FWD » Core Development » Base Language

Add the following to the SESSION system handle:

• LOCAL-VERSION-INFO
• SUPPRESS-WARNINGS-LIST
• MESSAGE-AREA-MSG() method
• STARTUP-PARAMETERS add support for:
  • -logginglevel
  • -logentrytypes
  • -logfile
  • -ubpid
  • -logname
  • -logthreshold
  • -numlogfiles
  • -ASID
  • -ubpropfile
  • -p
  • -param
  • -pf

The code message session:local-version-info prints Progress.Lang.OEVersionInfo...1000 using FWD and Progress.Lang.OEVersionInfo...1006 using OE on the VM. Should I make it identical or it doesn't matter?

It doesn't matter.

I think the SESSION:MESSAGE-AREA-MSG does not exist. Can you please confirm?

We believe it exists but it is undocumented. It is possible it only exists in some recent level of OE. Please check and if it doesn't exist there, we will ask the customer to check on their specific version (we don't currently have access to their OE dev env).

I tried on a customer AWS VM which has v11.7 and it throws an error. Also, the autocomplete does not show MESSAGE-AREA-MSG as an option.

Is there a compiler error? Please try to compile and see what happens.

I also tried searching the documentation and couldn't find anything https://docs.progress.com/search?labelkey=&q=message-area-msg.

That just means it is undocumented, not that it doesn't exist.

You are right, it exists. I tried to run it with many arguments and examples and I found that it takes one integer argument, e.g. session:message-area-msg(1234).

I executed it and I couldn't see any results. I also tried to add message and display in front but it showed nothing.

How can I discover the functionality of an undocumented method when I cannot see anything?

Trial and error. I would guess that the integer arg is the message "line number" for which to get the current text. Try values like 1 or 2.

I tried many combinations like the following without any result.

security-policy:symmetric-encryption-algorithm = 'fgtyj' no-error. 
message session:MESSAGE-AREA-MSG(0).
message "awef".
display "test".
message session:MESSAGE-AREA-MSG(1).
message session:MESSAGE-AREA-MSG(2).
message session:MESSAGE-AREA-MSG(4).
message session:MESSAGE-AREA-MSG(7).
message session:MESSAGE-AREA-MSG(0).

I will need help on this.

I suggest that you should not use the MESSAGE statement while also testing MESSAGE-AREA-MSG(). What is returned by MESSAGE-AREA-MSG()? Is it always empty string?

How is security-policy:symmetric-encryption-algorithm related to this case? Are you just trying to create an error? Using NO-ERROR on that line will suppress the output to the message lines.

Yes, MESSAGE-AREA-MSG() always returns an empty string.

security-policy:symmetric-encryption-algorithm is a random command that I used, it is not related to the task. Yes, I just tried to create an error. If I do not add NO-ERROR the application does not start.

I tried many numbers for session:message-area-msg(1). but I can't make it return something. I tried adding display and message in the front without any luck.

I'll ask the customer if they can provide details of what it should do or how to write code to see it in action.

Great, thanks :)

I usually use the VM1. Today I used VM2 because the VM1 was occupied. I tried to run

message 'test'.
message session:message-area-msg(1).

once more and it worked! I was 100% sure that I tried this scenario already. I thought I was getting crazy. I tried it again on the VM1 and it didn't work. I noticed that the progress developer studio (eclipse) opens a different window on these two VMs when executing a .p app. The VM1 uses the GUI and the VM2 uses the ChUI.

I should continue with the implementation of message-area-msg, right?

Where can I find more info about the OE GUI and ChUI and their differences?

Hmmm, it requires ChUI.

I noticed that the progress developer studio (eclipse) opens a different window on these two VMs when executing a .p app. The VM1 uses the GUI and the VM2 uses the ChUI.

Don't run from the developer studio. Just run from the command line directly. If you run prowin.exe you will get GUI and if you run pro or mpro you'll get ChUI.

Where can I find more info about the OE GUI and ChUI and their differences?

I'm not exactly sure. The 4GL docs for the OE command line will talk about how to start each kind of session. But they dont really say much about the differences between modes. Most things work roughly the same in both, but some features are only available in one or the other. GUI has things like drag and drop that are not available in ChUI. ChUI doesn't have much that isn't in GUI but there are places where the internals differ. If you search in FWD, you can see how we lookup isChui() to make some decisions. This will need to be one of those cases.

I should continue with the implementation of message-area-msg, right?

Yes. Make sure you confirm that prowin.exe always returns "" in case there was something weird with the dev studio.

I am doing some modifications in the java method message(). Is there a way to check that I haven't broken anything?

We are working on the initial creation of our CI/CD environment but it is going to take some weeks before it is in place. We do have some automated test suites but without the CI/CD it is a little tricky to run them.

Before we go there, please share some details of what you think needs changing so we can advise. The message text is available from Window.messageArea from which you can call MessageArea.getMessageTexts() to get the array. I was not expecting that message() itself would need any changes.

The only tricky thing is this needs to be exposed as a downcall in ClientExports but otherwise it seems pretty straightforward.

The task is ready for review. Should I also create a test in testcases?

Theodoros Theodorou wrote:

The task is ready for review. Should I also create a test in testcases?

Yes, please do.

I created some tests under testcases/session/session_features.p. Please review.

Did you have a branch 6425a? It is not listed in this task, so it is not clear. I know you have changes. Please merge your changes into 4938a. The STARTUP-PARAMETERS support needs to be reworked to match the new approach.

The code review for these changes (in branch 4938b) can be seen in #4938-225.

From Theodoros in #4938-226:

I was not able to find the meaning of:

ubpid
logname
asid
ubpropfile (unified broker properties file?)
db (physical database name?)

Some changes for this task were written in branch 4938b and were merged into trunk as revision 14688. Runtime support for the command line options will be implemented in #7675.

Theodoros: Please list those things that are complete and those things (other than the items in #7675) that are not complete.

Greg Shah wrote:

Theodoros: Please list those things that are complete and those things (other than the items in #7675) that are not complete.

The following parameters have at least one reference in the code:

-v6colon
-rereadnolock
-icfparam
-ininame
-T
-logginglevel
-logentrytypes
-logthreshold
-numlogfiles
-p
-param
-cpinternal
-clientlog
-debugalert
-errorstack
-inp

The following do not have any references yet:
-logfile
-ubpid
-logname
-asid
-ubpropfile
-pf
-H
-db
-S
-ld
-n

Please note that some parameters may be used but their functionality may not be 100% complete. For example the -cpinternal has a reference in the code but it is not implemented yet.

Greg should we close this ticket or should I start implementing the startup parameter functionalities?