Putlistitems - successive occurrences

I've used putlistitems a lot, it's very useful.  Different switches all it to do different things, so for example, /occ will populate a variable with an associative list of field names and values, something like this...

  putlistitems/occ varMyList,"ENT"

"varMyList" will now be something like "FIELD1=VALUE1·;FIELD2=VALUE2·;etc".

This can further be modified by adding /modonly, which will only add field values to the list which have been modified since the record was retrieved, something like this...

  putlistitems/occ/modonly varMyList,"ENT"

However, the one I tend to use most is /id.  This will take the values of the specified field from multiple occurrences and put them into a list, something like this...

  varMyList = "FIELD1"

  putlistitems/id varMyList

"varMyList" will now be something like "VALUE1·;VALUE1·;etc", repeated for each occurrence.

This allows you to quickly grab the values of the field(s) you're interested in, without having to loop through the occurrences in order to build the list, which is much better for performance.

Or you can also use it to update the representations in a list, for example, backing up a load of field or register values...

  varMyList = "$1·;$2·;$3"

  putlistitems/id varMyList

"varMyList" will now be something like "$1=REG1·;$2=REG2·;$3=REG3".

All of this is well documented in the Uniface manuals, so you may well be asking me why I'm telling you this.  Fair question.

I never realised that the first use of /id, taking the values of the specified field from multiple occurrences, was actually successive occurrence.  This means that it will start on the current occurrence and loop through to the end, completing the hitlist if required.

The manuals make this clear, with the following note...

To ensure that the entire set of occurrences in the component is being addressed, make the first occurrence the current occurrence.

What this means is, use setocc first, like this..

  setocc "ENT",1

  varMyList = "FIELD1"

  putlistitems/id varMyList

I hope I've not been caught out by this in the past!

Summary: putlistitems/id will look at successive occurrences, so if you want the whole hitlist, remember to make sure the current occurrence is the first occurrence.

Uniface Lectures - Deployment

The first "Uniface Lecture" on Modernisation was really interesting, although it did cover a lot of the same ground as the series of blog posts on Modernisation, which I've also posted about before (here, here and here).  It went well though, and I expect the rest in the series to be just as good, if not better!

I did get caught out by the setup required (which we were told about in advance, so it's my own fault), so if you don't already have a browser plugin for "Skype for Business" then you should get that sorted out in advance by following this article.

The next webinar in the series is going to be on Thursday 10th March, 8am and 4pm (CET). 

Deployment

• Standard deployment (with UAR's) versus classic deployment (with URR's and DOL's) 
• The benefits of standard deployment 
• Things to consider when deploying your Uniface application using the 64bit version of Uniface.

Although I'm aware of standard deployment, I've only ever used classic deployment, so I'm interested to find out more about the differences and what I might be missing out on.

Click here for more information and to register

As I said in my last post, I'm just passing this information on because I think they'll be useful.  If you want more information, or to hear it from the horses mouth, check out the website...

http://go.uniface.com/Lectures

Uniface Lectures

Uniface have got a new series of "lectures", or webinars, coming up soon.  These sound like a great idea, and are covering a range of different subjects.

The webinars are one a month, and topics published so far are...

Modernization - Thursday 18th February (8am or 4pm CET)

How to give your Uniface applications a Windows 10 look and feel, and how to work with different screen resolutions.  

Click here for more information and to register

Deployment - Thursday 10th March (TBC)

How to more easily distribute and update your Uniface applications.


JavaScript - Thursday 14th April (TBC)

How to use Uniface in existing web pages.


Mobile - Thursday 12th May (TBC)

How to build your first Uniface mobile app.


Integration - Thursday 16th June (TBC)

How to integrate your Uniface applications with Dropbox and OneDrive. How to use semantic URLs for Uniface RESTful services.

I'm just passing this information on because I think they'll be useful.  If you want more information, or to hear it from the horses mouth, check out the website...

http://go.uniface.com/Lectures

Drag and drop

Yesterday I read an interesting article about drag and drop in Uniface, aptly named Drop It Like It's Hot.  

It actually goes into plenty of detail about how to add drop areas into your own Uniface forms, which is something I'd definitely like to try some time.  But what really interested me was the opening paragraph...

What very little people know is that in the Import Repository Objects component there is a small section where you can drag your export files from Windows Explorer. After you drop them, the File name box is updated with the list of files that you dropped. The red section is where the drag-and-drop field is located.

I tried this today and it definitely works.  You learn something new every day!

Summary: You can drag and drop export files onto the Import Repository Objects popup, which is really quick and convenient.

Modernising Uniface - part 3

Over the past couple of weeks I have posted about Modernising Uniface (and here), and this is the third and final post in this series.

The third post from Theo Neeskens was primarily concerning the new flat buttons, which look like this...

As you can see, the new flat blue buttons, on a white background, are on top of the old grey/grey.

The first thing they needed to do was categorise the different painted button types, and they came up with five...

1. IDFButtonBottom - for the big buttons at the bottom of dialogs
2. IDFButtonSide - for the big buttons at the right-hand side of dialogs
3. IDFButtonSpecial - for the other buttons
4. IDFButtonImage - for the small buttons without labels (eg. ">>")
5. IDFButtonHeader - for the buttons which make up the header on simulated grids

So then there are a few jobs that needed to be done...

• Change the properties in the configuration file for these widget types
• Match modelled widgets with painted widgets
• Set the properties on the painted buttons
• Set the properties on the modelled buttons

Again, many of the these jobs were achieved with tools, and all of these have been provided in a zip file, to be downloaded and modified if you wish, but not supported by Uniface and used at your own risk.

The full blog post is definitely worth checking out, including the "Wishes" section at the end... Modernizing Uniface 9.7: The buttons

Summary: Uniface has successfully (in my opinion!) modernised it's IDE in version 9.7, meaning we don't have to wait for Uniface 10.

Modernising Uniface - part 2

I posted last week about Modernising Uniface, which included my comments about Theo Neeskens post on UnifaceInfo.com.  I received some comments that I was talking purely about the IDE, and not the language itself.  So let me start by stating that this post of about the modernisation of the IDE, and not the language itself.

This time the post is all about the effort it took to make the seemingly simple move from grey backgrounds (which psychologically make software feel outdated) white clean, clear, white backgrounds, like this...

For both of these dialogs, the older grey version sits behind the newer white version.  You can also see the buttons have changed, but we've been promised more about those in the next blog post.

The main problems they hand with this change included...

• Forms having index, foreground or background colour set
• Painted entities having index, foreground or background colour set (and being painted at least 3 characters wide)
• Entities having foreground or background colour set in the model
• Grids not having borders
• Multi-occurrence entities not having borders

A couple of these have been resolved by making new properties available, but all of them required fix programs to find the affected items and update them to the new properties.  All of the tools have been provided in a zip file, to be downloaded and modified if you wish, but not supported by Uniface and used at your own risk.

I've had my hands on Uniface 9.7 now (which I hadn't when I wrote the first post) and I can say that it definitely feels more up-to-date, and I agree that the white backgrounds and blue buttons are a large part of that.  We've actually been changing our web offering to a similar colour scheme over the past few months, so I can't disagree with their choice!

Again, the full blog post is definitely worth checking out... Modernizing Uniface 9.7, Part 2.

Summary: Uniface is modernising it's IDE, and we're not going to have to wait for Uniface 10 to get in on the action.

Modernising Uniface

Uniface have been putting a lot of work into the new Uniface 10 IDE, and this is something I'm looking forwards to getting my hands on, but it could be a while yet.  Good things come to those who wait, they say.

Well the good news is that the delays in Uniface 10 have led to the decision to release a Uniface 9.7.  Whilst they may be planning to put limited time into this, whilst focusing their efforts on Uniface 10, it looks like they have big plans to modernise.

In the first of a 10 part series, Theo Neeskens has outlined the objectives and the first set of changes - the start screen.

The objectives were straightforward enough...

1. New start page - Windows 10-esque - big change.
2. Change grey backgrounds to white backgrounds.
3. Use trendy flat buttons.
4. Fresh look and new colour scheme - something different.

Looks like they met the objectives, based on these screenshots...

Now that's a radical change!  I think changes like this will be very well received, and help stop people getting such a negative first impression of Uniface as a language.

The full blog post is definitely worth checking out... Modernizing Uniface 9.7 in 10 easy steps.

Summary: Uniface is modernising, and we're not going to have to wait for Uniface 10 to get in on the action.