How to Program Visual Basic 5.0: Control Creation Edition

Jeffrey P. McManus, Ziff Davis Pr

ISBN:1562764853, Edition: , 1997-03-01

Price: $39.99

Table of Contents:

Introduction

• How to Hurt Uncooperative Users
• Creating Controls in Visual Basic is So Great I Could Just Explode
• Why Johnny Can't Create Controls
• This Is Not What This Book Is About
• Who Should Use This Book

Chapter 1   What's New In Visual Basic 5.0

• What's New in the Integrated Development Environment
  • Projects, Files, and the Project Explorer
  • Form Layout Window
  • Indent/Outdent
  • Customizable Toolbars
  • Wizards
  • Procedure View/Full Module View
  • Bookmarks
  • Automatic Code Completion
  • Drag-and-Drop Editing
• New Language Features
  • Assertions
  • Enumerated Constants
  • AddressOf
  • Language Features Pertaining to Control Creation
• Summary

Chapter 2   Control Basics

• Is an ActiveX Control?
  • Differences between OCX Controls and ActiveX Controls
  • Contexts in Which You Can Use ActiveX Controls
• Your Control's Interface
  • Properties
  • Events
  • Methods
• Summary

Chapter 3   Developing Your First Control

• Getting Started
  • Setting Up the IDE
• Managing the Project
• Designing Your Control
• Testing the Control
• Exposing the HappyHour Control's Caption Property
  • Coding the Property Get
  • Coding the Property Let
  • Testing the New Caption Property
  • Resizing the Control
  • Supplying a Default Caption Using the Extender Object
  • Storing Design-Time Property Changes
• Exposing Properties Using the ActiveX Control Interface Wizard
  • Testing the New Code
• Summary

Chapter 4   Control Properties

• Creating Property Procedures
  • Using the Example Files on the CD-ROM
  • Declaring Properties
  • Using Property Let and Property Get
  • Enumerated Properties
  • Validating Property Procedures
  • Using the PropertyBag Object
  • Properties of Constituent Controls
  • Properties Your Control Should Provide
  • Creating a Procedure Description
  • Designating a Property as the Default
  • Grouping Properties
  • Synchronizing a Property with Properties of Its Container
• Creating Custom Property Pages
  • Using the Property Page Wizard
  • Programming the PropertyPage Object
  • Modifying the Property Page
• Summary

Chapter 5   Handling and Raising Events

• Creating Custom Events
  • Understanding the Syntax of Event and RaiseEvent
  • Creating an Event
  • Creating an Event That Includes a Parameter
  • Raising Events of Constituent Controls
  • Providing Standard Events
  • Specifying a Default Event
  • Understanding Container-Provided Events
• Events of the UserControl Object
• Summary

Chapter 6   Control Methods

• Creating a Method
  • What the WatchClock Method Does
  • Testing the WatchClock Method
• Creating a Method That Takes an Argument
  • Testing the Parameterized Event Procedure
• Creating a Method That Returns a Value
  • Testing the CalculateHowLong Method
• Implementing Standard Methods
• Using Methods Supplied by the Container
• Summary

Chapter 7   Interacting With the Container

• What Is a Container?
  • Visual Basic Containers
  • Interacting with Non-VB Containers
  • Using Microsoft Internet Explorer as a Container
• Using the Extender Object
  • Properties Exposed by the Visual Basic Extender Object
  • Providing an Enabled Property
  • Using the AmbientProperties Object to Synchronize Properties
  • Using Extender Properties with the Containerator Project
  • The Container Property
• Summary

Chapter 8   Using Constituent Controls

• Inherent Controls
• Acting on All the Constituent Controls in Your Control
• Third-Party Controls
  • Licensing Considerations Applicable to Third-Party Controls
• Locating Commercial Controls
  • Microsoft
  • CNET ActiveX.com
  • TechWeb ActiveXpress
  • Dave Central
  • BrowserWatch ActiveX Arena
  • Catalog Resellers Specializing in VB Controls and Add-Ons
• Summary

Chapter 9   User-Drawn Controls

• Graphics Methods
  • Addressing the Coordinate System
  • The Line Method
  • The Circle Method
  • The PSet Method
  • The Print Method
  • The Cls Method
• The Paint Event
• Example of a User-Drawn Control: The Hexagon Control
• The Refresh Method
• Displaying Your Control As Disabled
• Displaying the Default Property
• Showing That Your Control Has the Focus
• Summary

Chapter 10   Window Dressing

• Giving Your Control a Transparent Background
• Design Time, Runtime, Read-Only Properties
  • Demonstration
• Permitting Your Control to Act as a Container
  • Demonstration
• Implementing Access Keys
  • Access Keys with Constituent Controls
  • Using the AccessKey Property and AccessKeyPress Event
• Controls That Are Invisible at Runtime
  • Demonstration
• Controls That Align to the Edges of Forms
  • Demonstration
• Adding an About Box
• Project Templates
  • Demonstration
  • Changing the Default Templates Folder
• Adding a Toolbox Bitmap
  • Demonstration
• Summary

Chapter 11   Making Windows API and DLL Calls

• Declaring DLL Calls
• Sample Project: The SoundButton Control
  • Using Resources
  • Creating a Resource Script
  • Compiling Your Resource File
  • Beyond Clicksnd
• Sample Project: The MenuPic Control
  • Designing the MenuPic Control
  • How ChangeMenu Works
  • Implementing MenuPic's Properties
  • Calling ChangeMenu
  • Testing MenuPic
• Summary

Chapter 12   Distributing Your Control

• Compiling Your Control
  • Demonstration
  • Confirming That It Worked
• Binary Compatibility
• Naming Your Control
• Project Properties
  • Version Number
  • Version Information
  • Checking Version Information
  • Application
  • DLL Base Address
• Testing Your Compiled Control in Microsoft Access
• Using the Setup Wizard
• Binary Licensing
  • When to License
• Localization
• Registering and Unregistering Controls
• Using Regclean
  • A Word of Caution about Regclean
• Summary

Chapter 13   Deploying Your Control on the Web

• Hosting a Web Site
• For the Net-Impaired
• Obtaining the ActiveX Control Pad
• Crash Course on HTML and VBScript
  • About HTML
  • About VBScript
• Using the ActiveX Control Pad
• Testing Your Control in a Web Browser
  • Adding VBScript Code to the Web Page
  • Extra Credit
• Making It Work with Netscape
• Using the Setup Wizard in an Internet Context
• CAB Files and CODEBASE Tags
  • Using the CODEBASE Tag
  • GUIDs
• Safety Considerations
  • Script-safe
  • Initialization-Safe
• Licensing Issues on the Web
  • Using the Lpk_tool Utility
• Signing Your Code
  • Obtaining a Software Publisher's Certificate
• Using Signcode to Sign Your.CAB File
  • Testing the Signed .CAB File
• Summary

Chapter 14   Controls That Interact with the Internet

• Asynchronous Download of Property Values
  • Using the AsyncRead Method
  • The HappyHour Control's URL Properties
  • What the Timer Event Does
  • Testing the Code
• Internet Controls as Constituent Controls
  • Obtaining the Mabry Mail Control
  • Building the TechSupport Control
• Adding Web-Browsing Features to Your Control
  • Using Internet Explorer as a Constituent Control
  • Controls That Act as Hyperlinks
  • Using the Internet Explorer Automation Object
• Summary

Chapter 15   Debugging and Error Trapping

• Debugging
  • The Immediate Window
  • Breakpoints
  • Using Option Explicit
  • The Locals Window
  • Monitoring Expressions Using Watches
  • Using Assertions
• Error-Handling
  • Writing Error-Handlers
  • The Err Object
  • Raising Errors
• Summary

Chapter 16   Object-Oriented Programming

• Object-Oriented Concepts
• Classes
  • Creating a Class
• Collections
  • How Collections Work
  • Creating a Collection Class
  • Performance Considerations
• Incorporating a Class in a Control
• Building Interfaces Using the Implements Keyword
• Using Friend Methods
• Summary

Chapter 17   Database Access

• Visual Basic Data Access
  • Using a Microsoft Access Database
  • Other Data Sources Accessible to the Data Control
  • More Choices: Using Open Database Connectivity
  • Data-Aware Controls in Visual Basic
  • How Database Access Works
• Providing Data Awareness in Your ActiveX Control
• Summary

Appendix   Regular Expressions in Perl

• The Rules of Regular Expression Matching
  • Unquantified Atoms
  • Quantifiers and Quantified Atoms
  • Assertions
• Examples of Regular Expressions
• Operators That Use Regular Expressions in Perl
  • Perl's Regular Expression Matching Operator: m//
  • Perl's Search-and-Replace Operator: s///

Chapter 19   Glossary

Credits