What's New in Version 8.3.2?

This document covers the following topics:


Installation

The Software AG Designer 9.5, which includes NaturalONE, now uses Eclipse Version 4.3. If you prefer to use NaturalONE in your existing Eclipse environment, Eclipse Version 4.3 is required. See also Using Your Own Eclipse in the Installation documentation.

Basic Functionality for Natural Application Development

This section describes new features and enhancements in NaturalONE's basic functionality for Natural application development. It covers the following topics:

Compare Editor

You can now use the compare editor of Eclipse to compare the sources from your Natural projects in the workspace with the corresponding objects in the Natural environment (for example, with the objects on a mainframe server). The sources can be compared with both, the objects on the server which are stored in the base library (that is, the library which has the same name as in the workspace) and, if private mode has been enabled, with the objects on the server which are stored in a private-mode library. Corresponding commands have been added to the Compare With context menu of Eclipse. See Using the Compare Editor in Using NaturalONE.

Source Editor

It is now possible to disable the protection of lines in sources generated by Construct or by the Code Generation component of NaturalONE. All lines in the generated sources can then be edited. A new preference page for the source editor is available for this purpose. See Protection in Setting the Preferences which is part of Using NaturalONE.

Natural Profiler

The Natural profiler is now supported as a regular feature of NaturalONE. Customer feedback on the former preview version has been implemented. However, not all feedback has been implemented yet. Therefore, a later version of NaturalONE may include changes. Any feedback from our customers is still greatly appreciated. See Using the Natural Profiler in Using NaturalONE.

New features in this version are:

  • The Natural profiler can now also be used in UNIX and Windows environments. The prerequisite is that Natural Version 8.3.1 or above is installed on the server.

    Note:
    It is currently not possible to use the Natural profiler with the local Natural runtime of NaturalONE Version 8.3.2.

  • It is now possible to start the Natural profiler using the Profile command, and the Natural profiler now also makes use of the Default Launch entry. See Starting a Profiler Session in Using NaturalONE.

  • The profiler output has been redesigned. Two pages with the names Hot Spots and Event Trace are now provided. For Natural statements that are shown on the Hot Spots page, it is now possible to directly go to the corresponding line in the source editor. See Viewing the Profiler Output in Using NaturalONE.

Natural Navigator View

With NaturalONE Version 8.3.2 the Natural Navigator view is still provided as a preview version. There will be no support for this preview version. Any feedback from our customers on this new view is greatly appreciated. Since the Natural Navigator view is still under development, a later version of NaturalONE may include substantial changes for this view. See Using the Natural Navigator View in Using NaturalONE.

New features in this version are:

  • Printing
    When you print an object source from the Natural Navigator view, the printout now also contains the source header. See Printing Objects in Using NaturalONE.

    Using the new Print line numbers option in the Natural preferences, you can now determine whether line numbers are to be printed or not. See Natural Navigator in Setting the Preferences which is part of Using NaturalONE.

Arabic Shaping

With NaturalONE Version 8.3.2, support for Arabic shaping is still provided as a preview version. There will be no support for this preview version. Any feedback from our customers on this new feature is greatly appreciated. Since support for Arabic shaping is still under development, a later version of NaturalONE may include substantial changes to this type of support. See Arabic Shaping in Using NaturalONE.

Natural for Ajax / Ajax Developer

This section describes new features and enhancements in Natural for Ajax and Ajax Developer. It covers the following topics:

New Configuration Parameter natuppercase

If your Natural program only allows Latin upper-case characters (for example, if you are using the Hebrew codepage CP803), you can now set the parameter natuppercase="true" in the cisconfig.xml file. In this case, the built-in events are generated in upper case, and URLs to Natural for Ajax pages are handled correctly even if they are specified completely in upper case. See also Code Pages in the Natural for Ajax documentation.

New Built-In Event for Pop-Up Windows

The new built-in event nat:popup.end can now be raised when the user closes a pop-up window with the Close button in the upper right corner of the pop-up window. To activate this new built-in event, the new property popupendmethod of the NATPAGE control has to be set to "true". For more information, see Built-in Events and User-defined Events in the Natural for Ajax documentation.

New Color Properties for the TEXT Control

The TEXT control now supports the new properties bgcolorprop and fgcolorprop which can be used to set the control's background color and foreground color.

New Property for the XCIPOPUPMENU Control

The XCIPOPUPMENU control now supports the new property withinactivenodes which can be used to disable single context menu items. The default value is "false". If set to "true", the adapter is generated with an additional INACTIVE field. By default, the value of the INACTIVE field is "false". If you set it to "true", the corresponding menu item is shown as inactive, that is, it is greyed out and cannot be selected.

Known Issues

Lifecycle Manager

With the current version of NaturalONE, the Lifecycle Manager is not offered for installation. Please continue to use your existing installation which runs with CentraSite Version 8.2.