While I wait for my new PC to be set up, I'm reading the WebFOCUS 7.6 documentation and there are several new features related to coding that I found interesting. I thought I'd share these and to ask if people have started using them.

WebFOCUS 7.6.x New Releases

Controlling Underlining of ACROSS Objects

SET ACROSSLINE = (ON|OFF|SKIP)

We can finally control the Across line!

DB_LOOKUP: Retrieving a Value From a Lookup Data Source
This could be handy to get a cross reference value without joining

Assigning Column Numbers to All Fields Used in a Request

SET CNOTATION={ALL|PRINTONLY|EXPLICIT}

This could be very handy when column notation is required - no more guessing at the column number

Displaying SET Parameters by Functional Area

? SET BY CATEGORY categoryname

This is cool

Produce a Summary Operation on a Horizontal Sort Field
This is very practical:

TABLE FILE CAR
SUM
SALES
ACROSS COUNTRY SUBTOTAL
END

Join to a Fixed Format Sequential File Based on Multiple Fields
At last!

Define and Initialize a Hidden Variable
Use

-DEFAULTH &var = value;

to prevent the variable from being prompted!

Displaying a Row for Data Excluded by a Sort Phrase
Really neat! (If I can get it to work)

Creating HTML Reports With Absolute Positioning
DHTML output format type - I'll have to test this out

Load Data Into Fixed Format Sequential Files Using MODIFY
Now this looks interesting!

Suspend Execution for a Specified Number of Seconds (764)
What the ?

Locking Excel Spreadsheet Values (765)
People have been asking for this for a while

Compressing PDF Output Files (765)
Could be useful with email and ftp

Returning an ISO Standard Week Number (765)
Play with the Week Number

Controlling the Format of Reports With Multiple Display Commands (767)

SET DUPLICATECOL={ON|OFF}

Could be handy

Testing Whether a Value Exists in a File in Dialogue Manager
This is very handy, use instead of -READ with -REPEAT

It seems there are more FocalPoint questions related to Dev Studio and GUI report development than coding, I'd be curious to know if Dev Studio has these coding new features built-in or is there a lag time before this stuff gets to Dev Studio. Also, are there features in Dev Studio GUI that are not available in code? I suppose all those new-fangled reports (Precision, Coordinated Compound, HTML Active, etc.) can only be developed in Dev Studio GUI (whatever it's called these days - there's Report Painter, HTML Layout Painter or HTML Composer?, PDF Layout Painter or Document Composer?, etc.).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Francis Mariani,

Thanks Francis

I need more time to test all new functions.
Lookup does not always work, and I was not able to code it via the GUI.

I was afraid that some of the new features don't work as advertised.

Also, there seems to be some inconsistency in the documentation - there are new features described for Developer Studio that are not described for Report Language - does that mean they don't exist in code or is the documentation not up to date?

I always get a kick when I read the SNFs. A lot of the mentioned features have been around for years, they were never documented as a WF feature. DB_LOOKUP for example has been around since at least 5.3. It was never mentioned in the WF doc, but it is mentioned in the Data Migrator doc.

Any v8.x secrets we should know about?

Too secret to mention!