Transcript ActiveX & Progress - FTP Directory Listing

ActiveX & Progress
Hendrik Demol
Company
LOGO
Who am I?





Progress since V4
Belgian ISV
Free-lance
DWP agent
Hotel-room ActiveX
student
 From a city with a
Viking name: Brugge
 [email protected]
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
chWorksheet:Range("B2"):VALUE
chWorksheet:Range("B3"):VALUE
chWorksheet:Range("B4"):VALUE
chWorksheet:Range("B5"):VALUE
chWorksheet:Range("B6"):VALUE
chWorksheet:Range("B7"):VALUE
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
"Value"
255
100
250
400
100
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
DEFINE
DEFINE
DEFINE
VARIABLE
VARIABLE
VARIABLE
VARIABLE
objOutlook
objOutlookMsg
objOutlookAttach
objOutlookRecip
AS
AS
AS
AS
COM-HANDLE
COM-HANDLE
COM-HANDLE
COM-HANDLE
NO-UNDO.
NO-UNDO.
NO-UNDO.
NO-UNDO.
CREATE "Outlook.Application" objOutlook.
objoutlookMsg
= objOutlook:CreateItem(0).
objOutlookRecip
=
objOutlookMsg:Recipients:Add("[email protected]").
/*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 temptable, 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 levelmenus
 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!