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Proper Memo fields
Export to Excel, PDF, DHTML, RTF
New style sheets
OML improvements
DFWActs incorporated as internal functions
Migration Tool
In DataEase 6, Memo Fields were implemented as a series of ordinary text fields - which led to great complexity in printing, imports, exports, external database links, and so on. They could be sized by the Application Designer to a maximum of 4000 characters.
In DataEase 7, Memo Fields are implemented as CLOBs (Character Large Objects).The new Memo Fields can contain up to 64k characters. It is not necessary to size them, since they are held as variable length records.
A great new feature in DataEase 7 is the ability to create a number of third party documents seamlessly. Create PDF and RTF documents, Excel spreadsheets, and DHTML pages by just choosing to "Print". Retain the design and format of your reports by printing them as a PDF document or have your end of year calculations formatted into an Excel spreadsheet. You can also choose to Print to "Null".
A number of new style sheets ship with DataEase 7 to help you create professional looking applications.
The .value property can now be used with all types of field.
Font now has a colour property.
Buttons now have a label property that allows the button text to be changed from within OML. Additionally, they can now be set to Shine and Shade.
A number of objects did not have fill or border properties. This has now been corrected.
Object standardisation
The properties across all objects have been standardised - this means that you can now change the properties of all objects, for example their font and colour.
Extended dot notation
In OML you can now refer to documents that are not currently open, for example:
OtherTable.FieldName.Value := "aaa" .
The popular DFWACTS Custom Functions are now directly available to you as internal functions - in other words, they no longer need to be registered as Custom Functions before use. They can now be called directly from picklists in the DQL and OML Script Editor, and also from the Field Derivation Dialog Box.
Prompt from DQL
Many reports in DataEase require the user to input simple selection criteria - a name, or a number, say - before they are run.
DataEase 7 introduces a new DQL keyword - 'Prompt' - which can be used to generate a simple one-field Dialog Box, into which a user can type such a selection.
Compound indexes
You can create a compound index for up to 10 fields making each unique, giving you the power to create proper primary/alternate keys.
As you will have seen above, the latest version of DataEase has had a major revamp not only in look and feel but also within its very core. Along with its use of the 64 bit file system, there are many other changes in the storage of both data and definitions. (As examples, in file structure the way memo fields and standard date fields are stored has been changed, and in objects lookup choice controls have been merged with multibox controls, and 3D and 'ordinary' objects have been merged)
This means that if you are using DataEase for Windows versions 6.x you will need to "migrate" your application to DataEase 7. To facilitate this process DataEase 7 includes a migration tool that will automatically upgrade a complete application from DataEase 6.x.
