GDC 2.30 new features

Discover the new features and changes in functionality introduced with Genero Desktop Client (GDC) 2.30.

Important: This page covers only those new features introduced with the Genero Desktop Client version specified in the page title. Check prior new features pages if you migrate from an earlier version. Make sure to also read the upgrade guide corresponding to this Genero version.

Corresponding upgrade guide: GDC 2.30 upgrade guide.

Previous new features page: GDC 2.22 new features.

Table 1. General features
Overview Reference

Drag & Drop support introduced in BDL 2.30.

See the Drag & drop topic in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

WebComponent support in BDL 2.30 allows you to add any html-based component to your BDL application.

Support for WebComponent introduced with Genero BDL 2.30. GDC can embed a Component based on HTML / JavaScript™ / Flash and, via a small interface API, create a bridge between the component and 4GL. This allows you to add any html-based component to your 4GL application, such as a simple Image map which triggers a 4GL action when clicking on an area.

The GDC internal browser uses WebKit technology. If you want to use a plug-in for your WebComponent, you need to make sure that the corresponding plug-in is installed on the workstation where GDC runs.
Note:
  • The plug-in must be compatible with WebKit ; usually Netscape plug-ins (the technology used by Mozilla Firefox) are supported by WebKit.
  • If you want to use Flash inside GDC, you need to install either the Stand-Alone Flash player or the FireFox Plug-in. Having only an Internet Explorer (IE) plug-in is not sufficient, as IE plug-ins are based on a different underlying technology.
  • Plug-ins are similar to external libraries that are loaded at runtime. This implies that the plug-in must be binary compatible with GDC: if you run a 64-bit GDC, you need a 64-bit plug-in. This may be an issue if you run a Flash-based plug-in on Windows® , as today Adobe™ only provides a preview version of their Flash player on 64-bit Windows (code name "Square").

See the WEBCOMPONENT topics in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.
Table 2. Widgets
Overview Reference

When set by presentation styles, users can freeze table columns to ensure they remain visible when scrolling by right-clicking on a column header.

See Table style attributes in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

Alignment for column headers in a table supported.

See Table style attributes in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

The INCLUDE attribute can now be used with the DateEdit calendar to prevent selection of invalid dates.

See the DATEEDIT item type topics in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

End users can now add their own words to the Textedit / Spell Checker dictionary.

See the TextEdit style attributes topics in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.
Support for the resetFormSize form presentation style added, to allow the resizing of a parent window to fit the size of the newly-displayed form within the same current window. See Form style attributes in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

Styles can be applied to the MESSAGE or ERROR statements, customizing how errors and messages display.

See the Message style attributes topic in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

GDC 2.30 introduces the new style attribute for Window ignoreMinimizeSetting. The ignoreMinimizeSetting style attribute can be used to prevent a minimized window from being reopened in a minimized state.

See the Window style attributes topic in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

The FORMAT attribute can now be used with SpinEdit widgets to support leading 0 format.

 See the SPINEDIT item type topics in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

The Delete and Backspace keys now select NULL in a ComboBox.

 No additional reference.
Table 3. Monitor
Overview Reference
GDC relies on fgltty to manage the connectivity with remote servers running Genero programs. The fgltty tool is a modified version of PuTTY. Most PuTTY options have been included inside the GDC shortcut configuration wizard.
Warning: Fgltty has the purpose of initiating the connection and acting as a start for a Genero Program. It should NOT be seen as a general purpose terminal emulator. Attempting to use it as a general purpose terminal emulator can result in unexpected errors, such as incorrect display of Multibyte Character Sets.
 See Create a Direct Connection shortcut.

fgltty now supports automatic port forwarding for SSH connections. Fgltty is now able to detect a free port which can be used by the Port Forwarding mechanism.

 See Automatic Port Forwarding.

The GDC About box now has a Copy To Clipboard button, which will fill the clipboard with information that is useful when you contact your support center:

The Clipboard will contain:
  • GDC version information.
  • Command line used to start GDC.
  • Operating system information.
  • Copies of config.xml and hosts.xml.

When contacting your support center, you can copy/paste this information in your email; this should ease and speed support.

 No additional reference.
Table 4. Miscellaneous
Overview Reference
When using DBPRINT=FGLSERVER and REPORT TO PRINTER, text reports are printed via GDC. Printer and fonts can be configured in the GDC monitor, which can be overwritten by standard frontcalls by an application. See Report configuration options, or setReportFont or setReportPrinter in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.
Animated GIFs are supported for the IMAGE widget. See the Providing the image resource topic in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.
When using WinMail and smtp, you can now specify the smtp server port in the SetSmtp function, using the host:port notation:
CALL ui.interface.frontCall("WinMail","SetSmtp", [id,
 "smtp.mycompany.com:1234"],[result])

The default port remains 25.

 For more information, see the Windows Mail extension documentation in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.

WinDDE can dialog with applications that require data in ASCII and applications that require wide char data such as UTF-16.

WinDDE can now dialog both with applications that require data in ASCII and with applications that require wide char data such as UTF-16. Since GDC 2.22.x, only wide char data were supported. Prior to 2.22.x, WinDDE was only able to handle ASCII. By default, WinDDE will automatically guess what is the best encoding when connecting to the DDE server. However, in some instances the returned information can be misleading. In these cases, you will have to set an optional 'encoding' parameter manually in the following DDE functions: DDEConnect, DDEExecute, DDEPeek and DDEPoke. Possible values are: "UNICODE" and "ASCII". For instance:
CALL ui.Interface.frontCall("WINDDE","DDEPoke", 
 [prog,"Sheet1","R1C1","value","UNICODE"], [res] );

For more detail, see the WinDDE documentation in the Genero Business Development Language User Guide.