual
DataFlex supports the use of system table without indexes as follows:
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System tables without indexes are only
supported for SQL databases (they do not apply to the Embedded database
or Pervasive.SQL databases using the native PSQL driver)
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The system table should only contain 1
row
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When the system table is opened, the
system table’s single row is automatically found
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The Clear, Delete and Find operations
should not be performed on the system table’s row
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Database
Explorer
The Visual DataFlex 11.1 Database Explorer has the following changes and
additions compared to the Visual DataFlex 11.0 version:
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Added a FIND GE button to the database
band of the toolbars, the record menu pull down and the floating menus
of the data grid and the single record view mode.
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Added button to get current number of
records on the attributes tab page. Instead of automatically retrieve
the value for each table. Opening some SQL databases will now work
faster.
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Added an option to store and reload the
last used filters automatically on closing and opening tables.
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Database Explorer sets – like Database
Builder – the current directory to the first directory in your data
path. This logic has been enhanced by testing if the directory is valid.
If not valid the code looks for the next directory to use.
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You can configure Database Explorer to
detect a change in the filelist by another tool since starting Database
Explorer. If detected the filelist (list of tables) can be refreshed.
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If the MRU information contains open-as
tables Database Explorer now displays them in the list of tables for
quicker access.
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Counting the number of records in a
filtered table now works faster.
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The layout of the index tab page uses
more descriptive names for the index segment attributes.
Database Server Login dialog enhanced by enumerating servers currently
connected to and update the list of loaded connectivity kits.
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Change Column Values dialog can now be
started from single record view mode and works on DF_TEXT type columns.
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Improved
Reliability by Static Linking of Visual C Runtime Files
There were potential Visual DataFlex development and/or deployment
issues arising from a change to the host system’s Visual C runtime files
by other applications. To eliminate these issues and improve Visual
DataFlex’s reliability, the Visual DataFlex binaries now have all of the
necessary Visual C runtime files statically linked so that they are
unaffected by other software.
In addition to the change in linking, there were multiple changes made
to the Visual DataFlex installations in support of this change:
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The installations no longer check for the
minimum revisions of various runtime files in the Windows System32
folder.
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The installations no longer install
various runtime files in the Bin folder.
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Features added to
Visual DataFlex 11
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Struct and array variables and
properties.
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Visual DataFlex structs and arrays use an
industry standard for syntax for definition and usage. They can be used
to build new applications or easily added to existing code. Both of
these new features are important for creating and using standards based
client-side and server-side web services.
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Arrays may be single dimensional or
multidimensional, static or dynamic. They can be based on any data type,
including structs. Structs are used to create complex custom data types.
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Struct members may be comprised of any
combination of simple data types and complex data types (i.e., structs
may contain other structs). Arrays can be used in the definition of
struct members.
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Significant enhancements for building
Windows and web applications using SQL-based DBMS servers. Visual
DataFlex incorporates features for building Windows and web applications
and web services using SQL-based DBMS servers such as Microsoft SQL
Server, IBM DB2, Pervasive.SQL, Oracle and ODBC data sources. As of
Visual DataFlex 11...
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Multi-segment relationships are
enabled for SQL database servers and in the embedded database. This
advance helps developers build applications that model real-world data
and easily make connections to SQL databases that have multi-segment
relationships.
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Alphanumeric primary keys in
database tables are supported (the traditional DataFlex “Recnum” is no
longer required in database tables). Most database servers allow Primary
Keys to be alphanumeric. This enhancement enables Visual DataFlex and
Web Application Server applications to connect to a database provided
that there is a defined alphanumeric or numeric Primary Key. Recnum
support is still provided for compatibility with existing applications.
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Application workspaces support a
default database connection. This allows tools such as Studio and
Database Builder to do more things automatically, more often. For
example, if the database used for a particular workspace is Microsoft
SQL Server, Database Builder will customize dialogs that deal with the
database to be specific to Microsoft SQL, instead of displaying generic
connectivity information or forcing the user having to specify the
database for each task.
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New Connectivity Wizards
in
Database Builder to quickly and easily connect to SQL servers.
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New Connectivity Kits to support
the above features.
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Data-aware (cdbRichEdit) and base (cRichEdit)
controls for creating and manipulating rich edit text.
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Larger text fields allow more
flexibility to use text from server databases in Visual DataFlex
applications. A vastly improved edit class helps to better manage text
fields.
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Combo forms in grids.
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Much more powerful server-side and
client-side web-services. By using the new struct and array features
in Visual DataFlex, you can develop and deploy complex web services with
far less coding. One the client side, connecting to virtually any web
service is now a matter of a few mouse clicks and then picking the
function you want to connect to.
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Debugger enhancements to speed
development.
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Expanded and improved examples to
make applying Visual Dataflex’s power and capability easier than ever
before...
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All examples now use the new RowId style
of programming
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All examples now use the New dbTextEdit
Control
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A new Rich Edit Control Sample (RichEditApp.src)
illustrates the use of a cRichEdit control and also implements a
WordPad-like toolbar for the control
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Updated Server Web Services examples now
supply complex data types in support of the changes in the Client Web
Services example
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Updated Client Web Services examples -
structs and arrays are used to access Web Services with complex data
types instead of using XML documents
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Improved compiler error checking
for faster application building and better quality code.
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Download this information in Adobe
PDF format.
Visual
DataFlex Developers in Asia Pacific now also receive a FREE
license of the newly released
FlexODBC Version 4 with their
Visual DataFlex 12
Studio and subscription renewals, valued at A$467.50!!!
FlexODBC is an ODBC driver (DLL)
for the DataFlex Embedded DBMS. This driver allows any ODBC compliant
front end application to read and write data contained Visual DataFlex
applications. A user in Microsoft Office can use Excel to pull company
accounting or invoice information directly into a spreadsheet and create
a chart. Microsoft Word users can do a customer mail merge directly from
DataFlex files. Crystal Reports users can create multi-file reports from
DataFlex data. Microsoft Access or Borland Delphi can even be used to
merge DataFlex data with other data sources to produce complex reports,
or to run mass file updates based on multiple criteria.
Features added to
Visual DataFlex 10.1
New & improved Wizards highlight the
usability enhancements and other improvements that are featured in
Visual DataFlex 10.1. VDF 10.1’s new Lookup Wizard makes it very easy
create a lookup list for any table. The Web Wizards have been improved
and now generate XHTML compatible code, and the new Class Creation
Wizard enables developers to subclass a single class quickly and easily.
A number of other new enhancements that improve developer productivity
are also included in this latest release!
New Lookup Wizard
This new wizard makes it very easy to quickly create a lookup
list for any table, and automatically places the necessary “Lookup
Object" and "Lookup Package" statements in the Data Dictionary for the
selected fields. It is accessed within the Studio through the
"File/New/Lookup" menu option. The wizard will create your source code
and update your data-dictionaries so that the proper DD fields are
assigned to the lookup list.
Visual DataFlex 10.1’s new Lookup Wizard makes it very easy to quickly
create a lookup list for any table.
Visual DataFlex 10.1's new lookup Wizard makes it very
easy to quickly create a lookup list for any table.
Improvements in
Web Wizards
The wizards now generate XHTML compatible code that is supported by all
web browsers. Previously the wizards generated “loose” html code; now
the code produced adheres to the XHTML standard. The main changes made
were:
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All elements are properly lower-cased.
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All self enclosed elements have a" />"
end tag.
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All attributes are enclosed in double
quotes (e.g. size="10" and not size=10).
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All elements have a proper ending
element.
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The wizards now make greater and more
consistent use of CSS style sheets. All pages generated by the wizards
(entry, report and zoom) now appear better and more consistent. This
also makes it easier to change the look of an application by simply
changing style sheets. Changes made include:
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The buttons are now assigned to a CSS
class ActionButton.
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The find, save, delete buttons are placed
in a toolbar CSS class.
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Removed the generation of code for CSS
class definitions within the page.
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Selection page in reports use the same
CSS classes that data entry input controls use.
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Removed the copyright footer at the
bottom of each wizard page.
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New Class
Creation Wizard
The new wizard enables developers to subclass a single class quickly and
easily, including the creation of all supporting files (pkg, dfc and dfo).
The wizard is accessed within the Studio through the "File/New/Source
File" menu option. Upon return to the studio, the class package file
will be loaded in the Studio.
Desktop Restore
Now, each time you open the Studio, you are right back where you left
off in any given project! Developer efficiency has been enhanced with
the addition of the Desktop Restore feature. The Studio now saves the
desktop status as you leave a workspace or close the Studio, and the
next time that you open the workspace, the previous status is restored.
The Studio also no longer requires closing of components to switch
workspaces and perform other related tasks.
Crystal Report
Output to PDF
Crystal Reports can now be output in Adobe PDF format. See the
ExportFormatType method in the CrystalReport class for more information
on this new setting. The "Standard Customer Listing" report view in the
Order sample application has been modified to use this as one of the
export formats for this report.
Improved and
Expanded Documentation
The Visual DataFlex 10.1 Quick Start now includes an Extended Tutorials
sections. Work through the Extended Tutorials to create a complete Order
Entry application.
The Language Reference "Functions" section has been restructured and now
includes complete documentation on each member of the Visual DataFlex
function library.
Many documentation bugs have been addressed. See "Bugs Fixed in Visual
DataFlex 10.1" for a complete list of all bug fixes.
"Find In Files"
Dialog Improvement
Along with being more intuitive, the “Find In Files” Dialog improves
efficiency by now storing the developer’s customized search path for any
given workspace.
Other improvements include: Esc key now cancels the dialog, the text to
find now seeds the Find Next (F3) operation, no more workspace zones,
configurable default search paths, and buttons for adding common search
paths.
An Improved Data
Dictionary Structure Editor
The structure editor is now easier to use and presents the information
in a simpler, more focused format. Developers now see the information
most often used in this dialog, Main DD and relationships, at a glance
without having to expand tree levels.
Improved Table
Opening Requirements
The Studio is now more efficient when opening tables used by a
component. Developers are now able to edit the structure of a table in
database builder without having to close the Studio. Tables are only
opened once per workspace work session, their data is read, then the
table is closed. This process takes place as each table is needed for
the first time.
CodeMast and
CodeType Improvements
A number of changes have been made in Visual DataFlex 10.1 to make
CodeMast and CodeType tables easier to use. Visual DataFlex uses these
for maintaining the data used for validation tables. These tables have
been added to filelist in positions 253 (CodeType) and 254 (CodeMast).
Placing these tables in filelist has the following advantages:
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The tables can now be moved to other
databases (e.g. Pervasive.SQL, Microsoft SQL Server), and
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The tables can be maintained (sorted,
etc.) within Database Builder.
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In addition, changes have been made so
that the data in extra fields defined by the developer will be
maintained when used with Database Builder.
cHttpTransfer
Class
Secure web sites (HTTPS) are now more easily supported with enhancements
to the cHttpTransfer class. In addition, new methods have been created
to support client certificates.
Client Web
Services
Client Web Services now supports better access to secure services. This
allows you to access web services that require secure SSL sites (HTTPS),
client certificates, and username/passwords.
Passing Object
Names as Parameters
Object names can now be passed as a parameter using the object’s simple
name. Prior to Visual DataFlex 10.1, object names in parameters needed
to be passed using expression syntax (e.g. oMyObject(self)). Now the
simple name can be used (e.g., oMyObject).
Visual Designer
Improvement
Canvas resizing no longer triggers a component’s changed state.
Drag Lock
Improvement
Drag Lock in the visual designer can now be set for each component. A
component’s drag lock state is persistent.
Improved File |
Recent . Menu Options
The Recent Workspaces, Recent Components, and Recent Files menu options
on the File menu in the Studio have been expanded to display more
options of workspaces, components and files that were recently used.
Improved Web
Service Client-Class Generator
This tool is now easier to use.
Learn how
Venue 1, a provider of advanced
technology that enables sports and entertainment venues to better manage
their customer service, food service, ticketing, and retail outlets, is
already delivering solutions using Visual DataFlex 10’s new
web services technology.
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