Creating the User Interface

  • Article

A well-designed interface can guide users through your application. Forms, classes, controls, menus, and toolbars provide a rich set of tools for designing a great user interface.

In This Section

  • Working with Forms
    After creating your form, you can run, hide, or alter it in different ways.

  • Using Controls
    Controls manage the interactions between users and your application. Microsoft Visual FoxPro offers a variety of controls to enhance your application interface.

  • Designing Menus and Toolbars
    A good menu system tells your users a lot about the design and structure of your application. Planning menus and toolbars carefully can improve the usability of your application and provide immediate access to common tasks.

  • Developing Visual FoxPro Applications
    This section includes conceptual information about how to develop Visual FoxPro applications, instructions for creating databases and the user interface, and other tasks needed to create Visual FoxPro applications.

  • Creating Applications
    Discusses how to create Visual FoxPro application, which may include one or more databases, a main program that sets up the application's system environment, and a user interface comprised of forms, toolbars, and menus.

  • How to: Set the Starting Point
    Describes how the main file is the starting point for your application, and can consist of a program or form. When your application is run, Visual FoxPro launches the main file for your application, which in turn runs all other components as needed.

  • How to: Initialize the Environment
    Setting up the application environment is the first task that a main file or application object must accomplish.

  • How to: Control the Event Loop
    Learn how to establish an event loop to, which causes Visual FoxPro to begin processing user events such as mouse clicks and keystrokes. This occurs after the environment is set up and you've displayed the initial user interface.

  • Creating Applications with the Application Framework
    Explains how to create applications with the Application Framework using the Application Wizard and the Application builder.

  • Optimizing Client/Server Performance
    Learn how you can fine-tune your application to gain maximum performance by increasing data throughput.

  • Upsizing Visual FoxPro Databases
    Explains how to use the upsizing wizards to move databases, tables, and views from your system to a remote Microsoft SQL Server.

  • Creating International Applications
    Describes how you can design and develop your Visual FoxPro applications so they are as effective internationally as domestically.