Neblog

I’m not going to actually have a new quote every week but this one from Kevin King in the U2 forum just needs to be repeated:

DesignBais doesn’t have documented support for JavaScript or VBScript for customized client-side behaviors, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Here’s a discussion on the topic.

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Using graphical elements familiar to end-users will enhance the value of your application and show that you really are taking that next step toward a real GUI. A toolbar is an example of the sort of thick-client UI feature that end-users are starting to expect in browser apps now.

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When adding an image in the Form Designer, the default Image File value is DBLOGO.JPG. When referring to images, we use this original Image File value, for example: DBIMAGESPEC<1> = "DBLOGO.JPG" This presents a problem as soon as another image goes on the form and you need to refer to it in code - which DBLOGO.JPG do you want?

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For fields that input and display time, the default output format is MTHS, which will show AM/PM plus the seconds. Most applications don’t require seconds, but there is no way to display data in DesignBais with a mask like MTH. A similar situation applies to dates where you want to input or display dates in a variety of formats, depending on circumstances. This article goes into detail about how to do this, code included.

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Consider referring to images indirectly, rather than using filenames directly in code.

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mv.NET is a suite of three packages, one of which is the Adapter Objects library. This allows MV data to serve as a data source for ADO.NET just like any relational data source. Using the library can be very easy. In Visual Studio you can drop toolbox objects onto a form. Doing so invokes a Wizard to configure the components. Wow, that’s neat and it all works - but is this good coding practice?

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Greetings DesignBais developers! Nebula Research and Development recently entered into an agreement with DesignBais International to provide Professional Services to and on behalf of DesignBais International, on an as-requested basis. In case you didn’t know me before, I just wanted to introduce myself.

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Rather than putting application images directly into C:\db\images, put them in a folder under that. For example: C:\db\images\MyComp. This will help with upgrades, doing mass replacement of image files, etc. The default path used by DesignBais for images is images\ (with a trailing slash and relative to the base directory which is usually C:\db\. So, when referring to images, use only the subfolder and filename without an initial slash. For example: MyComp\filename.ext.