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November 2009

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In this Issue:


Visual DataFlex 2009/15.1 Beta Released

The Beta release of Visual DataFlex 15.1 has been released and you are invited to download it and try out the new features. In this release, significant effort has been made to ensure that the upgrade overhead for developers is minimal.

Many of the features, improvements and fixes that have been implemented in this release are those which have been suggested by developers who use the product. Improvements have also been made to the Class Reference documentation.

Enhancements have been made to the following main areas:

Visual DataFlex Studio

Interface changes have been made to improve the way in which developers perform the following tasks:

  • File searching – A new toolbar within the Studio, enables incremental searching through files in the environment and opens the selected file.
  • File viewing – A new Other Files node has been added to the Workspace Explorer Interface to show any files in the current project that are not categorised as Views, Reports, Dialogs or Data Dictionaries.
  • Viewing information through the Studio Tab Interface– There’s always too much information to view and too little space in which to view it. So, the number of tabs has been reduced, streamlining the required information while ensuring everything is still there.

AJAX Library

Version 2.1 of the AJAX Library is included in Visual DataFlex 15.1. This version incorporates, Layered Forms, Treeviews, Bug Fixes and other enhancements.

Client Engine

Version 15.1 includes important XML enhancements to enable all Visual DataFlex developers to build open, competitive applications for their respective marketplaces.

  • New XML schema validation support automatically validates any XML document that includes a schema reference. Manual validation can also be performed when the developer assigns a schema.
  • XML performance optimizations – individual results will vary, but real-world example tests are completing in half the time (or less!) than with pre-15.1 XML processing.
  • Utilizes latest Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML 6).

Client Web Services

A number of web service client additions have been included to help developers support more third party web services, including those that are less standards compliant.

Read more and download Visual DataFlex 2009/15.1 Beta.


VDF-GUIdance 10th Anniversary

Congratulations to VDF-GUIdance, a worldwide independent resource for the DataFlex developer community, for celebrating their 10th anniversary!

Founded and managed by Wil van Antwerpen of Antwise Solutions, VDF-GUIdance.com offers tips and tricks about many topics, including examples with source code, complete open source applications, PowerPoint presentations, workarounds for known bugs, and class extensions.

VDF-GUIdance and its resources are free, and are a great place for DataFlex developers to publish their own open source DataFlex projects. Currently, the site allows you to manage projects yourself, uplodad updates and manage the content of readme files, and more features are to follow.

For more information, visit VDF-Guidance.


New Book – The SQL Guide to Pervasive PSQL

Are you writing SQL code for PSQL applications? Then you absolutely need this book.

The brand new work by SQL guru Rick F. van der Lans is the definitive guide to SQL Programming for Pervasive PSQL. Thousands of IT professionals have learned SQL programming from Rick’s classic: Introduction to SQL.

The SQL Guide to Pervasive PSQL is his latest book, providing hundreds of examples and a complete description of the SQL dialect as implemented in Pervasive PSQL. With over 600 pages and a website from which to download sample code, this is a comprehensive tutorial and reference that every PSQL developer should have on their shelf. It’s coming to Amazon soon.


Tech Tip – Using the auto-reconnect feature in Flex2SQL v10

Use Mertech’s auto-reconnect feature in Flex2SQL v10, to prevent errors caused by lost server connections.

If the server is set to time out a client connection due to lack of activity, a DataFlex program will encounter unexpected errors if the user is unaware that they have lost their connection to the server. With this new auto-reconnect feature, the driver will automatically reconnect to the server and continue from the point from which the disconnect occurred. Read more.


Diary Dates

November 2009 – Visual DataFlex Special Interest Group (SIG), Huntingdon, UK

The next Visual DataFlex Special Interest Group meeting takes place on the 24th November.

March 2010 – European DataFlex Users Conference (EDUC), Seefeld, Austria

This 2-day conference is held at Seefeld, Tirol in Austria, on the 4th and 5th March 2010. This event is also being referred to as SKIDUC, to reflect both the season and the location of the conference. The event will deliver technical lectures about Data Access products, including programming tips and tricks.