Irwin/McGraw-Hill Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. PowerPoint® Presentation to accompany prepared by James T. Perry University of San Diego

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Ch15: Advanced Topics in VB  Using ActiveX controls  Linking from VB to a Web site  Include DLL procedures in your projects  Understand Windows API  Use OLE container  VB and VBA  Differentiating between MDI and SDI interfaces

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Introduction  Windows programs have access to other objects through –ActiveX controls –OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) –DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries)  MDI interface allows multiple forms within an application—such as Excel or Word

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill ActiveX Controls  Refers to executable files, controls (COM), and DLLs that are used in multiple applications  Microsoft refers to any controls as ActiveX controls.  They can be home brew or part of a package  VB controls are called intrinsic controls  Controls that are added are called components

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill ActiveX Controls  Tabbed dialog box has several properties that can be set at design or run time  Click the builder button in the tab’s Custom property  Place controls on tabbed dialog boxes by manually drawing them—double-clicking a tool places the control on every tab page

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill ActiveX Controls (cont'd)  You can also purchase ActiveX controls  ActiveX control files end in.OCX or.VBX  Project, Components lists controls—most are.OCX  The Web Browser control allows you to browse the Web from VB—control is one of the extra components

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Creating ActiveX Controls  Select ActiveX control, ActiveX EXE or ActiveX DLL in the New Project dialog box  Create an ActiveX control comprising a calendar control, a text box, and a command button

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Dynamic Link Libraries  Libraries store frequently used procedures  Windows uses dynamic link libraries (DLLs) so store collections of executable procedures  Windows DLL procedures are available to VB programs  DLLs that are used to move/resize windows are called APIs (application programming interfaces)  Most DLLs require arguments that you pass to them

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Calling a DLL Procedure  Call a procedure within the scope of a declare statement  Arguments to procedure can be constants or variables  Windows provides an API viewer to get help on DLL procedures

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Object Linking and Embedding  OLE allows you to link or embed objects from another application into VB project  Linking: access object maintained by another program; shared object stored elsewhere  Embedding: object and ref. to application managing object are stored in your project

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)  Microsoft office products include VBA for writing procedures to automate office applications (Excel, Word, etc.)  Record Excel macros that accomplish a series of steps  Macros are stored as VBA code  Open code and inspect it

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Multiple Document Interface (MDI)  MDI interface is one in which several child forms can be open with a larger, parent form  Word and Excel both are examples of MDI  You can open, close, and resize each child window (form)

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill Defining Shortcut Menus  Create shortcut menus (right-click accessible menus) with the Menu Editor  Clear the visible checkbox of a shortcut menu so it is invisible until the user calls for it  Code is required to display the shortcut menu

Copyright© 2000 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Irwin/McGraw-Hill The Report Designer  VB’s Report Designer creates a printed report  Reports based on a database use the Data Environment  Once created, use Show to display it on screen or print it with the PrintReport method  A report design is its template