Foxite.COM Community Weblog

Direct download the latest version of FoxyPreviewer

Export your reports to Images, RTF, PDF or HTML super easy! Enhance the look of your previews!

*** v1.10 - UPDATED 2010-02-07***

• Fixed forced preview close (Vivek Deodhar)
• Included new "Printer preferences" button in toolbar and context menu (using codes from Barbara Peisch)
• Fixed "lPrintVisible" property error (Zen Tes)

*** UPDATED 2010-02-04***

• Included translation to Italian (thanks to Fabio Lenzarini)
• Fix: Printing in a network printer was not working correctly
• Fix: method RunReport, missing "This" in some lines of code (Benny Thomas)
• Fixed RTFListener colors initialization, thanks to Hector Urrutia
• Removed the "NORESET" clause on merged reports. Users should add it by themselves in case they need
• Renamed the ReportListener helper classes
  (PDFx became PR_PDFX and FRX_RTF became PR_RTFListener),
  in order to avoid people messing with the original versions from the authors.
  The versions distributed with FoxyPreviewer are tweaked ones

*** UPDATED 2010-02-02***

• Tweaked German translation
• Fixed GotoPage dialog not working when toolbar was not visible
• Fixed Default printer in Combobox

 

*** UPDATED  2010-02-03***

• Included translation to Turkish (thanks to Soykan Ozcelik)
• Fix: RTF Listener was omitting 1st page when Range clause was used
• Fix: Property "lSaved" was not becoming 'True' when an image file was saved

 

*** UPDATED 2010-02-01***

• Included translation to German (Thanks to Tom Knauf)
• Fixed toolbar regeneration when user closed the toolbar using the "X" button
• Now compatible with VFP9 1st release and SP1 (SP2 strongly recommended)

FoxyPreviewer is my report generating class, that brings some cool and useful functions, as you can see in the pictures below.

 

FEATURES 

 

1 - Preview Toolbar

The original toolbar was modified, with some new button images, and new buttons too !

 

2 - Printers ComboBox

The printers combobox will show you all the available printers (local and in the network), and allows you to change the deviate the output to any printer that you want.

3 - Copies spinner

Determine on the fly the quantity of copies that you want to print!

 

4 - Miniatures button

View miniatures of all pages of the current report. Clicking on any miniature will jump the output page to the selected one.

 

 

5 - Save As.

A new button that calls a context menu that allows you to save the current report as:

• ImageFIles - EMF, PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF
• HTML
• PDF
• RTF, a MS-Word compatible format

6 - Context menu

The report context menu was updated as well, receiving all the new buttons and pictures. For the case of the "Save as." button, a submenu brings all the output possibilities. 

 

 

7 - Translating ALL report windows, dialogs, tooltips and captions.

Have you noticed that the context menu above is in spanish ? You can determine in what language your report will be working with. Currently FoxyPreviewer is available in English, Portuguese and Spanish. It's up to you to decide in what language the dialogs will be shown.

 

Go to page dialog in spanish

 

 

USAGE

 

To test FoxyPreviewer, download this file, unzip it, and run the file TESTPREVIEWER.PRG. Please make sure to start VFP from this file, by doubleclicking on this file from Explorer, to make sure that the default path is automatically set, and all the needed files will be found.

 

To use it with your own reports is super simple, with just three lines of code:

LOCAL loReport AS "PreviewHelper" OF "FoxyPreviewer.prg"
loReport = CREATEOBJECT("PreviewHelper")
loReport.AddReport(_Samples + "\Solution\Reports\colors.frx", "RANGE 1,1 NODIALOG") && FRX File, Clauses
loReport.RunReport()

 

The main file is FOXYPREVIEWER.PRG that contains the PreviewHelper class that is the class that you need to instantiate to have the new toolbar options. It uses the ReportListener's ExtensionHandler class to make all the changes in the original toolbar. This file also brings the classes from Colin Nicholls, that generate the miniatures sheet.

For the RTF output, kudos go to Vladimir Zhuravlev's RTFListener class. Impressive how he managed to make it! No need of any external library, RTF Listener converts your report into an RTF file, that can be perfectly opened and viewed in MS-Word ! I applied some fixes in the original version, now allowing all the text output to be shown correctly, enabled colors for texts, backgrounds and shapes, and also images stored in general fields. Another small tweak was added to allow merging reports.

The PDF files are generated using Luis Navas' amazing PDFx class. It uses an external library, Haru Free PDF Library 2.0.8, from Takeshi Kanno. Super light weight, no need to install a ghostscript printer, no dependancies to generate your PDFs! More info at Luis Navas' blog: http://weblogs.foxite.com/luisnavas/archive/2008/10/06/7025.aspx. The original version from Luis also received some few tweaks, to allow merging reports, and also eliminating the need to use the GdiPlusX library from VFPX. Now it used the _GdiPlus.vcx FFC class, that is already stored in the Report*.App files, that are already available in all VFP9 sources. I decided doing that because the GDI+ usage was really very very simple, and the FFC classes were enough for that purpose. Hey ! I keep recommending to everybody to use GdiPlusX !!!

 

CUSTOMIZING

Of course, you may choose what features will be available in the report preview toolbar. There are some few and obvious properties that you may set in order to fit your needs. Below are the methods and properties available:

 

Methods - all obligatory

• AddReport(tcFRXFile, tcClauses)
              That's the place where you determine what report and which clauses will be used
              tcFRXFile - character, the FRX to be run
              tcClauses - character, the report clauses
              eg.: .AddReport(_Samples + "\Solution\Reports\wrapping.frx", "NODIALOG FOR title = 'S' RANGE 3,3")

 

• RunReport()
              Runs the chosen report, and shows the preview window and FoxyPreviewer toolbar

 

Properties - all optional

• cTitle - character, the preview window title
• lSendToEmail - logical, determines if the "send to email" button will be shown (not available yet)
• lSaveToFile - logical, determines if the "saveto file" button will be shown
• lShowCopies - logical, shows the copies spinner
• lShowMiniatures - logical, shows the miniatures page
• nCopies - numeric, the default quantity of copies to be printed
• lPrintVisible - logical, shows the print button in the toolbar
• cDefaultListener - character or object, the name or object from the default listener to be used; the default one is "FXLISTENER"
• nCanvasCount - numeric, the initial nr of pages rendered on the preview form. Valid values are 1 (default), 2, or 4.
• nZoomLevel - numeric, the initial zoom level of the preview window. Possible values are:
  1-10%, 2-25%, 3-50%, 4-75%, 5-100% default, 6-150% ;
  7-200%, 8-300%, 9-500%, 10-whole page

 

AUTOMATING WITH INTELLISENSE

I've also created a small PRG that updates the FOXCODE table in order to add an Intellisense script to use it. Please run the file INSTALLFOXCODE.PRG to update the Intellisense.

To test it, open any empty PRG or Method, and just type:

FOXYPREVIEW and a complete script with all available options will be shown. Obviously, you may delete or comment all the properties that you don't want to use.

 

CHANGING ALL PREVIEWS

Another cool feature is that you can also set the Global _REPORTPREVIEW variable to "FoxyPreviewer.prg", and all your reports, even those that will not create the Helper Object will have that look. Unfortunately, I could not add all the options from the toolbar to them, because it is impossible to retrieve the "FOR" clauses after a report is run.

Just type the following in your command window:

       _ReportPreview = "FoxyPreviewer.prg"
       REPORT FORM _Samples + "Solution\Reports\Colors.frx" PREVIEW

Notice that some functions are not available in this option, but some cool ones remain, like the changes picture buttons, translations, the Miniatures is still avalable, and the save to file can only save the report in image file.

 

TRANSLATING TO NON ENGLISH LANGUAGES

 

To enable it, just open the FoxyPreviewer.Prg, and you'll find in the first lines the language definitions. Comment the line that defines the default language to English, and uncomment the one that sets it to the desired language. It's very simple to add another language, just open FoxyPreviewer.prg and translate the #DEFINE's constants to your native language. I'll be very happy to add other localized languages to the main download ! Please, if you do translate it to another language, send to me your translation !

To enable the spanish language, for instance just leave the desired language uncommented

* #DEFINE PR_ENGLISH 
* #DEFINE PR_PORTUGUES
* #DEFINE PR_GERMAN
* #DEFINE PR_ITALIANO
* #DEFINE PR_TURKISH

    #DEFINE PR_ESPANIOL

 

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

The only missing point is the "SendToEmail" option, that I still need to put there. This envolves an HTML editor form, and a CDOSYS email class, lots of images, etc. I hope to add it to FoxyPreviewer soon. I already have this working in my own framework, but I still have to disconnect some objects in order to add them to this project, and to allow some other customizations, like allowing you to choose another email component to send your emails. The HTML editor was adapted from the original from Frederick Steczicky and Tracy Pearson, published in www.atoutfox.com .

 

SPECIAL THANKS / AUTHORS

As you could see, FoxyPreviewer is the result of some researches, and the use of some amazing tools provided as open source and free from other foxers. The VFP community is amazing !!!

 

Lisa Slater Nicholls - for the great job that she made with the reporting system of VFP9 SP2. And more than that, for her great blog, the excellent and well documented articles.

 

Colin Nicholls - He's the author of the Miniatures form; for his many great articles too regarding the new reporting system, specially for the article Exploring and Extending Report Previewing in VFP9. I took the miniatures preview form classes from there.

 

Luis Navas - He's the author of the PDF Listener. A terrific job, great code. More info about PDFx can be obtained in his blog: PDFx Update Support for some SP2 Features. This brings a new, lightweight and very reliable option for us to export our reports to PDFs. Thanks a lot for your support and help with this project !

 

Vladimir Zhuravlev - He's the author of the RTF Listener together with Dmitriy Petrov and Valeriy Liftshits with help of Vadim Pirozhkov. It was published in the Foxite downloads section - http://www.foxite.com/downloads/default.aspx?id=166. Another impressive and courageous work. Thanks very much !

 

Leandro Walfrans for testing and Luis Maria Guayan, for his continuous support and for the spanish translations. Tom Knauf, for the german translation.

 

Takeshi Kanno, the author of the HARU PDF library, and all his collaborators, for making PDFx come true with HARU library. More information about this great project: http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

DOWNLOAD

FoxyPreviewer Sources and Samples

 

 

Hope you enjoy !

Updated version - now allowing changing icons and disabling buttons

 

lnOption = MsgBoxEx( ;
   "You have entered a wrong password for 5 times." + CHR(13) + ;
   "For security reasons this login was suspended.", ; && Main message
   0, ; && Default icon info
   "Password incorrect", ; && Title bar caption
   "\&Retry,&Exit,Get &new pwd", ; && New button captions
   "41.ico") && Icon file

 

 

 

This is a simple function that allows us to customize the captions of buttons of the MessageBox() dialog window, like in the image shown above.

Thanks to Mike Gagnon and Anatolyi Mogylevetz, here's an updated version of the version that allows to change the icon and also to disable the buttons.

Basically I followed Anatolyi's instructions to allow disabling the buttons. Changing the dialog icon was also very simple, with a short research in his great site - Using Win32 functions in Visual FoxPro .

I just adapted a sample provided by Craig Boyd in his blog article - BindEvent on Steroids using the VFPEX.FLL that he provided in that article. Please refer to the original article for more details.

I called it MsgBoxEx.Prg , and can be used very simply, to obtain the result below - notice the 4th parameter, that contains the captions of the buttons to be used, delimited by a comma:

lnOption = MsgBoxEx(;
   "An unexpected error has occurred and the system needs to be restarted" + ;
   CHR(13) + CHR(13) + "What do you want to do ?", ;
   "X", ;
   "MsgBoxEx Sample", ;
   "Restart &Now,Restart &Later,&Never Restart")

 

 

lnOption = MsgBoxEx( ;
   "Could not find the file 'Import.csv' in the selected folder", ;
   0, ;
   "File not found", ;
   "&Abort,\&Retry,Change folder", ;
   "17.ico")

 

 

Function: MSGBOXEX.PRG

Description: Modifies the captions of MessageBox buttons

Parameters:

• tcCaption - the text that appears in the dialog box.
• tnIcon - the icon sign - can be numeric, using the default MESSAGEBOX() icon values or character:
     - Stop sign: 16 or "X"
     - Question mark: 32 or "?"
     - Exclamation point: 48 or "!"
     - Information: 64 or "I"
• tcTitle - the text that appears in the title bar of the dialog box
• tcButtons - The captions to be used in the buttons using the comma "," delimiter
  Use the "&" character to determine the hotkeys to be used - eg: "Option&1,Option&2,Option&3" - The "\" backslash can be used to show the current button disabled.
• tcIconFile - (optional) The icon image file

Returns: the index number according to the option selected - eg. returns the value 3 if the 3rd button was selected.

 

PROS:

Use the same dialog interface from the MESSAGEBOX() function, allowing us to easilly customize existing dialog boxes.

Almost the same structure of parameters of the original function

Behaves correctly in all operating systems.

Allows hotkeys (Thanks to Thiago Takehana for reminding about this possibility)

 

CONS:

Up to 3 buttons are allowed

Size of buttons is limited to the original MESSAGEBOX() buttons size, not allowing big sized buttons.

 

LPARAMETERS tcCaption, tnIcon, tcTitle, tcButtons, tcIconFile
* MSGBOXEX.PRG
* Description: Modifies the captions of MessageBox buttons
* Prerequisites: Needs VFPEX.FLL by CraigBoyd
* http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com/spsblog/ct.ashx?id=f7644db8-b155-4d43-8216-4cfde233edb7&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sweetpotatosoftware.com%2ffiles%2fvfpex.zip
* More Info about VFPEX.FLL
* http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com/spsblog/2005/08/07/BindEventOnSteroids.aspx
* Parameters:
* tcCaption - the text that appears in the dialog box.
* tnIcon - the icon sign
* tcTitle - the text that appears in the title bar of the dialog box
* tcButtons - The captions to be used in the buttons using the comma "," delimiter
* Use the "&" character to determine the hotkeys to be used - eg: "Option&1,Option&2,Option&3"
* Use a "\" to disable the button
* tcIconFile - the icon file to replace the default from MessageBox()
* Returns: the index number according to the option selected - eg. returns the value 3 if the 3rd button was selected.
* Sample:
* =MsgBoxEx("This is a common text", "!", "Window Title", "Option1,Option2,Option3")
IF VARTYPE(tnTimeOut) = "C" AND (PCOUNT() = 4)
   tcButtons = tnTimeOut
   tnTimeOut = 0
ENDIF

PRIVATE pnButtonCnt, pcButtons, pnButtType, pcIconFile, phIcon
pcIconFile = IIF(EMPTY(tcIconFile),"", tcIconFile)
pnButtonCnt = GETWORDCOUNT(tcButtons, ",")
pcButtons = tcButtons
*!* Stop 16
*!* Question 32
*!* Exclamation 48
*!* Info 64
IF VARTYPE(tnIcon) = "C"
   tnIcon = UPPER(tnIcon)
   DO CASE
   CASE tnIcon = "X"
      tnIcon = 16
   CASE tnIcon = "?"
      tnIcon = 32
   CASE tnIcon = "!"
      tnIcon = 48
   CASE tnIcon = "I"
      tnIcon = 64
   OTHERWISE
      tnIcon = 0
   ENDCASE
ENDIF

* Check if an icon will be shown
* If an icon file was passed, we need to ensure that MessageBox() will
* show an icon, that will be changed further.

#DEFINE IMAGE_BITMAP 0
#DEFINE IMAGE_ICON 1
#DEFINE LR_LOADFROMFILE 0x0010
#DEFINE LR_DEFAULTSIZE 0x0040
phIcon = 0
IF NOT EMPTY(pcIconFile) AND ;
   (NOT (BITTEST(tnIcon, 4) OR BITTEST(tnIcon, 5) OR BITTEST(tnIcon, 6)))
   tnIcon = tnIcon + 16
   phIcon = xmbLoadImage(0, FULLPATH(pcIconFile), IMAGE_ICON,;
0,0, LR_LOADFROMFILE + LR_DEFAULTSIZE)
ENDIF

　
* Windows Hook constants
#define WH_CBT 5

* Set library so BindEventEx and UnBindEventEx can be used in VFP
LOCAL lcOldSetLib
lcOldSetLib = SET("Library")
SET LIBRARY TO (LOCFILE("vfpex.fll"))
BindEventEx('wineventhandler()', WH_CBT) && SetWindowsHookEx

* This messagebox will be modified before it is shown
LOCAL lnOption, lnIndex
DO CASE
CASE pnButtonCnt = 1
   pnButtType = 0 && Ok
CASE pnButtonCnt = 2
   pnButtType = 4 && Yes / No
CASE pnButtonCnt = 3
   pnButtType = 2 && Abort / Retry / Ignore
OTHERWISE
ENDCASE

lnOption = MESSAGEBOX(tcCaption, tnIcon + pnButtType, tcTitle)

LOCAL lnOffSet
lnOffSet = ICASE(pnButtonCnt = 3, 2, pnButtonCnt = 2, 5 , 0)
lnIndex = lnOption - lnOffSet

IF phIcon <> 0
   =xmbDeleteObject(phIcon) && Clear icon handle
ENDIF

IF NOT EMPTY(lcOldSetLib)
   SET LIBRARY TO (lcOldSetLib)
ENDIF
RETURN lnIndex

　
PROCEDURE wineventhandler
#DEFINE DLG_CTRLID_ICON 0x0014
#DEFINE STM_SETICON 0x0170
#DEFINE STM_SETIMAGE 0x0172
IF nCode == 5
   IF NOT EMPTY(phIcon)
      * Changing the Dialog icon
      LOCAL lhIconWindow
      lhIconWindow = xmbGetDlgItem(wParam, DLG_CTRLID_ICON)
      IF lhIconWindow <> 0
         IF phIcon <> 0
            =xmbSendMessage(lhIconWindow, STM_SETICON, phIcon, 0)
         ENDIF
      ENDIF
   ENDIF

   * Change button attributes
   LOCAL n, lnOffSet, lcCaption
   lnOffSet = ICASE(pnButtonCnt = 3, 2, pnButtonCnt = 2, 5 , 0)
   FOR n = 1 TO pnButtonCnt
      lcCaption = GETWORDNUM(pcButtons, n, ",")
      * Disable current button
      IF LEFT(lcCaption, 1) = "\"
         lcCaption = SUBSTR(lcCaption, 2) && Get the rest of the string
         LOCAL lnBtnHwnd
         lnBtnHwnd = xmbGetDlgItem(wParam, lnOffSet + n)
         =xmbEnableWindow(lnBtnHwnd, 0)
      ENDIF

      * Change the caption
      =xmbSetDlgItemText(wParam, lnOffSet + n, lcCaption)
   ENDFOR

   =xmbCallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, LPARAM) && all 4 variables exist
   UnBindEventEx()
ELSE
   =xmbCallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, LPARAM) && all 4 variables created by FLL
ENDIF

RELEASE nCode, wParam, LPARAM, hHook
ENDPROC

 

*********************************************************************
FUNCTION xmbSetDlgItemText(hDlg, nIDDlgItem, lpString)
*********************************************************************
DECLARE INTEGER SetDlgItemText IN user32 AS xmbSetDlgItemText ;
   LONG hDlg,;
   LONG nIDDlgItem,;
   STRING lpString
RETURN xmbSetDlgItemText(hDlg, nIDDlgItem, lpString)
ENDFUNC

*********************************************************************
FUNCTION xmbCallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, lParam)
*********************************************************************
DECLARE LONG CallNextHookEx IN user32 AS xmbCallNextHookEx ;
   LONG hHook, LONG nCode, LONG wParam, LONG lParam
RETURN xmbCallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, lParam)
ENDFUNC

*********************************************************************
FUNCTION xmbGetDlgItem(hDlg, nIDDlgItem)
*********************************************************************
* hDlg [in] Handle to the dialog box that contains the control.
* nIDDlgItem [in] Specifies the identifier of the control to be retrieved.
* http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms645481(VS.85).aspx
DECLARE INTEGER GetDlgItem IN user32 AS xmbGetDlgItem ;
   LONG hDlg,;
   LONG nIDDlgItem
RETURN xmbGetDlgItem(hDlg, nIDDlgItem)
ENDFUNC

*********************************************************************
FUNCTION xmbEnableWindow(hwnd, fEnable)
*********************************************************************
DECLARE INTEGER EnableWindow IN user32 AS xmbEnableWindow INTEGER hwnd, INTEGER fEnable
RETURN xmbEnableWindow(hwnd, fEnable)
ENDFUNC

*********************************************************************
FUNCTION xmbSendMessage(hWindow, Msg, wParam, lParam)
*********************************************************************
* http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb760780(VS.85).aspx
* http://www.news2news.com/vfp/?group=-1&function=312
DECLARE INTEGER SendMessage IN user32 AS xmbSendMessage;
   INTEGER hWindow, INTEGER Msg,;
   INTEGER wParam, INTEGER lParam
RETURN xmbSendMessage(hWindow, Msg, wParam, lParam)
ENDFUNC

*********************************************************************
FUNCTION xmbLoadImage(hinst, lpszName, uType, cxDesired, cyDesired, fuLoad)
*********************************************************************
DECLARE INTEGER LoadImage IN user32 AS xmbLoadImage;
   INTEGER hinst,;
   STRING lpszName,;
   INTEGER uType,;
   INTEGER cxDesired,;
   INTEGER cyDesired,;
   INTEGER fuLoad
RETURN xmbLoadImage(hinst, lpszName, uType, cxDesired, cyDesired, fuLoad)
ENDFUNC

*********************************************************************
FUNCTION xmbDeleteObject(hObject)
*********************************************************************
DECLARE INTEGER DeleteObject IN gdi32 AS xmbDeleteObject INTEGER hObject
RETURN xmbDeleteObject(hObject)
ENDFUNC
 

Download the vfpex.fll here, created by Craig Boyd, directly from the SPS Weblog. 

 

History:

2009-10-19 Original version (change captions)

2009-10-23 Updated, allowing icon change and disabling buttons

 

SW Fox conference has just begun !

And the good news that for us people who could not attend this fabulous source of knowledge, some very interesting sessions are being broadcasted in live by Steve Bodnar.

There's also a cool option for chatting online with other people that are watching the broadcasting, and even interact with people from the conference !

Last night I had the oportunity to watch the keynote session, when I "met" some other fellas in the chat room - that was really cool!

All sessions can be reached directly from the broadcasting channel
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/swfoxtv

More info can be obtained directly at the conference blog:
http://swfox.net/blog/index.htm

The next available sessions schedule:

VFPX Users Meeting - Bonus session
Friday, 10/16/2009 05:15 pm (Arizona Time)

The Future of the VFP Developer - Bonus session
Friday, 10/16/2009 08:30 pm (Arizona Time)

Enhancing the VFP IDE with VFPX Tools
Saturday, 10/17/2009 11:30 am (Arizona Time)

Hope to meet you in the chat room !

VFP9 brought a new property that allows us to draw all kinds of shapes, without the need of any external component, even a single Windoes API call.

According to the VFP9 Help, The PolyPoints property of the Shape control "specifies an array of coordinates for creating polygon shapes using the Shape control and polygon lines using the Line control. Read/write at design time and run time. For Shape controls, PolyPoints creates a polygon shape."

MVP Luis Maria Guayan from Argentina already did an amazing job using the polypoints property, in 2 articles.

Dibujando polígonos con VFP 9.0 - a simple article with some samples showing how we can draw a TRaiangle and an Ogtogon. The article is in spanish, but it is very simple to run the provided samples and reproduce the proposed result.

The 2nd one, Gráficas con objetos 100% VFP, is a real masterpiece, where he uses the polypoints property to create chart shapes, providing a very nice charting tool. Download the source code and play with the samples, amazing !

 

Using the PolyPoints property we can also draw rounded shapes, pie slices, circles and ellipses.

Create an empty form, size it the way you like, and paste the following code to the INIT() event, to reproduce the shape below:

Thisform.AddObject("Shape1", "Shape")
* Add a shape object to the current form
* and set some basic properties
LOCAL loShape as Shape
loShape = Thisform.Shape1
loShape.Width = Thisform.Width
loShape.Height = Thisform.Height
loShape.Anchor = 15 && Resize Width and Height
loShape.BackColor = RGB(255,0,0)
loShape.PolyPoints = "aPoly" && Array of points
loShape.Visible = .T.
 
* Defining the PolyPoints array
* Change the values of lnStart and lnFinal to determine
* the angle of the pie slice
LOCAL lnStart, lnFinal, lnSweep, n, lnRadius, lnAngle
lnStart = 0
lnFinal = 360
lnSweep = lnFinal - lnStart
lnRadius = 50

PUBLIC aPoly(lnSweep + 2, 2)
FOR n = 1 TO lnSweep + 1
   lnAngle = lnStart + n - 1
   aPoly(n,1) = (lnRadius * COS(DTOR(lnAngle)) + lnRadius)
   aPoly(n,2) = (lnRadius * SIN(DTOR(lnAngle)) + lnRadius)
ENDFOR

IF lnSweep = 360 && Closed ellipse, so dont draw the center point
   aPoly(n,1) = aPoly(n-1,1)
   aPoly(n,2) = aPoly(n-1,2)
ELSE
   * Determine the Center point
   aPoly(n,1) = lnRadius
   aPoly(n,2) = lnRadius
ENDIF

 

To obtain pie slices, just change the values of the variables lnStart and lnFinal, to determine the starting and ending angle.

Here's the result if you use:

lnStart = 90
lnFinal = 210

 

The very cool feature of polypoints is that it generates vectorial pictures. You can resize the form the way you like, and you'll see your shape changing accordingly. All I did for that purpose was to setup the property Anchor to the value 15 (resize width and height).

 

Drawing shapes with GdiPlusX is super easy, and we can very easilly transport this to solve some of our chart needs.

In this post I'm sending you a very primitive sample for creating Circular Gauge charts. Obviously I hope to apply the techniques shown here in FoxCharts. But FoxCharts is getting big, and I confess that learning from the methods in FoxCharts may not be easy for people that are not that familiar with GdiPlusX.

Please note that this is an unfinished sample. I'm posting it here to let people see that drawing is not that complicated. Just using some imagination, merging it with some geometrical thoughts, and voilá !

Download the Gauge sample, unzip and run TESTGAUGE.SCX ! I'm including the GdiPlusX sources to let everybody immediately run the samples.

 

Notice that you can control the colors of the background and pointer.

The pointer shape can be modified too. Play with all the spinners to modify the shape and size! And please tell me which you like most. I'll apreciate receiving some image samples with some desired gauge charts.

 

Below is the relevant code for the circular gauge drawing. You'll find it in the "BeforeDraw()" event of the ImageCanvas class. It extracts the information from the form controls, and it's very easy to adapt it to your needs.

 

 

LOCAL lnAngle, lnBaseW, lnBaseX, lnBaseY, lnTopW, lnHeightPercent, lnTopY
LOCAL lnType, lnPointClr, lnBackClr, lnTicks
lnTicks = Thisform.SpnTicks.Value
lnType = Thisform.OptShape.Value
lnAngle = Thisform.SpnAngle.Value
lnBaseW = Thisform.SpnBottomW.Value
lnTopW = Thisform.SpnTopW.Value
lnBaseX = This.Width/2 -lnBaseW/2
lnBaseY = This.Height/2
lnHeightPercent = Thisform.SpnHeight.Value / 100
lnTopY = lnBaseY - (lnBaseY * lnHeightPercent) + lnTopW / 2
lnPointClr = Thisform.ShpPointerColor.BackColor
lnBackClr = Thisform.ShpBackColor.BackColor
LOCAL loGfx as xfcGraphics
loGfx = This.oGfx

WITH _Screen.System.Drawing
   LOCAL loBrush as xfcSolidBrush
   loBrush = .SolidBrush.New(.Color.FromRGB(lnPointClr))

   loGfx.Clear(.Color.FromRGB(Thisform.BackColor))

   * Create a Shape for the pointer
   LOCAL loPath as xfcGraphicsPath
   loPath = .Drawing2D.GraphicsPath.New()
   loPath.StartFigure()
   loGfx.FillEllipse(.SolidBrush.New(.Color.FromRGB(lnBackClr)), ;
         This.Rectangle)

   IF lnType = 1
      loPath.AddArc(lnBaseX, This.Height/2 -lnBaseW/2, lnBaseW, lnBaseW, 0, 180)
   ENDIF

   loPath.AddLine(lnBaseX, lnBaseY, This.Width/2 - lnTopW/2, lnTopY)
   IF lnType = 1
      LOCAL laPoints(3)
      laPoints(1) = .Point.New(This.Width/2 - lnTopW/2, lnTopY)
      laPoints(2) = .Point.New(This.Width/2 , lnTopY - lnTopW / 2)
      laPoints(3) = .Point.New(This.Width/2 + lnTopW/2, lnTopY)
      loPath.AddCurve(@laPoints)
   ENDIF

   loPath.AddLine( This.Width/2 + lnTopW/2, lnTopY, lnBaseX + lnBaseW, lnBaseY)
   loPath.CloseFigure()

   * Rotate the shape pointer
   loGfx.TranslateTransform(This.Width/2, This.Height/2)
   loGfx.RotateTransform(lnAngle)
   loGfx.TranslateTransform(- This.Width/2, - This.Height/2)

   * Draw the pointer
   loGfx.FillPath(loBrush, loPath)

   * Restore the original Gfx rotation state
   loGfx.ResetTransform()
 

   IF lnTicks > 0
      FOR lnAngle = 0 TO 360 STEP 360 / lnTicks

         * Rotate the Gfx
         loGfx.TranslateTransform(This.Width/2, This.Height/2)
         loGfx.RotateTransform(lnAngle)
         loGfx.TranslateTransform(- This.Width/2, - This.Height/2)

         * Draw the ticks
         loGfx.DrawLine(.Pens.Black, This.Width/2, 0, This.Width/2, 10)

         * Restore the original Gfx rotation state
         loGfx.ResetTransform()
      ENDFOR 
   ENDIF

ENDWITH

 

Enjoy !!!

Download Gauge Prototype sample with GdiPlusX

 

I've prepared a much more complete sample using FoxCharts.
People can get it from the main download, and run the sample "ChartsSample_CircularGauge.scx"
It allows lots of customizations, like the picture below.

You can get the latest version of FoxCharts here:
http://vfpx.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=18515

This is just an update for an old post with the same title. Erik Gomez and Russel Campbell had some problems on the conversions of some specific PNG images, so I recoded this function, this time using a safer code.

NEW UPDATE:

Thanks to Bernard Bout and Craig Boyd, I've updated the code below. In fact it contained a small bug, that was not adjusting the White colors. Now it seems to be working nice. Thanks !

 

 

This runs a little bit slower than the other aproach, but in my tests, the success was 100%.

 

The function below converts any button image to a BMP to be used in VFP forms.

There are lots of cool and free icons available on the web, but the vast majority are in .ICO, GIF or PNG image formats, that are not very familiar and reliable to be used in VFP. For us, the best image format, for a lot of reasons, is the BMP format.

Some transformations are needed to make this BMP to show exactly how we desire, specially when converting source images in a PNG, GIF or ICO formats.

VFP shows the pure white - RGB(255,255,255) as transparent in our buttons and image objects. The code below first converts the original whites to RGB(254,254,254) that is visually the same, but does not become transparent, and eliminates the need to create a mask image (.MSK) and next, converts the background color of the original bitmap to pure white, that will show transparent in VFP forms.

For more details, please check these prior posts:

BMPs with Transparent Backgrounds

How to put one image over another in a form

 

IMPORTANT
Requires VFP9 and GdiPlusX to run. 
Please make sure that you have the latest version, because this sample may be using some functions that were added or fixed recently.
http://www.codeplex.com/VFPX/Wiki/View.aspx?title=GDIPlusX&referringTitle=Home

 

Save the program below as BUTTON2BMP.PRG, and call it this way:

Button2Bmp(GETPICT(), "c:\NewIcon.bmp")

When you compile this program in your executable, please don't forget to remove the LOCFILE() command, and just use a DO System.App instead

 

LPARAMETERS tcSourceFile, tcDestFile

* tcSourcefile = GETPICT()
* tcDestFile = FORCEEXT(tcSourceFile, "Bmp")

DO LOCFILE("System.App")

LOCAL loBmp AS xfcBitmap
LOCAL loGfx AS xfcGraphics
LOCAL loBorderClr AS xfcColor
LOCAL loRect AS xfcRectangle
LOCAL loAttr AS xfcImageAttributes
LOCAL loColorMap AS xfcColorMap
LOCAL loDestBmp as xfcBitmap
 
WITH _SCREEN.SYSTEM.Drawing
	loColorMap = .Imaging.ColorMap.New()
	loAttr = .Imaging.ImageAttributes.New()
	loBmp = .Bitmap.FromFile(tcSourceFile)
	loGfx = .Graphics.FromImage(loBmp)

	loDestBmp = .Bitmap.New(loBmp.Width, loBmp.Height, .Imaging.PixelFormat.Format24bppRGB)
	loDestGfx = .Graphics.FromImage(loDestBmp)

	* Clear the new bitmap
	loDestGfx.Clear(.Color.White)

	* By Craig Boyd - For enhancing the smoothless and quality
	loDestGfx.SmoothingMode     = .Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.HighQuality 
	loDestGfx.InterpolationMode = .Drawing2D.InterpolationMode.HighQualityBicubic
	loDestGfx.PixelOffsetMode   = .Drawing2D.PixelOffsetMode.HighQuality

	loRect = loBmp.GetBounds()

	* Get the top left pixel color, presuming this color is the BackGround color to become transparent
	* For our BMP case, this will become PURE WHITE - RGB(255,255,255)
	* that becomes transparent when used in VFP objects
	loBorderClr = loBmp.GetPixel(0,0)

	* Convert original Whites RGB(255,255,255) to OFF WHITE - RGB(254,254,254)
	* this way, the whites will remain without the need of a mask
	loColorMap.OldColor = .Color.White
	loColorMap.NewColor = .Color.FromARGB(255,254,254,254)

	loAttr.SetRemapTable(loColorMap)
	loDestGfx.DrawImage(loBmp, loRect, loRect, .GraphicsUnit.Pixel, loAttr)

	* Next step, convert the borders to pure White, RGB(255,255,255) that will become transparent in buttons
	loColorMap.OldColor = loBorderClr
	loColorMap.NewColor = .Color.White
	loAttr.SetRemapTable(loColorMap)

	loDestGfx.DrawImage(loDestBmp, loRect, loRect, .GraphicsUnit.Pixel, loAttr)

	loDestBmp.Save(tcDestFile, .Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp)
ENDWITH

 

 

As I've shown in a previous post from last year, this is totally possible for us in VFP, using the GdiPlusX library together with ReportListeners, remember?

 

BUT I've been receiving some emails about the Full-Justified ReportListener I published last year.

It did not deal with the possibility of multipage reports. In fact, when a string that had to be printed in FullJustified mode had to be divided in more than one page, in the next page the whole string was redrawn.

To solve this, I needed to make some adjustments in the report listener source, more specifically in the "Render" event, in order to deal with the parameters "nObjectContinuationType" and "cContentsToBeRendered". I had totally missed them. In the first version, I was only using the "Text" property that I retrieved in the "EvaluateContents" method. The first tells us if the text could be totally drawn, or partially. The 2nd, brings the text that is to be drawn, not the whole text.

It's amazing how we can control our output with all these new enhancements from the VFP9 Reporting System. In fact, we can control almost everything !

It's a pity I couldn't explore this tool as much as I would like, the possibilities seem to be infinite.

 

In HELP I found all the info I needed to fix it:

• nObjectContinuationType
  * Indicates the current continuation state for the rendered element. When layout elements span pages, they are rendered in multiple sections (once for each page).
  * Value  Continuation Type 
  *   0    Complete (no continuation).
  *   1    Start of layout element occurrence, will not finish on the current page.
  *   2    Mid-element, neither started nor finished on the current page.
  *   3    End of element, completed on the current page.

 

• cContentsToBeRendered
  * Indicates the text to be rendered for Expression (Field) and Label layout elements.
  * If your derived class sends the text value through some additional processing, such as storage in a table, you can use the STRCONV() function, and its optional regional script parameter, to convert the string to DBCS first. For more information, see STRCONV( ) Function.

 

Some important tweaks and fixes were needed in the GdiPlusX library too, more specifically in the xfcGraphics.DrawStringJustified function. I added to it a new parameter, "tlJustifyLast", in order fo force the justifying in the last sentence. This is for the case of reports, when an unfinished sentence needs to be justified as well.

 

The source code is below, you can adapt it to your needs !

 

 

The idea is to add a "<FJ>" tag in the USER tab or in the beginning of any string from a textbox in a report, to tell the ReportListener that it will draw the text using the DRAWSTRINGJUSTIFIED method from GdiPlusX. Special thanks to Victor Espinoza, from Miami, FL, for his important feedback, suggestions and fixes.

 

The "FullJustifyListener" performs the following actions:

- Initializes GdiPlusX

- Creates a GDI+ Graphics object that will be used to draw in the report

- Stores in an array the required information needed to draw the string(Font, Size, Style and Color)

- Before Rendering the string, checks if the "<FJ>" tag is at the beginning of text or at the "USER" tab in the report designer - if yes, draws the string using the new method.

Here are the steps for you to bring this to your reports:

 

1 - Download the updated GdiPlusX library - the System.App file

VERY IMPORTANT - READ THIS !

This report listener needs the updated version of the GdiPlusX main file of the library, "System.App". As it will take some time till a new version will be released, I've uploaded this file separately, so that people can try this feature from now.

Go to this link: http://www.codeplex.com/VFPX/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=8606

And download the file "GdiPlusX Updated System.App for FullJustified purposes"

If you prefer, this file is found in the downloadable source code from this article.

 

 

2 - Save the ReportListener:

Please Copy and Paste the code below, and save it as FJLISTENER.PRG in the samples folder of GdiPlusX 

 

* Program : FJLISTENER.PRG
* Version : 2.0
* Purpose : Provides a Report Listener that allows rendering text in
* Full Justify alignment.
* Authors : Cesar Ch http://weblogs.foxite.com/vfpimaging
* Class based on article "Listening to a report" by Doug Hennig
* New tweaked version allows drawing strings that need to be divided in more than one page

* Special thanks to Victor Espinoza 
* http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms947682.aspx

DEFINE CLASS FullJustifyListener AS _ReportListener OF HOME() + 'FFC\_ReportListener.VCX'
oGDIGraphics = NULL
nSaveGraphicsHandle = 0
nTimes = 1
DIMENSION aRecords[1]
 
* Before we run the report, go through the FRX and store information about any
* field with our expected directive in its USER memo into the aRecords array.
FUNCTION BEFOREREPORT
   DODEFAULT()
   * Check if we already have the "System" object in "_Screen"
   IF NOT PEMSTATUS(_Screen,"System",5)
      DO LOCFILE("System.App")
   ENDIF
   WITH This
      .oGDIGraphics = _SCREEN.SYSTEM.Drawing.Graphics.New()
      .SetFRXDataSession()
      DIMENSION .aRecords[reccount(), 13]
      SCAN FOR "<FJ>" $ UPPER(User)
         .aRecords[recno(), 13] = "FJ"
      ENDSCAN
     .ResetDataSession()
   ENDWITH
ENDFUNC

FUNCTION BEFOREBAND(nBandObjCode, nFRXRecNo)
   This.SharedGDIPlusGraphics = This.GDIPLUSGRAPHICS
   This.oGDIGraphics.Handle = This.SharedGDIPlusGraphics
   DODEFAULT(nBandObjCode, nFRXRecNo)
ENDFUNC
 
PROCEDURE RENDER(tnFRXRecNo,;
   tnLeft,tnTop,tnWidth,tnHeight,;
   nObjectContinuationType, ;
   cContentsToBeRendered, GDIPlusImage)

   LOCAL lcText, llFlag
   llFlag = .F.
   lcText = This.aRecords(tnFRXRecNo,1)

   IF (VARTYPE(lcText) = "C" AND LEFT(lcText,4) = "<FJ>") OR ;
      (VARTYPE(This.aRecords(tnFRXRecNo,13)) = "C" AND This.aRecords(tnFRXRecNo,13) == "FJ")

      IF nObjectContinuationType > 0

      * nObjectContinuationType
      * -----------------------
      * Indicates the current continuation state for the rendered element. When layout elements span pages, they are rendered in multiple sections (once for each page).
      * Value Continuation Type
      * 0 Complete (no continuation).
      * 1 Start of layout element occurrence, will not finish on the current page.
      * 2 Mid-element, neither started nor finished on the current page.
      * 3 End of element, completed on the current page.

      * cContentsToBeRendered
      * ---------------------
      * Indicates the text to be rendered for Expression (Field) and Label layout elements.
      * If your derived class sends the text value through some additional processing, such as storage in a table, you can use the STRCONV() function, and its optional regional script parameter, to convert the string to DBCS first. For more information, see STRCONV( ) Function.

         lcText = STRCONV(cContentsToBeRendered,6)

            IF INLIST(nObjectContinuationType, 1, 2)
               llFlag = .T.
            ENDIF
         ENDIF
 
         IF UPPER(LEFT(lcText,4)) = "<FJ>"
            lcText = SUBSTR(lcText,5) && Remove the <FJ> tag from string
         ENDIF

         WITH _SCREEN.SYSTEM.Drawing

         This.oGDIGraphics.Handle = This.GDIPlusGraphics
         *!* Create a GDI+ Rectangle which specifies where on the
         *!* surface we're drawing the text.
         LOCAL loRectF as xfcRectangleF
         loRectF = .RectangleF.New(tnLeft, tnTop, tnWidth, tnHeight)

         LOCAL loFont as xfcFont
         loFont = .Font.New(This.aRecords(tnFRXRecNo,2) ;
            , This.aRecords(tnFRXRecNo,4), This.aRecords(tnFRXRecNo,3) ;
            , .GraphicsUnit.Point)

         * Retrieve colors for the background
         LOCAL lnRed, lnGreen, lnBlue, lnAlpha
         lnRed = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,5]
         lnGreen = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,6]
         lnBlue = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,7]
         lnAlpha = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,8]
         LOCAL loBackBrush as xfcSolidBrush
         loBackBrush = .SolidBrush.New(;
            .Color.FromArgb(lnAlpha,lnRed, lnGreen, lnBlue))

         This.oGdiGraphics.FillRectangle(loBackBrush, tnLeft, tnTop, tnWidth, tnHeight)

         * Retieve colors for the Text
         lnRed = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,9]
         lnGreen = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,10]
         lnBlue = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,11]
         lnAlpha = This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,12]
         LOCAL loTextBrush as xfcSolidBrush
         loTextBrush = .SolidBrush.New(;
            .Color.FromArgb(lnAlpha,lnRed, lnGreen, lnBlue))

         This.oGdiGraphics.DrawStringJustified(lcText, loFont, loTextBrush, loRectF, llFlag)

         ENDWITH
      ELSE
      *!* If we're not drawing a full justified string,
      *!* let Fox draw the text as usual.
         DODEFAULT(tnFRXRecNo, tnLeft, tnTop, tnWidth, tnHeight, ;
            nObjectContinuationType, cContentsToBeRendered, GDIPlusImage)
      ENDIF

      *!* Since we already drew the text, we don't want the default
      *!* behavior to occur.
   NODEFAULT
ENDPROC

FUNCTION EvaluateContents(tnFRXRecno, toObjProperties)
   * Get the FRX data
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,1] = toObjProperties.Text
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,2] = toObjProperties.FontName
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,3] = toObjProperties.FontStyle
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,4] = toObjProperties.FontSize
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,5] = toObjProperties.FillRed
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,6] = toObjProperties.FillGreen
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,7] = toObjProperties.FillBlue
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,8] = toObjProperties.FillAlpha
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,9] = toObjProperties.PenRed
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,10] = toObjProperties.PenGreen
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,11] = toObjProperties.PenBlue
   This.aRecords[tnFRXRecno,12] = toObjProperties.PenAlpha
ENDFUNC

ENDDEFINE

 

3 - Update the report:

Below is a short tutorial for the beginners:

- Open any of your reports, that contains a field of more than one line that will receive the effect. Double-Click on that field, select the GENERAL tab, and add BEFORE your expression, this simple string: [  "<FJ>" +  ], like in the picture below.

 

 

Another better option is to add the tag to the USER tab, that is available only in VFP9 Report Designer. Just like before, double-click in the desired field, select the "OTHER" tab, then click on the "EDIT USER DATA" button, and add the <FJ> tag to the window, just like the picture below. This is the most recommended approach, because the original data will not be affected, and if one day you decide to stop using the report listener, your report data will not be affected.

 

 

4 - Run the report

 

* Tell VFP that we'll be using the new report features
SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90
LOCAL loReportListener
loReportListener = CREATEOBJECT("FullJustifyListener")
loReportListener.ListenerType = 1
REPORT FORM YourReport OBJECT loReportListener

 

 

Below a last screenshot, showing the of the continued field issue solved:

 

Enjoy !!!

 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SOURCE CODE AND SAMPLE FROM THIS ARTICLE

Here's a new release of FoxCharts

https://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=VFPX&ReleaseId=13477

 

Prerequisites:
Visual FoxPro 9 and the GdiPlusX library from VFPX 

 

As you can see, 2 new charts are now available:

- Stacked Area

- Cylinder

 

• The StackedArea chart can be defined using the "ChartType" property, that must be set to the numeric 10
• The Cylinder chart is derived from the original Bars chart. To have it, select ChartType for the bar option, and then set the BarType property to numeric 1 (0 = Bar Default; 1 = Cylinder)
  

 

Apart from this, many other important modifications were applied:

The main difference is that now FoxCharts' base class is a Container, that contains the GdiPlusX ImageCanvas, and the legend objects, responsible for drawing all the text needed.

Now we can customize any of those labels in lots of ways. Every piece of text, legend in the chart now has the following properties:

Alignment - 0 Left; 1 Right; 2 Center
BackColor
BackColorAlpha - this is cool, (0-255) determines the transparency of the background of the label
Caption
FontBold
FontItalic
FontName
FontSize
FontStrikethru
FontUnderline
ForeColor
ForeColorAlpha - determines the transparency of the label

The legends are represented by the following objects:

Title
SubTitle
XAxis
XAxisLegend2
YAxis
ShapeLegend
ScaleLegend
SideLegend

This way, every piece of text in the chart can be fully customized, not only the font, but the backcolor and the alpha (transparency). Now you can also change the alignment of the text, for example, to set the title to Right Alignment, all you have to do is to:

Thisform.FoxCharts1.Title.Alignment = 1 && Right

 

I still need to remind you that this is still a preview version, destined for people that are interested in helping testing this tool.



Please continue sending your suggestions and feedback!
It is really very appreciated

https://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=VFPX&ReleaseId=13477

Contains the ALPHA version of the FoxCharts project.

Unzip the file and run the form ChartsSample to see how it works.

This version also distributes the two main files from GdiPlusX - System.app and GdiPlusX.vcx.
If you are already a GdiPlusX user, you can use your own GdiPlusX version.
Just make sure to be using the latest GdiPlusX version.

GdiPlusX is also a VFPX project. For more information, please visit the GdiPlusX page at VFPX.


More information and pictures about this project can be obtained at the VFPIMAGING weblog:

http://weblogs.foxite.com/vfpimaging/archive/2008/04/04/5919.aspx

http://weblogs.foxite.com/vfpimaging/archive/2008/04/24/6040.aspx


This new release contains lots of enhancements:

Chart Types
- Bar charts
- Multiple bars
- Stacked bars

- Pie
- Doughnut

- Lines
- Area
- Stacked Area
- Points and Shapes


Color variations:
- Basic colors
- Custom colors
- Gradient colors
- Random colors
- Monochrome
- Gradient or solid colors


Legends in many places: Axys, shapes, side legends

Scales

Customize:
- Titles
- Subtitles
- Backgrounds (solid or gradient)
- Fonts
- Colors