Chris Bova
Summit Software Company
December 1999
Summary: The Modifier client manages the authoring and deployment of VBA Projects. (3 printed pages) Discusses:
Note The Modifier application is only available in the Duwamish Books, Phase 3.5: VBA sample.
Introduction to the Modifier
Selecting a Component to Modify
The Project Store View
Showing the VBA IDE
Creating and Loading Projects
Saving and Deploying Projects
Importing and Exporting Projects
Installing and Uninstalling Projects
Deleting an Unused Project
The Modifier is the heart of VBA-enabled Duwamish Books. Using this application, Duwamish Books users can create and manage VBA code projects that are loaded by the BLL and respond to events fired during a BLL method. The Modifier saves customizations, in the form of multithreaded (MT) VBA projects, to the MT Project Store on the middle tier.
The Modifier can customize either the Buyer or the Order BLL methods and switches between the two available customizations. Use the option buttons on the left side of the Modifier screen to choose which BLL method you are currently customizing. This action will close the VBA integrated development environment (IDE), and will prompt you to save your work if you have unsaved projects open.
The Project Store View is the largest part of the Modifier client and provides information about saved and deployed projects in the MT Project Store, including project name, ProgId, and status—regardless of whether they are currently installed. This information is gathered from the server by the Modifier client and updates automatically, but a Refresh button is available in the lower-left corner of the Modifier window for users who want to synchronize the data manually.
From the Tools menu on the Modifier client, select Show IDE to show the VBA IDE. The VBA IDE is the development environment where you can write and debug the code for your modification.
To create a new customization project, from the File menu, select New Project. The VBA IDE will appear, containing a new modification. You'll find some boilerplate code waiting for you that you can use to jump-start work on your project. VBA-enabled Duwamish Books shipped with several sample projects that you can install onto your clients or use as a basis for creating your own projects. If there is no project currently open, you can load one that you previously created. Just select your choice from the Project Store View by clicking it, select File, and then select Load Project. You can also perform this action from within the VBA IDE. You will be presented with a list of currently saved customizations. Make your selection from the list, and then click OK.
A project can be deployed from your local machine one of three ways:
The Modifier will compile the MT Project and save it to the MT Project Store on the server. If your VBA code fails to compile the Modifier will show the VBA IDE, which will display further information about the compilation error(s).
If your VBA code contains errors the Modifier will prompt you to compile a local copy and will highlight any errors found.
From the VBA IDE, select File, and then select Import Project. Navigate to the location of the .vba file you'd like to import into a project, and select it. To export a project currently open in the IDE, select File, and then select Export Project. Importing a project from a .vba file does not necessarily save that project to the server. Such a project exists only locally until it is saved with the Save Project command.
Modifications that have been deployed onto the server can be installed and uninstalled from the main Modifier menu. Installed modifications will be loaded and executed by the appropriate BLL method. Select the modification you'd like to use from the Project Store View by clicking it. From the File menu, select Install Project to install it, select Uninstall Project to uninstall it, or select Uninstall all Projects to uninstall all projects for the BLL method you are currently customizing.
When you want to remove a customization project that you have previously deployed from the server, select it in the Project Store view. From the File menu, select Delete Project. You will be prompted to confirm this action, and the project will be deleted.