Custom Naming for Data Structure Objects

So far the postings on new features in Studio Developer have concentrated on the action diagrammer, but there also some useful enhancements in other parts of the development tools as well.

You can specify rules for how Studio Developer allocates names to attribute DSD names

Block Line Colours

If you have a high number of nesting levels in your action diagram code and need to decide where to place an escape or next pointer, it can be difficult to choose the correct block of code for the escape / next pointer. 

Studio Developer helps by highlighting the block lines for the currently selected statement

Statement Numbers

An optional feature in the new Studio Developer action diagram editor is the ability to display statement numbers:

TODO markers

In the new Studio Developer action diagram editor, if a NOTE statement contains the keyword “TODO” then the locator bar will indicate their presence with blue marker.

Model wide search and replace

Having concluded the series of 10 cool new features in Studio Developer, I thought why stop there? There are a lot more great new features in the tool, so these posts will continue to showcase them in no particular order.

Studio Developer contains a model-wide Search and Replace tool accessed from the Model Explorer menu which allows you to

Studio Developer Cool New Feature #1 - Undo

To conclude our countdown of 10 cool new features of Studio Developer, at #1 it has to be the single most requested enhancement to CA Gen over the past 30 years - Undo (and Redo)!

When editing action diagrams, UI designs or Block Mode screens, you can

Studio Developer Cool New Feature #2 - Action Diagram Editor

At #2 of the cool new features of Studio Developer is the look and feel of the new action diagram editor. Unlike the legacy Gen toolset where you have to use mouse clicks to build up statements, the new editor allows you to type in the statements using the keyboard in an intuitive manner that is similar to most other code editing workbenches like

Studio Developer Cool New Feature #3 - Partially complete statements

One of the strengths of CA Gen is that it imposes a high degree of integrity on the models. For example, when coding an action diagram, you cannot reference an invalid data object or create an invalid statement.

In the legacy Gen toolset you must fully complete each statement before it is added to the action diagram. This can create a lack of flexibility when coding more complex logic since you may wish to partially complete a statement and then review some other part of the logic or check something elsewhere in the model before completing the statement.

The action diagram editor in Studio Developer has been designed to cater for partially complete or invalid statements, and it only requires

Studio Developer Cool New Feature #4 - Copy/Paste

Like the Gen toolset, Studio Developer allows you to copy & paste statements between different action diagrams in the same model (this is called xcopy in the toolset). In addition, unlike the toolset, Studio Developer allows you to copy statements from one model and paste them into an action diagram belonging to a different model.

When pasting statements that reference views, you can also

Studio Developer Cool New Feature #5 - Code Snippets

Code Snippets are a new concept to CA Gen. They allow you to save selected statements to a file and then insert them at a later point into another action diagram, which can also be in a different model.

They operate in a similar way to copy&paste, except that you save the copied statements to the Snippet library rather than the clipboard. The library of code snippets is built