Tips and Tricks—Getting the Most from PFC

Here are a few ideas to help your PFC applications look and perform their best:

• When coding response windows, place your default functionality in the pfc_apply event and call pfc_apply from the pfc_default event.

• In an MDI application, add this code to the open event of your application object to force a single toolbar:

  //Force a single toolbar
  this.toolbarframetitle = <some text>
  this.toolbarsheettitle = <some text>

• Add PFC User Objects to the PainterBar. This tip is from the Sybase Web site. Search the site for “44589” and you will find an article entitled “Streamlining PFC Development Tip.” The article describes a technique that you can use to add often used PFC user objects to your PowerBuilder PainterBar.

• Use the Datawindow Properties Service to copy and paste code for datawindow services. When you enable a service on the Properties dialog box, the Property button becomes enabled. Click this button to view a window where you can specify individual properties for the service. The General tab of this window differs from service to service, but it always presents an interface that allows you to manipulate the way the selected service acts. After you have configured the service, select the Syntax tab. The Syntax tab displays the code necessary to implement the service and allows you to copy the code so that you can paste it into your application.

• Add your most often used code snippets to PowerBuilder’s clip window. This is a very powerful way to speed up your development.