The Visual FoxPro Toolbox is a new enhancement to the Visual FoxPro Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which aids in the Visual FoxPro Development experience. The Toolbox displays by category user-customizable tool sets that the developer deems important for the creation of their applications. Tool sets typically contain classes and components but can also hold references to common file-based resources such as forms, programs, tables, reports, images, and so forth. They can also contain other types, such as ActiveX controls, builders and wizards, or XML Web service items. Items in the tool set can be dragged onto the workspace, clicked to run other default actions, or contain other behaviors accessible from the item shortcut menus.
Because you have complete control over the Toolbox, it becomes an essential part of the IDE. And like practically every feature in the Visual FoxPro IDE, the Toolbox is extensible. So if a type of tool or behavior is not currently supported, you can add new behaviors and tool types without having to recompile the Toolbox application. The individual tool sets are loaded into the Toolbox whose architecture also supports add-in behaviors, tools, and categories. This way third-party vendors or enterprise architects can easily provide their own specialized dynamic tool sets to achieve the ultimate in rapid application development.
In this article, you'll learn how you can create and distribute tool sets to your development teams and how third-party vendors can create tool set installation packages. You will gain an understanding of the Toolbox architecture and how to extend the Toolbox easily by creating powerful add-in behaviors. You will also learn how to override existing behaviors and add your own new tool and category types.
For more information on how to use the Visual FoxPro Toolbox and a complete discussion on the supported tool and category types, see the article in the February issue of Universal Thread Magazine.