Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts
- From: "RicksPlace" <ofbgmail@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 06:23:39 -0400
OOPS. The variable name in the code blocks should be Globals.CurrentTicker not
just Globals.Ticker. Sorry, I typed from memory, a bad thing for an old fat 62
year old blind guy to do too often. But, the idea is correct. Define a global
variable of any kind, Then move values into and out of that variable from any
form. You can store Objects as well as simple variables. I have stored Tables,
Arrays and other things like that. If you have Subroutines of code you want to
execute from several forms put them in a class as above but not in the Globals
Class. I think you can make them static. Otherwise you just instantiate the
class and then have access to the class's functions, subroutines, variables and
properties as if they were loaded into the code for the form you are working
in. This is pretty much related to what they call OOP, Object Orientated
Programming, techniques. And is how programming is done in most languages today
including Vb.net and CSharp as well as Java and JavaScript. Again, let me know
if you want to dig into it a little more.
Rick USA
form. Then I can open or close or Dispose the Instances
----- Original Message -----
From: RicksPlace
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 6:10 AM
Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts
Hi Don: First, accessing the control values across pages is doablre but can
get messy as you have seen. As for the reference statements to include the
variious modules, VB.net uses the Imports Statement rather than the Using
Statement just above the line where the class begins.
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Public Class MyClass
' Some Code
End Class
To keep my apps cleaner when they are going to be big I add a Folder to the
project called App_Code. Inside this folder I add other folders and, or, files.
One of them is called Globals.vb.
Now, I have a class like:
Public Class Globals
' Some Code.
End Class
Inside this class I add static variables to hold data I want to pass around
to various forms.
Here is one of them:
Public Class Globals
Public Shared FilteredTickerList As ArrayList= Nothing
Public Shared CurrentCoIndexTable As DataTable
Public Shared CurrentUser As String = "Richard"
Public Shared CurrentPortfolio As String = ""
Public Shared CurrentTicker As String = ""
Public Shared LoggerPath As String =
"c:\FinDir\FinDir\ReportsDir\GeneralLog.txt"
Public Shared YahooCsvLogPath As String =
"c:\FinDir\FinDir\ReportsDir\YahooCsvLog.txt"
Public Shared NumNull As Integer = -999999999
Public Shared FatelError As String = "FatelError"
Public Shared CallingModule As String = ""
End Class
Now, in my Form`1 code file I might have a TextBox control tbTicker that
captures a ticker symbol from a user. Now, I want to know what ticker the user
entered in that text box in other forms. Instead of referencing that root
form's TextBox control directly I just move the value into the Ticker variable
in the globals:
Globals.Ticker = tbTicker.Text
Then I can get that value, or modify it, from any form in the project by:
Dim TheTickerSymbolSelected As String = _
Globals.Ticker. Or you can display it like:
MessageBox.Show( "The current ticker is " & Globals.Ticker)
You do not have to instantiate the Global variables because they are defined
as Static. That makes them available to use just like a variable inside any
code block you are working in by just putting the name of the class followed by
a period followed by the variable name as defined in the class. If this is all
new to you let me know and I will help you get it set up. You might also
encounter a similar situation when you try to open, close and keep track of
which forms are displayed. Remember, you can not close a form and still access
it's embedded controls so breaking out the values and, or, any data you want to
pass around is a good idea to keep things less complex and more flexible in the
long run.
Hope this helps and just ask if you want to get a step by step which I will
be glad to do on or off list.
Rick USA
class to the project
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Marang
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts
I am not sure about conventional naming standards for forms in object
oriented land. This is a Windows Forms Application. I had named the main
window, which is a class I believe. So my main window, named "dcQuickOCRForm"
(the 'd' is for Dialog and the 'c' is for Control). the last part "Tecxt" is
the property that contains the text of the TextBox Control, " tcFilename" ('t'
is for Textbox and 'c' is again for Control), to type in and display the
filename. My issue is that I now pulled code out of the main code file for the
dcQuickOCRForm.vb file. I now have this code in different subroutines (Sub) in
separate module files. I currently need to provide all three components. I
think what I want to do is place a "Using dcQuickOCR" statement within the
module file. Is this the correct way to do this in VB? Does it require an
"End Using" statement? Is VB different than other languages in this respect?
It just seems like it would be faster and less cumbersome as well as less
confusing than identifying each level each time. Would this call go inside
each Sub block in this file or once just after the Module declaration at the
very top?
This is a reference to an object property which contains the name of the
image file on which to perform the OCR. If performing OCR on a screen image
from the clipboard, the program first writes the image to a temp TIFF file
because I think the MODI object calls only work on a file.
For some reason, I did not provide a similar naming convention yet to menu
components.
Don Marang
From: RicksPlace
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 8:22 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts
Hi: I don't get this file path. When I do code blocks I create them inside
classes which I usually add to a project folder. Is this a file path or the
name of something?
dcQuickOCRForm.tcFilename.Text.
You mentioned you have to put the above in a control, what type of control
and are you binding to that control or what property of the control is the
above path located in?
Just curious since I did not understand that part of the
message.
Rick USA
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Marang
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 9:15 AM
Subject: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts
Thanks everybody for the many tips! My program has come a long way due
to your help.
For now I think I will just distribute the executable, a Desktop Shortcut
Icon, and some documentation files in a zip file. The user would need to place
the files at, "C:\QuickOCR" folder and copy the Desktop Shortcut Icon to the
Desktop. If they want to install elsewhere, they would need to change the path
in the Desktop Shortcut Icon.
I have two small areas where I still have some questions.
I split out most of the large chunks of code, like the OCR processing,
into subroutines in modules stored in separate files. This works well, makes
it easier to update, and would make it simple to add functionality in the
future. One such addition would be adding other OCR Engines. However, since
it is not within the main form object code, I have had to supply the entire
object heirachy in the references to controls, such as
dcQuickOCRForm.tcFilename.Text. I looked at the Imports, Namespace, and With
Visual Basic commands. I started playing around a little with these, but
decided to first make the subroutines work. Could someone enlighten me to
which command would be appropriate, or what modifier on the main form object
should be changed in this situation?
The other thing that started confuddling me at 2 AM last night was that
JAWS refuses to announce the shortcuts in the menus. I added the code to the
File and Actions menus yesterday. That was another reason I wanted most of the
code, like "Perform OCR" as subroutines. There are visible shortcuts in the
menus and they work if you know the shortcut key combinations, like Control + O
for Open image. I have set the shortcut properties;
ShortcutDisplayText="Ctrl+O", ShortcutKeys="Ctrl+O", and ShowShortcutKeys=True,
of the menu items in the property tables for the menu items. I have tried both
"Ctrl+O" (contracted spelling) and "Control+O" (all characters) in the
ShortcutDisplayText property. Things are displayed on the screen as expected
and function properly, but JAWS refuses to announce the shortcuts. JAWS is
announceing menu shortcuts in all other applications, including Visual Studio
Express. What do I need to do to force JAWS to recognize and announce the
shortcuts?
Don Marang
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