Phase 1 — WebApp Clients and Apps¶
Phase 1 delivers the TechStack on the platform DataFlex already runs on. Development happens in the existing Windows Studio, which compiles, runs, and debugs WebAssembly-based applications, and TechStack toolchains run as a WebApp Server under the existing IIS infrastructure. That reuse is deliberate: it gives quick access on technology you are already familiar with, instead of overhauling everything at the same time.
In practice, Phase 1 is close to what DataFlex Windows already offers for web applications, with one substantial addition: WebApp Clients run the DataFlex application inside the browser, so they can work offline — or optionally online — and still handle data. The Android and iOS app packaging entries belong here for the same reason: a packaged app is a WebApp Client with a shell around it.
DataFlex 27.0 is a continuous development project, and this technical preview even more so. Work is split off into an independent, milestoned release per phase, which is why the statuses below are a mix: parts of Phase 1 are released today, others are still being implemented.
Only the WebAssembly and Windows columns are shown, because Phase 1 targets no other platform. Statuses mean exactly what they mean on the roadmap overview: ✓ released and usable · ◐ released, with the limitation named in the cell · ✗ still to be implemented · N/A not applicable to that platform · TBD not yet decided.
Components can ship between phases
A phase describes a full-fledged release, not a release train. TechStack's interop system, combined with the package manager introduced in DataFlex 26.0, lets components ship on their own schedule: FlexTron, the database drivers provided out of the box, and the Web UI server and client capabilities are all packages. Over time, more and more components will be released independently of one another. So an item documented under a later phase can become available earlier — FlexTron on Windows belongs to Phase 1 and FlexTron on the other platforms to Phase 2, but a cross-platform FlexTron package may well appear in between.
Runtime and compilers¶
| Feature | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| 64-bit runtime | N/A | ✓ |
| 32-bit runtime | ✓ | ✓ |
| 64-bit compiler | N/A | ✓ |
| 32-bit compiler | ✓ | ✓ |
Both bit widths are also available from DataFlex Windows, which ships as 27.0.0+windows-64 and 27.0.0+windows-32. The tables on this page report the status of the TechStack toolchains; DataFlex Windows is the current-generation product and is unchanged by them.
Development tools¶
| Feature | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | Covered by Windows | ✓ |
| Studio Debugger | ✓ | ✓ |
| Package Manager | Covered by Windows | ✓ |
| df-cli build system | Covered by Windows | ✓ |
| df-cli toolchain management | ✗ | ✗ |
| Toolchain installers | Covered by Windows | ✓ |
VS Code development and the Debugserver are Phase 2 items: they exist to make development work on platforms that will never run the Studio.
Studio¶
The Windows Studio is the development environment for the whole of Phase 1. The Windows column is the status for the TechStack native toolchains, the WebAssembly column for the TechStack wasm toolchains; running and debugging a wasm project happens through the Chromium Debugging Protocol. DataFlex Windows toolchains are not in this table: a DataFlex Windows workspace keeps the Studio it has today, including the Data Dictionary Modeler, DDO Structure Editor, Database Builder, Database Explorer and the table and connection tools, so a ✗ below means a TechStack equivalent is still to be implemented.
| Feature | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Compiling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Running | ✓ (through the Chromium Debugging Protocol) | ✓ |
| Debugging | ✓ (through the Chromium Debugging Protocol) | ✓ |
| CDS support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Toolchain support | ◐ (no toolchain management) | ◐ (no toolchain management) |
| Package Manager | ◐ | ◐ |
| Integrated documentation | ◐ (online only) | ◐ (online only) |
| DDO Explorer | ✗ | ✗ |
| Connection Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| Table Editor and Viewer | ✗ | ✗ |
| DataDictionary Designer | ✗ | ✗ |
| Database Explorer | ✗ | ✗ |
| Database Builder | ✗ | ✗ |
Application frameworks and UI¶
| Feature | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Web UI framework | ✓ | ✓ |
| WebApp Client | ✓ | N/A |
| IIS WebApp Server | N/A | ✓ |
| WebAPI Framework Support | N/A | ✗ |
| FlexTron | N/A | ✗ |
Phase 1 serves TechStack applications through IIS, so there is no separate WebApp Server row here — the cross-platform server is a Phase 2 item.
Data and storage¶
| Feature | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| SQLite Driver | ✓ | ✓ |
| SQL Driver | N/A | ✗ |
| DDP Driver | ✗ | ✗ |
| SQLExecutor | ✗ | ✗ |
| Browser-local database storage | ✓ | N/A |
| HTTP data synchronization | ✓ | ✓ |
Interop and extensibility¶
| Feature | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| DataFlex Interop API | ✓ | ✓ |
| FlexCom | N/A | ◐ (no ActiveX or object nesting) |
| JavaScript interop | ◐ (DataFlex JavaScript Worker only) | N/A |
| External function/DLL calls | ✓ | ✓ |
Deployment and operations¶
| Feature | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Android app packaging | ◐ (experimental service) | N/A |
| iOS app packaging | ✗ | N/A |
API areas¶
Per-area status for the API Reference.
| Area | WebAssembly | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Objects | ✓ | ✓ |
| Language data types | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data and Data Dictionaries | ◐ (experimental) | ◐ (experimental) |
| HTTP Client | ✓ | ✓ |
| JSON | ✓ | ✓ |
| Regex | ✓ | ✓ |
| URI | ✓ | ✓ |
| INI | ✓ | ✓ |
| XML | ✗ | ✗ |
| Filesystem | ✓ | ✓ |
| Security | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reflection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Locale and DateTime | ✓ | ✓ |
| Error system | ✓ | ✓ |
| Command line and application | ✓ | ✓ |