July 7, 2000

Calling a Help System

Question: Once I create a .chm help file with HTML Help Workshop, how do I call this help file from my .exe application? Answer: There is a simple answer and a complex answer to this question.I’ll give the simple answer first. Use SET HELP TO to tell VFP to use

Slow Report Generation

Question: I’m developing a VB client application (using VB5) with an Informix database in the backend. However, the report generation that Crystal Report incorporates has always been very slow. What should I do? Answer: See how the reports run when you execute the SQL from the dbaccess command line. If

Text Datatype

Question: How do I search a text datatype column in an Informix database? Answer: Try using one of the text search datablades, if you are running an engine that supports it.

Informix and ASP Error

Question: When I try to connect to an Informix database (via ASP) located on another machine on our LAN, I get the following error: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error ‘80004005’ [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Driver’s SQLSetConnectAttr failed How do I avoid this? Answer: I don’t do much VB

Connecting Remote Client to Informix Server

Question: I have an Informix 7.32 server on a Sun box and I need to connect to it from another Sun box. How do I ensure it’s connected? Answer: Run a dbaccess and see if you can see the target database. If so, you have established connectivity. If not, check

Database Connectivity

Question: I am trying to connect to an Informix database via ODBC from Microsoft Access 2000. When I import a table from the Informix database, I see all the data. But why can’t I open the datasheet to view the records when I link the table? Answer: Check to see

Simple Component Testing

When creating ActiveX components, an easy way to test them is to add a module to the project (see the code below). In this module you can write methods that will instantiate your component and then call the methods. To make sure nothing was broken, you can keep your unit

Implement Catch All Blocks for Robustness

You can use Throwable class in catch block to catchall kinds of exceptions. This class is the base classof all errors and exceptions in the Java language. You can use following syntax to catch all exceptions, even if you don’t know which ones might be thrown: catch (Throwable t){} This

Overhead of Using Inner Classes

An interesting situation with method call overhead arises when you use inner classes. The inner class specification says that a private method of a class A can be used by a class B, if A encloses B. That is, if B is a class defined within A, it can call