I have been using filemaker for years and love it…but, I just found out about servoy and am seriously thinking about switching…
the problem im having is in designer mode, when i click on an object and try to drag it, instead of selecting the object it wants to draw a selection box…and that doesn’t behave as expected either, it selects a bunch of stuff that isn’t even in the box! weirdness… is it just me? or do other people get this kind of behavior?
It’s a very emotional battle internally to let go of filemaker as my main database app…especially since i got fm8 advanced…It has fixed all my complaints about filemaker, execpt that it is a proprietary db… I feel it’s time to learn sql.
the other issue i have with servoy is the speed, compared to filemaker8 it is unbearably slow on my Power mac G4 1ghz… I understand that this is an issue with the way Apple does java in 10.4.
I have a windows laptop, but it’s dead right now, so I haven’t had a chance to compare the speed difference yet…
Has anyone found any tricks to speed up servoy developer, or java in general, on the mac?
SpectralHuman:
I have been using filemaker for years and love it…but, I just found out about servoy and am seriously thinking about switching…
the problem im having is in designer mode, when i click on an object and try to drag it, instead of selecting the object it wants to draw a selection box…and that doesn’t behave as expected either, it selects a bunch of stuff that isn’t even in the box! weirdness… is it just me? or do other people get this kind of behavior?
Yes, Servoy works differenly than FMPro in this way. You select anything that is touched by the rectangle.
There are other apps that behave the same way so it’s not only Servoy.
Also you click, let go and then click and drag an object. Again it’s not as how FMPro works but you definitely get used to it.
In fact you might start to love it. I know I (and a bunch of other ex FMPro developers) do. (no more click to only select but OOPS I moved the element issues)
SpectralHuman:
the other issue i have with servoy is the speed, compared to filemaker8 it is unbearably slow on my Power mac G4 1ghz… I understand that this is an issue with the way Apple does java in 10.4.
I have a windows laptop, but it’s dead right now, so I haven’t had a chance to compare the speed difference yet…
Has anyone found any tricks to speed up servoy developer, or java in general, on the mac?
Well, what do you mean by slow. What is slow? The startup of Developer? Or the overall performance of Developer.
One thing you should know about developer is that when you launch it it actually launches several other processes as well.
It launches Sybase iAnywhere (for the repository), Servoy Server (Tomcat) and Developer itself. In the past the launch times on Mac were way slower than on Windows or Linux but some changes in a .plist file sped it up significantly. Launching it with a .command (shell) script also makes it launch very much faster.
About the overall performance.
Yes, it’s a bit more snappy under Windows than on Mac OS X.
But I use Servoy Developer on an 1.33Ghz Powerbook and the speed is very acceptable.
I hope this helps.
Again, welcome to Servoy and keep asking questions.
You will find that the Servoy community is happy to answer them all (or at least tries to)
thanks for clearing that up for me I’m sure i’ll get used to it…although it seems that if i already have something selected (say a rounded rectangle), and then click on a field it lets me move it straight away…i dont have to click on it again…
another problem i have discovered with building interface is the “send to back” and “send to front”…not having the option to only move one layer is kinda anoying…for example, if i create a new object and want it to be under the fields and thier labels, but on top of a background image, it sucks to have to send it to the back, then select everything i want under it and send that to the back…in filemaker i would just create new object, send to back, then bring it forward 1 or 2 layers (all with keystrokes, no need to touch mouse)…does this feature exist hidden somewhere in servoy?
I did a bunch of system maintenance stuff, it might be my imagination but if feels like servoy develper is running a little snappier now
SpectralHuman:
thanks for clearing that up for me I’m sure i’ll get used to it…although it seems that if i already have something selected (say a rounded rectangle), and then click on a field it lets me move it straight away…i dont have to click on it again…
You say you have element a selected and then click-drag element b it let you drag it ?
I can’t reproduce that here.
I can only drag the already selected element.
SpectralHuman:
another problem i have discovered with building interface is the “send to back” and “send to front”…not having the option to only move one layer is kinda anoying…for example, if i create a new object and want it to be under the fields and thier labels, but on top of a background image, it sucks to have to send it to the back, then select everything i want under it and send that to the back…in filemaker i would just create new object, send to back, then bring it forward 1 or 2 layers (all with keystrokes, no need to touch mouse)…does this feature exist hidden somewhere in servoy?
The functions are in the menubar under elements but there are not shortcuts for it. You can always send this in as a feature request. Ditto for the bring back/front by ‘layer’.
ROCLASI:
You say you have element a selected and then click-drag element b it let you drag it ?
I can’t reproduce that here.
I can only drag the already selected element.
correct. it happens every time i try it on my machine.
but only if object “A” is not a field or a text label…
As far as getting used to design mode, I concur that once you get used to Servoy’s way of doing things you will have a very hard time using FileMaker again. Moving and resizing objects with the keyboard is a life saver. Check these tips out for speeding up your work in designer mode:
I’m sure i’ll get used to it…although it seems that if i already have something selected (say a rounded rectangle), and then click on a field it lets me move it straight away…i dont have to click on it again…