A New Studio IDE

All the main design tools in Omnis Studio 11 have been redesigned or enhanced including the Studio Browser, Property Manager, Catalog, and the Component Store, as well as many enhancements in the Method editor and Remote form editor, plus we have added a new editor for the Omnis configuration file.

In general, lists and text labels in the design environment have more padding, colors and text have been softened, and all icons in the IDE have been redesigned. Taken together, we believe these enhancements make it quicker and easier to create web and mobile applications using Omnis Studio 11.

Studio Browser

When you start Omnis Studio 11, you’ll immediately see the enhancements we’ve made to the Studio Browser. The mechanics of creating and managing libraries are largely the same, but we have dramatically improved the layout and overall appearance of the Studio Browser to make it easier to use and to navigate.

Omnis Studio 11: the new Studio Browser

The Libraries option in the Studio Browser is now called Project Libraries and this is the default option displayed when you start Omnis Studio. You can create a new library using one of the options: Web and Mobile, Desktop or Blank. The ‘Web and Mobile’ option creates a new library containing a NewRemoteForm and a Remote_Task, ready for you to start adding JS components, while the Desktop option creates a NewWindow for desktop use.

Property Manager

The Property Manager has been redesigned to make it easier to find and set properties. It now has a panel at the top containing the common properties for a component or object, including its object name, its location and size, its data properties (including $dataname), as well as the visibility and state properties (see below left).

Omnis Studio 11: new Property Manager and Catalog

The ‘Show All’ option has been renamed ‘Advanced’ and is now placed at the bottom-left of the Property Manager window; the option is disabled (set to off) in new installations of Omnis Studio, so the Property Manager displays a simpler subset of properties for libraries, classes and components, allowing you to focus on creating your first classes and forms quickly and easily. When in advanced mode, you can use the Search box at the top to quickly find a property or subset of related properties, which is sometimes easier than looking under the tabs, e.g. enter color to find all color properties.

Catalog

An extra column has been added to the Catalog window to show the values in the currently selected tab group, which makes it much easier to see the value of individual items or whole groups of items in one place; the new values column is available for the Variables, Constants, Events, and Hash variable group tabs. For example, you can view the values for all instance variables under the Variables tab, assuming there is an instance open (see above right, showing a variable in the new Charts example app). In addition, items in the right hand list of the Catalog are now shown using the relevant syntax color, if any.

Configuration File Editor

There is a new editor to allow you to edit the settings in the Omnis Configuration file (config.json) inside Omnis Studio, rather than having to edit the file in a text editor. The Configuration Editor shows the main groups of items in the config.json file in the left hand list, such as ‘defaults’, ‘ide’, and ‘methodEditor’, and for each selected group the items within that group are shown on the right, for example, the ide group of items are shown below.

Take a Look for yourself

We would like you to try out the new Omnis Studio 11, so visit our website and download the 90-day free Trial version of the Professional Edition: www.omnis.net/developers/free-trial/

Or you can download the free Community Edition, which provides all the tools you need to build a web or mobile application and free deployment licenses: www.omnis.net/community-edition/

If you have questions about Omnis Studio 11, upgrading to the new version, Omnis subscriptions & pricing, or for anything else, then please contact your local Sales office – we have offices in Germany, France, UK, North America, and partners in other parts of the world: www.omnis.net/contact/

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Component Store

The Component Store has been completely redesigned and now appears in a vertical panel down the left side of the Remote form editor, with the components arranged in groups, such as Buttons, Containers, Entry Fields, and Lists; this provides a more compact layout than in previous versions where components were listed individually. The following screenshot shows a remote form in design mode and the Component Store is attached to the left side showing the Visualization group expanded, containing the new Chart and Gauge components.

Omnis Studio 11 New Component Store

When you open a Remote Form class to edit it, the Component Store is opened automatically and, by default, it is docked to the left side of the design window (see above). As you move a design window, the Component Store will remain docked and will move with it. You can Right-click on the Component Store to hide/show the labels and configure its layout and docking behavior.

JS Chart & Gauge Components

The new JS Chart component allows you to create different types of chart from list data to display in a remote form. It uses the open source JavaScript library Chart.js (available under the MIT license) integrated into the component, which provides a plethora of chart styles and combinations to represent 2D or multi-dimensional data, including the types: Line, Bar, Radar, Pie, Doughnut, Polar-Area, Scatter, and Bubble (see the new sample library in the Hub for all the types). The new Chart provides a modern interface for displaying list data, with scalable, vector based shapes and animated transitions, providing a great new UI for your web and mobile apps. As with other chart types in Omnis, the JS Chart control gets its data from an Omnis list variable, which should contain 2 columns, with each row in the list representing a complete dataset. 

Omnis Studio 11 JS Chart & Gauge components

The new JS Gauge component provides a way to display numerical values on a Circular, Horizontal or Vertical linear scale, with options to customize the appearance and behavior of the gauge image and the scales – the value for the gauge is provided in the variable in $dataname, but the component provides a high-level of visual customization for the scales and range, including multiple colors in the range markers (see the example in the Hub). 

JS Camera

The new JS Camera control allows the end user to capture images or scan QR codes and barcodes – this allows you to fully integrate image capture & scanning into your mobile apps, which can be applied to many different types of solutions such as manufacturing, retail, field research, or science. After returning a list of cameras and their IDs on the device, you can set the ‘camera action’ property to start the camera, capture an image, or start scanning, either a barcode or QR code. You can store the returned image or embedded information in a Character or Binary variable as appropriate.

JS Floating Action Button, Color Picker & Subform palette

The new JS Floating Action Button (FAB) features a round button that pops up a list of actions when tapped or hovered over, with the first option being a default action – the default icon is a ‘+’ but you can add your own such as an SVG icon. The FAB provides a modern button style to activate tasks in your web and mobile apps, for example, in a form displaying a list of contacts, you could use a FAB to provide options to add a contact (the default action), with further options to edit, call, or email a contact – this style of button is used in most modern email mobile apps.

Omnis Studio 11 Floating Action Button (left), Color Picker example (center) & the Subform palette example (right)

The new JS Color Picker allows the end user to select a color either by sliding a color slider and clicking on the color palette, or by entering a color number in RGB, HSL, or HEX format into the control (above center) – in addition, an alpha slider can be shown to allow the end user to select the transparency for the color. You can add a number of predefined color swatches to the color picker to allow the end user to select a preset color – for example, the color swatches could be colors defined in your corporate branding or colors that are in constant use in your app.

You can now popup a subform as a Subform Palette next to a specified control (above right). The subform could allow the end user to set an option, or you could provide some information such as a help tip. Subform palettes can be opened or closed using two new client commands, or a subform palette can be closed by clicking outside the subform.

JS Tile Grid Control and More…

The new JS Tile Grid control displays a scrollable grid of “tiles” which can be configured to show images, text and buttons. The layout of the grid and the visual attributes for the tiles are specified in a list variable assigned to the control, with each line in the list providing the definition for a single tile in the grid. The new Tile Grid example app in the Hub displays a number of tiles using images from the webshop example applet, which shows how the Tile grid can be used to provide a very visual selection or information grid for end users.

There are many more new components and enhancements to help you create web and mobile apps in Omnis Studio 11.  These include the Scroll box which allows you to group several JS components together in a scrollable area, to produce a more compact UI for smaller screens.

A Side Panel is a vertical panel that can be displayed down the left or right side of a remote form (like a sidebar), containing clickable options, such as a menu of options or other content. Side panels are a common UI element in dashboard style designs and allow you to create a more interactive UI for your web & mobile apps.

Example Libraries and online Gallery

All of the new JS components are featured in the Samples section in the Hub in the new Studio Browser in Studio 11 – the same samples are included in the newly updated JS Component online gallery which is itself a Studio 11 web app.

To try out all the new components and other features in Omnis Studio 11, download a free 90-day trial version here: www.omnis.net/developers/free-trial/

Alternatively, existing users can contact the Sales office for their region to obtain details about upgrading to Studio 11. Please use the Contact us page: www.omnis.net/contact/

To view the new JS components online, visit the Component Gallery here: tinyurl.com/jsgallery11

The post Omnis Studio 11: New Component Store and New JavaScript Components appeared first on Omnis.

Our goal is to provide you with the most intuitive, user-friendly, and powerful tools for application development, and Omnis Studio version 11 delivers on that promise. With the new interface, you can create applications faster and more efficiently, saving you time and money. The new Studio IDE, new JS components, and enhanced design tools & editors make it easy to build stunning and engaging user interfaces that will enhance the user experience.

Deliver outstanding customer experiences 

We are living in an era of customer centricity. A modern, appealing UI and an engaging customer experience are key factors for the success of an application. Therefore Omnis Studio 11 provides many new and enhanced UI controls for mobile, web and desktop that power the design of your apps including:

• Tile Grid –  a new JS component that displays a scrollable grid of “tiles” which can be configured to show images, text and buttons
• Chart  –  a new JS component that allows you to create different types of charts from list data to display in a remote form.
• Gauge – a new JS component that provides a way to display numerical values on a circular or linear scale, with options to customize the appearance and behavior.

Many other important enhancements

Many new UI components have been added, plus hundreds of new features & enhancements, including:

• JS Camera control
  A new JS Camera control allows the end user to capture images or scan QR codes and barcodes.
• OW3 Worker enhancements
  The LDAP Worker has been added to the OW3 group of worker objects. The Python Worker has been added to the OW3 group of worker objects
• System Notifications
  Omnis can now send notifications to the operating system on the end user’s computer, on both Windows 10/11 and macOS; notifications will pop up on the end user’s screen and are added to the Notification Center for the current operating system
• Spell Checking
  Omnis now checks spelling in text in end user apps, as it is entered in desktop forms
• User Constants
  allow you to define constants in a new User Constants class for use in your methods and expressions
• Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP) / Two factor authentication (2FA)
  Two new functions have been added to the OW3 package to generate and validate Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTPs).
• OIMAGE
  There is a new external called OIMAGE that contains a set of static functions that allow you to resize JPG and PNG image files or perform various transformations on the images including rotation and flipping or automatically generate QR codes.
• Omnis VCS API
  Some functions within the Omnis Version Control System (VCS) have been exposed via API calls, to allow developers to interact with the VCS or its contents programmatically; so developers can logon or logoff, list VCS projects and their status, check out or check in classes, and build projects using the new VCS API method calls.
• PDF/A Level 2 and 3 Support
  for archiving PDF documents

Take a Look for yourself

We would like you to try out the new Omnis Studio 11, so visit our website and download the 90-day free Trial version of the Professional Edition, or you can download the free Community Edition, which provides all the tools you need to build a web or mobile application and free deployment licenses. If you have questions about Omnis Studio 11, upgrading to the new version, Omnis subscriptions & pricing, or for anything else, then please contact your local Sales office – we have offices in Germany, France, UK, North America, and partners in other parts of the world. Go to: www.omnis.net

The post Meet Omnis Studio Version 11 – for faster and more intuitive app development appeared first on Omnis.