The basics of SQLWindows programming. (Client/Server Advisor: Inside SQLWindows) (Tutorial)

This month I introduce the SQL-Windows development environment, discuss a few of the mechanics of using it, and focus on the structure of the Application Outliner.

Building a SQLWindows application requires two basic operations. You visually construct the presentation level, or user interface, using a mouse by pointing and clicking, and dragging and dropping graphical objects into one or more design windows. A design window is a true WYSIWYG representation of a parent or top-level window object. There are a variety of parent objects including forms, tables (tables can also be child objects), Multiple Document Interface (MDI) windows, one of three varieties of dialog boxes (modal, system modal, or modeless), and a Quest Table Window.

MDI and Quest parent windows were introduced in SQLWindows 4.0. A Quest Table Window is essentially the table or query activity from Quest running as part of your SQLWindows application. By the time you read this, a new Quest Form window may also be available.

The graphical items put within a parent window are called child windows. They are the data fields, push buttons, radio buttons, lines, frames, list boxes, custom controls, etc., you use to construct a graphical user interface and populate the interior of a parent window.

The second step in building an application is to define the attributes of and supply the code to make parent or child graphical objects do whatever you want them to do. Code is written within the Application Outliner or Outline Window which is the SQLWindows program editor. The Outliner is really the heart of SQLWindows.

The Outliner takes some getting used to. Like any new editor, you need to master how to efficiently navigate through it by …