ASNA Newsletter 2025

Windows 10 has officially reached end-of-life

The big news for this issue is that Windows 10’s end-of-support is finally here.

This is very important news for ASNA customers. Please read the first article below (as well as the more detailed one it references) to learn more about ASNA and Windows 10.

Windows 10 support ends on October 14, 2025!

Today is the day! Windows 10 has officially been retired by both Microsoft and ASNA.

As of October 14, Microsoft will no longer provide free software updates, technical assistance, or security fixes for Windows 10. As of that date ASNA will also no longer support Windows 10 as a platform for its products.

Read our Windows 10 retirement FAQ here. Some summary points are:

After October 14th, security updates are not available for Windows. Without those updates, we can’t risk having Windows 10 on our networks.
If you experience a tech support issue with any of our products and Windows 10 after October 14th, (and if you have a current maintenance agreement), we will do our best to recreate your issue on Windows 11. If we find an issue, chances are the solution that works on Windows 11 will also work on Windows 10.
The Microsoft Extended Security Update program is for “individuals” and “consumers” only, therefore it has no impact on ASNA support for Windows 10.
After October 14th, your Windows 10 PC will boot and continue to run everything it did the day before, including ASNA software. The difference is that after October 14th you’ll be computing with a higher level of threat and risk than before. How much higher is up for debate— but the threat is definitely higher.

Using custom properties with CSS

CSS Logo

CSS custom properties are essentially variables you can declare in your CSS. They can dramatically reduce redundancy and increase flexibility in your CSS files. All of the major browsers now fully support CSS custom properties.

Benefits of using CSS custom properties include:

Reduced code repetition and enhanced maintainability.
Improved readability by providing meaninful names for obtuse CSS values.
Dynamic styling possible with JavaScript.
Better CSS organization.

See this article for the full story about CSS custom properties

Reading a text file with Visual RPG

Here is a quick tip for how to read a text file with ASNA Visual RPG. In this example, that text file contains auxillary or configuration information. This file needs to be deployed with the application.

In cases like this, you need to determine the best place to put that text file. You could put the file somewhere in the user’s AppData folder, but it’s a little sloppy to keep configuration data so far away from the binary.

With this tip, that text file is kept, implicitly, with the binary. There, it has proximity to its binary—and is always in the same place for every user. Best of all, you don’t need to worry about folder names or where to put it. It’s always next to the binary.

Step 1. Add a text file to the project.

Add a text file to the project

Step 2. Right-click the file you just added in the Solution Explorer and open its properties. Change the 'Copy to Output Directory' property to 'Copy always'. This is this trick's secret sauce. With 'Copy always', every time you build the project, the text file is copied to the same folder as the compiled binary file.

Set the file's 'Copy to Output Directory' property

Step 3. You can see here that the file is in the same folder as the binary. Note that the text file is copied, not moved, to this folder. After the first compilation, there are two copies of this text file. One in your project and the other in the folder with the binary file.

Confirming the file is in the same folder as the binary file

Step 4. The 'System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory' identifies the folder where the binary is stored. To read the file create the file's fully qualified named with 'System.IO.Path.Combine'. In this example, the entire file is read and assigned to the form's 'Text' property. You can read it many ways with the static System.IO.File object.

Reading the text file

After deploying the project and the text file, you can make changes to the text file on a user’s PC. Those changes are available without recompiling and redeploying the project.

Be careful making after-deployment changes; you might also need to make those changes to the text file in your project.

Need help with your Visual RPG applications?

ASNA can help with any aspect of your Visual RPG portfolio

We’ve talked to a few customers lately who no longer have any employees with ASNA product knowledge. Most of these are due to either retirement or business acquisitions and/or employee reassignment. Even the simplest things, like applying a new license, are sometimes challenging to do without ASNA talent available.

Is your shop running low on Visual RPG talent? Do you need some help with your ASNA Visual RPG application? ASNA’s Services Team can help you with:

Upgrades. ASNA Upgrades are usually pretty straightforward, but challenging to do without any ASNA experience. Our Services Team can help you with your upgrades.
Program fixes and maintenance. Our Services Team can make ongoing program changes and enhancements needed.
Migrating your application’s database. In some cases, you might want to retire your old ASNA application and migrate its database to another platform. Our Services Team can help migrate that old database to a variety of modern database platforms.
Migrating the app. If your application needs to be migrated to a new environment, the ASNA Services Team can also help with that. Our team has extensive .NET, C#, and IBM i programming experience.

Email us at info@asna.com to arrange a time to discuss how the ASNA Services Team can help you.

The latest ASNA products downloads

ASNA Newsletter 2025 - Quarter 3

Windows 10 support ends on October 14, 2025!

Using custom properties with CSS

Reading a text file with Visual RPG

Need help with your Visual RPG applications?