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Naming Conventions

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    Naming Conventions

    Could anyone offer guidelines on naming conventions for tables, forms, reports, etc....

    Also should I accept the default names for items such as "TABS" or create and use my own naming convention for these type of objects. Any suggestions????

    Thanks

    BP

    #2
    RE: Naming Conventions

    Hi BP,

    Look at

    http://www.aimsdc.net/Tips_Funcs/A5_Naming_Conventions.HTM

    Merry Christmas

    Santa Claus
    Marcel

    I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
    ---- Confusius ----

    Comment


      #3
      RE: Naming Conventions

      Since Marcel has already pointed you to my web page (here's a direct link for anyone interested: A5_Naming_Conventions), here are a few more comments regarding your question about Tabs, etc.

      I talk enough about using unique names and other naming issues on my web page so I'll restrict this just to comments about naming of objects on layouts - primarily forms, letters, and reports.

      From the standpoint of "does it work", it doesn't matter what you name the objects on your layouts - which most of you probably already know. On the other hand, one of the biggest time consumers is modifications and changes made after the initial "distribution" of an app. This is where the naming of objects (and other naming conventions) really starts coming in handy.

      As far as I'm concerned, the primary purpose of naming conventions is to save time. For example, if you are working in the code editor and want to edit a button script, you can open the script directly from the code editor. However, if the buttons are named Button1, Button2, Button3,... Button15, what are your chances of getting the right one on the first try? Or, how easy is it to decipher an old script that refers to Field3 or Browse4? And, if you can't decipher it, how long will it take to find Field3 or Browse4 to determine what it is?

      Note: In many cases, A5 names field objects and other objects with logical names but not all the time. It all depends on how they are created - or, possibly, modified.

      Because of these problems, I came up with my own object naming convention and a method for naming them quickly...

      The convention is fairly simple:
      - Fields are given the name of the field,
      - Buttons are given the same name as the text on the button with "_btn" appended,
      - Browses are given the name of the table the browse is based on with "_Brws" appended, and
      - Text objects are given the name of the text in the object with either "_lbl", "_txt", or "_hdr" appended based on the purpose of the text object. (The automated naming method bases the choice on length of text and size of font.)

      One thing you will notice that isn't mentioned is the item you mentioned - naming of Tabs on tabbed forms. This is basically because I haven't found any real need for it. There are other objects that I also don't worry about naming for one or two reasons - either it hasn't been an issue for me or the difficulty of programming a standard as noted below wasn't worth the few times it was necessary.

      Unfortunately, changing all the names manually can take a lot of time so I developed a routine for automatically changing the names quickly. It required quite a few lines of code and is included as part of my AIMS Format addin (which I sometimes refer to as the Group Format routine and currently has 1893 lines of code) which you can read more about on my Programs/Addins page. One of the newer features of this addin is the ability to re-name all, or selected, buttons, fields, browses, or text objects with one click of a button. No, it's not free but, especially for anyone doing serious development, I think it's worth far more than the $19 I'm selling it for.

      Cal Locklin
      www.aimsdc.net

      Comment


        #4
        RE: Naming Conventions

        Cal

        Thank you for your response. I will look at your addon product.

        With regard to your naming of things like buttons based on the function. If I have a button on Form1 that saves a record and is called "SAVE". Would you then on Form2 if you used an identical button that performed the same function, would you call that "Save.btn" also (same name as on Form1).

        Would doing something like that cause any internal issues for Alpha V (i.e. confusing which button for which form because both have same name)?

        Thank you.

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Naming Conventions

          Yes, I would - even if it didn't perform the exact same function. In fact, every one of my "Done" buttons is called "Done_btn" whether the actual text is Done, Close, Return, Return to Menu, Close Form, etc. The reason for this is that I use a "Std_OnKey" script that always pushes the "Done_btn" when the F12 key is pressed. This way I can always use F12 to close the form while still maintaining the ability to perform different actions when closing specific forms if necessary.

          Similary, the primary Find button (if one exists) is always called "Find_btn" so I can press the F11 key to 'push' it.

          By the way, I would shy away from naming objects with dots in them (it may not even be possible??) because that could cause problems when trying to do something like:

          parentform:done_btn.push()

          It might trip over:

          parentform:done.btn.push()

          RE: "Would doing something like that cause any internal issues for Alpha V (i.e. confusing which button for which form because both have same name)?"

          Obviously, based on my previous answer, the basic answer to this is "no" but you would have to make sure you used any relative names correctly. This really shouldn't be an issue. I've never really given it a thought and never had a problem. But, it's possible that the developer could get confused - perhaps a careless cut-and-paste or something like that.

          Comment


            #6
            RE: Naming Conventions

            Barry,

            One of the things I do differently than Cal is in naming objects. I use the following prefixes: 'frm' for all forms, 'btn' for buttons' 'txt' for text objects, 'scp' for scripts,
            'tbl' for tables, 'mnu' for menus (even thought menus are in fact forms), etc. This just carries over from the naming convention in Visual Basic.

            I don't know if there is one naming convention that is inherently better than any other, but it is important for you own peace of mind that you develop a naming convention that is logical and that works for you. Cal's addin works well and is well worth the price.

            Dave
            Dave Jampole
            www.customalpha.com

            Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Naming Conventions

              Originally posted by Marcel Kollenaar View Post
              Hi BP,

              Look at

              http://www.aimsdc.net/Tips_Funcs/A5_...onventions.HTM

              Merry Christmas

              Santa Claus
              The link above did not work so I am posting the link that does :)
              http://www.aimsdc.net/Tips_Funcs/A5_...onventions.htm
              Kind Regards,
              Ray Roosa
              Raylin Micro, LLC.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Naming Conventions

                Thanks for fixing that Ray.

                I changed to a new ISP and the new system is case sensitive. (Unix and Linux are case sensitive but my old ISP was using a Windows server which is not case sensitive.)

                OTHERS BE WARNED: I didn't realize this when I made the switch and ended up spending a couple days fixing all the links in my own web pages. When building web pages, be consistent with capitalization. (That's probably why almost all page names use nothing but lower case now.)

                Comment

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