V10 - exciting stuff

[Bill Griffin]

Just a note on the Beta of V10, now that it is wrapping up. I have been developing and testing software for over 20 years. I have also been invloved in Beta testing products for just about as long. The way in which Alpha has conducted the testing phaase has been outstanding. Each issue that I presented to them was fixed in hours after they could duplicate it. I have never been involved in a Beta quite like this.

The commitment, excitment and enthusiasm that Selwyn and the Alpha staff has shown during the testing period, I have never seen before. Generally when a product is in the Beta phase, development has stopped and just bugs are fixed. I have seen new features added almost weekly (sometimes daily) since the Beta began. The product that we started testing months ago, is really quite different (and better) than it would have been if development had stopped before we started testing. Many suggestions that the beta testers made, were implemented now, not in V11.

With each version release of Alpha, I have always felt that a few features were added that were cool, but nothing that changed the game. V10 changes the game.It has truly opened up new doors for us as developers, with an ease that is just remarkable. And I, personally, have only scratched the surface. Some of the features require a different approach, a different view, from the way "we have always done things" in the past. So, for anyone who is an Alpha customer, who does not explore the "net (Inter or Intra) enabled" side of V10, watch the videos, download the trial and open up your mind and some new opportunities. My job as a developer, is to solve problems. It really doesn't matter to me how I do that (the desktop vs web argument really does seems moot to me at this point) and having a now expanded toolbox to work with, it just makes my life a little easier.

Thanks Alpha for getting me jazzed up over coming to work again.

When is the V11 beta scheduled to begin?? :)

[NoeticCC]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Having just come off Skype with Keith Hubert and having heard his excitement about the look and feel of the new AlphaSports v10, and having had a play with the full Beta for a day, I can only confirm that.

Bit weird that the demo app AlphaSports uses a "fake" tab made with buttons and a conditional object, instead of a tabbed object or a web grid with tabs though!

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Where might someone find the full Beta? Downloaded the latest files yesterday and still don't see all the desktop stuff.

[NoeticCC]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Where might someone find the full Beta? Downloaded the latest files yesterday and still don't see all the desktop stuff.

Can you email Selwyn for the link please? It looked to me like this had been used for a while (I got the link 2 days ago in response to a bug report, and there were proper v10 release notes going a while back etc.), but perhaps I was wrong.

The download I had is a full v10 Install with a 30 day trial.

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Thanks Andrea.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

How exciting is this? New Field Rules Form Layout level.

Alpha Five has always allowed you to define Field Rules for the fields in a table. Now, you can also define Field Rules at the Form Layout level.

When you define Field Rules at the Form level, you can define rules for both fields and variables. Contrast this with Field Rules defined at the Table level - this only allows Field Rules for fields, not variables.

Since you can now define Field Rules for the variables that you place on Form layouts, you can now define validation rules, case conversion rules, lookup rules, minimum and maximum values, etc. for variables without having to write any custom Xbasic code.

When you define a Field Rule for a field at the Form level, if there are also Field Rules for that field defined at the Table level, the rules defined at the two levels are combined into a single set of rules.

To define Field Rules for a field or variable at the Form level, simply right click on the object in the Form editor and select the 'Edit Rules' menu item from the right-click menu.

All I can say is Wow and thank you Alpha Team.

[MikeC]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Keith,
Do the form level rules for a field/variable stay with individual forms or do they encompass all the forms/browses that utilize the same field/variable(if global)??

[glenschild]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

How exciting is this? New Field Rules Form Layout level.

Alpha Five has always allowed you to define Field Rules for the fields in a table. Now, you can also define Field Rules at the Form Layout level.

When you define Field Rules at the Form level, you can define rules for both fields and variables. Contrast this with Field Rules defined at the Table level - this only allows Field Rules for fields, not variables.

Since you can now define Field Rules for the variables that you place on Form layouts, you can now define validation rules, case conversion rules, lookup rules, minimum and maximum values, etc. for variables without having to write any custom Xbasic code.

When you define a Field Rule for a field at the Form level, if there are also Field Rules for that field defined at the Table level, the rules defined at the two levels are combined into a single set of rules.

To define Field Rules for a field or variable at the Form level, simply right click on the object in the Form editor and select the 'Edit Rules' menu item from the right-click menu.

All I can say is Wow and thank you Alpha Team.

If I understand this correctly then this is a serious upgrade! Presumably form level field rule control is going to make it significantly easier to control data input for other formats such as mysql and sql tables!

[mmaisterrena]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Is the greatest change since alpha four was transformed into alpha five. the Core element of innovation in this version are the grids which you are now able to use them on the desktop as well.

[aRob]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Is there an actual 'finished' V10 desktop beta with all features turned on (including all browse fixes)? Has somebody actually tested all the new features?

[DRW]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Do the form level rules for a field/variable stay with individual forms or do they encompass all the forms/browses that utilize the same field/variable(if global)??

Any answer for the above question? Also what about events. Similar to these new changes regarding field rules, any changes to record events in V10? I still don't understand the rationale in pre V10versions of having various record events only accessible by means of static definitions attached to the tables field rules table. Pretty much everything done in A5 revolves around the form - records get created, changed and deleted using forms (or browses). So if having some record events accessible at the form level makes sense, like Onsave and Cansave,why wouldn't it make sense to have all record related events accessible at the form level, especially Ondelete, Candelete, Onchange, Canchange, et al?

[Keith Hubert]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Hi Mike,

Do the form level rules for a field/variable stay with individual forms or do they encompass all the forms/browses that utilize the same field/variable(if global)??

As far as I can understand a form field rule will remain only on the form it is set.

In the case of Variables, you can also get to the Field Rule editor when you edit variables from the Variables button on the toolbar by clicking the 'Define Field Rules' button:

[RCarvalho]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Does the beta have the new browse? How is it working?

[CALocklin]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Hi Mike,
As far as I can understand a form field rule will remain only on the form it is set.

I'm not sure if this is a step forward or backward.

One of the advantages of field rules being only in the table was that a field rule was a a field rule was a field rule. If field rules can be different in each form, it's (a) very possible (and likely) that some situations will arise where the field rule that resulted in a certain value in FormA will cause a problem in FormB because it's using a different set of field rules and (b) it will be more difficult to be sure exactly what "the field rules" for a particular field really are. These types of situations caused problems for me more than once in A4 (DOS) which allowed different field rules on tables and sets.

Whenever I had a unique additional requirement on a specific form in A5v1-A5v9, I was always able to handle it with some code in the CanDepart or CanSave event.

I'm sure this new setup is something many people will like and use. I'm just not sure it's really that good of an idea.

On the other hand, maybe there is some need for it with SQL as glenschild suggests - that I don't know. If so, maybe that's why it was added. If not, I think I'll stick with the philosophy that "field rules belong in the table so there are no conflicts."

[csda1]

Re: V10 - exciting stuff

Hi Cal,

I'll go along with field rules should be with the table. In A4, I used Set field rules to override specific field rules of a table, but these were always the exception, and it required discipline to not accidentally change the Set field rule when I meant to do the table field rule.

There were field rule items that didn't really matter where it occurred, and sometimes it is better not to have some rules occur (e.g. pop-up lookups when certain users did not require it, and in fact were annoyed by it, or alternative lookups displays based on need of the form)

I would encourage a similar approach with a form field rule, but I'll wait to see if anyone comes up why form rules should be the "rule" :) rather than the exception.