The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

April 1997

Using VFP 5.0 Grids

by Mike Vincent

President, OC Fox

I’ve been doing a lot of work with grids lately, so I’ll devote this

month’s column to talking about using grids in VFP 5.0. When

Visual FoxPro was introduced, the grid was in my opinion the

most significant new control. It was a quantum jump from the

old 2.x Browse. In VFP 5 it has been further refined. Like most

complex tools, using the grid effectively takes a little practice

and experience.

Grid Basics 101

The Grid is a container object that can display multiple rows of

a view, cursor, or table. The Grid object allows you to present

and manipulate rows and columns of data in a form or page. It is

commonly used to display the many side of a one-to many

relationship. A grid can contain columns and the columns

contain headers and controls, each with their own sets of

properties, events, and methods, giving you a great deal of

control over the elements of the grid. Controls can be textbox,

combobox, Iistbox, checkbox, spinner, command button, or

another grid but can’t be a timer.

To begin working with grids, you need to bind data to your grid.

Set the Record Source property (Data tab) to the name of the

alias or table that will be used with the grid. Then set the

RecordSourceType property. Use 0-Table, if you want Visual

FoxPro to open the table for you, or 1 - Alias if you want the grid

to be populated with the fields in a table or view that is already

open.

The default control in a column is a textbox. To use a different

control, drag it from the controls toolbar into the column. Check

the order by checking the controls in the drop down list at the

top of your Properties form. The new control should appear

under a column below the header and the default Texti control.

Make the new control active by setting the column’s

CurrentControl property in the Data tab.

If you leave the ColumnCount property (Layout tab) set to -1, all

columns in the bound table will be included in your grid. To gain

a little more control, set the ColumnCount to a value appropriate

for your data and set the DataSource for each column to display

particular fields in particular columns. You should then size

each column for the data it will contain.

I always set DeleteMarks to False since these are dangerous

and confusing to end users. I also turn off (set to False)

AllowHeaderSizing, AllowRowSizing and SplitBar to prevent

users from creating variations of grids that I never intended.

Want to prevent users from moving or resizing columns? Set the

ColumnX.Movable and ColumnX.Resizable properties to False.

Depending on your requirements, the ScrollBars property can

be set to 0 (None), I (Horizontal), 2 (Vertical), or 3 (Both).

(Con’t, page 7)

Just In Case You Forgot

Membership Dues

It’s time to start thinking about membership dues again. Last

year, we implemented a new payment policy that brought

everyon current in a matter of months. Here’s how it works:

Look at your mailing label on the back of the newsletter. If your

membership expired in the first three months (January thru

March) of 1996, your name will be eliminated from the newslet-

ter mailing list in January, 1997; if your membership expired in

the second three months (April thru June) of 1996, your name

will be eliminated from the newsletter mailing list in February,

1997; if your membership expired in the third three months (July

thru September) of 1996, your name will be eliminated from the

mailing list in March, 1997; and if your membership expires in

the last three months (October thru December) of 1996, your

name will be eliminated from the mailing list in April, 1997.

Last year, using this type of methodology and an “amnesty”

program, we were able to bring memberships current that had

expired back in 1993. So virtually everyone that is now a

member of LA Fox has an expiration date of 1996 or 1997. This

helps us out a lot since we are a totally self-supported group

and membership helps defray the costs of newsletters, the

meeting room, guest speakers, etc.

There are several advantages to membership the

cominaraderie and networking capabilities of me group, the

chance to see and hear speakers that you would have to spend

hundreds of dollars to see elsewhere, a monthly ten-page

newsletter, the LA FoxCast, etc.

So everyone make sure you look at your mailing label for your

membership expiration date and please respond accordingly.

Membership dues are $45, payable to LA Fox, and can be

mailed to Twila Miller, 1601 North Sepulveda Blvd. - #191,

Manhattan Beach, CA 90266, or brought to the next meeting.

If you’re the slightest bit “local” to the Southern California area

and plan on attending the conference, please do not plan on

“pre-registering” the first day of the conference at least

if you want to receive the conference materials or eat (some-

thing that’s still important). We need to commit actual numbers

to the hotel two weeks prior to the conference so that food for

conference meals can be allocated, as well as the collateral

materials that will be handed to you as you register. So if you’re

local, don’t put it off register now.

Important Spring

Conference Announcement

Page 6