Files

Lutz 42de4f0746 Better doku D

2021-02-22 18:41:51 +01:00

38 KiB

Raw Blame History

Purpose of this document

This document is an attempt to recreate the original documentation of FoxBin2Prg out of CodePlex.
I found the documentation on foxbin2prg a bit brief. For a short what and why, see there.

The original document was created by Fernando D. Bozzo whom I like to thank for the great project. Pictures are taken from the original project.
As far as possible these are the original documents. Changes are added where functionality is changed.

This project is part of VFPX.

FoxBin2Prg - Internals

The purpose of FoxBin2Prg is to facilitate the Diff and Merge of Visual FoxPro 9 binaries, which are not natively supported by any source control tool. Traditionally FoxPro comes with a tool named SccText.prg who can make a text representation exporting the source code contained in FoxPro tables with a DBF structure. An enhanced version is available on VFPx named SccTextX, but like his ancestor, have some design limitations, as:

It doesn't generate PRG like code
It doesn't allow modification of the txa (text) files generated
Scctext's txa (text) files generated can't be used for merge with SCM tools, they are readonly
Timestamps and ZOrder fields generate a lot of unnecesary differences all over the text file

FoxBin2Prg is designed to bring a solution for all of this, and a few more things, which makes Text files with PRG-style and enhances compatibility with SCCAPI (SourceSafe) and other SCM tools, like PlasticSCM, Git, Subversion, and the like.
Special remark on Merge operation is made, because it is the most difficult and more used operation when working with SCM tools, and this require that generated text files can be manipulated manually or automatically.

Note:

You came from Visual SourceSafe and have the .pjm but not the real pjx project?

No problem, just convert the .pjm to .pjx/.pjt sending to FoxBin2Prg, and it generates the real project again.

Configuration file

It is possible to create a template with all options and comments via FoxBin2Prg.EXE -c cOutputFile. See command line.
The options in the template (or in the config that ships with FoxBin2Prg) are commented out. To activate an option remove the asterix and set appropriate value.
These are the FoxBin2Prg.cfg configuration file settings and their meaning:

FoxBin2Prg.cfg keywords	Value (Default)	Description
extension: xx2		FoxBin2Prg extensions ends in '2' (pj2, vc2, sc2, etc), but you can change that. For example you can change pj2 to pja using this: "extension: pj2=pja" for making it SourceSafe (sccapi v1) compatible
DontShowProgress	0	Deprecated. Replaced by ShowProgressbar option from v1.19.40
ShowProgressbar	0, 1, 2	1=Always show a progress bar, 2=Only show it when processing multiple-files, 0=Don't show progressbar
DontShowErrors	0, 1	By default, show message errors in a modal messagebox. Specify "1" if don't want to show errors
NoTimestamps	0, 1	By default, timestamp fields are cleared on Text files, because a lot of differencies are generated on binaries and Text files with Timestamps activated. This timestamp field is part of the vcx, scx and other Foxpro binary source code files
Debug	0, 1, 2	By default, don't generate individual .Log with process hints. Activate with "1" to find possible error causes and for debugging, "2" is special logging
ExtraBackupLevels	0, 1, n	By default, one filename.BAK file is created. With this setting you can make more filename.n.BAK files, or none at all using 0
ClearUniqueID	0, 1	0=Keep UniqueID, 1=Clear Unique ID. Very useful for Diff and Merge. By default, UniqueID fields are cleared on Text files, because a lot of differencies are generated with UniqueID activated
OptimizeByFilestamp	0, 1	0=Don't optimize (always regenerate), 1=Optimize (regenerate only when destination filestamp es older). By default this optimization is deactivated, and it is not recommended if using for merge, so Bin and Text files can be modified seperately. Dangerous while working with branches!
RemoveNullCharsFromCode	0, 1	1=Drop NULL chars from source code, 0=Leave NULLs in source code
RemoveZOrderSetFromProps	0, 1	1=Remove ZOrderSet from the properties, 0=Leave ZOrderSet in the properties
XXX_Conversion_Support	n	Defines the conversion operation per filetype
		For code: 0=No support, 1=Generate (Diff), 2=Generate Text ond Bin (Merge)
		For complex data: (PJX / DBC / DBF): 0=No support, 1=Generate Header TXT only (Diff), 2=Generate Header TXT and BIN (Merge/Only Structure!), 4=Generate TXT with DATA (Diff), 8=Export and Import DATA (Merge/Structure & Data)
PJX_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2	Default value is 2 - Bidirectional ((Merge/Only Structure!), 4=Generate Text with DATA (Diff), 8=Export and Import DATA (Merge/Structure & Data) and bin) support activated
VCX_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2	Default value is 2 - Bidirectional (Text and bin) support activated
SCX_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2	Default value is 2 - Bidirectional (Text and bin) support activated
FRX_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2	Default value is 2 - Bidirectional (Text and bin) support activated
LBX_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2	Default value is 2 - Bidirectional (Text and bin) support activated
MNX_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2	Default value is 2 - Bidirectional (Text and bin) support activated
DBC_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2	Default value is 2 - Bidirectional (Text and bin) support activated
DBF_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2, 4, 8	Default value is 1 - just Text support activated. The support for regenerating DBFs structures (value = 2) are disabled by default to not overrite data accidentally. When activating bidirectional support, keep in mind that Data is not restored, just the structure and indexes!. A value of 4 is used to export Structure and Data, but exported data is not imported again. A value of 8 is used for bidirectional support (No General fields!). Note: This can be changed per table.
DBF_Conversion_Included	*	If DBF_Conversion_Support:4, you can specify multiple filemasks: www,fb2p_free.dbf. See Order and range of records.
DBF_Conversion_Excluded		If DBF_Conversion_Support:4, you can specify multiple filemasks: www,fb2p_free.dbf. See Order and range of records.
UseFilesPerDBC	0, 1	0=One database dc2 file, 1=Multiple file...dc2 files. See [Create File-Per-DBC](#create file-per-dbc)
		0 creates only a file.dc2 with all DBC (file) data
		1 creates a file.dc2 with DBC properties
		and additional DBC files per DBC item (stored-proc, table, ..)
		Note: recration only if RedirectFilePerDBCToMain is 1
RedirectFilePerDBCToMain	0, 1	0=Don't redirect to file.dc2, 1=Redirect to file.tx2 when selecting file.item.*.dc2
ItemPerDBCCheck	0, 1	0=Don't check file.item..dc2 inclusion, 1=Check file.item..dc2 inclusion
DBF_BinChar_Base64	0, 1	0=For character type fields, if NoCPTrans 0=do not transform, 1=use Base64 transform (default) Note: This can be changed per table.
DBF_IncludeDeleted	0, 1	0=Do not include deleted records (default), 1=Include deleted records Note: This can be changed per table.
UseClassPerFile	0, 1	0=One library Text file, 1=Multiple file.class.vc2 files, 2=Multiple file.baseclass.class.vc2 files See Create Class-Per-File
RedirectClassPerFileToMain	0, 1	0=Don't redirect to file.vc2, 1=Redirect to file.vc2 when selecting file.class.vc2
ClassPerFileCheck	0, 1	0=Don't check file.class.vc2 inclusion, 1=Check file.class.vc2 inclusion
ClearDBFLastUpdate	0, 1	0=Keep DBF LastUpdate, 1=Clear DBF LastUpdate. Useful for Diff, minimizes differences.
Language	(auto), EN, FR, ES, DE	Language of shown messages and LOGs. EN=English, FR=French, ES=Español, DE=German, Not defined = AUTOMATIC (using VERSION(3))

Configuration file per table

Those configuration files are valid for a single table only. The idea is to have special settings for single tables.
It is possible to create a template with all options and comments via FoxBin2Prg.EXE -t cOutputFile. See command line.
The options in the template (or in the config that ships with FoxBin2Prg) are commented out. To activate an option remove the asterix and set appropriate value.
These are the Table.dbf.cfg configuration file settings and their meaning:

FoxBin2Prg.cfg keywords	Value	Description
DBF_Conversion_Support	0, 1, 2, 4, 8	0=No support, 1=Generate Header TXT only (Diff), 2=Generate Header TXT and BIN (Merge/Only Structure!), 4=Generate TXT with DATA (Diff), 8=Export and Import DATA (Merge/Structure & Data)
DBF_Conversion_Order	c_Expression	Field expresion (For INDEX ON). ie: name+str(age,3), Empty means no sort order. usefull only if DBF_Conversion_Support>0
DBF_Conversion_Condition	c_Expression	Logical expression (For SCAN FOR). ie: age > 10 AND NOT DELETED(), empty means all files, except DBF_IncludeDeleted usefull only if DBF_Conversion_Support>0
DBF_BinChar_Base64	0, 1	0=For character type fields, if NoCPTrans 0=do not transform, 1=use Base64 transform usefull only if DBF_Conversion_Support>2
DBF_IncludeDeleted	0, 1	0=Do not include deleted records, 1=Include deleted records usefull only if DBF_Conversion_Support>2

For defaults, see Configuration file.

FoxBin2Prg Internals

ZOrder

In Text files and starting from v1.19.12, the ZOrder, that determines the order on which objects are instantiated and which one is on top, is maintained in a more intuitive and optimal way compared to traditional stored numerical values. Text files keep lists of objects and their metadata in a special OBJECTDATA tag, in which the order of the list is the ZOrder of the object, like this example:

DEFINE CLASS cnt_controls AS container 		&& "cnt_controls" class description
 *< CLASSDATA: Baseclass="container" Timestamp="" Scale="Pixels" Uniqueid="" />

 *-- OBJECTDATA items order determines ZOrder 
 * < OBJECTDATA: ObjPath="Check2" UniqueID="" Timestamp="" />
 * < OBJECTDATA: ObjPath="Check4" UniqueID="" Timestamp="" />
 * < OBJECTDATA: ObjPath="Label_h" UniqueID="" Timestamp="" />
 * < OBJECTDATA: ObjPath="Textbox_h" UniqueID="" Timestamp="" />
 * < OBJECTDATA: ObjPath="Check1" UniqueID="" Timestamp="" />
 * < OBJECTDATA: ObjPath="Check3" UniqueID="" Timestamp="" />

This way, you can rearrange the items to alter their ZOrder, and this does auto-renumbering when regenerating binaries.

RemoveZOrderSetFromProps setting

Note:

The ZOrderSet property is not shown in VFP Properties editor.

Starting at v1.19.43 there is a new configuration setting named RemoveZOrderSetFromProps, that can be used to automatically remove this property from the objects, if enabled with 1.
This property keep the order of the inherited controls used on visual classes using a numeric value like the Tabstop property, but this property is not shown to the user and sometimes their value is duplicated, causing that every time you save a visual class or form, some control(s) get their order swapped, so when reopening the visual class some objects that should appear on top are on botton and vice versa.

VFP ZOrder bug and fix:

Sometimes you can see that some objects are reordered every time you save a visual form/class

and regenerate the Text file. This is caused because in some situations VFP can loose the tracking to some ZOrders, and duplicate them. To fix this problem, you just need to open your visual form/class, reorder manually the offending objects to force VFP to assign a new ZOrder value and regenerate the Text file. You can see (only in the Text file or inside the vcx/vct) that the property is called ZOrderSet and have a repeated value before fixing it. Another solution, starting at v1.19.43, is using RemoveZOrderSetFromProps:1 in foxbin2prg.cfg file to remove this from the properties. A better solution is using this setting only in a specific directory used to fix this kind of problems. In any case, for this setting to work properly, you need to regenerate the binary_

DBC ordered fields

Starting from v1.19.42 the members of the DBC are ordered alphabetically, including fields of DBFs and Views, Connections, Tables, Views and Relations. All this to minimize the differences when diffing DBCs that have constant changes.

<FIELD_ORDER>
    depto
    descrip
</FIELD_ORDER>

PAM Section

This section is generated for classes and forms, it is delimited with the tag, and have the definition of Properties, Arrays and Methods, with their comments, like this example:

DEFINE CLASS c1 AS custom OLEPUBLIC        && Description of "c1" class
    *<DefinedPropArrayMethod>
        *m: emptymethod_with_comments        && This method have no code, just comments!
        *m: mymethod        && My Method
        *p: prop1        && My prop 1
        *p: special_prop_with_cr
        *p: special_prop_with_crlf        && Should have CR+LF
        *a: array_1_d[1,0](1,0)        && 1 dimension array (1)
        *a: array_2_d[1,2](1,2)        && 2 dimension array (1,2)
        *p: _memberdata        && XML Metadata for customizable properties
    *</DefinedPropArrayMethod>

Starting from v1.19.21 arrays don't need to be preceded with "^" symbol, and methods don't need to be preceded with "*" symbol, which makes this section more easy to maintain.

Property Ordering

On Text files is easy, ordering for methods and properties is done in alphabetical way, like scctext does with methods. This makes comparisons easier and with less differences.
On binaries, property ordering is a very different thing. No documentation is available about this, so the only guideline is trying to make it as FoxPro does, but this is not always possible because there are two extreme cases, and variants between the them:

The best and easy one, is when defining a class (or control) with his properties: In this case, each class have a phisical record on the scx/vcx table, and all the properties of it are keep toghether, so this ordering can be easily duplicated (look at "TESTS\DATOS_READONLY\f_form_aa.scx file" on foxbin2prg project and open it as a table to see the class per record)
The worst and most difficult case, is when there is a container with controls subclassed, and properties are changed on the instance: In this case FoxPro makes a big and unique list of properties of all objects in just one phisical record, so there is no way to know which property corresponds to which class. For this case, I've made a unique list composed of all properties of all classes, ordered according to most common orderings (look at ""TESTS\DATOS_READONLY\f_form_aa2.scx file"" on foxbin2prg project and open it as a table to see all the properties of all the classes of the same earlier example, in just one record)

For these two cases, and starting from v1.19.22, I've created several "props_*" files with ordering by class for the 1st case, and a list with all in it ("props_all.txt") for the second case, so in case of any problems, rearranging some props will be an easy thing.

Warning:

These "props_**" files are necessary in the foxbin2prg install directory.

It's recommended to use the EXE version that have all files included and is faster._
Several Unit Tests (in TESTS directory) are made to make the best effort to cover the most typical use cases. There is also an Excel spreedsheet with the compilation of properties of each class with the order that FoxPro uses internally, and a tab with the all-in-one order for the worst case.

Timestamps and UniqueIDs

Timestamp field are used in VFP to track changes with 3rd party tools and UniqueId is used to identify classes inside binaries, but, AFAIK, they are not used by VFP itself. There are 2 switches, enabled by default, that are used to clear this values (ClearUniqueId and NoTimestamps), so no differences are shown for this values constantly changing. Starting from v1.19.23 this values are just cleared on Text files, and regenerated on the binaries, as well the sccdata field, because this way there are no differences when opening/closing certain files, as a PJX, which by default fill some of this fields even if no modifications are made, which causes that SCM tools detect those changes. Having them prefilled, then no changes are detected.

DBF Data Export/Import for Diff/Merge

Starting at version v1.19.21, and thanks to Doug Hennig proposal and coding, FoxBin2Prg can export DBFs Data, specially intended for small DBFs, as config ones, on which sometimes is needed to track the changes. It is deactivated by default, but can be activated with "DBF_Conversion_Support: 4" in foxbin2prg.cfg Since version v1.19.47, importing of Data can be activated with "DBF_Conversion_Support: 8" in foxbin2prg.cfg
If you want to export the data of just some tables and not for all of them, one way is moving the tables for data export to another directory, or even a subdirectory of main data files, and write a foxbin2prg.cfg with "DBF_Conversion_Support: 4 or 8" for this diretory only, taking advantage of multi-configuration capability introduced on v1.19.25
A much better option that join the best of the two worlds, available from v1.19.44, could be using the default setting "DBF_Conversion_Support: 1" and using individual cfg files for each table (table.dbf.cfg) on which you want to export their data, so this way you can have only the structure in DB2 files and some tables with their data exported for easy diffing with previous versions, or even use "DBF_Conversion_Support: 8" (available since v1.19.47) for bidirectional support of data import/export.

Order and range of records

FoxBin2prg.cfg (Main CFG, Directory CFG or Table CFG)
New foxbin2prg.cfg options for filtering tables from conversion using one or multiple conbinations of filemasks.

Syntax:

"DBF_Conversion_Included: <filemask>[ ,<filemask> [ , ... ](-,_filemask_-[-,-...-) ]"
"DBF_Conversion_Excluded: <filemask>[ ,<filemask> [ , ... ](-,_filemask_-[-,-...-) ]"

Example of multiple file masks (separte with ","):

"DBF_Conversion_Included: PET**.**, ??ME.DBF, ???.DBF, ?.**"

Configuration per table

New <filename.dbf.cfg> configuration options. See Configuration file per table.

These options can be used in any combination inside a dbf particular cfg file, if you create a text file using your dbf filename and adding ".cfg".

Syntax for filename.dbf.cfg contents:

"DBF_Conversion_Support: <4 for export only or 8 for bidirectional support>"
"DBF_Conversion_Order: <C_Expression>"
"DBF_Conversion_Condition: <C_Expression>"

Example: customers.dbf.cfg

"DBF_Conversion_Support: 4"
"DBF_Conversion_Order: cust_no"
"DBF_Conversion_Condition: cust_no > 10"

DBF/DB2 Convertion Hooks

From version v1.19.19 there is a new property ""run_AfterCreateTable"" and from version v1.19.24 ""run_AfterCreate_DB2"". The purpose of both properties is to allow the execution of an external program each time a DBF is converted to DB2 or a DB2 is converted to DBF. The main purpose of FoxBin2Prg is to be used for Diff and Merge with a SCM tool, so in this scenario the data is not needed, but there are use cases where exporting, importing or manipulating data is needed while making the conversions, and for those cases are this properties.

This is a sample program:

*-- DEMO HOOK FOR PROCESSING DBFs AND DB2
LOCAL oFB AS 'c_foxbin2prg' OF 'c:\desa\foxbin2prg\foxbin2prg.prg'
oFB = NEWOBJECT( 'c_foxbin2prg', 'c:\desa\foxbin2prg\foxbin2prg.prg' )
oFB.DBF_Conversion_Support	= 2
oFB.run_AfterCreateTable 	= 'p_AfterCreateTable'
oFB.run_AfterCreate_DB2 	= 'p_AfterCreate_DB2'
oFB.execute( 'C:\DESA\foxbin2prg\TESTS\DATOS_TEST\fb2p_dbc.dc2' )
oFB.execute( 'C:\DESA\foxbin2prg\TESTS\DATOS_TEST\fb2p_dbf.db2' )
oFB.execute( 'C:\DESA\foxbin2prg\TESTS\DATOS_TEST\fb2p_dbf.dbf' )
oFB	= NULL
RETURN


PROCEDURE p_AfterCreateTable
	LPARAMETERS lnDataSessionID, tc_OutputFile, toTable
	MESSAGEBOX( 'Actual Datasession: ' + TRANSFORM(SET("Datasession")) + CHR(13) ;
		+ 'lnDataSessionID: ' + TRANSFORM(lnDataSessionID) )
	*-- You can fill the table <tc_OutputFile> here.
	INSERT INTO fb2p_dbf (nombre,edad,depto) VALUES ('Fer', 45, 'dpto')
ENDPROC


PROCEDURE p_AfterCreate_DB2
	LPARAMETERS lnDataSessionID, tc_OutputFile, toTable
	MESSAGEBOX( 'Actual Datasession: ' + TRANSFORM(SET("Datasession")) + CHR(13) ;
		+ 'lnDataSessionID: ' + TRANSFORM(lnDataSessionID) )
	*-- You can export the data here.
	STRTOFILE( nombre + STR(edad,3) + depto, 'c:\temp\data.txt', 1)
ENDPROC

Language Support for messages

As for version v1.19.38 FoxBin2Prg messages are available natively on Spanish, English, German and French.

Note:

The messages on vbs scripts are not translated (are very few), just the FoxPro ones, which have +90% of the messages.

Want to collaborate translating the messages to your language so others can use it? Just copy the english translation CASE in the final section in FoxBin2Prg.PRG to a new CASE with your country code and translate the messages (can be done in 20 minutes or less), and send it to me. I will include it in the next release ;-)

Note:

.h language files are not supported anymore, and are now implemented inside foxbin2prg, in the "C_LANG" class at the end of the PRG_

Multi-config (config per directory)

Starting at version v1.19.25 FoxBin2Prg allow configuration per directory, overriding the main configuration of FoxBin2Prg directory. The override is by each setting, so you can reconfigure one or more settings and the remaining settings are inherited from main CFG.

New:

From v1.19.42 CFGs are inherited between directories from parent to child, so if you have all your developments under, let's say, "c:\devs" directory and subdirs, de CFG in "c:\devs" will be inherited on subdirs, and settings can be overriden one by one if you want to. This inheritance saves a lot of time and minimizes the CFGs needed ":)"

File Capitalization

FoxBin2Prg takes care of file capitalization (their extension, specifically), using another program called ("filename_caps.exe") for capitalizing input files and output files. This is because some SCM and DVCS tools are multiplatform, and if you add a "file.ext" and later add a "file.EXT" or "File.Ext", the SCM can interpret them as different files, because on Unix, Linux, Mac and other sistems, they are.
If you want a special capitalization (ie: capitalize the full name of the file), you can configure this behaviour in "filename_caps.cfg" configuration file, which includes syntax examples.
File capitalization occurs when you convert a file, but in the case that the input file can't be converted, no message error ir thrown (ie: when using the PRG version from VFP Command Line with the form to be converted opened)

Conversion processes Logging

If you want detailed process logging of FoxBin2Prg conversions, to see all internal processes, decisions and used optimizations, you can enable debugging using +debug:1+ in foxbin2prg.cfg configuration file, and a full log is generated on FoxBin2Prg installation directory. Debug messages are translated (+90% of debug messages), but capitalization process messages are not, and are available just in Spanish (-10% of debug messages).

Create Class-Per-File

Starting at v1.19.37 you can configure foxbin2prg to generate one class per file using TwoFox naming style "basefile.class.vc2" with the value "1" To configure this, you must first enable it in foxbin2prg.cfg file:

*UseClassPerFile: 1   && 0=One library _Text_ file, 1=Multiple file.class.vc2 files, 2=Multiple file.baseclass.class.vc2 files

In example, if you have a classlib "mylib.vcx" with 3 classes inside ("cl_1, cl_2, cl_3") then this files are generated:

mylib.vc2 => Header file, with all conforming classes annotated inside
- mylib.cl_1.vc2
- mylib.cl_2.vc2
- mylib.cl_3.vc2

Recommended new setting:

Starting at v1.19.42 you can configure foxbin2prg to generate one class per file. using the naming style "basefile.baseclass.class.vc2" with the new value "2".

To configure this, you must first enable it in foxbin2prg.cfg file:

*UseClassPerFile: 2  && 0=One library _Text_ file, 1=Multiple file.class.vc2 files, 2=Multiple file.baseclass.class.vc2 files,
including DBC members

In example, if you have a classlib "mylib.vcx" with 3 classes inside ("cl_1, cl_2, cl_3") then this files are generated:

mylib.vc2 => Header file, with all conforming classes annotated inside
mylib.custom.cl_1.vc2
mylib.form.cl_2.vc2
mylib.textbox.cl_3.vc2

And if you convert mydbc DBC file to text:

mydbc.dc2 => Header file, with all conforming members annotated inside
mydbc.connection.cnx_oracle.dc2
mydbc.table.customers.dc2
mydbc.view.vw_products.dc2

Complementary options for the UseClassPerFile setting

RedirectClassPerFileToMain:

Configuring this setting to 1 will redirect any selection of file.class.vc2 to the main file.vc2 file, which will not let you generate individual vcx files by mistake.

ClassPerFileCheck:

Configuring this setting to 1 will check the inclusion of all file.class.vc2 files annotated on file.vc2 main file, otherwise no checking is made and when reconstructing the vcx/scx all files containing the file.class.ext naming will be included in the binary (useful when you want to add external classes to the library)

Note:

If you dont use the Redirect setting, an individual vcx/scx file will be generated. This can be useful if you want to divide a big library in smaller pieces_

Note:

This is true for SCX files as well. SCX Files may contain a form and a dataenvironment. It will create sc2 files.

Create File-Per-DBC

Starting at vn.nn.nn you can configure foxbin2prg to generate one file per dbc item using naming style "DatabaseName.item.name.dc2" with the value "1" To configure this, you must first enable it in foxbin2prg.cfg file:

*UseFilesPerDBC: 0              && 0=One database dc2 file, 1=Multiple file.*.*.dc2 files

In example, if you have a classlib "MyData.dbc" with 3 tables inside ("tl_1, tl_2, tl_3") and stored procedures. Then this files are generated:

MyData.vc2 => Header file, with all database settings and conforming items annotated inside
- MyData.database.storedproceduressource.dc2 -> stored procedures
- MyData.table.tl_1.dc2
- MyData.table.tl_2.dc2
- MyData.table.tl_3.dc2

Complementary options for the UseFilesPerDBC setting

RedirectFilePerDBCToMain

*RedirectFilePerDBCToMain 0 && 0=Don't redirect to file.dc2, 1=Redirect to file.tx2 when selecting file.item.*.dc2
Configuring this setting to 1 will redirect any selection of DataBaseName.*.dc2 to the main DataBaseName.dc2 file, which will not let you generate individual DBC files by mistake.

ItemPerDBCCheck

*ItemPerDBCCheck: 0 && 0=Don't check file.item.*.dc2 inclusion, 1=Check file.item.*.dc2 inclusion
Configuring this setting to 1 will check the inclusion of all DataBaseName.*.dc2 files annotated on DataBaseName.dc2 main file, otherwise no checking is made and when reconstructing the dbc files

Note:

If you dont use the Redirect setting, an individual dbc file will be generated. There is no real use of this.

FoxBin2Prg API

With v1.19.42 version started an enhanced API support, making public methods that where only for internal use up to now.
When using FoxBin2Prg as an object, you can access low level functionalities not available when using as external program, that allow you to implement your own tools, like the VFP tools I've implemented for working with PlasticSCM.

The return value of execute() method, is an error code, where 0 means No errors. You can also get an Exception reference in case of errors, passing extra parameters as in the next examples.

First you instantiate foxbin2prg as object, using this syntax:

LOCAL loCnv AS c_foxbin2prg OF "<Path>\FOXBIN2PRG.PRG"  && For Intellisense
SET PROCEDURE TO "<Path>\FOXBIN2PRG.EXE"
loCnv = CREATEOBJECT("c_foxbin2prg")

Now some examples:

Convert a file.vcx to text:

loCnv.execute( "<Path>\file.vcx" )

Regenerate the binary classlib from the text file.vc2:

loCnv.execute( "<Path>\file.vc2" )

Convert all files of a project.pjx to text:

loCnv.execute( "<Path>\project.pjx", "*" )

Return a laProc array of processed forms after processing a project:

DIMENSION laProcs(1,6)
lnErr = loCnv.execute("C:\DESA\foxbin2prg\TESTS\DATOS_TEST\fb2p_test.pjx", "*", "", "", "1", "0", "1")
lnCnt = loCnv.get_Processed(@laProcs, "*.scx")

Return a laProc array of processed classlibs before processing a project (almost no file processing here, just minimal header reading):

DIMENSION aProcs(1,6)
loCnv.l_ProcessFiles = .F.
lnErr = loCnv.execute("C:\DESA\foxbin2prg\TESTS\DATOS_TEST\fb2p_test.pjx", "*", "", "", "1", "0", "1")
lnCnt = loCnv.get_Processed(@aProcs, "*.vcx")

Check if a file has support for converting to text:

loCnv.evaluateConfiguration( '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', <Path>, 'D' )
? loCnv.hasSupport_Bin2Prg("<Path>\file.vcx")
? loCnv.hasSupport_Bin2Prg("<Path>\file.ppt")

Note:

If you query for support in different subdirectories, then you need to call "evaluateConfiguration()" method for refreshing the CFG info that is used by those methods._

Clear the cache of processed files for allowing reprocessing a file:

loCnv.clearProcessedFiles()

Get a CFG object with the settings that will be applied to a directory

oCFG = loCnv.get_DirSettings( "c:\developments\projects\myproj_1" )
? oCFG.n_UseClassPerFile
? oCFG.DBF_Conversion_Support

Note:

"get_DirSettings()" method internally calls "evaluateConfiguration()" method for refreshing the CFG info before returning the CFG object._

Check if a file was processed:

? loCnv.wasProcessed( "c:\developments\projects\myfile.vcx" )

Get the internal FoxBin2Prg's Project project of a given PJX and return an array with existence of files on disk:

STORE null TO oMod, oEx
DIMENSION aFiles(1,2) && col.1=Name, col.2=File exist on disk
loCnv.loadModule("c:\developments\projects\myfile.pjx", @oMod, @oEx, .F. )
nFilesNotFound = oMod.getFilesNotFound(@aFiles)
FOR I = 1 TO oMod.Count && oMod.Count is the total count of files in the PJX
   ? aFiles(1,2), aFiles(1,1)
ENDFOR

This is a list of available methods and properties:

Method()/Property Syntax	Description
execute loCnv.execute( cInputFile [,cType [,cTextName [,lGenText [,cDontShowErrors [,cDebug [,cDontShowProgress [,oModule [,oEx [,lRelanzarError [,cOriginalFileName [,cRecompile [,cNoTimestamps [,cBackupLevels [,cClearUniqueID [,cOptimizeByFilestamp ,cCFG_File ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] )	Main execution method to start a conversion
conversionSupportType loCnv.conversionSupportType( cFilename )	Return de code of the support type (0,1,2,4,8)
get_DBF_Configuration loCnv.get_DBF_Configuration( cInputFile, @oOutDbfCfg )	Returns 1 if a CFG is found for the indicated DBF, or 0 if not
hasSupport_Bin2Prg loCnv.hasSupport_Bin2Prg( cFilename.ext ) loCnv.hasSupport_Bin2Prg( cExt )	Returns .T. if there is support for converting the file or filetype indicated to text
hasSupport_Prg2Bin loCnv.hasSupport_Prg2Bin( cFilename.ext ) loCnv.hasSupport_Prg2Bin( cExt )	Returns .T. if there is support for converting the file or filetype indicated to binary
evaluateConfiguration loCnv.evaluateConfiguration( cDontShowProgress [,cDontShowErrors [,cNoTimestamps [,cDebug [,cRecompile [,cBackupLevels [,cClearUniqueID [,cOptimizeByFilestamp [,cInputFile [,cInputFileTypeType ,cCFG_File ] ] ] ] ] ] ] ] )	Forces foxbin to process the directory indicated in the cInputFile and update any CFG in the directory or their parents
loadProgressbarForm loCnv.loadProgressbarForm()	Load and show the progressbar form as upper level window
unloadProgressbarForm loCnv.unloadProgressbarForm()	Hide and unload the progressbar form
updateProgressbar loCnt.updateProgressbar( cText, nValue, nTotal, nType )	Update the progressbar and the message. nType indicates which progressbar to update, being 0=1st PB and 1=2nd PB
get_DirSettings loCnv.get_DirSettings( cDir )	Returns a CFG object with the settings that are applied on the indicated directory
get_Ext2FromExt loCnv.get_Ext2FromExt( cExt )	Returns the text extension corresponding to the binary extension indicated
get_Processed loCnv.get_Processed( @aProcessed, cFileMask )	Returns an array with the status of the files being processed or that will be processed in no-real-process-mode if you set `"l_ProcessFiles=.F."` before the call. Columns returned are 6: `"cFile, cInOutType, cProcessed, cHasErrors, cSupported, cExpanded"`
clearProcessedFiles loCnv.clearProcessedFiles()	Clear the statistics and the cache about processed files. If a file was processed and is already processed, being not cached will force to process it again
wasProcessed loCnv.wasProcessed( cFile )	Returns .T. if the fullpath-file was processed, searching in the internal cache

This is the translation table of old method names up to v1.19.41 and the new names:

Old name	New name
Ejecutar	Execute
TieneSoporte_**	hasSupport_**
EvaluarConfiguracion	EvaluateConfiguration
AvanceDelProceso	updateProgressbar
cargar_frm_avance	loadProgressbarForm
descargar_frm_avance	unloadProgressbarForm

Note:

Any method or property not documented in this help, could be renamed, changed or deleted, so please, do not use it_

Log to StdOut

When running from a DOS window, you can get the output to console (same order as array obtained with "get_Processed" method, except that element 1 "[filename](filename)" is shown last):

"C:\DESA\foxbin2prg>foxbin2prg.exe "tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.dbc" | find /V """

I,P1,E0,S1,X0,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.dbc
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.connection.remote_connection_dbf.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.connection.remote_connection_oracle.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.table.fb2p_depto.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.table.nombrelargodeldbf.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.view.rv_db_debug_setup.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.view.vista_local.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.view.vw_local_encuestas.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.view.vw_ora_convenios.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.view.vw_ora_dual.dc2
O,P1,E0,S1,X1,c:\desa\foxbin2prg\tests\datos_test\fb2p_dbc.database.storedproceduressource.dc2

The last line means: Output file (O), Processed (P1), Without Errors (E0), Supported (S1), Not Extended file (X0) and the Full path filename

How to use with a SCM tool

Here we need to identify 2 distinct operations: checkin because a binary modification with the IDE and checkin because a merge operation.

Checkin because a binary modification within the IDE

When you work with the VFP 9 IDE, you modify the binary files (forms, classlib and the like), then you checkin your modifications, but before doing this you regenerate the Text files +just for the changed binaries+, and once you have all the boundles of bins/Text, you checkin them.

Note:

If any binary doesn't have the corresponding Text file, it can be because it is in use (close opened bin and CLEAR ALL at VFP command window), or because you really haven't made any changes to the code, in which case you should undo the changes to the binaries that don't have their Text files using the "undo" option for these files of your SCM tool._

Checkin because a merge operation

When you merge a branch, you work on Text files seeing and merging differences manually or automatically. When you have done with the merge you need to checkin, but before this, you need to regenerate the binaries (forms, classlib, etc) just from the Text files merged, to sync their code. Once you have done, then you checkin the boundle of bins/Text.

Note:

If at the end of a merge operation there are binaries left, you need to choose the "workspace binaries", because anyway you will regenerate them later from their Text files._

For options on integrating FoxBin2Prg with SCM tools, look at this topic: > FoxBin2Prg and use with SCM tools

Igel_FoxLast changed: Pungenday, 53 Chaos 3187

38 KiB Raw Blame History

Purpose of this document

FoxBin2Prg - Internals

Note:

Configuration file

Configuration file per table

FoxBin2Prg Internals

ZOrder

RemoveZOrderSetFromProps setting

Note:

VFP ZOrder bug and fix:

DBC ordered fields

PAM Section

Property Ordering

Warning:

Timestamps and UniqueIDs

DBF Data Export/Import for Diff/Merge

Order and range of records

Syntax:

Configuration per table

Syntax for filename.dbf.cfg contents:

Example: customers.dbf.cfg

DBF/DB2 Convertion Hooks

This is a sample program:

Language Support for messages

Note:

Note:

Multi-config (config per directory)

New:

File Capitalization

Conversion processes Logging

Create Class-Per-File

Recommended new setting:

Complementary options for the UseClassPerFile setting

RedirectClassPerFileToMain:

ClassPerFileCheck:

Note:

Note:

Create File-Per-DBC

Complementary options for the UseFilesPerDBC setting

RedirectFilePerDBCToMain

ItemPerDBCCheck

Note:

FoxBin2Prg API

Note:

Note:

Note:

Log to StdOut

How to use with a SCM tool

Checkin because a binary modification within the IDE

Note:

Checkin because a merge operation

Note:

38 KiB

Raw Blame History