Removal of parallel dialogs / splitviews

Parallel dialog and splitview features for mobile are no longer supported.

Starting with version 4.00, the concept of parallel dialogs and windows as splitviews is desupported.

Parallel dialog programming involve the following language elements:
  • fgl_eventloop()
  • START DIALOG
  • TERMINATE DIALOG
  • OPEN WINDOW ... ATTRIBUTES(TYPE=...)
Note: Parallel dialogs also involve the concept of declarative dialogs. However, this concept is still valid and supported, to implement reusable dialog components with the SUBDIALOG clause in DIALOG blocks.

Parallel dialogs were introduced to control windows as splitviews for mobile applications.

Splitviews are specific to native mobile GUI rendering. With GBC Universal Rendering, splitviews are no longer supported, making also parallel dialogs obsolete (parallel dialogs could only be used to implement splitviews)

As a replacement for parallel dialogs and splitviews, use regular multiple-dialog instructions with DIALOG blocks, and define forms with HBOX containers using the SPLIT attribute:
HBOX (SPLIT)
GRID
...
END
TABLE
...
END
END
Note: With the former splitview solution, you could only define a left (TYPE=LEFT) and a right (TYPE=RIGHT) side pane. With HBOX + SPLIT, one can now define several sub-containers for the horizontal box. For responsive layout suppport, the SPLIT attribute can also get a @screen-size modifier, to show all sub-containers simultaneously on large screens.
Windows defined with the TYPE=POPUP attribute can be replaced by a window style attribute windowType="modal" for example by defining the STYLE="dialog" attribute:
OPEN WINDOW w_zoom WITH FORM "zoom" ATTRIBUTES(STYLE="dialog")
Windows defined with the TYPE=NAVIGATOR attribute must be replaced by TOOLBAR, with buttons bound to ON ACTION handlers, that give the focus to a field (NEXT FIELD), in one of the child containers of the HBOX with SPLIT attribute. To get a similar look as the former TYPE=NAVIGATOR window, use style attributes to put the toolbar at the bottom of the window, and equally justify toolbar buttons:
  <Style name="Window.splitview">
     <StyleAttribute name="windowType" value="normal" />
     <StyleAttribute name="actionPanelPosition" value="none" />
     <StyleAttribute name="ringMenuPosition" value="none" />
     <StyleAttribute name="toolBarPosition" value="bottom" />
  </Style>
  <Style name="ToolBar">
     <StyleAttribute name="itemsAlignment" value="justify" />
  </Style>
Note: The syntax and instructions for parallel dialogs implementation is still available. This includes the START DIALOG, TERMINATE DIALOG, fgl_eventloop(), WINDOW TYPE attribute. These must now be considered as an experimental feature and are no longer documented.