FlexIT is a fast and easy to use script based language allows you to build applications for Pocket-PC without having to learn a programming language.



Manual FlexIT

Version 2.1E (10-2000)


Published by: Veridex BV, Roermond

Author: S. A. J. Stamp / J.L.A.M. Dankers


Copyright © 2000 Veridex BV


Nothing in this publication may be copied and / or published by means of print, microfilm, sound tape, electronic or in any other way as well as stored in a retrieval system without preliminary written authorisation by the publisher.

Although this manual was made with great care, the author and the publisher do not accept any form of responsibility for damage resulting from possible errors and / or imperfections.



Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 HOW DOES FLEXIT WORK? 2
3 LAYOUT OF THE EVENTS GENERATED BY FLEXIT 3
4 LAYOUT OF A FLEXIT SCRIPT LINE 4
5 THE SPECIAL EVENT "FLEXIT.FLEXIT.INIT" 5
6 USING REGISTERS 6
7 USING OBJECTS 7
8 DATABASES 8
9 THE DL-FILE. 10
9.1 THE LAYOUT OF A DL-FILE. 10

9.2 WINDOW RELATED OBJECTS. 11
9.2.1 FORM 12
9.2.2 BUTTON 13
9.2.3 LABEL, CLABEL 14
9.2.4 TEXT, CTEXT 15
9.2.5 CURRENCY, CCURRENCY 17
9.2.6 MEMO, CMEMO 18
9.2.7 PULLDOWN, CPULLDOWN 19
9.2.8 IMAGE 20
9.2.9 LINE 21
9.2.10 RECTANGLE 21
9.2.11 CIRCLE 22
9.2.12 BOX 22

9.3 RESERVED WORDS 23

9.4 DATABASE RELATED OBJECTS. 24
9.4.1 DBSEARCHBOX 24
9.4.2 DB 25
9.4.3 NEWRECORD 27

10 FUNCTION LIBRARY 28
10.1 THE SPECIAL FUNCTION IF 30

10.2 A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ALL FUNCTIONS 31

Window related functions
10.2.1 F_LOADWINDOW 31
10.2.2 F_UNLOADWINDOW 31
10.2.3 F_DISABLEWINDOW 32
10.2.4 F_ENABLEWINDOW 32
10.2.5 F_HIDEWINDOW 32
10.2.6 F_SHOWWINDOW 33
10.2.7 F_REFRESHWINDOW 33

Object related functions
10.2.8 F_HIDEOBJECT 34
10.2.9 F_SHOWOBJECT 34
10.2.10 F_DISABLEOBJECT 35
10.2.11 F_ENABLEOBJECT 35
10.2.12 F_GETOBJECT 36
10.2.13 F_SETOBJECT 36
10.2.14 F_SETPROPERTY 37

Listbox functions
10.2.15 F_REMOVEITEM 38
10.2.16 F_ADDITEM 38
10.2.17 F_SETITEM 39

String functions
10.2.18 F_ISSTREMPTY 40
10.2.19 F_COPYSTR 41
10.2.20 F_TRIMSTR 42
10.2.21 F_ADDSTR 42

Mathematical functions
10.2.22 F_ADD 43
10.2.23 F_SUB 43
10.2.24 F_MUL 43
10.2.25 F_DIV 44
10.2.26 F_RND 44

Event functions
10.2.27 F_GENERATEEVENT 45
10.2.28 F_ENDEVENT 45


Date/Time functions
10.2.29 F_TIME 46
10.2.30 F_DATE 46
10.2.31 F_CALCDATE 47

Sound functions
10.2.32 F_SOUND 48

Database functions
10.2.33 F_GETRECORDCOUNT 49
10.2.34 F_DOSQL 49
10.2.35 F_GETMAXFIELDVALUE 50

Register functions
10.2.36 F_SETREG 51
10.2.37 F_GETREG 51

Financial functions
10.2.38 F_CALCPRICE 52

Special functions
10.2.39 F_EVAL 53

Other functions
10.2.40 F_GETYESNO 54
10.2.41 F_MSGBOX 54
10.2.42 F_END 55


Appendix A: Supported SQL commando's……………………………………….……………………56



1 Introduction

History.
During the last few years, PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant) are advancing rapidly. A growing number of business people are using the small, compact and powerful hand computers. However, the software development tools progress relatively slow. One of the reasons for this is the fact that these devices use different operating systems than a standard PC.

In order to give the users of WindowsCE® PDA's the possibility to realise their specific software demands, Veridex BV developed a “tool” which allows building small to middle size programs easily. This tool is called "FlexIT".

FlexIT is a script language. This means that FlexIT is a kind of programming language in which the focus lies on the simplicity for the programmer. Instead of making complicated programs it is possible to put a lot of functionality in a program using just a few commands. The well known windows of the Windows® operating system can be created easily by just defining the properties (like length, height and position) of the window. The main goal while creating FlexIT was to make writing programs (applications) available to people with no programming knowledge.

What is expected from the reader?
The reader is expected to have some general knowledge of the Windows® environment and operating system. Terminology like window, button and clicking must be clear.


What does this manual cover?
The first eight chapters of this manual will discuss the construction and operation of the FlexIT script language. After that the available objects and functions of the FlexIT script language are discussed in chapters 9 and 10.



2 How does FlexIT work?

FlexIT is a script language based on a “event driven” methodology. The basis of this methodology is that a specific function is only executed after a specific event has occurred. The event can be started by the user, the operating system or by externally connected devices.

A script is a text file containing commands, which can be interpreted by a program (FlexIT) in order to execute specific functions from its library. A function is a small part of a program with performs a specific task. For example the function for showing a window or the function for playing a sound file. All FlexIT functions can be found in the function library. An event is an action that takes place. For example clicking a button and closing a window are events.

FlexIT makes use of two different kinds of files, namely DL-files (Definition List) and a script file. The DL-files contain a description of all windows and their linked window objects (like buttons and input fields) from which a user may start events. The script file contains a description of the functions that should be performed if a specific event occurs.

By defining distinct names for all events and functions the programcode (the script) that has to be written by the user stays clear and easy to read.

The layout of the DL-files and the script file are explained in separate chapters, but in order to give you a general idea you will find a short example below.

Example:

Suppose we want to make a simple program that plays a sound file after you push a button. In FlexIT writing this program will look like this:

The first step is to define (by using a DL-file) a window on which a button is shown. The name we give this window is "winMain" and the name of the button is “butPlay". This will result in a DL-file named "WINMAIN.DL", in which the definition of the window is described.

After FlexIT is started, a window will appear with a button. Now the user may click on the button.

By clicking the button an event will be started. FlexIT will name this event “winMain.butPlay.Click” (the syntax of this name is discussed later in this manual). The only line that has to be written in the script file contains the name of the started event and the function, which should be executed if the event is occuring (the guidelines about how to do this will be described in another chapter). In our example the action that should be performed is playing the sound file so the function for playing a sound file needs to be executed. The line entered in the script file looks like this:

TASK:winMain.butPlay.Click;F_Sound("BEEP.WAV")

Writing a program using the FlexIT script language is very easy. By making the available functions very powerful, most functionality can be reached by a relatively few script lines.

The advantage of the “event driven” methodology of FlexIT is that the programs are built easily by writing the desired functionality in the DL-files and the script file.



3 Layout of the events generated by FlexIT

Whenever a user clicks on a button or enters text in an input field FlexIT will generate an event that can be referred to in the script. The name of an event is formatted like this:

. .

• Name of the window
This is the name of the window in which the user clicked on a button or entered new data.

• Name of the object
This is the name of the object the user performed the action on (for example clicking a button).

• Event
This is one word describing the action performed by the user. All events are predefined. All events are descibed in the description of the DL-files because the events depend on the object the user performed the action on.


Example:

A user clicks on the button "butPlay" in window "winMain".

The name of the window in which the action is performed is “winMain”. The name of the button object on which the action is performed is “butPlay”. The description of the button object (BUTTON) indicates that clicking the button will result in a “Click” event.

In this case the name of the event will be "winMain.butPlay.Click".



4 Layout of a FlexIT script line

All script lines are stored in a file called "SCRIPT.TXT". The syntax of a script line looks like follows:

TASK : ;

• TASK
This is a reserved word an must be put in front of each line in the script.

• The name of an Event
This may be the name of an event generated by FlexIT but also the name of an event generated by a function (see the description of the functions for more detailed information).

• A function call
This is the name of the function that should be called followed by the parameters passed down to it. Chapter 10 contains a list of all available functions.

Example:

The line in script.txt in order to play a sound file after a button is clicked looks like this:

TASK:winMain.butPlay.Click;F_Sound("BEEP.WAV")

In the above line the event is called “winMain.butPlay.Click”. The called function is “F_Sound”. The sound file “BEEP.WAV” is passed to this function.


5 The special event "FlexIT.FlexIT.INIT"

Whenever a FlexIT program is started a special event will start automatically. This special event is called "FlexIT.FlexIT.INIT". Even if this event is not the first event in your script it will be the first event that is executed after start-up. Starting with this special event is necessary because otherwise FlexIT does not know where the program, described by the script file, should start.

Example:

Suppose the program should start using the window "winMain", than the special event will look like this:

TASK: FlexIT.FlexIT.INIT;F_LoadWindow("WINMAIN.DL")

If you do not use the special event in your script the program will immediately end after it is started.


6 Using registers

While developing an application it is helpful if it is possible to store data temporary. For this reason FlexIT provides the programmer with registers. Registers are no more than predefined variables (memory locations). Twenty registers are available in FlexIT. By using the function “F_SetReg” data is stored in a specific register. The data from a specific register is read using the function “F_GetReg”. The name of a register consists of the letter R followed by an underscore and the register number (between 1 and 20).

Example:

. . . . ;F_SetReg( R_1 , F_GetYesNo( "Delete File" , "Are you sure?" ) )

This example will show a window with the question "Are you sure?". The answer to this question ( 1 or 0; see description of "F_GetYesNo") is stored in the register R_1.



7 Using objects

As discussed earlier, the windows and the objects linked to these windows, like buttons, list boxes and labels, are defined in the DL-files. Several functions in the FlexIT library make use of these window objects as a passed down parameter. In order to be able to refer to a specific window object the following naming syntax is required:

O_ .