Genero 2.30 – Early Access Program now open

Irving, Texas – July 13, 2010 — Four Js Development Tools is pleased to announce the Genero 2.30 Early Access Program (EAP) today July 13, 2010. See “How to subscribe” for details on subscribing to this EAP.

Genero 2.30
Genero Studio 2.30
Genero Report Writer 2.30

Genero 2.30

Let’s now discover the following spotlighted features of this release.

  • Drag and Drop This major new feature of Genero BDL 2.30 provides Drag & Drop in DISPLAY ARRAY for tables or treeviews controlled by a DISPLAY ARRAY.With Drag & Drop, end users can:
    • Move draggable objects between lists and tree-views in the same Genero form/program.
    • Move draggable objects between lists and tree-views in different Genero forms/programs.
    • Move draggable objects between other desktop applications and lists/ tree-views in Genero programs.
      dnd_1
    Drag and Drop on the GDC

    DragandDrop-gwcDrag and Drop on the GWC for Ajax

  • Web components The web components will allow the developpers to use new widgets based on Web Technologies.
    The 4GL developpers will defne Place Holder for such components (using whatever technology he wants : HTML,DHTML,Flash ®,Java…) in per files, and set/get values from them in the 4GL code as for other widgets such as textedit.

    fusionchart-gdc         Web Components based on FusionChart on GDC

    fusionchart-gwcWeb Components based on FusionChart on GWC for AJAX

  • Genero Web Client for Microsoft Silverlight® A new UserAgent module has been added to the Genero Web Client allowing you to deploy your Genero applications on the Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform proposed by Microsoft.silverlightNote: The GWC for XUL theme is no longer supported/delivered. The GWC for Silverlight® theme replaces it.
  • IPhone® and iPad® Support  by the Genero Web Client The GWC for Ajax mode will now support iPad®, iPhone® and iPod® web browsers.iphone_demoWe also introduced a new GWC for iPhone® mode that will allow Genero developpers to create Web applications with the native iPhone® ergonomics.

    iPhone_intro

    iPhone_sample2iPhone_sample3

    Note: To enable this new GWC iPhone® mode, Genero developpers will be allowed to use only a subset of the Genero features in their applications.
    You can refer to the GAS manual to find the list of the restrictions for these applications.

  • New Genero Application Server (GAS) architecture and capabilitiesThe architecture of the GAS has been reviewed for
    • better reliability
    • better performance
    • better integration with web servers

    new_archi

    As we do with our ISAPI and FastCGI connectors, the GAS 2.30 proposes a new J2EE connector to integrate it with J2EE applications servers such as  WebSphere ®, JBoss ® .

Genero Studio 2.30

Genero Studio 2.30 comes with a new set of design and code analysis tools which allow you to create and view your applications at a higher level.
This includes:

    • a business application diagram
    • a database diagram
    • a form implementation diagram
    • a component view
    • a sequence view

All these diagrams are constantly in sync with the code and database all over the development process, making them a real time view of the current status of your application.

The modeling diagrams are coupled with an application generator which generates and maintains the core business logic. The code generation is fully customizable.

  • Business Application Modeling Genero Studio proposes 3 diagrams to model business applications:
      • Business Application Diagram: It lists the components of your business application (program, module forms, zoom forms…) and their relations. A relation between two forms as an example means that an action is to be provided to navigate to the target form.
      • Database Entity/Relation Diagram: It represents the database design and permits to centralize information (labels, constraints, preferred widget…) common to all applications. You can design your database using this diagram and generate the database creation script.
      • Managed Form Diagram: It represents all the fields used in a form and defines the behavior of the generated application. The fields are grouped into screen records which can relate by a master / detail relationship. An SQL query and properties define the form run-time behavior.

    diagram_bamBusiness Application Diagram

    gst_230_metaschema1Database Entity/Relation Diagram

    ManagedFormManaged Form Diagram

  • Application GeneratorGenero Studio Application Generator is a fully customizable code generation engine based on templates.
    It takes as input the information of the above diagrams to produce the application source code. This source code can later be modified. The Application Generator will remember the changes in the generated code, so that changing the diagrams and regenerated the code does not result in any user code loss.

    A default set of templates and generator settings is provided with Genero Studio. But the development environment can be fully customize:

    • Diagrams can be configured in the application generator settings to include additional user defined dynamic properties.
    • User templates can replace the default templates to generate different code
    • New entities (XML files, customized Forms…) can be handled

    A third party generator capable of reading XML files to generate code can be used in addition (or as a replacement) of the current code generator by changing the project build rules.gst_ag

  • Code AnalyzerUnderstanding code, analyzing dependencies, reviewing call sequences, navigating in your application, libraries or modules from a high level diagram… This is the goal of the code analyzer.
    The Genero Studio Code Analyzer provides component and sequence diagrams representing your current projet. These diagrams are constantly in sync with the code as they are updated in real time as code changes.

    code_analyzer

  • Code EditorThe Code Editor has been improved to offer the following capabilities:
    • XML editing
      • XML wellformness and validation against an XML Schema is checked.
      • An XML Schema is provided for Genero XML files making them easy to edit.
      • Additional custom XML schemas can be provided. This XML schema can apply to all files having a specific extension or locally for the current file.
      • New views display Errors, XML document structure and current element properties
      • Completion is proposed while editing as well as some smart editing options (auto-close tags, auto-insert children…)

    ce_xmlsmart_big

      • VI emulation
        • The editor can be switched to VI compatible editing mode and benefit from more than a hundered of VI compatible commands.
      • New formatting options
        • Tab to spaces
        • Keywords to upper-case (Auto-correction option during editing for 4GL files)
        • Choose comment style of 4GL files (– or #)
      • Completion has been improved to include functions in external libraries and sub-projects.
      • Bookmark management
  • Project ManagerThe Project Manager now allows to reference external sub-projects. Application or Libraries from the master projet can depend on these sub-projects. The sub-projects will be compiled from the master project when required. Compiling a project and all its dependencies at once can be achieved by including the dependencies as sub-projects.
    Also, the state of the current project (expanded/collapsed nodes, list of files opened) is restored on re-opening.
  • Web ServicesPrevious version of Studio made it possible to consume a service given its WSDL (Web Service Description Language). In addition to that, implementing a service compliant to a WSDL is now possible as well. The server code including service registration and declaration of messages for this WSDL is generated, ready to be implemented.
    Also, some sample server code is provided for SOAP, RSS and REST servers.

    gst_webserv

Note: This first EAP version is primarily intended to test the new modules for Business Application Modeling and code analysis.
The following limitations apply to the Early Access Program version:
* Opening forms created with previous versions of Studio or importing text forms will be provided later in the EAP.
* VI editor emulation in code editor is not yet functional.

Genero Report Writer 2.30

  • XML Data sourceThe Report Writer has been extended to natively support complex XML data sources as input data. The report data definition (RDD) can now be directly an XML Schema file which will be shown in the “data view” of the report designer and used to design reports.
  • New output formats: Excel, HTMLThe Report Writer supports new output format: Excel and HTML. The output is configurable in order to choose between graphical fidelity or data usability. For Excel, as an exemple, opting for the ability to compute the data properly is often preferred to graphical fidelity.
grw_report_svg_big
     PDF output of Order Report        SVG output of Order Report
grw_report_xls_big grw_report_html_big
     Excel output of Order Report          HTML otput of Order Report
  • Sub-reportsThe Genero BDL language allows to use sub-reports by calling a report from another a master report using the START REPORT instruction. These sub-reports will now appear in the Data view, making it possible to render even more complex data sources in a single graphical design.
    When a design (.4RP) is already created for such a sub-report, it is also possible to re-use its graphical design in the report designer, by referencing an external design (.4RP), hence avoiding duplication of the design and associated extra maintenance cost.
grw_subreports grw_subreport2
  • Page n of MDisplaying the total number of pages for a report or a sub-section of a report is often used for small reports. This functionality is now provided, but should be used with care since it requires caching the layouted pages until the last page is reached.pagenofm

Note: The following functionalities are not provided in this first build:
* For sub-reports, sub-report data is not yet available in the data view.

How to subscribe

If you want to subscribe to the Early Access Program  you must have a Four Js web site account (“My Account”) that enables access to privileged technical information.

* Go to EAP section of our website https://www.4js.com/support/eap.php
* Log in to “My Account”
* Choose the Genero 2.30 EAP and/or Genero Studio 2.30
* Click on “Subscribe”

Four Js will send you an acknowledgment of your subscription in  24 hours (Monday -> Friday).
Upon approval, you will get access to the download section and the associated mailing list.

If you need a valid license for using this version, you can ask for a demo license by filling out thisDemo Software Request Form and sending it to the specified fax number. Add the comment “EAP 2.30” on the form.

We appreciate your interest in pre-release access to our products, and value your feedback. Thank you for your participation in this important phase of our product development.

Best Regards,

The Four Js Development Team

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