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ActiveX & Progress

Hendrik Demol

Who am I?

Progress since V4 Belgian ISV Free-lance DWP agent Hotel-room ActiveX

student From a city with a

Viking name: Brugge hendrik@demol.com

Who are you?

Anybody using ActiveX ? Why ? Which ones?

Why use ActiveX’s?

To enhance the Progress GUI To add functionality To make better reports To interface with hardware or software To conform to fashion To make marketing happy

When to avoid ActiveX?

When you can not install them on your customer’s PC’s (policies)

When you are afraid of the added complexity

When you don’t want to learn new syntax

Types of ActiveX

In-line processing:The preferred way because it is many times faster. The OCX runs in the Progress container

OLE conversation:For use with programs like Office modules (Word, Excel, Outlook). Each call includes a start & stop and this makes it very slow

Other division: UI element or not

Check if they work with Progress!

Progress applies the rules very strictly Others may not … including Microsoft! E.g. Mappoint’s OCX does not load in

Progress so you can only use the OLE type

As a rule of thumb: if a component works with C++ it works with Progress as well

Tools

THE MANUAL: first source of functionality and syntax – usually written with the VB or C programmer in mind (“:” <> “.”)

Progress objectviewer: Progress tool for discovering syntax

ActiveXplorer: check the internals Dependency walker: to check the files you

need to re-distribute Progress Knowledgebase (Solutions)

ActiveXplorer

Progress Objectviewer

The bottom pane shows the applicable Progress syntax!

Adding an OCX to a screen

Select “ocx” on the Progress palette

Select the required ocx and size it

Set standard properties

ActiveX events

Most OCX components also trigger events

These are listed in the manuals and are visible in the Progress COM viewer

Also visible as events in the Appbuilder section editor

Wrx files

Created by the Appbuilder automatically in the same directory as the .w file

Distribute together with .r files Watch out for the change of .wrx files over

versions: .wrx file generated in Progress 9.1D06 does not load in Progress 9.1D05

OCX versions between developers and between development & production may vary

Some keep their first wrx’s. Older wrx’s seem upwardly compatible (both older OS & OCX)

Initialize-controls

Define your own variable and initialize it properly – also for readability

Use this for setting to your standard properties

DEFINE VARIABLE hSp AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.ASSIGN hSP = chCtrlFrame:vaSpread hsp:allowdragdrop = TRUE hSp:appearance = 1 hSP:BorderStyle = 1 hSP:unitType = 2 /* twips */ hSP:PrintColHeaders = FALSE hSP:PrintRowHeaders = FALSE hSP:printMarginLeft = 1000 hSP:TypeNumberShowSep = TRUE hSP:Protect = FALSE.

Cleaning up

Clean up afterwards (memory leaks) Delete the objects (com-handles) Set the handle variables to Null

DELETE OBJECT hXMLDoc NO-ERROR.

ASSIGN

hXMLDoc = ?.

MS Office

Most Office programs are ActiveX servers: Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, MapPoint, Access, Visio and Binder

DEFINE VARIABLE chActiveX AS COM-HANDLE.

CREATE “my.app” chActiveX.

Once the handle to the application is set you expand to other com-objects and use all the properties and methods of each component.

Study the component objects! Use Macro recording to retrieve syntax Sun’s Star Office works in a similar way

Excel via OLE

Many samples available on the net Use this for small projects (slow) Ubiquitous Dump a textfile and open it with Excel Make a library with your functions Consider also the in-line activeX (since

Office 9)

EXCEL object model

Some collection of objects!

Can be found via “help” in the VBA (macro) editor

Excel sample code (1)

DEFINE VARIABLE chExcel AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.DEFINE VARIABLE chWorksheet AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.DEFINE VARIABLE chWorkbook AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.CREATE "excel.application" chExcel./* Open an Excel document */chExcel:Workbooks:Open("c:\test1.xls"). chExcel:visible = true./* Sets the number of sheets that will be automatically inserted into new workbooks */chExcel:SheetsInNewWorkbook = 5./* Add a new workbook */chWorkbook = chExcel:Workbooks:Add()./* Add a new worksheet as the last sheet */chWorksheet = chWorkbook:Worksheets(5).chWorkbook:Worksheets:add(, chWorksheet). RELEASE OBJECT chWorksheet./* Select a worksheet */chWorkbook:Worksheets(2):Activate.chWorksheet = chWorkbook:Worksheets(2)./* Rename the worksheet */chWorkSheet:NAME = "test"./* Modify the cell's format to Text */ chWorksheet:Cells:NumberFormat = "@"./* Change the cell's color */chWorksheet:Columns("A:A"):Interior:ColorIndex = 5./* Change the cell's format */ASSIGN chWorksheet:Columns("A:A"):Font:ColorIndex = 2 chWorksheet:Columns("A:A"):Font:Name = "Courrier New". chWorksheet:Columns("A:A"):Font:Bold = TRUE. chWorksheet:Columns("A:A"):Font:Italic = TRUE. /* Set underline: StyleSingle = 2 */ chWorksheet:Columns("A:A"):FONT:UNDERLINE = 2 .

Excel sample code (2)

/* Add data */ASSIGN chWorksheet:Range("B1"):VALUE = "Value" chWorksheet:Range("B2"):VALUE = 255 chWorksheet:Range("B3"):VALUE = 100 chWorksheet:Range("B4"):VALUE = 250 chWorksheet:Range("B5"):VALUE = 400 chWorksheet:Range("B6"):VALUE = 100 chWorksheet:Range("B7"):VALUE = 600.

/* Add a Formula */chWorksheet:Range("A8"):VALUE = "Total:"./* Set Cell's format to Number */chWorksheet:Range("B8"):NumberFormat = 0.chWorksheet:Range("B8"):Formula = "=SUM(B2:B7)".

/* Set horizontal alignment Right Alignemnt: -4152 / Left Alignment :-4131 */chWorksheet:Range("B:B"):HorizontalAlignment = -4152.

/* Freeze Pane */chWorksheet:Range("A2"):SELECT.chExcel:ActiveWindow:FreezePanes = TRUE.

/* Save the new workbook without displaying alerts */chExcel:DisplayAlerts = FALSE.chWorkbook:SaveAs("c:\test2.xls",43,,,,,).

/* Quit Excel */chExcel:quit().

/* Release Com-handle */RELEASE OBJECT chWorksheet.RELEASE OBJECT chWorkbook.RELEASE OBJECT chExcel.

Word

Sample program with print screen Sample code:DEFINE VARIABLE oWord AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.

CREATE "Word.Application" oWord.

oWord:Documents:Open("Some.Doc").

oWord:Visible = True.

PAUSE.  

/* Allow you to actually see the document before we kill it */

RELEASE OBJECT oWord.

Outlook

Very interesting and rich in functionality Since V10 date-time format to interact with

Outlook agenda MAPI namespace Read & write mail, tasks, contacts,

calendar & notes Think about master data! Who is boss?

Outlook or your application? Make a library with your frequent functions

Sending mail

DEFINE VARIABLE objOutlook       AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.DEFINE VARIABLE objOutlookMsg    AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.DEFINE VARIABLE objOutlookAttach AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.DEFINE VARIABLE objOutlookRecip  AS COM-HANDLE NO-UNDO.

CREATE "Outlook.Application" objOutlook.

objoutlookMsg = objOutlook:CreateItem(0).objOutlookRecip =

objOutlookMsg:Recipients:Add("youremail@yourmailserver.com")./*use of concatenated object */objOutlookRecip:Type = 1.objOutlookMsg:Subject = "Your Subject".objOutlookMsg:Body = "The Body".

objOutlookMsg:Attachments:Add("c:\autoexec.bat").objOutlookRecip:Resolve.objOutlookMsg:Send.objoutlook:Quit().

RELEASE OBJECT objOutlook.RELEASE OBJECT objOutlookMsg.RELEASE OBJECT objOutlookRecip.

Outlook Object Model

Folders Inspectors Collections Items

Mappoint

Show addresses on the map Calculate routes Plan routes Location services Add data to maps Very underestimated software (“Mappoint

who ?” by Microsoft!)

Farpoint Spread

Much faster than Excel Easy object model Rich functionality

Easy to build into a powerful 4GL wrapper: automatically display a temp-table, etc

Charts

Many different components out there

Some highly sophisticated modules

The simplest: MS Chart (VB6)

Often array based data Try to add user interaction

(presentation change, data selection change)

ComponentOne VsView

The first component I ever used (V2 in combination with Progress 8.2)

Print preview PDF

generation Zooming Page browsing Own mini

toolbar

Infragistics SchedX

Alternative to Outlook

Separate components for day-, week- and monthview

Toolbar

The newest and slickest are made for .Net I am still looking for the right one Infragistics has Ultra Toolbars with Office

XP look. And an annoying bug!And intersting tools

Calendars

Great for making a date picker (add a dynamic trigger to each date fill-in). E.g. right-mouse-click

Put an ocx on a dialog-box and call this from the trigger

List view & Tree view

Often used together Some types have extra

UI features Progress special

treeview from www.4gl.fr Perhaps not the best UI

item for large datasets. When to load the node? Nice as a menu

Progress bar

DEF NEW SHARED VAR vStop AS LOG NO-UNDO init false.DEFINE VARIABLE hProg AS HANDLE NO-UNDO.DEFINE VARIABLE vInt AS INT NO-UNDO.DEFINE VARIABLE vMax AS INT NO-UNDO INIT 8000.DEFINE VARIABLE vMin AS INT NO-UNDO init 1000.

RUN progressbar.w PERSISTENT SET hProg.

RUN display_title IN hProg (INPUT "Oslo presentation"). RUN display_message IN hProg (INPUT "Hallo World"). /*system message */ RUN GaugeInitMax IN hProg (vMax). RUN GaugeInitMin IN hProg (vMin). DO vInt = vMin TO vMax : RUN Gaugeincrement IN hProg (vInt). IF vStop THEN LEAVE. END. RUN GaugeClose IN hProg. pause 0.

Handling low volume SMS

For big volume you better talk directly to the telecom SMS server

There are several components often working very differently

Perhaps consider separating the modules, making a small SMS server polling the database for new records (generated by the client software) and creating records from the incoming messages

Outlook-style button bar

Great for 2 level-menus

Familiar interface Easy combining

text & graphics

COMM port reader & TCP/IP

Serial barcode readers

Serial connections to hardware

TCP/IP sockets, Telnet ,etc

Image handling

Capturing, scanning, handling, viewing, annotating, converting and more

Many different modules available from Leadtools and Pegasus Imaging Corporation are the best known

There is even a red-eye removal add-on

Trying to be funny

If you want to mimic Microsoft you can try to use moving graphics or even genies

Many OCX are supplied with standard Windows programs like Media player

Some more …

Credit-card validation Spelling Word-processing Faxing Data Analysis GIS Data compression Postal code validation Mail validation XML parsing etc

Use standard Microsoft components or not?

A big question for you: use standard Microsoft OCX components or buy from specialised sources?

Standard MS components usually are part of the Windows environment

Watch out for version differences between Windows versions or components!

Non MS components equals more installed components but more control

Use OCX in a framework (DWP)

DWP framework : support for activeX, by using a standard wrapper methodology. Today treeview and listview are supported out of the box. You can add your own using the same methodology

Tips & tricks

Null values: Progress happily accepts null values (x / 0 = ?). Microsoft does not! Initialize variables and values to make sure you have valid data

Since V9 you can concatenate objects chApp:Object:SubObject:Property

Invest in making your code generic

Use OCX in a 4GL wrapper

Avoid sprinkling your application with the same ocx in various modules

Consider the next version of your ocx Work a little harder now and relax later Render the use of ocx’s generic: run your

functions & procedures. Keep them when you change ocx

Hide ocx complexity from developers

Where to find ActiveX’s?

http://www.componentsource.com http://www.infragistics.com http://www.component1.com http://www.active-x.com/ http://www.vbxtras.com/

XP look

If all you want to accomplish is an XP look then look at the use of a manifest file

Prowin32.exe.manifest is an xml file that signals Windows XP to update the look of the executable

Warning: add useClipChildren=Yes to your ini file or registry in the startup section, otherwise buttons will not show

Conclusion & questions

Think first! OCX can be a nuissance OCX are fun OCX can enhance your app

Tusen Takk!