Programming Tips for .NetUI

Tammy Lonsberry Sr. Programmer/Analyst Sungate Solutions, Inc.

About me      Tailoring and customizing Progress 4GL code for QAD users since 1995 Most versions (Mfg/Pro 7.3 – QAD EA 2013 SE) All User Interfaces (CHUI, GUI, Desktop, .NetUI)  Progress and Oracle db’s Active PEG member Long time consultant with exposure to many different environments, processes, protocols … and lots of really smart people

Agenda        About .NetUI Data Setup Programming Do’s and Don’ts Frame Design Considerations Coding Tips and Common Fixes Summary Questions

About .NetUI

About .NetUI

  Same 4GL code under the covers Screens get rendered as HTML-style forms

• • • Browser-like navigation Back, Next buttons Toggle/check boxes for logical fields Mouse clicks, not function keys

Seems simple enough, but…  More than just a different look or screen appearance  CHUI: Tightly integrated and responsive to keyboard events  .NetUI: Stateless, no interaction at the field navigation or keystroke level  .NetUI can detect (and therefore respond to) frame events and database events  Can: Next button - end of frame or update statement  Cannot: Tab, function keys, other navigational keystrokes

Data Setup

Data setup specific to the UI   36.3.21.1 Program Information Maintenance Determines which method will be used to display your program

Same program, before & after Without any code changes

Programming Do’s and Don’ts

Programming Do’s and Don’ts    Not an all-inclusive list, but possibly the most common Biggest offenders; program code that must be changed    Without these changes: Program may not function properly or at all Screen may not be displayed correctly or completely Program may hang or crash with no error visible to the user

Do not use; not visible in .NetUI

     Pause User will not see “Press spare bar to continue” “Processing….” and program appears to hang Can use “pause 0” but not “pause 0 before hide”  QAD STD-0039 Can use gpwait.i to pause for display-only frames  QAD STD-0300   Help phrase Can display informational text on the screen

… more on that later

Do not use; not visible in .NetUI

 Validate phrase

Wrong:

update part validate (can-find (pt_mstr where pt_domain = global_domain and pt_part with frame a.

= part), “Item Number does not exist”)

Right:

update part with frame a.

if not can-find(pt_mstr where pt_domain = global_domain and pt_part = part) then do: /*ITEM NUMBER DOES NOT EXIST*/ {pxmsg.i &MSGNUM=16 &ERRORLEVEL=3} undo, retry.

end.

Messages       Do not use Progress “message” statement Do not use Alert-box Do not use mfmsg.i or its variations (mfmsg01.i, mfmsg02.i, etc) Do not use hard-coded message text  Always use pxmsg.i

(QAD STD-0277) {pxmsg.i &MSGNUM=123 &ERRORLEVEL=3} Always use msg_mstr

Field Lookups   Do not use scrolling windows  Ex: window.i, sw*.i

Do use browses and lookups as created by Browse Maintenance (36.20.13)  Browse Maintenance is entirely new in .NetUI

   Do not use 36.20.13 in Chui – always use the .NetUI version Browses can be developed on one database, exported and imported into other db’s Browse export/import will include supporting data  Labels, Program Info, etc.

Keyboard actions   Keystrokes and other cursor movement is not detectable in .NetUI   Program logic cannot be based on keystrokes or frame fields Do not use:   Keycode, Keyfunction Cursor-left, cursor-right, cursor-up, cursor-down   Status default, ststatus Hard-coded “F4” or other keys Can use database trigger events  On assign, create, write, etc.

Frame Design Considerations

Frame considerations  Text displayed in frame statements will not appear in .NetUI

 Field labels will be displayed but not other informational or hard-coded text  Watch for “no-label” phrase – this may indicate a frame made entirely of text.

Sample frame – classic CHUI

Sample frame code form skip(1) "Here is some informational text" at 3 skip(1) code colon 11 code1 colon 46 label {t001.i} name colon 11 name1 colon 46 label {t001.i} skip(1) sort-by colon 20 format '9' "1) Customer Number" at 26 "2) Customer Name" at 26 skip with frame a side-labels width 80.

Result before code change  Text is missing

To display text: Step 1   Define character variables They will be used to store the text define variable form-text1 as char no-undo.

define variable form-text2 as char no-undo.

define variable form-text3 as char no-undo.

To display text: Step 2  Place the variables in the frame form skip(1) form-text1 at 3 format 'x(40)' no-label skip(1) code colon 11 code1 colon 46 label {t001.i} name colon 11 name1 colon 46 label {t001.i} skip(1) sort-by colon 20 format '9' form-text2 at 26 format 'x(20)' no-label form-text3 at 26 format 'x(20)' no-label skip with frame a side-labels width 80.

To display text: Step 3  Assign text to the variables assign form-text1 = "Here is some informational text" form-text2 = "1) Customer Number" form-text3 = "2) Customer Name" .

 Can also use Label Master or Master Comments to store frame text.  Allows for language translation.

To display text: Step 4  Display variables with frame a display form-text1 form-text2 form-text3 with frame a.

Result after code change

Coding Tips and Common Fixes

Determining the run-time mode   {gpiswrap.i}   Returns a logical True = .NetUI mode False = Terminal/CHUI mode if {gpiswrap.i} then do: /* Some code here for .Net UI */ end.

else do: /* Running in Terminal Mode */ end.

“Quick List” for common fixes   To update your existing CHUI custom code and enable for .NetUI, search for these commonly used words These aren’t all indicative of a problem, but will give you a quick jump-start towards finding possible offenders • • • • • • Alert-box Cursor F2, F4 Frame Help Keycode • • • • • • Keyfunction Label Message mfmsg Pause Validate

Follow QAD’s coding style      3 types of programs; very specific structure & flow of control Maintenance, Inquiry, Report Follow the recommended program structure for consistent behavior Utilize standard .i include files as much as possible K.I.S.S. – don’t reinvent the wheel or get needlessly “creative”

http://www.qad.com/erp/Support/    Get a login, it’s free!

  Click on: General Reference Development Standards Review these periodically – refreshers are good; we all forget things over time 

Summary

Summary     Write code for application functionality, not the user’s keystrokes 36.3.21.1 Program Information Maintenance Use “Quick List” for quick conversion of existing custom code   Use QAD’s development standards As the application has evolved, it has continually become more and more important to follow these rules Follow the “When in Rome” principle

Questions?

Contact information  For further information or a copy of this presentation:

Tammy Lonsberry

(847) 628-4796 [email protected]