HOWTO: Wizstyle Button Classes Have Usercontrolmode in VFP5.0

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 5.0

SUMMARY

The txtbtns and pictbtns classes contained in the Wizstyle.vcx library of Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows version 5.0 have a new custom property that controls the enabled/disabled property of a ComboBox, ListBox, or Spinner control placed on the same form.

The Form wizard automatically drops a txtbtns object named "BUTTONSET1" on any form it builds. All TextBox controls populated from fields in tables are disabled until the Edit button of the BUTTONSET1 collection is clicked. Clicking Save or Revert again disables those controls.

In Visual FoxPro 3.0 and 3.0b the developer had to add code to the click methods of those buttons to control the enabled/disabled status of an additional ComboBox, ListBox, or Spinner control in order to control whether event methods of those would be allowed to modify values elsewhere in a table or property.

When set to .F. the new "Usercontrolmode" property of the txtbtns and pictbtns classes let the affected controls (ComboBox, ListBox, or Spinner) work the same as they did in Visual FoxPro 3.0.

When Usercontrolmode is set to .T. the "Edit," "Save," and "Revert" buttons enable and disable those controls the same way they enable/disable the TextBox controls on that form.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Demonstrate the Usercontrolmode Property

1. Issue the following command in the Command window:

         SET DEFAULT TO HOME()+"\samples\data"
   

2. Open the Testdata database.

3. Select Wizards and then Form from the Tools menu.

4. In the Wizard Selection dialog box, click OK for the Form Wizard.

5. In the Form Wizard dialog box, click the double arrow button to select all fields from the customer table, then click Finish.

6. Select the "Save form and modify it in the Form Designer" option, then click Finish. (The form is saved as Customer.scx by default.)

7. Click Save in the Save As dialog box.

8. Size the form so that you can see the buttons at the bottom.

9. From the Form Controls toolbar select a ComboBox, and place it on the form.

10. In the property sheet for the ComboBox set RowSourceType to

        "5 - Array."
    

11. Set RowSource to Thisform.myarray.

12. Click New Property from the Form menu. Define a new property by typing "myarray(20)" (without the quotes) into Name field and click "Add." Then click Close.

13. In the Init event method of the ComboBox enter the following:

           SELECT DISTINCT country FROM customer ;
              INTO ARRAY thisform.myarray NOCONSOLE
           This.DisplayValue = Thisform.country1.value  && the textbox
           This.refresh
    
    

14. Run the form. Note that the ComboBox is enabled. Click Exit.

15. Back in the development mode, select the BUTTONSET1 control.

16. In the property sheet for BUTTONSET1 scroll down to the custom properties and find "Usercontrolmode." Set that to .T. (True). (It is not a toggled property, so type the string ".T." without quotes in the property setting combo box at the top of the sheet.)

17. Run the form. Note that the combo box is disabled. Click Edit and notice that the combo box, and all of the text boxes, are enabled. Click Revert and notice that the controls are disabled.

(c) Microsoft Corporation 1997, All Rights Reserved. Contributions by Chris Jensen, Microsoft Corporation