Funcoder Technology Blog

Anyone interested into Virtual Villages 3 and needs some help on potions, my wife has kindly let me publish them from her secret book. I have included all her experiments and marked the best ones in green.

Disclaimer: Sometimes potions go weird, just try them again.

Plants Key:

BO - Black Orchid
C - Cactus
L - Lotus
TL - Tiger Lilli
R - Rose
P - Pitcher Plant (Nature Faction Only)

2*C + TL = Bitter
2*BO + TL = Faint
2*BO + L = Sore Tummy
2*BO + R = Blew Up

BO + BO + BO = Yikes

L + P + L = Trance / Epiphany
C + P + C = Blew Up

P + P + P = Blew Up
P + BO + P = Sleepy
P + P + TL = Not feeling well
P + P + R = Feel Better
P + P + L = Feel Better
P + P + C = Feel Better
P + BO + BO = Get rid of sharks
P + C + BO = Nasty, It’s Bitter
P + C + TL = Nasty, It’s Bitter
P + C + L = Feels Better
P + C + R = Blew Up

R + P + R = Soapy
R + R + BO = A bit lonely / Feels down
R + R + TL = Stinky breath

Here’s a quick list of all the new features in WinDev 12. If you would like more information then I recommend downloading the 500 New Features PDF.

• JIT Technology - up to 1,500% gain.
• New Look and redesigned dialogs in the IDE.
• The Developers Email application is now available stand alone.
• Context-sensitive clipart (e.g. Will show button images when you search the catalogue in the button).
• Enhancements made to Project Monitor Center
• IDE Responds to voice commands
• In the Analysis Files/Tables can be grouped into custom folders. You can then use HChangeConnection on the group.
• IDE Tool Tips now show the shortcut keys
• New Project Manager Dashboard
• Improved code statistics on the Developer Dashboard
• Use a PDF document as a background in a report. You can then automate the process of filling out the form.
• Reports can now generate PDF documents with User Input Fields.
• PDF Document can now be displayed in an image control.
• Report Preview Control now has seach. Works in a similar way to Firefox search, highlighting found search words in the generated report.
• Reports can now be produced in a mix of portrait and landscape.
• Multi-lingual analysis file/table names. This helps when you want to distribute Reports & Queries to different countries.
• PCL mode Printing.
• Rights management in the Source Control Manager.
• Elements can now be checked out of Source Control automatically when you start to edit them.
• Source Control elements can now be shared across different projects.
• Project initialisation code can be shared also.
• Improved check-in procedure to associate developer to the current task / bug corrections automatically.
• Project Manager can now define elements required for check-in.
• Improvements to copy branch.
• Internal system files can now be hidden from the analysis.
• Business rules now require proper authorization.
• Business rules history to keep a full trace.
• Tasks can now be linked to business rules.
• Multiple elements (windows, reports, classes etc.) can be linked to a task.
• Requirement impact analysis.
• Include imported documents in the business rules database.
• Project Internal Components.
• Create a template from another template (new level of inheritance).
• Inheritance diagrams that show all the parent or child templates for the element.
• Refactor selected controls into a template.
• Components can now include classes in its interface.
• Share popup menus
• Code window can now show methods from all selected controls.
• Improved code assistance.
• HtmlToText & HtmlToRTF
• InTSEMode allows you to dedect if the app is running in a Citrix environment.
• XMLRead & XMLWrite, quick read functions.
• Video resolution functions, you can detect video cards, screens on each card and resolution + colours for each.
• Easily call COM Objects and DLL’s with new CallInterface function.
• Drawing functions have new parameters for gradient colours, angles etc.
• Anti-aliasing and opacity on drawing.

In the next post I will summarise more of the new language features in V12.

I am currently working on an experiment to have most of my app’s I use on a day to day basis online.

Unfortunately this does not include my development tools but more productivity and social applications.

One of the features I needed was to sync my work calendar with my Google app.

You can do this with Google’s beta version of their sync tool.

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955

It’s very simple to setup and you can decide which way you would like to sync the calendars. I would have liked to choose which of my Google Calendars I want to sync with, but I doesn’t give you that option.

Suffice to say, it works very well.

Woken up to snow in London. It’s not exactly Canada but exciting all the same.

This week I had a requirement to generate formatted document for Word 2007 and thought now would be a great time to learn the new OpenXML format.

This means I don’t have to use the automation process and it gives me full control over how the document looks, without concerning myself with any future changes Microsoft Word will build.

It also means that with some minor changes the document can be opened in other products, including Open Office and Pages on the Mac.

The document that I need to create is basically a zip file containing a specific structure and number of files.

For this simple example I will create 3 files, which are the basic building blocks of the document. These are:

document.xml, which contains the core text of my document.
[Content_Types].xml, describing the type of content I am using.
.rels, which describes the relationships of the files in the zip.

If you want to learn all about the architecture of Open XML, then I would recommend watching some great videos at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb738430.aspx.

So here we go…

Creating the zip archive

So the first part is to create a zip file. We actually need a .docx to be created but WinDev requires that we call it a .zip, so it’s easy enough to rename the file when we have finished.

sArchive is string = "Proposal.docx"
sArchiveZip is string = "Proposal.zip"
sDocx is string = "Proposal"
sDocument is string = "Document"
sContent is string = "Content"

// Create the docx file
IF fFileExist("Proposal.zip") THEN
  fDelete("Proposal.zip")
END

IF fFileExist("Proposal.docx") THEN
  fDelete("Proposal.docx")
END

IF

zipCreate(sDocx,sArchiveZip) <> 0 THEN
  Error("Unable to create the Open XML Document")
END

Creating document.xml

Next we need to create the document.xml file and add it to the archive. You can learn more about the different elements used to format the document in future posts.

// Create the xml document body

XMLDocument(sDocument)
XMLParent(sDocument)
XMLAddChild(sDocument,"w:document","",True)
XMLAddAttribute(sDocument,"xmlns:w","http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main",True)
XMLAddChild(sDocument,"w:body","",True)
XMLAddChild(sDocument,"w:p","",True)
XMLAddChild(sDocument,"w:r","", True)
XMLAddChild(sDocument,"w:t","Promotion Proposal")
sDocumentXML is string = XMLBuildString(sDocument,XMLDocumentDefault,XMLEncodingUTF8)
fSaveText("document.xml",sDocumentXML)

// Add it to Docx

zipAddFile(sDocx,"document.xml")

The xml file was created first and then this file was added to the archive.

Describe the type of Content

The next file describes the type of content used in the document.

// Create the content xml

XMLDocument

(sContent)
XMLParent(sContent)
XMLAddChild(sContent,"Types","",True)
XMLAddAttribute(sContent,"xmlns",http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/content-types)
XMLAddChild(sContent,"Default","", True)
XMLAddAttribute(sContent,"Extension","xml")
XMLAddAttribute(sContent,"ContentType","application/xml")
XMLRoot(sContent)
XMLFind(sContent,"Types",XMLElement)
XMLAddChild(sContent,"Override","",True)
XMLAddAttribute(sContent,"PartName","/document.xml")
XMLAddAttribute(sContent,"ContentType","application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document.main+xml")
XMLRoot(sContent)
XMLFind(sContent,"Types",XMLElement)
XMLAddChild(sContent,"Default", "", True)
XMLAddAttribute(sContent,"Extension", "rels")
XMLAddAttribute(sContent,"ContentType","application/vnd.openxmlformats-package.relationships+xml")
sContentXML is string = XMLBuildString(sContent,XMLDocumentDefault,XMLEncodingUTF8)

fSaveText("[Content_Types].xml",sContentXML)

zipAddFile(sDocx,"[Content_Types].xml")

Define the file Relationships

In this final file we define the relationships of the xml documents in the archive. So here I have defined a relationship for document.xml.

// Relationships xml document

sRels is string = "Relationships"
XMLDocument(sRels)
XMLAddChild(sRels,"Relationships","",True)
XMLAddAttribute(sRels,"xmlns","http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships",True)
XMLAddChild(sRels,"Relationship","",True)
XMLAddAttribute(sRels,"Id","MyRelationship",True)
XMLAddAttribute(sRels,…
"Type","http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/officeDocument",True)
XMLAddAttribute(sRels,"Target","document.xml")
sRelsXML is string = XMLBuildString(sRels,XMLDocumentDefault,XMLEncodingUTF8)

IF fDirectoryExist("_rels") = False
  fMakeDir("_rels")
ELSE
  fDelete("_rels/*.*")
END

fSaveText

("_rels/.rels",sRelsXML)
zipAddDirectory(sDocx, "_rels")

All the relationship files need to sit inside a _rels directory. So I create the file inside the _rels directory and then ad this directory to the archive

Final Lap

Finally I just rename the .zip file to a .docx and we are ready to open it in Word 2007.

In future posts I will show how you apply formatting and images to the document. The great thing about this specification is that you just include the images you need in the archive and reference them. No more binary data of the image in the document.

It’s not possible to add a SQL Server View in WinDev 11 to the Analysis file, so here is a simple way to do this using a few lines of WLanguage code.

First we create a Data Source which we can then map to our table component.

Now lets get the data from the SQL Server View.

Finally we read through the results and populate the table. Note that I have already added the table to the window and added the columns.

You use the Data Source to read through the records and fields. There is no intellisense in the Data Source so you will need to know the field names. For Example, Cost_Centre_Code in the code above is a field return from the view. The TAB is used as a break between each column in the Table Component.

Note that you need to add data using TableAdd in the same order as you have defined the columns in your component.

Well the week is over and the challenges fun will continue on Monday. This week I continued work on an exciting project for a prize management company here in the UK.

Each day I start by reviewing my task list I have for completing the project. I just use this as a refresher as the tasks are very brief, like "Winner CRUD operations".

From this list I decide my work for the day and write a list of tasks I wish to complete by the end of the day. Each task often has notes associated, to remind me of requirements.

I believe it is important not to set a time scale for each task. So I wouldn’t recommend you add these to a calendar. Do so just adds further pressure for you to complete it in the allotted time. You then end up spending more time watching the clock and panicking when you could be spending time being creative.

So make a list of tasks you can realistically complete in the day and just do them. You will find your code will flow a lot better and you get a sense of achievement every time you tick one off.

There will be times when one task takes longer than expected and you have to bump other tasks to the next day. Don’t worry as you are still in control, so when you start the next day you just include the bumped task in the new days list.

I have to admit that I am an Apple fan but I am also torn between OSX and Windows for development. You see all my clients are Windows based and would not consider moving to Mac for a number of reasons.

It’s not just the fact that PC’s are cheaper than their Apple equivalent, it’s also down to the fact that there are no good enterprise development tools for the Mac. XCode is a great tool, but it just does not have the capabilities to be used in the enterprise like Visual Studio.

Now this may be from my lack of real experience with XCode but I feel it is more down to it’s available features.

If you take the current project I am working on as an example. This project encompasses business rules, data objects, services, UI elements for both desktop and mobile. The client has a specific requirement for it to be non-web based, so the UI elements are desktop and mobile applications. The added complexity is the integration with a Windows based accounting system. There are no good accounting packages (UK) for the Mac.

To build such a thing in Visual Studio is relatively easy, but XCode needs to match this functionality if it is to be recognised as a true contender in the enterprise.

There is Java (no comments about Leopard and Java 6), but combining Java server components and XCode would be a nightmare to maintain.

There are other development environments in the Mac Space, like RealBASIC, but once again they lack the feature set required.

So the life of an enterprise developer becomes rather complicated. Just looking at my desk I have a MacBook on my left and my WindowsXP machine in front of me. I crave working on my Mac, but I always have to resort to the Windows PC.

I just can’t see the future businesses developing there internal systems for Mac now and in the near future. To me this is always going to be for the home consumer or a web shop. I just wish it was different or we could see a glimmer of this changing.