The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

July 1999

VFP Hot Tips...

Gathered from the Internet

Customize the String Used for Commenting in Visual

FoxPro 5.0

by Dan Freeman

Visual FoxPro 5.0 supports commenting or uncommenting code

with a right click or a menu selection. You can customize the

string used for commenting (to include your initials, for instance)

by adding one key to your registry.

Run REGEDIT. Cpen the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/

VISUALFOXPRO/5.0/OPTIONS

From the Edit menu, select New/String Value. Name the value

EditorCommentStnng.

Double click the new entry and type the string you want the

commenting to use. Note that you’ll have to provide the *entire*

string, including the asterisk.

Here’s how mine looks:

*! djf

m.g_devauthor = PADR( c_hdr_author_LOC ,45,” “)

*! dif !*-- m.g_devcompany = PADRE c_hdr_company_LOc ,45," ")

*! djf !*-- m.g_devaddress = PADFt( c_hdçaddress_LOC ,45," "0

*! djf !*-- m.g_devcity = PADR( c_hdr_city_LOC ,45," ")

Have Your Label’s BackColor Match Your Form’s

BackColor Automatically - Visual FoxPro

by Walt Grogan

When you drop laoels onto a form, the Label.BackColor doesn’t

default to the Form.BackColor even though that’s almost always

what you want. Then, if you change the Form.BackColor, you

might find yourself having to go back and changing all your

Label. BackColor properties to match.

Or, you could set each Label.BackStyle property to 0-Transpar-

ent. This will allow the color of the form to bleed through to the

label. There are several Visual FoxPro controls besides Labels

that also support the BackStyle property. The BackStyle

property is set to 1 - Opaque by default.

This kind of change is the reason you should subclass all the

FoxPro base class controls before creating forms. You can

create a subclass of Labels with the BackStyle property set to

0 and always use that label class.

Right-Click in the Properties Window - Visual Foxpro

by Tom Huguelet and Mark Roberts

You can right click any property in the Property Sheet and

return values to their default state. This is especially useful

when you want to reset an object’s attribute to allow that object

to exhibit the Parent Class’s behavior. For example, if you’re

using a Label class definition, that has FontBold = .T., but this

instance of the object has FontBold = .F., you can recall the

Class Definition’s default simply by right-clicking and choosing

“Reset to Default”.

This behavior also applies to the Methods in the Property Sheet!

In other words, you can remove all method code from the

method listing by right- clicking. This is a handy way to reset

the current object instance to run the Class Definition’s method

code. There is no confirmation dialog, however, so you could

wind up removing essential code. If you accidentally reset your

method code to default, you can get it back by exiting your

Form Designer session and answering “No” to “Do you want to

save changes to Form Designer - myform.scx?”

Parent Class Method Tips - Visual Foxpro

by Tom Huguelet

You can override Parent Class Method code by entering specific

code in the associated method of the object instance. FoxPro

interprets any characters in the method code as executable

code which will override parent class methods, including spaces

and comments.

If you want toadd comments to method cçde and retain the

inher itande, use the Scope resolu-

tion operator (::) to explicitly call the Parent Class’ code. The

click event procedure for a Command Button might look like

this, for example:

*--

Note: Parent Class code will close table, so

*--

TABLEUPDATE() must return .T.

*--

See Click Procedure of MyExitButton IN LIBS/MyClassLib

MyExitButton::Click

Coordinate Toolbar Buttons and Menu Options - Visual

Foxpro

by Tom Huguelet

A straightforward way to coordinate enabling or disabling menu

choices in conjunction with Toolbar buttons is to use the

Enabled property in the Set Skip clause of the menu. For

example, say you have a toolbar called oToolbar with an add

Command Button named cmdAdd, and a Record menu with an

Add option. By setting the Set Skip clause of the Add option to

“oToolBar.cmdAdd.Enabled = .F.” or

“!oToolBar.cmdAdd.Enabled” the Add menu option is only

available when oToolBar.cmdAdd is Enabled.

Remember - the Set Skip disables the menu choice when it

evaluates to .T., which is why the NOT operator (!) or “= .F.” is

required.

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