Alternative Version Control Solution for Uniface

The Uniface ecosystem is supported by more companies than just Compuware.

There is an alternative solution for version management / source code management available from March Hare. Have a look at www.march-hare.com to see if this can be useful to you.

I just had a conversation with March Hare’s product manager Arthur Barrett. It was good to exchange our ideas on the future and to talk about old times too.

Date picker for Uniface 9.6

In Uniface 9.6 it will be really easy to implement a Date Picker widget.

A Date Picker is a date field with a little icon. When you press the icon a calendar appears. Uniface has this widget available for web development in Dynamic Server Pages. For Windows Forms there is no Date Picker widget. Uniface does however have a Calender widget. And Uniface 9.6 Popup Forms are introduced. Combine the two and you have the full Date Picker functionality.

Uniface 9.6: billions of buttons

I really need to stop playing with the new Uniface buttons... In Uniface 9.6 you can create "billions" of buttons by specifying an icon that goes on top of the button and four images that represent the button in its four states. Also different text colors for the four states and gradient background color possible. PNG support makes using transparent images easier. No more need to paint both a label and a button if you want both text and icon on a button!

1. Classic Uniface button with gradient color.
2. Classic Uniface button with icon and internalized label.
3. Classic Uniface button with icon and text in field value.
4. Image button.
5. Image button with text.
6. Image button with icon.
7. Image button with icon. Text from internalized label.
8. Image button with both icon and text in field value.
9. Windows button.
10. Windows Header button.

Uniface 9.6 tab widget mania

I really need to stop playing with the new Tab widget...

Make a Tab look like a simple ribbon bar

Shiny buttons...

Just using colors

Different colors for different tabs

Accordion with images

Stack with gradient colors

First things first

From many years of experience in many different projects I am of the opinion that you have to have a stable foundation before you start building functionality.

At the start of your project you have to make a list of things that your application framework has to support. Some examples:

• CRUD functionality (Create, Read, Update, Delete)
• Menu and security features
• Use and storage of application configuration data
• Special user interface requirements 

Making this list prevents you from building a framework that is too heavy for your application.

When you have built your framework, build a small part of your application. This is to verify that your framework actually works.

After that you can build the rest of your application quickly and without worries. Integrating framework-like aspects into an existing application requires a lot of refactoring, which is much more expensive than getting the framework right first. And starting full scale application development when your framework is not finished yet requires temporary stubs that need to be replaced be the real thing later, again making it much more expensive than getting the framework right first.

This is not just my opinion, it is a simple extension of all the studies that say that fixing defects becomes more expensive when done in a later phase of the project. Some people think that “First things first” only fits a waterfall approach to software development, but I disagree. In, for example, a SCRUM project the “First things” can be assigned a high priority so they will be done in the first sprints.

And I know there are many differences between building a house and building software, but would you lay the carpet before installing the plumbing?

The new Millenium problem

SEPA and IBAN

As you may have noticed the introduction of SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is an initiative to create a single set of standards for euro payments.

The BAN (Bank Account Number) as we are familiar with will, and must be, replaced/implemented by the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) before February 2014.

From February 2014 payments can only be done if you use the mandatory IBAN and the BIC (Bank Identification Codes).

The main schemes involved, for doing that, are the SCT (SEPA Credit Transfer) cross-border scheme, that allows you to transfer payments between any SEPA country, and the SDD (SEPA Direct Debit) scheme to collect payments form any SEPA country. Both will replace the existing domestic schemes. (for example CLIEOP3 ).

Result of SEPA and the IBAN is that the total number of characters exceeds that of the BAN, the format of the interface with your bank will change. So you will have to make changes in your IT environment to deal with it.

Already a bit nervous?

Let me summarize some points for you to get grip on the situation:

• Where is my BAN published (financial documents, bills, site, relations, business cards etc… )
• Make an inventory of your existing processes, IT and organization that are hit by the BAN.
• Setup of a project plan:

1. to get the new IBAN’s (employees, suppliers, customers etc)
2. to migrate your existing IT infrastructure. (schemes, BAN/IBAN, Replacement of existing domestic schemes, processes, validations etc… )
3. to republish your own IBAN.
4. to testing, testing, testing

• Make inquiries by your bank to avoid any misunderstanding.

February 2014 seems far away but don’t let it fool you because there are already companies, at the moment, migrating to the IBAN and it seems, as I heard, a lot of work to achieve that.

Bert Hogendoorn, Migration consultant at Compuware Uniface

Uniface Applications

Most Uniface applications have been around long enough to survive the Millenium problem and the introduction of the Euro. They will be able to handle the changes requires for SEPA and IBAN too.

Bank account numbers can be found in Uniface applications more easily than in other applications. For a start search the repository for the bank account numbers and create a cross reference to see in which programs they are used.

The new interface format for the bank is XML based, so importing the WSDL will give you a good start for rebuilding your interface software.

The changes in your Uniface application may not be the biggest challenge. Other aspects like obtaining all your customers and suppliers IBAN's or agreeing with your bank on the details of the interfacing could be even more difficult.
The hard and final deadline is February 2014, but the national implementation plans state that all software should be SEPA ready by October 2012.

Theo Neeskens, Solution architect at Compuware Uniface

Other Uniface blogs

Just found another Uniface blog. It is from Rik Lewis and so far it contains some nice coding examples: http://uniface.blogspot.co.uk/ Pat Walsh also has some Uniface stuff on his blog: http://www.patwalsh.co.uk/tag/uniface/ James Gallagher, Compuware Uniface sales for Asia Pacific also has a Uniface blog: http://unifacejames.blogspot.co.uk/