Who uses TSBrowse and how ?

[TimStone]

I started using TSBrowse throughout an application using the following:
FWH 7.07
xHarbour July Beta 2007
Windows Vista Ultimate
Advantage Data Server

Suddenly I have people who are working with this complaining of the following sysmptoms:

System lock ups
Browse refreshes not being properly displayed
Long delays loading screens or refreshing data.

None of these problems occured when using FWHarbours standard WBrowse.

Here is my question. I would like to know who uses TSBrowse, if you use it with xHarbour Builder / xCC, if you use it with ADS, and if you experience any problems.

I have noted that it does not behave well with arrays, and it does not pre-process well ( FIELDS and HEADERS especially ), and that the UPDATE command can cause a rapid blinking if it is applied.

Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Tim

[Rick Lipkin]

Tim

I know you like a MSVC ( like ) compiler .. I do as well .. however, I have found I can not compile Hernan's TwBrowse with anything else but Borland 55 or 5.82.

If I am using ADS .. I compile with Borland and use Hernan's Twbrowse .. it is optimized for either ADS or DBFCDX .. actually ADS works very nicely.

If I am using ADO and local recordsets I find the standard FWH Twbrowse to be work very nicely.

For me .. if it is ADS driven from the backend .. Borland and Hernan's Twbrowse is the best choice.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Rick Lipkin
SC Dept of Health, USA

[TimStone]

I really don't want to revert to Borland, but I can identify with the problem using Hernan's browse with xCC.

I moved from WBrowse because I wanted 1) header colors, 2) column alignment, and 3) larger cells and a better font. Alternate shading of rows is nice also. These are available in TSBrowse. I was willing to go for the additional coding, but its just getting to be frustrating with all the problems that have arisen.

If no one who uses TSBrowse has any problems with advantage, then I can assume its in my code ... but I would sure like to know the experience of others.

[avista]

TSBrowse is great class.... i use it in 99% in my programs ...but i use FW for Windows ....(16 bit) i dont know is it something different but i can send you some samples if you want.

Regards,

[TimStone]

I like the layout, but the concern is with 32 bit, Microsoft compatible, functioning specifically using the latest builds of FWH and xHarbour Builder.

My guess is there may be incompatibilities between the latest FWH and TSBrowse. For example, we cannot use TSBrowse's TMETAFIL because it does not support the full functionality included in FWH.

As a realtively older piece of code, it would be nice, as has been suggested on this forum previously, that we make a concerted effort to perhaps fold it into FWH.

[R.F.]

Tim:

TSBrowse is a great class with a lot of visual enhacements but internally has serveral programming issues, I mean, is not fully optimized.

Me and my team had to make serveral corrections to TSBrowse Class in order to make it work under 32 bits with xHarbour and ADS.

If I can recall, we used the same source code in both 16 bits and 32 bits, however we made several changes to make it work with ADS, specially because it loses the "alias" when working under MDI.

Let me see if I have the source around to send you a copy with our changes so you will see if you can find it useful for you.

[TimStone]

Rene,

That sounds like what I'm running into. I have James most recent version. Losing the record pointer is key to the problems I'm facing.

WBrowse is very stable and never gives me any problems but I sure wish we had more flexibility in its display.

Tim

My direct email is timstone@masterlinksoftware.com

Thank you.

[James Bott]

Rene,

If you will send me a copy also, I will add your changes to the changes I have made and then post it on my website.

Tim,
Is your app MDI? If so, perhaps that is why I haven't seen any problems since I never use MDI.

Thanks,
James

[TimStone]

No, at this time the application is not MDI, but it does use ADS, and the comment about losing the Alias makes a lot of sense with some of the behaviors I see.

[James Bott]

Tim,

I have found one problem. Here is TWBrowse's skip method:

Code: Select all

METHOD Skip( n ) CLASS TWBrowse

   if ::bSkip != nil
      return Eval( ::bSkip, n, Self )
   endif

return ( ::cAlias )->( _DBSkipper( n ) )

And here is TSBrowses skip method:

Code: Select all

METHOD Skip( n ) CLASS TSBrowse

   If ::bSkip != Nil
      Return Eval( ::bSkip, n )
   EndIf

Return ::dbSkipper( n )

As you can see, TSBrowse doesn't have the alias reference in the RETURN statement.

James

[James Bott]

Tim,

Here is another difference. This code is in TSBrowse:goBottom():

Code: Select all

     #ifdef __HARBOUR__
         If ::cDriver == "ADS"
            ::nAt := ::nLogicPos()
         Else
            ::nAt := ::nLen
         EndIf
      #else
         ::nAt := ::nLogicPos()
      #endif

And nowhere in the same method in TWBrowse do I see ::nAt even being set. The methods are quite different in the two classes. I am not sure what the consequences of this may be.

James

[James Bott]

I found a number of mostly eof() statements that were not alias referenced which I have fixed.

James

[TimStone]

The two classes do have very significant differences. The ADS compatibility will be critical.

I've tried other ways to work with the header background color in WBROWSE also and it does not respond to the nClrForeHead, nClrBackHead values, at least with VISTA. It appears that some of the data values were actually hardcoded and cannot be changed. You saw the screen shot that I had showing essentially no color differentiation for the header.

[TimStone]

Rene,

Did you ever find that file ?

Thanks

Tim