OF-1 Release 4.4

OF-1 Release 4.4

This blog post will show you the highlights of the new release 4.4 for OF-1.

 

OF-1 is the only field proven Low-Code Multi-UI Framework for OpenEdge, where all coding – including for HTML5 UI – is done with OE ABL (OO style). Since 2005 we strive to improve our framework constantly by maintenance and new features.

There are quite a few changes, reaching from new UI elements to Skin Client updates, increasing backend functionality.

Highlights of of the latest release are: The flow container, PASOE Client Sessions and multi-window support for HTML5 applications as well as the accordion component and a new filter object.

 

Hint: A brief video can be found at the end, showing the new features

 

 

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Flow Container Double Row
Flow Container Tripple Row

Flow Container 

The flow container is a great new container type, bridging to responsive design. It allows the automatic placement of widgets based on space available. The widget will be positioned based on a column layout and will create new columns if the height is insufficient to display a single column. Thus resizing of the window  will result in displaying the contained widgets responsively instead of moving them out of the visible screen area.

 

In addition to the automatic positioning groups can be defined. Grouped widgets will always be displayed in one column, being particularly useful when working with information coherent in content like addresses for example.

Image description:

The fields in this example are grouped (see header). The flow container will position the groups (or the fields when there are no groups), so that the space is well used.

The second image shows the arrangement when you reduce the height of the whole browser window.

PASOE as OF-1 client runtime

This strong architectural improvement allows the PASOE MultiSessionAgent to be used as OF-1 runtime environment. This removes the necessity of a dedicated broker handling the sessions client side, thus removing nonessential complexity and speeding up the installation process.

 

Besides simplyfing the architecture this feature removes the need of a clients process (batch job) by moving the runtime to the appserver, making the PASOE sufficient.

New PASOE OF-1 client runtime
New PASOE OF-1 client runtime

Multi-tab HTML5 applications

The Skin Client receives a great functional upgrade, allowing the user to run a HTML5 application session in more than one browser tab.

 

The Skin Client was until now limited to work only in one browser-tab - this now belongs to the past. Today user often have multiple monitors. This feature allows an OF-1 web application to use these monitors effectively and display information simultaniously on mulitiple tabs.

These tabs are connected, so as in our example, when you change something in one browser tab, the application in the other browser tab can show connected data.

 

Accordion

This is a new component that can be used in applications to order widgets into kind of horizontal tabs. They can be collapsed and expanded. Accordingly the user may access just the information needed, reducing distraction by irrelevant widgets.

 

Accordion example
Extended filter

Extended Filter

The extended filter is a new customizable filter object, that can be opened in an external screen. The configuration of the filter can be saved as a filter preset, allowing to toggle individually defined filters.

 

This can be used for complex queries that are used repeatedly for faster results without providing the filter input each time.

 

Demonstration Video

If you have questions, need an update of your OF-1 installation or would like to get a demo, please send a mail to or call +49 40 30 68 03 11.

Detailed information about OF-1 could be found here: https://www.iap.de/of-1/

Alexander Siemann, Sept. 2021