DataFlex Education at the University of Óbuda during Covid-19

András Michaletzky is the President/CEO of NEXT Software Kft., developers of bespoke ERP solutions and the Data Access Channel Partner for Hungary.

In the autumn of this year, the 12th semester of the DataFlex training course at Óbuda University started! So far, the 11 semesters offered have produced 132 training sessions comprising 198 hours of education for the110 students who have completed the courses.

The previous semester was special. On March 16, the Hungarian government decided that all educational institutions should switch to online education due to the pandemic. The university switched all its courses in 1 week, including the DataFlex course. It was important for the lessons to be live, but students could also watch them afterwards. With the help of Microsoft Teams, we were able to make the lessons available to everyone live, and they were also recorded. This latest 12th semester is also online.

Students participate 12-13 times in 90-minute classes during the educational semester. They learn the basics of DataFlex, DataFlex Reports, and DynamicAI, including how to create classes, objects, databases, and also how to quickly build an application with a good User Interface for Windows, Web, and Mobile apps.

We create with the students a minimalist rental software app that we build on all three platforms, highlighting the features of Data Dictionaries. The first step is to get acquainted with the DataFlex database, and then we switch to the MSSQL database. They learn to make SQL scripts, and constrains with Embedded SQL commands. This semester will be the first time they learn how to use DataFlex Reports and, as in previous years, they’ll learn how to use and embed DynamicAI on all platforms.

In the DataFlex Reports tutorial, we will highlight the use of RDS, which makes it even easier to bridge the connection to different databases.

To complete the course, each student must complete a big homework assignment with Windows-platform entry views, and then create appropriate reports.

I was very proud to have received an award for our supportive work at the university after the 10th semester - with our help, students get even more knowledge and have more opportunities in the job market!