BP1370: Extending the Progress Dynamics Framework

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BP1370Extending the Progress Dynamics Framework

• John Sadd
• Progress Fellow
• OpenEdge Evangelist

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Goals for this presentation

• Present the Progress Dynamics prescription
• Show whats possible as standard behavior
• Discuss ways to extend both your app and the
  framework itself to meet your needs
• Discuss possible future directions

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Products Under Development

• This talk includes information about potential
  future products and/or product enhancements.
• What I am going to say reflects our current
  thinking, but the information contained herein is
  preliminary and subject to change. Any future
  products we ultimately deliver may be materially
  different from what is described here.
• In other words - you cant believe everything Im
  going to say.

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Agenda Topics

• The Dynamics Prescription
• End-User preferences
• UI Customization
• The Object hierarchy and attribute values
• Customizing for different UI and roles
• Security Translation
• Extending the Dynamics Managers

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Progress Dynamics
Dynamics is a Component of OpenEdge Studio A
better way to engineer world-class distributed
business applications
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The Better Way
A Switch in Paradigms
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The Premise of Progress Dynamics

• Define the Application, Dont Code It
• Automate Everything Possible
• Provide Extensible Common Services

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The Progress Dynamics Architecture
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What Makes Dynamics dynamic?

• Repository-based
• Application defined as data
• Most components are now dynamic
• Standard behavior inherited by all Objects
• Custom application logic in static 4GL

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Being Prescriptive but not Restrictive means

• Making Dynamics adaptable
• Letting end users adapt the look and feel
• Extending individual objects
• Extending the infrastructure support
• Defining whole new objects and classes
• Integrating with your existing applications

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Progress Dynamics V2.x Roadmap
Oct 03
Jul 03
Subject to Change
Apr 03
Mar 04
V2 SP2
V2.1a
V2.2a
V2.1 SP1
General release goal12 week Delivery Cycles
throughout 2003
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Agenda Topics

• The Dynamics Prescription
• End-User preferences
• UI Customization
• The Object hierarchy and attribute values
• Customizing for different UI and roles
• Security Translation
• Extending the Dynamics Managers

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Personalization User profiles and preferences

• Dynamics supports user definitions and login
• Users can customize and save
• Window sizes and positions
• Browse column order, size, and sort order
• Query filters
• Single vs. Multi-window data displays

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DEMO User Preferences
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Demo Login Screen
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Demo user preferencesWindow sizes and positions
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Demo User preferencesBrowse column size, move,
sort
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Demo user preferencesQuery filtering
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Future Directions

• Allow end-user runtime visual customization of
  field order, tab order, display width, etc.

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Agenda Topics

• The Dynamics Prescription
• End-User preferences
• UI Customization
• The Object hierarchy and attribute values
• Customizing for different UI and roles
• Security Translation
• Extending the Dynamics Managers

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UI Customization

• Dynamics provides standard behavior
• Build custom super procedures to extend the
  behavior of
• Individual Objects
• Entire windows
• Entire classes of Objects
• New Client API simplifies coding
• UI events for dynamic Objects
• Client API procedures to run from them

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Extending an Objects Client Behavior
smart.p
visual.p
datavis.p
viewer.p
custvis.p
New widget attributes
New UI events
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Code sample for using the Client API
PROCEDURE rowDisplay ltandgt PROCEDURE
creditLimitLeave IF widgetIsModified('CreditLim
it') THEN IF DECIMAL(widgetValue('CreditLimit'
)) - DECIMAL(widgetValue('Balance')) lt 5000
THEN highlightWidget('Balance',
'Warning'). ELSE highlightWidget('Balance',
'Default').
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Samples of the Client API itself
widgetValue() hField widgetHandle(cField,
TARGET-PROCEDURE). cValue hFieldSCREEN-VALUE.
widgetHandle() get AllFieldNames
cFieldNames hTarget. get AllFieldHandles
cFieldHandles hTarget. RETURN
WIDGET-HANDLE(ENTRY(iFieldPos, cFieldHandles))
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Walking the Widget Tree For You
Custom Super disableWidget(CreditLimit)
Dynamic Browser
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DEMO UI customization with the Client API
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Extending an Object as a Class

• Add extended behavior to all Objects of a type
• Using a custom procedure
• Added to the super procedure stack
• For the entire class, not just one Object
• Same techniques and procedures as in standard ADM2

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Future Directions

• Store more client logic in the repository as
  data-driven rules
• Realize this at runtime in any user interface
• Store more server-side logic (integrity rules and
  business rules) as data as well

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Agenda Topics

• The Dynamics Prescription
• End-User preferences
• UI Customization
• The Object hierarchy and attribute values
• Customizing for different UI and roles
• Security Translation
• Extending the Dynamics Managers

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Object Types and Attributes

• Think of an Object Type as a Class
• Many standard Object attributes in Repository
• Add attributes of your own
• Sub-class an Object Type
• When you need new attributes
• When you need new behavior just for that
  sub-class
• Create new Objects of this type
• Move Objects from one class to another

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Objects and Attributes
MinHeight 0
Object Type Visual
MinWidth 0
Object Type DynView
MinHeight 12
Master CustView
MinWidth 21
MinWidth 26
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Extending Objects and Attributes
MinHeight
Object Type DynView
New
MinWidth 0
Object Type MyDynView
MandatoryFields
New
Master MyCustView
MandatoryFields Name,City
MandatoryFields Name,City,State
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Objects, Templates, and the AppBuilder Palette

• Definitions for the AppBuilder Palette and the
  New button are now in the Repository
• As of Version 2.0 SP2
• Add new Object Types to the AppBuilder

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DEMO - Adding a New Attribute- Adding a New
Object Type- Adding the New Object Type to the
AppBuilder
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Demo adding a new AttributeMandatoryFields_Ext
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Demo adding New Object TypeDynView_Ext
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Code Sample for Extended Viewer -
initializeObject
get MandatoryFields_Ext cMandExt NO-ERROR. IF
cMandExt NE "" AND cMandExt NE ? THEN
cFieldList cFieldList "," cMandExt. ELSE
cFieldList RIGHT-TRIM(cFieldList, ","). DO
iEntry 1 TO NUM-ENTRIES(cFieldList) iField
LOOKUP(ENTRY(iEntry, cFieldList), cFields).
IF iField NE 0 THEN DO ASSIGN hField
WIDGET-HANDLE(ENTRY(iField, cHandles))
hFieldBGCOLOR 14 NO-ERROR. END. END.
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Demo new Object / Attribute behavior
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Protecting your customizations

• Keep your customizations separate from standard
  framework Objects
• Dont add attributes to an existing Type
  subtype instead
• Dont change default attribute values for
  existing Types subtype and change the value
• Dont edit code shipped with the framework
  create separate custom procedures

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Future Directions

• Define a custom rendering program and custom
  super procedure with the class definition in
  V2.1
• Fully define the object hierarchy in the
  repository and tools
• Simplify creating and using new sub-classed
  objects
• Fully separate repository-based objects and
  attributes from any compiled code

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Agenda Topics

• The Dynamics Prescription
• End-User preferences
• UI Customization
• The Object hierarchy and attribute values
• Customizing for different UI and roles
• Security Translation
• Extending the Dynamics Managers

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Customizing for different audiences

• So far weve discussed extending standard
  behavior
• Now well discuss creating different forms of the
  same application for different audiences, e.g.
• Users and Roles
• Companies
• Languages and other localizations
• Different User Interfaces

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Customizing the Application

• Result codes identify objects and attribute
  values for a customization
• Define any customization types and result code
  values you like
• Change attribute values such as HIDDEN, ENABLED,
  HEIGHT, WIDTH
• Add objects to pages and pages to windows

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DEMO - Customization Maintenance- Custom
Layouts
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Demo Customization maintenance
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Demo AppBuilder Viewer Customization
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Demo AppBuilder Customizations
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Future Directions

• Visual customization of Viewer layouts in the
  AppBuilder in V2.0 SP2

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Agenda Topics

• The Dynamics Prescription
• End-User preferences
• UI Customization
• The Object hierarchy and attribute values
• Customizing for different UI and roles
• Security Translation
• Extending the Dynamics Managers

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Security and Translations

• Dynamics supports security restrictions on
• UserID and/or
• Company
• You can also translate labels and menus to other
  languages
• These are specializations that change the
  application UI and behavior as the user sees it

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DEMO Changing the UI Through Security Allocations
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Demo security allocations and resultant changes
to the app
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Future Directions

• Role-based security and Grant security model in
  Dynamics V2.1

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Agenda Topics

• The Dynamics Prescription
• End-User preferences
• UI Customization
• The Object hierarchy and attribute values
• Customizing for different UI and roles
• Security Translation
• Extending the Dynamics Managers

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Using and Extending Managers

• Dynamics Managers support Security, Session
  Management (objects and server calls), Service
  Types, UI generation, etc.
• Use the Manager APIs to extend your app by using
  Manager behavior in new ways

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Creating your own Manager

• Define a brand new Manager for custom application
  support
• Use a special template for new Managers
• Define server-side and client-side behavior
• Add the manager to Session Types that need it

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Using the Manager APIs

• Each Manager has its own API
• Much of the Manager behavior happens
  automatically
• Use the APIs to extend your application beyond
  the default behavior
• For example
• Session Manager controls procedures in your
  session and AppServers you use
• launchContainer to run a dynamic window
• launchExternalProcedure to run Windows apps

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DEMO - Using the Manager APIs- Creating a New
Manager
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Demo Launching dynamic windows
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Code to Launch dynamic windows
RUN launchContainer IN gshSessionManager (
INPUT / pcObjectFileName / "", INPUT
/ pcPhysicalFileName / "ry/uib/rydyncontw.w",
INPUT / pcLogicalName /
pcWindowName, INPUT / plOnceOnly /
YES, INPUT / pcContainerMode /
"view", INPUT / phParentWindow /
wiWin, INPUT / phParentProcedure /
THIS-PROCEDURE, INPUT / phObjectProcedure
/ ?, OUTPUT phProcedureHandle,
OUTPUT cProcedureType / ICF / ) .
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Demo launching External Procedures
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Code to launch an external procedure
RUN launchExternalProcess IN gshSessionManager
(INPUT "Notepad.exe "
THIS-PROCEDUREFILE-NAME, INPUT "", /
default directory / INPUT 1, / window
state -- normal / OUTPUT lResult).
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Demo New Manager using example from Prog Handbook
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Code samples and steps for the new manager
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Future Directions

• Improved support for extending and customizing
  existing managers
• Super procedures to extend standard API
• Remove dependencies between Managers

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In Summary

• Learn to customize the right way
• Our goal -- make your development easier and more
  future-proof
• Your goal -- make your applications more
  adaptable for your customers
• Take advantage of what the framework provides
• Extend it to personalize it for the people who
  buy it and use it

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Where to go to learn more

• Progress Dynamics Developers Guide
• Progress Dynamics Programming Handbook
• White papers for V2.0 SP2 on
• Client API
• Extending the Framework
• Using Customizations
• More to come on PSDN

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Presentation goals met?

• Present the Dynamics prescription
• Show whats possible as standard behavior
• Discuss ways to extend both your app and the
  framework itself to meet your needs
• Discuss possible future directions

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Questions
?
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Thank you for your time.