Question How To Open Structured Procedure File In The Appbuilder?

[Dragon13]

Hello everyone,

I have stuck with quite an easy task: open a structured procedure file in the Progress AppBuilder.
The problem is that the application and the corresponding database are not consistent.
The application has been running for several years already. Recently the database, which is used in the application has been changed: some fields were renamed and deleted.
Now I have to adopt the application code.
When I try to open the .w file in the Progress AppBuilder I get the following error message: "** Unknown Field or Variable name - <field-name>. (201)" - which I can understand (the database was changed, the code was not). What I do not understand is, how am I supposed to adopt the code, if I cannot open it in the editor? I checked all the options I could find in the AppBuilder - no success.
Theoretically I could open the .w file in a usual text editor, but as I understand it is not recommended and it does not seem to be the right way to do the changes.
I have full Progress 11.5 package installed on Windows 10 64-Bit.
The application I have to adopt was changed last time with the AppBuilder in the Progress 10.2B07 package.

Thanks in advance for help!

 

[RealHeavyDude]

You can open the file with the procedure editor with no structure: Open an instance of the procedure editor in the tools menu of the AppBuilder and then you can drag/drop the file into it. Then you can edit it - fix the issue - and open it again in the with the structure procedure editor.

But, you need to be careful with the AppBuilder markups - do not touch them! If you do, you might not be able to open it with the structure procedure editor anymore forever. The structured procedure editor depends on those markups.

If you are stuck with the AppBuilder ( Progress Developer Studio is much better ... ) you could use the AB Hack ( which you could download from here ABHack Book | The OpenEdge Hive )
and make your life much easier.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[Dragon13]

Thank you very much for the answer RealHeavyDude. However, using procedure editor is very familiar with using a usual text editor in this case; you wrote it by yourself: "...you need to be careful with the AppBuilder markups - do not touch them! If you do, you might not be able to open it with the structure procedure editor anymore forever.". As for AB Hack Tool, it seems to be pretty handy, although on the webinar video, which I found on the community page it looks kind of old and cumbersome (with all the small windows). Moreover, I need a solution not only for my individual programming; it can be difficult to introduce AB Hack as a new programming tool in our company.

Best regards,
Dragon13

 

[andre42]

If the AppBuilder refuses to open a file you have no other choice than to at least modify the file with a different editor until the AppBuilder can open it again.
Just take care what parts of the file you shouldn't modify:
- Don't touch the &ANALYZE-Lines.
- Don't modify generated procedures. You can recognize those by the generator-program which is listed at the end of the &ANALYZE-SUSPEND lines. (For example,

&ANALYZE-SUSPEND _UIB-CODE-BLOCK _PROCEDURE send-key V-table-Win  adm/support/proc/_key-snd.p

means that the procedure send-key is generated by _key-snd.p. (Nothing bad will happen immediately, but the AppBuilder will regenerate those procedures when saving which will overwrite your changes.
I mainly use the AppBuilder to design the GUI (insert new widgets, move objects) and do some other stuff the Developer Studio can't do yet. (It can insert new procedures, functions and triggers for GUI widgets.)

If some fields of the application are just renamed or replaced by other fields a search&replace in the program might already fix it and keep things consistent.
If you are allowed to do that you could post your program and the compile error here.

Of course it will help if you use an editor with some kind of support for OpenEdge ABL. If you can't use Progress Developer Studio for some reason there is Piew (Piew - Free PROGRESS Editor and source code viewer), but there is also a plugin for Notepad++.

 

[Dragon13]

Okay, thank you guys for the answers. I assume there is no way to open the structured procedure with the Progress AppBuilder without editing it first in some text editor in my case. Therefore I just have to do it.

Best regards,
Dragon13

 

[RealHeavyDude]

Other than adding support for new data types which came with OpenEdge 10 and some support for Dynamics at the end of the last century, the AppBuilder has not been touched by Progress for almost 20 years when it was written. I don't know many people that loved the AppBuilder before the Eclipse plug-in ( which is now branded Progress Developer Studio ) came around ca. 2005. IMHO it has not been state-of-the-art already at the turn of the century ...

In the end, you need to work with what you have access to.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[Dragon13]

I totally agree with you. Thank you for the extra information