What's new in Omnis Studio v 8.0

The Omnis Studio 8.0 release provides 64-bit and Cocoa support for Omnis Studio running on OS X, the ability to use HTML components in window classes for Desktop Apps, Drag and Drop capability for the JavaScript Client, a new Code Assistant available in the method editor to help you write Omnis code, plus some enhancements in the Studio Browser which will help new and existing developers.
You should read the ‘What’s New in Omnis Studio 8.0’ manual (Whatsnew80.pdf) for full details about the features in this release.

The 64-bit version of Omnis Studio is now available on OS X including the SDK, App Server, and Runtime. Plus the Omnis core has been rebuilt using the Cocoa framework with anticipated benefits for speed and performance in the Omnis Studio IDE and for your OS X and iOS deployed apps.

A new tool that appears when you select New Library in the Studio Browser to help you create Omnis apps quickly and easily; the new tool provides a number of templates and steps you through the process of creating or prototyping an Omnis application, including logging onto your database, creating JavaScript forms, setting the theme, and choosing navigation for your app.

A new option in the Studio Browser that provides useful information for developers, such as the status of the most recent reported and fixed faults, together with information and tips for new Omnis developers; there is an Options setting in the hub to configure the content of the Studio Browser and the color theme used in the Studio IDE.

The Code Assistant is a new tool that will help you write code in an Omnis method. The code assistant will pop up automatically in the method editor when needed displaying command syntax and possible arguments; you can also request help using Ctrl-Space. In addition, the start and end of any block commands are highlighted (includes If , While, For, Repeat, Switch, and Begin), plus Omnis now stores a ‘history list’ of visited methods which you can navigate using a Back and Forward button on the method editor toolbar, and you can add notes to a method on the ‘notes’ tab next to the variable tabs.

The colors and themes used in the Studio IDE can now be changed under the Options setting in the Hub in the Studio Browser, or by changing the $appearance Omnis preference in the Property Manager: the colors used in the Studio IDE are stored in an ‘appearance.json’ file which you can use in your deployed apps, and you can create your own themes.

Provides the ability for end users to drag data between JavaScript controls in a remote form, plus end users can drag files from their desktop and drop them onto a JavaScript control within a remote form (desktop browsers only, drag and drop is not supported in mobile browsers).

You can enhance and enrich your desktop apps by adding HTML or JavaScript based components to thick client windows – you can create these yourself or use components available from third-parties. In addition, there is a new browser object to allow you to embed the HTML components or present web content on your window classes.

With the introduction of Retina displays on Mac desktops and laptops, and 4k displays widely becoming the standard for Windows based computers, support for high definition displays has been introduced in Omnis Studio 8.0; the Studio IDE will scale automatically if an HD monitor is detected (2x the default), and HD icons are supported in the IDE and in your own Omnis libraries using Icon sets.

You can now perform updates or any other changes to your Omnis application or folder structure upon restarting Omnis by adding a script to the Omnis data folder.

A new JavaScript control that displays a number of segments or buttons that you can use for navigation or as a toolbar within your web and mobile apps; you can assign an icon and text to each segment and you can detect which segment has been clicked.

A new property of List and Grid components to display list lines in separate pages to improve the user experience when navigating lists or grids with a large number of lines.

Support for Push Connections has been added to Omnis Studio to allow more control when data is returned to the client when using the Omnis worker objects, such as the SQL Worker objects.