4th Dimension v16

Starting with 4D v15, 4th Dimension has been undergoing a transition to a fully 64 bit architecture, a transition that is essentially complete with the latest new version of 4D. With the recently released 4D v16, the cache manager has been re-written to improve performance with large caches and large data files and the 4D language joins the database server, SQL server, and web server in implementing pre-emptive multi-tasking.

That's a fair amount of technical jargon, but to put it simply 4D v16 is the fastest performing version of 4D so far and is leading the way in taking maximum advantage of modern hardware and operating systems.

In addition to significant performance improvements, 4D v16 introduces a number of other exciting new capabilities:

Programming language improvements - including a much faster Replace String function, enhancements to the frequently used Distinct Values command, and numerous others.

VMWare vSphere integration - 4D now communicates with VMWare vSphere to insure your database is in a stable state when snapshots are saved. 

Listbox improvements include over 20 new getter and setter selectors to allow the developer even greater control of 4D's primary interface for display data in lists.

The 64 bit Quick Report editor now allows creation of cross tab style reports directly by the end user of the 4D database. 

v16 builds on the new Object field type introduced in 4D v15, a powerful new field type that allows 'schema-less' data management in 4D.

All in all, 4D v16, especially with its varied performance enhancements, looks to be a solid new release of 4th Dimension. Portage Bay will be upgrading our 4D based vertical market case managment software, VIMS, to v16 in the next couple of months.

-John Newhoff

Travel & Technology

I think this is the second time I’ve written about travel and technology. The first time was many years ago when I wrote an article for my president’s column in the monthly newsletter of the Seattle Macintosh users group. That article was about trying to work from the Coast Starlight (Amtrak train) on its way from Seattle to San Francisco. That was before WiFi and cellular data networks. Actually, it was even before things like that were posted on the web, so I can’t even link to that article.

Now I’m writing about the recent trip I took to Seoul, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo (yes, I tried to squeeze too much into one trip). Hiroshima is a very interesting city. One of only two places in the world where you can read informational plaques that refer to when an atomic bomb exploded. The Hiroshima peace memorial park and museum is very moving.

I made several notes that I thought were somewhat worth sharing: 

1. Don’t forget your adaptors. I now have at least 3 of the power adaptors I needed because I didn’t bring any and had to buy new ones.
2. Internet speeds are great in Korea and Japan, even at the airport. I’ve never had such fast Internet at airports in the US. I had no trouble remotely logging into databases and servers in the US to get work done.
3. The airports all have multiple small rental places where you can rent a WiFi hot spot for not too much cash. Then you have WiFi with you everywhere, even on the Shinkansen (bullet) trains. Then you just return it before your flight back to the US. Much cheaper than international roaming on your phone.
4. The big electronics market in Seoul did not seem to me worth the effort, unless you’re looking for fans, logic boards, monitors, etc.

From a technology standpoint, I would say traveling in Korea and Japan was perhaps actually easier than the US, since sometimes the airport and hotel WiFi networks in the US are only barely fast enough to get anything done.
~John Newhoff 

DevCon 2016; Xandon's Take

I just got back from FileMaker DevCon 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year’s event consisted of three days of sessions, each broken up into four one-hour chunks, with plenty of time for lunch and breaks. This more relaxed schedule was great, as it allowed for time to decompress and digest the wealth of information in the sessions.

At this year’s DevCon, I wanted to focus more on JavaScript and WebDirect. I have been extremely excited about using JavaScript in FileMaker - it is making some incredible things possible in FileMaker. I went to several sessions that referenced JavaScript.

Before I jump into the sessions, I want to mention one of the reasons I have been so excited about JavaScript. I integrated Seedcode’s DayBack Calendar into a customer solution a few weeks back, and what is so cool about DayBack is how they have redone their entire calendar display in JavaScript. It is much more fluid and smooth than their previous calendar solutions. They have worked really hard to provide some great features and it shows. One of those new features is a really nice update function that allows them to push new advances and bug fixes. Because it is JavaScript, it doesn’t require layout adjustments, it is merely an update to the JavaScript that creates the layout. This is nice because it doesn’t require redeploying an entire solution in order to add the update.

Although SeedCode didn’t have a big presence at this year’s DevCon, they made sure to release an update the weekend before. The release adds maps and directions to the pop-up calendar event. This is a very cool addition and had me looking forward to updating that on my return. SeedCode is definitely part of the reason I have been so interested in JavaScript and FileMaker.

I attended a great session called "JavaScript is Eating the World,” hosted by Todd Geist from Geist Interactive. During his session he demonstrated how to configure and integrate node.js with FileMaker’s Custom Web Publishing. He used some very interesting tools that are fairly common to JavaScript developers. Some of them were new to me, so I wanted to share the list.

For his IDE, he was using WebStorm. To help write in ECMAScript2015 spec, he used Babel, a JavaScript compiler, and Webhack, an implementation of Nethack in JavaScript.

Other tools mentioned included:

• Bootstrap - JavaScript compiler
• React - JavaScript library for creating user interfaces
• node.js - JavaScript runtime
• jQuery - curated set of user interfaces
• Now - real-time instant deployment for node.js
• Express - fast minimalist web framework for node.js
• Feathers - for creating web socket APIs like REST
• feathers.FileMaker - API for FileMaker, created by Todd Geist

I also attended a couple of sessions hosted by Mike Beargie. (Mike is a great presenter, and he has played a large and helpful role on many of the forums. His commitment to the FileMaker community was acknowledged on the last day of the event, when he was presented with an award.)

One of his sessions - "Integration Innovations with FileMaker WebDirect” - had some really cool nuggets of information. He talked about the release of an iPhone app, CoreScope, that provides a custom URL scheme to allow FileMaker Go developers access to retrieve metadata related to an iOS device.

This allows you to get things like battery state and information about the carrier, screen, system, disk, etc. into your FileMaker Go app. He plans to have an API that you can add on to your solution if you use FileMaker Go to build an iOS app.

Mike also talked about integration with FileMaker’s Custom Web Publishing and showed a jQuery plugin called jQuery.dataTables.  This provides a very fast table that can be sorted, searched against, and paginated. You need to gather the data that you want to display and convert it into either a JSON or HTML table, but once you do that, it is very quick.

In addition, he demonstrated a great way to do SMS. His demo worked with Nexmo SMS and their API to send and receive text messages. He noted others, like Twilio, were also available.

All in all, it was a fun developer conference. The people I met as well as the community are what makes it such a great event. I look forward to more opportunities like this to share and learn.
~Xandon Frogget

DevCon 2016

John, Xandon, and Joe all headed to Las Vegas today for the FileMaker DevCon 2016 developer conference. It's going to be something, with more than 18 countries represented, 1500 attendees, and 60 sessions covering topics in core skills, design, mobility, web, business, innovation, custom apps, and of course, vendor demos and exhibitors. They will be checking things out, asking questions, networking, and working, working, working. (I have been assured that no fun will be had while I hold down the fort!) Stay tuned for more reports.
~Alanna Clare

Losing Your iPhone

My mom recently lost her iPhone. It was in her purse, which got placed on the top of the car, where it stayed when the car was driven off as she and my dad went home. There’s no way to know where it ended up. I spent a couple of hours helping them reset passwords and figure out how to deal with the situation.

My siblings and I have been pretty proactive with getting my parents online and connected. They’re both over 70, but also both have iPhones. My dad has a MacBook Air and my mom has an iPad. They share an iMac in their home office. For my mom in particular, this level of connection is a real blessing. She is stuck in a wheelchair most of the time, and so being able to communicate with everyone via phone, email, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. is a huge improvement in her ability to connect with her family on a day to day basis.

There were a few lessons from this event:

1. All of your devices, whether iOS, Mac, or another platform, should require a passcode or password to access the device whenever you want to use it. This may be a minor hassle, but if the device is ever lost or stolen, you will be very, very glad you had this in place. The security problems my mom had would have taken twice as much time to deal with if the phone hadn’t required a passcode.
2. All devices should absolutely be logged into an iCloud account. This gives you some ability to interact with them when lost or stolen.
3. Given the above two points, if the phone is lost or stolen, don’t do what my parents did and call the carrier to cancel the account. As soon as they did that, we couldn’t use iCloud to locate or lock out the phone. It would have been preferable if we could have used iCloud to do this, but since AT&T had already canceled the phone, we couldn’t.
4. In my opinion, the technology industry has failed so far when it comes to user authentication. Making my parents try to keep track of a dozen or more passwords for their various accounts does not work.
   They are not technical enough to use anything like 1Password, and yet keeping track of passwords on paper has its obvious security flaws. I hope Apple extends Touch ID to the Macbook and iMac product lines and that developers integrate it into their authentication mechanisms to reduce the need for passwords.

~John Newhoff