dbFront 1.4.0
dbFront 1.4.0 is the new feature release, boasting 37 new features. The blog post published in the middle of November focused on the layout changes in 1.4.0, three days later, we wrapped up the release. dbFront 1.3.2 was never made a feature release, so the features from 1.3.2 are included in this feature release.
Features
Three of the most significant features are:
Layout Changes: We have already covered this in a previous blog post: Layout Changes
Relationship Visibility: The ability to hide and show relationships dynamically. Similar to action buttons and field groups.
Run Procedure: Store procedures can now directly instruct dbFront to retrieve and return information from a web service.
Below is the detailed feature list, quite a few of the features were requested via the Q&A. Buried in this feature list are some very powerful features, some of which we are going to expand upon in future blog posts.
- Backups:
- Enhanced configuration backup compares, including viewing all changes over time.
- Enhanced purge logic to retain at least 120 days of configuration history within 45 backups.
- Buttons:
- Added the ability to edit any button's properties from the Table Prefs dialog.
- Directly set a button width. The default width is 120px.
- Optionally group buttons, with group names visible or not.
- Optionally position buttons below their form.
- Compare: Added "IfContains" and "IfNotContains", compare types. QA:1427
- Core: Updated multiple 3rd-Party components.
- Expressions:
- Added expressions for the parts of the Url. {url(domain)}, {url(root)}, {url(path)}, {url(fragment)}, {url(query)} as optional values to pass to procedures, visibility expressions, etc... QA:1429
- Fields: Added ability to edit any field's properties from the Table Prefs dialog. QA:1376
- Import: Added the ability to import PDF forms, similar to Excel or CSV. QA:1083
- Layout: Added the ability to rearrange the Table elements. (Table Grid, Custom Search Buttons, and Advanced Search), QA:1436
- Lookups: Allow explicit sorting by View Fields.
- MySQL: Replaced the MySQL Connector/Net with MySqlConnector to add built-in support for MySQL Server, MariaDB, Amazon Aurora, Azure Database for MySQL, Google Cloud SQL for MySQL, Percona Server and more... No longer requires a separate driver install. QA:528
- OpenURL: Extend OpenURL so that it can correctly load audio and video.
- Procedures:
- Relationships:
- RequestHandling:
- Handle callback requests from OAuth and other services via a Procedure. QA:1443
- Improved help by displaying the expected Request URL in the config dialog.
- SQLServer:
- Verify Executable access to stored procedures when saving preferences.
- Performance Analyzer for Linked Views to help track down view/column problems.
- Ability to DebugLog SQL Server messages to help monitor performance.
- Search:
- Table:
- Testing: Automated client testing using Katalon Recorder (dbFront Site License)
- WebRequest:
- Ability to Indent received Json.
- Ability to receive a file (e.g. PDF) and either view or save it.
- Ability to set a Request Body including expressions.
- Ability to set a Request Header including expressions.
- Ability to set a RequestMethod [Get, Post, Head, Put, Delete]. QA:1092
Summary
The full release history for the 1.4.0 branch can be found at dbfront.com/releasehistory
We have been doing lots of work enhancing dbFront and updating the supporting documentation. If you have time, please consider reviewing or updating your review for dbFront at one of the following websites:
- www.linkedin.com/products/bigideasltd-dbfront?action=recommend
- www.g2.com/products/dbfront/take_survey
- www.capterra.com/p/143165/dbFront
- www.alternativeto.net/software/dbfront (Don't forget to hit the [Like] button).
In place of a review... you can simply like ♡ dbFront at:
The less effort we spend on sales and advertising, the more effort we can spend on improving and stabilizing dbFront.
Thanks - The Team at dbFront