Akal Tech RSS Feed

Topic: Quick Objects v5 is now available for download!

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:03:19 GMT

Akal Tech is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Quick Objects V5, the premium suite of data access, business logic and code generation suite for .NET Framework. V5 major release of Quick Objects introduces new features and capabilities to improve developer productivity and to produce faster, stable, powerful applications in record time.

The highlights of new features in Quick Objects v5.0 include:

Zero Code SOA capabilities that can be configured to run over WebSevices (and WCF coming soon).
Powerful Sub Query Engine is now available in the Business Logic Framework
Improved Code Generation Engine for Super Fast code generation for large projects.
Enhanced UI for Quick Objects Designer with intuitive interface to manage templates, tables, views, procedures, screens and their properties.
WebXmlForm Component is available in Production ready 2.0 version.
Screen Designer is now available in the Quick Objects Designer in preview version. The Screen Designer can be used to define data entry intensive screen layouts that can include binding information can be turned into fully functional screens with template based code generation.
New set of samples covering Zero Code SOA, WebXmlForm and new tutorials covering new features in Quick Objects Designer.
New set of templates to generate complete WCF projects and classes in both C# and VB.NET

Quick Objects is available in a free as well professional version. Quick Objects can be downloaded today and can be used in .NET 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5 and higher Framework versions.

About Akal Tech:

Akal Tech is a leading component developer with a focus on improving developer productivity. Akal Tech's flagship product line called Quick Objects for .NET includes include Data Access Library, Business Logic Framework, Data Source for ASP.NET, Time Zones Library, and now WebXmlForm. Quick Objects is built with a unique and innovative approach that combines Code Generation, Code Reuse and Object Relational Mapping to provide a robust and powerful business logic and validation framework. For more information and product or evaluation downloads, please visit http://www.quickobjects.com

Copyright © 2003-2010 Akal Tech. All rights reserved. Akal Tech and Quick Objects are trademarks of Akal Tech. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact: Ish Singh ( isingh (AT) akaltech (Dot) com )

President, Akal Tech

Address: 2415 E. Camelback Road, #700, Phoenix, AZ 85016

Phone: +1 (480) 422-4383, Ext: 511

Topic: joined objects field operates reset...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:54:26 GMT

Topic Description: we have the following

1
If ClaimNumber <> String.Empty Then 

2
    .Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.Parse(ClaimNumber)  

3
    If chkWildcardClaimSearch.Checked Then 

4
        .Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.PartialTextMatch = True 

5
        .Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.PartialTextMode = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.PartialTextModes.Contains  

6
    Else 

7
        .Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.Operator = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.Operators.EqualTo  

8
    End If 

9
End If 

10
 

and then later on we do the follow to find out how many rows we have in result to computer page count for paging

.Count() 

after the above call the .Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.Operator is set back to " LIKE "

but it does not seem to do this on fields from the base object ie ".FileNumber"

IS this bug or by design?

Thanks,
Mike

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:54:26 GMT
Reply By: Victor Gavriluk

Topic: Ability to specify alias/property name for constraints

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:27:51 GMT

Topic Description:

I have been playing with the V5 beta. One thing that I would like to see is the ability to override the property names of the constraint names. The naming convention is fine but it would be great if I can override these as desired on individual basis. Just like the Display Name, just add another option for Alias.

Ryan

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:27:51 GMT
Reply By: Victor Gavriluk

Topic: Quick Objects New Version and Complimentary 60 day extension for active subscribers

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:40:55 GMT

Topic Description: Due to the delay in the release of Quick Objects v5 we are providing complimentary 60 day extension to all the current active subscriptions. No action is required on your part and your account will automatically get update when the new release is available.

We appreciate your patience, and want you to know that this delay was just to ensure that we release a stable product with minimal breaking changes.

Regards,

Ish

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:40:55 GMT
Reply By: Ryan Aljets

Topic: Quick Objects V5 Release Coming Soon

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:06:43 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

We have been working very hard to get the new version of Quick Objects ready for release. An earlier post here shows some of the feature enhancements in the new version of Quick Objects Designer. However, it does not cover a completely new feature being introduced.

Quick Objects Designer V5 now allows you to specify screen layouts and then use template based code generation to generate your UI layer. This is not a cookie cutter UI generation tool that produces screens that cannot be modified or customized. Rather, we built this from the ground up to reduce the UI development time and eliminate tedious and time consuming process of creating layouts, binding controls, performing validation, and exchanging values to/from controls with business objects or data access layers.

Best of all the code generation engine can be used to generate code for these layouts in any type of language/platform. Bundled template generates xml format compatible with the WebXmlForm. You can connect the screen layouts to business objects that are based on a table or a view.

Figure 1: List of screens in a given project.

The layout designer is flexible and configurable, and the ability to plug in custom controls or controls from third party is available as well. In addition, you can also map a certain type to a certain control. This mapping allows you to simply drop a “field” onto the screen, and the designer will automatically create the controls and bind it with the field. The controls can be container controls or regular data entry controls, Grid or ComboBox etc.

Figure 2: Configured controls are available in the layout designer.

Configured controls can be easily organized in groups as well.

Figure 3: Control properties/attributes.

Some of the features:

Drag and drop a control, then drop a field onto it to bind the field to the control.

Specify control properties or specify custom attributes that can be used by code generation templates.

Specify Role Based Access information, currently this information is used by the Web Xml Form from the generated xml to show/hide/enable/disable controls based on the user’s role. Custom UI code generation templates can be created with easy, and they can leverage any of the rolbe based access information or custom attributes.

Create complex layouts by embedding any new layout within a cell, combination of cells or the entire row.

Drag and Drop a ComboBox type control, then drop the field to bind the SelectedValue property. Then drop the object that will be used as the Lookup Table. Then drag and drop the fields that will be used for the Value and Display of the lookup items.

Figure 4

Layout designer provides the full object hierarchy including fields and joins in a Tree View making it very easy to access and connect object(s) or their field(s) to a particular control.

Replies: 3
Last Reply: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:06:43 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Not getting the results with Left Join?

Wed, 20 May 2009 07:21:46 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

I can't seem to be getting any results with the following code. What am I doing wrong?

using (Users u = new Users()) 
{ 
    u.ObjectMode = ObjectModes.Search; 
    u.Join_DepartmentID_Departments_Parent(JoinTypes.Left); 
    u.DepartmentID_Departments_Parent.DivisionID.Value = 1; 
    u.Find(); 
    return u.GenericList; 
} 
 

I have checked the AffectedRows property is 0 and ErrorString is also null. The data is also there in the table.

Cheers,
Ryan

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Wed, 20 May 2009 07:21:46 GMT
Reply By: Ryan Aljets

Topic: Minimum System Requirements

Wed, 13 May 2009 13:49:35 GMT

Quick Objects v4.2 documentation is missing a section on System Requirements. Upcoming release of Quick Objects V5's documentation has been fixed. For v4.2 the minimum system requirements are below:

Windows Vista: You must turn off UAC or run the installer and Quick Objects Designer as an administrator.

.NET Framework 2.0 (Service Pack 1), 3.0 or 3.5.

NOTE: If you do not already have .NET 2.0 SP1 or later installed you will need to install it before installing Quick Objects. If you are using Visual Studio 2008 .NET 2.0 SP1 is already installed.

To run the included samples, you will need access to a SQL Server 2000 or a 2005 database server. If you are targeting Oracle, we have included the sample database script file for the Oracle server. Please create the sample database manually and change the connection string in the samples and the samples work with Oracle as well.

Topic: Does .Minimum (and like functions) use the set search fields?

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:04:14 GMT

Topic Description: I am trying to use the .Minimum function, but before I make the call I set some field values thinking that then the .Minimum function would return the minimum for the field given the search values, but I guess not.

Am I correct in this or am I doing something wrong in code below?

            Dim MinDate As String = Nothing 

            Using GetMaxData As New RecentViewedItems  

                With GetMaxData  

                    .ObjectMode = ObjectModes.Search  

                    .Person_ID.Parse(PersonID)  

                    .MaxRecords = .RecentCount  

                    .View_Date.Set(SortTypes.Descending, 1)  

                    ' get minimum  

                    If .Minimum(.View_Date) Then 

                        MinDate = .View_Date.Value.ToString  

                    End If 

                End With 

            End Using

when I check the date I get back it is the minimum of ALL the records not just the ones that it is set to find based on field values and maxrecords

Mike

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:04:14 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Designer crashes on opening readonly .qos files

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:14:04 GMT

Topic Description: Designer crashes when opening a readonly .qos file. I have the .qos file in source control and if I forget to check out and open the file designer crashes. I am not even trying to make any changes to the project and only want to generate the base classes.

For now I just check out and undo it after generating code.

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:14:04 GMT
Reply By: Victor Gavriluk

Topic: Limit what items are loaded by designer

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:37:18 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

I am dealing with a very large database about 2000+ tables/views etc and designer takes a while to load the schema. Is there a way to limit what is loaded in order to make the loading faster? It would be great if there was an option to selectively load tables or views or stored procs rather than the entire database schema.

Cheers,
Ryan

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:37:18 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Be able to define "base" timezone for autoconversions

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:39:15 GMT

Topic Description:

Would like to be able to set in the configuration file, an index for the timezone to be used as the "base" time zone when you set the library to Translate time zones using

<appSettings>
<add key="TranslateTimeZones" value="True" />
</appSettings>

What I mean by it being the base, is that currently when you do the above it translates everything to UTC time to store in the database, but we would liek to be able to specify a certain time zone so that other non object realted processes (auto jobs, Reporting engine, etc) dont have to do all the conversions, and just use the value as stored.

Thanks!

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:39:15 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Upcoming Designer Improvements

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:29:45 GMT

We are working very hard on the upcoming release of Quick Objects V5 and just wanted to share a few of the improvements coming in the Designer application.

The tables grid now allows the user to group by any of the columns and by default it is grouped by the "Owner".
It is now very easy to choose the templates you like to use in your project.
We received lot of feedback on the Template Grid and have taken the steps to make it very easy to view the configured templates as well as make changes to the templates.
We have added several properties to the Table item in order to allow deep customization of the generated code. These properties are available in the built in templates as well as available to any custom template you write.
The description and any other large text properties now allow you to enter text in a larger editor.
Designer provides helpful hints on all aspects of the application, however sometimes the hints can come in your way. Hence, we have added the ability to instantly turn on/off the hints at anytime using either the toolbar button or a keyboard shortcut.

There are new features being introduced in the Business Logic Framework as well, and we hope to make a comprehensive list available as we get closer to the release. The tentative schedule for the new release is first week of May 2009. If you have any further suggestions or questions for us, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing support (at) akaltech (dot) com or by posting in the feedback area of the forums.

Topic: ROWLOCK

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:40:29 GMT

Topic Description: Hey,

NOLOCK is handy, but so is ROWLOCK in many cases. Would it be possible to add a property UseRowLock?

Thanks,
Sigurd

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:40:29 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Tracking commands in transaction

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:38:44 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

I have yet another request. When UseTransaction property is set on an object is there a way to tell how many commands have been executed? If not already there, something that provides this information will be very useful.

Cheers,
Ryan

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:38:44 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Another over load for BaseField.IN

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:37:07 GMT

Topic Description: Was wondering what is thought of being able to pass in a business object into a new overload of the basefield.In method.

It would be nice to create the second business object and just set the search fields and thier values on that object and then pass it to the IN method. That would then do find (if no resultset) and use the first column in resultset (if more than one was set to return) to get the values to set for the "in" clause for the first objects field.

will give example of what I am picturing
Note this is not a great example as this could be done with a simple join, but still shows the basics of the steps code would do.

set up the object you want to get list of values from for use in the IN clause
pass that object into the field of the object you want to do an IN search on

        If Me.TextBox_State.Text.Trim <> String.Empty Then 

            Using Orders As New Orders()  

                Using Customers As New Customers  

                    Customers.SetVisibleFields(True, Customers.CustomerID)  

                    Customers.State.Value = Me.TextBox_State.Text  

                    Customers.State.UseInSearch = True 

                    Orders.CustomerID.In(Customers)  

                    Orders.Find()  

                End Using  

            End Using  

        End If

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:37:07 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Not sure how to share connection automatically

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:35:40 GMT

Topic Description: I know I can share connection between two objects by using the AssignConnection method. I am working on a large scale ASP.NET application and I have an object that gets created on every page request (in a base class). Right now I have to call the AssignConnection method everytime I create a new instance of an entity. Is there a way this could be done automatically?

It works just fine if I don't share the connection but I really would like to use this feature as it will help reduce the number of connections open to the DB.

I am sorry if I am missing something obvious but I looked through documentation and samples and don't see anything that covers this scenario.

Scott

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:35:40 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: How about generating an Enum of field names?

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:07:12 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

I have yet another small request/suggestion. It would be great if QO designer could also generate an enum of field names (same as property names).

Cheers,
Ryan

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:07:12 GMT
Reply By: Victor Gavriluk

Topic: Ability to open containing folder from QO Designer

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:15:48 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

How about QO Designer providing a quick way to open the folder that contains the .qos file. Also it will be useful to be able to open the folder for a template or open the template in an editor directly from the Designer.

Cheers,
Ryan

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:15:48 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Asynchronous Patterns

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:23:30 GMT

Topic Description: Any plans to add async method signatures to Quick Objects? Would be really cool if QO could plug-in directly to async scenarios without extra programming, similar to SqlDataReader with BeginExecuteReader and EndExecuteReader.

Thanks,

Thomas

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:23:30 GMT
Reply By: Sigurd Decroos

Topic: Unions

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:16:11 GMT

Topic Description: Is there a way to do unions with QO? Looking for something that could produce results similar to this query:

SELECT MyVarCharColumn FROM [TableA] WHERE MyVarCharColumn LIKE @criteria

UNION

SELECT MyOtherVarCharColumn FROM [TableB] WHERE MyOtherVarCharColumn LIKE @criteria

ORDER BY 1

Thanks,

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:16:11 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Prompt for decision on refresh from database

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:18:51 GMT

Topic Description: In the designer, when invoking the "Refresh from database" command, it would be great to be presented with a dialog displaying the new schema changes detected, and by default, all changes are set to "Accept". The user would then be able to optionally make changes to the selections, then press the OK button to apply the changes to the project.

Thanks!

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:18:51 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Designer - Context menu to generate C# code on selected table(s)

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:04:34 GMT

Topic Description: I may be doing something incorrectly, but I've noticed on my system that if only a single table has the checkbox column checked, and "Generate C# Classes" is clicked, then no joins are generated for any related tables in the grid that do not have the checkbox checked. This makes sense, since that column is acting as a "include in your object schema" filter. However, a common scenario is that a change has been made to a single table's schema, and one wishes to update the base class for the corresponding object. Under this model, one has to re-generate code for at least that table plus all related tables (less tedious in the UI to just regenerate all). When working with with a large database schema, the generation time of the entire project can potentially take a bit long in programmer's time ; ) As a time-saving measure, it would be handy to be able to generate code for tables that are atomically selected via row selection (as opposed to checkbox selection). One way to implement such a feature might be to label the checkbox column as "Include in Schema", then provide a context menu for "Generate Base Classes for Selected", where the user has selected one or more tables they wish to refresh using traditional click + <SHIFT> or <CTRL> selection.

Thanks,

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:04:34 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Add "My Posts" tab

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:27:07 GMT

Topic Description: Would be useful to have a "My Posts" tab added to the tab strip control, where clicking takes one to a listing of their posts, in descending order.

Thank you,

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:27:07 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Hyperlink to new posts and provide more meta-data

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:45:18 GMT

On the forum listing home page, there is a "Last Topic / Started By" column that lists the datetime and post author of the latest post in that forum. Recommend:

Include x number of characters of the post title
Hyperlink this text directly to the post

Thanks,

Thomas

Topic: Notification of thread updates.

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:28:48 GMT

Topic Description: I know there is an RSS feature for subscribing to a forum, but it might be useful to send the poster an email when a thread that they started receives replies.

Thanks,

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:28:48 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Getting total record count in paging scenario

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:30:38 GMT

Topic Description:

I was playing with the built-in paging capabilities:

Setting PageIndex to the 0-based index of the desired page
Setting PageSize to the number of records per page

However, I am unable to find a third property, that would supply total number of records in the database matching the search criteria. I need this third piece in order to calculate the total number of pages, for display in a paging control. AffectedRecords is equal to the number of records returned by the query (thus, is <= PageSize). Calling Count() makes a second trip to the database, and does a COUNT(*) with no WHERE clause. Is there currently a means to obtain this information from the business object?

Thanks!

Thomas

Replies: 3
Last Reply: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:30:38 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Designer - Refresh from Database Shortcut Key and Button

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:08:23 GMT

Topic Description:

Couple of thoughts about streamlining the refresh process from inside of the QO designer:

Would be nice to be able to hit <F5> at any point, and have the designer refresh schema from the database.
Would also be cool to have a "Refresh" button on the toolstrip, instead of needing to go into the File menu.

Thanks!

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:08:23 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: V4 Designer - Drag and Drop file into Designer

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:12:16 GMT

Topic Description: The new v4 designer is really nice. Would be great though to be able to drag and drop a *.qos file into it for quick loading.

Thanks,

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:12:16 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Advice needed on handling updating objects while in a loop of objectcollection items

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:26:08 GMT

Topic Description: WHEW! that subject was a mouthful, or should I say a textboxful! LOL

anyways here is the situation, hopefully I can explain it clearly so I can get advice on how I should handle it.

we have an object base on a table that is a queue for items that need to be sent. The problem is that this can be a long running process to compile and send these items so we want to update the table to show it is being processed so that if another run of the processing system starts this item would not be found in the find run to get items to be processed.

    Private Sub ProcessFolderSendQueue()  

        ' get reference to FolderSend  

        Using ReadyItems As New BizLibrary.FolderSend()  

            ' get the items ready to send (status=2)  

            ReadyItems.ObjectMode = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.ObjectModes.Search  

            ReadyItems.Status.Parse(2)  

            ' set sort order  

            ReadyItems.Send_Method.Set(Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.SortTypes.Ascending, 1)  

            ReadyItems.Date_Submitted.Set(Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.SortTypes.Ascending, 2)  

            ' do find  

            ReadyItems.Find()  

            ' loop through any found  

            For Each ReadyItem As BizLibrary.FolderSend In ReadyItems.List  

                ' set as processing  

                ReadyItem.MarkProcessingStarted()  

                ' do processing  

                ' set as sent  

                ReadyItem.MarkProcessingComplete()  

            Next 

        End Using  

    End Sub

what I am wondering is how I should handle the MarkProcessingStarted() and MarkProcessingComplete() methods on the object.

what checks should I do in those methods? should I check the object is loaded using "Me.IsLoaded" first? should I just do this

Public Sub MarkProcessingStarted()  

    With Me 

        .ObjectMode = ObjectModes.Save  

        .Status.Value = 3     ' 3= processing  

        .Update()  

    End With 

End Sub

or should I create a new object and run update on that object?

Is it reccomended (or safe) to go updating the objects while they are being processed as they are in the loop of the item colelction?

Thanks!

Mike

Replies: 3
Last Reply: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:26:08 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: BaseField.SetSort method

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:05:50 GMT

Topic Description: I know it is only really saving one line of code, but I think it would make it nicer looking code if you could do this:

 
SomeObject.FieldtoSort.SetSort(1, Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.SortTypes.Ascending)

instead of

 
SomeObject.FieldtoSort.SortPosition = 1  

SomeObject.FieldtoSort.Sort = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.SortTypes.Ascending

It is really more noticable when you have multiple fields you are sorting on so instead of each field having two lines of code to set up sort on it you only need one.

Just my two cents :)

Mike

Replies: 4
Last Reply: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:05:50 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Data Source Designer - taskbar icon

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:24:35 GMT

Topic Description: When the QO Data Source Designer is open, it displays as a separate item on the taskbar, and uses the Visual Studio icon. It may be a better idea to use a unique icon, so as not to give the impression that an additional instance of VS is open.

Thanks,

Thomas

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:24:35 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Powerful product combined with excellent support

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:21:45 GMT

Topic Description: I have been meaning to post this message for a while so here it is. Let me start by saying that your support is great and always very timely. We are very happy with the quick turnarounds for bug fixes and updates. The product is well designed and can handle almost all complex requirements. Best part is that there is no compromise on performance and your team is among the few who take customer's feedback seriously!

Best Wishes,
Wendy

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:21:45 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: GetObjectByPK

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:30:59 GMT

Topic Description: Hey all,

I think it would be handy to have a function like this:

Public Function GetCustomerByPK(ByVal ID As GuidField) As Customer
    For Each objCustomer In Me.GenericList
        If objCustomer.CUST_ID.Value = CUST_ID.Value Then
            Return objCustomer
        End If
    Next
    Return Nothing
End Function

Greetings,
Sigurd

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:30:59 GMT
Reply By: Victor Gavriluk

Topic: Is there some way I can get failed validators on a field?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:15:33 GMT

Topic Description: I have defined multiple validation rules in the designer and that works great. If the validation fails I can use the ErrorString property to get all the error message. But I would like to get access to all the validators that failed. Is that possible?

Ryan

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:15:33 GMT
Reply By: Ryan Aljets

Topic: Designer improvements

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:47:37 GMT

Topic Description: Hey all,

I have some ideas to improve the designer a bit or at least make it more user friendly.

When changes are made to the options, you have to press 'Apply' before saving the changes. This could actually be removed and always apply changes before saving. I see no use to apply changes without saving them.
Enhance the template grid so all of the templates are visible at the same time. This list could even be put in a seperate form (docking?), because 99% of the time, you don't need it.
Most of the options need to be set only once at the beginning a new project. So, a wizard would be very handy here. After finishing this wizard, these options should be available on a seperate form (docking?).
The tooltips are very nice, but disturbing. They are too big, sometimes they popup and I can't see what's behind them. This is confusing and sometimes frustrating. Instead of using tooltips, use a seperate dock (bottom or so) and place the help text there. This way it is always visible and user who don't want to see it can hide or close it.
A descent menu and toolbar. CTRL+S and CTRL+O will already be added in latest release which will help a lot already, but more work is needed. At startup of the Designer, it would be nice to show a list of the recent projects, kinda like Visual Studio. This would reduce the number of clicks even more.
Generating the code goes fast, but it always generates ALL objects. Provide a way to select what objects should be generated. It would be very handed to get a notification (or a visible sign) which objects are new and which objects will be overwritten.

Another point that I find annoying is the shortcut to the website being placed on the desktop. Also the sample folder shortcut shouldn't be there. Perhaps you can add this as an option to the installer so everybody can chose this for own use.

Greetings,
Sigurd

Replies: 4
Last Reply: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:47:37 GMT
Reply By: Ryan Aljets

Topic: Best Practice advice on multi table inserts

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:35:02 GMT

Topic Description: We are writing an "assignment" creation form and are wondering the best way to do all the inserts into the tables we store the data in.

we are setting UseTransaction = true on each object we use.

Q1) what is the proper way to do all these inserts able be able to roll back ALL of them if ONE fails on insert? are these all one transaction? is there a way to have one transaction we have to commit/rollback?

My co worker had at first had the first table doing the .Insert command with UseTransaction set true, and then going through and setting the other objects up for the inserts and doing each one's .Insert and then after the final one inserted doing all the .CommitTransaction calls or .RollbackTransaction call. He was getting a SQL timeout when it went to do the first CommitTransaction call. So I went under the premise that since the transaction was started back when the first .Insert was done and he did much processing since then we should move all the .Inserts to after setting up all the objects.

Q2) Is this right thinking on the process? Should we set up all the objects and then do all the .Insert calls and then commit and rollback as needed?

we have one main assignment table which the GUID is used for the other table inserts, and then a Parties table which the GUID id is used for some other tables containing contact info for the parties.

Thanks,

Mike

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:35:02 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Quick Objects V4.2 - Minor Upgrade is available ( v4.2.2008.15 )

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:46:59 GMT

Quick Objects V4.2 is now available and it is free upgrade for all current subscription customers as well as any licensed users of 4.0.

Quick Objects Version 4.2 is better than ever and with the new release you are able to customize the code generation even further. Compact Framework now supports VB.NET generated code as well. With enhanced support for visual data binding, error and validation handling, you can build rich interface application with super ease.

Whats new?

Quick Objects Designer:

Designer now allows you to specify your own names for the generated objects.
Designer and code generation customization and usability enhancements.
Additional Table properties allow you to take advantage of new features offered by Business Logic Framework such as Security/Permission Provider, Custom Info (passed to templates).
Minor bug fixes with MRU list and "add" validation screen.

Business Logic Framework:

Load on demand for parent objects and child collections.
Support for self referencing tables with load on demand capability.
Enhanced support for data binding with automatic validation and ErrorProvider support.
Zero code updates/inserts when bound to data bound controls in WinForms.
Minor bug fixes in RangeFieldValidator, In (list of value) method.
Improved support and control over validation and errors.
Each field now supports IComparable

If you have any questions or feedback please contact us.

Topic: How do I know what has changed?

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:44:53 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

I have a business object that is bound to a form using BindingSource but before I save the changes I need to show the changes made by the user. I think this should be a simple question but I didn't see any sample or tutorial showing how I could do this. I am thinking that may be I should clone the object after I load it so I can compare the two before updating. Or is there a better way?

Ryan

Replies: 3
Last Reply: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:44:53 GMT
Reply By: Ryan Aljets

Topic: comparing two fields to each other in table

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:36:20 GMT

Topic Description: another question that is probably simple but I am missing it!

I took a look at the samples quickly to see if this was covered and didnt find it there so I will ask here. I am probably missing it and its right in front of my face, and just first time doing this.

We are trying to get back records where two columns in same table match each other. both columns are Unique Identifiers, just in case that is useful info. we are also using the latest 3.x version and have not had time to install 4.0 yet

I figure this should be fairly straight forward but cant figure out what to set on the column in the object. We tried adding a custom field and got really close but are running into an issue with the fact that the value in the where clause is passed as a parameter so it is like adding quotes around the 2nd field's name so obviously that comparison wont match up a GUID to a string like '[tablename].[fieldname]'

anyways heres the code we have that is in a specialized "shared" method in a partial class for the object.

Public Shared Function FindParentItemsOnly()  

    Me.ObjectMode = ObjectModes.Search  

    Me.UseAllFieldsForDisplay(False)  

    Me.ID.Visible = True 

    Me.Account_Name.Visible = True 

    Dim newField As StringField = New Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.StringField(Me)  

    Me.Fields.Add(newField)  

    newField.IsCustom = True 

    newField.UseInSearch = True 

    newField.Visible = False 

    newField.Name.Value = "cast([" & Utilities.GetTableName(Me.ID) & "]." & Utilities.GetObjectName(Me.ID.Name, False, True, Me.ID.BusinessObject.DBType) & " as varchar(50))" 

    newField.ResultSetName = "CompareCols" 

    newField.Value = "cast([" & Utilities.GetTableName(Me.ID) & "]." & Utilities.GetObjectName(Me.Parent_Account.Name, False, True, Me.Parent_Account.BusinessObject.DBType) & "as varchar(50))" 

    newField.Operator = Operators.EqualTo  

    newField.SearchMode = SearchModes.Value  

    newField.PartialTextMatch = False 

    Me.Entity_ID = New Guid(strEntityID)  

    Me.Status.Value = 1  

    Dim params As New ArrayList()  

    Dim strSQL As String = Me.GetSelectSQL(params)  

    Return Me.Find()  

end function

so now you can tell me I am doing it wrong and show me how to do it in 3-5 lines instead of all the newField stuff I am trying.

Thanks,
Mike

Replies: 5
Last Reply: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:36:20 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: build against silverlight runtime

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:40:47 GMT

Topic Description: I am not able to add my class library build with Quick Objects to my Silverlight project. Is there a work around for this?

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:40:47 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Concurrency management columns

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:41:17 GMT

Topic Description: First of all I want to thank you for such a great product and fast support. I have a feature request for the designer app. I think it would be great if designer allowed us to specify what fields should/should not be included in the concurrency check. I know I can do this in code but being able to just set the default in designer will be great.

Another idea we had was to be able to specify columns that are automatically updated. We add a CreateDate and ModifiedDate columns to each table. It would be great if we could specify in the Designer and have the objects automatically update the ModifiedDate on each update and only insert the CreateDate.

Btw, we love the easy template configuration capability. Is there any documentation on how we can create custom templates?

Replies: 4
Last Reply: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:41:17 GMT
Reply By: Sigurd Decroos

Topic: Doing Left/Right Joins

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:34:32 GMT

Topic Description: One of the most frequent questions we get in email is how to do a left join. Here is a short code snippet that does just that.

using (Orders o = new Orders()) 
{ 
  o.Join_SalesPersonID_Users_Parent(JoinTypes.Left); 
  o.Find(); 
} 

Now if you using the strongly typed collection and you need to check if there is no associated User record you can do it like this:

foreach (Orders order in o.List) 
{ 
    if (!order.SalesPersonID.IsNull) 
    { 
        MessageBox.Show(order.SalesPersonID_Users_Parent.FirstName.Value 
            + "  " + 
            order.SalesPersonID_Users_Parent.LastName.Value 
            ); 
    } 
} 
 

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:34:32 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: How do I add columns dynamically?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:44:40 GMT

Topic Description: Your product looks really good but I have a scenario that I am not sure if it can handle or not. I have a few tables that the "end user" can customize by adding custom columns. We are able to execute alter statements without any problem, and have the meta data for custom columns in xml files. What I would like to do is somehow tell the Quick Objects to include the custom columns in the Find methods so I could get a dataset with the custom columns included. This needs to happen at runtime and it is not possible to regen the code.

I have looked high and low for this type of functionality but no product so far can handle this. So can you do this?

Cheers!
Ryan

Replies: 4
Last Reply: Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:44:40 GMT
Reply By: Ryan Aljets

Topic: Quick Objects V4 - Minor Update is available ( v4.0.2008.23 )

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:56:24 GMT

Quick Objects v4.0.2008.23 is now available and replaces the 4.0.2008.10 release.

The latest build includes a few minor bug fixes to the installer, samples, Quick Objects Designer, and updates to templates to better support complex databases.

Also, Quick Objects Designer has a new feature that allows you to configure pre-built templates very easily. A big thanks to everyone who provided feedback and feature requests!

Thanks,
Ish

Topic: QO Designer Making WCF Support Optional in .NET 3.x

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:44:36 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

When generating code that targets .NET 3.0 or later the attributes for WCF support are automatically generated. In the past if i did not want WCF support I simply generated code with .NET 2.0 as target. This worked great but if I used this method in .NET 3.5 I loose the LINQ support. So I would like to suggest making WCF support as an option that we can set in the designer, and the code generation should only emit WCF attributes if WCF support is turned on.

For right now I have solved this by creating a copy of the template and commenting out the attributes but just thought it would be a useful option.

Btw, I really like the ability to configure any number of templates. Great job on 4.0 and I am happily using LINQ and MySQL with QO!

Scott

Replies: 1
Last Reply: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:44:36 GMT
Reply By: Ish Singh

Topic: Quick Objects V4 is Here – Featuring high performance LINQ enabled Business Logic Framework

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:50:28 GMT

Akal Tech is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Quick Objects V4, the premium suite of data access and business logic components for .NET Framework. V4 major release of Quick Objects expands the suite by introducing a ground breaking WebXmlForm component for ASP.NET along with impressive list of new features.

Quick Objects V4 for .NET 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 features the widest range and unmatched capabilities in the Code Generation and ORM Tools industry. The new release includes a fast LINQ provider allowing developers to write their queries using LINQ and fully leverage the power of centralized business and validation logic. Quick Objects V4 now also supports MySQL, VistaDB, Access, and SQL CE databases in addition to SQL Server and Oracle. In addition to LINQ, powerful code generation engine and reverse engineering of Views and Stored procedures is available as well. Comprehensive samples and source code is included covering ASP.NET, WinForms, Web Services, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), LINQ in both C# and VB.NET.

“Quick Objects is truly unique. With key focus on code reuse, code generation, centralized logic and validation Quick Objects not only cuts down on the development time but also provide consistency, strongly typed model, security and high performance to the everyday application development”, says Ish Singh, the company’s president. “Quick Objects is built with the target of making application development simple. Hence the focus has been on providing an API that offers flexibility, control, and power without compromising on performance, security, stability or features. ”

Quick Objects is available in a free as well professional version. Quick Objects can be downloaded today at www.quickobjects.com and can be used in .NET 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5 Framework versions.

More Information:

About Akal Tech:

Akal Tech is a leading component developer with a focus on improving developer productivity. Akal Tech's flagship product line called Quick Objects for .NET includes include Data Access Library, Business Logic Framework, Data Source for ASP.NET, Time Zones Library, and now WebXmlForm. Quick Objects is built with a unique and innovative approach that combines Code Generation, Code Reuse and Object Relational Mapping to provide a robust and powerful business logic and validation framework. For more information and product or evaluation downloads, please visit http://www.quickobjects.com

Copyright © 2003-2008 Akal Tech. All rights reserved. Akal Tech and Quick Objects are trademarks of Akal Tech. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact: Ish Singh ( isingh (AT) akaltech (Dot) com )
President, Akal Tech
Address: 2415 E. Camelback Road, #700, Phoenix, AZ 85016
Phone: +1 (480) 422-4383, Ext: 511

Topic: Search Groups

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:42:40 GMT

Topic Description: Hello,

This may look a little odd, but I'm working with a table schema that has some overloaded fields. I would like to do a search like this:

WHERE
    Entity.LastName = @criteria
OR
(
    Entity.IsCompany = 1
    AND
    Entity.FirstName = @criteria
)

How can I accomplish this using Search Groups?

Thanks!

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:42:40 GMT
Reply By: Thomas W

Topic: QO Data Source - Select method - List of classes not alphabetized

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:43:14 GMT

Topic Description: When using the ASP.Net QO Data Source, and launching the configuration wizard, on the "Select" tab, recommend that the values in the "Choose a Class" drop-down list be alphabetized.

Thanks

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:43:14 GMT
Reply By: Thomas W

Topic: Quick Objects Designer crashed on load

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:07:39 GMT

Topic Description: Running Windows Vista, QO 3.5...it has been a while since I open QO Designer on my computer. Upon launching it today, it continually would crash after the splash screen appeared. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much debugging information...just a standards Windows Vista AppCrash message with PID etc. Running an install/repair did not resolve the issue.

I did manage to fix it by uninstalling QO, removing QO data from Program Files and App Data locations (after backing up license files!), then re-installing it. After the re-install, although LicenseManager reported a successful download of license keys, QO Designer reported that the version had expired. I had to actually copy the *.lic files I had backed up previously into the "C:\Program Files\Akal Tech\Quick Objects V3\NET20\BIN" folder, and then the issues was resolved.

My issue may have been related to previously doing an upgrade from 3.3 to 3.5.

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:07:39 GMT
Reply By: Thomas W

Topic: Custom Find calls from DataSource

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:23:22 GMT

Topic Description: not sure if this is possible, and if it is how difficult it would be...

Right now the Akaltech DataSource control only works with the "Find" and the "Load" methods on the objects.

we have already written many "custom find" calls on our objects. I am just wondering if it would be useful to be able to have the DataSource be able to call any mehtods on the object it finds that returns a dataset? I guess the DataSource could go through the object's methods using reflection and find calls that return datasets and list them in a drop down, and then if those methods are looking for any values to be passed in to allow those to be specified.

Just a wild idea... :)

Mike

Replies: 2
Last Reply: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:23:22 GMT
Reply By: Mike Hamilton

Reply: Re: joined objects field operates reset...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:54:26 GMT

This is a bug and not by design. We use of LIKE for certain database collation issue. I have logged this as bug. We will investigate it and provide fix schedule.

Regards,
Victor

Quick Objects Support

Reply: Re: joined objects field operates reset...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:32:33 GMT

You can IGNORE the following line from previous post:

but it does not seem to do this on fields from the base object ie ".FileNumber"

as I just test and that field seems to get reset too...

thanks,
Mike

Reply: Re: Ability to specify alias/property name for constraints

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:27:51 GMT

Hello Ryan,

Thank you for your feedback. I think this is very useful idea. We will try to include this in the next minor release scheduled for Q1 2010.

Victor
Quick Objects Support

Reply: Re: Quick Objects New Version and Complimentary 60 day extension for active subscribers

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:40:55 GMT

We have been using the v5 beta for a couple of weeks and eagrly waiting for the final release. We were suprised how smooth the upgrade went so I think the delay was certainly worth it. Of course the free extension doesn't hurt :)

I just wish more vendors did what you guys do, i.e. test and fix before release and not break our apps with every upgrade.

Cheers,
Ryan

Reply: Re: Quick Objects V5 Release Coming Soon

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:06:43 GMT

Hi Ryan,

We are running behind schedule this time, but we made the decision to delay the release to ensure that we deliver a quality product that our customers (like yourself) are accustomed to. Please know that this is not our normal release schedule. We have made significant changes to the designer (still limiting the breaking changes to minimal) and that has caused the delay in getting the beta ready. I am expecting that sample/documentation updates will be completed in the next two weeks and that is when the beta will be available, and probably another two weeks for the final release based on the feedback we get from the beta.

Hope that answers your question and apologize if this delay caused any inconvenience.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Quick Objects V5 Release Coming Soon

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:51:09 GMT

Looks very promising!! When is the beta or release going to be available? I am very excited and really looking forward to the new version.

Cheers,
Ryan

Reply: Re: Quick Objects V5 Release Coming Soon

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:29:54 GMT

Additional changes that are coming in V5 Designer:

Completely replaced how the designer handles database views, and now all the table customization functionality is available for views as well.
Same set of templates now generate code for Tables or Views. When creating custom templates no extra work is needed to cover both the views and tables.
Template Wizard that allows you to change the configured templates very easy at any given time.
Partial code generation allows you to highlight any combination of items to generate code for

Reply: Re: Not getting the results with Left Join?

Wed, 20 May 2009 07:21:46 GMT

Victor,

Thank you for the reply. I added ValueOrNull and it works perfectly!

Cheers,
Ryan

Reply: Re: Not getting the results with Left Join?

Tue, 19 May 2009 18:02:49 GMT

Can you please check see if you have record in departments table with division id 1?

In case you looking to get result where either division id is null or division id is equal to 1 then you need to specify ValueOrNull to SearchMode property of the division id field.

u.DepartmentID_Departments_Parent.DivisionID.SearchMode = SearchModes.ValueOrNull; 
u.Find(); 

Please let me know if this don't resolve your problem.

Regards,
Victor

Quick Objects Support

Reply: Re: Does .Minimum (and like functions) use the set search fields?

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:04:14 GMT

Mike,

MaxRecords and Sort will have no affect with the above code. When you call the Minimum method it will include the search criteria so the SQL will look somewhat like this.

select min(view_date) from RecentViewedItems where person_id = @param1 

For example, consider the following code:

Using order As Orders = New Orders() 
   With order 
      .ObjectMode = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.ObjectModes.Search 
      .CustomerID.Value = 1 
      If .Minimum(.OrderDate) Then 
         MessageBox.Show(.OrderDate.ToString()) 
      End If 
   End With 
End Using 
 

The above code returns the minimum OrderDate of any order placed by the Customer with ID of 1.

Your code should work as you are expecting so I would check the value of the PersonID variable.

Please let me know if this doesn't resolve the problem.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Designer crashes on opening readonly .qos files

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:14:04 GMT

Thank you for reporting this problem. This already been fixed for upcoming release.

Regards,
Victor

Quick Objects Support

Reply: Re: Be able to define "base" timezone for autoconversions

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:39:15 GMT

Mike,

Thank you for the suggestion. We should be able to get this added in the v5.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Limit what items are loaded by designer

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:37:18 GMT

Ryan,

Thank you for the suggestion. We'll try to add selective loading of tables/views/procs in the v5 if not we'll get it included in a minor update after v5.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: ROWLOCK

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:40:29 GMT

Hi Sigurd,

It has been added to our feature requests and hopefully this will make it into the next major version.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Tracking commands in transaction

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:38:44 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion. I can see how this will be useful.

This has been added to request list.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Another over load for BaseField.IN

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:37:07 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion. Two options are there for implementing this:

1. The In method runs a Find and creates a list of values which is used in the SQL. (as you suggest)
2. The In method indicates to business object that you like to create a subquery to be used with the IN clause.

This feature request is now in our list, and most likely we'll be able to provide both options.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Not sure how to share connection automatically

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:35:40 GMT

Scott,

You can use the constructor overload and pass the instance from your base class.

Orders o = new Orders(this.BaseObject);  

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: How about generating an Enum of field names?

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:07:12 GMT

Hello

Thanks for the suggestion. I have logged this feature request.

Best Regards,
Victor

Quick Objects Support

Reply: Re: Ability to open containing folder from QO Designer

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:15:48 GMT

This has been added to our request list.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Asynchronous Patterns

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:23:30 GMT

Hey,

Count me in for this request. This would be a major advantage for webservices and smartclient applications.

Greetings,
Sigurd

Reply: Re: Getting total record count in paging scenario

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:30:38 GMT

Hi Thomas,

If you have the ObjectMode set to Search on the business object, as you load values into fields they get marked with UseInSearch = True. You can set the ObjectMode = None before loading the values this will ensure that only the fields originally marked for search will be included in where clause, however, the current loaded field values will be used.

It is best to call the Count() immediately before or after the Find call. I have added an item in requested feature list that will automatically call the Count (when paging is turned on) and retain the value in the business object for later use.

Happy Holidays!
Ish

Reply: Re: Getting total record count in paging scenario

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:00:30 GMT

Thanks Ish, this has been working well. I did notice one gotcha though. I'm not sure if this is only constrained to this scenario, but here is a brief description:

Create a search entity, and set a couple of WHERE clause conditions. A couple of fields are made not visible.
Left outer join this to another table entity. All fields set to not visible, then a couple of fields are made visible.
Paging set to return first page, page size is 15.
I run search. Expected results are returned (1-15 of 78 records)
Here is the interesting part:

If I immediately call Count(), I get the correct result (78).
If I instead, retrieve the value of any one of the returned fields from the search, calling count now returns 0. An inspection of the SQL statement sent by Count() reveals that the field that was examined is now being incorporated into the WHERE clause.

Not sure if this is by design or not, but since the fields are only being read (not changed), I would expect the WHERE clause used by Count() to also remain unchanged.

Thanks,

Thomas

Reply: Re: Asynchronous Patterns

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:46:52 GMT

HI Thomas,

We have async data fetching in our wish-list. At this point, I am not sure when we can get this implemented but this is something we are considering adding to QO.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Prompt for decision on refresh from database

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:18:51 GMT

This feature has been in our list for a while and since no one was asking for it, we just let it sit by. Being able to see the changes is certainly going to be very useful. I will check in and see what will it take to get this completed.

Thanks for the great feedback!
Ish

Reply: Re: Unions

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:16:11 GMT

Hi Thomas,

UNIONS are not directly handled by QO but you can still very easily do this. I have the sample code below:

using (Customers customer = new Customers()) 
{ 
    customer.ObjectMode = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.ObjectModes.Search; 
    customer.FirstName.StartsWith("F"); 
    customer.SetVisibleFields(true, customer.FirstName); 
 
    Products product = new Products(customer); // share the connection 
    product.ObjectMode = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.ObjectModes.Search; 
    product.ProductName.Contains("Q"); 
    product.SetVisibleFields(true, product.ProductName); 
 
    ArrayList ar = new ArrayList(); 
 
    string sql = customer.GetSelectSQL(ref ar); 
    sql = sql + " UNION " + product.GetSelectSQL(ref ar); 
    sql = sql + " ORDER BY 1"; 
    DataSet ds = customer.RunSQLReturnDataset(sql, ar); 
} 
 

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Notification of thread updates.

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:28:48 GMT

The email notifications are planned and most likely they will be implemented early next year.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Add "My Posts" tab

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:27:07 GMT

Hi Thomas,

This feature has already been added and will be available online this week along with other enhancements including ability to limit search to specific areas of our website.

Love the feedback so keep it up!
Ish

Reply: Re: Designer - Context menu to generate C# code on selected table(s)

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:04:34 GMT

Hi Thomas,

This feature is planned and will be included in near future. You can see another discussion with a similar request here. The actual implementation we are going to release is going to be very similar to what you have described. Btw, you can already use <SHIFT>/<CTRL> combination to select multiple table rows (and then set the common properties on them). The same applies to the columns as well.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Getting total record count in paging scenario

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:51:49 GMT

Hi Thomas,

You have the correct idea of calling the Count() method, and it will make a second trip to database. However, the Count is fairly trivial for a database to do (assuming you have a primary key/index on your table).

Essentially, we could process both the Select and the Count statement within single call to the database using something called MARS, but that feature is not supported by all databases.

Here is a code sample on how to get the Count of all the records that match your search criteria. For this example, I hade 50000+ rows matching my criteria, but I only wanted 5 rows after skipping the first 5.

using (Customers customer = new Customers()) 
{ 
    customer.ObjectMode = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.ObjectModes.Search; 
    customer.FirstName.StartsWith("FN"); 
    customer.StartRowIndex = 5; 
    customer.PageSize = 5; 
    int count = customer.Count(); 
    this.GridView.DataSource = customer.Find(); 
    this.GridView.DataMember = customer.GetResultSetName(); 
} 
 

Hope that helps,
Ish

Reply: Re: Designer - Refresh from Database Shortcut Key and Button

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:08:23 GMT

Good suggestion, will be included in next release. Believe it or not, just a day ago I was thinking of this as well!

:-)
Ish

Reply: Re: V4 Designer - Drag and Drop file into Designer

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:12:16 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion, this is already done and will be part of the next release.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: QO Data Source - Select method - List of classes not alphabetized

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:43:14 GMT

Thanks Ish, I cracked open the v4 designer yesterday, and was glad to see the changes incorporated!

Reply: Re: Advice needed on handling updating objects while in a loop of objectcollection items

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:26:08 GMT

Mike,

One more trick and word of caution. When you are looping through items and you want to run another query/select against the same object, I highly recommend using the AddResultToDataSet = False.

Here is an example:

    Public Function IsProcessed() As Boolean 
        Me.AddResultsToDataSet = False 
        Me.UseAllFieldsForDisplay(False) 
        Me.OrderProcessed.Visible = True 
        If Me.Load() And Me.OrderProcessed.Value Then 
            Return True 
        End If 
        Return False 
    End Function 
 
 

Ofcourse if your field can contain null values you can also do a check for .IsNull before checking the value :)

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: BaseField.SetSort method

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:05:50 GMT

Mike,

I will make a note of the "See also" and make sure we update the documentation to guide the user better. We are soon going to launch a KB on our website that will help us serve our customers better by sharing a lot of how tos/tips/tricks etc.

Thanks for the suggestions, and keep them coming as they help everyone!
Ish

Reply: Re: BaseField.SetSort method

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:22:54 GMT

ahhh another place I forgot to look. I looked at the basefield documentation as I was working with a field, didnt think to check the object itself. Keep leanring more and more.

I guess now my feature suggestion would be more "See Also" sections and more details in places in the documentation. ie on the base field methods where it lists the .Set method should list it does more than just the one use. (I personally think this is bad having such a general method that can effect so much different parts of the field object, IMHO, and would be better with different ones ie SetSeach, SetSort, etc but then again also just MHO) And then the .Set overload information page should have a see also to the object .SetSortPosition information page.

But thanks for pointing that out for me. keeping seeing more and more how full featured the framework is.

Mike

Reply: Re: Advice needed on handling updating objects while in a loop of objectcollection items

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:09:44 GMT

Ish,

Thanks for the advice.

I had forgot about the check of the item to make sure it was not grabbed by another run of the processing method. I dont forsee the numbers being that huge so the check of status before processing will not be much. But I will think about doing the bulk updates as you suggested too.

I did go ahead and write the "Mark" methods on the object while waiting for response and did include the check of the PK as you listed, so I did get that right. LOL

Mike

Reply: Re: Advice needed on handling updating objects while in a loop of objectcollection items

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:14:59 GMT

Mike,

This is an interesting question. To start of, it is safe to update object while looping through the item collection. In fact that sometimes is more desirable than creating a new instance to perform an update. If you create a new instance to do the update you will not have the capability perform a concurrency check out of the box, as in you can still do it but you will need to also assign/load the original values as well. If you use the same instance and you have the ConcurrencyMode = DetectChanges then the concurrency check is automatic.

From what I understand, you have a high number of objects that basically need to be processed. Once the processing starts on an Object you don't want another process/thread to process the same object. To solve this in addition to using the MarkProcessingStarted and MarkProcessingComplete methods I would add another method that will perform a quick check before starting the processing to make sure that no other process has begun processing. This however will cause extra queries going to the server and will add to the amount of processing time. This may not be an issue as you can reduce the query to pretty much "SELECT Status FROM FolderSend WHERE FolderSendID = X" but if you did the check for every record and you had 100k records you will be hitting your DB 100k times to perform a check.

Another solution would be to do something like this:

    Private Sub ProcessOrders() 
        Using order As Orders = New Orders() 
            order.Status.Value = 2 ' Ready To Send 
            order.Status.UseInSearch = True 
 
            order.MaxRecords = 10  ' You could also limit the number of records you will be processing.
            order.Find() 
 
            order.Status.Value = 3 ' Processing 
            order.Status.UseInSave = True 
 
            order.OrderID.SearchMode = SearchModes.List 
            ' The following line will get a comma seperated list of OrderID values that have already been loaded. 
            order.OrderID.List.CustomValue = order.GetDelimetedValue(order.ResultTable.Rows, order.OrderID.Name, ",") 
 
            ' After this statement only OrderID's UseInSearch property is set to True 
            order.SetSearchFields(True, order.OrderID) 
 
            If order.BulkUpdate() Then 
                ' Now that marked multiple order objects (that we fetched earlier) as being processed, we can switch the SearchMode of OrderID to Value 
                ' that way next time OrderID is used in Search criteria its single value will be used rather than the list of comma seperated values. 
                order.OrderID.SearchMode = SearchModes.Value 
 
                ' Now start processing the orders 
 
                For Each o As Orders In order.List 
                    ' Do something with the Order 
 
                    o.Status.Value = 4 ' Complete 
                    o.Status.UseInSave = True 
 
                    If o.Update() Then 
                        'MessageBox.Show("Order Processed for " + o.OrderID.ToString()) 
                    End If 
                Next 
 
                ' Another choice would be to run another BulkUpdate call and set all the processed rows to Complete in one SQL statement. 
 
            End If 
        End Using 
    End Sub 
 

This choice of using BulkUpdate can significantly improve performance and reduce the load on your server as well.

As far as "what checks should I do in those methods? should I check the object is loaded using "Me.IsLoaded" first? should I just do this" is concerned:
The method should primarily make sure that the Primary Key has a value or the Update will fail. Then could be done as below:

If Not .MyID.IsNull Then 
   .Status.Value = 3 
   .Update() ' well Ideally you would check if the Update worked or not 
End If 

I hope I didn't miss anything, but if I did or something is unclear or you need further clarification do let me know.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: BaseField.SetSort method

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:38:39 GMT

Mike,

You can also use the SetSortFieldPositions method on the business objects. You can pass in any number of field instances, and their sort order is set. I am including couple of example below:

customer.SetSortFieldPosition(False, customer.CustomerSince, customer.FirstName, customer.LastName) 
 

If any of the fields already don't have their Sort property set, then they will be set to Ascending. So it makes it very easy to specify sort fields in the order you want. You can also include fields from other related objects as well.

customer.SetSortFieldPosition(False, customer.CustomerID_Orders_Child.OrderAmount, customer.FirstName, customer.LastName) 
' But we want that the OrderAmount should be descending 
customer.CustomerID_Orders_Child.OrderAmount.Sort = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.SortTypes.Descending 
 

Hope this helps.
Ish

Reply: Re: BaseField.SetSort method

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:06:51 GMT

OOPS! another post before I finished research enough!

Never mind! I see the .Set method on fields accepts these two parameters on one of its overloads. I had done just a quick check of the documentation before posting but not enough as I saw the description on the BaseField Methods page listing .Set as
Overloaded. Set method allows you to set the following properties quickly:

Operator
SearchCondition

and only after posting did I look at the actual page for that mthod and see that one of the overloads does what I was looking for.

Cross that request off as "DONE (already there)" LOL

Mike

Reply: Re: Designer improvements

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:47:37 GMT

I tried generating code for multiple templates and it works but I do see the funny behavior. I think it would be great to have a log window. Seperate progress bars for each template being generated would be helpful too.

I am now working on a much bigger project so #6 will be certainly useful. Also, when doing a refresh from the database some indication of which tables/columns are new would be helpful.

Ryan

Reply: Re: Data Source Designer - taskbar icon

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:24:35 GMT

We will include this in the next release.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: Powerful product combined with excellent support

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:21:45 GMT

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for the encouraging words!

Regards,
Ish

Reply: Re: GetObjectByPK

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:30:59 GMT

Hello Sigurd,

I think this best handled using a custom template. I give a link to sample custom template that produce this method for your project.
Download Sample template

To generate code simply add template in Quick Objects Designer project:
Template Configuration Screenshot

Regards,
Victor

Quick Objects Support

Reply: Re: what am I doing wrong??

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:44:29 GMT

Mike,

Here is the sample code that shows how you can use the RelationshipType = Parent to work around this limitation in 3.x or earlier versions. The same code will work in 4.x as well as try our best not to break any existing code.

        Using c As Customers = New Customers() 
            Dim join As Join = c.Join_CustomerID_Orders_Child() 
            join.RelationshipType = RelationshipTypes.Parent 
 
            c.MaxRecords = 1 
            ' FindAndLoad normally only loads joined object values that are parents and there was no option to load child values automatically in v3.x and older. 
            ' The workaround shown here is that you can change the relationship type of the Join and then FindAndLoad will consider the Orders object here as a parent 
            ' this does not affect the SQL that is generated, since the SQL is determined by the JoinType property of the join. 
            If c.FindAndLoad() Then 
                MessageBox.Show("Name: " & c.FirstName.Value & " " & c.LastName.Value _ 
                                & Environment.NewLine _ 
                                & " Order Date: " & c.CustomerID_Orders_Child.OrderDate.ToString() _ 
                                & Environment.NewLine _ 
                                & " Order Amount: " & c.CustomerID_Orders_Child.OrderAmount.ToString()) 
            Else 
                MessageBox.Show("Nothing was loaded. Error: " & c.ErrorString) 
            End If 
        End Using 
 

I found a bug in the FindAndLoad(True) overload. It will be fixed today and new build for 4.2 will be available by end of day.

Let me know if you have any further questions or this doesn't help.

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: what am I doing wrong??

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:35:37 GMT

Mike,

We did add an overload to the FindAndLoad method that takes a boolean value. If you pass true the FindAndLoad method will also load any child object values as well. So essentially the problem you run into is not there if you use the FindAndLoad method overload and pass True to it.

I know for sure that this method overload has been available in 4.0 but will check and see if this was added in 3.5 builds.

I'll email you a short sample that will clarify the solution #2. Solution #2 of changing the RelationshipType to Parent will work in 3.5 or older versions and will work in newer version as well.

Basically the SQL that is executed on the server is not affected so you get the same data back. But when FindAndLoad tries to load the values it doesn't see the Membership_User_ID_Persons_Mi6_Child as a "Child" rather it considers this instance as a "Parent" and will automatically load its values from the returned data.

Of course this is not needed if you do move to 4.x

Thanks,
Ish

Reply: Re: what am I doing wrong??

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:07:28 GMT

Ish,

we have run into this again with some other objects and tried using method 1 from above. When we try doing code similar to the example of

ResultString = .Membership_User_ID_Persons_Mi6_Child.List.Item(0).ID.ToString();  

(after we add in the ctype to get a reference to the proper typed child object) we get that .List.Item(0) does not exist. But if we run the SQL returned from the .GetSelectSQL call on the object, the values from that join are in the results there.

there has got to be a simpler way to do this than having to write the long ctype(....) line to get it (even if we can get the list items to be populated). Was the overload added in the latest version? maybe we will have to upgrade if it was.

we couldnt wait to get this working (and method 2 I am confused on how ~if~ changing the join type would effect the results coming back) so we resorted to doing the object call and getting the ID we need to do the join, and then create the seperate object and ran seperate FindandLoad on that object. So we had to make seperate DB calls to get data the first call is getting already. which is wasteful and why we want to get the first method working.

Mike

Reply: Re: Designer improvements

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:54:29 GMT

I like the #6 the most. I had sent a similar request some time ago and I got a response saying that it is already planned to be included in near future.

Sometime back Ish told me that I could have the designer generate code for multiple templates at the same time. The simultaneous code generation works great but the status bar acts funny. It would be nice to have status/log type window that shows what is being generated, and there can be multiple windows open for each separate template being run.

Another suggestion I have is to be able to specify if I want to support WCF and/or Web Services rather than generating these attributes by default. It requires the developer to add a reference to System.Runtime.Serialization even if they are never going to use WCF.

Just my two cents....
Scott

Reply: Re: Designer improvements

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:37:34 GMT

I have been using Quick Objects for about a month and have a few suggestions for the designer. Also just want to share my views on the items proposed by Sigud.

1. I like the 'Apply' button. Its just a personal preference and its a good way of making sure that the user intentionally made changes.
2. I haven't needed the template grid at all but I can see a use for being able to see all the templates at once.
4. I found tooltips information to be very helpful as I was getting started and don't have much of a need for them anymore. May be this could be a setting in the application/configuration so the tool tips could be enabled/disabled.

Now my suggestions:
I think the primary key column should be highlighted in the columns grid. Some sort of icon indicating that the column is or part of primary key will be very helpful. If you can do the same for foreign key columns as well that will be perfect.

The other thought I have is about being able to run code generation for more than one template at the same time.

Ryan

Reply: Re: Is there some way I can get failed validators on a field?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:15:33 GMT

Awesome! I was going to ask you another question but while typing the question I think I got my answer but you can tell me if I am wrong.

I need to get all the failed validators for all the fields in my object so I am thinking to write a loop that will iterate over the Fields collection of the object. Then on each field I can access the Validators collection.

I will try this tomorrow and let you know if I hit a snag.

Ryan

P.S. Really appreciate your fast and helpful responses!

Reply: Re: Is there some way I can get failed validators on a field?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:39:30 GMT

Ryan, each field has a Validators property that gives you access to all the validators. The following code shows how you can check if a Validator is valid or not and also do anything further with the validator if required.

foreach (BaseFieldValidator validator in customer.FirstName.Validators) 
{ 
    if (validator is RequiredFieldValidator) 
    { 
        RequiredFieldValidator rf = validator as RequiredFieldValidator; 
        // do something with RequiredFieldValidator 
        // the same process can be used for other types of validators as well. 
    } 
    if (!validator.IsValid) 
    {  
        // this is a failed validator do something here. 
    } 
} 
 

Hope that helps you. If you need any further information/clarification let us know.

Thanks,
Ish

1	If ClaimNumber <> String.Empty Then
2	.Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.Parse(ClaimNumber)
3	If chkWildcardClaimSearch.Checked Then
4	.Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.PartialTextMatch = True
5	.Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.PartialTextMode = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.PartialTextModes.Contains
6	Else
7	.Assignment_ID_Assignments_Mi6_Parent.Claim_Number.Operator = Akal.QuickObjects.ObjectBase.Operators.EqualTo
8	End If
9	End If
10