CtrlBox Class

This is another simple class that has been inside ssUltimate for quite a long time now.  But I designed this solely for the need of TitleBarX when I experimented on creating a control box that is purely made of shapes.  

However, recently I am changing my forms' appearances again and I now favor a form with no titlebar and border that is run maximized.  And while users of my app know they can always press Esc key to exit any of my forms, I still want an additional way for them to close it via a mouse.

RTF Keyword Highlighting

In 2009 I started playing with an RTF control and I created one organizer for my own need to store articles and any other useful info I can find in the web for later offline reading and reference.  I decided to do that because most of the time we don't have good internet here.

Well I was reworking the previous days on that old DevOrg app which consisted of a treeview and an RTF activeX controls as I decided to finally give it a filtering capability, insertion of image with rescaling and quality reduction, reworking the icon panel to look like a ribbon, etc.; and along the way, I thought of allowing it to highlight the words I typed to filter the threads and nodes of treeview.  So I can see outright where those are, like this:

The trick is to work behind the scene on its RTF codes. Here is the method I created for that:

HoverButton Class

Another button class for my need which may come handy to my subscribers as well.

So why make another one?  What is the main difference with this one vs say ButtonX?

On my BizCore ERP app, I use TreeView for my menu as I can easily control there what can be shown per user by hiding/removing nodes they should not be of concern.  See ERP app below:

Tick/Untick Checkboxes on Grid with AllowCellSelection = .F. - Part II

Last time I have shown how to employ ticking/unticking of checkboxes on Grid with AllowCellSelection = .F. via utilizing MouseDown event of Grid.  So what makes this different than the first trick?  The first trick relies on Relative Column of Grid.  And this poses a problem when the columns are reordered via dragging into new position as Relative Column  will then change.

So it is not that foolproof and only will work when you don't rearrange the column orders.  This one though fixes that as this is no longer based on the relative column's position but will be basing on the ControlSource of that column.

Here is the sample code:

Sketches

Sorry, this is not about software developing.  I just wanted to create this entry here for my latest hobby which is pencil drawings.

When I was young (in elementary and highschool), I used to draw using a ballpen.  Then I stopped as my focus went elsewhere.  That was 29 years ago.

Last month, for whatever reason I decided to see if my hands are still there.  So I ordered a pastel color pencil in ebay and started making some sketches where immediately after completion, I posted it on my wall.  And while I deem my output as elementary, my friends say they love those.

Since I realize I don't have the patience required of a real artist as I want to draw and finish whatever I am working within just a few hours, I put aside my pastel (I realize that requires patience) and  I decided to work on pure pencils as making shadows there are easier.  While I do not have the proper grades (I lack 7b, 8b and 9b for darker ones), my friends also loved those as well so they started requesting I draw them.  And I did.

One time I decided to draw my departed brother.  Heck if I can take time to draw my friends, I will spend time to draw my loved ones too.  I have to draw him twice before I believe I got an acceptable output.  Today I decided to see how it will look like when in color.... so Photoshop color layering.  Below is the source pencil and photoshop output

Well I think I have done good here.

APPEND FROM fails on Memo (VFP)

It appears that APPEND FROM command has an undocumented behaviour which is it cannot transfer its values into a Memo Field.  So in cases where you want to append data from say a csv, text or other types and your destination table has a memo field, then forget about this command.

Inside foxite forum, this exact problem causes a member to search for a way to achieve getting the values of a column of a CSV file that has more than 256 characters (definitely a candidate for a memo field type).  And APPEND FROM cannot simply just do that.

Having said, I showed him an alternative way to transfer data from a CSV file to our table with memo fields via excel automation.  It is quite simple really to do that.  Here is a small snippet for that:

Create Cursor junk (familyid i, Name c(60), Description M)

Local lcFile, loExcel As Excel.Application, lnLastRow

lcFile = Getfile("csv")

If !Empty(m.lcFile)

      loExcel = Createobject("excel.application")

      With loExcel

            .Workbooks.Open(m.lcFile)

            For lnloop = 2 To .Cells(1, 1).CurrentRegion.Rows.Count

                  Insert Into junk (familyid, Name, Description) Values ;

                        (.Cells(m.lnloop,1).Value,.Cells(m.lnloop,2).Value,;

                        .Cells(m.lnloop,3).Value)

            Next

            .ActiveWorkBook.Close

            .Quit

      Endwith

      Go Top

      Browse Normal

Endif

Using his sample data, here is the result of said automation:

And that is it, an easy way to import data from a CSV file (or any other files that excel supports) into our tables including ones for Memo fields.  Cheers!

ExcelExport

This is the counterpart of ssToExcel2 of ssClasses.  

Unlike ExcelPivot, this one simply transfers your cursor/table into excel with added formats, titles, etc.  An example is a ledger as shown at the bottom hereof

New properties


_PaperSize (1 = letter (Default), 3 = tabloid, 4 = ledger, 5= legal, 7 = executive, 8 = A3, 9 = A4, 11 = A5, 66 = A2, 119 = 11x17 size)
_MarginLeft, _MarginRight, _MarginTop, _MarginBottom (all Defaults to 1 inch)
_WithFooter (Default is .F.)
_Orientation (1 = Portrait (Default), 2 = Landscape)
_scaling (For zooming of sheet, default is 100)
_isProper = to turn the field names into PROPER() (Default or .T.) or UPPER() (.F.)




Miscellanous:


Added Progressbar (ProgBarX class)
Replaced Default body font from Tahoma to Calibri
Cleaned codes, speed up automation a bit





Shown below is what I meant by exporting cursor result to excel using this class on a spreadsheet with added features.  Please note that with this class, it us entirely possible to do that even when you have zero automation knowledge.












Available only to ssUltimate subscribers.

ProgBarX

A simple progress bar which I created to replace the WAIT WINDOWs I put in ExcelPivot and ExcelExport classes.

Late last week, I decided to add more features onto it so its usage can go beyond those two classes such as for my other looping needs.

Progressbar on SQL SELECT

After that, I decided to see how I can incorporate this to an SQL SELECT as well, a desire which most of us share.  Here is how it looks like when incorporated on an SQL SELECT

SQL SELECT..  INTO CURSOR TEST RESULTS

* Update, April 14, 2016

Thought of another way to slash the overhead of progressbar on SQL SELECT.

Test is performed on our requested items for 9 years joining 5 tables in the process.   The SQL SELECT produces a cursor with  51,743 records:

- standard SQL SELECT (not using this class), average elapsed time on multiple runs is 1.83 seconds

- with ProgBarX showing records being processed, the bar and  percentage of completion (via SQLBar() method of class),
 average elapsed time is 4.50 seconds.

- with ProgBarX showing only the progress bar and percentage of completion via its SQLBarNoRec() method, average elapsed time of 3.72 seconds.

Again, the test is done on a 9-year dataset.  If it will be just within months or a year, the overhead will be less than a second.

The beauty of this is now we can see the number of records and its percentage of completion as those are created by an SQL SELECT.

Not only that, visual is the key.  Without a progressbar showing records being processed by an SQL SELECT with huge number of records, it appears to be slower than the one with ProgBarX.  That, of course, is an illusion as users do not like staring at the screen wondering what the hell is going on.  Users never like to unknowingly wait.

With this in place,  it provides users a real-time live feedback of what's going on behind the sql select processes as it shows the number of records being processed so far and can give them estimates on how much more to wait via the progressbar and percentage of process completion.  It also shows them that the app is currently doing something and has not frozen, as some tend to wonder or think on SQL SELECTs resulting to huge number of records.

This class though is only available for ssUltimate users.  The one added onto ssClasses does not have the latest features including that capability to show progress of an SQL SELECT.

A demo form for this is now available for my subscribers:

Interested in being a subscriber?  Email me at ss.classes.jun at gmail.com

Cheers!

CalendarX

February 8 Update:

• Introduced Localization via .Language property (0=Indonesian, 1=English, 2=Italian, 3=Spanish, 4=Turkish, 5=Romanian).  For other subscribers who hasn't submitted me yet the equivalent of days and months on their local language, please submit to me.  I also need the local word for "Today".

• Fixed bug on improper end of month that happens when we click on the month picker.

====

This is based on my DTPickerX's idea of a faster date navigation/selection.  Have 3 return values:

.Value = date value
._bom = Beginning of Month
._eom = End of Month

Use Click event to perform other things as we change/select dates.  Here is how some classes of ssUltimate library looks on form.

Popup Calculator

I was popped yesterday by a fellow developer who showed me his form using ssDropCalc saying he is very satisfied with ssClasses library.  Thinking that others are really using said class, I decided to create a counterpart of that today for ssUltimate.  Of course, it has to be better.

What is PopCalc?

This is the counterpart of ssDropCalc of ssClasses but is better in many ways

• Better Look
• Unlike ssDropCalc which is a container class, this one is a control class
• This one does not switch between formula and values.  The formula is simply shown on the popup calculator but it always returns the value
• Better hotkeys (hover the mouse to see)
• Highlights the keys pressed (if you do not want to use mouse)
• Easier to use

Using on Form

Drop it and resize if you want.  On focus, this auto-pops the popup calculator and with starting value of what you put there (default is zero unless you change it via code, e.g., this.value = 123)

To exit the popup portion, either click outside, press Esc or press Enter (hotkey to pressing = sign) on your keyboard. To forcefully pop it up again if you want, press down arrow or Ctrl+Down Arrow keys.

Using on Grid

This is easier than ssDropCalc in that all you need to do is drop it down to a selected column of numeric value.  It will then take ownership of that column without setting anything further by doing the following:

• Inheriting ControlSource
• Inheriting Font Name and Size
• Inheriting Alignment
• Making itself the CurrentControl
• Setting Column's Sparse = .F.

When used on Grid, the popup calculator won't auto-pop (by design).  The shortcut to pop it up is Ctrl+Down Arrow Keys.

There you are, the latest addition to ssUltimate!  The only thing I am not that satisfied is because I used here ButtonX class for better look, then there is a bit (nanosecond) delay in popping up form as it has to redraw those buttons on loading of popup calculator.  But I still prefer it than creating several images for those buttons.


Added January 7, 2016

Added/Utilized these properties:

Classic Property - Whether to use native commandbuttons (default or .T.) or ButtonX (.F.).  While buttonx looks cooler, there is that nanosecond delay that some of you may not like, thus this option.

Themes - Affects only Classic popup calculator, whether Themese are used or not on those native commandbuttons

SpecialEffect - Affects only Classic popup calculator.   Using the control class' SpecialEffect property so I won't need to add another myself, ignore what is shows:

Control Class                  Effect on Classic Popup
0 = Raised                     0 = 3D (Default)
1 = Sunken                     1 = Plain
2 = Flat                       2 = HotTracking