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PxPlus 2021 (version 18.00), May 2021

PxPlus 2021 consists of various new features and enhancements, including a new REST-based Webster+ toolset, new PxPlus Google Workspace® Objects, File Maintenance Generator enhancements and much more.

Major New Features

  • Webster+ for HTML page generation

  • Support for larger screens with more controls

  • Added named parameters to CALL, PERFORM and Methods

  • Enhanced Array management

  • New PxPlus Objects for working with Google Workspace® cloud-based applications Drive, Docs and Sheets

  • Improved File Maintenance Generator, including support for Webster+ HTML page generation

  • Improved support for ADA (USA)/WCAG (Canada) compliance

PxPlus 2021 Enhancements

Language Changes

  • Method Calls enhanced to provide named parameters to CALL and PERFORM directives

  • Ability to include images in the PLUSLIB DLL Library

  • ZOOM option added to WDW command that will attempt to adjust the font size to fill the primary window as opposed to changing the number of lines and columns

  • PxPlus.Script added that allows external applications to directly invoke and interact with PxPlus and PxPlus objects for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit versions

  • *BROWSER changes

    • Unused key events are now passed to the PxPlus window when being used in HTML Editor, Ed+, etc.

    • *BROWSER Debug mode that allows the browser developer console to display in a popup window for any *BROWSER controls that are created

    • DragDrop property that supports Get/Set whether the browser allows drag and drop into the browser control or popup windows

Directives

  • REMOVE option added to subscript declaration to remove identified entry of single dimension arrays after use (typically dynamic arrays)

  • REDIM INSERT directive to insert either a single element at the specified index or a range of elements

  • REDIM DELETE directive to delete the specified index or range of indices

  • WITH variable=expression option added to CALL and PERFORM directives to specify a variable that will be initialized with the value from the expression prior execution of the called program

  • ACCEPT UNDEFINED option added for the DEF CLASS directive to indicate undefined properties should return a null string or zero

  • MENU_BAR and POPUP_MENU directives allow the inclusion of the special characters used to define the menu

OPTION Mnemonics

  • BrowserDebug option for setting debug mode that will display the browser developer console in a popup window

  • StdGridQueryImg option for defining the image to use in the query/lookup buttons of a grid

  • TipColor option for defining the color for non-HTML tips

    Note: The above options can be read using the FIN function.

Mnemonics

  • FRAME mnemonic now supports the ability to change frame text color when using '4D' mode

Functions

  • CVS function supports new "LINK" and "URL?" formats

  • NUM function converts scientific notation either with or without the + after the E (i.e. 0.2E10 = 0.2E+10)

  • LNO function allows referencing lines based on a supplied string value

  • Added ::name option to the TCB(WINDOW) function to provide the ability to access information for window attributes

Data Sources and Views

Objects

Enhanced IDE, Nomads, iNomads and Toolkit

  • Increased panel and control sizes to a width of 620 and height of 255 in all designers

  • Ability to fully maximize panel sizes

  • Increased the Maximum Number of Controls on a simple panel from 200 to 999 interactive controls

  • Create New Project button added beside IDE Project drop box

  • Ability to launch HTML pages in HTML Editor from the IDE History and Project list boxes

  • Library Object Selection changes

    • Webster+ menu added for defining settings for generating HTML pages

    • Panel objects with HTML pages are designated as Type "Dh"

    • Selecting a File Maintenance panel object launches File Maintenance Generator

    • Preview HTML Page option added to the right click menu

    • Updated validation rules when creating new panels

  • Copy Screen Objects utility changes in Library Object Selection

    • Ability to specify different input libraries

    • New Select Objects dialog for selecting other panels to copy

    • Ability to create new output library with SVN Version Control System support

    • New Apply button allows consecutive copy operations and changes to input/output libraries without exiting

    • Enhanced Copy progress bar

  • Suppress Groups utility added to help with panel design when multiple groups are used in all designers

  • Usability enhancements for User Defined CTL Values utility

  • Webster+ property and Focus method added to TinyMCE® Editor COM control

  • Support for applying Multi-Line Data Class height/width attributes to a Multi-Line control in all designers

  • iNomads Alt Text property added to Image controls for ADA (USA)/WCAG (Canada) compliance in all designers

  • Embedded panel control changes for all designers

    • Display/Edit the contents of the panel that is being embedded as a control

    • Refresh the list of controls on the embedded panel

  • Clear Control when all Triggers are Null option added to Smart Controls and Smart Charts

  • Ability to set Frame Text Color when using 4D mode

  • Support for applying the Read-Only (locked) attribute when adding a Data Dictionary element control to a panel

  • Support for applying the Read-Only attribute for Data Dictionary elements to columns in a Smart Grid

  • Updated validation rules when creating new folder panels in all designers

File Maintenance Generator

  • Form Types option added for creating a Nomads panel, an HTML page or both

  • Ability to Preview HTML Page

  • Ability to define the Webster+ Preview URL for previewing HTML pages

  • Ability to specify an Optional HTML Interface Program to allow additional logic to be performed for HTML pages

  • Ability to optionally Include HTML Page

  • Ability to add Smart List Boxes, Smart Charts and Images to a Nomads panel or HTML page

    • Define Height and Width options

    • Add a Visual Class to Smart List Boxes and Smart Charts

    • Name each Smart List Box, Smart Chart and Image

  • Ability to add Embedded Panel or HTML Short Codes to the Layout Grid to embed specific elements on a panel

  • Ability to add a Hyperlink to a data element prompt to link to a maintenance/inquiry panel

  • Added an Info Line to provide details about a selected cell in the Layout Grid or a selected field in the Fields list box

  • Added Folder Options for folder height and tab position for HTML pages

  • Ability to Rename folder panels

  • Ability to Move Key Fields of a table to any row on the Main panel in the Layout Grid

  • Ability to combine both an Extended Class Validation descriptive SHOW.xxxx field and its related field into one cell to allow another field to occupy the adjacent cell

  • Ability to use the Delete key to remove the contents of a selected cell in the Layout Grid

  • Section Size option added to the Layout Grid for setting the width of HTML sections

  • Section Break options for HTML pages added to the Layout Grid to control placement of sections when panels are resized

  • Clear All Cells option added to the Layout Grid for clearing the contents of all cells

  • Lock/Unlock option added to the Layout Grid for locking/unlocking a data dictionary field

  • Cut Cell/Paste Cell(s) options added to the Layout Grid for cutting/pasting cells between panels

  • Support for Read Only fields and Floating Tips from the Data Dictionary

HTML Editor

  • File menu option added for displaying a list of recently opened files

  • Support for updating SVN Version Control System when Saving HTML File to a source SVN directory

  • Ability to Preview HTML Page

  • Ability to define Webster+ Preview URL

  • Ability to insert Webster+ Short Codes into an HTML document

  • Support for saving changes to the current file prior to loading a new page, opening an existing file or exiting

  • Support for adding HTML page updates to IDE History

  • Support for creating Projects and adding HTML files to projects

  • Updated TinyMCE® to version 5.5.1

Ed+ Program Editor

  • Improved syntax highlighting for PxPlus programs

iNomads

Themes and Visual Classes

  • New Suppress Header property for Grids to suppress Grid headers

  • New Button Color property for Grids to control background color for system-generated buttons in a Grid, including Drop Box buttons and Query buttons

Data Dictionary

  • Ability to Export and Import Data Dictionary definitions

  • Ability to add Floating Tips to Data Dictionary elements

  • Read Only attribute added for Data Dictionary elements

  • Notes input control added to the Info panel

  • Last File Change and Last Physical Update display-only fields added to the Main panel

  • Support for updating Uppercase data dictionary element based on Data Class attribute

  • Delete button added to Data Dictionary Key Definition for removing a key

  • Data Dictionary physical update no longer locks a file if only the internal dictionary needs updating and no conversion is required

  • Faster loading of the data elements grid

  • Search Grid option added on the Elements panel to quickly find a field name in the data elements grid

Data Class Definition

Query Changes

  • Query Drop Tree view added to Query+

  • Row Display Options added to Query+ to assign visual attributes to rows based on specified conditions

  • Ability to change Font in Query+

  • Ability to Suppress Records in Query+ based on duplicate return values

  • Updated functionality for how the default title name for a Query is derived

  • Ability to Pass External Data to a Query

    • %QRY_VARDATA$ can be loaded with the data for the variables in REC( ) format

    • %QRY_VARIOL$ can be loaded with a compiled IOList containing names of the variables to hold external data

    • _VAR. aliases added for variables passed to the *winlist logic for creating selection criteria tests

Query Security

*QUERY*

  • SEQPFX=Y option added that will prefix the key with a 10-digit sequence number to guarantee unique keys and no data loss

  • KNO=* option added that will use the key specified in the Query definition

Report Writer

  • Line Advancement options added that allow two consecutive lines to print at the same vertical location when grouping report data

  • Check mark support added to menu items to clearly indicate selected options

Web Services

PxPlus Web Server

  • New %Exit_Include_HTML variable that, when set along with %exit_code, tells Web Server that the output sent to %PRINT_FN should be returned to the browser

Utilities and Commands

  • *TOOLS/CONVERTHTMLCOLOR utility to convert HTML color names into Hex colors

  • *TOOLS/PRINTHTML utility to convert HTML input into formatted text output on the given open channel

  • *TOOLS/READFILE utility to read the entire binary contents of a file and return the data in the output string

  • Added options to *TOOLS/CONVERTDATA utility to allow non-exclusive access to the data files if exclusive access is not available

  • Ability to Add HTML Pages to projects using Project Maintenance

  • Updated Zip Code Library Miniz to version 2.1.0 that allows creation of Zip files greater than 2GB and ZIP64 support for Zip files greater than 4GB

  • Updated *plus/web/request utility to use HTTP version 1.1 protocol to make Web requests and receive responses

  • Enhanced Data Mirroring Apply program to check for Apply.Stop file every 100 transactions to allow the Apply process to be stopped

  • Added Query button to Key Value in File View and File Update utilities

  • Support for Read-Only (locked) flag added to View Embedded Dictionary utility

Other Changes for Reference

Nomads Properties

Parameters

  • '!E' system parameter added to cause the ESCAPE directive to generate an internal MSGBOX on Windows

  • Option -3 added to 'TC' system parameter to use the TipColor setting for non-HTML tips

  • 'SB' system parameter now set to On by default to check if the record is locked (EXTRACTED) on another channel

INI Contents Options

  • BrowserDebug to control whether or not the browser developer console will display in a popup window

  • TipColor to define the color for non-HTML tips

Version Control System

  • Ability to delete a list of files

  • SVN Version Control System allows Updating of busy data and resource files