Kok Kiet's Blog

ThemedButton Prototype

2008-07-03T08:19:00Z

I just created themedbutton, by referring code of ThemedControls project in VFPX. It is quite easy to follow.


Normal	Hover	Focused

However, it is not completed. There are some limitation/enhancements required:

Anchoring is not yet supported. (VFP doesn't anchor internal controls if parent container is adjusted during design time)
Only Click event is supported.
It is based on control base class. Native command button property such as picture margin, spacing and position is not yet implemented.
Only picture with size 16X16 pixels is supported.
That are "ugly" parts at four corners.

Technorati tags: Visual FoxPro, FoxPro, VFPX, GDI+, ThemedControls

Resize image in .NET

2008-06-29T09:48:58Z

I need to resize user provided image using picturebox with size 48X48 pixels. I "googled" and found the following sample code:

Using DrawImage

FileStream loFileStream = new FileStream(@".\RefreshCL.png", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
Image loOriginalImage = Bitmap.FromStream(loFileStream);           
Bitmap loBitmap = new Bitmap(48, 48);

using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage((Image)loBitmap))
{
    g.DrawImage(loOriginalImage, 0,0, 48,48);
    pictureEdit1.Image = loBitmap;
}

As we can see the result as above, it is not good. The image is broken

I "googled" again and get this code

Using GetThumbnailImage

FileStream loFileStream = new FileStream(@".\RefreshCL.png", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
            
Image loOriginalImage = Bitmap.FromStream(loFileStream);

loOriginalImage = loOriginalImage.GetThumbnailImage(48, 48, new Image.GetThumbnailImageAbort(ThumbnailCallback), IntPtr.Zero);

pictureEdit1.Image = loOriginalImage;

public bool ThumbnailCallback()
{
    return true;
}

As this is much better.

Sync Provider for SQL Express

2008-06-25T03:00:34Z

Microsoft has released Sync Framework couple months ago, enable offline data collection applications to synchronize local data back to another/centralized database.

Eventually, this feature is already available in SQL Server (Data Replication) since long time ago. However, it is not so easy for developers as it required certain level of knowledge of SQL Server. Deployment is not so straight forward as well. At least, it is not by "Developer" way. Sync framework introduced is something that really helps in my opinion.

SQL Server Express is a lightweight edition of SQL Server. Most importantly, it is free! Therefore, It is always the best choose as database server used at branches. Then, data would be sync back to main database intervally.

Nevertheless, Sync framework is more focus on SQL Server CE, mobile devices. More and more providers are released for these few months but not yet any provider for SQL Server Express. Sync provider for SQL Express has been requested at least for six months. And finally, Microsoft has released Sync Provider for SQL Express as sample at Code Gallery. In the future Microsoft certainly plan of including a fully supported version of a SQL Express client provider within a future release of Sync Services for ADO.NET.

Source: Sample - SQL Express Client Synchronization using Sync Services for ADO.NET

Technorati tags: .NET, Sync Services for ADO.NET, SQL Server

FoxCharts is Rock!

2008-06-24T06:32:22Z

Well, it might not any latest news. But it is really rock!

(Updated) Source:

http://weblogs.foxite.com/vfpimaging/archive/2008/05/21/6080.aspx
http://weblogs.foxite.com/vfpimaging/archive/2008/04/24/6040.aspx
http://weblogs.foxite.com/vfpimaging/archive/2008/04/04/5919.aspx

VFPX: http://www.codeplex.com/VFPX/Wiki/View.aspx?title=FoxCharts&referringTitle=Home

Technorati tags: FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, VFP, VFPX, FoxCharts

IIS Unexpected error 0x8ffe2740 occurred

2008-06-24T06:24:00Z

That day I hit error as above when I want to access my localhost IIS. Luckily I could get it fixed very soon. It is caused by Skype.

http://blog.jtbworld.com/2007/01/skype-behind-iis-error.html

Technorati tags: IIS, Skype

Add DataEnvironment class to form

2008-06-24T06:08:25Z

DataEnvironment class has been introduced since VFP8. We could get more info from VFP help.

mk:@MSITStore:C:\Program%20Files\Microsoft%20Visual%20FoxPro%208\dv_foxhelp.chm::/html/ctlDataEnvironment_Object.htm

Last few days, we tried to migrate some of the form's DataEnvironment to class for customization purpose. we then dynamically assign DEClass and DEClassLibrary property at form to have dynamic DataEnvironment.

However, we just hit error complaint that object "DataEnvironment" is not found. After some troubleshooting, we found that our application framework (VPME8) requires to access DE property values of DataEnvironment during form initialization. No matter what, the framework require DE's name to be DataEnvironment. In fact, DE's naming convention is DE's name + nth.

We found two workarounds:

Using AddObject()

SET CLASSLIB TO <DELib> ADDITIVE

THISFORM.RemoveObject("DataEnvironment")
THISFORM.AddObject("DataEnvironment", "<DE>")

Using Property

THISFORM.RemoveObject("DataEnvironment")

loDE = NEWOBJECT("<DE>", "<DELib>")
THISFORM.AddProperty("DataEnvironment", loDE)

Technorati tags: FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, VFP, DataEnvironment

Source code analysis tool for C#

2008-06-23T09:34:42Z

My team is moving to a new web product which would be developed in .NET C#. We are currently 9 developers and going to grown to 12. This is not the first .NET application. In fact, there are couple of them already. One of the problems we are having is not strong in SOP (Standard Operation Procedure). Very simple guideline such coding standard.

Even though we have coding standard documentation downloaded online, most of them are not followed.

The document is too long to read.
Developers might confuse with so many guidelines.
Manual code review required even for simple thing such as naming convention. Very time consumed.

Recently, I am researching on any tool that able to help us to:-

Detect any violations.
Suggest and auto correct violations.
Ability to be integrated with any CI (Continuous Integration) tool.

And I found two tools as below:-

StyleCop

Enforce a common set of best practices for layout, readability, maintainability, and documentation of C# source code.
Has been used for many years now internally at Microsoft.
Analysis source code instead of compiled binary.
It is free
It contains 200 best practice rules covered the following:-

Layout of elements, statements, expressions, and query clauses
Placement of curly brackets, parenthesis, square brackets, etc
Spacing around keywords and operator symbols
Line spacing
Placement of method parameters within method declarations or method calls
Standard ordering of elements within a class
Formatting of documentation within element headers and file headers
Naming of elements, fields and variables
Use of the built-in types
Use of access modifiers
Allowed contents of files
Debugging text

Integrated with Visual Studio IDE, and also MSBuild-based command line builds.
Ability to analysis code per file basis.
FxCop vs StyleCop

StyleCop - focuses on layout, readability and documentation
FxCop - focuses on design of the code

Limitations

Does not allow its rules to be very configurable.
Does not provides auto correction actions. Manual correction is required.

Downloadable: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/sourceanalysis/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1047
Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sourceanalysis/

CodeIt.Right

Combines static code analysis and automatic refactoring to best practices in one application. But there is more - CodeIt.Right will automatically correct code errors and violations (e.g. naming conventions, incorrectly implemented coding patterns, etc)!
Comprehensive rule set based on Microsoft .NET Guidelines, Framework Design Guidelines and best practices - right out of the box
Integrated with Visual Studio IDE, and also MSBuild-based command line builds.
Ability configure rules and create custom rules based on existing base rule.
SDK available to allow creating of new complex custom rules.
It contains 100+ best practice rules.
Rule Library Auto-update.
Multiple profiles - group rules the way you want and quickly switch between profiles.
Safely Undo/Redo the changes - multi-file Visual Studio undo/redo.
Ability to analysis code in solution or per project basis.
Contains two editions

Standard Edition - Rules authoring, machine basis.
Enterprise Edition - Standard creation is separated into a separate module, allowing a Team Lead or an Architect create the team guidelines and then enforce them to the rest of the team. Also it comes with two modules included into the package - the Analysis Module and the Team Configuration Module. The latter besides tweaking the guidelines to the team standards is also responsible for publishing and pushing the end result to the developer workstations. (is currently in the works and will be out end of the summer 2008)

Commercial: http://submain.com/order.aspx
Trial version available: http://submain.com/?nav=download& (30 days evaluation)
Blog: http://community.submain.com/blogs/default.aspx
Tutorial available: http://community.submain.com/content/Tutorials.aspx
More details: http://submain.com/?nav=products.cir
Limitations

Rule list are not "complete" enough, but many rules to be released every week.

Time saving to standardize existing source code since auto correction feature built-in.

Personally, I feel that StyleCop is very good because it contains quite complete rule list. It is suitable for whom:

Do not mind to correct violations manually.
Apply on new project only since any corrections could be done immediately without long violation list prompted. Apply to existing project would require more resources to correct violations.
Willing to follow Microsoft internal coding standard.

On the other hand, CodeIt.Right would be suitable for whom:

Would like to apply coding standard to existing "legacy" project. Auto correction would save a lot of time.
Do not wish to follow Microsoft internal coding standard exactly.
Would like to have additional rules or develop own custom rules.
Do not want to correct violations manually.
Would like to automate violations correction process during CI (Continuous Integration).

No matter which tool to be used, it would really help because no manual code review is required.

Happy coding!

Technorati tags: .NET, Continuous Integration, Coding Guideline

Enumerate all resource name from external assembly

2008-06-22T11:31:00Z

Sometime we might want to re-use resources such as image that already exist in external assembly. We need to know what resource exist.

Here is sample code that iterate all DLL files and display its resource name.

foreach (string filename in System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(@"C:\Documents and Settings\chankk\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\ClassLibrary1\bin\debug", "*.dll"))
{
    Assembly loAss = Assembly.LoadFrom(filename);

    foreach (string resname in loAss.GetManifestResourceNames())
    {
        if (resname.EndsWith(".resources"))
        {
            Stream stream = loAss.GetManifestResourceStream(resname);

            ResourceReader rreader = new ResourceReader(stream);

            IDictionaryEnumerator ie = rreader.GetEnumerator();

            while (ie.MoveNext())
            {
                textBox1.Text += ie.Key + Environment.NewLine;
            }
        }
    }
}

Run application and wait (RunAs)

2008-03-07T11:41:40Z

I am changing my application to be Vista compatible. I need to run an external EXE and wait for until it terminate. Beside, I also need to run this EXE with Admin privilege under certain condition.

To run external application and wait till it terminate, I found the code as below.

loShell = CREATEOBJECT("WScript.Shell")
loShell.Run("C:\MyApp\MyApp.exe", 1, 1)

However, it doesn't support elevation.

To run application via elevation process, I can

DECLARE INTEGER ShellExecute IN "Shell32.dll" ;
	INTEGER hwnd, STRING lpVerb, STRING lpFile, STRING lpParameters, ;
	STRING lpDirectory, LONG nShowCmd

ShellExecute(0, "runas", "C:\MyApp\MyApp.exe", "", "", 1)

Unfortunately, ShellExecute() doesn't wait but return control back to calling program immediately.

In order to have both features, I found ShellExecuteEX ...

DECLARE LONG ShellExecuteEx IN Shell32 STRING @SHELLEXECUTEINFO

DECLARE INTEGER WaitForSingleObject IN kernel32;
	INTEGER hHandle, INTEGER dwMilliseconds

LOCAL loSHELLEXECUTEINFO AS SHELLEXECUTEINFO OF SHELLEXECUTEINFO.prg, ;
		lcStructure AS String

loSHELLEXECUTEINFO = NEWOBJECT("SHELLEXECUTEINFO", "SHELLEXECUTEINFO.prg")
loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.fld("lpVerb") = "runas" + CHR(0)
loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.fld("lpFile") = "C:\MyApp\MyApp.exe" + CHR(0)
loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.fld("nShow") = 1
loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.fld("lpParameters") = CHR(0)

**********************************************
* Required in order to get process id returned
**********************************************
loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.fld("fMask") = SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS

lcStructure = loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.Structure 

ShellExecuteEx(@lcStructure)

loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.Structure = lcStructure

***********************************************************
* Wait for application termination (-1)
***********************************************************
WaitForSingleObject(loSHELLEXECUTEINFO.fld("hProcess"), -1)

**************************************************************
* Define SHELLEXECUTEINFO strucuture using class Struct
* from http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~ApiStructureClass~VFP
**************************************************************

DEFINE CLASS SHELLEXECUTEINFO AS Struct OF Struct.prg

	#IF .F.
		LOCAL THIS AS SHELLEXECUTEINFO OF SHELLEXECUTEINFO.prg
	#ENDIF

	PROCEDURE INIT()
	
		THIS.AddField("cbSize", "LONG", 60)
		THIS.AddField("fMask", "LONG", 0)
		THIS.AddField("hwnd", "LONG", 0)
		THIS.AddField("lpVerb", "@STRING", CHR(0))
		THIS.AddField("lpFile", "@STRING", CHR(0))
		THIS.AddField("lpParameters", "@STRING", CHR(0))
		THIS.AddField("lpDirectory", "@STRING", CHR(0))

		THIS.AddField("nShow", "LONG", 0)
		THIS.AddField("hInstApp", "LONG", 0)
		THIS.AddField("lpIDList", "@STRING", CHR(0))
		THIS.AddField("lpClass", "@STRING", CHR(0))
		THIS.AddField("hkeyClass", "@STRING", CHR(0))
		THIS.AddField("dwHotKey", "LONG", 0)
		THIS.AddField("hIcon", "LONG", 0)
		THIS.AddField("hProcess", "LONG", 0)

	ENDPROC	

ENDDEFINE

I used ApiStructureClass to create structure that required by ShellExecuteEx. It makes job much easier.

Technorati tags: FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, FoxWikis, WinAPI, Vista, RunAs

Use NEWOBJECT() function with care

2008-02-25T07:43:23Z

I like to use NEWOVBJECT() to initiate object so that I don't have to care about SET PROCEDURE TO / SET CLASSLIB TO.

Recently, I am re-writing my company application update program. That is a method that loop thru all the necessary directory and files and store the file info (as per array content returned by ADIR()) into collection. The file details are stored as object based (I have class called FileInfo). FileInfo object is created using NEWOBJECT("FileInfo", "FileInfo.prg") function.

During the testing, I found the program takes 6.6 secs to check for 1200 files. The code of NEWOBJECT("FileInfo", "FileInfo.prg") was hit 2400 times due to the same function being called for source and target file. Each hit take average 0.0027 secs. That meant program spent 6.47 secs just to create FileInfo objects. This is unacceptable.

I changed my code SET PROCEDURE TO FileInfo.prg ADDITIVE at program startup and replace NEWOBJECT() with CREATEIBJECT(). Hey, the program now only take 1.5 secs to do the same thing. Therefore, we got to use NEWOBJECT() with care otherwise it might kill your application.

Technorati tags: FoxPro, Visual FoxPro

VFP Studio - Code Editor Screencast

2008-02-23T03:40:03Z

Craig has posted a screencast that demonstrate his current work to use Visual Studio IDE for VFP code editing.

It is amazing. Once again, thank Craig.

Technorati tags: FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, Craig Boyd

Run VFP code from non-VFP environment

2007-09-27T08:01:49Z

As I am automating VFP build process as mentioned, I always need to execute VFP code from non-VFP environment. In order to have "full" power of VFP, I choose to use OLE automation using VBscript.

There are two ways to run VFP code from VBScript which I use frequently:

Writing some code in prg. This is a very straight forward appraoch

Set oFox = CreateObject("VisualFoxPro.Application")
oFox.DoCmd("DO myPrg WITH '" & MyParameter & "'")

Pass VFP code string

'USE myTable
'SCAN
'    IF myField = 'A'
'        ?myField
'    ENIDF
'ENDSCAN

Set oFox = CreateObject("VisualFoxPro.Application") 
oFox.DoCmd("EXECSCRIPT('" & sCommand & "')")

This approach is very useful if we allow other user to enter VFP code in UI which involve multiple lines of code, without need of VFP IDE.It seem very simple, right? Yes, it is. However, I just hit one error "Runtime Error" when we try to run the code above. It is because the VFP code string contains CRLF. The workaround I found is:

oFox.SetVar "lcCode", sCommnad
oFox.DoCmd("EXECSCRIPT(lcCode)")

Do you have any other way to do this?

Technorati tags: Visual FoxPro, FoxPro

Find and Replace "\" in VFP

2007-09-27T06:48:48Z

I just found that is "really" written in C/C++. When I try to replace string from "myfolder\" to "myfolder\trunk" using Find and Replace dialog, VFP would replace my text as below

..\myfolder\myfile.prg ==> ..\myfolder\{TAB}runk\myfile.prg

VFP treat "\t" is tab identifier with is normally used in C/C++ type of language. For workaround, just put one more "\" in replace string column, "myfolder\\trunk".

Technorati tags: Visual FoxPro, FoxPro

Edit project version info

2007-09-26T11:12:23Z

VFP allow us to edit project version info from build dialog.

We also can edit it programmatically as below.

Both ways is working fine, except VFP IDE is required.

I have written a simple class to enable Project and Version Info edition programmatically without need of VFP IDE. This class would open pjx file, read/write content to DevInfo column.

USE myProj.pjx

loDevInfo = NEWOBJECT("DevInfo", "DevInfo.prg")
loDevInfo.VersionMajor = TRANSFORM(THIS.Major)
loDevInfo.VersionMinor = TRANSFORM(THIS.Minor)
loDevInfo.VersionRevision = TRANSFORM(THIS.Revision)

LOCATE FOR type = "H"
REPLACE DevInfo WITH loDevInfo.GetDevInfo()

** Author	0x00-0x2D
** Company	0x2E-0x5B
** Address	0x5C-0x89
** City		0x8A-0x9E
** State		0x9F-0xA4
** Postcode	0xA5-0xAF
** Country	0xB0-0xDD
** Comment	0xDE-0x1DC
** Company	0x1DD-0x2DB
** Descr		0x2DC-0x3DA
** (C)		0x3DB-0x4D9
** Trade		0x4DA-0x5D8
** Product	0x5d9-0x6D7
** Major		0x6D8-0X6DC
** Minor		0x6DD-0x6E1
** Revision	0x6E2-0x6E6
** Language	0x6E7-0x702

#DEFINE	AUTHOR_LENGTH				0X2D - 0X00 + 1
#DEFINE	COMPANY_LENGTH				0X5B - 0X2E + 1
#DEFINE	ADDRESS_LENGTH				0X89 - 0X5C + 1
#DEFINE	CITY_LENGTH					0X9E - 0X8A + 1
#DEFINE	STATE_LENGTH				0XA4 - 0X9F + 1
#DEFINE	POSTCODE_LENGTH			0XAF - 0XA5 + 1
#DEFINE	COUNTRY_LENGTH				0XDD - 0XB0 + 1
#DEFINE	COMMENTS_LENGTH			0X1DC - 0XDE + 1
#DEFINE	COMPANYNAME_LENGTH		0X2DB - 0X1DE + 1
#DEFINE	FILEDESCRIPTION_LENGTH	0X3DA - 0X2DD + 1
#DEFINE	COPYRIGHT_LENGTH			0X4D9 - 0X3DB + 1
#DEFINE	TRADEMARKS_LENGTH			0X5D8 - 0X4DA + 1
#DEFINE	PRODUCTNAME_LENGTH		0X6D7 - 0X5DA + 1
#DEFINE	VERSIONMAJOR_LENGTH		0X6DC - 0X6D8 + 1
#DEFINE	VERSIONMINOR_LENGTH		0X6E1 - 0X6DD + 1
#DEFINE	VERSIONREVISION_LENGTH	0X6E6 - 0X6E2 + 1
#DEFINE	LANGUAGEID_LENGTH			0X702 - 0X6E7 + 1

#DEFINE	AUTHOR_POSITION	 			1
#DEFINE	COMPANY_POSITION	 			0X2E + 1
#DEFINE	ADDRESS_POSITION	 			0X5C + 1
#DEFINE	CITY_POSITION	 				0X8A + 1
#DEFINE	STATE_POSITION	 				0X9F + 1
#DEFINE	POSTCODE_POSITION	 			0XA5 + 1
#DEFINE	COUNTRY_POSITION	 			0XB0 + 1
#DEFINE	COMMENTS_POSITION	 			0XDE + 1
#DEFINE	COMPANYNAME_POSITION	 		0X1DE + 1
#DEFINE	FILEDESCRIPTION_POSITION	0X2DD + 1
#DEFINE	COPYRIGHT_POSITION	 		0X3DB + 1
#DEFINE	TRADEMARKS_POSITION	 		0X4DA + 1
#DEFINE	PRODUCTNAME_POSITION	 		0X5DA + 1
#DEFINE	VERSIONMAJOR_POSITION	 	0X6D8 + 1
#DEFINE	VERSIONMINOR_POSITION	 	0X6DD + 1
#DEFINE	VERSIONREVISION_POSITION	0X6E2 + 1
#DEFINE	LANGUAGEID_POSITION	 		0X6E7 + 1

DEFINE CLASS DevInfo AS Line

	#IF .F.
		LOCAL THIS AS DevInfo OF DevInfo.prg
	#ENDIF

	Author = ""
	Company = ""
	Address = ""
	City = ""
	State = ""
	Postcode = ""
	Country = ""
	Comments = ""
	CompanyName = ""
	FileDescription = ""
	Copyright = ""
	Trademarks = ""
	ProductName = ""
	VersionMajor = ""
	VersionMinor = ""
	VersionRevision = ""
	LanguageID = ""

	PROCEDURE Parse(tcDevInfo AS String)
	
		THIS.Author = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, AUTHOR_POSITION, AUTHOR_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.Company = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, COMPANY_POSITION, COMPANY_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.Address = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, ADDRESS_POSITION, ADDRESS_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.City = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, CITY_POSITION, CITY_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.State = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, STATE_POSITION, STATE_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.Postcode = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, POSTCODE_POSITION, POSTCODE_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.Country = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, COUNTRY_POSITION, COUNTRY_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.Comments = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, COMMENTS_POSITION, COMMENTS_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.CompanyName = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, COMPANYNAME_POSITION, COMPANYNAME_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.FileDescription = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, FILEDESCRIPTION_POSITION, FILEDESCRIPTION_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.Copyright = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, COPYRIGHT_POSITION, COPYRIGHT_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.Trademarks = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, TRADEMARKS_POSITION, TRADEMARKS_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.ProductName = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, PRODUCTNAME_POSITION, PRODUCTNAME_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.VersionMajor = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, VERSIONMAJOR_POSITION, VERSIONMAJOR_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.VersionMinor = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, VERSIONMINOR_POSITION, VERSIONMINOR_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.VersionRevision = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, VERSIONREVISION_POSITION, VERSIONREVISION_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		THIS.LanguageID = STRTRAN(SUBSTR(tcDevInfo, LANGUAGEID_POSITION, LANGUAGEID_LENGTH), CHR(0), "")
		
	ENDPROC
	
	PROCEDURE GetDevInfo() AS String
	
		LOCAL lcDevInfo AS String
		
		lcDevInfo = "" 

		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Author, AUTHOR_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Company, COMPANY_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Address, ADDRESS_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.City, CITY_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.State, STATE_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Postcode, POSTCODE_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Country, COUNTRY_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Comments, COMMENTS_LENGTH, CHR(0)) + CHR(0x20)
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.CompanyName, COMPANYNAME_LENGTH, CHR(0)) + CHR(0x20)
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.FileDescription, FILEDESCRIPTION_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Copyright, COPYRIGHT_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.Trademarks, TRADEMARKS_LENGTH, CHR(0)) + CHR(0x20)
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.ProductName, PRODUCTNAME_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.VersionMajor, VERSIONMAJOR_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.VersionMinor, VERSIONMINOR_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.VersionRevision, VERSIONREVISION_LENGTH, CHR(0))
		lcDevInfo = lcDevInfo + PADR(THIS.LanguageID, LANGUAGEID_LENGTH, CHR(0))
	
		RETURN lcDevInfo
		 
	ENDPROC
	
ENDDEFINE

Technorati tags: Visual FoxPro, FoxPro

Experience in Automate VFP Project Build

2007-08-28T07:54:01Z

I was setting up Automate Build for my VFP project. I get a copy of FinalBuilder and use it as my starting point for Daily Build and Continuous Integration. I choose FinalBuilder is because it is easy use, good support and easy installation. FYI, FinalBuilder is an automated build and release management solution (ABRM) for Windows software developers and SCM professionals. It is just one of the automate build tools in market. Other product like MS Build, NAnt, VSTS Team System and many more.

Automate Build

By using automate build tool, we could define, debug, maintain, run and schedule reliable and repeatable build processes with minimal coding required. Build process doesn't meant only compile project, it also include activities like Get Latest Source File, run database script, copy files to deployment server, package deployment files, run automated testing and etc Once build process is automated, we only need to have single mouse click to establish build process. After this implementation, I have shorten time spent to deploy new version of application from two hours to ten minutes.

Before we start to automate our build process, it is recommended to sit down, take some papers to draft out current manual build process, just like writing program. The draft could be in pseudo code, flow chart, point form or whatever format. It would definitely help and save our time without keep revising the automated build process during implementation. I wasted a lot of time to revise my Build Process.

Automated Build Management Solution - FinalBuilder

FinalBuilder, as other ABRM tool, provides a lot of predefined common actions to perform varies tasks such as get latest source files, compile projects, execute setup scripts, copy files, FTP and etc. We could use each of action by simple configuration. Below is the IDE screenshot of FinalBuilder and overview of my automate build process.

Figure 1 Screenshot of Build Process defined in FinalBuilder

Automate Build for VFP Project

During this implementation, I was facing some issues. The main issue is, FinalBuilder doesn't natively support VFP (as most vendors). That is no VFP compiler available. No VFP Compiler, are you kididng? This is the main tasks for automate build! Yes, you didn't hear wrongly.

Fortunately , FinalBuilder come with Action Studio, allow us to create custom actions for any specific usage via ActiveX Script (VB Script/JScript), .NET interop and COM.

VFP Compiler Custom Action

To write custom action, I did some researches and found article posted in CODE magazine titled Integrating VFP into VSTS Team Projects by John Miller. John shared his code to rebuild VFP project file (PJX) from PJM file and BUILD EXE from project. I copied, customized posted code to create my "VFP Compiler" action, called from FinalBuilder. I added feature to explicitly compile all .prg files excluded from project, since I found that don't know why excluded .prg files are not compiled using BUILD EXE command.

At the beginning, I tried to use COM to wrapper my build project code, however, as you might already known BUILD command is not supported during run-time. VFP doesn't complain for this exception either. I spent a lot of time to troubleshoot this, as it is not documented in Help file (as least I couldn't find it :'(). The workaround is either call VFP via command line or OLE Automation. I choose the 2nd way, automate VFP IDE using VB Script.

Set oFox = CreateObject("VisualFoxPro.Application")
oFox.DoCmd("*** BUILD EXE")

'Do some other things

oFox.Quit

The "VFP Compiler" Custom Action created and allowed us to do configuration, and currently it only accept settings such as project to be built, output destination, runtime version, SET PATH list and strict date level.

Steps to setup

Download the custom action here.
Extract it, and copy FoxProFBCustomActions.fbp5 to "<Final Builder Path>\ActionDefs" folder. Copy ProjectBuilder.prg to any folder.
Launch Final Builder IDE. Action "Build Project and EXE" would be shown in Action Types List under category Visual FoxPro (Figure 2).
Drag and drop action from action types list to action list (Figure 3).
Action property page is shown.
Specify any name as Build Name.
Specify Project Name (PJM), with path. PJM extension could be omitted.
Specify output destination and file name of project executable file. EXE extension could be omitted. If this field left blank, EXE would be built and store at same location and name of project file (PJM), with EXE extension
Select runtime version to build the EXE and project (Figure 4).
Specify search path list. Remember to include location that stored the ProjectBuilder.prg (Figure 5).
Specify environment settings. Currently only support Strict Date Level (Figure 6).
Click OK to confirm.
New action would be added to action list (Figure 7).

Possible Enhancements

Some future enhancements I can think of :

Ability to type VFP code in action property page, and run it at Before/After Compile event; either full VFP code or just a function call.
Full set of environment settings available in VFP option dialog.
Ability to VFP related actions global settings such as common library path list in FinalBuilder options page.

Figure 2 Some VFP Custom Actions

Figure 3 Drag action to action list

Figure 4 Build Project Settings

Figure 5 Set Path Settings

Figure 6 Environment Settings

Figure 7 Action to Compile Projects

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