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Help / Developing an application or website / Component / External component
  • Overview
  • Modifying a component
  • Adding or deleting an element into/from a component
  • Modifying a component element
  • Regenerating the modified component: managing the compatibility between the different versions
  • Different types of compatibility
  • Definition
  • Backward compatibility
  • Forward compatibility
WINDEV
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WEBDEV
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WINDEV Mobile
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Stored procedures
Overview
An external component created and generated by WINDEV, WEBDEV or WINDEV Mobile can be modified at any time. These are some of the changes that can be applied:
  • add elements into the component,
  • delete elements from the component,
  • edit rights on the elements of the component,
  • make changes to one of the elements of the component.
In any case, after this modification, the component must be regenerated in order to take the modifications into account.
This help page presents:
Remark: The reports included in a component cannot be modified with Reports & Queries.
Modifying a component

Adding or deleting an element into/from a component

To add or delete an element into/from a component:
  1. Open the component project: on the "Home" tab, in the "General" group, expand "Open" and select "Open a project".
  2. On the "Project" tab, in the "Project" group, expand "List of elements" and select "List of generated components".
  3. The component description window appears. This window allows you to perform the following modifications:
    • Modify a component ([Modify] button).
      The component modification wizard starts with the options of the selected component. The different options of the component can be modified (add elements, modify the visibility of elements, ...).
    • Find out and modify the elements included in the component.
    • Make visible (or not) the elements included in the component.
    • Modify the access rights of the component on the client project.
  4. Regenerate the component.

Modifying a component element

To modify a component element:
  1. Open the component project: on the "Home" tab, in the "General" group, expand "Open" and select "Open a project".
  2. Open the desired element.
  3. Make the desired changes.
  4. Save these changes (Save).
  5. Regenerate the component: click the generation icon in the quick access buttons: Component generation
Regenerating the modified component: managing the compatibility between the different versions
Whenever a modification is performed, the component must be regenerated in order to take the modifications into account (change the interface of a window for example).
To regenerate the modified component:
  1. Start generating the component:
    • click the generation icon in the quick access buttons.
    • via the component description window ([Generate]).
  2. The component generation wizard starts.
  3. In the "Compatibility of component in deployment" screen, a check is performed on the modifications made:
    • If the modifications make the component incompatible with the earlier versions, the following screen is displayed:
      Component generation wizard
      Synchronize the version numbers ( button).
      Go to the next step to continue generating the component.
    • If the detected modifications do not make the component incompatible with the earlier versions, no specific action is required. Click "Next" to continue generating the component.
Different types of compatibility

Definition

Compatibility is linked to the versions of the component. If changes are made to the component, the applications that use the component may encounter runtime problems if they are not synchronized with it.
The management of compatibility is an important step in the modification of a WINDEV component. There are two types of compatibility:
  • The backward compatibility: the component version (.WDK file) used to compile the applications must be greater than or equal to the version that has already been deployed.
    WINDEV manges compatibility automatically. If the version of the component installed with the application is earlier than the version used by the application, the application will not run.
  • The forward compatibility: you can prevent the use of a new version of a component with a project compiled using a previous version. You need to recompile the projects to use the new version of the component.

Backward compatibility

The version number of components is automatically checked to make sure that the component version used in the deployed application is greater than or equal to the one used when developing the application.
Example:
A project is compiled with a component in version 1.00C.
1.00C is the reference version. This means that the applications that use the component will only run if the component version is greater than or equal to the reference version.
The following cases can occur:
  • First case: The applications deployed on the end-user computers use a component version (.WDK file) earlier than 1.00C. An error will occur when loading these applications.
  • Second case: The applications deployed on the end-user computers will run if they use the reference component version.
  • Third case: The applications deployed on the end-user computer will operate if the version of the component is greater than the expected one (only if the new version is used to fix bugs).

Forward compatibility

The incompatibilities between two versions of the same component are automatically detected when generating this component. If differences are found, you have the ability to modify the "number of the last compatible version". This number sets the reference version from which the applications that use the component will run.
Example:
A project that uses a component in version 1.00C has not been recompiled with the new component version (1.00E).
Version 1.00E of the component is installed on the deployment computers.
The following cases can occur:
  • First case: the component has been modified only to fix bugs. When generating the component, the "number of the last compatible version" is not modified.
    In order for the applications to operate properly, there is no need to recompile the projects with the new version of the component. The component (.WDK file) can be distributed to the end users directly.
  • Second case: the component has been modified to add a parameter to a procedure. When generating the component, the "number of the last compatible version" is modified.
    In order for the applications to run properly, the project must be recompiled with the new component version. Otherwise, applications will not run to avoid compatibility errors with the new component version.
Minimum version required
  • Version 9
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Last update: 07/03/2023

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