Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Fourth Edition Chapter Two Designing Applications

Previewing the Playtime Cellular Application Allows salespeople to enter customer’s name, address, and number of blue and pink phones ordered Calculates and displays total number of phones ordered and the total price of the order Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Previewing the Playtime Cellular Application (continued) Figure 2-2 Completed order form Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Lesson A Objectives After studying Lesson A, you should be able to: Plan an object-oriented application in Visual Basic 2008 Complete a TOE (Task, Object, Event) chart Follow the Windows standards regarding the layout and labeling of controls Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Creating an Object-Oriented Application Developing an application is like building a home Role of programmer analogous to that of builder Bugs: Problems that affect application functions Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Creating an Object-Oriented Application (continued) Figure 2-3: Processes used by a builder and a programmer Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Planning an Object-Oriented Application Actively involve user in planning phase End product should closely match the user’s needs and wants TOE chart: Used to record tasks, objects, and events required for the application Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Planning an Object-Oriented Application (continued) Figure 2-4: Steps for planning an OO application Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Identifying the Application’s Tasks What information will the application need to display on the screen and/or print on the printer? What information will the user need to enter into the user interface? What information will the application need to calculate to produce the desired result? How will the user end the application? Will previous information need to be cleared from the screen before new information is entered? Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Identifying the Application’s Tasks (continued) Figure 2-6: Tasks entered in a TOE chart Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Identifying the Application’s Tasks (continued) Figure 2-6: Tasks entered in a TOE chart (continued) Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Identifying the Objects Assign each task to an object in user interface Objects to be used: Label control, button control, text box Label control: Displays information that user should not change Button control: Performs an action immediately after a click event Text box: Provides an area for user to enter data Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Identifying the Events Determine which event (if any) must occur for an object to do its assigned task Text boxes: No special event is needed Label controls: No special event is needed btnCalc, btnClear, and btnExit buttons: Must perform assigned tasks when clicked Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Identifying the Events (continued) Figure 2-9: Completed TOE chart ordered by object Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Drawing a Sketch of the User Interface Follow Windows standards for designing the interface In Western countries, information flows either vertically or horizontally Vertical arrangement: Information flows from top to bottom, with essential information located in first column Horizontal arrangement: Information flows from left to right, with essential information placed in first row Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Drawing a Sketch of the User Interface (continued) Figure 2-10: Vertical arrangement of the Playtime Cellular application Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Drawing a Sketch of the User Interface (continued) Figure 2-11: Horizontal arrangement of the Playtime Cellular application Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Drawing a Sketch of the User Interface (continued) White space or containers may be used to group related controls Containers: Objects used to group related controls Examples: GroupBox, Panel, TableLayoutPanel Label controls that display output should have meaningful names Example: “Total Price” identifies lblTotalPrice label Identifying labels should end with colon (:) Example: “Total Price:” Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Drawing a Sketch of the User Interface (continued) Sentence capitalization: Only first letter in the first word is capitalized Use for identifying labels Book title capitalization: Capitalize first letter of each word except articles, conjunctions, and prepositions Use for button text Buttons should be same height and width, and should be aligned Group related controls together, and keep margins consistent Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Lesson A Summary Steps to create an OO application: Meet with client Plan application Build user interface Code application Test and debug application Assemble documentation To plan OO application, identify tasks, objects and events that are needed Identify information needed as input to produce desired result Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Lesson B Objectives After studying Lesson B, you should be able to: Build the user interface using your TOE chart and sketch Follow the Windows standards regarding the use of graphics, fonts, and color Set a control’s BorderStyle property Add a text box to a form Lock the controls on the form Assign access keys to controls Use the TabIndex property Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Building the User Interface Use TOE chart and sketch as guides when building user interface Place appropriate controls on forms Set applicable properties of controls Some features of user interface: Information is arranged vertically Controls are aligned and appropriately labeled Try to create an interface that no one notices Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Building the User Interface (continued) Figure 2-12: Partially completed interface for the Playtime Cellular application Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Including Graphics in the Interface Graphics: Icons or pictures added to an interface Used to emphasize or clarify a portion of screen, or for aesthetic purposes The human eye is attracted to pictures before text Include graphic only if it is necessary Graphics for aesthetic use should be small and positioned to avoid distracting user Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Selecting Fonts for the Interface Font property: Controls font type, style, and size Recommendations for fonts: Use sans serif fonts (without strokes) e.g., Segoe UI, Tahoma, Microsoft Sans Serif Use 8-12 point size fonts for interface Use only one or two font sizes and one font type Avoid italics and underlining Limit bold text to titles, headings, and key items Objects added to form inherit form’s font setting Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Adding Color to the Interface The eye is drawn to color before black and white Add color only if there is good reason Many people have trouble distinguishing color Guidelines for adding colors: Use dark text against light background Limit of three colors Not including black, white, gray Colors added should be complementary Avoid using dark color for background Use color to help identify interface elements, but not as only means of identification Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

The BorderStyle and AutoSize Properties BorderStyle property: Determines style of control’s border None: Ensures control will not have border FixedSingle: Surrounds control with thin line Fixed3D: Gives control a 3-D appearance (default) AutoSize property: Determines whether label control automatically sizes to fit its current contents Use True for identifying labels, but use False for output labels Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Adding a Text Box Control to the Form Provides an area in the form for data entry Use TextBox tool to add a text box control Make all text boxes same size and align them using snap lines Blue snap lines: For vertical alignment Pink snap lines: For horizontal alignment Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Adding a Text Box Control to the Form (continued) Figure 2-13: Snap lines shown in the interface Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Locking the Controls on a Form Lock controls after they are properly placed Purpose: Avoid inadvertently moving controls A locked control is identified by a small-lock To lock controls: Click form (or any control on the form) Click Format on menu bar Click Lock Controls Follow same procedure to unlock controls Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Assigning Access Keys Access key Each access key must be unique Enables object to be selected using keyboard Key combination: Alt key + letter or number Each access key must be unique Shown in interface as underlined letter Assigning an access key: Include an ampersand (&) in the control’s caption Example: “&Calculate Order” assigns ‘C’ to button Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Assigning Access Keys (continued) Reasons to assign access keys: Allow user to work even if mouse does not Allow fast typists to keep hands on the keyboard Allow people with disabilities that prevent them from using a mouse to be able to use application Follow Windows standards for assigning commonly used access keys Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Setting the TabIndex Property Focus: State in which a control is ready to accept user input or action Pressing Tab key or access key shifts focus TabIndex property: Contains number representing order in which control will receive focus when user presses Tab key Control with TabIndex of 0 receives focus first Set TabIndex using Properties window or Tab Order option on View menu Make a list of objects to determine proper ordering Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Setting the TabIndex Property (continued) Figure 2-15: TabIndex boxes showing the correct TabIndex values Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Lesson B Summary To specify control’s border, set BorderStyle property To lock/unlock controls on form, use Lock Controls option on Format menu To assign an access key to control, type an ampersand (&) in Text property of control or identifying label To set tab order, set each control’s TabIndex property to number that represents order in which you want the control to receive focus Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Lesson C Objectives After studying Lesson C, you should be able to: Code an application using its TOE chart Plan an object’s code using pseudocode or a flowchart Write an assignment statement Send the focus to a control while an application is running Include internal documentation in the code Write arithmetic expressions Use the Val and Format functions Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the Application Code: Instructions added to an application Coding is done after planning and building interface TOE charts show which objects and events need to be coded Playtime Cellular application code requirements: Three buttons associated with Click events Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the Application (continued) Figure 2-18: Playtime Cellular application’s interface Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the Application (continued) Figure 2-19: Playtime Cellular application’s TOE chart (ordered by object) Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Planning a Procedure Using Pseudocode Pseudocode: Short phrases used to describe the steps a procedure must take to accomplish its goal Travel directions are a type of pseudocode btnCalc Click event procedure: Must calculate total phones ordered and total price, and then display results Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Planning a Procedure Using Pseudocode (continued) Figure 2-20: Pseudocode for the Playtime Cellular application Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Planning a Procedure Using a Flowchart Flowchart: Uses standardized symbols to show program logic Oval: Start/stop symbol Rectangle: Process symbol; represents a task Parallelogram: Input/output symbol Flowlines: Connect the symbols Flowcharts depict same logic as pseudocode Programmers usually use either flowcharts or pseudocode (but not both) Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the btnClear Control’s Click Event Procedure btnClear control’s task: Clear screen for next order String: Group of characters enclosed in quotation marks (“”) Zero-length string (or empty string): Pair of quotation marks with nothing between them (“”) Two ways to remove control contents at runtime: Assign zero-length string to control’s Text property Assign String.Empty to control’s Text property Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the btnClear Control’s Click Event Procedure (continued) Figure 2-22: Pseudocode for the btnClear control’s Click event procedure Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Assigning a Value to a Property During Run Time Assignment statement: Instruction assigning a value to object at runtime Syntax: object.property = expression object and property are object and property names expression contains the value to be assigned Assignment operator (=): Assigns value on right side to the object on left side Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Using the Focus Method Method: Predefined procedure Focus method: Allows you to move focus to specified control Syntax: object.Focus() Object: Name of control that receives focus Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Internally Documenting the Program Code Comments: Internal documentation in program Used by programmers to document a procedure’s purpose or explain sections of code To create comment, place an apostrophe (’) before a statement Compiler ignores all characters after apostrophe for rest of line Comments are color-coded in IDE Comments help make code readable Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Internally Documenting the Program Code (continued) Figure 2-24: Completed Click event procedure for the btnClear control Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Internally Documenting the Program Code (continued) Figure 2-25: Comments entered in the General Declarations section Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Writing Arithmetic Expressions Arithmetic expression: Expression that contains arithmetic operators and operands Precedence numbers: Indicate order of operations in expression Performed from lower precedence numbers first to higher number If two operations are at same level, they are performed left to right Parentheses can be used to override default precedence Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Writing Arithmetic Expressions (continued) Figure 2-26: Most commonly used arithmetic operators and their order of precedence Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Writing Arithmetic Expressions (continued) Unary operator: Requires one operand Example: -7 (the negation operator) Binary operator: Requires two operands Integer division operator (\): Divides two integers; returns an integer as a result Discards the remainder Modulus operator (Mod): Returns only remainder in a division Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Writing Arithmetic Expressions (continued) Figure 2-27: Expressions containing arithmetic operators Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the Calculate Order Button btnCalc control is responsible for: Calculating total number of skateboards ordered Calculating total price of the order Displaying results in two labels Must add instructions to button’s Click event procedure Instructions are processed when user clicks button Observe one problem: Numbers were treated as strings Values stored in the Text property are treated as strings Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the Calculate Order Button (continued) Figure 2-28: Pseudocode for the btnCalc control’s Click event procedure Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the Calculate Order Button (continued) Figure 2-29: Illustration of the total phones ordered calculation Figure 2-30: Illustration of the total price calculation Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Coding the Calculate Order Button (continued) Figure 2-31: Interface showing the incorrect results of the calculations Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

The Val Function Function: Predefined procedure that performs a specific task and returns a value Val function: Temporarily converts a string to a number and returns the number Syntax: Val(string) Can use Val to correct calculations in btnCalc control’s Click procedure Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

The Val Function (continued) Figure 2-32: Examples of the Val function Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

The Val Function (continued) Figure 2-33: Val function entered in the assignment statements Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Using the Format Function to Format Numeric Output Format function: Improves numbers display Syntax: Format(expression, style) expression: specifies number, date, time, or string style: predefined or user defined format style Currency: Example of format style that displays number with dollar sign and two decimal places Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Using the Format Function to Format Numeric Output (continued) Figure 2-34: Some of the predefined format styles in Visual Basic Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Using the Format Function to Format Numeric Output (continued) Figure 2-35: Format function entered in the procedure Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Testing and Debugging the Application Test an application using some sample data Use both valid and invalid data Valid data: Data that application is expecting Invalid data: Data that application is not expecting Debugging: Process of locating and correcting errors in a program Errors can be related to either syntax or logic Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Testing and Debugging the Application (continued) Syntax error: Occurs when a rule of programming language is broken Logic error: Occurs when syntax is correct, but outcome is not what was desired Causes may include missing instructions, instructions out of order, or wrong type of instruction If build errors are indicated, do not run program – fix errors first! Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Testing and Debugging the Application (continued) Figure 2-37: Jagged blue line and message indicate a syntax error Figure 2-38: Message box indicates that the code contains errors Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Testing and Debugging the Application (continued) Figure 2-40: Thin red rectangle, message, and Error icon indicate a syntax error Figure 2-41: The Error Correction window displays a way to correct the syntax error Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Assembling the Documentation Important documentation includes: Planning tools Printout of application’s interface and code Your planning tools include: TOE chart Sketch of interface Flowcharts and/or pseudocode Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Lesson C Summary Use pseudocode or flowchart to plan an object’s code To assign value to property of object while application is running, use assignment statement that follows syntax: object.property = expression To create comment, begin comment text with an apostrophe (’) Use integer division to divide and return an integer result Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition

Lesson C Summary (continued) Use modulus operator to divide two numbers and return the remainder To temporarily convert string to number, use the Val function Use Format function to improve the appearance of numbers Application should be tested with both valid and invalid data Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008, Fourth Edition