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Copyright © 1996-99 Caduceus Consulting. All rights reserved.
Revised: August 18, 1999.
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Setting Focus to a Variable Control
I wonder if you can help. I am trying to set
focus to a control specified by the value of a string . However,
it is not proving to be as easy as it should be. When I am trying
to "Set" the name it either will not accept the value
as there is a Type mismatch or it won't accept the name we try to
assign to it because this is a read-only property. Are there any
work-arounds or cunning solutions ? Here is the code I was
trying:
Dim objvar As
Control
Set objvar = Text2.Text
objvar.SetFocus
Joe Aeberhard, U.K.
OUR ANSWER...
Also in this issue:
Non-proportional Fonts
If I capture the output of a report from the
host and then place the results in a text box, the report is not
formatted. If I use the fonts Terminal or System the report looks
O.K.
If I highlight part of the report and try to
change the font, the columns get corrupted (out of alignment). Is
there any way to convert the captured text to a specific TrueType
font before displaying? If that is possible, further manipulation
of the text would not corrupt the column spacing. - S.
Schwartz, Triple Creek Software
OUR ANSWER...

SELECT and READNEXT Windows Files
What
is an easy way to do a function that you would do to ONE file
(say: renaming it), but to do it to ALL files on a drive without
having to click on each file. I have read four or five VB4 and
VB5 books and have never seen code that relates to this. - R.
Shepheard, Relte Corporation
OUR ANSWER...
Also in this issue:
Fast Field Load and Update
I'm
used to having a 4GL that quickly created reasonably useful data
entry and retrieval screens for me in my character-based
applications. I find VB more tedious, in that whenever I read in
an item from my MultiValue host, I have to go through and
populate all of my text boxes and other controls by hand. Each
attribute must be extracted and its value assigned to the
appropriate control (sometimes with a conversion). Then I have to
write code to reverse it all when I save the screen. Any ideas on
how this might be done more efficiently?
OUR ANSWER...

486 Upgrade
Our company
has some PICK/BASIC programs running on PC-PICK R83 V3.1 (17
users) on Intel 486 CPU. However, our 486 CPU is very old and it
may HALT sometimes. We want to upgrade the CPU to Intel-586.
However, the current PICK cannot support the Intel Pentium CPU.
Please advise.
Thanks. -
Alex Mak
OUR ANSWER...

Client Link OCX for mvBASE
We are a large site running mvBASE and
developing VB front-ends for our applications. We acquired the
Client Link OCX from GA, expecting to get VB/mvBASE connectivity,
but we cant make head or tail of the documentation or what
its supposed to do. Do you have any experience with this
tool? - Paul S., Wisconsin
OUR ANSWER...

Disabling the 'X' Close Button
Dear Andrew:
I had
the pleasure of attending your Visual Basic Class for Pick
Programmers recently and have begun developing in VB5. I have a
question that I hope you can answer: How can I disable ONLY the
X (Close) [on a Visual Basic form]? Id like to
keep the Minimize and Maximize buttons but drop the
X. I cant seem to achieve this at either design
time or run time. - Alex Vlassis
OUR ANSWER...

Laptops and AP/DOS
I often read
your articles in Spectrum magazine and have some questions
regarding a development issue. I have created a order processing
application for laptops, written on AP/DOS. Merchants take their
laptops in the field, enter orders, and perform various analyses
based on downloaded data. That's all great, however, I would like
to interface some Visual Basic programs with this AP/DOS database
and have merchants run the VB programs. The host is the laptop.
My questions are as follows:
- There are
many laptops are VB run-time licenses required to
execute a VB program?
- Can a VB
program work with AP/DOS or do I need to upgrade AP/DOS?
Is that a costly upgrade for each laptop?
- Is D3 the
only way to upgrade a PICK application running from
windows? Currently they are using Windows 3.1. Do I have
to upgrade them to Windows 95 in order to use any VB
interface?
I know that's
a lot of questions, but if you can help me, I would surely
appreciate it. Thanks. - M. Margulis, New York
Many user actions invoke multiple Visual Basic events, but
which events? and in what order? None of the VB manuals appear to
document this, but I recall that you had researched this. Would
you share your results? - L. Burstein, Dynamic Systems
OUR ANSWER...

Loading Custom Menus
I want to create a
menu at run-time in a VB application. The Load statement can
create one level of menu, but how can I create a multi-level menu
(i.e. menu entries with sub-menus)? -
Ajay Singh
OUR ANSWER...

News Groups
The time has come for me to add a GUI
front-end to my MultiValue database. Visual Basic seems to be the
most popular language, but lately I've been hearing a lot about
Delphi. Which do you think is better?
I want to move my old 'Pick' applications on
to an NT box. There are now at least four flavors available:
uniVerse, D3, mvBASE, and Unidata. Any recommendations?
My company sells packaging products, not
computers. The guy who sold us our Pick-based software is going
out of business. We have no money for a high-priced consultant.
Where can we go for help?
OUR ANSWERS...

Packaging a VB Application
Dear
Andrew:
It
was a pleasure talking to you again at the recent Spectrum
conference. As always, I found your presentations very helpful.
I do
have a couple of questions relating to VB which may even be
worthy of discussion in your column:
My
first question concerns packaging a VB application.
All of the examples of VB applications which I have seen have
been fairly small - an Order Entry screen, for example. However,
we developers generally deal with larger collections, such as a
distribution system, where Order Entry would be only a small
part. I have not found any discussion of, or guidelines for,
packaging and distributing these larger systems.
Surely there must be topics which must be considered. Can you
shed some light on this topic?
My
second question concerns the use of function keys. Microsoft
seems to use them freely. I know we can detect the user pressing
a function key in several places, such as the form KeyPress event
(with KeyPreview enabled). Are there any traps we might fall into
or things we should be aware of when using function keys?
As
always, thanks for your assistance! - Ralph Justus, Rivendell
Computer Systems
OUR ANSWER...

Popup Menus from a Right Mouse Click
I caught your class at Spectrum in March and
thought it was terrific!! I have been looking through my help
documentation and books at hand and could not find an answer to
this problem. You said that if we had a question, you would take
a stab at it, so here goes.
I would like to make a list box visible when
the user clicks the right button on a certain text box, but have
been having trouble with the default (Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste,
Delete, Select all) window popping up before or after my list box
appears depending on whether I put the code in the mouse down or
mouse up event.
Do you know of a way to disable this or get
around it? Any help would be much appreciated. - Steve
Shaffer
OUR ANSWER...

Printing a Word document with data from
Visual Basic
Our manufacturing company requires the ability to read
data from a Pick-type host, edit it in Visual Basic, and then
print it from MSWord. I am told that this is possible, but the VB
manuals are not much help. The WinLink product from Via Systems
will get the data into VB but then Im stuck. Can you assist
us? - R. Sullivan, Lavelle Industries
OUR ANSWER...

Searching a List as the User Types
Many commercial packages have a real nice way of looking
up information, searching through a list of options as you type
and narrowing the possibilities as you enter more letters. How
can I do the same thing for a client name list? What if my client
list is on my MultiValue host? - R. McLaughlin, Keystone
Mercy Health Plan
OUR ANSWER...
Back to Top

Stay MultiValue or go Mainstream?
My corporation has an extensive suite of
applications for the job shop manufacturing industry. It is
proven software, requiring only one Pick/Basic maintenance
programmer. Our plan is to make extensive use of web technology
in a whole new incarnation of the package, and we now have a
number of Microsoft Certified professionals on staff. I have read
about your utilities to translate Pick/Basic code to VB. I am
also gathering information on the many ways to connect Windows to
a MultiValue database, such as terminal emulator GUI-izing tools,
ActiveX objects, etc. Any recommendations? - G. Puffett,
Data.Com International
OUR ANSWER...

The True/False Trap
I read your column on your web site since I
don't get the Spectrum magazine. Thanks for all the tips and
sample code. This question may not rate publishing, but I would
really appreciate some help.
I wrote my own VB function called APIndex
that works like the old INDEX function, but while converting some
Data/Basic code to VB, I encountered a problem. My original code
read: "IF NOT(INDEX(CMD,"/",1)) THEN". My new
VB code reads: "If Not APIndex(Cmd$,"/",1)
Then". The problem is that the Else clause never runs,
regardless of whether Cmd$ has a "/" or not. I rewrote
the code to make it work, but I don't understand why my first
attempt did not. Can you explain it? - Jennifer C., N.S.W.,
Australia
OUR ANSWER...

Using the Enter key to go from field to
field
We are rewriting our main data entry screen from a
character-based program on a uniVerse platform to Visual Basic.
Unfortunately our users are used to using the Enter key to move
from field to field, not the Windows standard Tab key. How can I
give them back their Enter key and are there any problems with
that? - A. Crocker, B & G Insurance
OUR ANSWER...

Using the Grid Control to edit
multivalues
I want to edit the contents of a multi-valued string that
I have brought into VB from my Pick-type host, but VBs Grid
control seems to be limited to display only. What is the best way
to edit multi-values, especially across more than one attribute?
- W. Campbell, Intellidata Inc.
OUR ANSWER...

Validating Field Data
I have a series of text boxes on a form. The
first one is called PartNum and the second one is called
OrderNum. I want to be able to validate that the part number is
on file, and if not, then to display "Item X is not
valid" and allow entry of the part number again. So in the
PartNum_LostFocus event, if the part is invalid, I display the
error message and then do a PartNum.SetFocus to return to that
field.
What is happening, is that the error message
"Item X is not valid" is displayed, but then it is
executing OrderNum_LostFocus before it is going back to
PartNum_GotFocus. Why does the OrderNum_LostFocus code get run? I
am baffled! - J. Smith, Western Design Howden
OUR ANSWER...

VB and the Year 2000
How does
Visual Basic handle the Year 2000? You may be very surprised!
OUR ANSWER...

Visual Basic Event Sequences
Many user actions invoke multiple Visual Basic events, but
which events? and in what order? None of the VB manuals appear to
document this, but I recall that you had researched this. Would
you share your results? - L. Burstein, Dynamic Systems
OUR ANSWER...

To email your questions to "Ask the MultiValued VB
Expert", click here.
Copyright © 1996-99 Caduceus Consulting. All rights reserved.