Magic Software, developers of eDeveloper has just announced that it has won the SAP America’s 2006 Software Solution Partner Quality Excellence Award.

The Award was handed to Magic Software at the SAP Field Kickoff Meeting 2007 in Las Vegas attended by more than 6,000 SAP employees and business partners. Magic Software was recognized for the best overall achievement in quality and excellence among SAP® Business One software solution partners.

Read the full press release here

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For those of you who dont visit our main site very often or who have forgotton where our demo page is, the following videos and demos really are worth watching. Whether for creative inspiration or another source of a fast answer to a problem you may be stuck on.
Flash demos of eDeveloper V10 in action!

Click Download to save the demo as a standalone executable and play it offline. For some demonstrations, a sample eDeveloper V10 application is available for download.

We currently have over 20 videos and demos uploaded and we’re always creating more.

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We’ve been tracking various forums and blogs in recent weeks and have noticed a couple of small rumors building steam that we are about to offer our market leading software development tool ‘eDeveloper’ for free.

Well to crush these rumors and start a real one, the following information is hot off our press.

We are not ‘giving away’ our software.

We are offering a trial system of eDeveloper for free. Its called Discovery Edition and in the new year will be marketed to all aspiring software developers. Discovery is a fully functional development package, with the limitation that it has no run-time licenses (though these can be purchased separately). Unlike other trial versions where certain features are disabled, we wanted to ensure people giving it a go would have full featured access.

Also keep your eyes peeled for the iPod competition we will be running for the best new application developed using Discovery.

More news in the new year.

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This is slightly off topic, but its good news for all you eDevelopers that are working in Enterprise environments and contemplating a Business Integration solution tool.

We have just officially announced that JDE Connect ™ as a fully functional version of our iBOLT Integration technology. JDE Connect eliminates common roadblocks to smooth business operations by connecting accounting and ERP functions to the rest of the business for innovative on demand processes.

We are constantly investigating, researching and working with our network of developers to enhance our solutions and create unified systems.

We spoke with our VP Products & Marketing, Amit Ben Zvi, who had the following to add.

“With the introduction of JDE Connect, Magic Software and our business partners become the leading software solution for modernization and innovation of business processes for more than 3,000 companies in this target market — our advantage is that no programming is required and the solution is available now”

You can read our full Press Release here:

Magic Software Introduces JDE ConnectTM for Oracle JD Edwards Business Process Improvement

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A common request for help we get is; How do I Define Reusable Data Objects?

So here is a quick step by step guide:

Creating a field model

1. Go to the Model repository (Shift+F1), and move to the desired location.

2. Press F4 (Edit->Create Line).

3. Type in the name of the model (here it is “Status Code”).

4. Select the class of Field.

5. Select the attribute you need. For a field model, this would be one of your basic data types: alpha, numeric, date, time, blob, ActiveX, etc.

6. Now go to the model properties pane

(Alt+Enter) and set the properties you need.

Details: In this section, you can specify the length and format of the field in its picture. You can also specify the valid values of the field, either as a range (i.e. A-Z) or as discrete values. Here we have a 1-character uppercase field, with 4 possible values.

Input: You can specify a program that will appear when the user presses F5 or double-clicks (zoom), to aid in selecting a value.

Appearance: Here you can attach a help screen, tooltip, or prompt to show on the prompt line.

Style: This section specifies how the data will appear depending on where it is displayed.

In this case, our status code will appear as a radio button on most GUI display screens, but will show up as a combo box if it is on a GUI table.

Def/Null: Determines how nulls are used, and if the field has a default value.

Storage/SQL: Here you can specify how the data will be stored in the DBMS.

As you can see, the field models give you a lot of control over how data will be formatted and used in your application. Once the field model is created, you can use it for any instance of this type of data. In this case, we would use it for the status code as it exists in records, as it is passed as a parameter, and in temporary variables in programs.

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We’ve searched our help desk for common questions, and this one pops up quite often, How do I Define Reusable Interface Objects?

One of the challenges of today’s programming is maintaining a consistent look and feel across hundreds of open windows, browsers, and reports. Gone are the days of simple text green screens; today you have a choice of hundreds of fonts, sizes, and colors. Setting these choices for each object is horribly time-consuming, and keeping them consistent or making changes is next to impossible, if they are set on an object by - object basis.

Fortunately, eDeveloper makes this sort of thing incredibly easy. eDeveloper contains a robust system of models, which can be used to define the look and feel of every interface object, including text fields, radio buttons, tables, table columns, print formats, Web browser screens, and Windows windows.

When these are set up as models, using them is easy: you just choose the model you want while designing your form. Changing them is even easier: you change the model, and all items that use that model automatically change.

Here we will give an example of setting up a simple model for a field prompt.

Creating a control model

1. Go to the Model repository (Shift+F1), and move to the desired location.

2. Press F4 (Edit->Create Line).

3. Type in the name of the model (here it is “Required Field Prompt”).

4. Select the class you need:

• GUI Display: for any online screen control, which is what we are using in our example.

• GUI Output: for most formatted reports

• Text-based: for text-only output going to another product or older printer.

• Browser: for Browser controls.

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How do I Set the Icon for My Application?

When you are creating your own application, you will probably want your own unique icon. You set this internally to the project, as shown below.

Setting the icon for your application

1. Select File->Application Properties (Ctrl+Shift+P).

2. Type in the icon file name for the icon you want, or use zoom to select the file.

3. Click OK.

Now, when you run the application, you will see the icon at the upper left hand side of the window. You will also see it on the taskbar, and when you press Alt+Tab to switch between windows.

Hint: It is best not to use a hard-coded path name for this sort of internal file, since your user will probably have a different setup than you do. The default path will be your working directory (where the project EDP file is), so you can put your image file there, as in the example, or use a relative sub-directory.

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Creating New Projects and Applications is the first challenge in learning the eDeveloper 10 system and getting started in the fastest time possible. Here is our very quick guide to creating a New Project?

Creating a new project

1. Select File->New Project

2. Type in a Project name.

3. Type in the directory location.

4. Press OK.

If you have a project currently open, it will be closed, and a new project created.

When the project is created, it is created in a new subdirectory of the location path you entered. The Project name will be the directory name, and it will also be the name of the eDeveloper project file, which ends in .edp.

If had a project already open, and you selected Add as module in current project, then the project will also be on the module list.

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How do I Bookmark My Current Location for a Quick Return?

You will probably find that while you are working, there are one or more places you need to return to repeatedly while you are programming and testing. Some of these places might be several layers down a program tree. You can mark these places in a series of bookmarks, which will then be in the Navigator-> Bookmark pane for quick reference.

To bookmark your current location

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+B (or Options->Bookmark).

2. The Bookmark box will appear. Type in whatever name you want for this bookmark.

3. Press Enter (or click OK).

Now, your bookmark will appear in the Navigator->Bookmark section. Clicking on this bookmark will cause you to jump immediately to that spot.

You can change the name of the bookmark by using the popup menu Edit Node option, and delete the bookmark by using F3 (Edit->Delete Line).

Hint: There is a maximum number of bookmarks that can be opened. You can change the maximum number of bookmarks in Options->Settings->Environment->Preferences->Maximum number of bookmarks.

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How do I Check If an Object Is Being Used and What Other Objects Use It?

One of the major issues in all programming is “If I change this item, what other items will be affected?”

One simple change can sometimes cause unintended effects. Fortunately, eDeveloper has an excellent cross-referencing system that makes it easy to find (and if needed, change) all objects that refer to any given object.

Using the cross-reference

1. Move to the item you want to cross-reference.

2. Press Ctrl+F (Edit->Find and Replace->Find Reference).

3. You will get the Find Reference dialog box. By default, eDeveloper checks all references, but if you want, you can narrow the search here.

4. Press Enter (or click OK).

You will then be presented with a list of all the places that use that object.

This list is extremely useful. For one thing, you can click on the list entry and go directly to the place that uses the object. This is very nice when you are “fixing” a lot of references to an object.

You can also delete the entries from the cross-reference. So as you fix each item, just delete the entry (F3, or Edit->Delete Line, just like any other item in eDeveloper).

You can also save the cross-reference to a text file, or print it, using the Edit->Find and Replace->Save Find Result and Print Find Result options.

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