Icetips Xplore Documentation 9/11/2011     Implementing Xplore

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Xplore for C4/C5!

Created: Thursday, January 15, 1998

Last updated: Monday February 15th 1999

Philosophy.  Xplore is intended to enhance the functionality of the standard Clarion BrowseBox of the ABC templates. This is accomplished by populating an extension template that automatically creates and uses the Xplore Class. Requirements, implementation, features, and functions of Xplore are provided below.

Files Required. Files identified below must be placed in the directory indicated.

Directory    ...\LIBSRC

XploreRt.INC - Root Class Header File

XploreRt.CLW - Root Class Methods and Properties

Xplore.INC   - Xplore Class Header File

Xplore.CLW   - Xplore Class Methods and Properties

Xplore.TRN   - Translation Link File

XploreEn.TRN - English Translation File

XploreDe.TRN - German (Deutsch) Trans File (Courtesy of Peter Hiemenz)

Directory    ...\TEMPLATE

Xplore.TPL   - template header file

Xplore.TPW   - template wrapper for Xplore

Directory    ...\IMAGES

MoveUp.ICO

MoveDown.ICO

XpCheck.ICO

*You must first register the templates in Clarion by going to:

Menu

  Setup

    Template Registry

      Click on the REGISTER Button

        Find the TEMPLATE directory

          Select/Open: Xplore.TPL

The Xplore template set contains the following templates:

XploreOOPGlobal            Extension Global Extension

XploreOOPBrowse            Extension Xplore: Child for Clarion BrowseBox

XploreOOPList              Extension Xplore: Parent for Hand-Coded ListBox

XploreOOPListChild         Extension Xplore: Child for Hand-coded Listbox

XploreOOPFileDropChild     Extension Xplore: Child for File Drop List

To use Xplore capability in any Application the developer must first populate the Application with the Xplore Global extension template (required):

Click on the GLOBAL button

  Click on the EXTENSIONS button

    Click on the INSERT button

      Select XploreOOPGlobal template

        (You may leave the options set to default at this time.)

Default settings for use of Xplore within the Application are set on the XploreOOPGlobal template.  It is also where the developer decides which Report Pre-viewer to use. The default setting is to use the standard Clarion Pre-viewer. The developer may choose to use either the Pre-veiewer from CPCS (Creative PC Solutions) or the RPM pre-viewer(Lodestar Software). You must possess valid licenses for either product.

Adding Xplore To A Browsebox:

To apply Xplore features, the developer simply adds XploreOOPBrowse as a child extension template to the normal Browse Control Template. This is completed by selecting any procedure that has a Browse-Box populated in it, and:

Click on the PROPERTIES button

  Click on the EXTENSIONS button

    Select the highlite bar on the 'Browse on File' template

      Click on the INSERT button

        Select the XploreOOPBrowse template

*Note: Any time you wish to change the browse back to its original standard, you simply delete the Xplore extension template.

Adding Xplore To A Filedrop (View/File Loaded LIST):

The developer may apply Xplore features to a FileDrop control by adding XploreOOPFileDropChild as a child extension template to the normal FileDrop Control Template. (You should make sure that DROP=0 on the LIST control, then it will act just like a normal View/File loaded LIST box.)  Adding Xplore to a FileDrop is completed by selecting any procedure that has a FileDrop populated in it, and:

Click on the PROPERTIES button

  Click on the EXTENSIONS button

    Select the highlite bar on the 'File Loaded Drop Box' template

      Click on the INSERT button

        Select the XploreOOPFileDropChild template

*Note: Any time you wish to change the FileDrop back to its original standard, you simply delete the extension template.

Adding Xplore To A Hand-Coded LIST Control:

Xplore functionality can be also be applied to hand-coded list control by adding the XploreOOPList extension template and completing options in the dialog presented. The XploreOOPListChild extension template must also be added as a child to the XploreOOPList parent template.  NOTE: It is the developer responsibility to create the queue for this LIST control and to provide functions to add data to the queue. Xplore does create or build any data for the hand-coded LIST.

Click on the PROPERTIES button

  Click on the EXTENSIONS button

    Click on the INSERT button

      Select the XploreOOPList template, then

Put the highlite bar on the 'Parent for a Hand-coded Listbox' template

  Click on the INSERT button

    Select the XploreOOPListChild template

NOTE:  Xplore will allow the end-user to display or hide any field that has been formatted in the listbox by the developer AND display or hide any field that has been specified as HOT in the Browse Control Template. Local variables can also be specified here, but, it is the responsibility of the developer to prime the local variable with the computed value from the view field.