Rapide Block Mode Option

We are developing a new feature for the next release of Rapide called the Block Mode option. This will allow you to generate a web and/or mobile application directly from the Gen block mode screen designs.

This new feature is aimed at Gen applications that are currently using block mode (3270) screens but wish to implement a more modern user interface for a browser or mobile device.

In the past this transformation has required a rework of the UI to use a Gen GUI window design. Because there are several key features of block mode screens that are not supported in the Gen GUI (for example enterable listboxes with more than one column), the conversion to a GUI/Web interface also requires changes to the models and also the behaviour of the application.

Whilst these are not insurmountable issues, they do involve additional development, testing and user training which can add up to a substantial cost, especially for large applications.

With the Rapide Block Mode option, the user interface is generated directly from the screen design, with the option for additional enhancements via the Rapide Designer.

Rapide has been enhanced to support various aspects of a Gen block mode application that have not been required for a GUI design, for example:

• enterable listboxes via the Overlay Control feature
• ability to add additional rows into a listbox via the Auto New Row feature
• support for MAKE and SET NEXTTRAN statements executing on the server when the application uses a client/server architecture
• support for mapping function keys to push buttons and override accelerator keys

Enterable Listboxes

In the previous post, the new Rapide feature of overlay controls was introduced, which allows editable cells in listboxes. These will allow the user to modify the contents of existing rows in a listbox, but what about adding new rows?

A normal Gen listbox does not allow enterable lists unless the listbox only contains one column. To overcome this limitation, a new feature in Rapide called "Auto New Row" has been introduced. When enabled, an additional blank row is automatically added into the listbox. If the user enters data into one or more cells, the row is added to the export group view and a new 'auto row' is added.

In the example below, there are four rows in the group view, with a blank row available for the user to enter data into.