Calendar Toolbox

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Hi Bob,

You can not develop a useful CRM application without good calendar functionality. Which is why I have yet to see one commercial grade CRM application built with Alpha Five.

Which means there is a great opportunity for you to build one.

[gagsoft]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Hi Keith / Bob

And I will gladly purchase this as an Alpha add-on if my budget allows it with the current Rand / Dollar exchange.:)
Thanks
Peter

[michaelwpayton]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Hi Bob,

Which means there is a great opportunity for you to build one.

Hear... hear...

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

All I am looking for is a simple add-in like the Alpaha5 calendar add-in that will take table data such as job no, resource, start date, end date and make a graphical representations like the thumbnail Mauricio attached in a previous thread for a desktop application.

It is relatively easy to build, in Alpha, what you show in your image - at least as far as a form goes. However, putting that graph into a report is another matter.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

For those who want to go down the route of building their own calendar, and making the wheel any shape they want, take a look at the basic code behind the sample from Dr Peter Wayne.

Whilst this is a copy of the original, designed by me and built by Jerry Brightbill, and does not have all the features in the Calendar package, it does get you into the area of understanding Xbasic and Xdialog code. Any feature not here, you can add your own with Xdialog.

You can find it here atLearnAlpha

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

For those who want to go down the route of building their own calendar, and making the wheel any shape they want, take a look at the basic code behind the sample from Dr Peter Wayne.

Not to take anything away from either Peter Wayne or Keith, the "calendar" image that Gagsoft posted is much easier to build that a traditional calendar. I know because I built one nearly identical to the image. Except mine graphed monetary sales, not dates*. But the concept is identical.


*Although the sales, were, of course, based upon dates.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Hi Peter,

What did you use to build what you built?

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Hi Peter,

What did you use to build what you built?

Keith,

If you look at Gagsoft's image, there are two browses - one w. data, the other w. a bar graph. I used one browse for data (on a conditional object) and dynamic text objects for graphing (on another layer of the form's cond object). Basically, I used the form's OnFetch event to dynamically update the graph as the user scrolled up & down the browse - or up/down buttons to page scoll the graph directly. There is also a radio button to adjust the scale of the graph.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Very neat Peter.

I suppose you could have both browses on view together on the same form too?

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

I suppose you could have both browses on view together on the same form too?

You bet!

[gagsoft]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

HI Peter


Can you give me some pointers just to put me on the right path.
It would be very much appreciated


Thanks
(gagsoft) Peter

[Peter.Greulich]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Can you give me some pointers just to put me on the right path.

Hi Peter,

Basically you need to create a text object for each bar in the graph. I actually use two text objects for each bar (red for payables, green for cash). Then use xbasic to adjust the size, color of the text objects. See image for a view of the graph in edit mode. Here is the code for my down arrow button to help get you started:

''XBasic: Fetch selected records and graph
''Set Graph Scale

Dim Shared vStartDate as D
Dim Shared vEndDate as D
Dim Shared vScale as N

vStartDate = {}
StartDate.refresh()

''Adjust values of Bar Scale (Text Objects) based upon the value of vScale

For k = 2 to 7 
    eval("Scale" + ALLTRIM(STR(k)) + ".text") =  ALLTRIM(STR(vScale * (k-1)))
    eval("Scale" + ALLTRIM(STR(k+7)) + ".text") =  ALLTRIM(STR(vScale * (k-1)))
Next k

tbl = table.current(1)                              
tbl.index_primary_put("Date")

For i = 1 to 20     
    eval("Date" + ALLTRIM(STR(i)) + ".text") = DTOC(tbl.date)
    eval("Bar" + ALLTRIM(STR(i)) + ".object.width") =     (tbl.TOTAL_CASH/vScale)
    eval("Bar" + ALLTRIM(STR(i)) + ".fill.forecolor") = "Green"
    eval("Bar" + ALLTRIM(STR(i)) + ".text") = "$" + ALLTRIM(STR(tbl.TOTAL_CASH))

    eval("Bar" + ALLTRIM(STR(i+20)) + ".object.width") =     (tbl.TOTAL_PAYABLES/vScale)
    eval("Bar" + ALLTRIM(STR(i+20)) + ".fill.forecolor") = "Red"
    eval("Bar" + ALLTRIM(STR(i+20)) + ".text") = "$" + ALLTRIM(STR(tbl.TOTAL_PAYABLES))
tbl.fetch_next()    
Next i

Parentform.resynch()
END

Note that you have to scale your values (i.e. bars) to match the graph area.

Also, my text object bars have no borders, color, etc. because I don't want to show red, if the company has no payables (or, these days, green if the company has no money - Yikes!)

Oh, and you need to use a logical, progressive numbering system for your text objects, so that you can logically address them w. xbasic.

[gagsoft]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Hi Peter

Thank you for the pointers. I can sure make use of it. I just realised.... Simple Charts comes bundled with Alpha. If it s as good as they say it is, then one should be able to draw simple GANTT charts based on table fields I mentioned in my previous thread.:p

Thanks
Peter Gagiano

[gagsoft]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

Hi Peter, Keith, Rob, Michael

Just got word from the SimpleChart Support Team.
Unfortunately SimpleChart does not support Gantt charts and they have no plans to introduce this chart type into a future version of the product.

So Sorry

Thanks
Peter Gagiano

[Mbuso]

Re: Calendar Toolbox

PETER

It is relatively easy to build, in Alpha, what you show in your image - at least as far as a form goes. However, putting that graph into a report is another matter.

1. Any FORM can be printed.
2. A form designed to look like a report will achieve your desired results. It "looks" like a report if it has
a. white background
b. paper sized (A4/?) dimension
c. "unprintable" buttons (properties)

I have used this approach in developing gant charts for a Project Management application.