Chapter 10 Using VFP's Object- Oriented Tools - dFPUG-Portal

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274 The Fundamentals of Visual FoxPro 6.0 Figure 10.6. You can register a class library using the Controls tab of the Tools, Options dialog. Attaching a custom icon to a registered class If you have several forms in the same class library, as you ought to, you’ll see that your toolbar now has four or five (or a couple dozen!!!) buttons—each with the exact same icon. You don’t have to settle for this boring panoply of computerdom, however. You can attach a different toolbar icon of your own choosing to every class in the library. Here’s how: 1. Bring up the Class Designer with this class by issuing the MODIFY CLASS command or opening the File menu and selecting Open, Class menu. The Class Designer appears. 2. Select the Class, Class Info menu option.
Section II Chapter 10: Using VFP’s Object-Oriented Tools 275 3. Select an icon for this class by clicking the ellipsis button next to the Toolbar Icon label. You can draw your own, or if you’d rather leverage the work of others, you can find a slew of sample icons in the \MISC\BMPS directory. Modifying a form class Once you’ve created a form class, you might find you want to modify it. You can simply use the MODIFY CLASS command, like so: modify class hwFrm of \MYBASECLASSES.VCX I find, however, that as I get older, I want to type less and less. If you’re inclined along the same lines, you can open a class by using MODIFY CLASS without any further parameters. Doing so will bring up the Open dialog pictured in Figure 10.5. Locate the .VCX that contains the class you want to modify, and then be sure to select the class itself in the Class Name list box on the right. Control classes Creating your own control base class Now that you’ve got the hang of creating your own form classes, you’ll want to create your own control classes. The procedure is similar to that of creating form classes: 1. Issue the command CREATE CLASS or select the File, New, Class menu option. The New Class dialog appears. 2. Type the name of the class you are creating. Again, remember that naming conventions will make your life easier down the road. Consider using the first three characters of the naming convention for controls on forms, such as cbo for Combo Box and cmd for Command Button. I personally use names like hwCmd, hwChk, and so on (where “hw” stands for Hentzenwerke). 3. Select the object you are using as the parent class for your new class. 4. Select the name of the class library into which this class will be placed, or enter a new class name by typing in the File text box. Remember, classes are contained in class libraries, and class libraries are files with .VCX extensions. The name you select depends on what else you’re going to put in the library. For now, use a name like BASECLASSES.VCX. 5. Click OK. The Class Designer appears with a copy of the control in the window. Because you are creating only the control, resizing the window will change the default size of the control, so be careful. 6. Make modifications to the control as desired. For example, you might want to change the background color of certain controls such as check boxes and option button groups so that they match the background color of
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