4GL DEVELOPERS, IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY: FourGen® CASE Tools and FourGen® Accounting software (Session 5 @ Forum 2004)

4GL DEVELOPERS, IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY:

FourGen® CASE Toolsand FourGen® Accounting software

(Session 5 @ Forum 2004)

www.gillani.com

Syed Kamal

Gillani, Inc. (formerly FourGen)

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (972) 918-0400

URL: www.gillani.com

Informix 4GL Developers, Improve Productivity:FourGen® CASE Tools and FourGen® Accounting Software

www.gillani.com

How many Informix 4GL programmers present?

How many have used any RAD tools to develop 4GL apps?

How many have used FourGen CASE tools, aka Informix-4GL “FORMS”, “Menu’s”?


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FourGen® CASE ToolsHighlights

Form Painter Screen Code Generator Featurizer Report Generator Menu’ing System iDesktop (Windows GUI front-end or

browser-enabled front-end) Source Code Control System Object Oriented Design XML based Schema Management Tools

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FourGen® CASE ToolsCode Generation Path

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Advantages of using FourGen CASE Tools

Increased productivity over 3GL development

Many times faster than 4GL coding Speeds up initial development AND

reduces ongoing cost of program maintenance Over 80% of the cost of software applications

is ongoing maintenance

Facilitates user/developer communication

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Why FourGen® CASE Tools?

Structured Code Automatic Code Documentation Code Design Standards User Interface Standards Version Control Generated code is Modifiable By Design™

(MBD) Multi-language Code Generation

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Why FourGen® CASE Tools?

GUI & Character user selected interfaces

OR

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FourGen® CASE ToolsForm Painter

Create new or update existing forms Creates 100% Informix 4GL compatible .per’s Various types of forms supported – header,

header/detail, query, zooms etc. Easy to define zooms, lookups & validation

functionality Link many forms – easily & effectively Developer-friendly interface Detail Explosion – Present additional detail

data on same screen

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FourGen® CASE Tools Screen Code Generator

100% Informix 4GL Code “Hooks” in generated code allow

developers to add custom code Organizes code into separate .4GL’s

namely globals.4gl, main.4gl, header.4gl, detail.4gl,

midlevel.4gl for input screens

Dynamic arrays for line items – no more arr_max hassle

Automatically generates GUI Code

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Program Main – Header

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Program Main – Header / Detail

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Browse Form

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Zoom

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Query

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Extension Form

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Add-on Detail

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Add-on

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FourGen® CASE Tools Featurizer

Merges generated code & custom code Generated code remains untouched FourGen® Featurizer reads instructions in

extension files to modify source code With Block commands you place code based

on the inserted block tags Add new business logic or customize flow

logic without modifying original source code Change in a screen or schema, just regenerate

code to reapply your changes

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FourGen® CASE ToolsReport Generator

Create Informix 4GL reports programs using report image file

Organizes code into separate .4GL’s namely globals.4gl, main.4gl, report.4gl, midlevel.4gl,

lowlevel.4gl for report programs Includes the following sections

Layout Attributes Select Language Schedule Concurrency

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FourGen® CASE ToolsMenu’ing System

FourGen® Menus Menu options can be single or multiple

characters with description Flexible menu option format Each menu & submenu has its own directory Menu option can use hotkey option Predefined structure can be utilized for

Enterprise Application Windows Explorer-like Menu interface available

via iDesktop for GUI

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FourGen® CASE ToolsiDesktop

Windows based GUI generator Reads database for screens that make up a

program Generates VB Forms from Informix Forms Creates GUI Executables from VB Forms

GUI menu program presents menus in WIN Explorer-like format

SSH compatible for added security

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FourGen® CASE ToolsiDesktop

Win 2000

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FourGen® CASE ToolsSource Code Control System

FourGen® SCCS originally developed in mid 1980’s

Builds on top of sccs utilities in UNIX Advantages

Extremely robust Easy to use Tight control of code Included in FourGen® CASE Tools

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FourGen® CASE ToolsSource Code Control System

FourGen® SCCS primary programs

• sccs.in Checks in files

• sccs.out Checks out files

• sccs.stat Status of a file or files

• sccs.sdiff Differences between two versions of a file

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FourGen® CASE Tools Schema Management Tools

FourGen DBmerge Allows you to control schema Provides audit trail of schema changes when

used with FourGen® SCCS All schema information & standard data stored

in XML format

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FourGen® CASE Tools Schema Management Tools

FourGen Dbmerge programs

• dbmerge Reads schema XML files, compares & generates script to bring target database current

• dbdata Reads data XML files & generates instructions to load them

• dbrun Execute script file from dbmerge & dbdata

• dbunload Unload schemas & data to XML files

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Dynamic Array Model – No more hard coding of # of array elements.

User Defined Notes on Screens – Multiple note types and notes for each line of detail.

Add-on hdr/dtl, add-on view hdr/dtl, extension hdr/dtl etc. are few of new Form Types

Detail Explosion – Detail to Detail line for hdr/dtl screens

Zoom picker function standardized

Grids replace temporary tables – index ‘em, random access ‘em, unload ‘em even in .csv formats

Primary Keys instead of Row ID’s

Global elements reduction – scratch, sql_filter, sql_order removed – p & q variables moved to header.4gl & detail.4gl files

Function Metrics – Trace your program control within functions

DB Merge Utilities Made Easy – Supports XML formats

Defer or force referential constraints using Library Functions

Encryption Functions available – handy for securing your data

SIGNAL Trapping

FourGen® CASE ToolsNEW FEATURES in FourGen CASE Tools V8.1

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iDeveloper – GUI development environment

EGL – Websphere Development Edition Integration

Porting FourGen CASE Tools to DB2

FourGen® CASE ToolsFuture Releases

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Applications Developed using FourGen CASE Tools

Gillani’s iDistribute and Financials v8.1

• iDistribute - A complete end-to-end Supply Chain/Distribution Management solution (formerly FourGen/Endura SCM) delivering extraordinary business results for users since 1983.

• iDistribute - The system provides advanced Order Management capabilities, integrated with a comprehensive Warehouse and Branch Inventory Management, Purchasing and Replenishment System.

• Financials - An Integrated ERP, Accounting System (formerly FourGen Accounting, FourGen Enterprise, Endura Enterprise) providing GL, AP, AR, FA, Budget Management, Credit Management and Financial Reporting functionality.

WRITTEN USING FOURGEN CASE TOOLS !

CORNERSTONE OF “MODIFIABILITY BY DESIGN ™” CONCEPT !

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Questions?

Contact: Syed Kamal

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (972) 918-0400

URL: www.gillani.com


Documents

4GL DEVELOPERS, IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY: FourGen® CASE Tools and FourGen® Accounting software (Session 5 @ Forum 2004)