BUG: Spell Checking on Memo Field Causes Error

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, version 3.0b
• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, 5.0, 5.0a

SYMPTOMS

Invoking the Spell Checker on a Memo field in a multi-user situation will cause the following warning:

   "Memo field could not be locked for Spell Checker"

CAUSE

The Spell Checker is ignoring the Optimistic Record Locking scheme of the Form.

RESOLUTION

Place the following code in the DoubleClick Method of Edit Region:

      && Copy current record to a separate file to avoid locking problem
      COPY NEXT 1 TO spellchk.dbf
      USE spellchk IN 0
      SELECT spellchk

      && The following line may be added if the user wants changes
      && made to the buffered data appearing in Spell Checker. The reason
      && for this is the COPY TO command is reading directly from dbf file
      && on disk rather than the buffered data appearing in Edit region.

      REPLACE spellchk.notes WITH THIS.VALUE

      && Run SpellChecker on the temporary table
      MODIFY MEMO notes NOWAIT

      DO (_SPELLCHK)
      CLOSE MEMO notes

      && Update Edit Region and original table with any changes made
      && by user/SpellChecker
      THIS.VALUE=spellchk.NOTES
      USE  && Close the temporary table
      SELECT employee

      THIS.REFRESH() && Update the Edit Region

      && Erase the temporary files created
      ERASE spellchk.dbf
      ERASE spellchk.fpt

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Issue the following commands in the command window:

         OPEN DATABASE HOME()+"SAMPLES\DATA\TestData.DBC" SHARED
         USE employee SHARED
   

2. Create a new form.

3. Right-click the form and select "Data Environment" from the shortcut menu.

4. Add the TESTDATA!Employee table to the Data Environment (DE) of the form.

5. Right-click the Employee table and select Properties from the shortcut menu.

6. Set the Exclusive property of the Cursor to False (should be Default).

7. Drag the Notes Field from the Cursor in the DE onto the Form to create an edit region for the field.

8. Go to the Properties window.

9. Set the BufferMode property of the form to 2-Optimistic.

10. Set the DataSession property of the form to 2-Private DataSession.

11. Add the following code to the DoubleClick Method of the Edit Region:

          MODIFY MEMO notes NOWAIT
          * Opens a text editing window that displays the memo field
          * assuming the memo field is called "notes".
          * The "nowait" clause allows execution to continue
          DO (_SPELLCHK)
          * The _spellchk system variable references the spell checker that
          * will be executed by FoxPro.
          CLOSE MEMO NOTES
          * This closes the text editing window after the user exits the
          * spell checker
    

12. In the Command Window issue the following:

          SELECT employee
          ? RLOCK() && Locks the Record
    

13. Save and run the Form.

14. Double-click the Edit Region to invoke the Spell Checker.

REFERENCES

For more information about spell checking in FoxPro, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q117212
   TITLE     : How to Use the FoxPro Spelling Checker (SPELLCHK.APP)

   ARTICLE-ID: Q136641
   TITLE     : PRB: Spell Checking Edit Box Contents Does Not Work