Example for Week 7 - Step by Step


Add items and their cost to a list box. Select a shipment method and insurance (if necessary) and print a summary of the order. This program will use two forms. The first is used for the item maintenance and order selection. The second will be used to capture a printed summary of the order.

Part 1 - Housekeeping / Overhead

Save the Project in your NEW Project directory

Add the Second Form

Click on the Save Icon in the Tool Bar.
Make sure you name the form frmPrint and that it is saved to the project directory

Part 2 - Building the Example Application

Build the User Interface for each form.

First is the selection form

Selection Form The available items are build using two InputBox commands. The first for the item, the second for the cost. Edits are basic and coded below.

Each ListBox has MultiSelect coded. To Order an item, highlight what you want, and then click on the ">" button to copy it over.

To remove the contents of Selected Items, highlight the entries you want to remove and click the "<" button.

Deselect All must unhighlight all of the Selected Items.

Shipping method is optional. You must be able to pick from the list, or enter a specific shipper in the control. The list can be loaded at design time or at run time.

The Clear Button will empty the Selected Item box

Next is the Order Summary form

Print Form All of the information comes from the main form. Shipping method must be indicated. Either by specifying the shipper or saying "None Specified"

List the items, work with the fonts and colors.

Print will use the PrintForm method for this form and actually route it to the printer, but that is not necessary for this example.

This form will be empty at design time excedpt for the buttons. The content will be built at one of the Form events.

Make sure you have the keyboard interface.

How do you code a keyboard interface for a ListBox?

Done with the user interface?

Make sure you save your work.
Run the program: Click on Run | Start With Full Compile

Build the Event Handlers

Snippits from frmMain

To Add a new Item to the Available Items:

Const strDefault As String = "Type the name here"
Dim strItem As String
Dim strCost As String
Dim intResponse As Integer

strItem = InputBox("Enter a new item", "New Item", strDefault)

If strItem = strDefault Then
    intResponse = MsgBox("Accept the default name?", _
                                        vbQuestion + vbYesNo, "Just Double Checking")
    If intResponse = vbNo Then
        Exit Sub
    End If
End If

If strItem = "" Then
    Exit Sub
End If

If strItem = Space(Len(strItem)) Then
    Exit Sub
End If

strCost = InputBox("Enter the cost of the item", "Item Cost", FormatCurrency(0, 2))

lstItems.AddItem strItem & vbTab & strCost

A couple of things here:

The edit for the item name checks to see if the user has clicked OK with the Default value in the Input Box. If they have, then double check using the Message Box function, exiting if they did this accidently. Other checks for Null might indicate that the Cancel button was pressed in the Input Box.

There is no real edit for the Cost so format the value as currency. The Name and Cost fields are Added to the Available Items ListBox. It is important to note that they are separated by a Tab character.

Check the function of each command button and make sure that if you double click on the a Selected Item, that it is removed from the ListBox

Here are some snippits from frmPrint. These demonstrate how to address certain features. You have seen most all of these concepts in prior classes.

Font Control

lngDefaultColor = Me.ForeColor

Me.Cls
Me.Print

Me.Font.Name = "Courier New"
Me.Font.Size = 24

Me.ForeColor = vbBlue
Me.Print Tab(3); "Shipment Summary"
Me.ForeColor = lngDefaultColor

Save the default color. Clear the screen, print a blank line and print a Blue Heading

Handle the Shipping Method and the Insurance. Insurance is Red if not selected

Me.Print

Me.Print Tab(5); "Shipping Method:"; Tab; _
                                IIf(frmMain.cboShipping.Text = "", "None Selected", frmMain.cboShipping.Text)

Me.Print Tab(5); "Insured? "; Tab;
If frmMain.chkInsured.Value = vbChecked Then
    Me.Print "Yes"
Else
    Me.ForeColor = vbRed
    Me.Print "None selected"
    Me.ForeColor = lngDefaultColor
End If

Set up a loop to display each ordered item. Display a message if nothing was ordered

Me.Font.Size = 12
Me.Print
Me.Print Tab(5); "Item List"
intItemCount = 0
Me.ForeColor = vbGreen

For i = 0 To frmMain.lstSelected.ListCount - 1
    strTemp = frmMain.lstSelected.List(i)
    p = InStr(strTemp, vbTab)
    strItem = Left(strTemp, p - 1)

    Me.Print Tab(8); strItem;

    strFormatted = FormatCurrency(Val(Mid(strTemp, p + 1)), 2)

    Me.Print Tab(30 - Len(strFormatted)); strFormatted

    intItemCount = intItemCount + 1
Next i

Me.ForeColor = lngDefaultColor
If intItemCount = 0 Then
    Me.ForeColor = vbRed
    Me.Print Tab(8); "No Items Selected"
    Me.ForeColor = lngDefaultColor
End If

Me.Print Tab(5); "End of Item List"

Me.Print

Maybe these instructions need a bit more discussion:

This instruction takes everything to the right of the Tab character (Mid function), converts it to a number (Val function) and formats it as Currency. This is the cost portion of what is in the ListBox. Recall that the description and the cost were separated by a Tab Character

strFormatted = FormatCurrency(Val(Mid(strTemp, p + 1)), 2)

This instruction right justifies the formatted number. We want all of the decimal points to line up.
Tab to an absolute poistion (30), then back off based on the size of the formatted string.

Me.Print Tab(30 - Len(strFormatted)); strFormatted


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