Stadium 4.2.2819.6113 is available

Stadium 4.2.2819.6113 is available for download from the Twenty57 website. It contains the following bug fixes:

• Custom CSS did not affect the styling of the .LightboxHeaderContainer

Stadium 5.5.1723.4875 is available

Good news! Stadium 5.5.1723.4875 is now available with lots of long awaited functionalities. Head over to the Stadium Website to download it.

Among the new features and improvements are:

• Themes for the generated websites
• Quick Form Generation
• Templates
• Application Security
• Settings can now be set on the site itself, and not only via the designer
• ODBC Preparser - Parameters can now be defined using sql syntax, e.g. @myParameter, instead of the normal '?' character
• Improved behaviour surrounding validations
• In addition to the "generate & browse", it is now possible to only generate the code.
• Application, pages, folders and scripts can now be renamed directly from the Application Explorer
• Underscores (_) are allowed in all names
• Ctrl+W will close the active canvas
• Dialogs can be resized
• Usability improvements
• Lots of other bug fixes

Thanks to the entire team: Bernhard, Anthony, Greg, Amol, Darshit, Franz and Leah! And also to Brenna who still had a part in most of this release.

Stadium 4.2.2818.6111 is available

Stadium 4.2.2818.6111 is available for download from the Twenty57 website. It contains the following bug fixes

• A sql query in the 'visibility' Property in a Details View Field caused an exception

Stadium 4.2.2817.6109 is available

Stadium 4.2.2817.6109 is available for download from the Twenty57 website. It contains the following bug fixes

• OpenFile action was not executed when called via a Link

Stadium 4.2.2816.6107 is available

Stadium 4.2.2816.6107 is available for download from the Twenty57 website. It contains the following bug fixes

• DB2 Connection: Expose the driver property so the driver applicable to the connection can be specified
• Ensure ODBC parameters work correctly with DB2 select, update and insert queries
• Update the Local Mode Report Viewer component to work with Oracle queries and parameters
• Grid Export now includes columns where the visibility is set using a Condition and the condition evaluates as True
• Select All Checkbox on a DataGrid Checkbox column behaves correctly when some of the rows are read-only

Stadium 5.4.1586.4260 is available

Head on over to the Stadium Website to download it. It contains the following new features and fixes.

• Generated Applications now use Bootstrap. There is one theme for now, more will follow soon.
• A new Layout Control, LayoutGrid is available. It is based on the Bootstrap Grid system. See the Stadium Help site for more details on how to use it: http://help.stadium.twenty57.com/Controls/Layout%20Grid
• The look and feel of the designer has been revamped
• It is easier to view and map parameters on control and action properties
• If a child menu is added to a menu item, the validation for the parent menu item is removed
• Load time of files has been improved
• The Result/Error wrapper on the Web Service response has been removed
• All the Web Service errors are written out instead of being aggregated
• More padding at the top and the bottom of the designer
• Rendered controls in the designer are smaller to make it easier to see how you page will look
• Auto scroll to the bottom of the designer when placing a new control below the last control
• Fix the Add Query/Connection/Constant link to the top of the page
• Better scrolling on the Connections/Queries/Constants pages
• Better error messages in the Designer
• Roll back to previous working version if upload and generation of application fails for some reason
• Bug Fix: Expose query parameters on script input mappings

A big thanks to Amol, Anton, Anthony, Bernhard, Darshit and Greg for the dev work and to Leah and Franz for the design and UX input.

Stadium 4.2.2727.6001 is available

Stadium 4.2.2727.6001 is available for download from the Twenty57 website. It contains the following fixes and features. A big thank you to Lu for the development work

Features

• New Property on the URLViewer: AutoScroll with a Default Value of True
  
  • If set to True, the page inside the URL viewer will always scroll to the top when it is refreshed
  • If set to False, and the page being viewed supports retaining the scroll bar position, the page will load to its previous position when a postback is done
• Data Format will now be applied to a Read-Only Default Value on a Details View
  
  • Please remember, we unfortunately can't apply masking/formating to editable fields

Fixes

• Data Grid: Export to Excel error when a Drop down Field select query contains Multiple IF Statements fixed
• Data Grid: An Editable Checkbox Column that is not linked to a Data Field now displays its Header Value
• Child Grid: The ColourField property on FormatConditions no longer throw a Unique Item error
• Child Grid: Stored Procs can be assigned to a Select Query without giving an error
• Test Query: Removing a query parameter that has a Test Value assigned to it now works without error
• Buttons on a Display Message Box which is on the same page as an Upload File Control, will be disabled until the Button Click actions are completed and the Message Box closes to prevent multiple clicks

Stadium 4 custom screens

Stadium and Linx sometimes don’t have all the features you need to fulfill a client’s needs. It doesn’t always make sense adding those features to Stadium for once-off use, either.

In that case, we have to make custom screens to use in Stadium’s URLViewer.

For example, it wasn’t feasible to create powerful enough DataGrids in Stadium for one of the Nedbank implementations, so a portion of the Pricing project was built in custom screens. For Old Mutual Zimbabwe, we built a CSV importer that enriches transaction data already in Stadium.

The drawback of creating custom screens is the amount of time it takes to create them. We are essentially starting a project from scratch, and integrating it with an existing client project that is not part of our environment. Development can take a lot longer than adding functionality to an existing project, and comparatively even longer than creating ordinary Stadium 4 screens. This needs to be weighed up when choosing whether to go look at finding a different way to build something in Stadium 4, or making a custom screen for it.

So how do we create custom Stadium 4 screens?

Creating a custom screen (or group of screens) is essentially like starting a project from scratch. It’s a free-standing project, and Stadium’s URLViewer control is used to access it.

The following must be done to create a custom screen:

• We make a number of design decisions, as if building a project from the beginning - including solution architecture, programming language, testing framework, and programming frameworks.
• We need to integrate with your database. This is the trickiest part of the process – the central need of the software is usually to interact with a database, and that is stored in the client’s environment. If a decent database backup is provided, we work against that one, but there still needs to be coordination of changes between the development database and the actual database at the client.
• We need to integrate with your Stadium solution. This often means negotiating the correct parameters to pass between Stadium and the custom screen. This is a fair amount of work for the implementation team at the client too.
• Actual development is slightly more complicated than normal development, since we are integrating with an existing system the development team does not have comprehensive access to. There is no drag-and-drop functionality, and no actual environment to play around with. A dummy/mock environment needs to be created from scratch.
• An implementation manual needs to be written – deployment of custom screens can sometimes be a tricky process, especially when database integration is involved.
• Testing happens (and needs to happen) as a feedback cycle from the implementation team. Due to differing environments and misunderstandings that may arise from the spec, this is unlikely to be correct the first time.
• This feedback cycle continues until the implementation team is satisfied with the solution provided.

Integration of Stadium 4 custom screens

Stadium 4 custom screens form part of your existing Stadium application it was built for.

• The DLL goes in the Stadium web directory’s bin folder
• A URLViewer is added to the Stadium 4 application. The URLViewer points to the initial custom screen that the user needs to navigate to.
• The web pages (.aspx files) can theoretically go anywhere inside the Stadium web directory, as long as the URLViewer points to them.

Some custom integration needs to occur. This differs from project to project. For instance, some custom screens need to link back to specific Stadium pages. Some need to access more than one database. This integration can be tricky, and is often changed as the screens are being developed and more communication has happened between the development team and the implementation team.

More information: Our development process:

Stadium 5.2.1484.3745 is available

If you already have Stadium 5 installed, the designer should prompt you to install it the next time you open it. Otherwise head over to the Stadium website and download it now!

• ODBC Connections to databases like MySQL, DB2 and PosgreSQL are now supported
  • You'll need to set up a User DSN for connecting in the Designer and a Service DSN for connecting via the server
  • Only text queries are supported at this stage
  • Parameters are specified using a ? and display as Parameter1, Parameter2 etc in the Designer (eg select * from Products where ProductId = ?)
• Cut Copy Paste has been reintroduced. It works on Pages, Scripts, Controls and Actions
  
  • When copying individual controls/actions across pages/scripts, page/script specific mappings will be lost
• Validation messages in the designer for unmapped properties and events
  
  • Double click on the validation to bring the control into focus.
  • Once the property has been mapped, the validation disappears
• Upgrade to .net Framework 4.6
  
  • the installer will download and install it if needed
• Upgrade to IIS 10 Express
  
  •  the installer will download and install it if needed to run Generated Apps (no IIS on the PC)
• Create a default Stadium5 App Pool and run all uploaded applications through it
• Required Field Validator added to Checkbox List
• Redesign of the Query Editor - see your parameters and fields on one screen
• Rename query parameters - useful for ODBC queries where all parameters are written as ‘?’ in the query and display as Parameter1, Parameter2 etc in the Designer
• Manually pull query fields and parameters
  
  •  they are no longer automatically refreshed
• Connections - Only persist if a server or dsn is specified
• Queries - only persist if SQL has been specified
• Toolbox Controls listed in one section
• Right-click context menu on open tabs with options to close all, float and dock tabs, close current tab and close all but this
• Visible And Read-Only properties on Checkbox, Checkbox List, Date Picker, Drop Down, Panel, Radio Button List and TextBox can now be set using Query Fields, Page Parameters and Constants as well as a static True/False value
• Better handling of Images
• Fix security permissions errors when the Designer is not run as an Administrator
• Security Certificate Updated

Thanks to Anton, Amol, Darshit, Greg and Shaun for all the dev work

Stadium 4.2.2718.5983 is available

Stadium 4.2.2718.5893 is available for download from the Twenty57 site. It contains one (optional) security setting, a fix for Filter time-outs on Grids and Charts in the Designer and fixes for certain controls which were getting into an endless refresh cycle

Security Update
Prevent Stadium from being viewed in an iFrame. Add the following to the <system.webServer> section of your web.config file if you want to enable this. It will be included in the web.config file of all new installations by default
Note: You will still be able to display custom pages because viewing local content (inside the Stadium folder) is allowed

<httpProtocol>
<customHeaders>
<add name="X-Frame-Options" value="SAMEORIGIN" />
</customHeaders>
</httpProtocol>

Filter Timeout
The CommandTimeOut value is now honoured when opening the filter editor on a chart or grid control. We need to pull the query columns in order to allow you to assign filter fields to them and in some instances the query can take more than 30 seconds to complete

Page and Control Refresh
Ensure post back and refresh is correct in the following circumstances

• Export to Excel Action
  
  • We cannot show a spinner for this action without breaking everything. The tab will indicate that something is happening but the page itself will still be active
• Open File Action
  
  • We cannot show a spinner for this action without breaking everything. The tab will indicate that something is happening but the page itself will still be active
• Export Data Grid
  
  • We cannot show a spinner for this action without breaking everything. The tab will indicate that something is happening but the page itself will still be active
• Clicking a disabled link in a grid
  
  • Disabled Link can no longer be clicked
• Validations fail when linked to a stand-alone button
  
  • Validations message is shown and action is not executed until the validation passes

Thank you to Ryan for the dev work