LANSA V11 SP5. What's New in LANSA Version 11 Service Pack 5? All LANSA products running on workstations now support Vista SP1.

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1 Newsletter October 2008 LANSA V11 SP5 What's New in LANSA Version 11 Service Pack 5? 1. Vista Support All LANSA products running on workstations now support Vista SP1. In This Issue LANSA V11 SP5 page 1 Blocked Zip Files page 19 LANSA Tech Exchange page 8 New Course Schedule Benelux page 23 New VLF version page 10 LANSA User Group page 24 Speed up VLF Web Save/Generate page 18 LANSA Openfor.NET page 25 LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 1

2 2.Visual LANSA Themes You can now execute Visual LANSA applications using different colour themes such as Office 2007 Silver, Graphite, Olive or Blue or one of the Office 2003 styles. This picture shows the Visual LANSA Framework application executing with the Office2007 Blue theme: Using Themes Visual LANSA Themes are enabled through the application object Sys_Appln. Usually you enable a theme like this: 1. Set the theme for the application in its startup code (typically in the CreateInstance event of application main form): #Sys_Appln.Theme := 2007Blue 2. Enable themes for the main form of the application. This can be done from the property sheet for the form or programmatically: #Main_Form.ThemeStyle := Themed LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 2

3 Compiling and running your application will now paint your main form as a Themed form. Setting the Theme of All Forms Instead of individually setting each form to be theme-enabled using the forms ThemeStyle=Themed property, you can set the default behaviour of all Forms using the ThemedForms property of #Sys_Appln. False True Default All forms in the application will use the theme specified by #Sys_Appln.Theme property. To do this place the following code in the application start up code: #Sys_Appln.Theme := Shell #Sys_Appln.ThemedForms := True Note that enabling themes in all forms in a Visual LANSA application may not produce the appearance you want. For example in the Microsoft Office applications only the main form is generally theme-enabled whereas all other dialogs are not (the main application appears with a Blue theme but its child dialogs still appear Grey). For this reason we suggest you individually evaluate forms to see if they should use a theme. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 3

4 Testing Themes at Design Time During design you can see what your application will look with a theme using the Design View Theme option in the Options menu: This is how the sample application appears in Lilac: LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 4

5 Themes and VisualStyles Themes and VisualStyles are closely related and on occasions can clash. The theme settings do not override Visual Styles settings in an application. For example if a panel appears green because its VisualStyle specifies a NormBackColor of green, the panel will continue to appear green even in a 2007Blue themed application. For cases where conflicts exist, you need to evaluate where the VisualStyle items should be reset in order to achieve the look you want. 3. Performance This release brings further performance improvements to LANSA primarily in the area of list processing. 4. Other Enhancements Connecting to Partition Specific Databases X_RUN has been changed to allow connecting to different user databases for each partition in a single LANSA system. To do this use the DBID and DBII parameters to specify different databases provided they are of the same database type. For example you can specify: DBII=LX_LANSA, DBID=LX_USER, DBIT=MSSQLS Note that the value of the DBUT parameter must be the same as the DBIT parameter if provided. The user database (DBID) can also be specified in the X_LANSA.PRO profile file for each partition. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 5

6 New Editor Tab Style The tabs in the LANSA editor can now be displayed as Navigator tabs: Or as standard tabs: LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 6

7 To change the tab style right-click the tab folder heading and choose the Tab View Style option. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 7

8 LANSA Tech Exchange What is the LANSA Tech Exchange? This is where members of the LANSA Community can sell or share LANSA Components Weblets, Templates, Code Snippets, Technical items, etc. Anyone with Weblets, Code Snippets, Templates or other Technical items to offer just has to: submit the details ( and, LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 8

9 after an accuracy check, the item will be added to the: Available Items ( Alternatively, if you are looking for a particular component, you can: post a request ( to see if others in the LANSA community can help. If you are looking for a particular component, you can post a request and it will be added to the: Wanted Items ( list. If another community member is able to assist you, we'll put you in contact. Who creates the LANSA Components for the LANSA Tech Exchange? LANSA Tech Exchange Components can be created by anyone any member of the extended LANSA community. Anyone with Components to sell or share and anyone who is seeking to obtain certain Components can use the Exchange. There are no membership conditions or passwords. Why Consider the LANSA Tech Exchange? LANSA has 7,000 customers and partners worldwide who have successfully met their business needs and deployed leading-edge applications and ebusiness solutions using LANSA software and technology. The LANSA Tech Exchange program is intended to help the LANSA Community share items that match other's needs at a Component level rather than a packaged solution level. This directory gives the LANSA community a way to find LANSA Components in order to expand their use of the LANSA platform. How is this different from the LANSA Partner Solution Directory? The LANSA Partner Solution Directory contains packaged solutions that are complete LANSA-based applications designed to meet a related set of business processes. LANSA Components from the LANSA Tech Exchange are typically added to an existing application or solution and might solve a specific technical challenge, such as displaying a chart in a grid. Important Disclaimer Contributors to the LANSA Tech Exchange are responsible for the correctness of any Components (code and documentation) that they submit. Contributors are also responsible for any support that might be offered with any Components they submit. LANSA does not provide any warranty concerning fitness for purpose nor correctness of any Component submitted to the Exchange. LANSA does not provide any warranty for any ongoing support offered for Components submitted by any party to the Exchange. Users of the Exchange who download any Component do so with the express understanding and agreement of the foregoing disclaimers. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 9

10 New VLF version Lot s of new features in the EPC831 of the Framework! Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details VLF.Net Performance, Usability and Appearance End User WIN WEB RAMP Any Framework Web Browser application can be compiled as a.net executable using the VLF.NET feature. It offers: Enhanced security capabilities Faster client side application execution Visually and functionally enhanced GUI capabilities Near zero deployment, by using.net s integrated ClickOnce web browser deployment technology. Visual Themes Automatic Server Connection Recovery Appearance End User Usability End User An easy-to-activate alternative to visual styles which produces a dramatic improvement in appearance. Requires LANSA Service Pack 5. No The Framework can be configured to handle a temporary loss of connection to a server. For example, this might happen when a user's laptop moves out of range of the wireless base station. The Framework can be configured to check the server connection: Before the user moves to the next business object or application Before executing a command At intervals specified by the designer If the connection check fails, by default the Framework stops, advises the user and after user confirmation attempts to reconnect. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 10

11 Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details Quick Find box on the Toolbar Developers Workbench Improved filter and command handler snapin facility Usability End User Performance, Developer Performance, Developer WIN WEB RAMP (NET ) When the Quick Find feature is enabled, a search field appears on the right-hand side of the Framework tool bar. When users click on this, they are offered a list of recently used business objects that they can switch back to. Or they can type in search text to find a business object by caption Developers can now directly access Framework objects and their properties using the Developer s Workbench. The Workbench has been designed to make it possible to quickly perform actions such as snapping in filters and command handlers and changing properties, without the overheads caused by having to frequently save and restart the framework. The interface for snapping in filters and command handlers has been redesigned for better usability and performance. If you know the name of the filter or command handler you can enter it without the performance overhead of loading all possible component names. Improved Images palette Execute the Framework in Prototype- Only Mode Developer Designer You can also search using a partial component name To make it easier to prototype applications, enhancements have been made to the Images Palette including the selection of the images folder and the zooming of image sizes. You can now execute the Framework in its original prototype mode by selecting the Prototype Mode Only check box when you select the Framework file Easy access to latest Demonstration System Keep old XML Framework versions organized Developer Developer When starting up the Framework as a Designer, you can launch the latest Demonstration system by selecting the option Open Latest Demonstration Version and clicking the Open button You can now store your old XML framework versions in a subfolder to reduce the number of files in the LANSA partition execute directory Show or hide Instance list tool bar buttons End User New design possibilities You can select or unselect the Show on Instance List Tool Bar option to control whether a button for a command should appear on the instance list tool bar associated with the instance list LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 11

12 Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details WIN WEB RAMP Programmatic instance list sorting Filters can override instance list column headings End User New design possibilities End User New design possibilities A filter or command handler can now programmatically sort the instance list by a column at execution time. Filters can override the instance list column headings at execution time. This can be used to make the instance list suit the result of different filter searches. Enable/disable peer objects in instance lists Programmatic shrinking and expanding framework panes General Purpose Document Manager End User New design possibilities Improved Appearance End User New design possibilities New design possibilities The Enable Peers when Selected option indicates whether any appropriate peer objects commands should be enabled when this business object is selected. A filter or command handler can now programmatically shrink and reexpand the filter pane, the command handler pane, the instance list, or the navigate pane. Command handlers can also programmatically expand themselves to occupy the space used by the filters and instance list and restore themselves to their original size Use the shipped command DF_DOCS to manage a set of user defined documents. The documents are stored in a shipped database file called DFDOCS. You can snap this command to any Framework object and it will be instantly functional. Users are presented with a standard Windows folder browser and a list view initially showing existing documents for the selected object. An icon next to the list view entry indicates the status of the document. Control when an object can be opened in a new window New design possibilities Objects (Frameworks, applications, application views, and business objects) have a new option to control whether the object can be opened in a separate window. Optionally show current business object in window title Appearance Use the option Show Current Business Object in Window Title to force the Framework to always show the current business object in the window title. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 12

13 Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details WIN WEB RAMP Set session values before connection Performance - Developer There is now a way to set those session values that need to be set before the connection to the server occurs. The new IIP is called avsetbcsessionvalues Test the Activated state of filters and command handlers New Design Possibilities An example of a session value that needs to be set just before the connection to the server occurs is PSRR (Primary Server Route Repository) which controls whether repository data that cannot be retrieved locally is requested from the server. This new property allows differentiation between the filter and command handlers that are visible to the user, and other live filters/command handlers that are not currently visible. For those filters or command handlers that are alive, but either belong to a business object that is not visible, or are on a tab that is not being shown, avfilteractivated or avcommandhandleractivated will return FALSE #Com_Owner.avFilterActivated (in a filter) #Com_owner.avHandlerActivated (in a command handler) Specify your own framework version number Developer On the (Framework) -> (Properties) -> Framework Details tab you can now specify your own framework version number. It consists of 4 numbers, each of which must be in the range 1 to Trace can be disabled for Framework Web applications Security You can now ensure that end-users cannot run tracing when they execute their Framework web applications. This is an important security consideration in production web applications. Visual Ids on Web can be hidden New Design Possibilities In Framework web applications, if a business object has Visual ID 1 or 2 with a sequence of zero or blank, the visual id columns are now hidden. The tabbing order of buttons can be controlled Usability End User The Tabbing Order of buttons can be controlled. See SETBUTTONINDEX in the VF built-in function and UB_xxxxx User Buttons (Webevent) or UB_xxxxx User Buttons (WAMs). LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 13

14 Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details WIN WEB RAMP Improved Focused Input Style VLF-WEB logon improvements Usability, Appearance End User New Design Possibilities A directive, APPEND= can be used with the Focused Input Field Style property of a Framework to cause the style entered in the Focused Input Field Style property to be appended to the existing style of the input field instead of replacing it The web Framework can be set up to validate the password entered by the user against the i5/os user password. We now ship an example of how to do this. The shipped UFU0001 now contains coding and comments that demonstrate how to: Validate logon credentials directly against an System i user profile s details. Provide specific error messages indicating exactly why logon credentials were rejected. To accompany these changes sample 3GL programs and their source code are installed by EPC831. Improved start up times for DBCS Web applications Control Web Framework start-up dimensions Performance End User (DBCS) Usability End User See the source code of function UFU0001 in process UF_SYSBR for more details. The way the start up DBCS information is exchanged with the server when a VLF-WEB application executes the first business object has been improved. The initial information exchange should now complete in at most 2 exchanges. For the web Framework, designers now have some control over the relative dimensions of the main Framework panels at start up. (Navigation Pane, Filter Panel, Instance List Panel, and Command Handler panel) See Web Initial Filter Pane height (%), Web Initial Filter Pane width (% of right panel) and Web Initial Navigation Pane width (%). (When using the.net framework, the window and pane size that the user used last is remembered between sessions) Improved XP and Vista fields and buttons in web browser applications Appearance Framework fields and buttons in XP and Vista now look like the native ones. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 14

15 Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details Maximum Number of Application Views increased to 100 New Design possibilities WIN WEB RAMP You can define up to 100 Views for an application. If more than 10 are required you should restrict the Navigation View Pane to Tree View. Maximum Web Password Length is now 32 New Design possibilities The maximum allowable length for passwords can be extended to 32 characters in Web applications. Minimum value allowed is 10, maximum value allowed is 32. Selection Block Size set to 500 by default Newlook version Dynamic Naming of Newlook screens and fields Performance End User Usability, Appearance End User Designer The Selection Block Size parameter defines the number of records that are transferred, in one hit, from the server by SELECT commands executed on the client system. Performance is improved by using large block sizes, so the default when you define a new server, is now 500. Existing server definitions remain unchanged. This version of RAMP requires Newlook Version (or later) You don't have to use newlook Designer to identify the relevant screens and fields to Newlook. Instead you can use Dynamic Naming from within the RAMP tools environment. Note: newlook licensing features may limit the use of this option in some RAMP environments. Please contact your product vendor for further information. Keep Newlook SID File Versions Designer You can keep backup copies of the Newlook SID files before making changes when using RAMP tools. New Newlook Server Property Use INI file New Design Possibilities A Newlook.ini file can be associated with a Newlook Server. Use the Use INI file property to associate a Newlook server to a Newlook ini file. This makes using and managing multiple Newlook INI and SID files easier than before. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 15

16 Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details WIN WEB RAMP New Scripting Functions Developer SETFOCUS - Set the focus to a field on the current screen GETFOCUS - Get the name of the field with focus on the current screen COPYTOCLIPBOARD - Copy a string to the user's clipboard MAKESUBFILEINTOSTRING - Return a DataGrid as a string SET_UNKNOWN_LOCKING - Override Session lock property New deployment options New deployment possibilities FATAL_MESSAGE_TYPE Stops the Framework shutting down when a fatal navigation error occurs by altering how fatal errors are handled. You can now specify the Newlook Update File and Codebase values in the server definition. This makes deploying RAMP applications easier. Optional command arguments accessible in RAMP scripts New Design Possibilities Your RAMP scripts can reference the two alphanumeric and two numeric optional command arguments, defined in the framework. Use the context menu (right click) Current Command to paste the values into your script. Web applications can override RAMP profile and password by using the Web Signon IIP RAMP application running in a browser now displays scroll bars by default New Design Possibilities Usability End user For example:objcommand.ualphaarg1 It is now possible to override the user profile and password used to start a RAMP session. The new user profile and password can be specified in the Web signon IIP and if they are specified and exchanged, they will override any other profile and password. The shipped version of this is function UF_SYSBR/UFU0001. See the source code of UFU0001 for more details. Up until now, when the size of a Destination screen exceeded the size of its container no scroll bars were shown and part of the Destination screen was hidden. From now on, scroll bars are automatically shown. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 16

17 Feature Benefit Area Impact Area More Details WIN WEB RAMP Dynamically enabling and disabling VLF Buttons and 5250 Function keys in RAMP destinations New Design Possibilities Use SETKEYENABLED() to enable or disable buttons and/or function keys that were enabled or disabled when defining the destination. Specify the order of buttons on RAMP screens New Design Possibilities You can now specify the order that buttons should be displayed on RAMP screens. Remark The new VLF version (EPC831) may be used on LANSA 11.0 systems at levels CU3, SP4 or SP5. Upgrading a LANSA environment to the latest level (SP5) is not required if you want to use EPC831. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 17

18 Speed up VLF WEB save/generate steps Many frameworks have multiple languages defined. Each language has a Generate Web Pages option on the Web Details tab. If you uncheck this option for language(s) not being used during development, the web stuff will not be generated for the language, making the save and generate step faster. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 18

19 Blocked Zip Files If you receive software in a zip file it may have crossed the internet at some stage in its journey to you (eg: , FTP, etc). This means the zip file may be marked by the Microsoft Attachment Manager as blocked. You can check if a file is blocked by displaying its properties like this: If you see the indicated message then the file is marked as blocked. You should always unblock a zip file that you intend to install from before unzipping it - no matter how you got the zip file. If you do not do this, every file you unzip from the zip file may also be marked as blocked. If the unzipped files are marked as blocked they may cause you hard to find problems later. You will probably have to unblock them individually. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 19

20 If you want more details. Attachment Manager Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) Description Attachment Manager is a new feature included in Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista intended to stop users from opening malicious files downloaded from the Internet. It does that by attaching a small piece of additional information called zone information to the files, containing the URL from which the file was downloaded. This additional information tells Windows that those files are potentially dangerous. How does it affect your files If you download a file from the Internet, that file will be marked as unsafe until you unblock it. When a file is marked as unsafe, Windows might not allow you to open this file, however the exact behaviour depends on the type of the file. This is somehow confusing and might lead to hard-to-find and obscure problems later on. It is therefore necessary to always unblock any file that you trust to avoid any unnecessary problems. Downloading a ZIP file from the Internet If you downloaded a ZIP file from the Internet, it will be marked as unsafe. When you extract the files inside the ZIP file using Windows Explorer, it will mark all those files as unsafe as well. It is therefore very important to unblock the ZIP file before you extract the contents. How to unblock files downloaded from the Internet You can check if a file is marked as unsafe from the properties screen (Windows Explorer, right-click, choose Properties). LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 20

21 Click on the Unblock button to tell Windows to remove the unsafe marker. FAT/FAT32 volumes are not affected Attachment Manager is unable to mark files that are stored on FAT/FAT32 volumes. Only NTFS volumes are affected. How to unblock multiple files easily The simplest way to unblock multiple files is by copying the files to a FAT/FAT32 volumes and back to your NTFS volume. An alternative would be to use a small tool that you can download from: Disabling the Attachment Manager The Attachment Manager can be disabled. The steps to do that are outlined below: 1. Run the Group Policy Object Editor (gpedit.msc) either from the Command Prompt or using the Run command in the Windows Start Menu 2. Expand the node User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> Windows Components >> Attachment Manager. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 21

22 3. Right-click on the third option: Do not preserve zone information in file attachments. Choose Properties. 4. Select Enabled (Enabled would mean that Do not preserve zone information in file attachments is enabled, which in effect will stop Windows from storing the zone information in file attachments). Click OK to close the dialog box. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 22

23 New Course Schedule LANSA Benelux LANSA's education offerings provide the knowledge, skills and experience to help your company maximize the return on your investment. Through these educational programs you will learn to design and implement new systems efficiently, so you can take full advantage of the product architecture and avail yourself of evolving trends in technology. New Course Path Available Courses Course Nbr Days Availability LANSA Basis Workshop 7 days Available on Request Visual LANSA Workshop 6 days Available on Request Visual LANSA Framework (VLF) Windows 3 days Available on Request Web Application Module (WAM) Workshop 6 days Available on Request Visual LANSA Framework (VLF) WAM 3 days Available on Request LANSA Integrator Workshop 3 days Available on Request RAMP Workshop 8 days Available on Request LANSA Composer Workshop 2 days Available on Request LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 23

24 LANSA User Group The next LANSA User Group reunion is during the Common Netherlands Autumn conference in Ede on Thursday 30th October. The theme of the conference is Green and an invitation plus agenda will be sent out at the beginning of October. This is THE opportunity for LANSA users to find out more about LANSA s plans for the future. It is the occasion to meet other LANSA users and LANSA staff to discuss problems and solutions or to exchange ideas, tips and techniques. There is also the possibility for LANSA and non-lansa users to register for a complimentary LANSA RAMP workshop planned for Thursday 27 th November. During the conference, system i (or iseries or AS/400) users can voice their opinions about what they would like to have included in release 7 of the operating system. Any suggestions, requests and ideas will be passed on to IBM. Until 30 th October in Ede. Lis Kleijn LANSA User Group Representative. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 24

25 LANSA Openfor.NET LANSA has launched a new product: LANSA Openfor.NET The press release is at Below is a link to a product tutorial video that explains the value proposition to a.net developer and demonstrates how the solution works. This product is the first step toward delivering our roadmap for supporting the Microsoft.NET environment that we published in the last LANSA Review and Newsletter. We are now better able to meet the needs of companies that already have a mixed IBM / Microsoft environment or are planning to do so. We also just delivered a.net version of our Visual LANSA Framework. And, over time, there will be further.net related announcements from LANSA. LANSA Newsletter October 2008 page 25