WINDEV Concepts

Part 2: Development environment 77 6.2 Types of compatibility 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. Compatibility is an important step when making changes to a component. There are two types of compatibility: • 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. This type of compatibility is automatically managed. If the version of the component installed with the application is earlier than the version used by the application, the application will not run. • 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. 7 Advanced component characteristics 7.1 Automatic documentation External components must include a technical documentation. WINDEV, WEBDEV and WINDEV Mobile help you create this documentation via the following options: • A general overview of the component . This overview can be entered when generating the component. • A technical documentation generated automatically from the comments in the code of the component elements. Which code comments are taken into account? The following comments are automatically taken into account to create the component documentation: • Comments at the beginning of the WLanguage procedures. • Comments at the beginning of the following events: • Initialization code of windows or pages, • Initialization code of reports, • Initialization code of classes, • Initialization code of sets of procedures. When is the documentation gene- rated? The documentation of the component is created the first time the component is generated ( in the quick access buttons). When generating the documentation: • the comments in the code are used to create the documentation. • if there are no comments in your code, the expected input and output parameters of each accessible element of the component will be automatically included in the documentation. The corresponding comments are automatically created in the different elements. Remark : The component documentation can be regenerated each time the component is generated ("Regenerate" button). Caution : If you use the "Regenerate" option, the changes made to the documentation in the generation wizard will be lost. How to access the component documentation? The general component overview is automatically displayed in the component description window. The technical documentation of the component is available: • when a component is included in a project: on the "Project" tab, in the "Project" group, expand "Import" and select "An External component". • in the description of the components included in the project. In the "Project explorer" pane: • In the "External components" folder, select the desired external component.