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Builders

  • Article

Builders are tools that aid in setting properties of controls on a form. Unlike wizards, builders are reentrant, so you can reopen a builder on a particular control repeatedly.

Visual FoxPro includes a number of generic builders for many of the common form controls including grids, list boxes, combo boxes, check boxes, command groups, and option groups.

You can use builders for some controls, for forms, for formatting controls, and for creating referential integrity between database tables.

To build a control

  • From the Form Controls toolbar, choose the Builder Lock button. Each time you add a new control to a form, Visual FoxPro displays the appropriate builder.

    -or-

  • Select a control on the form, and choose the Builder button in the Properties window.

To use the Form Builder

  • From the Form menu, choose Quick Form.

When you have several controls on a form, you can format them all at the same time with the AutoFormat Builder.

To format several controls

  1. In the Form Designer, select controls.
  2. From the Form Designer Toolbar, choose the AutoFormat button.

When a builder is displayed, select the options for each tab and then choose OK to register the changes.

In This Section

  • Application Builder
    The Application Builder tabbed dialog box simplifies creating and modifying forms, complex controls, and other optional elements of effective and satisfying applications.
  • AutoFormat Builder
    The AutoFormat Builder of the Form designer applies a set of styles to selected controls of the same type.
  • Combo Box Builder
    Set properties for this builder by choosing options from the Combo Box Builder dialog box.
  • Command Group Builder
    The Command Group Builder makes it easy to set properties for a Command Group control.
  • Edit Box Builder
    Edit boxes are commonly used to display long Character fields or Memo fields and make it possible for the user to edit text. An edit box also can display text from a text file or from the clipboard.
  • Form Builder
    The Form Builder makes it easy to add fields as new controls to a form.
  • Grid Builder
    The Grid control makes it possible for you to present and manipulate rows and columns of data in a form or page.
  • List Box Builder
    List boxes provide the user with a scrollable list that contains a number of options or pieces of information.
  • Option Group Builder
    Option buttons make it possible for users to choose one of several mutually exclusive options.
  • Referential Integrity Builder
    The Referential Integrity (RI) Builder helps you ensure referential integrity by setting up triggers to control how records are inserted, updated, or deleted in related tables.
  • Text Box Builder
    The text box is the basic control that makes it possible for users to add or edit data in a Character, Numeric, or Date field in a table.
  • User Interface Reference
    User interface (UI) reference topics explain the options that appear on various dialog boxes, windows, and other user interfaces. These types of topics generally appear when you press F1 in a dialog box or window.
  • Developing Applications with the Application Framework
    The Application Framework is designed to include all required, and many optional, elements that make an application effective and pleasurable to use.
  • Developing Visual FoxPro Applications
    This section includes conceptual information about how to develop Visual FoxPro applications, instructions for creating databases and the user interface, and other tasks needed to create Visual FoxPro applications.
  • Programming in Visual FoxPro
    Visual FoxPro is a powerful interactive data management tool, but you also can access the full power of Visual FoxPro by creating applications. Understanding object-oriented programming techniques and the event-driven model can maximize your programming productivity.