DataFlex 2022 release expands developers' horizons
New drag & drop API helps deliver intuitive user experiences
Wrapping of Microsoft’s latest WebView2 control in DataFlex 2022 enables the display of complete web pages or small HTML snippets in Windows apps
Windows application users can now add their own terms as “tags” to selected items just like the web tags implemented in DataFlex 2021
Optimize your learning of features and techniques by exploring the examples installed with the product
Be part of this evolutionary release that builds on top of the 64-bit and Unicode platform
Data Access Worldwide has released DataFlex 2022, the latest version of the company’s flagship mobile, web and Windows desktop application development platform that empowers developers to build and manage state-of-the-art business software solutions.
What’s in it for you?
DataFlex’s proven web and Windows application frameworks, centralized business rules, rich class libraries, data-aware controls and a highly tuned Studio mean less new code, higher reliability and more business software faster.
DataFlex 2022 continues to expand developers’ horizons with significant user-interface additions for web and Windows applications, evolutionary language improvements, tighter integration with SQL backends and enhanced performance, diagnostics and control over deployed web applications.
Drag & drop web controls
DataFlex 2022’s new drag & drop API supports the dragging of data like rows, treeview items, and tags between other web controls by simply defining source, target and drop actions. Drag a treeview item to a closed folder; pick up list items and move or reorder them within the list; drag a file onto a defined drop zone to upload it. These can all be easily done using the new API.
Microsoft Edge WebView2
DataFlex 2022 features the new WebView2 control, the latest browser component technology provided by Microsoft that replaces the Internet Explorer COM control and allows the embedding of the newest web technologies and capabilities such as complete web pages or small HTML snippets into Windows applications. APIs are available for two-way communication between the HTML content and the host Windows application.
The control is now used by the DataFlex Studio Dashboard, Start Center and WebApp Designer. Developers can future proof their app development investment using the most recent browser component from Microsoft built on the modern Chromium codebase.
Tags
Developers will also appreciate the new Windows Tags capability that, along with web tags, solidifies the support for tags within the product. Tags allow the selection of multiple items that are visually represented by boxes/balloons (tags) in a form control. Windows application users can now add their own terms as “tags” to selected items just like the web tags implemented in DataFlex 2021 with the same tagging capabilities, including custom separators.
Examples
DataFlex enables creating Windows, mobile and web applications in one development environment. Examples are provided that showcase all application types using shared business logic and similar controls across environments that can be implemented in your applications.
New to DataFlex? Exploring the examples is a must. Already familiar with DataFlex? Take advantage of the examples to see how the latest features work and how you may add them to your applications. Combined with the DataFlex Learning Center, these examples are a valuable resource for learning DataFlex in general and digging into features that have just been added to the product.
The WebOrder example demonstrates the new drag & drop capabilities. The Specialized Components example includes a sample using Windows tags as well as the WebView2 Browser Control.
An evolutionary release
DataFlex 2022 is an evolutionary release that builds on top of the 64-bit and Unicode platform introduced in DataFlex 2021, unlocking the power of 64-bit environments and supporting multiple languages and character sets in a single application.
DataFlex 2022’s many enhancements contribute to the overall capability of the product to prepare applications for the future and keep providing cutting edge technologies that benefit both end-user applications and the development environment.
Elements like security are taken seriously and DataFlex has been evolving with “security by design” in mind and it includes a security layer that is seamlessly integrated in the existing framework, The DataFlex Studio offers out-of-the-box security resources to help software developers prevent unwanted exposure of data and malicious operations through their applications.
Flexibility is another important element of developing DataFlex applications and the recently added Dynamic Web Objects can attest to it. Already in the Windows environment, support to dynamic objects has been expanded to the web environment to continue to offer developers increased flexibility with the use of configurable components at runtime.
In addition to the above, DataFlex 2022 delivers numerous other enhancements and fixes across the product including language, memory management and compiler improvements, Web App Server application management and performance improvements and Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB driver enhancements and much more!
Read the DataFlex Help’s What’s New in DataFlex 2022 for more complete details.