Building an application in Visual FoxPro 6.0 is greatly simplified from
prior versions of the product. The process for creating an application
follows.
Creating a New Project with the Application Wizard
The wizard generates a new project containing the application framework.
The framework is a set of files that constitute the "glue" that ties the
various components of your application together. To create a new
application, do one of the following:
- From the Tools menu, point to Wizards, then click Application.
- From the File menu, choose New. In the New dialog box, select Project and then click the Wizard button.
- From the Tools menu, choose Component Gallery and double-click the New Application item in the Catalogs folder.
The application framework handles many common framework functions including
the following:
- Menu and Toolbar management
- Data handling
- Document management (forms and reports)
- Environment state
- Error handling
In addition, the framework also supports the following built-in features:
- Login password dialog
- Quickstart screen
- Splash screen
- About dialog
- Favorites menu
- Options dialog
- Application style (normal, top-level, module)
Set the Application Framework Options Using the Application Builder
All of the preceding features mentioned can be set using the Builder.
The Builder is reentrant and allows you to go back into it later (right-
click the Project Manager and select Builder). The Builder also has
Credit information to display on the Splash screen and the About dialog
box.
Create Data using the Database Wizard
The Application Builder has a Database Wizard button located on the Data
tab. You can use this or you can call the Wizard directly from the Tools
menu. The Database Wizard contains over 20 common database templates
that are ready to use. If you like, you can even populate tables with
sample data. If you use the Application Builder to call this Wizard, the
data is stored, by default, in the Data subfolder created by the
Application Wizard.
Generate New Forms and Reports
Once you have created database(s) and tables for your application, you
may want to generate forms and reports for these data sources. The
Application Builder allows you to do this from the Data tab. The Data
tab automatically generates forms and reports for the tables selected
and allows you to select the same visual styles that are available for
forms and reports.
NOTE: If you prefer, you can also do this from the Component Gallery.
The main catalog has a Templates folder that lets you create wizard
Forms and reports programmatically.
Using the Component Gallery to Enhance and Customize the Application
The following ideas are just a few of the things you can do with the
Gallery to enhance your application.
- Create a new form: The Component Gallery contains a number of form
templates in the Visual FoxPro catalog that let you select certain
fields from a data source. The template dialog box includes an option to
have the generated form automatically added to your project. If you
desire a more complex form such as a 1-to-Many form, choose the
appropriate Form Wizard.
- Add a hyperlink to a form: The Visual FoxPro catalog contains a number
of hyperlink classes in the Internet folder. You can select a hyperlink
label, image or button. When you drag-and-drop the control onto a form,
a builder opens prompting you for the caption and target URL. In
addition, the Component Gallery includes a World Wide Web (WWW) catalog
containing a variety of common Web sites. If you find a Web site that
you like and for which you would like to create a hyperlink, drag-and-
drop that item to your form (or choose Add to Form from the shortcut
menu).
- Add Wallpaper to your form: The Multimedia catalog contains a number of
images as well as access to the entire Visual Studio media gallery. With
your form already open, create form wallpaper by right-clicking the
desired image then selecting Select Form Wallpaper from the shortcut
menu. Alternatively, you can drag the image from the gallery and drop it
on the form to create an Image control on your form.
- Add an ActiveX control to your form: The ActiveX catalog contains a list
of all registered ActiveX controls. If the Installed Controls folder in
your catalog is empty, click the Installed Controls item, then from the
shortcut menu select Refresh Controls. The Property dialog box for this
item provides the option to refresh from all controls in your system, or
only those registered in the Visual FoxPro Options dialog box.
- Place a data-bound grid on your form: The Component Gallery allows you
to create Data items in any catalog. A form displays a grid when you
drag-and-drop one of these tables or views onto the form. You can also
try examples from the Testdata database in the Visual FoxPro catalog.
- Add a video image to your report: The Visual Studio media gallery in the
Multimedia catalog contains a number of videos you might want to use in
your application. You can simply drag-and-drop one of these files onto a
form or you might add the Video Player class and select a video of your
choosing.
- Add a shortcut menu to your form: The Visual FoxPro catalog contains
several shortcut menu classes in the Menus folder. You can use the
Navigation Shortcut Menu class on any form to add record navigation
functionality. You can use the Shortcut Menu class to create any kind of
shortcut menu.
- Incorporate a thermometer to show progress of an activity: The
Thermometer form class in the Dialogs folder is similar to the common
thermometer used internally by Visual FoxPro. You can use this class to
show progress of an operation that takes some time to perform.
- Create a new report: The Component Gallery contains a number of report
templates in the Visual FoxPro catalog that let you select certain
fields from a data source. The template dialog includes an option to
automatically add the generated report to your project. The Report
Wizards offer most options including summary and grouping features as
well as support for percent-of-total type reports.
- Add highlighting effects to your forms: The MouseOverFx class can
provide the raised-control look of Microsoft Office 97 toolbars to any
form or toolbar.
- Send e-mail from a form button: The MAPI ActiveX controls let you
automate e-mail to your clients. You can also use the Send Mail class in
the Buttons catalog to send the current record to an e-mail address.
- Lookup information in the Registry: Use the Registry classes in the
Utilities catalog for accessing critical Registry information. For
example, you might need to find an ODBC driver or shared tool.
- Output data to Word Mail Merge: The Automation catalog contains a Mail
Merge class that is used by the Mail Merge Wizard to output data to Word
as a Mail Merge document.
- Create a Web browser for your application: The Web Browser control in
the Internet catalog can be the basis for your Visual FoxPro Web Browser
form. The control allows you to integrate Visual FoxPro code with
browser interaction. For example, you can intercept or log (and
optionally redirect) URL sites before navigation. The Webvwr.scx file in
the Vfp98\Ffc folder illustrates how to create this type of form.
- Add a data mover to your form: The User Controls catalog contains an
assortment of mover classes. A mover is a set of list boxes that enable
you to move an item from one list box to another list box. With the data
mover classes, you need to drop the class onto a form. These movers are
similar to those used in the Visual FoxPro Wizards.
- Output data to Excel Pivot Table: The Automation catalog contains a
Pivot Table class that is used in the PivotTable Wizard to output data
to Excel as a Pivot Table document.
- Create data-bound charts: Start with the Graph By Record class in the
Automation catalog to bind your chart to data, record-by-record. This
and the Graph class share the engine used by the Graph Wizard.
- Add Web Publishing to your application: The new Web Publishing Wizard
and Genhtml engine provide HTML generation tools for data. The wizard, a
friendly layer on Genhtml, lets you select a variety of data layout and
visual style options. You can create dynamic output so that the HTML
updates as data changes.
You can now build and Run your application. You should build your
application frequently to test and debug the application.