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The Tools

DataFlex Studio

DataFlex Studio is an integrated development environment specifically designed for developing Windows and Web database applications. Studio manages its projects inside workspaces and coordinates all of the other tools that make up DataFlex, so that they can be cohesively applied to a project. The finely tuned interaction among Studio's components enhances developer productivity; Data Dictionaries and Business Process Objects eliminate huge amounts of redundant, high-maintenance code. DataFlex Studio works efficiently for developers as they build, maintain, change, and evolve applications.

In the Studio, you design applications and application components, such as data entry views, report views, web service objects, web reports, and business process objects. Studio also lets you configure and maintain Data Dictionary structures for your components.

Studio includes many wizards that allow you to quickly and easily create very complex, sophisticated database-oriented components, such as:

  • Header/detail data entry views for tables that have child records represented in a grid. This wizard allows you to preview the resulting view and customize its layout before completing the wizard.
  • Windows reports with breakpoint, subtotal, and filtering features. This wizard allows you to preview the resulting report and customize its layout before completing the wizard.
  • Web report and web child report wizards to create polished web reports with advanced features like drilling down into report record details.

Each component is fully customizable in the Studio, whether created via a wizard or in the Studio's visual designer.

A fully featured debugger is integrated into the Studio. It provides full source-level debugging, flexible breakpoints, flexible program stepping options, message tracing, and inspection of local variable values, tables, rows, and expressions.

DataFlex Compiler

The compiler takes the DataFlex source code and creates executable files to be used with the DataFlex virtual machine. The compiler is capable of "precompiling" sections of programs that do not change from one revision to the next, to speed the overall process of recompiling a program under development.

Database Explorer

Database Explorer is a tool that lets you open any table (embedded or foreign via installed database drivers) and view data in those tables. Besides the data, you can watch their column definitions, indexes, and attributes. If you have the right permissions (network and tool), you can edit data. Viewing and editing of data is available in a grid-wise representation of the data and in a single record approach. A filter option is available to filter the data on certain criteria, making the number of records seen smaller and offering you a closer look at the data.

Finally, there is a wizard that guides you through exporting data to several formats (CSV, line delimited, fixed position, and XML). The wizard can do a direct export or create a program (component) to repeat the export later.