How to Use the Caption Fields of a Table in a Form (130997)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows 3.0
This article was previously published under Q130997

SUMMARY

Visual FoxPro's database offers some nice enhancements for developers. One such enhancement is the ability to use a table's caption property to hold the name of a field. Then you can reference the field caption property by using DBGETPROP to display the field description or name in a label on a form instead of having to enter this information manually in the caption property of the label.

MORE INFORMATION

The premise behind this concept is this: Each field in a table has an associated caption property. This caption property can hold whatever text you would like to put in it, including the English text describing or naming the field.

Sample Code

The following code demonstrates the behavior outlined in this article. The code has been documented so you can follow along when it executes. 
**========================================================**
** Program name: CAPTEST                                  **
** Purpose     : This program demonstrates how to pro-    **
**               gramatically use the caption property of **
**               a field in a table                       **
**========================================================**
SET SAFETY OFF
CLOSE ALL
CLEAR
CREATE DATABASE captest
CREATE TABLE cust (Cust_ID C(5), Cust_Name C(20))
INSERT INTO cust (Cust_ID, Cust_Name) Values ("00001","Acme Inc")
CLOSE ALL
OPEN DATABASE captest
USE cust

**--------------------------------------------------------**
** This code is setting the caption property for the 2    **
** fields in the cust table.                              **
**--------------------------------------------------------**
=DBSETPROP("Cust.Cust_ID","FIELD","CAPTION","Customer ID")
=DBSETPROP("Cust.Cust_Name","FIELD","CAPTION","Customer Name")

**--------------------------------------------------------**
** This block of code creates the form for the display.   **
**--------------------------------------------------------**
frmMyForm = CREATEOBJECT('Form')
frmMyForm.Width      = 450
frmMyForm.Height     = 100
frmMyForm.Caption    = "Caption Test"
frmMyForm.AutoCenter =.T.

**-------------------------------------------------------**
** This code adds the label and text box objects for the **
** customer id information.                              **
**-------------------------------------------------------**
frmMyForm.AddObject('lblCustID','lblCust_ID')
frmMyForm.AddObject('fldCustID','fldCust_ID')

**-------------------------------------------------------**
** This code adds the label and text box objects for the **
** customer name information.                            **
**-------------------------------------------------------**
frmMyForm.AddObject('lblCustName','lblCust_Name')
frmMyForm.AddObject('fldCustName','fldCust_Name')

**-------------------------------------------------------**
** Add a quit button                                     **
**-------------------------------------------------------**
frmMyForm.AddObject('cmdQuit','cmdQuitButton')

frmMyForm.SHOW                   && Display the form
READ EVENTS                      && Start event processing
CLOSE ALL
ERASE Cust.dbf
ERASE Captest.dbc
ERASE Captest.dbt
SET SAFETY ON

**-------------------------------------------------------**
** This is the class definition for the customer ID in-  **
** formation. The caption for the label should be de-    **
** rived from the table itself. This is the example re-  **
** ferred to in the article. The name of the field and   **
** its definition are stored together in the table. This **
** way, if you decide to change the name of the field in **
** the table, you can also just change the caption while **
** you're there and that change will be reflected on your**
** form.                                                 **
**-------------------------------------------------------**
DEFINE CLASS lblCust_ID as label
  Width   = 80
  Left    = 10
  Top     = 22
  Visible = .T.
  Caption = DBGETPROP("Cust.Cust_id","FIELD","CAPTION")
ENDDEFINE

DEFINE CLASS fldCust_ID as textbox
  Visible = .T.
  Left    = 100
  Top     = 20
  Width   = 20
  ControlSource=Cust.Cust_ID
ENDDEFINE

**-------------------------------------------------------**
** Class definition for the customer name information.   **
**-------------------------------------------------------**
DEFINE CLASS lblCust_Name as label
  Width   = 100
  Left    = 140
  Top     = 22
  Visible = .T.
  Caption = DBGETPROP("Cust.Cust_Name","FIELD","CAPTION")
ENDDEFINE

DEFINE CLASS fldCust_Name as textbox
  Visible = .T.
  Left    = 260
  Top     = 20
  Width   = 140
  ControlSource=Cust.Cust_Name
ENDDEFINE

DEFINE CLASS cmdQuitButton AS CommandButton  && Create command button
    Caption = '\<Quit'       && Caption on the command button
    Cancel  = .T.            && Default Cancel command button (Esc)
    Left    = 175            && Command button column
    Top     = 60             && Command button row
    Height  = 25             && Command button height
    Visible = .T.

    PROCEDURE Click
      CLEAR EVENTS           && Stop event processing, close Form
ENDDEFINE
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:2/15/2000
Keywords:kbcode KB130997
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