Creating a DialogBased Comet Windows Program

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Creating a Dialog-Based Comet Windows Program

• Brian Levantine

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Tools youll need

• Ultra Edit Programmers Text Editor
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (VS) Resource
  Editor/DLL Compiler
  
• Visual Studio Project Generator DPBuild.Exe
• COSD Comet Symbolic Debugger

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Ultra Edit Text Editor

• Configurable tools
• Syntax highlighting
• Auto-indent
• File compare
• Error location
• Cheap!

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COSD Symbolic Debugger

• Symbolic
• Steps through code
• Breakpoints
• View/Modify variables
• Debug messages
• Background partitions

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MS Visual Studio .NET

• Editing resources
• Generating Dynamic Link Library
• Robust help (if you use it)
• We are NOT programming in C, C, or VB

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VS Project Generator DPBuild.Exe

• Generates a ready-to-use Visual Studio Project
• Allows the user to specify the project filename
  and folder
  
• Will create the project folder if it doesnt
  already exist

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The components of a Comet Windows program

• VS (Visual Studio) Project files
• Usually located in a folder directly below IB
  source files
  
• Generates a binary DLL file containing resources
  that will be loaded and used by a IB program -
  .dll
  
• Generates a text include file that should be
  included in any IB source file that references
  resources within the DLL - .inc
  
• IB Source files
• Include file generated by VS must be registered
  in Comet QDIR
  
• Generated Comet .OBJ file

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What is a Resource?

• A Resource is a discard-able non-program object
  that can be individually loaded from a DLL or EXE
  file for use by a program. When the program is
  done with the resource it can discard it from
  memory to conserver space. Some common resources
  are
• Dialog boxes
• Bitmaps
• Icons
• Menus

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What is a DLL?

• A DLL (Dynamic Link Library) is a file that
  contains compiled binary information consisting
  of program code and or program resources
  
• A DLL can (and usually does) contain many
  resources for use by any program that requires
  them. For Comet programs, a single DLL may
  contain all of the Dialog boxes for an entire
  application or for a single module.

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Why use Dialogs and DLLs?

• A dialog box provides the simplest and fastest
  way to write code for and load a form. With few
  exceptions dialogs can provide all of the
  features necessary for a good user experience.
• A DLL provides a convenient mechanism for storing
  many dialogs in a single file. The file can then
  be downloaded to a CometAnywhere client to
  display any forms at maximum speed.

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What are Controls?

• A Control is a child window, usually placed into
  a dialog box, that has a specific appearance and
  pre-defined behaviors.
  
• Some common controls are
• Edit - ListView
• Radio Button - TreeView
• Checkbox - Textbox
• Pushbutton - Picture
• Listbox - Tab

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Building your first Dialog

• Be sure all of the aforementioned tools have been
  properly installed on your system before
  beginning this exercise
  
• Dont be intimidated by the VS IDE (Integrated
  Development Environment). Its easy to start
  again if you mess up.
  
• Dont be afraid to experiment
• Be patient with me. If you havent yet figured
  it out, I dont know it all!

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Step 1 Create your project

• Run DPBuild.Exe
• Specify the 8 character project filename and the
  project folder location
  
• Note that the specified location will have the
  appended to it so that the
  resulting project folder will have the same name
  as the project.
• The generated project will expect its folder to
  be located one level below your IB source folder.
  The two output files .dll and
  .inc will be copied up to the parent
  folder. Once a project has been created it is
  possible to manually modify the output location.
• Press the Generate button to build your new
  project.
  
• Answer Yes to the launch the project now?
  question

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Step 2 Create a dialog

• Choose Resource View from the View menu or
  press CtrlShiftE.
  
• In the Resource View window right click on the
  icon identified as .rc and choose
  Add Resource.
  
• In the Add Resource window choose Dialog and
  press the New button.
  
• Choose Properties Window from the View menu
  or press F4.
  
• Set Visible property to True.
• Click to the right of ID and give the new dialog
  a new identifier name IDD_.
  
• Click to the right of the Caption property and
  enter a new dialog title and press tab.

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Step 3 Add a Static text control

• Choose Toolbox from the View menu or press
  CtrlAltX.
  
• In the Toolbox window select and drag a Static
  Text control onto the new dialog.
  
• In the Properties window click to the right of
  the Caption property and enter some text and
  press tab.

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Step 4 Compile your project

• Choose Build from the Build
  menu or press AltF7
  
• You should now find two new files in the
  projects parent folder.
  
• .dll is the compiled output file
  containing your dialog.
  
• .inc is a text file that contains
  all of the symbolic constants used in the DLL in
  Internet Basic format (Set statements).

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Step 5 Register the include file with Comet

• Double click to open the .inc file
  in UltraEdit.
  
• Start Comet if it is not already running.
• Make sure the folder containing .inc
  is already accessed by Comet. If not then stop
  and use Comet to create (if required) and access
  the QDIR.
• Click on the Register File toolbar icon to
  register (add to QDIR) the file for access by
  Comet.

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Step 6 Create IB source file

• Copy DlgTemp.Ibs from the DLG folder or
  HowTo1.Ibs from the HowTo folder into your
  program source folder and rename it to a filename
  other than .ibs. Choosing a name
  other than .ibs will prevent a
  conflict with the compilers intermediate
  filename.
• Open the file with UltraEdit and register the
  file with Comet.

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Step 7 Modify the IB source to execute your new
dialog

• Change include filename to .inc.
• Change DLL name to .dll.
• Change dialog ID to IDD_
• Compile the IB source.
• Run the program.