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Help / WINDEV Tutorial / Tutorial - WINDEV overview
  • Lesson 1 - Discover WINDEV
  • What is WINDEV?
  • Launching WINDEV for the first time: the home page
  • Development environment
  • The editor
  • The ribbon in detail
  • WLanguage
  • To sum up

Tutorial - WINDEV overview

Lesson 1 - Discover WINDEV
We will cover the following topics:
  • What is WINDEV?
  • Launching WINDEV for the first time: the home page.
  • Development environment.
  • WLanguage.
Durée de la leçon 5 min
What is WINDEV?
WINDEV is a complete DevOps Integrated Development Environment aimed at developing Windows (and Linux) applications in diverse fields: management, industry, healthcare, etc. These applications can access data stored in databases.
The different tutorials will show you how to create and improve your own applications (with or without a database) using the many features available in WINDEV.
Key definitions
  • An application is a tool that allows you to perform actions automatically. An application includes an executable program (or a set of executable programs), libraries, data files, etc.
  • An executable program is a file made of elements that can be directly handled by the user (windows, report views, etc.). It is what the end user will run.
  • A WINDEV project allows you to connect and organize the different elements of the program. The project can be used to create an executable program, a web service, etc.
Launching WINDEV for the first time: the home page
To get started, simply launch WINDEV SaaS.
Log in if necessary.
The development environment opens. The WINDEV home page appears.
WINDEV home page
This home page allows you to:
  • view news about PC SOFT products,
  • create a project,
  • open an existing project,
  • open an example,
  • access the different tutorials available in WINDEV.
If you haven't started WINDEV SaaS before, a welcome wizard will appear:
  • If you have used an earlier version of WINDEV, this wizard will help you retrieve your previous configurations.
  • If you are a new user, this wizard will help you configure your environment. You will be able to choose the screen configuration and set up the Control Centers.
Development environment
Let's open a project to discover the main features of the WINDEV environment:
  1. On the home page, click "Tutorial".
  2. In "Tutorial - Discover WINDEV (Lesson 1)", double-click "Full application - Answers".
    Home page - Example from the tutorial
  3. The corresponding project opens in the editor. The project dashboard is displayed. The project dashboard allows you to monitor the progress of a project via several widgets.

The editor

The WINDEV development environment includes a specific UI and multiple editors that allow you to create the different elements of your applications: a window editor to create windows, a report editor to create reports, etc.
Let's open a window in the window editor:
  1. Press Ctrl + E.
  2. In the window that appears, enter the name of the window you want to open: WIN_Product_form.
  3. Validate. The window appears in the editor.
All the editors have the same environment:
WINDEV environment
  • Editor menu (1), displayed as a ribbon (we'll see how to use it in the next paragraph).
  • Current editor (2) (here, window editor). The editor shows the element being created or modified in WYSIWYG mode (What You See Is What You Get).
  • Panes (3). The WINDEV UI includes several horizontal and vertical panes that provide quick access to different types of information. For example:
    • the "Project explorer" pane (left) lists all project elements by category.
    • the search pane (bottom) allows you to perform searches in the entire project and its elements.
    These panes can be hidden by pressing Ctrl + W if necessary.
  • Open document tabs (4). These tabs allow you to quickly see all open elements. Simply click a tab to open an element in its corresponding editor.

The ribbon in detail

The ribbon is a key element of the editor interface. You can access all WINDEV options via this ribbon.
The ribbon includes three areas:
WINDEV ribbon
Let's take a closer look at these areas.
The Buttons area (1)
WINDEV Buttons area
The Buttons area contains the quick access buttons. These buttons are used to perform the most usual operations, common to all editors: save, open, create, etc.
You can open the "About" window from the logo of the IDE.
The Tabs area (2)
WINDEV Tabs area
The different ribbon tabs allow you to access the options of the editors for the current project. Multiple types of tabs are available:
  • the current tab, bold and underlined.
  • colored context tabs. These tabs are specific to the current element.
  • the other tabs.
The Options area (3)
WINDEV Option area
The options in the ribbon change depending on the selected tab. Multiple types of options are available:
  • Options to check.
  • Buttons to click.
  • Drop-down buttons used to expand options. Two types of drop-down buttons are available:
    • drop-down buttons used to expand a menu
    • split buttons used to expand a menu (click on the arrow), or to perform a default action (click on the button icon).
The options are organized by groups. Each group of options has a name and can have a dialog box launcher Dialog box launcher. This button allows you to perform a specific action according to the current group: open the description of the current element, open the help, etc.
In the different WINDEV tutorials, we will refer to tabs and groups to indicate a menu option. For example: To display the help, go to the "Home" tab, "Online help" group and click "Help".
WLanguage
WLanguage is the programming language common to WINDEV, WEBDEV and WINDEV Mobile.
If you are not familiar with this language, we advise you to follow the lessons on the programming concepts. These lessons present the different types of variables, the main WLanguage statements, the procedures, etc.
To sum up
We have covered the essentials of the WINDEV environment. We opened a project and a window in the editor. In the next lesson, you will be able to create your first window.
We have completed the first lesson. Don't forget to close the current project:
  1. On the "Home" tab, in the "General" group, expand "Close" and select "Close project".
  2. Save changes if necessary.
The WINDEV home page appears.
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Minimum version required
  • Version 2024
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Last update: 12/01/2023

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