STANDARDIZE

NAMING FOR CLEARER CODE

WORK

SETUP MAGIC

DESIGN ADVANCED

MENUS

UNLEASH OLE OBJECTS TIE IN THROUGH DDE

U.S. $3.95 (CANADA $4.95)

SHRINKWRAP AS BUILDING BLOCKS

�

UNLEASH OLE OBJECTS

A FAWCETTE TECHNICAL PUBLICATION, JANUARY 1995 VOL. 5, NO. 1, INCLUDES WINDOWS PROGRAMMING & VISUAL PROGRAMMING

R

P R O G R A M M E R ’ S J O U R N A L

USE

TIE IN THROUGH DDE

Access the POWER of the ODBC APIAccess the POWER of the ODBC API

STANDARDIZE

NAMING FOR CLEARER CODE

WORK

SETUP MAGIC

DESIGN ADVANCED

MENUS

Visual Basic Programmer’s Journal (ISSN: 1075-1955) is

published monthly for $34.97 per year by Fawcette Tech-

JANUARY 1995 VOL. 5, NO. 1

F A X N O W !For instant information on advertisers’

products, use our on-demand

publishing system. See page 123

for details.

hnical Pu

F E A T U R E S○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

22 OPEN UP THE SHRINKWRAP WITH OLE by Peter Mullen

Use OLE Automation to tear open the shrinkwrap and delve into the features offeredby standalone applications such as Shapeware’s Visio.

34 BREAKING THE MENU BARRIER by Deepak Agrawal

Ready to go beyond the capabilities of the Menu Design Window? Turn tosubclassing controls and Windows API calls to build snazzy, sophisticated menus.

46 OPTIMIZING ODBC by Andrew Brust

Whether you use the JET engine with ODBC or access the ODBC API directly, youcan develop mission-critical client/server applications.

64 CONSISTENT NAMING CLARIFIES CODE by Randy Kahle

What’s in a name? Plenty! Adopting a naming standard not only cuts down ondebugging, but also improves communication within your development team.

74 SETUP SPELLS FOR YOUR APPLICATIONS by Deborah Kurata

Adjust the SetupWizard’s magic potion or use the Setup Toolkit to createcustomized, professional setup programs for your applications.

82 BACK TO THE DDE BASICS by Eric Busby and Marc Huynen

DDE is still the leader when it comes to interapplication communication. Theauthors give you a refresher course about this powerful data-sharing method.

C O L U M N S

b

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

95 Database Design by Roger Jennings

100 OLE Expert by Keith Pleas

106 Visual Programming by Richard Hale Shaw

110 Windows Programming by Jonathan Zuck

114 Getting Started with VBA by Chris Barlow

119 Programming Techniques by Craig Leach

124 Q&A by Carl Franklin

D E P A R T M E N T S

Visual Basic Programmer’s Jour

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

5 Publisher’s Note by James E. Fawcette

6 Letters to the Editor

17 Basic Heroes by Robert W. Scoble

122 Crossword Puzzle

128 Guest Opinion by Gil Schwartz

ABOUT THE COVER

Using OLE Automation as the mortar

between VB and shrinkwrapped

applications, you can build a

foundation for solid programs with

powerful capabilities. The article

beginning on page 22 shows you how

to glue it all together.

Photographic images captured by

Michael Carr. Digital image

manipulation done in Adobe

Photoshop and Pagemaker. Design by

Michael Hollister.

nal JANUARY 1995 3

lications H O M E

nical Publications, 280 Second St., Suite 200, Los Altos, CA

94022-3603. Phone: 415-917-7650. Fax: 415-948-7332. MCI:JFawcette. Second class postage paid at Los Altos, CA andadditional mailing offices.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Visual Basic

Programmer’s Journal, P.O. Box 58872, Boulder, CO80322-8872.

Customer Service: For subscription orders, inquiries, oraddress changes call 303-684-0365 or write to Visual Basic

Programmer’s Journal, P.O. Box 58872, Boulder, CO 80322-8872. Foreign and Canadian orders must be payable inU.S. dollars plus postage. The surface rate to Canada and

Mexico is $43.97: and for all other countries the air mailrate is $59.97.

Copyright ©, Fawcette Technical Publications, all rightsreserved. “Visual Basic” is a trademark of Microsoft

Corporation and is used by Fawcette Technical Publica-tions under license from the owner. Visual Basic

Programmer’s Journal is an independent publicationnot affiliated with Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Cor-poration is not responsible in any way for the editorial

policy or other contents of the publication. All contentsof Visual Basic Programmer’s Journal are copyright ©

1994 by Fawcette Technical Publications, unless other-wise noted. “Visual Basic Programmer’s Journal,”“Visual Basic Insider’s Technical Summit,” “VBITS,”

“Visual Programming,” and “Windows Programming”are trademarks of Fawcette Technical Publications, a

California Corporation, James E. Fawcette, President.Rather than put a trademark symbol in every occur-rence of other trademarked names, we state that we are

using the names only in an editorial fashion with nointention of infringement of the trademark. Although all

reasonable attempts are made to ensure accuracy thepublisher does not assume any liability for errors oromissions anywhere in the publication.

PRINTED IN USA

©1991–1995 Fawcette Tec