Transcript FourGen Case Tools Overview - Washington Area Informix

4GL DEVELOPERS,
IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY:
FourGen® CASE Tools
and FourGen® Accounting software
(Session 5 @ Forum 2004)
Informix 4GL Developers, Improve Productivity:
FourGen® CASE Tools and FourGen® Accounting Software
Syed Kamal
Gillani, Inc. (formerly FourGen)
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (972) 918-0400
URL: www.gillani.com
www.gillani.com
Informix 4GL Developers, Improve Productivity:
FourGen® CASE Tools and FourGen® Accounting Software

How many Informix 4GL programmers present?

How many have used any RAD tools to develop
4GL apps?

How many have used FourGen CASE tools, aka
Informix-4GL “FORMS”, “Menu’s”?
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Highlights
 Form
Painter
 Screen Code Generator
 Featurizer
 Report Generator
 Menu’ing System
 iDesktop (Windows GUI front-end or
browser-enabled front-end)
 Source Code Control System
 Object Oriented Design
 XML based Schema Management Tools
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Code Generation Path
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Advantages of using FourGen CASE Tools
Increased productivity over 3GL
development
 Many times faster than 4GL coding
 Speeds up initial development AND
reduces ongoing cost of program
maintenance

 Over
80% of the cost of software applications
is ongoing maintenance
 Facilitates
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user/developer communication
Why FourGen® CASE Tools?
 Structured
Code
 Automatic Code Documentation
 Code Design Standards
 User Interface Standards
 Version Control
 Generated code is Modifiable By Design™
(MBD)
 Multi-language Code Generation
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Why FourGen® CASE Tools?
 GUI
& Character user selected interfaces
OR
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Form Painter
 Create
new or update existing forms
 Creates
100% Informix 4GL compatible .per’s
 Various types of forms supported – header,
header/detail, query, zooms etc.
 Easy to define zooms, lookups & validation
functionality
 Link many forms – easily & effectively
 Developer-friendly interface
 Detail Explosion – Present additional detail
data on same screen
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 100%
Informix 4GL Code
 “Hooks” in generated code allow
developers to add custom code
 Organizes code into separate .4GL’s
namely
 globals.4gl,
main.4gl, header.4gl, detail.4gl,
midlevel.4gl for input screens
arrays for line items – no more
arr_max hassle
 Automatically generates GUI Code
 Dynamic
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Program
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Main – Header
FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Program
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Main – Header / Detail
FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Browse
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Form
FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Zoom
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Query
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Extension
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Form
FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Add-on
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Detail
FourGen® CASE Tools
Screen Code Generator
 Add-on
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Featurizer
 Merges
generated code & custom code
 Generated code remains untouched
 FourGen® Featurizer reads instructions in
extension files to modify source code
 With
Block commands you place code based
on the inserted block tags
 Add new business logic or customize flow
logic without modifying original source code
 Change in a screen or schema, just regenerate
code to reapply your changes
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Report Generator


Create Informix 4GL reports programs using
report image file
Organizes code into separate .4GL’s namely
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globals.4gl, main.4gl, report.4gl, midlevel.4gl,
lowlevel.4gl for report programs
Includes the following sections
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Layout
Attributes
Select
Language
Schedule
Concurrency
FourGen® CASE Tools
Menu’ing System
 FourGen®
 Menu
Menus
options can be single or multiple
characters with description
 Flexible menu option format
 Each menu & submenu has its own directory
 Menu option can use hotkey option
 Predefined structure can be utilized for
Enterprise Application
 Windows Explorer-like Menu interface available
via iDesktop for GUI
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FourGen® CASE Tools
iDesktop
 Windows
based GUI generator
 Reads
database for screens that make up a
program
 Generates VB Forms from Informix Forms
 Creates GUI Executables from VB Forms
 GUI
menu program presents menus in WIN
Explorer-like format
 SSH compatible for added security
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FourGen® CASE Tools
iDesktop
Win 2000
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Source Code Control System
 FourGen®
SCCS originally developed in
mid 1980’s
 Builds on top of sccs utilities in UNIX
 Advantages
 Extremely
robust
 Easy to use
 Tight control of code
 Included in FourGen® CASE Tools
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Source Code Control System
 FourGen®
SCCS primary programs
• sccs.in
Checks in files
• sccs.out
Checks out files
• sccs.stat
Status of a file or files
• sccs.sdiff
Differences between two
versions of a file
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Schema Management Tools
 FourGen
 Allows
DBmerge
you to control schema
 Provides audit trail of schema changes when
used with FourGen® SCCS
 All schema information & standard data stored
in XML format
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Schema Management Tools
 FourGen
• dbmerge
• dbdata
• dbrun
Dbmerge programs
Reads schema XML files, compares
& generates script to bring target
database current
Reads data XML files & generates
instructions to load them
Execute script file from dbmerge &
dbdata
• dbunload Unload schemas & data to XML files
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FourGen® CASE Tools
NEW FEATURES in FourGen CASE Tools V8.1

Dynamic Array Model – No more hard coding of # of array elements.

User Defined Notes on Screens – Multiple note types and notes for each line of detail.

Add-on hdr/dtl, add-on view hdr/dtl, extension hdr/dtl etc. are few of new Form Types

Detail Explosion – Detail to Detail line for hdr/dtl screens

Zoom picker function standardized

Grids replace temporary tables – index ‘em, random access ‘em, unload ‘em even in
.csv formats

Primary Keys instead of Row ID’s

Global elements reduction – scratch, sql_filter, sql_order removed – p & q variables
moved to header.4gl & detail.4gl files

Function Metrics – Trace your program control within functions

DB Merge Utilities Made Easy – Supports XML formats
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Defer or force referential constraints using Library Functions

Encryption Functions available – handy for securing your data

SIGNAL Trapping
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FourGen® CASE Tools
Future Releases
 iDeveloper – GUI development environment
 EGL – Websphere Development Edition Integration
 Porting FourGen CASE Tools to DB2
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Applications Developed using FourGen CASE Tools
Gillani’s iDistribute and Financials v8.1
•
iDistribute - A complete end-to-end Supply Chain/Distribution
Management solution (formerly FourGen/Endura SCM) delivering
extraordinary business results for users since 1983.
•
iDistribute - The system provides advanced Order Management
capabilities, integrated with a comprehensive Warehouse and Branch
Inventory Management, Purchasing and Replenishment System.
•
Financials - An Integrated ERP, Accounting System (formerly FourGen
Accounting, FourGen Enterprise, Endura Enterprise) providing GL, AP,
AR, FA, Budget Management, Credit Management and Financial
Reporting functionality.
WRITTEN USING FOURGEN CASE TOOLS !
CORNERSTONE OF “MODIFIABILITY BY DESIGN ™” CONCEPT !
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Informix 4GL Developers, Improve Productivity:
FourGen® CASE Tools and FourGen® Accounting Software
Questions?
Contact:
Email:
Phone:
URL:
www.gillani.com
Syed Kamal
[email protected]
(972) 918-0400
www.gillani.com