ACI 4D Insider Reference Guide

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4D Insider

Reference

Mac™OS and Windows® Versions

4D Insider

4D Insider Reference

Version 6.5 for Mac™ OS and Windows

The Software described in this manual is governed by the grant of license in the ACI Product Line License Agreement provided with the Software in this package. The Software, this manual, and all documentation included with the Software are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in whole or in part except for in accordance with the ACI Product Line License Agreement.

4th Dimension, 4D, 4D Insider, the 4D logo, 4D Server, ACI, and the ACI logo are registered trademarks of ACI SA.

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Apple, Macintosh, Mac, Power Macintosh, LaserWriter, ImageWriter, ResEdit, and QuickTime are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

All other referenced trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

IMPORTANT LICENSE INFORMATION

Use of this Software is subject to the ACI Product Line License Agreement, which is provided in electronic form with the Software. Please read the ACI Product Line License Agreement carefully before completely installing or using the Software.

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

About this Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Cross-Platform Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix

Chapter Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Hypertext Navigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapter 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Object Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Browser Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Customizing 4D Insider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

STR# Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 2 Opening a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Running 4D Insider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Opening Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Memory Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Opening a Database Locally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Opening a Database on a Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Creating a New Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Reparsing a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Opening Preferred Files (Mac OS only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Opening Recently Used Files (Windows only) . . . . . . . . . 26

Creating a Database from an SQL Description File . . . . . . . 27

Supported Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

General Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Welcome Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Display Open File Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Closing a Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Creating a Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Saving a Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Opening a Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Using Libraries in a Multi-Platform Environment . . . . . 36

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iii

Contents

Chapter 3 Viewing Database Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Viewing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Selecting an Area within the Browser Window . . . . . . . 41

Types of Objects Displayed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Viewing Related Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Viewing an Object’s Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Database Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Fields and Subfields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Form Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Formats/Filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Menu Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Project Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Named Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Object Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Picture Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Semaphores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Sets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

STR# Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Style Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Subtables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Using the Lists in the Browser Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Selecting a List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Scrolling Through a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Typing Characters to Select an Object in a List. . . . . . . 57

Creating a Subset of Selected Objects in a List . . . . . . . 57

Filtering the Objects Displayed in a List . . . . . . . . . . 58

Selecting All the Objects in a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Moving the Used By or Uses List to the Main List . . . . . 59

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Contents

Organizing the Browser Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Resizing Browser Window Components . . . . . . . . . . 61

Changing the Location of the Lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Changing the Default Size of the Browser Window . . . . 62

Displaying ID Numbers of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Organizing Multiple Browser Windows . . . . . . . . . . 65

Chapter 4 Using Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Adding and Modifying Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Saving Filter Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Adding a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Modifying a Filter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Changing the Name of a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Deleting a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Modifying the Filter Pop-up Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Applying Filters Within the Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Applying Anti-filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Filter for Unused Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Filter for Local Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Filter for All Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Filter for All Menu Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Filter for All Process Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Chapter 5 Searching and Replacing . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Using Multiple Search Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Renaming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Renaming a Single Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Replacing a String in a Selection of Objects . . . . . . . . 90

Prefixing a Selection of Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Replacing Text in Forms and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Replacing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

4D Insider Reference Manual

Contents

Chapter 6 Using Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Creating a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Opening an Existing Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Moving Objects to a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Creating a Group From a Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Creating a Group With Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . 103

Removing an Object from a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Performing Operations on Objects in Groups . . . . . . . . . 104

Ungrouping/Deleting a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Chapter 7 Moving Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Movable Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Objects Moved Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Moving an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Performing a Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Controlling the Questions Generated. . . . . . . . . . . 111

Answering the Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Description of the Possible Responses . . . . . . . . . . 113

Setting Preferences for Moving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Defining Delimiter Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

By Type of Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

By Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Chapter 8 Documenting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Creating Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Opening the Documentation Window . . . . . . . . . . 122

Changing Font, Font Size, Style and Color of Text . . . . 123

Setting the Delimiter Object Option . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Viewing the Date of the Last Modification . . . . . . . . 123

Deleting Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Printing Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Creating General Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Creating Documentation in a Multi-User Environment . . . 126

4D Insider Reference Manual

Contents

Chapter 9 Localizing Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Using STR# Resources in the 4D Environment . . . . . . . . .128

Localizing Menus and Menu Items. . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Localizing Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Localizing Text Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Using STR# Resources in the 4D Insider Environment . . . . . 132

Converting Text to an STR# Resource . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Editing an STR# Resource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Converting an STR# Resource to Text . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Chapter 10 Printing and Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Exporting Objects on the Macintosh. . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Exporting Objects in Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Appendix A Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Appendix B Customizer Plus Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145

Customizing 4D Insider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Types of Option Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Translation of Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

Script Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

Conversions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149

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Contents

4D Insider Reference Manual

viii

Preface

4D Insider is a utility for cross-referencing objects in your databases as well as for copying objects from one database to another. It is one of several tools that, together with 4th Dimension, comprise the 4th Dimension environment.

About this Manual

Cross-Platform Considerations

Chapter Descriptions

This manual introduces 4D Insider and explains how to use it on both the Windows® and Mac™ OS (Power Macintosh) platforms. Although the concepts and functionality of both versions of 4D Insider are nearly identical, the manual addresses any differences where necessary. Such differences may include the graphical user interface and keyboard commands.

The graphics in this manual illustrate 4D Insider in the Windows 95 environment. The two versions of the same screen are only presented if there are any major differences between them.

This manual is divided into the following chapters:

■

Chapter 1, “Introduction,” provides an overview of 4D Insider.

■

Chapter 2, “Opening a Database,” describes how to run 4D Insider and open and close databases and libraries.

Chapter 3, “Viewing Database Objects,” discusses how to use

■

4D Insider’s main window to view the cross-references for objects and to view the objects themselves.

■

Chapter 4, “Using Filters,” explains how to use ﬁlters to select which types of objects you want to view.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Preface

■

Chapter 5, “Searching and Replacing,” explains how to search for an object and how to replace object names throughout a database or library.

■

Chapter 6, “Using Groups,” describes how to organize objects into groups.

Chapter 7, “Moving Objects,” explains how you can move objects

■

from one database or library to another.

Chapter 8, “Documenting Objects,” explains how you can add

■

documentation for the objects in your database and for the database itself.

■

Chapter 9, “Localizing Databases,” explains how to create and edit STR# resources used in place of static text in your menus, buttons, and forms when you localize an application for another language.

■

Chapter 10, “Printing and Exporting,” explains how to print or export information about database objects.

Appendix A, “Keyboard Shortcuts,” lists the keyboard command

■

shortcuts used in 4D Insider.

Hypertext Navigation

■

Appendix B, “Customizer Plus Utility” describes how you can customize 4D Insider using the Customizer Plus program.

If you are reading this manual in electronic format (Adobe™ Acrobat PDF), you can take advantage of the hypertext links that it contains. Each word that appears in blue has a hypertext link. However, this principle does not apply to the “Table of Contents” and “Index” because each entry already has a hypertext link.

When you click a hypertext link, you immediately move to the page that contains more information. To return to your original page, click the Previous page button .

You can also navigate the document by clicking the bookmarks, which are located to the left of the window that displays the manual pages.

4D Insider Reference Manual

About this Manual

Conventions

Note

4D Server

This manual uses certain conventions to help you understand the material.

The following explanatory notes are used:

Text emphasized like this provides annotations and shortcuts that will help you use 4

Dimension more productively.

Throughout the manual, 4th Dimension and 4D Server/4D Client are referred to simply as 4th Dimension. Differences between the operation of the two products are explained in 4D Server notes, which provide information about using 4D Server/4D Client. This information is provided only when the operation of 4D Server/4D Client differs from that of 4th Dimension.

Notes like this alert you to important pieces of information and alert you to situations where data might be lost.

In addition, all table names are shown in brackets in the text to help distinguish them from the names of ﬁelds, forms, and other items. For instance, the Companies table is written as the [Companies] table.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Preface

4D Insider Reference Manual

xii

Introduction

4D Insider allows you to cross-reference objects in your databases. You can select any database object — table, form, method, menu, and so on — and view its relationship to other objects in the database. You can also view the objects themselves as well as change their names. You can also modify STR# resources, by replacing the names of objects and modifying STR# resources which are collections of text strings that are used for menus, button text, and static text on forms.

In many cases, you will ﬁnd that you use the same objects in more than one database. You can use 4D Insider to move objects from one database or library to another. A create within 4D Insider to store elements commonly used in your databases.

library

is a special ﬁle that you can

For new databases, you can accelerate the creation of new databases by reusing objects that you have created in other databases. You can also modify the objects in one database and then update all the databases that use these objects.

Object Relationships

By their nature, objects in a database are interrelated. At the highest level, a table is related to its ﬁelds. A table is also related to at least one form. In turn, that form is related to the objects that it uses (ﬁelds, scripts, and so on).

4D Insider Reference Manual

Chapter 1 Introduction

The following figure shows the relationship between a form and the objects that it uses:

Form method

Field

Form

Object method

Menu bar

This form is also used by other objects. A form is always used by a table, but it may also be used in procedural statements. For example, the name of the form may be used in a method as a parameter to the

INPUT FORM

command.

Form method

Table

Project Method

These types of relationships between objects are called

Field

Object method

Menu bar

cross-references

because they show which objects refer to or use each other. You can view the cross-references in the 4D Insider browser windows.

By default, the lists in the browser show every type of object identiﬁed by 4D Insider. You can also deﬁne your own object types.

4D Insider Reference Manual

The Browser Window

The 4D Insider browser window is divided into three sections. The top section displays lists of the database objects and their relationships. The three lists are:

■

Main

: Displays the database object.

The Browser Window

Lists

Information area

Object Contents area

Used by

■

: Displays the objects that use the object selected in the Main

list.

Uses

■

: Displays the objects used by the object selected in the Main list.

The middle section of the screen is the Information area. Information about the object selected in the Main list is displayed in this section of the window.

The bottom of the screen is the Object Contents area in which the contents of an object are displayed.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Chapter 1 Introduction

Customizing 4D Insider

You can use Customizer Plus to change the Font, Script Manager, Translation, Methods, and Conversions settings for 4D Insider.

You can change the fonts and font sizes used in the 4D Insider application itself, in the pop-up menus, and those used for printing.

The Script Manager allows you to disable the styles in the method editor, and to modify the comparison table used for searching and sorting.

The Translation resource lets you specify the language used to display 4th Dimension commands in 4D Insider.

The Methods resource allows you to specify the colors in which different procedural elements are displayed.

The Conversions resource allows you to modify the internal table used by 4D Insider to convert strings and texts from one platform to another.

For more information about customizing these resources, refer to

Appendix B of this manual and the

Customizer Plus Reference

STR# Resources

4D Insider Reference Manual

STR# resources are collections of text strings that are used for menus, button text, and static text on forms. Instead of hard-coding text for menus, buttons and forms, you can reference an STR# resource by number.

Localizing databases is much easier when you use STR# resources. Instead of modifying each form, menu or button, you just modify the STR# resource.

You use 4D Insider to create and edit STR# resources on either the Macintosh or in Windows. You can also use a resource editor, such as ResEdit™ to edit on the Macintosh.

For information about using, creating, and modifying STR# resources with 4D Insider, refer to Chapter 9.

2 Opening a Database

To examine a database with 4D Insider, you must ﬁrst open it. If you open more than one database, you can copy objects between them.

In many cases, you will ﬁnd that you use the same objects in more than one database. A library is a special ﬁle that you can create within 4D Insider to store elements commonly used in your databases. Using libraries, you can maintain a copy of a set of objects, which can later be reused in other databases. When you update objects, you can copy the updated objects to the library and then use the library to update your other databases.

This chapter describes how to:

■ Run 4D Insider

■ Open a database

■ Create a new database

■ Reparse a database

■ Maintain a list of preferred databases that can be opened from a menu

■ Create a database from an SQL description ﬁle

■ Set a start-up option

■ Close a database

■ Create and save a library

■ Open a library

■ Use libraries in a multi-platform environment

4D Insider Reference Manual

Chapter 2 Opening a Database

Running 4D Insider

For complete information about how to install 4D Insider, please refer to the Installation Guide. Once the 4D Insider installation is complete, the following ﬁles will have been installed onto your hard disk :

Installation Folder Windows\ACI Folder Installation Folder

4Dinsid.exe Insv65Prf.rsr 4D Insider® 6.5 4Dinsid.rsr \Network : contains Asifont.fon ASINTPPC.DLL Asiport.rsr QTDP32.dll

¨¨

To run 4D Insider:

■ Double-click the 4D Insider application icon, or

Drag a database structure ﬁle to the 4D Insider application icon.

The 4D Insider Welcome window appears.

Windows MacOS

System Folder:Prefe-

the network components ﬁles (required for the use of 4D Insider with a 4D Server Database)

rences:ACI

Insv65Prf

Opening Databases

You can open any uncompiled database created with 4th Dimension or 4D Server v.6.5 or higher with 4D Insider v.6.5. If your database was created with an earlier version, you must convert the database to either 4th Dimension or 4D Server 6.5, or higher.

Note You cannot open a database that is currently open in another

application such as 4th Dimension or 4D Runtime.

¨¨

To open a database:

1 Choose Open from the File menu. On the Macintosh, choose a menu

command from the submenu. In Windows, Open on 4D Server and Open are separate menu items.

On the Macintosh, the submenu offers you submenu options for opening a database located on your hard disk (locally) or for opening a database published on the network by 4D Server (on 4D Server...).

4D Insider Reference Manual

Opening Databases

MacintoshWindows

2 Follow the steps for “Opening a Database Locally” or “Opening a

Database on the Server.”

After opening the database, 4D Insider builds a cross-reference table of the objects contained in the database. A window appears, displaying the operation’s progress.

When 4D Insider has ﬁnished cross-referencing the database, it displays the database objects in a browser window.

You can open as many local databases as your memory permits. Each database you open will have its own browser windows.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Chapter 2 Opening a Database

Memory Management

Windows In Windows, 4D Insider manages memory by itself, allocating and

Macintosh

Memory Settings When 4D Insider parses your database, it needs to keep track of all

If the database contains a large number of objects, you may need to increase the memory allocated to 4D Insider.

purging additional memory as needed.

¨¨

To allocate memory on the Macintosh:

1 Quit 4D Insider.

2 Select its application icon at the Finder level.

3 Choose Get Info from the Finder File Menu.

4 Change Memory Requirements at your convenience.

references to and from each object in the database. At times, this can be a lot of information. In general, memory settings for 4D Insider should follow this formula:

900K for 4D Insider + (Number of objects * 0.5K) + the size of the largest object

This formula is based on 50 references per object. Also, be aware that if you intend to open two structure ﬁles simultaneously, the formula applies to each structure. In addition, if you plan to open a structure and move several or all of the objects to another structure or to a library, the formula applies to each structure or library.

Opening a Database Locally

Windows

4D Insider Reference Manual

If you choose to open a database located on your hard disk, the standard Open File dialog box appears, allowing you to select a database.

Macintosh

Opening Databases

Select the database that you want to open and click Open. If a password is required to open the structure of your database, you will be asked to enter it. Only the Designer is allowed to open the database using 4D Insider.

Opening a Database on a Server

Windows

TCP/IP connection dialog box

With 4D Insider you can open one 4D Server database at a time on both Windows and Macintosh platforms.

4D Insider can connect to 4D Server using one of the following network protocols: AppleTalk, TCP/IP or IPX (Windows only). To make a connection, 4D Insider must have the proper network components installed.

If a password is required to open the structure of your database, you will be asked to enter it. Only the Designer password will allow you to open the database using 4D Insider.

If you choose to open a database served on the network with 4D Server, a dialog box similar to the following is displayed.

This dialog box allows you to choose the server to which you want to connect.

Make sure that the network component corresponding to the network protocol you want to use is installed in 4D Insider. For example, if you want to use the TCP/IP network protocol, you need to install the appropriate network component for your platform. Please refer to the 4D Server Reference as well as the Network Components for 4D Server documentation for complete information about installing network components and connecting to a 4D Server database.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Chapter 2 Opening a Database

.tex and .tes Files When you connect to a 4D Server database with 4D Insider, 4D Insider

copies the structure ﬁle’s resources to a database “.tex” ﬁle and the structure objects to a database “.tes” ﬁle. These ﬁles will contain the same information that 4D Client stores in its “.res” and “.rex” ﬁles. The reason that 4D Insider must create its own ﬁles is to allow you to connect to a database using 4D Client and, at the same time and from the same machine, open the structure using 4D Insider.

4D Insider operates like a 4D Client in Read Only access mode. Consequently, with 4D Insider you cannot modify any object (at the exception of comments) of a database running on 4D Server.

Creating a New Database

In addition to opening an existing database locally, 4D Insider enables you to create a new empty database. Once you have created a new database, you add objects to it by moving objects from other databases or libraries. Eventually, you can work with this new database using 4th Dimension or 4D Server as if it were originally created by one of these applications.

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To create a new database:

1 Select New Database... in the File menu.

A new, untitled browser window appears.

At this point, if you choose Save as... from the File menu, you will be prompted with the following conﬁrmation dialog box.

The reason for this is that a database needs to contain at least one table deﬁnition in order to be operable with 4th Dimension or 4D Server.

If you click Cancel, nothing happens. If you click OK, the new window will be saved as a 4D Insider library instead of a 4D database.

2 Move objects from another database or library to the new database.

Once you have moved at least one table from another database or from a library to the new database, the conﬁrmation dialog is no longer shown when you save or close the browser window.

Reparsing a Database

If you are using 4D Insider with a database published by 4D Server, other users may be modifying the structure or the objects in the database during your work session. In this case, the table of crossreferences constructed by 4D Insider may be obsolete.

On MacOS, if the table of cross-references needs to be updated, the word “Reparse” ﬂashes in the upper-left portion of the current window’s title bar.

In order to update the information displayed by 4D Insider, you can request that 4D Insider analyze the database again.

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To do so:

■ Choose Reparse from the Tools menu.

4D Insider reanalyzes the structure of the database, displaying the progress of the operation.

Opening Preferred Files (Mac OS only)

If you frequently work on the same database structures or libraries, you may wish to make them preferred ﬁles. The advantage to doing this is that you can quickly open a preferred ﬁle by choosing its name from a submenu.

Note You can only use this option for local databases. You cannot make a

4D Server database a preferred ﬁle.

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To open a preferred ﬁle:

■ Choose Preferred Files from the File menu, and then choose a ﬁle

name from the submenu.

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Opening Preferred Files (Mac OS only)

Choosing a ﬁle from this list automatically opens the corresponding database.

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To personalize your list of preferred ﬁles:

■ Choose Preferred Files from the File menu, and then choose Modify...

from the submenu.

The following dialog box appears:

Files in the directory

Files in the submenu

The Eject, Desktop, and Open buttons at the center of the window allow you to locate and select the ﬁles to be placed in the submenu. When you select a structure ﬁle from the scrollable list on the left, the Open button becomes an Add button so that you can add the structure ﬁle to the list of ﬁles in the submenu.

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To add a ﬁle to the submenu:

■ Select a ﬁle and click the Add button.

The ﬁle appears in the list on the right and will appear in the submenu when you click OK to save your changes.

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To remove a database from the submenu:

■ Select the ﬁle from the list on the right and click the Remove button.

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To associate a keyboard equivalent with a database:

■ Select the ﬁle from the list on the right and type any character (except

for those already used by 4D Insider) in the Command Key area.

You can use this keyboard equivalent as a shortcut for opening the ﬁle. To open the database using the keyboard equivalent, press the q key and type the previously deﬁned character.

Opening Recently Used Files (Windows only)

In Windows, the ﬁve most recently used databases are listed in the File menu.

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To open a previously used database:

■ Select the database from the File menu.

Creating a Database from an SQL Description File

4D Insider can parse an SQL description ﬁle generated by a case tool and create a 4D database matching the SQL description. 4D Insider parses the ﬁle, ignoring unsupported verbs, and creates the 4D structure sequentially. The generated 4D database contains the tables, typed ﬁelds, and manual relations between tables. If it encounters an SQL syntax error, 4D Insider terminates the parsing.

Supported Verbs 4D supports two SQL verbs, CREATE TABLE and CREATE INDEX:

CREATE TABLE Supported options are:

■ PRIMARY KEY - A Primary key declaration indexes the created ﬁeld

with a Unique property.

■ FOREIGN KEY () REFERENCES - A foreign key declaration creates a

many-to-one manual relation and indexes the created ﬁeld.

Supported constraints are:

■ NOT NULL - A NOT NULL constraint will make the ﬁeld Mandatory.

Supported data types are:

ODBC SQL and SQL92 Data Types 4D Data Types

CHAR, NCHAR Alpha(2) CHAR(x)*, NCHAR(x)* Alpha(x) VARCHAR(x) Text CHAR VARYING, NCHAR VARYING Text LONG VARCHAR Text TINYINT, SMALLINT Integer INT, INTEGER Long Integer BIGINT, DOUBLE, DOUBLE PRECISION Real NUMERIC, NUMERIC(x), NUMERIC(x,y) Real DECIMAL, DECIMAL (x), DECIMAL (x,y) Real DEC, DEC (x), DEC (x,y), REAL, FLOAT Real BIT Boolean BIT(x), BIT VARYING BLOB BINARY(x), VARBINARY(x) BLOB LONG VARBINARY BLOB DATE Date TIME, TIMESTAMP, TIME WITH TIME ZONE Time TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE Time

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* When the number of characters is greater than 80 (x>80), 4D Insider truncates the Alpha ﬁeld to 80 characters.

CREATE INDEX Supported options are:

■ UNIQUE

Creating an index on a column indexes the equivalent 4D ﬁeld. Creating a Unique index on a column indexes the equivalent 4D ﬁeld

with a Unique property

▼ Example:

CREATE TABLE COMPANIES ( REF INTEGER, NAME CHAR (25) NOT NULL, ADDRESS VARCHAR (200), ZIP_CODE CHAR (5), PHONE CHAR (15), FAX CHAR (15), CREDIT_LINE FLOAT, EXPIRES DATE,

PRIMARY KEY (REF) );

CREATE TABLE CONTACTS (

REF INTEGER, REF_COMPANY INTEGER NOT NULL, NAME CHAR (20), F_NAME CHAR (20), EXTENSION CHAR (3),

PRIMARY KEY (REF), FOREIGN KEY (REF_COMPANY) REFERENCES COMPANIES (REF) ); CREATE UNIQUE INDEX COMP_IDX ON COMPANIES (REF);

CREATE INDEX COMPNAME_IDX ON COMPANIES (NAME);

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX CONT_IDX ON CONTACTS (REF);

CREATE INDEX CONTNAME_IDX ON CONTACTS (NAME);

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To create a database from an SQL description ﬁle:

1 Select Open SQL File... from the File menu.

A standard Open File dialog box enables you to select the ﬁle.

2 Select the SQL ﬁle and click Open.

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Creating a Database from an SQL Description File

The main window for the ﬁle opens.

The 4D Insider browser window reﬂects the manual relationships of the 4D structure ﬁle.

Log File When interpreting a SQL text ﬁle to create a new database, 4D Insider

creates a log ﬁle, in text format, in the database folder. This log ﬁle contains table names and columns in the order in which they were interpreted by 4D Insider.

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If 4D Insider encounters an error, it stops and writes the error in the log ﬁle. Errors that 4D Insider may encounter are:

Duplicate ﬁlename Out of memory Initialization error Parsing error Yacc stack overﬂow Syntax error Unterminated string

General Preferences

Welcome Window When you run 4D Insider, the 4D Insider Welcome window appears by

default.

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To show the Welcome window when you open 4D Insider:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose General...

from the submenu that appears to its right.

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Closing a Database

The Preferences dialog box is displayed.

2 Select the Show Welcome Window check box.

You must then choose Open from the File menu to open a database.

Display Open File Dialog

You may want 4D Insider to display the Open File dialog box automatically at start-up.

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To set this option:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose General...

from the submenu.

The Preferences dialog box is displayed.

2 Select the Display Open File dialog check box.

Closing a Database

You close a database by closing its open windows.

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To close a window:

Choose Close from the File menu, OR On the Macintosh, click its close box. On Windows, double-click its Control-menu box.

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To close all open windows:

■ Choose Close All from the File menu, OR

On the Macintosh, Option-click a window’s close box. In Windows, Alt-click a window’s close box or Control-menu box.

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Since objects in a database must be reexamined when the database is opened, you may want to be warned when you close the last browser window of a database. If Conﬁrm When Closing Database is selected in the Preferences dialog box, 4D Insider displays a conﬁrmation dialog box when you try to close the last browser window.

If you click Cancel, the browser window and database remain open.

If the Conﬁrm When Closing Database check box is not selected in the Preferences dialog box, 4D Insider automatically closes the last browser window and the database.

Libraries

Creating a Library

4D Insider Reference Manual

A library is a 4D Insider ﬁle that contains a set of structure objects. By copying objects to a library ﬁle, you can maintain a set of objects commonly used in your databases. This library can easily be moved to other databases, allowing you to reuse the objects in whichever database or library you want. 4D Insider libraries provide a way to exchange modular 4D structure components within a work group.

You can create as many library ﬁles as you want, organizing objects into different library ﬁles according to their use or functionality.

A library ﬁle can be opened locally, only by 4D Insider.

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To create a new library:

1 Choose New Library from the File menu.

Libraries

Windows

Macintosh

A new window, called “Untitled library_1”, appears. It resembles the window opened for a database structure, except that it is empty.

2 Construct your library by moving objects from one or more databases

to the Main list of the library.

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When you move an object to a library, 4D Insider also moves the objects that it uses. For example, if you move a method, 4D Insider also moves any methods that it calls, as well as the commands, variables, and other items used in the method.

For more information about moving objects, refer to Chapter 7,

“Moving Objects.”

Saving a Library

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To save a library that you have just created:

■ Choose Save As... from the File menu.

A standard Save File dialog box appears, allowing you to save the library and choose its location on disk. In Windows, the ﬁle name extension for library ﬁles is “.4IL”.

Windows

Macintosh

4D Insider Reference Manual

If you have not saved your library, 4D Insider asks if you want to do so when you double-click the window’s Control-menu box (Windows) or click the close box (Macintosh).

If you click Yes, a standard Save File dialog box appears for you to name the library and choose its location on disk. If you click No, the library is not saved, and the library window is closed.

Opening a Library You can only open a library locally.

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To open an existing library:

■ Choose Open from the File menu. On the Macintosh, choose Locally

from the submenu.

Libraries

MacintoshWindows

A standard Open File dialog box appears, allowing you to select the library to open.

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Using Libraries in a Multi-Platform Environment

Moving from Macintosh to Windows

Since you can only open libraries locally, you must move the ﬁles in order to use them on another platform. Libraries created on the Macintosh can be used in the Windows environment, and vice versa, by moving them with 4D Transporter. The 4D Transporter utility is included with the Macintosh versions of 4th Dimension and 4D Server. 4D Transporter is found in the Utilities folder (in the Programs folder).

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To transport a 4D Insider Library to the Windows environment:

1 Drag and drop the library ﬁle onto the 4D Transporter icon. The

following dialog will be displayed.

4D Insider Reference Manual

2 Choose the appropriate options, and click the Move button.

When you have completed the move, a new folder named “FolderPC” will appear in the same folder as your original library ﬁle.

Moving from Windows to Macintosh

Libraries

This folder contains two new ﬁles that you can move to your Windows computer and use in the Windows environment.

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To transport a Windows 4D Insider Library to the Macintosh environment:

1 Move the .4IL and .RSR ﬁles to the Macintosh via a network or a disk.

2 Drag and drop the library ﬁle (.4IL) onto the 4D Transporter icon.

3 Choose the appropriate options, and click the Move button.

When you have completed the move, a new folder named “FolderMac” will appear in the same folder as your original library ﬁle.

For complete details on using 4D Transporter, refer to the 4D Transporter documentation.

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4D Insider Reference Manual

3 Viewing Database Objects

When you open a database with 4D Insider, the database is ﬁrst parsed. During the parsing, 4D Insider identiﬁes the type of each object in the database, as well as the object’s relationship to other objects in the database.

The results of the parsing are displayed in the 4D Insider browser window. Using the browser window, you can view the objects in your database and their relationships to other objects.

For instance, by selecting an object in the Main list, you can view the objects related to it in the lists on either side of the Main list.

Selected object

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This chapter describes how to use 4D Insider to view database objects.

■ How to view objects and their relationships

■ How to view the contents of an object (for example, the contents of a

method or a form)

■ How to use the lists in the browser window, including how to move

lists and how to ﬁlter the objects displayed in the lists

■ How to organize the browser window

Viewing Objects

After analyzing the objects in your database, 4D Insider displays a browser window for the database. The browser window contains three lists: Main, Used by, and Uses. The title bar at the top of each list displays the name of the list, the type of ﬁlter or operation applied to the list, and the number of objects currently contained in the list.

Below the lists are the Information area, containing information about a selected object, and the Object Contents area, displaying the contents of the object.

Main list

4D Insider Reference Manual

When you ﬁrst open a database, the Main list displays the names of all the database objects, sorted by type. You can later reduce this list to show only a subset or to show only objects of certain types.

Number of objects

Information area

Object Contents area

Viewing Objects

Selecting an Area within the Browser Window

When a new browser window is open, the Main List is the selected area in the window, by default.

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To select another area:

■ Click on it or use the Tab key.

The Tab key allows you to cycle within the areas:

The four areas are

■ Used By list

■ Main List

■ Uses List

■ Information and Object Contents area

Types of Objects Displayed

These areas are described throughout this chapter.

By default, the Main list in the browser window displays the names of all the objects in the database. The Used By and Uses lists display the names of objects related to the object selected in the Main list.

In each list in the browser window, objects are identiﬁed by name and type. The type of object is indicated by the icon that appears to its left.

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The following table displays the icon for each type of object identiﬁed by 4D Insider, in alphabetical order:

Icon Type Icon Type

Commands Picture Libraries

Constants Plug-ins

Database Methods Project Methods

Fields (and subﬁelds) Semaphores

Formats/Filters Sets

Forms STR# Resources

Form Methods Style Sheets

Groups Subtables

Lists Tables

Menu bars Tips

Menus Triggers

Named Selections Variables

Object Methods

Tables and Fields Tables and ﬁelds are displayed hierarchically in the lists. To view the

ﬁelds contained in a table, click the triangle to the left of its icon:

Click triangle

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Viewing Objects

If the table contains a subtable ﬁeld, you can click the triangle to the left of the subtable ﬁeld to view the ﬁelds in the subtable:

Click triangle

Unused Objects Unused objects are objects that are not used by anything in the

database. For example, an unused method is one that is not executed at start-up or called by another method.

Unused objects appear in red on a color monitor, in grey on a greyscale monitor, and in bold on a black and white monitor.

Objects in Methods When parsing methods, 4D Insider recognizes references to

code-speciﬁc objects such as commands and variables, as well as other database objects. For example, given the following method statement, 4D Insider would conclude that the method uses the INPUT FORM command and the “Form1” form:

INPUT FORM("Form1")

There are two cases in which 4D Insider does not recognize an object in a method or object method:

■ Case 1: An object is not recognized if its value depends on method

execution. For example, the following statement uses a different form depending on the value of the vScreenSize variable:

INPUT FORM (“MyForm”+String(vScreenSize))

■ Case 2: An object is not recognized if it is a parameter to a user-deﬁned

method rather than to a 4th Dimension command or function. For example, the following statement uses a user-deﬁned method to

center a window on the screen:

CenterWindow (Width; Height; Type;Title; "CLOSE BOX")

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The ﬁfth parameter, "CLOSE BOX", is a method that indicates what should happen when the user double-clicks the window’s Controlmenu box. However, since CenterWindow is a user-deﬁned method, 4D Insider does not recognize CLOSE BOX as a method in this case.

If you want to ensure that 4D Insider recognizes all objects passed to user-deﬁned methods, you could add code that references the objects. For example, in the case of the previous statement, you could call the method in an If statement that is never true:

If (False) `This will never be true

CLOSE BOX `Use the method directly

End if

CenterWindow (Width; Height; Type;Title; "CLOSE BOX")

Viewing Related Objects

Viewing Related Objects in the Lists

Selected object is used by these objects

Selected object uses these objects

4D Insider allows you to view the relationship between objects in your database in a number of ways. The lists in the browser window enable you to:

■ View all objects related to a particular object

■ View the parent of an object

When you select an object in the Main list, the lists on either side of the Main list display the related objects. The Used By list displays the names of the objects that use the selected object. The Uses list displays the names of the objects used by the selected object.

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Viewing Objects

Viewing the Parent of an Object

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Some types of objects descend directly from another object type, without which they could not exist. For example, a form cannot exist without a table; the table is said to be the parent of the form. The following table lists the types of objects that have parent objects and provides the parent object types:

Object type Parent object type

Field Table Form Table Trigger Table Object Method Form Form method Form

To view the parent of an object:

■ On the Macintosh, Control-click the object.

In Windows, click the object with the right mouse button.

A new browser window appears with the parent object selected in the Main list.

Selected form

New window opens with the parent table selected in the Main list

Note You can select an object in any list. The object does not have to be

displayed in the Main list.

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Viewing an Object’s Contents

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To view the contents of any object listed in the browser window.

■ Double-click the object’s name.

OR On the Macintosh, select the object’s name and press Return or Enter. In Windows, select the object’s name and press Enter.

The contents of the object are displayed in the Object Contents area. Other information about the object, such as its size, modiﬁcation date, and internal ID reference number, may also be displayed in the Information bar.

Double-clicking a form...

shows the form name in the Information bar

and the form itself in Object Contents area

An object’s appearance depends on its type. By nature, some objects, such as tables and externals, cannot be displayed at all. The following sections describe how each type of object is displayed.

Commands 4

Dimension commands cannot be displayed. If you double-click a

command name, the Object Contents area remains empty.

Constants Double-clicking on a constant causes its value to be displayed in the

Information and Object Contents area.

Database Methods When you double-click a database method, the Object Contents area

displays the method text as it appears in the 4th Dimension Method editor. You can select and copy this text. The information bar displays the name, date of last modiﬁcation, internal ID reference number, and size (in bytes) of the database method.

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Viewing an Object’s Contents

Fields and Subﬁelds If you double-click a ﬁeld or subﬁeld, the Information bar displays its

name, and the Object Contents area displays its type and properties. In other words, the relation starts from this ﬁeld (or subﬁeld).

If a ﬁeld is related to a ﬁeld in another table, the Object Contents area speciﬁes the table and ﬁeld to which it is related (the ﬁeld to which it points).

Related ﬁeld is displayed

Forms When you double-click a form, the form appears in the Object

Contents area. The size (in bytes) is indicated near the form name.

The pop-up menu located at the top, right-hand corner of the Information bar allows you to vary the appearance of the form. You can display the form as it appears:

■ In the Design environment (the default)

■ In the User/Custom Menus environment

■ With variable names showing

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When the form is displayed as it appears in the Design environment, any STR# resources used for text are shown as STR# ID numbers. If the form does not use any STR# resources, it will display regular text.

If there is more than one page to the form, the arrows in the lower lefthand corner of the window are enabled. Using the arrows, you can move to the previous or next page in a multi-page form.

Pop-up menu

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Double-clicking a field or an object containing an object method displays the contents of the ﬁeld or object method in the Object Contents area. An object with an object method has a triangle in its top left-hand corner, as shown in the previous graphic.

Note Object methods are denoted by triangles, regardless of the viewing

option chosen from the pop-up menu.

You can view the contents of an object method or ﬁeld in a new browser window.

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To open a new browser window:

■ On the Macintosh, Option-click the desired object method or ﬁeld.

In Windows, Alt-click the desired object method or ﬁeld.

The Object Contents area of the new browser window displays the contents of the selected object method or ﬁeld.

4D Insider displays place holders in place of subforms.

Viewing an Object’s Contents

Scaling Forms Like the 4D Form editor, 4D Insider includes a feature for rescaling

form objects. In addition, 4D Insider also lets you rescale multiple forms, so you can modify a group of forms or make global changes. When scaling objects using 4D Insider, keep in mind that there is no Undo function available after implementing a rescaling operation, so use this feature carefully.

Form objects created on Macintosh will look smaller when viewed on Windows, and vice versa — even though the objects are actually the same size. This is because the Windows screen resolution is about 25% greater than the Macintosh resolution. For example, 12-point text on a Macintosh will appear as 9-point text on Windows.

If the font size is just large enough on Macintosh, it may be too small on Windows. Conversely, if a font size on Windows is adequate, it may be too large on Macintosh.

To compensate for screen resolution differences, you may decide to rescale objects. You can use the Scale Forms... command in the Tools menu to proportionally resize all the form objects in one operation.

When you choose Scale forms, the Form Scaling dialog box appears.

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You can choose among the following options:

■ Macintosh to Windows platform (133%): This is the default option

when you use 4D Insider on Windows. Use it when you want to resize a form that was created according to Macintosh screen resolution so it will look like it was created according to Windows screen resolution. When scaling from Macintosh to Windows, 4D Insider increases the size of all the form objects by one-third. For example, 9-point text becomes 12-point text.

■ Windows to Macintosh platform (75%): This is the default option

when you use 4D Insider on Macintosh. Use it when you want to resize a form that was created according to Windows screen resolution so it will look like it was created according to Macintosh screen resolution. When scaling from Windows to Macintosh, 4D Insider decreases the size of all the form objects by one-quarter. For example, 12-point text becomes 9-point text.

4D Insider Reference Manual

■ Fixed ratio: This option lets you resize a form using the percentage you

type in the “%” enterable area. You can resize a form so it will look good on any unusual screen resolution you may encounter on either the Macintosh or Windows platform. You can also use this option to change the size of all the form’s objects for the platform you are using. For example, it you want to double the size of all objects, enter 200%; if you want to halve the size, enter 50%.

■ Rescale pictures: You can select this option in addition to one of the

other settings, but is not required. Usually, decreasing or increasing the size of bitmapped pictures does not provide good results from a cosmetic point of view. For this reason, the program does not resize any static pictures in a form unless you select this option. Instead, it moves them to their new “center relative” positions. If you know that rescaling bitmaps will produce pleasing results or if you use nonbitmapped pictures, you might choose to rescale the pictures.

Viewing an Object’s Contents

The following ﬁgure shows the effect of resizing a bitmapped picture.

Scaling with the Rescale Pictures option not selected

After you have selected your options, click OK to resize the form; otherwise click Cancel.

Resizing a form also moves the relative positions of the vertical headers, detail, breaks, and footer tags of the form. However, the horizontal label tag remains unchanged.

Note Starting with version 6, you can use Style Sheets to resolve font sizing

issues.

Scaling Multiple Forms You can scale several forms of a database at the same time. When you

select multiple forms in the Main list, the Scale Forms... option in the Tools menu becomes enabled.

Choose Scale Forms... to display the Form Scaling dialog box. Then select an option and click OK.

For more information about scaling options, refer to the 4th Dimension Design Reference.

Scaling with the Rescale Pictures option selected

Form Methods When you double-click a form method, the Object Contents area

displays the method text as it appears in the 4th Dimension Method editor. You can select and copy this text.

The Information bar displays the name of the table and form to which the form method belongs in the format [Tablename].FormName.

Formats/Filters If you double-click a format/ﬁlter, the Object Contents area displays

the contents of the format/ﬁlter as entered in 4th Dimension.

Groups By their nature, groups cannot be displayed. If you double-click a

group, the Object Contents area remains empty.

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In contrast to all the other types of objects, groups are not generated by 4th Dimension. Instead, the ability to create groups exists as an organizational tool provided by 4D Insider. Groups can be viewed only within 4D Insider.

For more information about groups, refer to Chapter 6, “Using

Groups.”

Lists When you double-click a list, the items in the list are displayed in the

Object Contents area.

Menu Bars When you double-click a menu bar, the menu bar appears in the

Object Contents area. The menu bar functions like a standard menu so that you can click the menu name to display its menu commands.

STR# resource reference

Pulling down the menu

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Pop-up menu

Viewing an Object’s Contents

If you press Option (Macintosh) or Alt (Windows) while choosing a menu command, 4D Insider opens a new browser window for the database, then selects and displays the project method associated with the menu command, if any.

By default, the menu bar is displayed as it appears in the Design environment. Any STR# resources used for the menu title or menu commands are displayed as STR# resource reference.

To display the text for the STR# resources, choose User/Custom Menus from the pop-up menu in the Information bar.

Menus You can use the same menu in several menu bars; 4D Insider allows

you to examine menus separately from menu bars. For more information about reusing menus, refer to the 4th Dimension Design Reference.

■ When a menu is displayed, 4D Insider displays the menu commands

and the names of the methods associated with each menu command.

Menu command

Method associated with the menu command

The pop-up menu located at the top, right-hand corner of the Information bar allows you to view the menu as it appears in either the Design environment (the default) or the User/Custom Menus environment. In the Design environment, any STR# resources used in place of text are displayed as STR# resource reference.

Double-clicking a menu command automatically displays the contents of its method in the Object Contents area. You can also display the contents of a method in a new browser window:

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To do so:

■ On the Macintosh, Option-click the menu item.

In Windows, Alt-click the menu item.

Project Methods When you double-click a project method, the Object Contents area

displays the project method text as it appears in the 4th Dimension Method editor. You can select and copy this text.

Name Project Method

Named Selections If you double-click a named selection, the Object Contents area

remains empty.

Object Methods When you double-click an object method, the Object Contents area

displays the method text as it appears in the 4th Dimension method editor. You can select and copy this text.

The Information bar displays the name of the object method and identiﬁes the table and form in which the object method is used.

Picture Libraries If you double-click on a picture from a picture library, the information

bar displays the name, date of creation, picture reference number, and size (in bytes) of the picture. The picture itself is displayed in the Object Contents area.

Plug-ins If you double-click a plug-in, the Object Contents area remains empty.

Plug-in Routines 4D Insider allows you to use the plug-in routines and their cross

references in a manner similar to 4th Dimension commands.

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Viewing an Object’s Contents

Semaphores If you double-click a semaphore, the Object Contents area stays empty.

Sets If you double-click a set, the Object Contents area stays empty.

STR# Resource STR# resources contain strings that can be used in place of static text in

menus and forms. For example, a button on a form could be labeled 15000,1 to indicate that the text for the button should be retrieved from item 1 of STR# resource ID 15000.

When you double-click a STR# resource list, the Object Contents area displays the string resource numbers and their items. The Information bar displays the name and ID of the resource.

You can edit the resource by choosing Edit STR#... from the Tools menu.

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4D Insider’s String Resource editor automatically saves your modiﬁcations when you close the window. For more information about creating and editing STR# resources with 4D Insider, refer to

Chapter 9, “Localizing Databases.” For more information about using

STR# resources in forms and menus, refer to the 4th Dimension Design Reference.

Style Sheets When you double-click a style sheet, the Object Contents area displays

the font settings for each platform as entered in 4th Dimension.

Subtables When you double-click a subtable, the Object Contents area remains

empty.

Tables When you double-click a table, the Object Contents area remains

empty.

Tips When you double-click a tip, the tip text is displayed in the Object

Contents area.

Triggers When you double-click a trigger, the Object Contents area displays the

trigger text as it appears in the 4th Dimension Method editor. You can select and copy this text.

Variables If you double-click a variable, the Object Contents area remains empty.

However, if you supply a symbol table from a previous compilation of the database, 4D Insider can display the variable type and the method in which the variable is declared.

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Using the Lists in the Browser Window

The symbol table should be placed in the interpreted database’s directory and should have the same name as the database structure ﬁle with the sufﬁx SYM.

Using the Lists in the Browser Window

This section describes operations that can be performed on a list.

Selecting a List

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To select a list:

■ Click the list’s title bar or press Tab to select the next list.

Scrolling Through a List

Typing Characters to Select an Object in a List

Creating a Subset of Selected Objects in a List

You can scroll through a list using the scroll bar to the right of the list.

You can also scroll to an object in a list by selecting the list and typing the initial letters of an object named in the list. For example, if you wanted to locate the Invoices table in the Main list, you would select the Main list and type “Inv”.

You can select objects in a list and then reduce the contents of the list to just these objects. This reduced selection is called a subset.

You may want to create a subset of objects before printing or exporting (described in Chapter 10). This will allow you to print or export only the objects in the selection. You may also want to create a subselection before performing a search to limit the search to the objects in the selection.

¨¨

To create a subset:

1 Select one or more objects in a list.

You can create a continuous or discontinuous selection. A continuous selection is a selection of adjacent objects. To create a

continuous selection:

■ Click the ﬁrst object in the series and then hold down the Shift key

while you select the last object in the series.

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A discontinuous selection is a selection of nonadjacent objects. To create a discontinuous selection:

■ On the Macintosh, Command-click the objects that you want to

select.

■ In Windows, Ctrl-click the objects that you want to select.

2 Choose Show Subset from the Edit menu.

OR On the Macintosh, Control-click the title of the list. In Windows, click the title of the list with the right mouse button.

Filtering the Objects Displayed in a List

By default, the Main list contains all the objects in the database, sorted by type. For any list in the browser window, you can determine which types of objects are to be displayed.

Using the pop-up menu at the right of each list’s title bar, you can choose to display all objects or only objects of a certain type.

4D Insider Reference Manual

For information about deﬁning your own object types or modifying existing types, refer to Chapter 4, “Using Filters.”

Selecting All the Objects in a List

Using the Lists in the Browser Window

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To select all the objects currently shown in a list:

1 Select the list.

2 Choose Select All from the Edit menu.

Moving the Used By or Uses List to the Main List

Dragging a List to the Main List

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Uses: list being dragged to the Main list

To analyze the objects in the Used By or Uses list more closely, you can make either list the new Main list. In this way, you can view the crossreferences for objects currently in the Used By or Uses lists.

To replace the Main list with the contents of the Used By or Uses list, either drag the Used By or Uses list to the Main list or create another browser window with a new Main list.

To drag the Used By or Uses list to the Main list:

■ Click the list’s title bar and hold down the mouse button while you

drag the list to the Main list’s title bar.

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You can also use keyboard equivalents to move either of the lists to the Main list.

To Move Windows Macintosh

Uses list to Main list Ctrl-Left Arrow or

Used by list to Main list Ctrl-Right Arrow or

Ctrl-Up Arrow

Ctrl-Down Arrow

Command-Left Arrow or Command-Up Arrow

Command-Right Arrow or Command-Down Arrow

Opening Another Browser Window

Selected in the ﬁrst window

Selected in the Main list of the new window

If you want to view an object from the Used By or Uses list while keeping the current browser window intact, you can open another browser window. The Main list in the new browser window contains all the database objects, as if you had just opened the database.

¨¨

To open another browser window:

■ On the Macintosh, Option-click an object in the Used By or Uses list.

In Windows, Alt-click an object in the Used By or Uses list.

The new browser window is displayed with the object already selected. The object’s contents are displayed in the window.

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Organizing the Browser Windows

You can control the appearance of browser windows by adjusting the size of the lists relative to the Object Contents area, changing the location of the lists, or specifying the default size of browser windows.

Organizing the Browser Windows

Resizing Browser Window Components

Dragging the separation line

As you work, you may ﬁnd that you need more room for the lists or for the Object Contents area.

¨¨

To modify the size of the lists relative to the Object Contents area:

1 Place the cursor on the double separation line between the

Information bar and the bottom of the two lists.

The pointer becomes a double arrow .

2 Hold down the mouse button and drag the separation line.

Changing the Location of the Lists

You can change the location of the lists in the browser window using either the Windows menu or the Preferences dialog box. The Preferences dialog box appears when you choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose General... from the submenu.

In the Windows menu or Preferences dialog box, you can choose:

■ Lists on top (the default)

■ Lists on the left

■ Lists at the bottom

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Note Selecting this option only affects browser windows opened afterwards.

Changing the Default Size of the Browser Window

You can specify the default size of browser windows by entering the height and width (in pixels) in the Preferences dialog box.

¨¨

To specify the default size of the browser window:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose General...

from the submenu.

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Organizing the Browser Windows

The Preferences dialog box appears.

2 Enter the height and width (in pixels).

3 Click OK.

Note Selecting this option only affects browser windows opened afterwards.

Displaying ID Numbers of Objects

¨¨

The internal ID number of an object is a number used by 4D to keep track of each design object in the structure ﬁle of a database. 4D Insider also uses these numbers to track objects in databases and libraries. In 4D Insider, you can choose to display the internal ID numbers of objects in the Main lists of browser windows.

Usually you do not need to know about design object ID numbers. However, if 4D, 4D Tools or any other 4D program signals an error with an object, the error window provides you with the ID number of the object. Copying all the objects, except the damaged ones, from a damaged database to another, enables you to recover a structure ﬁle manually when you have no backups or other option at your disposal. In this case, the object ID numbers help to track damaged objects.

To display ID numbers in the Main lists:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose General...

from the submenu.

The Preferences dialog box appears.

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2 Select the Show ID numbers in Main Lists check box.

The ID number of each object is displayed, in parentheses, next to the object name in the Main list of each browser window. The ID numbers are not displayed in the Used by or Uses lists.

For most objects, the ID number is also displayed in the information area when you double-click on an object.

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Organizing the Browser Windows

Organizing Multiple Browser Windows

You can display as many browser windows from as many databases or libraries as you wish. The only limit is the amount of memory available for 4D Insider.

The Windows menu lists the names of all currently open windows. When you open additional windows, 4D Insider numbers the windows consecutively. The window number appears in each window’s title bar and in the Windows menu. To make a window the frontmost window, choose it from the Windows menu or click its title bar.

During a work session, you may have many windows on the screen at the same time. To place them in an organized pattern on screen, you can choose either Stack or Tile from the Windows menu.

■ Stack offsets each window slightly so you can see the top and left edges

of each window.

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■ Tile places each window side-by-side in a tile pattern.

4D Insider Reference Manual

4 Using Filters

A pop-up menu at the top right corner of each list allows you to choose the type of object you want to view in each list. For example, you might want to view methods in the Main list in order to see where each method is used and what objects each method uses.

The items listed in the pop-up menu are called filters because they ﬁlter out all objects that do not belong to that type.

Filter pop-up menu

Most ﬁlters correspond to the types of objects identiﬁed by 4D Insider. However, the Menus ﬁlter displays both menus and menu bars, and the Tables ﬁlter displays tables, ﬁelds, and subtables.

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Chapter 4 Using Filters

Adding and Modifying Filters

You can add your own ﬁlters to ﬁnd common objects or objects that are meaningful to your particular database. For example, you may want to ﬁnd local and interprocess variables. 4D Insider provides a ﬁlter for ﬁnding variables, but you can create additional ﬁlters for ﬁnding local variables (beginning with the “$” symbol) or interprocess variables (beginning with the “◊”or “<>” symbol).

Using ﬁlters to ﬁnd objects meaningful to your database can be a particularly powerful feature if you use consistent naming conventions. For example, you might preﬁx all methods connected to menus with “M_”. In this case, you could simplify your work with menus by deﬁning a ﬁlter that ﬁnds methods beginning with “M_”.

Note 4D Insider’s Replace feature can help you implement a naming

convention in an existing database. For information about ﬁnding and replacing method and variables names, refer to Chapter 5, “Searching

and Replacing.”

In addition to adding new ﬁlters to 4D Insider, you can modify the deﬁnitions of the built-in ﬁlters and control which ﬁlters appear in each pop-up menu.

Saving Filter Deﬁnitions

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The ﬁlter editor is available even if you have not opened a database.

In Windows, 4D Insider saves all ﬁlter deﬁnitions in the 4D Insider Preferences ﬁle located in the ACI directory in your system’s active Windows directory. This ﬁle will be used even if you upgrade to a new version of 4D Insider.

On the Macintosh, 4D Insider saves all ﬁlter deﬁnitions in the 4D Insider Preferences ﬁle located in your system’s ACI Preferences folder. This ﬁle will be used even if you upgrade to a new version of 4D Insider.

Adding and Modifying Filters

Adding a Filter The ability to create a ﬁlter is useful for cases in which you frequently

need to locate the same objects. If you need to locate the objects only once, you may want to perform a search instead. For more information about searching, refer to Chapter 5, “Searching and Replacing.”

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To add a ﬁlter:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose Filters...

from the submenu.

The Edit Filters dialog box is displayed.

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2 Enter the name of the ﬁlter in the Filter Name area and click the New...

button.

The following dialog box appears.

3 Choose the types of objects that should be retained by the ﬁlter by

selecting them in the Type of Object list.

A check mark appears to the right of each selected object. You can create a contiguous selection by holding the mouse button

down and dragging over several items in the list. To create a discontinuous selection, hold down the Shift key while

clicking individual objects. To select all object types, click the Type of object: title bar.

4D Insider Reference Manual

To deselect all object types on the Macintosh, hold down the Option key while clicking the Type of object: title bar. In Windows, hold down the Alt key while clicking the Type of object: title bar.

4 Enter the ﬁlter criteria, if any.

Using the pop-up menu and text box, you can specify a search criteria. If you specify a search criteria, 4D Insider will search for objects whose names match the search criteria. If you select the Search in Contents check box, 4D Insider will also search in the objects’ contents.

If you do not type anything in the enterable area, the ﬁlter returns all the object types you selected.

Adding and Modifying Filters

As with 4th Dimension, you can use the wildcard character @ to replace one or more missing letters. For example, if you wanted to search for methods that contain the characters “cr”, any other letters, and then “w”, you could enter “cr@w” in the enterable area.

Filtering on the name

To ﬁlter by name, choose Name in the left pop-up menu, and enter the name in the enterable area. In the middle pop-up menu, you can choose whether the object’s name is exactly, contains, does not contain, begins with, or ends with the string entered.

Filtering on the date

To ﬁlter objects by last date of modiﬁcation, choose Date in the left pop-up menu, and enter the date in the enterable area. The current date is entered by default. In the middle pop-up menu, you can choose whether the object’s date is the exact date, is before, is after, or is not the date entered:

Filtering on the number of occurrences

To ﬁlter objects by the number of times they are used in the database, choose Occurrences in the left pop-up menu, and enter the number of occurrences in the enterable area. A “1” is entered by default. In the middle pop-up menu, you can choose whether the object’s number of occurrences is the equal to, greater than, less than, or different from the number entered

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5 Select the ﬁlter options.

The Search in Contents check box lets you execute a search on the contents of an object as well as on the object’s name. If you select this option, 4D Insider searches for the string in all methods, forms, lists, menus, and so on. If this check box is not selected, the ﬁlter builds its selection based on the object names. You can also select whether you want the ﬁlter to include documented, unused, and delimiter objects.

The Documented check box allows you to choose whether to include or exclude documented objects. For more information about documenting objects, refer to Chapter 8, “Documenting Objects.”

The Unused check box allows you to choose whether to include or exclude objects that are not referenced by any other objects in the database. These objects appear in red on a color monitor, in grey on a grey-scale monitor, and in bold on a black and white monitor.

The Delimiters check box allows you to choose whether to include or exclude objects that have been deﬁned as delimiters. For more information about delimiters, refer to Chapter 7, “Moving Objects.”

The check boxes corresponding to these types of objects can be in one of three states:

■ Dimmed: In this case, 4D Insider will not take the attribute into

account when searching for objects that match the ﬁlter criteria.

■ Checked: In this case, 4D Insider will include only that type of

object.

■ Unchecked: In this case, 4D Insider will exclude objects of that

type.

6 Click OK to save the new ﬁlter deﬁnition.

The ﬁlter appears in the list in the Edit Filters dialog box. By default, it also appears in the three pop-up menus in the browser windows.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Modifying a Filter

Adding and Modifying Filters

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To modify a ﬁlter deﬁnition:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose Filters...

from the submenu.

The Edit Filters dialog box appears.

2 Select the name of the ﬁlter that you want to edit.

You can edit any ﬁlter in the list, including the built-in ﬁlters.

3 Click the Edit... button, or double-click a ﬁlter name.

The Search dialog box appears.

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Chapter 4 Using Filters

Changing the Name of a Filter

This dialog box allows you to change the criteria used by the ﬁlter when searching for matching objects.

4 Modify the ﬁlter deﬁnition as if you were creating a new ﬁlter.

For more information, refer to the previous section, “Adding a Filter.”

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To modify the name of a ﬁlter:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose Filters...

from the submenu.

The Edit Filters dialog box is displayed.

2 Select the name of the ﬁlter you want to rename.

3 Type its new name in the Filter Name area.

4 Click the Rename button to validate the name change.

Deleting a Filter

Adding and Modifying Filters

¨¨

To delete a ﬁlter:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose Filters...

from the submenu.

The Edit Filters dialog box is displayed.

2 Select the name of the ﬁlter that you want to delete.

3 Click the Delete button.

Modifying the Filter Pop-up Menus

¨¨

By default, the pop-up menus in the browser windows contain the names of all the ﬁlters. You can add and remove ﬁlters to create your own custom menus. Each pop-up menu may contain a different set of ﬁlters, or all three pop-up menus may contain the same modiﬁed ﬁlter list.

The following ﬁgure shows the pop-up menu for the Main list. It has been modiﬁed to contain a number of ﬁlters for methods, including two built-in ﬁlters and two added ﬁlters.

To modify the pop-up menus:

1 Choose Preferences from the File menu, and then choose Filters...

from the submenu.

A dialog box is displayed, listing the names of the ﬁlters deﬁned by 4D Insider. Check marks to the right of the ﬁlter names correspond to the three pop-up menus in which the ﬁlters can appear.

By default, three check marks appear for each ﬁlter, indicating that the ﬁlter will appear in all three pop-up menus. This is true even for custom ﬁlters that you have deﬁned.

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Used By Main

Uses

2 Select or deselect check marks to indicate which ﬁlters should appear

in each pop-up menu.

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To select all ﬁlters for a pop-up menu:

■ Click the pop-up menu title bar.

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To deselect all ﬁlters for a pop-up menu:

■ On the Macintosh, Option-click the pop-up menu title bar.

In Windows, Alt-click the pop-up menu title bar.

Applying Filters Within the Selection

When you select a ﬁlter for a list, 4D Insider searches the database for objects that correspond to the ﬁlter. When you select another ﬁlter, 4D Insider executes a new search to ﬁnd objects that correspond to the newly selected ﬁlter.

In some cases, it is helpful to keep the selection returned by the ﬁrst ﬁlter and apply another ﬁlter to that same selection.

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To apply another ﬁlter to the selection in the Main list:

■ On the Macintosh, press the Option key while you select another ﬁlter.

In Windows, press the Alt key while you select another ﬁlter.

The Alt or Option key indicates that 4D Insider should search only within the selection in the Main list.

Applying Anti-ﬁlters 4D Insider offers anti-ﬁlters. Unlike ﬁlters, anti-ﬁlters enable you to

remove all objects of a given type from the displayed object list.

To use an anti-ﬁlter, choose a ﬁlter in the pop-up menu while pressing the Option-Shift (on Mac OS) or Alt-Shift (on Windows) keys.

Examples

Filter for Unused Objects

▼ This example creates a ﬁlter for unused objects. We start with a Main

list displaying all objects for a database containing over 1,500 objects.

1 In the Edit Filters dialog box, enter “Unused Objects” in the Filter

Name enterable area.

2 Click the New... button.

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3 Enter the Search Criteria.

The search criteria are:

■ All objects

■ No ﬁltering on name, date or occurrences.

■ Unused is checked.

4 Validate your choices by clicking OK.

The ﬁlter Unused Objects is now present in the Main List’s ﬁlter popup menu.

5 Select the Unused Objects ﬁlter to obtain the reduced list of the

objects not used in the database.

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Filter for Local Variables

Examples

▼ This example creates a ﬁlter for local variables.

1 In the Edit Filters dialog box, enter “Local Variables” in the Filter Name

enterable area.

2 Click the New... button.

3 Enter the Search Criteria.

The search criteria are:

■ Variable objects only

■ The name of the object must begin with “$”

4 Validate your choices by clicking OK.

The ﬁlter Local Variables is now present in the Main List’s ﬁlter pop-up menu.

5 Select the Local Variables ﬁlter to obtain the reduced list of the local

variables used in the database:

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Chapter 4 Using Filters

Filter for All Methods

▼ This example creates a ﬁlter for all types of methods.

1 In the Edit Filters dialog box, enter “All Methods” in the Filter Name

enterable area.

2 Click the New... button.

3 Enter the Search Criteria.

The search criteria are:

■ Select Project Methods, Database Methods, Triggers, Form Methods,

Object Methods

■ No ﬁltering on name, date, or occurrence

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4 Validate your choices by clicking OK.

The All Methods ﬁlter is now present in the Main List’s ﬁlter pop-up menu.

5 Select the All Methods ﬁlter to obtain the reduced list of the objects

containing 4D code:

Filter for All Menu Methods

Examples

▼ This example creates a ﬁlter for all menu methods. A Menu Methods

ﬁlter can easily be built, provided that the database uses the following naming convention: methods associated with menu commands are named with the preﬁx “M_”.

1 In the Edit Filters dialog box, enter “Menu Methods” in the Filter

Name enterable area.

2 Click the New... button.

3 Enter the Search Criteria.

The search criteria are:

■ Select Project Methods only

■ Name must begin with “M_”

4 Validate your choices by clicking OK.

The Menu Methods ﬁlter is now present in the Main List’s ﬁlter pop-up menu.

5 Select the Menu Methods ﬁlter to obtain the reduced list of the

project methods used as menu methods:

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Chapter 4 Using Filters

Filter for All Process Methods

▼ This example creates a ﬁlter for all process methods. A Process Methods

ﬁlter can easily be built, provided that the database uses the following naming convention: methods running as process methods have been named with the preﬁx “P_”.

1 In the Edit Filters dialog box, enter “Process Methods” in the Filter

Name enterable area.

2 Click the New... button.

3 Enter the Search Criteria.

The search criteria are:

■ Select Project Methods only

■ Name must begin with “P_”

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4 Validate your choices by clicking OK.

The Process Methods ﬁlter is now present in the Main List’s ﬁlter popup menu.

5 Select the Process Methods ﬁlter to obtain the reduced list of the

project methods used as process methods:

5 Searching and Replacing

Searching for objects in a database or library allows you to quickly locate objects based on certain criteria. Although the results of a search may be the same as if the operation had been performed with a ﬁlter, searches are performed once and the search criteria are not saved by 4D Insider. If you ﬁnd yourself executing the same searches frequently, you may wish to deﬁne ﬁlters using the same criteria. For more information about ﬁlters, refer to Chapter 4, “Using Filters.”

In addition to searching for objects, you can rename the following objects throughout a database or library:

Searching

¨¨

To search for an object:

1 Choose Search... from the Tools menu.

The Search dialog box appears:

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2 Select the types of objects for which you want to search.

A check mark appears to the right of the selected object types. By default, all object types are selected.

To deselect all object types on the Macintosh, hold down the Option key while you click the Type of object: title bar.

To deselect all object types in Windows hold down the Alt key while you click the Type of object: title bar.

To select all object types again, click the Type of object: title bar.

3 To deﬁne a more speciﬁc search, enter the search criteria.

Using the leftmost pop-up menu, you can select whether you want to search for objects based on a name, last modiﬁcation date, or number of occurrences.

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Based on your selection in this pop-up menu, the comparator values in the pop-up menu to the right will change as follows:

Search Criteria Comparator Choices

Name is exactly

contains does not contain begins with ends with

Date is

is before is after is not

Number of Occurrences

is equal to is greater than is less than is different from

To complete the search criteria, enter a value in the enterable area. If you do not type anything in the enterable area, the object types you selected will be located.

Searching

As with 4th Dimension, you can use the wildcard character @ to replace one or more missing letters. For instance, if you wanted to search for methods that contain the characters “cr”, any other letters, and then “w”, you could enter “cr@w” in the enterable area.

4 Choose whether 4D Insider should search the entire database or

library, or only the selection of objects in the Main list.

5 If you want 4D Insider to search in the contents of the objects, select

the Search in Contents check box.

The Search in Contents check box allows you to specify whether the search will include the contents of the objects as well as their names.

If the check box is not selected, the search is based only on the names of the objects.

6 Select whether you want the search to include documented, unused,

and delimiter objects.

The Documented check box allows you to choose whether to include or exclude documented objects. For more information about documenting objects, refer to Chapter 8, “Documenting Objects.”

The Unused check box allows you to choose whether to include or exclude objects that are not referenced by any other objects. These objects appear in red on a color monitor, in grey on a grey-scale monitor, and in bold on a black and white monitor.

The Delimiter check box allows you to choose whether to include or exclude objects that have been deﬁned as delimiter objects. For more information about delimiter objects, refer to Chapter 7, “Moving

Objects.”

The check boxes corresponding to these types of objects can be in one of three states:

■ Dimmed (Windows) or Minused (Macintosh): 4D Insider will

not take the attribute into account when searching for objects that match the search criteria.

■ Checked: 4D Insider will include only that type of object.

■ Unchecked: 4D Insider will exclude objects of that type.

7 Click the Search button to execute the search.

The objects located by the search are displayed in the Main list.

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Using Multiple Search Criteria

Using 4D Insider, you can search for objects that match multiple criteria. For instance, you can search for objects whose names start with “M” and that contain the string “New Process”. To perform this kind of multi-criteria search, you can execute one search with the ﬁrst search criteria. You can then execute additional searches on the objects in the selection.

▼ In this example, we want to search for all methods whose names

contain the character string “mess” and that use the word “window”. To follow this example, use the Invoice3 (Windows) or the 4D Invoices (Macintosh) example database.

1 Choose Search... from the Tools menu.

2 Deﬁne the following search to search for project methods whose

names contain the letters “mess”:

4D Insider Reference Manual

3 Click the Search button.

OR Press the Return key on the Macintosh. Press the Enter key in Windows.

4D Insider executes the search. The project methods that match the search criteria appear in the Main list.

4 Choose Search... from the Tools menu again.

5 Deﬁne the following search to look in the selection for the project

methods containing the word “window”:

6 Click the Search button.

OR Press the Return key on the Macintosh. Press the Enter key in Windows.

The Main list now contains all the objects that correspond to all the search criteria.

Renaming

You can use the “Replace” features in the Tools menu to rename objects in your database or library. To rename objects, you can use one of several techniques, depending on your needs. You can:

■ Rename an object by substituting another name

■ Replace a character string in the names of any number of objects with

another character string

■ Add a preﬁx to the names of any number of selected objects

When you rename objects in your database, the objects are renamed everywhere that they are used. This is true for all renaming operations except renaming a single language element; in this case, 4D Insider allows you to choose the objects in which the language element should be renamed.

Renaming objects can be useful in a number of circumstances. For example, you can change all process variables into interprocess variables. To do this, you would ﬁnd all process variables and then preﬁx the symbol for interprocess variables (“◊” on the Macintosh or “< >” in Windows) to their names.

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To search for process variables, you can search the database for variables that do not contain the “$” symbol (the preﬁx for local variables) and then search in the selection for variables that do not contain the “◊” or “< >” symbol.

4D Insider allows you to rename the following types of objects:

Formats/Filters Semaphores Forms Sets Groups Style sheets Lists Tables Named selections Tips and Balloon Help Picture Library graphics Variables Project methods

Renaming a Single Object

Renaming Language Objects

The process of renaming objects differs slightly, depending on whether you are renaming language objects or design objects.

Language objects include variables, sets, semaphores and named selections.

▼ To replace the name of one of these objects:

1 Select the object that you want to rename in the Main list.

2 Choose Replace... from the Tools menu.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Renaming

The Replace dialog box appears:

3 Enter the new name of the variable.

The text area allows you to specify the new name of the language element.

4 Select the objects in which the language element should be renamed.

The scrollable area that appears under the text area displays all the objects that use this language element.

You can request that the name of the element be modiﬁed in all the objects that use it. To do so, select the All objects check box.

To change the name in only some of the objects, select these objects in the scrollable area. To make a continuous selection, Shift-click the ﬁrst and last objects in a series. For a discontinuous selection, Ctrl-click (Windows) or q-click (Macintosh) on the individual objects.

5 Click the OK button to rename the language element in the selected

objects.

To close the dialog box without renaming the objects, click the Cancel button instead.

Renaming Design Objects

Design objects include tables, project methods, groups, tips, forms, formats/ﬁlters, picture library graphics, lists, and style sheets.

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To replace the name of one of these objects:

1 Select the object that you want to rename in the Main list.

2 Choose Replace... from the Tools menu.

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Chapter 5 Searching and Replacing

The Replace dialog box appears:

Note that this dialog box does not contain a list of the objects in which the project method is used. The name of the project method will be modiﬁed in all the objects in which it is used.

3 Enter the new name of the object.

The OK button is now enabled.

4 Click OK to rename the object.

Replacing a String in a Selection of Objects

4D Insider allows you to rename multiple objects at the same time by replacing a string of characters in their names with another string of characters. You specify the objects to be renamed by selecting them in the Main list. The selection can contain any type of object.

Note The Replace in selection... command allows you to rename a selection

of variables all at once, everywhere in the database. For example, you can globally transform a group of process variables into interprocess variables. The Replace command gives you the ability to rename a given variable in a sub-selection of objects.

¨¨

To replace one string with another:

1 Select the objects in which you want to replace the string.

To make a continuous selection, Shift-click the ﬁrst and last objects in a series. For a discontinuous selection, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command- click (Macintosh) on the individual objects.

To select all the items in a list, choose Select All from the Edit menu.

4D Insider Reference Manual

2 Choose Replace in Selection... from the Tools menu.

The Replace in Selection dialog box appears.

Renaming

3 In the “Replace the string:” text box, enter the string of characters

that you want to replace.

4 In the “with the string:” text box, enter the string of characters that

will replace the preceding string.

Here, we replace all occurrences of “Proc” with “Process”.

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Chapter 5 Searching and Replacing

5 Click the OK button to replace the string.

4D Insider replaces the string in each object in the selection that contains it. The string is also modiﬁed in any references to this object.

Note If you replace the name of an object that is referred to by name

between quotation marks in methods, only explicit references to the objects will be replaced. All references calculated during the execution of the code will not be replaced. For instance, if the name of a semaphore is deﬁned as “MySemaphore:=Semaphore(“Proc” +

String(Current process))”, it will not be replaced.

Preﬁxing a Selection of Objects

Note The Add Preﬁx... commands allows you to rename a selection of

You can preﬁx the names of several objects with a string of characters. This option allows you to create a more readable structure by giving objects meaningful preﬁxes.

Using preﬁxes also helps you to group related objects together, since the Main list is sorted by type and then alphabetically. For example, in a database, all project methods associated with menus could begin with the characters “M_”; these methods appear together in the Main list.

variables all at once, everywhere in the database. For example, you can globally transform a group of process variables into interprocess variables. The Replace command gives you the ability to rename a given variable in a sub-selection of objects.

Once you have given a set of objects the same preﬁx, you can easily create a custom ﬁlter for them. For more information about creating ﬁlters, refer to Chapter 4, “Using Filters.”

¨¨

To add a preﬁx to a selection of objects:

1 Select the objects to which you want to add a preﬁx.

To create a continuous selection, Shift-click the ﬁrst and last objects in a series. To create a discontinuous selection, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) on the individual objects.

To select all the items in a list, choose Select All from the Edit menu.

4D Insider Reference Manual

In the example shown, we have found and selected all the project methods whose contents or name contains the string “New process”:

2 Choose Add a Preﬁx... from the Tools menu.

The Preﬁx dialog box appears.

Renaming

3 Enter the preﬁx that you want to add to the objects.

In this example, we add the preﬁx “NP_”:

4 Click OK to add the preﬁx.

If the preﬁx would make the name of any objects too long, 4D Insider displays an alert dialog box enabling you to truncate the names.

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Chapter 5 Searching and Replacing

If you click OK, the preﬁx will be added and the extra letters will be removed from the end of the object names.

If you click Cancel, the preﬁx will not be added to any of the selected objects and you will be returned to the Preﬁx dialog box.

In our example, if you click OK to truncate the names of the objects, the letters “NP_” are added to all the objects in the selection. 4D Insider also updates any cross-references to these objects in other parts of the structure.

4D Insider Reference Manual

Note If you preﬁx the name of an object that is referred to by name between

quotation marks in methods, only explicit references to the objects will be replaced. All references calculated at runtime will not be replaced. For instance, if the name of a semaphore is deﬁned as “MySemaphore:=Semaphore(“Process” + String(Current process))”, it will not be preﬁxed.

Renaming

Replacing Text in Forms and Tips

You may want to replace static text and button text in forms, or replace text in tips. You can ﬁnd and replace text in selected forms and tips, using the Replace in contents... command in the Tools menu.

¨¨

To replace text in a selection of forms or tips:

1 Select the objects in which you want to replace the text.

To create a continuous selection, Shift-click the ﬁrst and last objects in a series. To create a discontinuous selection, Ctrl-click (Windows) or

q-click (Macintosh) on the individual objects.

To select all the items in a list, choose Select All from the Edit menu.

2 Choose Replace in contents... from the Tools menu.

The Replace in contents dialog box appears.

3 In the “Replace the string” text box, enter the text string to be

replaced.

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4 Enter the new text string in the “with the string” text box.

For example, if the tip [Customers]Customer ID contains the text “Client identiﬁcation code” and we want the tip to read “Customer identiﬁcation code” we would enter the following:

The tip text displayed in the browser window reﬂects the change.

Replacing Commands

4D Insider Reference Manual

You may want to replace a 4D command in a method. You can replace 4D commands in selected methods, using the Replace 4D command... in the Tools menu. You can replace a command with an existing project method or with a new project method.

¨¨

To replace a 4D command in a selection of methods:

1 Select the objects for which you want to replace a command.

To create a continuous selection, Shift-click the ﬁrst and last objects in a series. To create a discontinuous selection, Ctrl-click (Windows) or

q-click (Macintosh) on the individual objects.

To select all the items in a list, choose Select All from the Edit menu.

2 Choose Replace 4D command... from the Tools menu.

The Replace 4D command dialog box appears.

Renaming

List of 4D commands

List of project methods

3 Select the command to be replaced by clicking its name in the list, or

by typing the ﬁrst few characters of its name.

The command is selected in the command list, and the command name appears in the text box below the list.

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4 Select an existing method by clicking its name in the list, or by typing

the ﬁrst few characters of its name. OR Create a new project method by typing its name in the text box below the project method list.

The project method name appears in the text box below the project method list.

5 If you are using an existing project method, click Replace.

If you are creating a new project method, click Create and Replace.

Selecting an existing project method

4D Insider Reference Manual

Creating a new project method

The command is replaced by the project method. Any new project method you create appears in the Main list. When you create a new project method, 4D Insider inserts a comment at the beginning of the new method, describing the conditions of its creation.

6 Using Groups

Developers are interested in creating code that is both reusable and easily maintainable—in a word, modular. 4D Insider supports the development of modular code by allowing you to organize design objects into libraries and groups.

Using groups, you can reorganize objects according to their function. This reorganization can help simplify structures viewed within 4D Insider.

Groups organize objects within a structure or library based on object functionality. When you group objects together, they are moved into a folder whose name is the same as that of the group.

For each database or library, you can create as many groups as you want. Within groups, you can create as many levels of subgroups as you want.

4D Insider considers a group to be a type of object. Unlike libraries, the purpose of a group is not to duplicate objects in your database, but rather to reorganize objects into folders according to their functions.

You can use groups to:

■ Clarify the organization of a database.

■ Make it easier to move objects associated with a particular aspect of

your database’s functionality.

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For example, you might place objects concerning an invoicing system in one group and those concerning an inventory system in another. You could then create subgroups for the different parts of the invoicing and inventory systems. To reuse a part of a system, you would simply move the group from the library or structure into another library or structure.

For more information about moving objects, refer to Chapter 7,

“Moving Objects.”

Creating a Group

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To create a group:

1 Open a database or library with 4D Insider.

2 Choose New Group from the Tools menu.

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A dialog box appears, allowing you to enter the name of the group:

ACI 4D Insider Reference Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Preface

About this Manual

Cross-Platform Considerations

Chapter Descriptions

Hypertext Navigation

Conventions

Introduction

Object Relationships

The Browser Window

STR# Resources

2 Opening a Database

Opening Databases

Memory Management

Opening a Database Locally

Opening a Database on a Server

Creating a New Database

Reparsing a Database

Opening Preferred Files (Mac OS only)

Opening Recently Used Files (Windows only)

Creating a Database from an SQL Description File

Supported Verbs 4D supports two SQL verbs, CREATE TABLE and CREATE INDEX:

Log File When interpreting a SQL text ﬁle to create a new database, 4D Insider

General Preferences

Welcome Window When you run 4D Insider, the 4D Insider Welcome window appears by

Closing a Database

Display Open File Dialog

Libraries

Creating a Library

Saving a Library

Opening a Library You can only open a library locally.

Using Libraries in a Multi-Platform Environment

3 Viewing Database Objects

Viewing Objects

Selecting an Area within the Browser Window

Types of Objects Displayed

Viewing Related Objects

Viewing an Object’s Contents

Commands 4

Constants Double-clicking on a constant causes its value to be displayed in the

Database Methods When you double-click a database method, the Object Contents area

Forms When you double-click a form, the form appears in the Object

Form Methods When you double-click a form method, the Object Contents area

Formats/Filters If you double-click a format/ﬁlter, the Object Contents area displays

Groups By their nature, groups cannot be displayed. If you double-click a

Lists When you double-click a list, the items in the list are displayed in the

Menu Bars When you double-click a menu bar, the menu bar appears in the

Menus You can use the same menu in several menu bars; 4D Insider allows

Project Methods When you double-click a project method, the Object Contents area

Named Selections If you double-click a named selection, the Object Contents area

Object Methods When you double-click an object method, the Object Contents area

Picture Libraries If you double-click on a picture from a picture library, the information

Plug-ins If you double-click a plug-in, the Object Contents area remains empty.

Semaphores If you double-click a semaphore, the Object Contents area stays empty.

Sets If you double-click a set, the Object Contents area stays empty.

STR# Resource STR# resources contain strings that can be used in place of static text in

Style Sheets When you double-click a style sheet, the Object Contents area displays

Subtables When you double-click a subtable, the Object Contents area remains

Tables When you double-click a table, the Object Contents area remains

Tips When you double-click a tip, the tip text is displayed in the Object

Triggers When you double-click a trigger, the Object Contents area displays the

Variables If you double-click a variable, the Object Contents area remains empty.

Using the Lists in the Browser Window

Selecting a List

Scrolling Through a List

Typing Characters to Select an Object in a List

Creating a Subset of Selected Objects in a List

Filtering the Objects Displayed in a List

Selecting All the Objects in a List

Moving the Used By or Uses List to the Main List

Organizing the Browser Windows

Resizing Browser Window Components

Changing the Location of the Lists

Changing the Default Size of the Browser Window

Displaying ID Numbers of Objects

Organizing Multiple Browser Windows