** Visual FoxPro Tips, Tricks and Utilities

This page contains answers to common questions handled by me, along with some tips and tricks that I have found useful. These have been presented here as questions and answers. Click on the topics listed to view the answers. Some useful utilities are also added.

• DataBase
  • Utility to Pack all tables in a directory. You can use this generic routine to pack all tables in your data directory without need to specify individual table names. This will work from FoxPro Dos 2 to current VFP 8 version.
  • Utility to Reindex all tables in a directory. You can use this generic routine to reindex all tables in your data directory without need to specify individual table names. This will work in FoxPro Dos 2 version to the current VFP 8 version.
  • Utility to Rebuild CDX Index Files. Use this utility to drop the compound index and rebuild them without having to worry about the index expressions.
  • Extract Structure of all DBFS in a Project. Use this utility to get the tables structure of all tables in the active project. The utility will save the table structure in a text file. This will be handy for project documntation.
  • Utility to copy DBFs from one DBC to another DBC. Use this utility to create a table in a project which will be identical to the table in another project.
  • Utility to set up the view Captions as in parent Tables. Views created will not carry with them the captions used in the tables. After creating the views, run this utility to copy the field captions to the views quickly.
  • How to extract duplicate records from a table ? For example, a sigle field such as Account_Id field may be existing more number of times in a table, while the rest of the records content could be different. Or simply two fields concatenated may exist more than once in the same table. We can quickly obtain a list of such field values or a complete list of all such extra records as shown in this link.
  
  
• Forms
  • A sample search form. The form displays the table open in the current default work area. The form has buttons to go to First, Last, Next, Previous records.
  • A form to disply PDF files from within VFP. As the title goes, a simple form to display PDF files within VFP. This can be suitably modified to pass on a file name as parameters to auto open and display a PDF document.
  • A form to disply HTML files from within VFP. A simple form to display HTML files within VFP. This can be suitably modified to pass on a file name as parameters to auto open and display a HTML document.
  • How to animate in VFP form ? We can show animation using AVI files in VFP forms to show file-copy in progress, backup-in-progress and such activities. This can be achieved easily as shown in this sample form.
  • A sample form with OUTLOOK components. A simple real VFP form containing Outlook automation components. One can see the code behind and incorporate the needed functions in a similar way into a VFP application.
  • How to hide the Main VFP Screen ? The VFPs screen appears as default background screen in all the applications built. Click open this link to see a simple way to hide this VFP's background screen.
  • Why does Lost focus does not retain focus ? Click this link to find out how to do this. This can help to use the LostFocus event in the place of Valid event.
  • How to provide TAB facility in Edit Control ? When you create an Edit Control for Memo fields data entry, the user may need to TAB within the control. However, by pressing TAB key, VFP's default behaviour of switching the focus to next control happens. Here is a simple way to provide the user with the TAB facility.
  • How to control the focus in the current object while arrow keys or backspaces tend to take the control to the next object ? When a textbox is in focus, it is likely that a backspace or left/right arrow key or home or end key is pressed while at the initial or ending positions of the control. The default behaviour is to take the focus to the next control as if up arrow key or down arrow key is pressed. To avoid this situation you can do what has been suggested here.
  • How to release a form or shut an application after inactivity ? You can aoto release a form or application after a certain allowed time of keyboard inactivity or no mouse clicks by a user. Look here to see how this can be done.
  • Why do my forms dont show up in a client computer, while it shows in development environment ? Why do I get an error, 'Cannot Quit Visual FoxPro' ? Why do my application dont close or shut when I release the form or Click on X in the titlebar ?
  • A form to collect your KB articles from internet. This is an internet pages copy/download organizer. We cut and paste a lot of articles while browsing the internet. You may be doing the cut and paste even from these pages. This utility form provided in this link will help to collect all these data conveniently and in one single table, so that we can view them easily when we want.
  • Greetings form - a foxy way to send your greetings. My seasons greetings to all the readers and a happy healthy prosperous new year ahead. This is a cool vfp code that can be used as a greetings form. You can call this as a function with your custom greetings words to suit the occassion and add your personal name as signature besides using your own bmp or gif or jpg to show picture. You can also compile it to an EXE or as COM DLL whatever, and distribute. Have fun !
  
  
• Grids
  • How do I make a grid display current row in distinct color ? A simple way to display the current record in a color different from the rest of the records.
  • How to make an incremental search in Grid ? The form displays the table open in the current default work area. There is a text box to allow users to key in the text for searching. The searching takes place as the keys are pressed or erased back. The table is displayed in a dynamic grid contained in the form. The form has buttons to go to First, Last, Next, Previous records as well.
  • How to make the mouse appear as an arrow instead of I-beam when moved over grid objects ? Mouse pointer appears as I-beam while the mouse is moved over the Grid object. The code in this link will help to change this default behaviour and make that appear as a pointer when moved over the grid objects.
  
  
• Menus
  • How to make myMenu appear in myForm ? A simple way to display the menu on your own top level form.
  
  
• Reports
  • Upgraded - Cross Tab generator - gsXtab1 - An alternative to VFPXTAB This is an alternative to VFPXTAB.PRG, the default _genxtab. The earlier gsXtab has now been upgraded to gsXtab1 to take care of VFP version 8. This will work with VFP6 or VFP7 also. Still earlier versions have not been checked by running this. This can be used as the default xtab by specifying _genxtab = "gsXtab1.prg". This gsXtab1 is expected to do the job several times faster, could be even upto 10 times faster, depending on the specific table involved and the environment.
  • How to hack FRX file and strip printer driver information ? The VFP application building process also build the printer driver information as it appears in the application developers system. This could lead to some gotchas when the application is installed in a clients computer (if the client does not have the same printer as the application developer). You can use this function to solve this anomoly and make the reports free of these drivers.
  • How to print Multiple Detail bands in a Report ? An ingenious way to allow the two child tables records to be output in a sigle detailed band making it to appear as if it is multiband report form.
  • How to print Multiple copies of same report ? We can hack the report header and make it print multiple copies efficiently. While one can ask why we need the complicated way of hacking the report header and set the number of copies, quite often the need arises based on the users requirements to pre-set the number of copies depending on the user. The number of copies required can be easily captued and saved. While that part of setting is not explained here, this topic discusses how we can achieve to set the number of copies on the fly.
  • How to make my Report Tool Bars to appear while Print Preview ? The end users of a developed application can thus be provided with the native VFPs report tool bar.
  • How to remove the printer button from the print preview toolbar ? How can we stop one user from printing a report using the print preview toolbar while we can allow another user to print using the same.
  • What's New in the VFP 8 Report Writer ? By Cathy Pountney - " Yes, Hell has frozen over and pigs do fly! Microsoft has made some improvements to the Report Writer in Visual FoxPro 8.0. Some developers thought this day would never come, but surprisingly it has. Cathy Pountney explores." - a FoxTalk article.
  
  
• Tips and Tools
  • How do I create a custom SetUP for my application? This is an alternative to VFPs standard InstallShield setup. This produces a standard single file installation EXE file. Also quite easy to implement. Click on this to read more.
  • How do I distribute a VFP application ? This question keeps poping up every now and then. The required run-time files that need to be distributed for a minimal setup are specified. Click on this to read more.
  • Take advantage of intellisense. You can customise intellisense to suit your way of working. Here is an example of how I have done and created a two letter shortcut to insert the first few lines of my PRG codes. It helps you code faster.
  • Collect all the FORMS and CLASS methods and events code in your project under one window. You can search all your FORMs and CLASSES with a single search 'Find' and locate the area of a piece of code or variable or whatever you are looking for. This also becomes a handly tool for internal documentation of all methods and events code in all forms of a project.
  • Collect all the PRGs in your project under one window. You can search all your PRGs with a single search 'Find' and locate the area of a piece of code or variable or whatever you are looking for. This also becomes a handly tool for internal documentation of all PRG codes in a project.
  • Developer Tips - Editing Container Objects. Cool Tip to make your editing inside container objects much easier while working with forms - applicable from VFP7 onwards.
  • Developer Tips - How do I search for a word, be it command or variable in the entire Project ?.
    The Code reference available via the VFP Menu -> Tools -> Code refernces is a nice new VFP8 tool. That is a great tool to search the entire project for the occurance of a word or manipulate. You will realise how good it is when you start using it.
  • A way to redefine your class and make it a subclass of another class. Often projects are started by developers using the VFPs base classes and then they see the need to base their class on a new class so that functionalities can be introduced. Read this if you want to know how this can be done.
  • A Utility to reset the Base classes chosen as a derived class in your forms and insert the inroduced classes. The utility provided here will help to redefine the base classes and introduce a new class in between. The entire project gets revised quickly.
  • A way to insert your own class from Forms Control Toolbar. A cool tip to make your own class being used as the default class instead of the VFPs base classes when you develop applications.
  • Performance Tuning Tips in Microsoft Visual FoxPro. This is a link to Microsoft's MSDN resources on this topic.
  • Performance Tuning Tips for Using VFP and SQL Server Together.
  • A tool to compare two different forms. There are many occassions in the development process when we want to compare two different forms or versions of the same form to fish out the differnces in the contained PEMs. This is made easy with the gsScx1 provided here.
  
  
• Utilities and Useful Functions
  • A simple utility to take backup using CABARC. You can customise it to take backup using WinZips command line utility also.
  • A Number to Word convertion utility. One can use this utility to convert numbers into words such as a total bill amount printed in words at the end of a document.
  • A cursor to collect all files in a specified directory. Use this function to collect all the file names in a directory into a cursor. This function also gets all the names of files in any sub-directory. It is quite easy to modify the function and make these as parameters to suit your needs.
  • How do I send Email using OUTLOOK from my application ? Explain how an email can be directly sent from VFP using Outlook automation.
  • How to build a Password control for my application ? An ingenious way to build a password control for an application. Though this may not be en excellent way, this provides a simple concept and developers can make use of this idea to build more complicated ways of password control as may be required for their environment.
  • How to force current users out of my application ? In a multiuser environment, need arises to force out other users of the same application such as while taking data backups. This link provides a way to do the same.
  • How to limit the number of users for an application ? Cool tips to limit the number of concurrent users for your application. So you can market your application as 'n' user version to your choice !
  • How to ensure that only one instance of my application is running in my desktop ? How many times we find the users click on the same application icon on the desktop and open the application multiple times. These extra instances of the same application, besides adding confusion, eat away the resources making application slower. You can now control and ensure that the application is started only once in the same computer.
  • How to copy files from one directory to another with the file names case preserved ? You can use this method to make a regular backup of your data files in a backup directory.
  • How to synchronize client computer time with server time ? With this code snippet, you can synchronize your users workstation date and time to that of the server.
  • How to calculate the difference between two dates in Years, Months, Days ? It is easy to find the difference between two dates in number of days. It is not that simple if you want to find that in Years, Months, Days as a text variable. This function here will return that for you.
  • How to calculate the difference between two datetime variables in Hours, Minutes, Seconds ? This function will provide the code to find the difference between two date time variables in simple Hours, Minutes, Seconds format as a text variable.
  • An application starter utility with added benefits. This application loader can distribute the server copy of the application to the local harddisk of network users and then run it. This gives the advantage of reducing network trafic besides giving the benefit to copy newer versions without having to ask all users to quit the application. The next time, the users start, they will get distributed the newer copy by the loader.
  • A choice of different thermometer classes. It is a nice idea to show a progress bar or a thermometer bar on the form to let the users know that some activity is in progress. It is made easy with the simple class code provided. You can have a thermometer based on careful placement of labels OR based on a OLE class or based on a container control. All these are provided in PRG code format. A wrapper is put as an example and so you can download and see how the thermometers or progress bar will look. The example serves to show how you can integrate the class code with your application.
  • *How to read data from a MICR cheque reader connected to communication port ? The following example will describe how to read magnetic code line of the cheques and return the Cheque Number, Bank Code and Branch code using communication port using a Cheque Reader.