4D v12 has a new function Generate UUID. This is a much welcome feature, but fails to return an UUID in canonical (with hyphens) form like everyone else.
It would appear that 4D has UUIDs for everything it stores internally (structure export as xml) without hyphens. 4D has no comment on why it has chosen to have Generate UUID return a UUID without hyphens.
Further, in v12 using the “UUID format” on an alpha field removes the capability to set the length of said field. If I copy a UUID with hyphens, it strips them out to save them to 32 length string.
4D says there is no benefit, other than convenience, from having an UUID field and a 36 char alpha field with a trigger that stores UUID via Generate UUID into it.
Finally, the documentation says to refer to the design reference manual for v12 for more information. Which isn’t out as of the time of this writing.
Cowboy Coder 