Version 2.1.4

Conditions, actions and rules

Insertion of conditions, actions and rules

New functions in the rule-cell menus now allow new conditions, actions or rules to be inserted directly. Previously, the focus had to be set e.g. on the rule ID, or a certain row or column marked.

Tooltips for rule cells

Users sometimes found the automatic display of information about rule cells (tooltips) annoying. This display is now deactivated as standard. If required, the tooltips can be revealed or hidden in the “Window” menu or in the context menu for rule cells.

Simulating rule cycles

The behaviour of rules of decision tables can be simulated interactively.

Comparing decision tables

A new function supports the analysis of the differences between various versions of a decision table.

Command line functions

Generating condition lines and action lines

New: The CAList (condition/action list) command line function generates a list of all conditions and actions from saved decision tables in the form of an Excel or CSV file. This also supports, for example, searching for certain components (retrieval).

More details: List-CA

-CAList and -List

New: An optional parameter (-FileNamePattern, short form: -fnp) allows name patterns to be specified (Windows style) in order to include only very specific decision tables in the result lists. It is also possible to use a number of name patterns, separated by comma or semicolon.

New: The ge­ne­ra­ted Excel files now automatically contain hyperlinks in cells referring to the objects in the file system (folders, documents, etc.), so that these Excel files can now also be used very effectively for navigation. As standard, the hyperlinks are displayed as normal text. Using the parameter ColorHyperlinks (short form: -ch) they can be displayed in blue and underlined.

More details:

Programming and code generation

Generation parameters

Improvement: Both in the Project.ini file and for ‘inline parameters’ in decision tables ($$…​) it is now possible to enclose key values in single or double inverted commas. Consequently, from now on values containing space characters are also possible, such as: $$LogArgDefault=FUNCTION CURRENT DATE  SPACE

Scrapbook menu

Improvement: Based on CTRL+G (Save and Generate), CTRL+ALT+G are now used to open the scrapbook menu directly in the main screen. It is therefore no longer essential to take the “detour” via the integrated source editor. If more than one programming language is activated in a decision table (e.g. Cobol and Java), the most recently activated or edited language is always used automatically.

Miscellaneous

Backup copies

Using two new, optional codes in the Project.ini file, the user has gained a powerful tool in that the automatic generation of backups can now be configured at project level.

More details: Backup copies

Improvement: A new menu item makes it possible to choose the colour scheme: Standard or black & white. In particular, when integrating graphics in documents, the black & white display is generally advantageous.

Improvement: A new menu item makes it possible to choose between simple (only file name) and extended (file name and title of the decision table) texts. This supports expert users in particular.

MS Windows and MS Office

Adjustments to input and output functions ensure the smooth interaction of LF‑ET also with the current versions of MS Windows and MS Office.