e-News from Visual DataFlex UK   June 2009

In This Issue Visual DataFlex 2009/v15 - Overview VDF 2009/v15 - Details Keeping up to date - Webinars Client Focus - Search Engine Explorer Client Focus - Student Lettings management Visual DataFlex 2009/V15 Released   More features in the IDE   Ever Increasing focus on Web Application Development     Quick Links   VDF UK Website Asckey Website VDF Sig Electos Eclipse-fm® Dynamic AI

Visual DataFlex 2008 v15.0 Now released, for details, see below. Registration Codes Please note that this revision needs new registration codes. If you are on subscription, you will be receiving these very shortly, starting with the VDF Studio codes, then your Client runtimes.   Personal Edition Downloads If you are using the Personal Edition, the download available from the Visual DataFlex Web Site will be updated to the V15.0 almost immediately. If you download from third party souces such as Download.com is will take a day or two before the download file is updated. By trhe way, www.Download.com shows that Visual DataFlex 2008 Personal 14.1.59.8 was downloaded over 12,000 times, and scored a user rating of 4 out of 5 stars. Not bad!   Visual DataFlex 2009/15.0 - Overview   Background In general, VDF 14 rounded off the ability to provide new visual capabilities in our applications, and to that extent could be said to have had an application end user focus. Of course, developers need to put all those nice Codejock enhancements into their end user applications!   With the inclusion of data modelling in the Studio, it also rounded off the current phase of evolution of the VDF Develpment Studio, bringing all aspects of development within the Studio. As per the comment on Webinars below, look up this web page and particularly "Visual DataFlex 2008 - The Big Picture" if you need to catch up on all of this. The goal of Visual DataFlex 2009 is to provide developers with a release that makes "sense" & makes "cents" in the current economy. VDF 2009/15’s key objectives are to: Deliver new Studio additions and features that provide immediate value to developers to help build applications faster and more efficiently; Focus on new features that developers can use to rapidly deliver new application enhancements to their customers and their marketplaces in order to compete more effectively and win more business in 2009. Technically, this translates into Enable Visual DataFlex applications to use some of the technologies created for the Studio Provide some oft requested Studio / Debugger enhancements Provide some oft requested Package / Framework / Runtime enhancements Because of an aggressive release cycle, make sure that forward migration is reliable, fast & easy A lot of this has been covered in recent reporting of the Synergy conference. Reviewing these developments, we see VDF 15 as focussing on two main areas VDF v15 - Windows Application Development There are a lot more technical enhancements in v15, as you will see below, some of which, such as the splitter container will further enhance the visual aspects of your applications. Many more are continuing the task of making development quicker, easier, and ever more encouraging of going that extra mile in achieving excellence in application features and performance. VDF v15- Web Development AJAX Library Support for Web Applications We have been convinced of the importance of "the Web" as an application delivery basis for some time - and have been saying so! Building the AJAX Framework into VDF puts Web application development right alongside Windows App development in the VDF Studio, and what can be done with this is very impressive. Go look at that Webinar page and this time put an hour aside for "Transitioning Applications to the Web with the Visual DataFlex AJAX Library". After a bit of a false start to the presentation (though the initial repetition can be useful to anyone seeing all this for the first time!), the ability that is revealed for "AJAX" to deliver web applications that respect your (Windows apps) business rules is very significant. The ability to create well behaved, interactive and user friendly Web page delivered Applications goes well beyond most experiences of what we expect from Web applications today. Also, remember, Web based application delivery is far less expensive in licensing terms than is Windows deployment once beyond about 25 Users, and far more flexible, wuith no geographical restrictions, and a capability, in our experience, to service truly large numbers of applicaiton users. It is for this reason that we see Application delivery as moving toward a Web Applications basis even where the public internet is not involved. If we can approach the interactivity and user friendliness we expect in a Windows application via a web page deployment, then whether it is WWW of a local intranet hardly matters. Even better we don’t need to make a distinction, our application users can be in house, at home, or on the other side of the globe. Its not quite a whole new world, but the ability to exploit that new world is! Downloads You can download the released Visual DataFlex 2009 Studio, Web Application Server, and Client Engine builds from the following  locations:      Complete Studio Installation:      http://www.DataAccess.com/Download/VDFstudio      Web Application Server only:      http://www.DataAccess.com/Download/VDFserver      Client Engine only:      http://www.DataAccess.com/Download/VDFclient    Back to Top  Visual DataFlex 2009 Details include: AJAX Library Support for Web Applications - Beginning with revision 2009, the AJAX library will be officially included and supported in Visual DataFlex. The AJAX library is now the recommended method for writing Web Applications Development of the AJAX library will continue to be handled by Data Access Europe Runtime, debugger and Studio enhancements have been made to better support Web App/AJAX Visual DataFlex Studio Enhancements Design time anchor support Anchors are now applied in the Visual Designer Improved breakpoint panel The breakpoint panel is easier to use and organize Code Explorer - select text Makes it easy to mark a block of text from Code explorer Go-back option Can be manually selected to provide "go back" point in a file Used with "go to definition" Dependency Cache rewrite Very large applications load and run faster in the Studio Debugger Changes Conditional Breakpoints - Any breakpoint can contain an expression that determines if a breakpoint should be applied Show as object - Any variable or expression that evaluates as a number can be shown as an object Move program pointer - You can move the current program pointer for more flexible debugging Runtime Improvements - New Array Functions RemoveFromArray InsertInArray New Functions Pos RightPos Improved Icon resource handling Redesigned so that a dialog’s Icon uses less resources New and Improved Classes New: Tooltip support in classes Tooltips now supported in most controls. Multiple tooltips are all controlled by a single Tooltip controller object New: Hyperlink class New class allows you to create "SysLink" labels New: Scrolling container class Allows you to create scrollable views, dialogs and containers New: Splitter container class Allows you to create splitter views, dialogs and containers Improved: Treeview Supports Bold, Checkboxes, Info-tips, better notifications, cleaner refresh Improved: Labels Supports setting font size, color and orientation for labels Improved: Auto-activate views New property can be set which auto-activates a view Improved: Multi-select open file dialog The open file dialog supports multiple selection Improved: ReportView class Report Views now save/restore the size and location just like dbViews. Improved Text and Rich Edit class Maximum length of Edit content is tested while typing Library Enhancements We want to encourage the development and use of Visual DataFlex libraries within development teams and across development teams. To facilitate library usage... We have created a mechanism to support the integration of help directly into the VDF Help book We have created a mechanism which allows a custom program to be executed when a library is attached to a workspace Recommendations for standard library practices have been created Provides a "Do and Don’t" list for library creators Covers installation, naming standards, documentation and more   A PDF with these details is available here Electos v4.0 The Electos website Content Management System is also updated, to Version 4. This includes many enhancements to the Web Site features, including Removal of the 10Meg upload limit Search Engine friendly URL generation option Edit Next/Previous page buttons to make multi-page "article" creation easier New Picture Gallery component and many more The Electos Web Shop also sees changes, including System for handling multiple attributes such as Sizes, Colours Customer Sign Up alowing easier repeat ordering Share, Copy, Exclude options added for Web Shop products Look for more details once we have updated our own Electos sites and our Electos hosting facilities to Electos v4.0. Back to Top Webinars - a new way of keeping up to date While there is no better way of keeping up to date than attending in depth conference presentations such as Synergy, it is definitely not the cheapest way. Data Access Worldwide are starting to make use of the Webinar concept, where the presentation is delivered live to a Web audience. This is an excellent compromise, and it is intriguing to feel that you are simultaneously sharing the experience with developers from all around the world, with familiar voices asking questions or contributing points, all from the comfort of your own office. But to take part you still have to know when the Webinar is scheduled, and sign up to it. Webinars on demand Data Access have now recorded a number of these Webinars, and made them available for everyone to listen in to on demand. You get the interaction without actually interacting! Also, if you download first, then you can step back and forward in the presentation to re-visit points of detail - or skip any repetitious material. You need to be aware that these are currently first time around for most of the presenters, and there are a few glitches early on in each presentation, mainly while everyone "takes their seats". Persevere and in our experience these have all been very worth putting around an hour of time aside for each Webinar to listen and watch. All you need is an internet connection, and Windows Media Player (and if you haven’t got the latter, there’s a link to download it). You can chose to watch immediately, or download first then watch later. Go to the Webinar page, and take your pick. If you are not up to speed on VDF generally, go for "The Big Picture" to set the scene. Even if not "into" web development, look at the AJAX Library presentation. It will alert you as to where the opportunities in application development are emerging, and the very impressive capabilities Data Access are providing to meet these. if you can, take a look at them all over the next few weeks. Back to Top Client Focus Two of our clientshave been achieving commendable results with their application development of late. Both are excellent examples of what can be done with Visual DataFlex in situations which are not strictly related to the norm of Windows Desk top applications.     Simon Coyne, of Suresoft has been developing a "Search Engine Explorer" (SEE) that allows you to fire off search requests to multiple search engines simultaneously. Not only that, but the search results can be stored for future use, and even shared amongst multiple users on a network. Prior to becoming aware of Search Engine Explorer, the need for such a utility seemed a bit obscure. However, having seen what SEE can do, it is obvious that there is more to Internet searching than just Google. For example, the Health world supports something like 60 specialist search engines, and all these, or whatever subset you wanted to set up could be hit from just the one search. The ability to retain and even share searches for further use is also of likely value. Details from Simon Coyne’s recent VDF Sig presentation on SEE here. Or visit the SEE Website, where there is a free limited time evaluation download available, and unrestricted version is only $95. If you are a serious researcher, then SEE could be a a significant tool for you. And if not, but you do lots of Internet searching (who doesn’t these days?), then SEE could be a lot more than just a curiosity.   Back to Top Student Lettings Management Martin Kelley, of DM Software, has taken the Data Access developed Electos website/webshop system, and very cleverly turned it into an integrated Windows and Web Site Student Lettings Management system. Martin already had a very good looking Windows application for managing such rentals, and needed to be able to extend that functionality to publishing the property details to a web site. By simply changing the "Language" of the Electos system to "Estate Agent-ese", Martin was able to turn the web shop, with Products and, Prices and Shopping carts into something much closer to estate management with Properties, Weekly Rent and Arranging a Viewing. Much more ambitiously, Martin has built a complete two way interaction from his Windows application to the web site, uploading property details, changing property status, particularly in bulk for the new academic year, changing rental prices, and downloading viewing requests. Usually all this can only be handled from within Electos, but Martin’s experience with developing web services has allowed him to deliver a completely seamless Windows-WebSite integration, and one that seems to have much impressed Data Access Europe, Electos’s authors. Full details of this system, including some screen shots can be found in a short case study that you can find here.   Martin now has three users signed up for this system, and is in the process of setting up these on a web server hosted by Asckey Data Services Ltd. You can visit one of these live sites - remember, it is live, so avoid making "Test" viewing requests! If you know any estate agents who might be interested, I am sure Martin Kelly would love to hear from them. Let us know, and we will pass the details on. Back to Top   With Visual DataFlex continuing to grow in scope and features, we hope to see you at the VDF sig or other events through 2009.   If you need any advice on what VDF can do, just call us, that’s what we are there for.   If you would like to suggest training subjects for us to provide as we go into the Autumn, please let us know - 0845 2707747, or email enquiries@asckey.com   One that will almost certainly be icluded in the Autumn UK VDF seminar will be on the new AJAX Framework.   e-News from Visual DataFlex in the UK is provided by Asckey Data Services Ltd. Your individuality drives our excellence.