🛠️ Uniface Setup Utility: Change Your Application Settings Without Restarting

Note: This article was created with the assistance of AI to structure and present information from the official Uniface 10.4 documentation clearly.

🎯 What is the Setup Utility?

The Setup Utility is a built-in tool in Uniface 10.4 that lets users change application settings on the fly. The best part? You don't need to restart your application! 🚀

Think of it as a control panel for your Uniface desktop application. It allows users to modify settings from the usys.ini file directly from within the running application.

💡 Why is This Useful?

Imagine you're working on a Uniface application and want to change the color scheme, adjust font sizes, or modify toolbar settings. Without the Setup Utility, you would need to:

• Close your application ✋
• Open the usys.ini file manually 📝
• Make changes 🔧
• Save the file 💾
• Restart the application 🔄

With the Setup Utility, you can do all of this while your application is running! This saves time and makes testing different configurations much easier. ⏰

🔌 How to Enable the Setup Utility

Enabling the Setup Utility in your Uniface MDI desktop application is simple:

1. Open your application shell in the Uniface IDE
2. Go to the Properties Inspector
3. Find the Window/App property
4. Click the ellipsis button to open the properties dialog
5. Select the Setup checkbox

That's it! The Setup Utility is now available in your application. ✅

📖 How to Access the Setup Utility

Once enabled, users can access the Setup Utility by:

1. Clicking the icon in the application title bar
2. Opening the application menu
3. Choosing Setup from the menu

A dialog window will appear with multiple tabs containing different configuration options. 🪟

🗂️ What Can You Configure?

The Setup Utility organizes settings into tabs. Each tab contains related properties that correspond to sections in the usys.ini file:

👤 User Tab

Change user credentials and password settings. This tab modifies the $name and $password settings in your configuration.

🎨 Colors Tab

Customize the visual appearance of your application. You can modify:

• Foreground and Background colors for normal and bright modes
• Blink settings for both normal and bright colors
• Windows color scheme integration to match your operating system
• Color Zero settings for backward compatibility

Example: If you want your application to use Windows system colors, simply check the "Use Microsoft Windows color scheme" option. Your application will automatically adopt the colors from your Windows theme! 🎨

🔧 Toolbar Tab

Control what appears on your application toolbar:

• Show or hide the Character Set selector
• Show or hide the Font List
• Enable or disable Style Buttons
• Toggle View Buttons
• Control Window List and Controls display
• Change Toolbar button style and colors

Example: If your users don't need to change fonts frequently, you can hide the Font List to make the toolbar cleaner and less cluttered.

🔤 Fonts Tab

Adjust font settings for different parts of your application:

• Screen Fonts: The main font used throughout the application
• Button Font: Specific font for buttons
• Shift Font: Font used for special display modes
• Printer Fonts: Fonts used when printing documents

Example: If you want larger buttons for better readability, you can increase the Button Font size without affecting the rest of the interface.

⚙️ Miscellaneous Tab

This tab contains various display and behavior settings:

• Button Spacing, Type, and Panel Type: Control button layout
• Message, Transcript, and Debug line counts: Set how many lines are displayed in different windows
• Entity and Field Frames: Control frame styles around data fields
• Focus Flash: Visual feedback when fields receive focus
• Line Spacing: Control spacing between text lines
• Sound Enabled: Turn application sounds on or off

🚀 Advanced Tab

Configure advanced application behavior:

• Minimum Resource Level: Control memory and resource usage
• Auto Maximize: Automatically maximize windows
• Async GUI: Enable asynchronous user interface updates

🖨️ Printer Tab

Manage printer settings:

• Select available printers
• Configure Print Preview zoom level
• Control transparent background printing

📍 State Tab

Control layout and geometry settings:

• Delete current layout geometry
• Keep form layout geometry
• Include layout geometry for tab forms
• Configure history size

💻 Editor Tab

Customize the code editor experience:

• Set editor colors
• Configure tab size
• Adjust code element highlighting

Example: If you prefer tabs to be 4 spaces instead of 2, you can change the Tab Size setting in this tab. Your code will immediately reflect this change. 📝

🔑 Key Benefits

• No Restart Required: Changes take effect immediately ⚡
• User-Friendly: No need to edit configuration files manually 😊
• Time-Saving: Test different configurations quickly 🏃
• Safe: Changes are validated before being applied 🛡️
• Organized: Settings are grouped logically in tabs 📂

💭 When Should You Use It?

The Setup Utility is perfect for:

• Testing: Quickly try different visual configurations during development
• User Preferences: Let users customize their experience without IT support
• Accessibility: Adjust fonts and colors for better readability
• Troubleshooting: Change debug and message settings to diagnose issues
• Training: Show new users how to customize their workspace

📝 Important Notes

Keep in mind:

• The Setup Utility is only available for MDI desktop applications, not for web or server applications 🖥️
• Changes made through the Setup Utility modify the usys.ini file 📄
• Some settings may require specific permissions to modify 🔒
• Not all initialization settings are available in the Setup Utility – some must still be edited manually 🔧

🎬 Conclusion

The Uniface Setup Utility is a powerful feature that makes application configuration much more accessible and user-friendly. By providing a graphical interface to modify initialization settings, it empowers both developers and end-users to customize their Uniface applications without technical file editing. 🌟

Whether you're developing a new application or maintaining an existing one, enabling the Setup Utility can significantly improve the user experience and reduce support overhead. Give it a try in your next Uniface 10.4 project! 🚀