Genero Studio 2.00 General Release

Irving, Texas – April 8, 2008 — Four Js Development Tools Ltd. releases Genero Studio 2.0 – a major ergonomic step forward providing new developer productivity tools.

Genero Studio 2.0 provides an Integrated Development Environment dedicated to Genero developers enabling them to quickly and easily:

  • design user interfaces directly from a database schema ,
  • generate applications from a database schema,
  • auto-correct code syntax,
  • organize complex application projects,
  • compile, run, and debug Genero applications,
  • work as a team using sources, compiler, debugger and databases on a server.

Summary of Key Features

Major feature improvements in this release include:

  • An innovative template driven Application Generator,
  • A brand new Genero Studio Framework 2.0 offering a slicker, more modular plug-in architecture to enable third-party innovation,
  • Brand new ‘look and feel’ :  docking windows, new file dialog, local toolbars, tabbed documents with search, error views,
  • An enhanced Project Manager,
  • Genero BDL syntax and error help messages for dialogs or windows. Help includes indexes and an optimized search.
  • Genero Studio Framework 2.0Genero Studio 2.0 is based on an enhanced development framework Genero Studio Framework 2.0. This new framework with its revised architecture brings more advanced capabilities and has improved modularity for future ‘plug-ins’ provided by Four Js or thrid parties.
  • Look and Feel 2.0Genero Studio 2.0 offers a revised look and feel. Be free to organize your workspace as you wish with the use of ‘docking views’. All documents are available in a central tabbed area and a ‘quick search’ finds your document by name, filtering the list of proposed documents as you type.

    In order to create new files, Genero Studio allows you to choose between creating an empty file, using a wizard or selecting a default template. Wizards show your current position in the creation process and enable direct access to each step. All user interfaces are enhanced to improve the user experience.

    Preferences, compiler and runtime configuration and the database wizard are all areas that have been heavily reworked. A few samples are shown below.

Figure 1 – Workspace with docking views, tabbed windows, quick document search…

Figure 2 – New file dialog proposing wizards and template files

Figure 3 – Wizard assistants describe processes and provide tips/errors as you type

  • Project Manager 2.0Project Manager has been heavily reworked with the following objectives:
    • Portability of projects & teamwork: The new project file format is fully portable allowing the user to exchange projects along with sources by just copying the files to a new location. When working in a team, developers can now share the same project workspace using a source code control system of their choice. Projects are now cross-platform, meaning that Windows and Linux/Unix users in the same team can share a project workspace file.
    • Complex builds: In order to support complex build systems, Project Manager was extended to support user-defined ‘build rules’, pre/post build step user commands, external dependencies, target file locations, custom command additions in menus… As a result, complex build systems can be directly used within the Project Manager in an easy and user-friendly way.
    • Enhanced user experience: The ergonomics and flexibility of Project Manager have been enhanced for both small and very large projects. Creating, moving and deleting elements is quick and easy – edit elements directly in the project view and drag ‘n’ drop inside the project or from the system file explorer…

    The following table describes in greater detail the new Project Manager features provided by studio 2.0:

  • Application GeneratorApplication Generator is a new module of Genero Studio 2.0, which assists in the creation of complete database applications using templates and does so from the relationships established between the database tables. The generated code is maintained within Studio and templates can be user defined to meet internal software engineering standards. POINTS are set to insert business rules that are protected in the event that the application is regenerated.

    Applications can be built in just a few easy steps:

  • Create a user interface form directly from the database schema,
  • Create a program module that sets the actions desired for the form,
    – Insert, Delete, Update, Query, List/Detail rows etc…
  • Associate the form with other already defined modules,
  • Add code-specific bespoke business logic,
  • Generate the application !Generated code is based on pre-defined templates that are user-definable. Any bespoke business logic sitting between POINTS and BLOCK is protected during the regeneration, allowing fret-free modification of the module’s configuration.

    Figure 4 – Application Generator: Types of forms handled by the database template

    Figure 5 – Application Generator: zooms, lookup & combo boxes template mgmt.

Supported configurations

  • Genero 1.2x to 2.10
  • Genero Desktop Client 1.2x to 2.10
  • Minimal screen resolution 1024×768

Migration notes

The internal format used by Studio for Projects (.4pw) and Forms (.4fd) has been improved. The new format is applied when you open a form or project that was created using an earlier release. Make backup copies of the files prior to opening them, if you wish to maintain a copy of the earlier format.

The Four Js Team