Printing - FoxTalk - dFPUG-Portal

on a page frame, you'll need a subclass with the pages that will hold Containers objects.
Use SetAll to set common properties
One problem you may have run into with container classes (I'm talking about all container
objects now) is setting certain attributes for all the items you'll want to create in that container.
For example, you may decide that you want the BackColor property of all the option buttons
within your option group to be gray.
You don't want to create an option group with the maximum number of buttons you'll need with
the expectation that you can reduce the number of buttons when you instantiate the option group.
Although you can remove these buttons with RemoveObject() at runtime, you can't reduce the
number of controls at design time. You also don't want to go through the hassle of having to set
the BackColor for each and every button in the group. This fails to take advantage of container
polymorphism.
Instead of laboriously setting a property for each object, you can use SetAll(). Put this nifty
command in the Init method of the container to change a specific property for all of a particular
kind of item in that group. For example, the following code will change the BackColor of all the
options within a group to gray:
THIS.SetAll('BackColor',RGB(192,192,192),'OptionButton')
Now, don't worry when you drop an option group on your form and the BackColor on all the
options is white. Remember, you don't actually run the Init code until you run the form. Any
properties that you set in this manner won't be visible until runtime.
Of course, it's possible to create a builder to set all the properties at design time, or even to use
SetAll() from the Command window at design time if you first select the container and get a
handle to the form with ASELOBJ():
=ASELOBJ(o,1)
o[1].SetAll('BackColor',RGB(192,192,192),'OptionButton')
If you need to change this property, it's easier to go to the container's Init method and change a
single runtime SetAll() call. Also, if you use the runtime SetAll() and later add more objects to
the container, they will automatically share the properties of the existing buttons. You don't have
to remember to change the properties for the new objects. Personally, I find these advantages
outweigh the disadvantage of not being able to see the property settings at design time, but you
may feel differently.
Is your data dragging you down?
You've probably seen at least one Visual FoxPro demo where someone dragged an item from the
data environment and dropped it on the form to create a text box for that item. If you want to use