Calendar Integration

[alexmuir]

Hello

It's an old chestnut but we want to add a Outlook type calendar interface to our V10 desktop applications.

Can anyone recommend a polished and reliable ActiveX component we can buy?

Secondly what type of external programming skills would I need to buy in to integrate it it with Xbasic?

We are more than accomplished Alpha Xbasic experts, but to do the job properly I need someone who really understands ActiveX component integration.


Any direction would be helpful.

Kind regards

Alex

[Davidk]

Re: Calendar Integration

Alex,

I don't know of any specific controls that will give you the Outlook interface you want. But I can comment on Activex controls in general.

In A5 you get the Ole Automation Browser, available from the View menu. Once in the browse you get to select the Activex control you want to review and then you get to tabs of lists of that control's properties, methods, events and more. This is indispensible to trying to figure out how to use a control.

Along with the controls documentation it's not too hard to figure out how to set, read, and call events... the browser lets you know what is expected in terms of varibables and types.

What you don't get (in my experience) is any kind of direct control properties to set - you have to set everything in code. Usually, in VB or Access, you get a Property sheet where you can set basics of the control - not so in A5. So, it's just a little more work.

Because you're XBasic experts you'll have no trouble getting to the control.

In Access, for example, if you have an image control named PhotoImage you'd get to the control...

Form1.PhotoImage.Filename = "c:\imagename.jpg"

In XBasic it's

:formname:PhotoImage.Activex.Filename = "c:\imagename.jpg"

All calls to events are in are

x = :formname:PhotoImage.Activex.Save("c:\imagename", "tiff")

which, in this case, saves the image that was loaded into the control to disk as a tiff file.

Not all controls I've tried work with A5. Some older control I have do not - although they work in current versions of VB and Access. Current controls I've tried do work.

I hope you find your Outlook-like control. If you do, please post what you'd found and how you found coding with it. Do a search in this forum for "Codejock". It seems to be control that a lot of people have looked at... not sure how much success they've had. Also go to ComponentSource.com and search - they have a ton of controls.

David

[JAF]

Re: Calendar Integration

Search the forum for CodeJock and you'll find what you are looking for.

[alexmuir]

Re: Calendar Integration

Hi Jeff

I've spent some tiem looking at people's comments re Codejock.

There seems to be considerable negativity regards Alpha(especially V9) ActiveX dovetailing.

Comments made suggest that whilst with Access it is a relatively straightforard task to integrate it with the application; this isn't necessarily the case with V9.

Have the technical issues with V10 been resolved?

Do you know of anyone who has successfully integrated it within their application?

The type of functionality we are looking are user definable time periods (a minimun of 15 minutes) and the ability to view daily, weekly, monthly and annually.

Do you know if the codejock supports drag and drop. Whilst it would be nice, we could easily live without it.

I noticed one comment where some one was questioning drag and drop. The problem we have as developers is that often the bar is set by other software users work with; and good old Outlook alas has it.

I can't for the life of me understand why Alpha doesn't come with a calendar that offers basic scheduling. Along with the telephone a diary is the most useful tool anyone in business uses.

Alas, they don't so we all have to accept it and move on.

Thanks for your help so far.

Alex

[Davidk]

Re: Calendar Integration

Alex,

Codejock may well support Drag and Drop (not sure) but Alpha5 does not. I don't think Access does either. The control has to be able to talk to the host app to complete the integrateion.

The best process is to download CodeJock and spend a couple of hours getting some basic functions working. You'll be able to tell in a couple of hours how easy a control is to work with under A5.

[djldc]

Re: Calendar Integration

The CodeJock Calendar control can be used in Alpha (v9 &10) -including full drag-n-drop. I have implemented it successfully in my program -with help from others. I wasn't easy, but it is possible. I do not consider myself a proficient xbasic coder... only someone who really enjoys a challenge(working with Alpha for 3+ years and more with xbasic for under a year). Any experienced Alpha programmer should be able to accomplish the task with a few months worth of work or less. Go to this thread to download a sample.

Don
... or you can visit my website to download my full program (thirty day trial). www.healthsoftsolutions.com

[alexmuir]

Re: Calendar Integration

Hi

Any experienced Alpha programmer should be able to accomplish the task with a few months worth of work or less.

Don't take this the wrong way, but we may as well all turn the light out and go home if its going to take a few months worth of work to integrate V10 with a third party ActiveX calendar!

I thought ActiveX eliminated all this reinventing the wheel stuff!

Or have I misunderstood you.

With the amount of comments made on the Codejock component surely somebody has worked it out by now!

[djldc]

Re: Calendar Integration

Alex,

Two months or less... and did you really think that something as complex as a scheduling calendar could be implemented into just any program without some work? Have you visited the other thread I mentioned? I am not quite sure what else you are looking for. Why don't you start there and give it a try?

Reality is it could probably done in a couple days, but more time if you wanted it tweaked to your specific needs.

I am sure this has already been "worked out"... but that doesn't mean someone is willing to post months of hard work for everyone to use at their discretion. Also remember that it may not be any one persons to give out.

Don

[alexmuir]

Re: Calendar Integration

Thanks Don for your input.

Is there anyone out there you has succesfully integrated the Codejock ActiveX calendar control into their V10 applications and who we can pay consultancy to for assisting us to do like wise?

We are only interetd in V10 desktop.

Many thanks

Alex

[alexmuir]

Re: Calendar Integration

Sorry the you should read who

Thanks Don for your input.

Is there anyone out there who has succesfully integrated the Codejock ActiveX calendar control into their V10 applications and who we can pay consultancy to for assisting us to do like wise?

We are only interetd in V10 desktop.

Many thanks

[Chet Sapino]

Re: Calendar Integration

Hello

It's an old chestnut but we want to add a Outlook type calendar interface to our V10 desktop applications.

Can anyone recommend a polished and reliable ActiveX component we can buy?

Secondly what type of external programming skills would I need to buy in to integrate it it with Xbasic?

We are more than accomplished Alpha Xbasic experts, but to do the job properly I need someone who really understands ActiveX component integration.


Any direction would be helpful.

Kind regards

Alex

Alpha sells a calendar addin that is quite good actually and integrates in with A5. The single user version is $19.95 The multi-user version is around $99.95 It has a lot of capability built into it and can be set up with a few mouse clicks to run on any table with a date.

(removed broken link)

[alexmuir]

Re: Calendar Integration

Hi Chet

Thanks for your reply.

Two observations.

1: Alpha Calendar Tool Box in the shop doesn't actually tell you anything about its features and functionality.

If you use it, can you tell me whether it will handle 15 minute time slots, and whether you can view on daily, weekly, monthly and annually?

2: Comments made while searching for a suitable product by other members say it is tired in looks and lacks any serious capability.

All I want, is to offer calendar and simple scheduling to the people who buy our workshop management software.

I didn't realize it was going to be a hunt for the holy grail!

Thanks for your input.

Alex

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Calendar Integration

Chet,

Unfortunately, the Alpha calendar falls considerably short of users' expectations for an Outlook style calendar.

I purchased the Alpha calender a couple of years ago and was not at all happy with its home-made appearance. This was my impetus to explore codejock's calendar.

Don has taken the codejock calendar the furthest of any forum member I know of and has a real nice demo that you should download and review. Don's example doesn't include recurring events, which is included in the codejock sample for MS Access. Why don't you download the Access sample from codejock's site, see if it behaves the way you want, and if so
tackle its translation to XBasic perhaps following the approach that Don's demo illustrates.

I find it somewhat ironic, that Alpha already uses codejock controls for
its docking panels. How hard would it have been to do the heavy lifting for all desktop users and give us a plug and play calendar?

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh

[Chet Sapino]

Re: Calendar Integration

Hi Chet

Thanks for your reply.

Two observations.

1: Alpha Calendar Tool Box in the shop doesn't actually tell you anything about its features and functionality.

If you use it, can you tell me whether it will handle 15 minute time slots, and whether you can view on daily, weekly, monthly and annually?

2: Comments made while searching for a suitable product by other members say it is tired in looks and lacks any serious capability.

All I want, is to offer calendar and simple scheduling to the people who buy our workshop management software.

I didn't realize it was going to be a hunt for the holy grail!

Thanks for your input.

Alex

I believe Jerry Brightbill developed this. His email is: [email protected]

I would contact Jerry and see if he would forward the help file to you which explains the capability fully.

You can have Daily and Monthly calendars. You create an input form for a table with a date field. If you add a time field, you can set the time increment to any value you want. The dates and time and other data (user selectable) that you enter into the table will appear on the monthly calendar on each day. You can enter data from within the calendar by using a custom form which you create. The calendar can also be filtered by filters which you create in the Genie. The calendars can also be printed - daily and monthly with it's own canned reports. It's not too sophisticated, which means it's simple for an end user. In a multi-user situation, users could enter in their events of interest and everyone would be able to look at them and check on the details of each event, edit it, add new events or print the calendar.

All in all it's not a bad little calendar. The $19.95 version will not work with the runtime. You need the $99.95 version to work with the runtime whether single user or multi-user.