Flex2SQL v12.2 Will Support New DataFlex 18.0 Features

DataFlex 18.0 (formerly Visual DataFlex) will introduce two new features that improve upon the interaction between DataFlex 18.0 applications and a SQL backend through database drivers. The two new features are i) support for SQL filters at the DDO level and ii) support for declaring and editing native data types in the DataFlex 18 table editor.

The DD SQL Filter feature allows developers to optimize data-aware grid populations by having “constraints” executed on the server rather than being filtered on the client side. This approach significantly reduces network traffic, reduces the load on the server and increases the speed of filling grids that may use very complex filtering. Mertech has supported this feature via custom commands for quite some time, but having it built directly into the runtime and DD classes will ensure that DataFlex developers use it as a part of normal DataFlex programming rather than as an enhancement through custom commands in the driver.

The second new feature, native type editing, allows DataFlex developers to use the Studio Table Editor to set the native backend data type of table columns instead of being limited to using only the column mappings from DataFlex types to native types.  For example, the Mertech driver natively supports GUID column types for some backends.  Using the Studio Table Editor in DataFlex 18.0 with Flex2SQL v12.2 will enable developers to set a column type in the database to GUID even though DataFlex doesn’t have a native GUID type.  Prior to DataFlex 18.0, developers needed to use the Mertech Migration Utility to do this, or edit tables directly in the tools provided by the database vendor.

Mertech has been working with Data Access Worldwide to ensure that DataFlex developers are able to take advantage of these new features regardless of the driver they are using.  Over the coming weeks, we will provide more information about these new features and a beta of Flex2SQL v12.2.