Controlling Visual FoxPro from Other Applications

Because Visual FoxPro acts as a server (with level 2 compliance) as well as a client, applications that support Automation can create instances of Visual FoxPro, run Visual FoxPro commands, and access Visual FoxPro objects.

You control Visual FoxPro from other applications by using the Visual FoxPro Application object. An Application object is automatically created whenever Visual FoxPro is launched, either directly, through DDE or through Automation.

For example, the following lines of code in Visual Basic®, or a Microsoft Excel module create a reference to a Visual FoxPro application object:

Dim oFox as Object
Set oFox = CreateObject("VisualFoxPro.Application")

Once you have a reference to the Visual FoxPro Application object, you can call methods associated with the application object and access other objects through the collection properties of the Application object.

Application Object Methods

DataToClip	Help
DoCmd	Quit
Eval	RequestData

The following example uses Visual Basic for Applications code in an Excel module to create a Visual FoxPro Application object, open a Visual FoxPro table, and add the results of a query to the active spreadsheet:

Sub FoxTest()
Dim oFox as Object
Set oFox = CreateObject("VisualFoxPro.Application")

oFox.DoCmd "USE customer"
oFox.DoCmd "SELECT contact, phone FROM customer 
   WHERE country = " + Chr$(39) + USA+ Chr$(39) + " INTO CURSOR cust"
oFox.DataToClip "cust",,3
Range("A1:B1").Select
ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub

The Visual FoxPro Application Object Model

An application object is automatically created whenever Visual FoxPro is launched, either directly, through Automation or DDE. This application object provides access to all other objects created in a Visual FoxPro session through Collection properties.

Visual FoxPro application object model

Accessing Objects Through Collection Properties

The Visual FoxPro application object and all container objects in Visual FoxPro have a count property and a collection property associated with them. The collection property is an array referencing each contained object. The count property is a numeric property indicating the number of contained objects.

The following table lists objects and the corresponding collection and count properties.

Object	Collection Property	Count Property
Application	Objects Forms	Count FormCount
FormSet	Forms	FormCount
Form	Objects Controls	Count ControlCount
PageFrame	Pages	PageCount
Page	Controls	ControlCount
Grid	Columns	ColumnCount
CommandGroup	Buttons	ButtonCount
OptionGroup	Buttons	ButtonCount
Column	Controls	ControlCount
ToolBar	Controls	ControlCount
Container	Controls	ControlCount
Control	Controls	ControlCount

These properties allow you to use a program loop to manage all or specific contained objects. For example, the following lines of code set the Visible property of all forms to True (.T.):

FOR EACH Form IN Application.Forms
   Form.Visible = .T.
ENDFOR

See Also

Other Resources

Automation and COM Servers

Sharing Information and Adding OLE