Release Information for Natural Version 6.3.9

This document covers the following topics:


New Features

Parameters

The following new Natural parameter is provided in this version:

Parameter Description
SRVRTRY Specifies the number of attempts for an RPC server to connect/reconnect (REGISTER) to an EntireX Broker that is not active, and the wait time between two successive attempts.

Changes and Enhancements

Program Editor

The program editor now provides the Incremental Find function to find specific text in a program source while typing the search string to be found. See Finding Text in the Program Editor section of the Editors documentation.

Dialog Editor

The version information format used for the COMPATIBILITY and VERSION attributes has changed to support 2-digit version components.

The following PROCESS GUI statement actions are new: GET-FIRST-WINDOW and GET-NEXT-WINDOW.

For detailed information, see the corresponding sections in the Dialog Component Reference.

Configuration Utility

The new parameter SRVRTRY can also be specified in the Configuration Utility. See Remote Procedure Call in the Configuration Utility documentation.

Session Configuration for Natural for Ajax

Forward Java EE credentials

If the access to Natural for Ajax applications is protected on JBoss Application Server, it is now possible to forward the security credentials to the Natural Web I/O Interface server, thus sparing the user a second logon. In the configuration tool, the new session option Forward Java EE credentials is available for this purpose.

Disconnect behavior

It is now possible to disconnect from Natural without showing the disconnect page. In the configuration tool, the new session option Disconnect behavior is available for this purpose. You can define whether the disconnect page is to be shown when a Natural program ends (default), or whether the current browser tab is to be closed.

Blank after EM= in MOVE EDITED

In previous versions, a blank after the equal sign (=) of the EM parameter in the MOVE EDITED statement was illegally accepted during compilation. This has been corrected. Error NAT0023 is now returned.

Example:

MOVE EDITED #N (EM= 999) TO ...     /* NAT0023 is now returned
MOVE  EDITED ...  TO  #A (EM= XXX)  /* NAT0023 is now returned

Rounding of Floating-Point Numbers

As of Natural Version 6.3.9, floating-point numbers that are displayed due to Natural I/O will be rounded to the floating-point mantissa length used for display. This also affects the display when the FL parameter is used and when a floating-point number is assigned to an alphanumeric field.

Example:

DEFINE DATA
  LOCAL
  1 #F8 (F8)
  1 #A  (A30)
END-DEFINE
*
MOVE 5.1234567892345678E00 TO #F8
WRITE #F8
*
WRITE #F8 (FL=7)
*
MOVE #F8 TO #A
WRITE #A
*
END

Results in Natural Version 6.3.8:

+5.123456789234567E+00
+5.123456E+00
+5.123456789234567E+00

Results in Natural Version 6.3.9:

+5.123456789234568E+00
+5.123457E+00         
+5.123456789234568E+00

See also Arithmetic Operations with Floating-Point Numbers in the Programming Guide.

Additional Information for Using the New EMPLOYEES File

With Natural Version 6.3.7, the SYSEXV utility provided new sample programs for the new DDM EMPLOYEES-V2009 (Adabas 6.1.6 support).

As of Natural Version 6.3.9, the new program V637INFO (Readme Information) is also available, providing detailed information on how to get the data from the new EMPLOYEES file. This program can be found in the Version 6.3.7 menu of the SYSEXV utility.

It is now recommended that you use Adabas 6.1.8 or higher.

Collation Sequence for List Boxes in Natural Dialogs and Object Lists in Natural Studio

List boxes in Natural dialogs and object lists in Natural Studio now use a locale-dependent sort. There are two main consequences of this change:

  • Diacritics are now collated correctly. For example, in German, "ä", "ö" and "ü" are now handled as either the corresponding base characters ("a", "o", or "u") or as "ae", "oe" or "ue", depending on whether a dictionary or "phone book" sort sequence has been chosen for the system-wide regional settings in the Control Panel. Previously, the umlaut characters were being treated as independent characters that collated after any Latin characters in lists with ascending sort sequence.

    Note:
    Object names with diacritics are not explicitly supported and are only allowed if the character validation tables in NATCONV.INI have been extended appropriately.

  • The list items are effectively compared case-insensitively, with a case-sensitive comparison only being used as a "tie-breaker". Previously, all items were sorted case-sensitively according to the character positions in the corresponding code page.

    This should lead to more intuitive sorting in most situations. For example, suppose a list box had previously shown the following contents in ascending sequence:

    Andrew
    Barry
    James
    John
    Julie
    Robert
    Sandra
    jenny

    Note that "jenny" appears at the bottom of the list because the name has been (possibly inadvertently) entered with an initial lower-case character. In contrast, the new sort sequence for these items is:

    Andrew
    Barry
    James
    jenny
    John
    Julie
    Robert
    Sandra

Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

Natural Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is available as a separate subcomponent of Natural. It has its own version number. This measure takes into account that Natural RPC is a cross-platform component and makes it possible to provide new Natural RPC versions independent of new Natural versions for the various platforms supported.

With Natural Version 6.3.9, an enhanced Natural Remote Procedure Call Version 6.3.4 is delivered that replaces the existing Natural RPC Version 6.3.3.3.

The following changes and enhancements are available.

Support New Features of EntireX RPC Clients of Version 8.2

The Natural RPC Server has been extended to support EntireX RPC clients (EntireX 8.2.0) using Natural redefinitions (REDEFINE statement) and other features introduced with the IDL Extractor for Natural (EntireX 8.2.0). The IDL Extractor for Natural has been extended with a graphical user interface to complete the extraction process with user decisions. This allows modeling of the Natural server to an IDL and enables selection of the appropriate (Natural to IDL) mapping where multiple possibilities exist and where automatic decision taking can lead to incorrect or suboptimal IDL.

Note:
The Natural RPC server still supports EntireX RPC clients built with previous EntireX versions.

Documentation

MP Parameter

The documentation for the MP parameter has been corrected. Other than documented with previous versions, it is not possible to use MP as a dynamic parameter when invoking Natural.

Natural for Ajax

The Natural for Ajax documentation which is included in this Natural documentation now pertains to Version 8.1.2. It is based on Application Designer Version 8.0.

The Release Notes for Natural for Ajax Version 8.1.2 can be found in Empower, Software AG's global extranet, at https://empower.softwareag.com/