Just Released: Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET
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6/25/2009


Just Released: Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET

Enables .NET developers to use Microsoft’s ADO.NET Entity Framework to access Synergy DBMS databases

SPC 2009 Comes to a Close in London; Conference Rated “Excellent” by Attendees

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Synergex Passport to the Web Enables Leading International Supplier of Specialty Yeast and Bacteria to Bring their Synergy/DE-based ERP Application Online

New solution streamlines operations for company’s 50 remote offices spread across 35 countries

Support Tech Tip

When Context Tagging loses context: Giving Workbench’s tagging engine a helping hand

Quiz

Synergy/DE pros, see if you can answer this question!

Platform News

Read a selection of recent articles

Synergex Events and Education

Find out what’s available online

Synergex Holiday Reminder

We will be closed on Friday, July 3, for the 4th of July weekend

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Just Released: Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET

Enables .NET developers to use Microsoft’s ADO.NET Entity Framework to access Synergy DBMS databases

The Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET, an ADO.NET data provider that enables developers to access Synergy DBMS databases from .NET applications and Visual Studio 2008, is now available.

The new data provider takes advantage of the benefits of Microsoft’s ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ. The ADO.NET Entity Framework is the next data-access technology from Microsoft and is Microsoft’s first full-fledged move into object-relational mapping (ORM). It simplifies data access by using entity data models (EDMs), which are conceptual models that present relational data as objects that can be customized to reflect the objects in the programming domain. EDMs can be queried using Entity SQL or LINQ, which supports IntelliSense, and Visual Studio 2008 can validate queries written against EDMs at compile-time.

The Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET supports access via .NET DataSets and EDMs, and it includes a Visual Studio plug-in (a DDEX provider) that enables developers to create Visual Studio data connections for Synergy DBMS databases.

Download the Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET product and documentation. (Synergy/DE Developer Support and ALM required. The Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET is documented in the xfODBC User’s Guide.)

See the system requirements for the Synergy/DE Data Provider for .NET.

Find more information about Microsoft’s ADO.NET Entity Framework on Microsoft’s Web site.

Contact the Synergy/DE sales team for additional information.

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SPC 2009 Comes to a Close in London; Conference Rated “Excellent” by Attendees


The Synergex Success Partner Conference took place in London June 9-11 and, like the Boston conference in May, it was very well received. Attendee Michael Stanbridge of MPD Computer Systems described the London SPC as “awesome” and Josh Burnett of SSP stated that “once again the conference proved to be an invaluable source of information to those of us within the Synergy world.” (View an entire list of customer testimonials at spc.synergex.com.)

In both cities, the Code Phantom played a starring role, providing a fun, interactive way for attendees to experience the excitement of working with objects. Also, as in Boston, London attendees enjoyed watching the conference application (ChronoTrack) demos, which illustrated the latest Synergy/DE features in action. (Plus, all attendees walked away with the ChronoTrack source code, enabling them to get a jump start on implementing the new technologies in their own applications.) The two customer demonstrations were a hit as well, providing attendees a first-hand look at how two very different companies are using the latest Synergy/DE features to enhance their applications. It was a great conference – we look forward to seeing you all at SPC 2010!

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Synergex Passport to the Web Enables Leading International Supplier of Specialty Yeast and Bacteria to Bring their Synergy/DE-based ERP Application Online

New solution streamlines operations for company’s 50 remote offices spread across 35 countries

Lallemand Inc. is a privately held Canadian company specializing in the development, production, and marketing of yeasts and bacteria. With production plants on several continents and worldwide distribution capacities, Lallemand is a proven supplier of both yeasts and bacteria on a global scale.

Lallemand uses a Synergy/DE-based ERP application to manage all of the company’s internal business functions. Last year, they decided to migrate their application to the Web to better accommodate the needs of their 50 remote offices spread across 35 countries. To assist them with this migration, they booked a “Passport to the Web” from Synergex’s Professional Services Group.

As part of the Passport, a PSG consultant worked with Lallemand to determine their goals for the Passport, and the functions in their ERP application that they wanted to Web-enable. He then went onsite for four days to train the team on the new technologies and to help them achieve their goals. By the time the consultant left, the development team had the knowledge and skills required to complete the project. “The Passport was the best money we’ve spent,” states Steve Szubiak, Lallemand’s Director of IT. “The consultant did the training and got the project up and running so within a couple of weeks we had our project plan in place and were starting our implementation. Lallemand has now Web-enabled 40% of their major modules and has rolled out the new application to many of their facilities. “The application is being really well received,” adds Szubiak. “Of course the UI is a dramatic improvement -- moving from cell-based to a Web interface is huge. We also added lots of new functionality, such as the ability to reserve inventory for specific orders and to display available products in a grid-format.”

As part of the migration, Lallemand also upgraded their SCO Unix servers to Linux. Szubiak explains, “It was important to us to be on a platform that is well supported in the marketplace; plus, we experienced significant performance improvements on Linux.” They are also in the process of migrating from Synergy/DE version 8 to 9.1.5 in order to take advantage of new Web-related enhancements as well as Synergy objects. Per Szubiak, both migrations have been very smooth.

Szubiak concludes, “I strongly recommend Synergex’s Passport to the Web for companies who want to incorporate the latest technologies into their applications. In a relatively short period of time, we were able to breathe new life into an application we’ve had for almost 20 years to make it easier to use, simpler to maintain across our vast network, and significantly more powerful.”

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Support Tech Tip

When Context Tagging loses context: Giving Workbench’s tagging engine a helping hand

Question
We’ve recently started using Workbench and have noticed that the Context Tagging displays don’t always show up for in-house functions, subroutines, and record structures. What gives?

Answer
Like Microsoft’s Intellisense, Context Tagging relies on scanning the source code of your files and displaying abbreviated information about methods, functions, subroutines, and data that it includes. It’s one of Workbench’s most powerful and useful features, and with more and more customers developing with Workbench, we’ve seen an increase in questions about it. Most of these questions revolve around Context Tagging’s apparent absence, even when it appears that a function or subroutine or variable should be appearing. It sometimes looks as if Workbench’s tagging engine (which drives Context Tagging, of course) has suddenly gone out to lunch.

Before running off to the Tools > Tag Files > Rebuild Tag Files option, however, there are a few things that can (and should) be checked first.

For starters, make sure that all of the file extensions used in your .INCLUDE statements are recognized by Workbench as being “DBL” files. By default, Workbench tags only .DBL, .DBH, .DEF, and .TPL files. So if you’ve been saving your included record layouts as .REC or .INC, your functions as .FUN, and your subroutines as .SUB, then the tagging engine (and hence Context Tagging) is blissfully unaware of them. Fortunately, it’s easy to enlighten Workbench. Just go to Tools > Options > File Extension Setup, and click the “New” button. Type in your file extension (for instance, REC), and select “dbl” in the “Refers to” drop-down list. If the file extension already exists but refers to a different language (the nerve!), it’s easy to change that, too. Just select the offending extension from the drop-down list at the top of the Extension Options dialog and click the “Refer to” button. Type in or select “dbl” in the pop-up dialog and VOILÀ!, Context Tagging suddenly got a whole lot smarter about your application.

If you’ve already included all of your “custom” extensions as DBL file types (or you’re not using any), and Context Tagging still isn’t popping up for your in-house routines, then keep in mind that Workbench’s tagging engine absolutely abhors errors. It doesn’t put up with them well at all and will often fail to give you what you’re looking for until you’ve fixed the offending piece of code.

Finding the error can be as simple as double-checking the line of code you’re typing. If it’s error-free, look for problems in the code immediately preceding it. Another method is to actually comment out the line you’re currently typing and try compiling; it’s a quick way to find errors, and you’ll only need to look at the ones that occur above your current line number. If that doesn’t help, you can also jump much higher in your code and try re-typing the line. If Context Tagging kicks in, then you’ve mistyped something below.

There are a few final questions about Workbench’s Context Tagging that come up often enough to warrant a mention. One question is how to redisplay Context Tagging if it disappears while you’re in the middle of typing parameters for a function, subroutine, or method call. Try hitting ALT+ , (comma) to get it back. And, if you’re on version 9 and happen to be dealing with an overloaded method, you don’t have to click the little green arrows to see the other parameter lists. Just use CTRL+Page Up and CTRL+Page Down to cycle through your choices!

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Quiz

Synergy/DE pros, see if you can answer this question!

In Synergy/DE, how can you delay evaluation of a function passed as an argument?

a. You can’t – functions passed as arguments are always evaluated eagerly.
b. Pass the name or address of the function, and invoke it later via XSUBR.
c. Pass an object whose class defines the function as a method.
d. Either b or c.

Click here for the answer and explanation.

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Platform News

Read a selection of recent articles

Windows
Some Applications May Stop Responding after You Close a Dialog Box in These Applications on a Computer that is Running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista
June 22, 2009

Microsoft Beating Mozilla...in Open-Source Licensing
June 18, 2009

Does Microsoft’s Bing Have Google Running Scared?
June 14, 2008

Microsoft to Release Anti-Virus App
June 12, 2009

Windows 7 Will Ship sans Internet Explorer in Europe
June 11, 2009

You Cannot Use a Mouse to Select Combo Box Items in a RemoteApp Program that You Connect to Through Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 6.1
June 5, 2009

The Date for General Availability (GA) of Windows 7 is…
June 2, 2009

Open VMS
Itanium Solutions Blog
May 29, 2009

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Synergex Events and Education


MDU Enhancements in Synergy/DE 9
6 minutes

From UI Toolkit to .NET: Updating a Legacy Application (A Customer's Perspective)
75 minutes

Synergy/DE 9.1 Highlights
70 minutes

UI Toolkit Composite Windows
30 minutes

Synergy Objects Parts 1
65 minutes

Synergy Objects Parts 2
25 minutes

Synergy Objects Parts 3
30 minutes

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Synergex Holiday Reminder


We will be closed on Friday, July 3, for the 4th of July weekend.

If you anticipate needing our assistance on this day, contact synergy@synergex.com to make arrangements.

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Trademarks: Synergex, Synergy, Synergy Development Environment, Synergy/DE, Jodah Veloper, Manny Jurr, Mark Etting, Bigbah Smann, and all other Synergy/DE product names are trademarks of Synergex. All other product and company names in this newsletter are trademarks of their respective holders.

Copyright © 2009 Synergex International Corporation. All rights reserved.

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