Lab01

7/17/2019 Lab01

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BPB2034 Programming For Business Applications

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Lab 1Step by step to write your first Visual Basic program

1. Go to: Start → All Programs → Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Express → VS Express

for Desktop

2. Click on File → New Project → Windows Forms Application.

Name: Name given to your project.Location: Where you want to save your project related files (e.g.: source files, resources,

etc)

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3. Expand the Common Controls from the Toolbox panel. Select Label control and drag and

drop on the Windows form, as shown below:

4.

Next, select the Button control and drop it on the Windows form. Alternatively, you candouble click on the Button control in the Toolbox and a new button will be generated and

placed on the form. All the controls on the form will be given with default names, e.g.

Button1, Button2, Label1 and Form1 as for the example as shown above.

5. The controls are generated in default sizes. The control can be easily resized by adjusting

the handle surrounding the control you have selected, just like how you able to resize animage in Microsoft Word.

6.

Moving a control is easy too as well. Move the mouse cursor over the control you would

like to move until you see a cursor, then click and drag and move the control to theintended location on the form.

7. Aligning controls can be done by first performs a multiple selection by holding the SHIFT key on the keyboard and then select the controls. Go to the menu on the top and select

Toolbox Panel

Control’s

properties

“Handle” to adjust

size of the selected

control

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FORMAT → Align → [Lefts / Centers / Rights / Tops / Middles / Bottoms] (Try to

explore other available options available under FORMAT menu).

8. To avoid a control from being accidentally moved/resized, you can actually “lock” the

control. Select the control and perform the right click to activate the Shortcut menu, then

select the Lock Controls option.

Locking a control Button1 A control Button1 is locked

9. Try to modify Text and Name properties of each control on the form. You are encouraged

to use the three-letter prefixes as practice to name the controls. What is the difference between Text and Name properties?

Three-letter Prefi xes

Object Prefix Example

Form frm frmExample

Button btn btnExit

Label lbl lblMessageList box lst lstNames

Text box txt txtPhone

Object Default Text & Name Text Name

Button Button1 Show Message btn ShowMessage

Button Button2 E&xit btn Exit

Label Label1 Welcome to BPB2034 lbl Message

Form Form1 First VB Program f rm FirstProgram

10. Double-click on the “Show Message” button in order to open the code editor. A sub

procedure will be automatically generated for you to handle the CLICK event. Now, it isyour task to tell the computer what to be done (programming!!!) when a user performs a

click on the “Show Message” button.

Private Sub btnShowMessage_Click(…) Handles btnShowMessage.Click

‘ insert your code between the Sub … End SubEnd Sub

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In this example, you are required to show a “Hello World” message on the label. Remember

the name given to our Label control: lblMessage? This name will serve as an identifier tothat particular control for us to access and modify various properties of that control.

Private Sub btnShowMessage_Click(…) Handles btnShowMessage.Click

lblMessage.Text = "Hello World" End Sub

11. Similarly, you can provide code for the btnExit button, which will exit the program whenthe button is clicked.

Private Sub btnExit_Click(…) Handles btnExit.ClickApplication.Exit()

End Sub

12. To debug/run your program, click: DEBUG → Start Debugging (or use shortcut key F5).

13. Task 1: Add a new button into frmFirstProgram. Align and adjust the width of the newly

created button with respect to the btnShowMessage button, as shown below:

Identifier Message to be displayedProperty’s Name

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Modify the Text and Name properties of this new button (Text = “Clear Message”; Name

= “btnClearMessage”). Please attempt to provide code for btnClearMessage button which

will clear the message displayed on the lblShowMessage when such button is clicked.

14. Task 2: Modify btnShowMessage to take message input from the user and then display the

message on lblMessage. [Hint: use InputBox( … ) function]

15. Task 3: Add additional three buttons namely: Red, Blue and Black. Code each button to

change the fore color property of the lblMessage when the button is clicked [Hint: select

predefined color e.g. Color.Red ].

Supplementary Learning Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzC16c7bXJU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqltC7nescM







Lab01

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