Bernard Bout

Using the Interop Forms Toolkit in VFP9 - V

bbout — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:19:00 GMT

Exposing properties In previous posts I used the example of creating a toolstrip as an Activex. I showed how the Click could be exposed and trapped in VFP:I, II & III In this post I will show how the various properties can be exposed so that they can be read or changed from VFP once the Activex is created. The toolstrip has many properties of its own as well as properties for each of the buttons added. These can only be accessed externally if they have been...(read more)

Using the Interop Forms Toolkit in VFP9 - IV

bbout — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:00:00 GMT

True Multithreading in VFP In this 4th part I will describe here a way of obtaining true multi threading with VFP and the Interop Toolkit Usercontrol. As you know this is impossible in VFP alone although there are some ways of achieving this through COM and use of timers. The method for doing this has been adapted from the code found here: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb-interop/VB6InteropToolkit2.aspx You should also read this article thoroughly.So fire up VB 2005 Express and create...(read more)

Zoombar with Reflections

bbout — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:35:00 GMT

Adding reflections to the bbZoombar class. Over the holidays, I have done some additional enhancements to the bbZoombar class. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the icons reflected on the bar, with the reflections moving and zooming as well? Well this class now has them. Also the class has been revamped to allow for more than 9 buttons. Now you can have up to 99 but that would be overkill. I have also added a builder to the class. To use the new class, just drop it on a form, resize the...(read more)

A Visual Foxpro Animated Zoombar Class

bbout — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:52:00 GMT

The Zoombar Class From the first time I saw this class here http://www.devcomponents.com/dotnetbar/BubbleBar.html I liked it a lot. Only problem was it was in .NET and not VFP and I did not want all that overhead. Emerson Reed did a good class here http://weblogs.foxite.com/emersonreed but it only had 2 states so was more of a popup button class rather than a zoom class. So I decided to develop this from the ground up to suit my needs and with an actual zooming effect. The...(read more)

Embed II - The Smart VFP Treeview Class

bbout — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 03:34:00 GMT

In a previous post titled Embed Your Images, I described how you can embed images into a class. Well in this post I will show you a better way to embed those images as well as a configuration file into a class. The class in question is a Treeview class first shown here in this post. The class and sample forms can be downloaded from the link below. All that is needed to use this class is to run the xmldashbuilder.scx form and configure how the Treeview will look....(read more)

Using the Interop Forms Toolkit in VFP9 III

bbout — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:53:00 GMT

Part 3 – Adding and Enabling a Menu Strip In this post I will expand on my other posts (1 & 2 ) and show how we can add a menu strip and use it from VFP. You will need to download the source code supplied in the previous post to follow along. Mike S has requested this segment so here ya go Mike… Open up the project in VBExpress.Net and you are good to go. Adding a “menu strip” is very easy. Double click the file MyToolstrip.vb to open it in the design...(read more)

Using the Interop Forms Toolkit in VFP9 – A Walkthrough II

bbout — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:36:00 GMT

Part 2 - Properties and More Events Today I will show how we can add additional controls as well as expose properties of those controls in our Activex. If you haven't already please read Part 1 of the post.Open the project in vbExpress you created earlier or if you’re lazy download the complete project code from the link below and follow along. Double click the file MyToolstrip.vb to open it in the designer. From the toolbox on the left drop a checkbox onto the usercontrol...(read more)

Using the Interop Forms Toolkit in VFP9 – A Walkthrough

bbout — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:22:00 GMT

Part 1 - Installation, Control Creation & Events Microsoft have recently released the Interop Forms Toolkit 2.0 at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/aa701259.aspx . This toolkit allows developers to create Activex controls that can be hosted in VB as well as forms that can be called from VB. But this toolkit is not limited to VB alone. It can easily be used to create Forms and controls for use in VFP, as I will show. First things first. Go and download the Installer...(read more)

OzFox2007 - Get(Objx) more productive

bbout — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 11:23:00 GMT

I am back from an extremely intense OzFox 2007 and I must say it was very well organised by Craig Bailey of Talman. It was great to meet other VFP users from Australia and overseas and put faces to names. One of the sessions was Get moreProductive with VFP by Rick Schummer where he did an interactive session on enhancements we can create ourselves to make our development life easier. There were a lot of ideas brought up that were really timesavers and really cool and Rick did a really good...(read more)

Embed Your Images

bbout — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 02:56:00 GMT

It has always been a problem for me to have to include images for each class as an external file. Not only is file access slow, but VFP has an irritating way of displaying the Hourglass cursor every time a file is accessed from disk. This is especially noticeable in graphical buttons that have a bitmap change for a MouseEnter and MouseLeave event. Well not any more. Using a field in the class – the USER field, I have in one stroke removed both these irritants. Using the method described...(read more)

Add Glass XP Widgets to your Visual Foxpro Screens

bbout — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 13:28:00 GMT

Google, Yahoo, Vista have all got them. Now so has Visual Foxpro and you. I am talking about those little apps called Widgets that you can use to clutter your screen with. Using PNG graphics that are supported by VFP is one way to create very cool widgets. I have described here how PNG's with an Alpha mask can be used to show some cool glass-like pseudo "forms". Now I will describe here how this can be extended to creating glass widgets. While we have always had widgets, and have...(read more)

Visual Foxpro shows its Glass!

bbout — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 12:37:00 GMT

Vista is almost upon us with its new API’s and Aero Glass theme. It has already been shown that VFP can run in Vista and Craig Boyd has shown here how to achieve some of the glass effects of Aero in a VFP form. If you haven’t, check out: here: http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com/SPSBlog/PermaLink,guid,ded0ffae-4c8f-41b9-918f-b5adfe36f140.aspx Many of us will not be updating as yet till maybe SP1 or even later since a newer more powerful computer would be needed and who has that much...(read more)

Using the Alpha Channel in Visual Foxpro Images

bbout — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 22:55:00 GMT

Using the Alpha Channel in PNG images can result in some very interesting and pleasing effects. I have been working on some pseudo forms using Alpha Channel masks in PNG images with some very pleasing results. I was not aware that VFP could handle the Alpha channel masks of PNG's so decided to give it a try. Updated on 12/09/2006 (see below) I created the images in Paint Shop Pro but any image application like Photoshop etc that can create masks will do. When loaded into a VFP image object these...(read more)

Transparent Forms in Visual FoxPro Revealed

bbout — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 12:15:00 GMT

How it is done My previous post was purposely vague as I wanted to stir some interest. Just describing the method used to achieve the effect would have been easy but would have ended the interest there. Many readers “got it”. Some slightly differently to what I did but nevertheless there are many ways to skin a cat. Other’s just did not. Anyway in this post I will describe the method used to achieve the semi - transparent form effect. I hope readers will think about the...(read more)

VFP is very very cool

bbout — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:09:00 GMT

It’s all Smoke & Mirrors Gone are the days of staid grey forms and controls. Now screens need to have visual appeal as well as functionality. Microsoft started the trend by designing the Outlook 2000 interface and went one better with the Outlook 2003 interface which uses themes. Everywhere on the net we see the effect of colour on web pages. Well we have the ability to use themes in VFP and the Outlook interface lends itself to easily copying and adding the similar look...(read more)