DataEase 7.5.0.1066 - A watershed moment!

Today we compiled version 1066 of DataEase 7.5. A memorable number, and to be honest quite a memorable version too. For the first time you can now edit and store RichtText (HTML) directly in a DataEase for Windows form.

Development of both 7.5 and DG3 is storming forward and we are looking forward to sharing it with you in the not so far future. We will leave DG3 alone for the moment, and focus on 7.5 a little. It definitely deserve not to share the limelight over the next couple of months, as we now feel certain that it will be a great version of this product and one that the DFW community will really love working with.

DataEase has kept "rigorously" to its database roots, and up till now the only thing you could have stored in our Database has been text and numbers, and the only thing you could have displayed in our fields have been ....you guessed it..... text and numbers. Not completely true, since we have also had the ImageField where you could store a path to an image, and we would then display it in your form, but still this is too close to the truth for comfort. In 7.0 we introduced the "new" Memofield, and even thought the intentions was the best, it has since been reviled. Partly because it was not without weaknesses, and partly because it didn't really improve the functionality over the trusted old one. Bugs aside, the new Memo field never got a chance. The funny side to this story, is that it is basically the Memo field and the ImageField , both re-invented, that is the strongest news in 7.5. Up to now, the link between the form and the table has been rather rigorous in DFW, but in 7.5 we tear them apart and say that what is stored in the table, and how that is represented in the form is not the same. The idea come from the ImageField, where what is stored is really just a normal textfield, but what is viewed is what that is derived too as an image. In 7.5 we have made to representation of a WebField i.e. a field that display a Web Browser object in a DFW form. A WebField on top of a Textfield, is interpreted as a URL, and the derived URL is loaded in the control. If you build a WebField on top of a Memo field, the content of that Memofield is read as HTML i.e. you can store encapsulated HTML in the Memo and the result will be displayed as a WebPage/WebObject in your form. So what possible use can this be? Your imagination is the limit. You can use it to view any webpage, or you can use it to view a dynamic header on your forms, or you can use it to view a graph, a chart, a film, a calendar....you tell me!

Published: 17/04/12 - 19:43:09 (Amanda Higgins)

Last changed: 30/04/12 - 15:54:01 (Ulrik Jacob Hoegh - Krohn)