Grid Dynamics' Power!!!

What is Dynamic?

Adjective
(of a process or system) Characterized by constant change, activity, or progress.
Noun
A force that stimulates change or progress within a system or process.

So Dynamic can change.  It is the opposite of being Static or Fixed.


In VFP Grid, there is only one real row and the rest are just mirrors of the first one manipulated by VFP to show different values. It means that conditions on objects (textbox, combobox, checkbox, etc) on a column are static.  What condition and formatting you applied to an object of a cell applies to the rest of the cells belonging to that column.

But since there definitely is a need for us to reflect on a cell certain values based on several conditions, then that is where Dynamic Properties of a grid is needed (see VFP help on available Dynamic Properties).  A very powerful feature of grid that makes me prefer it over to listbox.


Yesterday inside Foxite, I finally understood the need of a fellow member with the sample he provided which is allowing a combobox inside a column to change values or sort of being filtered based on a combination of values of two fields (or column1 and Column5).  And I showed him how to attain that by employing DynamicCurrentControl Property of the grid.

What is DynamicCurrentControl?

Please just refer to my early posting in Weblogs about this: http://weblogs.foxite.com/sandstorm36/2008/08/09/placing-various-images-on-a-grid/

How to make an Ugly App

Being away from my wife for more than a month doing admin works again, this time in Port Moresby, I have time to play with my form's appearances during the night.  With her besides me, of course I cannot do that as that will mean war!  LOL!  And honestly, I should not do that as well because there should be a fine line between being a developer/designer and a loving husband.

Anyway, being alone here on my room at night and not still into coding mood these days, I work instead on finding out how to make my forms look better by creating what I hope are stunning but not too comical forms.  So I play with mixing colors, creating some effects for my forms' appearances, plus some new tricks on some menu/button effects for further eye candies. While this post won't and can't help anyone on coding matters, I hope this will at least give you ideas on how to make your forms uglier.... err... prettier.   Here are some pointers:

a.  Use Photoshop.  This is the best tool I have known so far where I can design stunning effects to serve as form's background.  Play with layers, Layer Styles, Filters, Opacity and Fill.

b.  Transparent Pageframes.  Well I shared this before here but if this is ignored, I cannot blame them.  The sample I gave there is very simple and does not leave much to imagination.  But take a look at the effect when used in my real forms.

Insert Words, Combine/Merge RTF Files

This came from a question inside foxite forum when a member tried to merge two RTF files into one via FILETOSTR() and STRTOFILE() and the member cannot see the second set of words added at the end of the rtf document, and wonder why.  So here is the explanation.

An RTF file starts with {\rtf1 and ends with corresponding }. So if you combine two or more rtf documents via a FILETOSTR() then later STRTOFILE(), each of those will have their own opening and closing RTF codes.  And an RTF document will just read whatever is within its opening and closing codes that whatever is added after the closing bracket will be ignored.

Here is a test for you to see better.  Copy these codes and paste to a notepad, save with an RTF extension, quit  and open the file in wordpad or msWord:

{\rtf1\Ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Calibri;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}}

\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 This is a sample\f1\fs18

\par }

Now, we will simulate FILETOSTR() and STRTOFILE() with additive clause at the end.  Imagine if we copy the same set of codes and paste it twice inside, on notepad, it will look like this:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Calibri;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}}

\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 This is a sample\f1\fs18

\par }

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Calibri;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Arial;}}

\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 This is a sample\f1\fs18

\par }

Save it, close and open in msWord or Wordpad.  Surprise!!! There is still one line of word "This is a sample"  instead of two.  Again because an RTF ignores anything that is after the closing } bracket.

So we cannot blame FILETOSTR() and later STRTOFILE() as those are doing properly what they are designed for.  Either you clean up the RTF codes yourself or better use Word Automation so it will clean the RTF codes for you.

Here is a sample of word automation:

Set Safety Off

Declare Integer ShellExecute In shell32.Dll ;

      INTEGER hndWin, ;

      STRING cAction, ;

      STRING cFileName, ;

      STRING cParams, ;

      STRING cDir, ;

      INTEGER nShowWin

#Define wdStory           6

#Define wdPasteDefault    0

Local lcSource, lcTarget

lcTarget = Addbs(Getenv("TMP"))+"Target.rtf"

lcSource = Getfile("rtf")

If !Empty(m.lcSource)

      Create Cursor junk (myMemo M)

      Insert Into junk Values (Filetostr(m.lcSource))

      * Let us create the RTF file

      Strtofile(junk.myMemo,m.lcTarget)

      * Now we will make two copies of the content in a single RTF file

      Local loRTF As Word.Application

      loRTF = Createobject("Word.Application")

      With loRTF

            .DisplayAlerts = .F.

            .Documents.Open(m.lcTarget)

            * Copy everything, paste as a new set, save and quit

            .Selection.WholeStory

            .Selection.Copy

            .Selection.EndKey(wdStory)

            .Selection.PasteAndFormat(wdPasteDefault)

            .ActiveDocument.SaveAs(m.lcTarget,6)

            .ActiveDocument.Close

            .Quit

      Endwith

      * Check using wordpad

      ShellExecute(0,"Open","wordpad.exe",m.lcTarget,"",1)

Else

      Messagebox('You aborted!')

Endif

I hope this helps you on your needs!

How Uglier can a VFP app get?

Been gone for quite a while now doing admin and other managerial jobs lately and I felt I am loosing my grip on developing but every time I think of doing it, my mind sorts of auto shuts down, LOL!  I guess that is what normally happens when you have plenty other things to think of.

Anyway, I looked for something that can entice me and lure me back into developing and GUI designing and I found it in my Assets Masterfile module which image I have posted before under Various Images on a Grid blog.  Now, I wanted to change that grid into an HTML Browser instead for smoother scrolling effects.  That is the start and then I decided to make it more looking like a website maybe?

ssDropCalc class in a Grid, How To?

When I shared ssClasses library, I gave a sample form on most of the classes and among it is ssDropCalc (Dropdown Calculator class) showing how to run it on a default value or formula mode plus how to use it inside a grid if you wanted to.  The sample runs good, but I believe this is the second time I was asked about how to use it in a grid where my usual response is "Please check the sample form I shared for that".

But since I just got asked again about that, I decided to test myself why despite my sample, they are still

ComboBox in a Grid - Combobox Trick # 2

I have promised last time I will show another combobox trick but totally forgot about it.  Then yesterday another member asked about a combobox inside a grid saying while it is working on his end, whatever is selected on the active combobox does not appear.  It appears only when the combobox on the current record looses focus.

While working directly with grids do not appeal to me, I played with his requirement and indeed it does not show the combobox' DisplayValue.  So I got curious because if I recall properly, I fixed that problem on my end before but in the end working directly on a Grid does not really appeal to me that I discarded the entire concept and went back to Add To Table approach.

Anyway, here is a working sample of that if you need one, and on the bottom note the reason why:

Removing Ghost Devices from your unit

This is actually asked inside the forum and I said, hey this is likewise a good topic to add here in my blog, so...

What are Ghost Devices?

Well we can simply say this.  A ghost is believed to be an entity that is there but cannot be seen.  So a Ghost Device is on your unit but is hidden.  Also a ghost is a remnant of your physical being.  Ghost Devices likewise are remnants of your previous device installations like a scanner or printer that is no longer plugged into your machine, a mass storage device, a mobile phone, etc.  And even a single device can have several Ghost Entries on a single unit based on which port you plug that device to.

A ghost device is also sometimes referred to as a Phantom device.

How to manually clean Ghost Devices?

I will simply refer you instead to this Microsoft article:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

Is there a way to prevent Ghosting?