Properties Window (Visual FoxPro)

  • Article

Displays properties, events, and methods and their settings when available for a selected object.

Note

The names of properties that are read-only and cannot be edited appear in italic in the properties list.

For information about how to set values for object properties, events, and methods, see How to: Set Properties for Objects. For keyboard shortcut commands, see Keyboard Shortcuts.

Object list

Shows the currently selected object and displays a list of available objects when you click the arrow to the right of the list. This list includes the current form, form set, and all the controls on the form.

If the Data Environment Designer is open, the object list includes the data environment and all cursors and relationships in the data environment.

Tabs

Display properties, events, and methods by category:

  • All   All properties, events, and methods.

  • Data   Properties associated with what and how data is displayed or manipulated by the object.

  • Methods   Methods and events.

  • Layout   All layout properties.

  • Other   Miscellaneous and user-defined properties.

  • Favorites   Your favorite properties, events, and methods. To add a property, event, or method to the Favorites tab, right-click the property, event, or method and choose Add to Favorites. Properties, events, and methods can also be programmatically added to the Favorites tab. See MemberData Extensibility for more information.

Property settings box

Makes it possible for you to change the value of a read/write property when selected in the properties list.

Tip

If the selected property has predefined settings, the property settings box contains a list of settings that you can choose from. To open the list, click the arrow to the right of the property settings box.

Tip

You can browse settings by double-clicking the property name in the properties list. If the setting requires a file name or a color, click the ellipsis (...) button to display the appropriate dialog box or window for selecting a file or color.

Note

The property settings box, Cancel, and Accept buttons are not available if the value for a property exceeds 255 characters or contains extended characters. To edit the property setting, use the Zoom dialog box or the Expression Builder.

The following buttons appear to the left of the property settings box:

  • Cancel (X)   Cancels the changes you made to the setting and restores the original value.

  • Accept (check symbol)   Confirms changes you made to a setting.

  • Function (Fx symbol)   Opens the Expression Builder. The Function button is available when the property value is an expression. You can set literal values or values returned by functions or expressions. For more information, see Expression Builder Dialog Box.

  • Zoom (Z)   Opens the Zoom dialog box so you can edit the value for a read/write property.

    For certain types of properties, Visual FoxPro 9.0 provides support for specifying values that exceed 255 characters (limited to 8K chars) directly in the Properties Window via the Zoom dialog. Additionally, these values can include carriage returns and linefeeds. This support is limited to custom user-defined properties as well as certain native properties. Common native properties that support extended values include Value, Text, DisplayValue, UserValue, PictureVal, CommandClauses, _MemberData, CursorSchema, DataSource as well as CursorAdapter and XMLAdapter class properties related to specifying a data source, field list or command.

    Tip

    You can determine whether a property supports extended values by opening up the Zoom dialog for that property. If the dialog does not include an Apply button and you can type in a carriage return, then you have selected a property that supports extended values.

    Note

    You can still specify extended values for properties that do not support them directly in the Zoom Dialog by setting their value in code, such as in the Init event of that object. Note that values typed into the Zoom dialog that exceed 255 characters for properties not supporting extended values will be truncated when the class is saved.

    Warning

    Property values that exceed 255 characters or include extended characters such as CHR(13) (carriage return) or CHR(10) linefeed are stored in a special format inside the class library (.vcx) or form (.scx) file. The property value will contain special padding with CHR(1) characters. Be aware that classes in visual class libraries (.vcx) or forms (.scx) that contain properties with such values cannot be used in versions prior to Visual FoxPro 9.0. If you attempt to modify these in a prior version, an error occurs. You can still use other classes in the same visual class library (.vcx) files with previous versions of Visual FoxPro as long as they do not contain property values exceeding 255 characters or include carriage return or linefeed characters.

    The Zoom button might not be available for some properties. For more information, see Zoom <property> Dialog Box.

Properties list

This list shows all properties that can be changed at design time and their current settings. To get Help for a specific property, select the property and press F1.

The property settings in the properties list can appear as follows:

  • Property settings that are expressions are prefaced with an equal sign (=).

  • Settings for properties, events, and methods that are read-only appear in italics.

  • Methods and events display inheritance details as follows:

    Default

    -or-

    Inherited cClassname ClassLibrary

    For more information about viewing inherited code for a method or event, see How to: Display Inherited Code for Objects, Events, and Methods.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Set Properties for Objects

Other Resources

Windows (Visual FoxPro)