How to Create a Scrolling Field in a BROWSE Window

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

In FoxPro for Windows versions 2.x, you can't scroll a field in a Browse window when a field is wider than the column width. However, In Visual FoxPro version 3.0, you can make the field in a Browse window an edit box with a scroll bar. This articles shows by example how to do it.

MORE INFORMATION

Code Sample

#DEFINE FIELDLENGTH 100

cText = "This is how it works in 2.x. You can't see the entire field. The ; new way - pay attention to the 'BROWSE NAME' clause. You can now use the ; BROWSE as a Visual FoxPro 3.0 object and introduce a control into a long ; field so that the data is easier to view."

CREATE CURSOR issues (topic C(20), long_desc C(254)) INSERT INTO issues VALUES ('Horizontal Scrolling', cText)

BROWSE TITLE "Close this Window to see what you can do with Visual FoxPro!"

BROWSE NAME oIssues NOWAIT TITLE 'Issues'

LOCAL nColumn, oRef FOR nColumn = 1 TO FCOUNT()

   IF FSIZE(FIELD(m.nColumn)) >= FIELDLENGTH
      oRef = EVAL('oIssues.Column'+LTRIM(STR(nColumn)))
      oRef.AddObject('edit1','editbox')  && Add edit box.
      oRef.edit1.Visible = .t.
      oRef.Sparse = .f.
      oRef.CurrentControl = 'edit1'
      oRef.Width = 150
      oRef.edit1.ScrollBars = 2
   ENDIF

oIssues.RowHeight = 60     && Change the row height for the browse object.

Instructions

Run the program. In the first browse window, you cannot see the entire long description field (it's an old version 2.x browse window). Press the ESC key to quit the first browse window. Then bring up the second Browse window, which is the new version 3.0 browse window. Now, the entire long description appears in an edit box, so the data can be more easily viewed.

NOTE: You can use BROWSE NAME to create an object reference for the Browse window. This allows you to manipulate the Browse window with object-oriented properties available for the Grid control.