New Features

This document covers the following topics:

Natural for Ajax

Using the new product Natural for Ajax, you can create rich internet applications which use the Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technology. These rich internet applications use the Natural Web I/O Interface. This interface is available on UNIX and mainframe platforms only. The language extensions which have been made for this purpose (such as the new statement PROCESS PAGE) are listed in the remainder of these Release Notes.

A new example library, SYSEXNJX, is available for Natural for Ajax.

For detailed information on the installation and usage of Natural for Ajax, see the new Natural for Ajax documentation.

Object Types

The new object type "adapter" is provided in this version. It is used to represent a rich GUI page in a Natural application. For further information on this object type, see Processing a Rich GUI Page - Adapter in the Programming Guide.

Natural (system commands, utilities, etc.) has been enhanced in order to support this new object type.

Note:
The EDIT command is not currently supported for this new object type. A specific editor for objects of type "adapter" is planned for a future version.

Statements

The following new Natural statement is provided in this version:

Statement Description
PROCESS PAGE Passes application data to a rich GUI page.

System Variables

The following new Natural system variables are provided in this version:

System Variable Description
*BROWSER-IO Indicates that the application is running in a web browser. An application can run in a web browser either via the Natural Web I/O Interface or by using Natural for Ajax.
*PAGE-EVENT Contains the name of the current event delivered from Natural for Ajax. It is used for rich GUI programming with the PROCESS PAGE statement.
*PAGE-LEVEL Contains the level of the active PROCESS PAGE MODAL statements blocks.

Application Programming Interfaces

The utility SYSEXT provides the following new application programming interfaces (APIs):

API Description
USR2075N Terminate EntireX Broker Service. Used with Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC).
USR4003N Retrieve Natural stack information (alphanumeric).
USR4004N Retrieve dynamic Natural profile parameters.
USR6303N Retrieve Natural stack information (Unicode).

Natural Runtime

A new Natural Runtime application called natrt.exe is provided. This so-called "mini runtime" decreases the consumption of system resources. For further information, see Starting the Application on the Runtime Workstation in the Operations documentation.