Overview | Features | Technical | Options | Videos

Openness and Connectivity - the two new driving forces behind
DataEase 6.52

DataEase 6.5 has a number of useful new features but the two which are likely to give you the most benefits are openness and connectivity through the implementation of OLE DB and WebPublisher 2. Have you got a SQL table you would like to publish on the Web? Then DataEase 6.5 will do it. Would you like to access your DataEase data via Crystal Reports? No problem.

Read on for a detailed list of features and benefits DataEase 6.5 gives you:

Connectivity

The introduction of OLE DB means you can now seamlessly exchange your data with either other DataEase tables (for example from another application or even DataEase DOS - version 5.16) or with non-DataEase applications, such as spreadsheets, SQL and other databases.
You can access and use live data stored in any data source - relational or non-relational, even data in other proprietary formats.

By the same token, other products such as Access can interrogate and even modify your DataEase data. Using your company standard reporting tools such as Crystal Reports to produce charts or graphs from DataEase data is now a reality and gives wider access to your data within your organisation. You no longer have to rely on cumbersome imports or exports to exchange data with other DataEase or non-DataEase applications. By establishing a link via OLE DB - which is available for most database types - data can be exchanged or merged seamlessly.

Enhanced Web Enablement

DataEase 6.5 includes version 2.0 of WebPublisher - an advanced connectivity tool for publishing data to the Web AND remotely managing data accessed from DataEase and non-DataEase databases in real time. You can manage your data via any web-connected device - Just imagine you can now access Excel, Access, SQL Server, and other data via your desktop, laptop or PDA! WebPublisher 2.0 does not require programming skills and knowledge of other technologies. Yet, it allows you to update, add and delete data as well as run predefined QBM reports and ad-hoc queries via the browser. DataEase forms and sub-forms are published to the web browser, and can be incorporated into your Web site, including buttons and their associated actions. But this is not all! WebPublisher 2.0 also allows your customers to access different parts of the same application at the same time! Each customer can view and modify subsets of data, for example just their orders or details.

OML and new object customization facilities OML or 'Object Manipulation Language' is the new terminology used to describe the 'Scripting' feature introduced in DataEase 6. The new name is self explanatory. All visual elements you use on Forms or other documents consist of Objects accessible from other documents in your application. By coding responses to events - triggered by user actions or other system operations - you are no longer confined to one specific document. Your framework now is an entire application. For example, by clicking a button on the current Form, you can change the fill color of a specific button on another document, even if the latter is not open.

• A new OML/DQL key word - 'alias'.
  
  
  
  Each object has a fully qualified name that is a dot-separated path of enclosing the object. For example: App.SampleForm1.Root.Record1.FirstName is the full name of a field object named FirstName.
  
  DataEase 6.5 lets you use other/shorter names in your OML code in place of long object names - 'aliases'. If you want to refer to an object's properties or methods, you just use 'dot notation'.
  
  
• Dot-notation lets you associate an object's name with its properties or methods and easily drill up and down through the entire object tree. Want to change the fill colour of the theField from a button click? It is very simple:
  theField.Fill.Color.Red : = 0 .
  
  Exactly in the same manner you can change the fill colour for the current record (Record1) child of the top-level form (Root) of the Members document part of the current application (App):
  
  assign App.Members.Root.Record1.theField.Fill.Color.Red :=0 .
  
  
• Enhanced Look and Feel of the OML/DQL Editor. Any object you have customised is marked in pick-lists, QBM Data Model, etc., in bold.
  
  
  
  
• Field Objects and Summary Fields can now be optionally given unique Object Names. By indicating Object names in OML you can easily access properties and methods of a specific field and process its values. This will help you avoid confusion caused by name clashing.
  
  
  
  
• With a new option - 'print OML' - added to printing Document definition you can now print OML code of responses to events from File >> Print >> Include Definition >> print OML!
  
  
  
  
• The Toolbar has been updated with icons 'Objects', 'Classes', 'Properties' and 'Methods'. You can hide/unhide the Pick-lists as needed; they will not be displayed all the time.
  
  
  
  
• OML elements of the Editor are made closable/minimisable if not needed. The columns that pertain to OML in the editor can be turned off individually, if all OML elements are turned off the OML band of the editor disappears.

Other Features

Other features introduced in DataEase 6.5 include:

• Create new directory button - When creating a new application, you can now create a New Directory from the DataEase dialog box.
• Automatic installation of CDFs - DataEase 6.5 automatically plugs-in CDFs (Custom Defined Functions) found on the DataEase directory (?) - whether they are DataEase's own CDF's or not - to use within your application. You just start using them in your workflow like any other DataEase facility without the need to register each CDF manually!
• Enhanced Automatic List Boxes - through Derivation formulae, you can now alter the data your derived from a related table's Lookup Choice fields . To make DataEase display your chosen values, you just specify a formula to modify the data.
• Look and feel - Besides, you can add a 3D look to your Choice Lists.
• New methods for passing parameters - A new "address-of" operator and a new "address-of" function have been introduced to allow you to pass parameters between procedures and sub-procedures by means of the "&" operator and pass parameters outward for use by external functions (say CDFs) by means of the "address-of" function.

WebPublisher 2.0

It is now a frequent requirement for DataEase systems to provide fully functional access to data from an Internet browser. We introduced WebPublisher to fill this need. It represents an integration of advanced web technologies into the DataEase environment , enabling a DataEase form to be published to a browser. The technology used ensures full, real time access to native DataEase tables, update, modify, delete, browse etc. all being supported in real time.

Web Publisher is not a web site creation tool, rather it is intended to automatically create screens forming part of a larger web site. It is used where such screens need data access, and will automatically (without any coding) provide a direct interface to your data. Such WebForms are fully customisable to blend with your web site - again from within the DataEase software, and with minimal use of web coding, or alternatively can be used with their own automatically generated control frame.

Without doubt, making a normal DataEase application web-enabled gives users more flexibility because users gain access to information stored within their DataEase applications - desktop or networked versions - any time from any web-connected computer. This can include such devices as pocket PC's or third generation phones. Web Publisher can detect which device is in use and supply appropriately formatted screens.

The second version of WebPublisher, version 2.0, is a much enhanced version of WebPublisher 1.0 with some restrictions and limitations removed and new features added.

In summary, WebPublisher 2.0 is now capable of doing the following things:

• Publishes DE6.5 forms quickly and simply to the web;
• You can now publish data from DOS5, DE6, SQL, and Access - at the same time! No need for complex Cold Fusion type technologies…
• Different users can see different parts of the same application;
• Different users can see subsets of the database - i.e. just their orders;
• Screens can be custom designed and company logo added;
• HTML tags can be built into the forms;
• Multi-line and multiple subforms are supported;
• Reports (not procedures) and QBF are supported;
• Cookies are supported (no need to keep logging in for each screen);
• XML imports and exports to the browsing machine are supported, as are uploads of pictures.
• Buttons and image actions permit a wide range of DataEase actions to be triggered from the browser;
• Control frame now optional and fully customisable.

For more technical and detailed information on DataEase 6.5 see our Technical Guide.