1. Programming Tips for .NetUI
Tammy Lonsberry
Sr. Programmer/Analyst
Sungate Solutions, Inc.

2. About me
Tailoring and customizing Progress 4GL code for QAD users since 1995
Most versions (Mfg/Pro 7.3 – QAD EA 2013 SE)
All User Interfaces (CHUI, GUI, Desktop, .NetUI)
Progress and Oracle db’s
Active PEG member
Long time consultant with exposure to many different environments, processes, protocols
… and lots of really smart people

3. Agenda About .NetUI Data Setup Programming Do’s and Don’ts
Frame Design Considerations
Coding Tips and Common Fixes
Summary
Questions

4. About .NetUI

5. About .NetUI Same 4GL code under the covers
Screens get rendered as HTML-style forms

6. Browser-like navigation
Back, Next buttons
Toggle/check boxes for logical fields
Mouse clicks, not function keys

7. Seems simple enough, but…
More than just a different look or screen appearance
CHUI: Tightly integrated and responsive to keyboard events
.NetUI: Stateless, no interaction at the field navigation or keystroke level
.NetUI can detect (and therefore respond to) frame events and database events
Can: Next button - end of frame or update statement
Cannot: Tab, function keys, other navigational keystrokes

8. Data Setup

9. Data setup specific to the UI
Program Information Maintenance
Determines which method will be used to display your program

10. Same program, before & after
Without any code changes

11. Programming Do’s and Don’ts

12. Programming Do’s and Don’ts
Not an all-inclusive list, but possibly the most common
Biggest offenders; program code that must be changed
Without these changes:
Program may not function properly or at all
Screen may not be displayed correctly or completely
Program may hang or crash with no error visible to the user

13. Do not use; not visible in .NetUI
Pause
User will not see “Press spare bar to continue”
“Processing….” and program appears to hang
Can use “pause 0” but not “pause 0 before hide”
QAD STD-0039
Can use gpwait.i to pause for display-only frames
QAD STD-0300
Help phrase
Can display informational text on the screen
… more on that later

14. Do not use; not visible in .NetUI
Validate phrase
Wrong:
Right:
update part validate (can-find (pt_mstr where pt_domain = global_domain and pt_part = part), “Item Number does not exist”) with frame a.
update part with frame a. if not can-find(pt_mstr where pt_domain = global_domain and pt_part = part) then do: /*ITEM NUMBER DOES NOT EXIST*/ {pxmsg.i &MSGNUM=16 &ERRORLEVEL=3} undo, retry. end.

15. Messages Do not use Progress “message” statement Do not use Alert-box
Do not use mfmsg.i or its variations (mfmsg01.i, mfmsg02.i, etc)
Do not use hard-coded message text
Always use pxmsg.i (QAD STD-0277)
{pxmsg.i &MSGNUM=123 &ERRORLEVEL=3}
Always use msg_mstr

16. Field Lookups Do not use scrolling windows
Ex: window.i, sw*.i
Do use browses and lookups as created by Browse Maintenance ( )
Browse Maintenance is entirely new in .NetUI
Do not use in Chui – always use the .NetUI version
Browses can be developed on one database, exported and imported into other db’s
Browse export/import will include supporting data
Labels, Program Info, etc.

17. Keyboard actions
Keystrokes and other cursor movement is not detectable in .NetUI
Program logic cannot be based on keystrokes or frame fields
Do not use:
Keycode, Keyfunction
Cursor-left, cursor-right, cursor-up, cursor-down
Status default, ststatus
Hard-coded “F4” or other keys
Can use database trigger events
On assign, create, write, etc.

18. Frame Design Considerations

19. Frame considerations
Text displayed in frame statements will not appear in .NetUI
Field labels will be displayed but not other informational or hard-coded text
Watch for “no-label” phrase – this may indicate a frame made entirely of text.

20. Sample frame – classic CHUI

21. Sample frame code
form skip(1) "Here is some informational text" at 3 code colon 11 code1 colon 46 label {t001.i} name colon 11 name1 colon 46 label {t001.i} sort-by colon 20 format '9' "1) Customer Number" at 26 "2) Customer Name" at 26 skip with frame a side-labels width 80.

22. Result before code change
Text is missing

23. To display text: Step 1 Define character variables
They will be used to store the text
define variable form-text1 as char no-undo.
define variable form-text2 as char no-undo.
define variable form-text3 as char no-undo.

24. To display text: Step 2 Place the variables in the frame form skip(1)
form-text1 at format 'x(40)' no-label
code colon 11
code colon 46 label {t001.i}
name colon 11
name colon 46 label {t001.i}
sort-by colon 20 format '9'
form-text at 26 format 'x(20)' no-label
form-text at 26 format 'x(20)' no-label
skip
with frame a side-labels width 80.

25. To display text: Step 3 Assign text to the variables
form-text1 = "Here is some informational text"
form-text2 = "1) Customer Number"
form-text3 = "2) Customer Name" .
Can also use Label Master or Master Comments to store frame text.
Allows for language translation.

26. To display text: Step 4 Display variables with frame a display
form-text1
form-text2
form-text3
with frame a.

27. Result after code change

28. Coding Tips and Common Fixes

29. Determining the run-time mode
{gpiswrap.i}
Returns a logical
True = .NetUI mode
False = Terminal/CHUI mode
if {gpiswrap.i} then do:
/* Some code here for .Net UI */
end.
else do:
/* Running in Terminal Mode */

30. “Quick List” for common fixes
To update your existing CHUI custom code and enable for .NetUI, search for these commonly used words
These aren’t all indicative of a problem, but will give you a quick jump-start towards finding possible offenders
Alert-box
Cursor
F2, F4
Frame
Help
Keycode
Keyfunction
Label
Message
mfmsg
Pause
Validate

31. Follow QAD’s coding style
3 types of programs; very specific structure & flow of control
Maintenance, Inquiry, Report
Follow the recommended program structure for consistent behavior
Utilize standard .i include files as much as possible
K.I.S.S. – don’t reinvent the wheel or get needlessly “creative”

32. http://www.qad.com/erp/Support/ Get a login, it’s free! Click on:
General Reference
Development Standards
Review these periodically – refreshers are good; we all forget things over time 

33. Summary

34. Summary
Write code for application functionality, not the user’s keystrokes
Program Information Maintenance
Use “Quick List” for quick conversion of existing custom code
Use QAD’s development standards
As the application has evolved, it has continually become more and more important to follow these rules
Follow the “When in Rome” principle

35. Questions?

36. Contact information
For further information or a copy of this presentation:
Tammy Lonsberry
(847)