Add-on/extension to produce quality VB code in Visual Studio 2010 - vb.net

Currently, Smart Indent in VS 2010 is giving me lots of headaches. Everytime I try to put each parameter of a Sub or a Function into one line like
Private Function Foo (ByVal a As String, _
ByVal i As Integer)
I get things like
Private Function Foo (ByVal a As String, _
ByVal i As Integer)
Can you point me to some extension/add-on/configuration to pretty print VB code?

Did you try this?
Private Function Foo( _
ByVal a As String, _
ByVal i As Integer)
Breaking the line before the first parameter puts each of your parameters on a seperate line and treats them all identically rather than making an exception (not a pun) of the first one.

Related

what is the VB6 App.HelpFile equivalent inVB.Net

I migrated VB6 code to Vb.net and I am getting " 'App' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level". below is the code
Private Declare Function WinHelp Lib "user32" Alias "WinHelpA" (ByVal hWnd As Integer, ByVal lpHelpFile As String, ByVal wCommand As Integer, ByVal dwData As Integer) As Integer
Public Property HelpFile() As String
Get
HelpFile = App.HelpFile
End Get
Set(ByVal Value As String)
App.HelpFile = Value
End Set
End Property
I need help on this.
If you are interested in converting a VB6 project to VB.NET, I found this PDF File that has a lot of information about it. However, if you don't mind going through it, I found this on the bottom of the 18th page:
"If the application has a helpfile associated to it then the solution is just to change the app.helpfile to the name and path of the
helpfile. So for example if the helpfile is called name MyProject.hlp and is stored in the c:\ directory the app.helpfile should simply be changed into “c:\MyProject.hlp”. "
So, just use another variable whose value you are going to set in the class constructor, then use it inside this property instead of "App.HelpFile". Hope it helps. ^^

VB.NET CEFSharp - OnBeforePopup

I have been trying for days now to find a solution for my problem.
I think the problem is simple but it won't work on my end and I'm not the best-experienced developer around the world. So Im using VB.net with CEFSharp and want to deactivate my browser to open links in new windows, I want that nothing happens then because I only have a web-based application which is included in Form1.
So I already tried to translate some C# code:
Public Class BrowserLifeSpanHandler
Inherits ILifeSpanHandler
Public Function OnBeforePopup(ByVal browserControl As IWebBrowser, ByVal browser As IBrowser, ByVal frame As IFrame, ByVal targetUrl As String, ByVal targetFrameName As String, ByVal targetDisposition As WindowOpenDisposition, ByVal userGesture As Boolean, ByVal popupFeatures As IPopupFeatures, ByVal windowInfo As IWindowInfo, ByVal browserSettings As IBrowserSettings, ByRef noJavascriptAccess As Boolean, <Out> ByRef newBrowser As IWebBrowser) As Boolean
newBrowser = Nothing
Return True
End Function
But there are 2 errors. The first one is with the ILifeSpanHandler.
It says that classes can only inherit from other classes. Was it wrong to put the code snippet over the End Class of my Form1?
The second error is at <Out> ByRef newBrowser As IWebBrowser.
Visual Studio says that type "Out" isnt defined. So what to put in there?
My main question: What do I have to change & why? :)
Thanks.

GetTempFileName throwing 'System.AccessViolationException' vb.net

I am new to VB and is working on VB6 to VB.net migration. There is one API call which appends a prefix in temporary file name.
I have added the dll as
<DllImport("kernel32")> _
Private Shared Function GetTempFileName(ByVal lpszPath As String, ByVal lpPrefixString As String, ByVal wUnique As Long, ByVal lpTempFileName As String) As Long
End Function
When I am calling this:
test = GetTempFileName(My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath, Prefix, 0, m_sTempfile)
It throws an exception:
An unhandled exception of type 'System.AccessViolationException' occurred in Forum.exe
Additional information: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
I tried using Path.GetTempFileName() but I might need to perform several manipulation to get the file name prefixed with specific word and located to specific location.
I crossed checked the values and they are NOT bad data.
I tried mutiple resolutions, but none of it worked.
Can someone help in this? Thanks in advance!
Pinvoke declarations need to be rewritten when you move them to VB.NET. Many differences, like Long needs to be Integer and if the winapi function returns a string then you need to use StringBuilder instead of String. Required because String is an immutable type.
Proper declaration is:
<DllImport("kernel32", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto)> _
Public Shared Function GetTempFileName(ByVal lpszPath As String, _
ByVal lpPrefixString As String, _
ByVal wUnique As Integer, _
ByVal lpTempFileName As StringBuilder) As Integer
End Function
And a proper call looks like:
Dim buffer As New StringBuilder(260)
If GetTempFileName("c:\temp", "xyz", 0, buffer) = 0 Then
Throw New System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception()
End If
Dim filename = buffer.ToString()
The pinvoke.net website tends to be a half-decent resource for pinvoke declarations. Not for this one though, the VB.NET version is pretty fumbled.

" addressof " VB6 to VB.NET

I´m having some problem to convert my VB6 project to VB.NET
I don't understand how this "AddressOf" function should be in VB.NET
My VB6 code:
Declare Function MP4_ClientStart Lib "hikclient.dll" _
(pClientinfo As CLIENT_VIDEOINFO, ByVal abab As Long) As Long
Public Sub ReadDataCallBack(ByVal nPort As Long, pPacketBuffer As Byte, _
ByVal nPacketSize As Long)
If Not bSaved_DVS Then
bSaved_DVS = True
HW_OpenStream hChannelHandle, pPacketBuffer, nPacketSize
End If
HW_InputData hChannelHandle, pPacketBuffer, nPacketSize
End Sub
nn1 = MP4_ClientStart(clientinfo, AddressOf ReadDataCallBack)
You are probably seeing this error:
'AddressOf' expression cannot be
converted to 'Long' because 'Long' is
not a delegate type.
What you probably want to do is create a delegate then change the type of adab to that delegate type. Add this to the class:
Public Delegate Sub ReadDataCallBackDelegate(ByVal nPort As Long, _
ByVal pPacketBuffer As Byte, ByVal nPacketSize As Long)
Then change your P/Invoke declaration to:
Declare Function MP4_ClientStart Lib "hikclient.dll" (ByVal pClientinfo As _
CLIENT_VIDEOINFO, ByVal abab As ReadDataCallBackDelegate) As Long
Do not delete/change your ReadDataCallBack Sub, you still need that.
At that point he compiler should be happy. However, the point made by others is important. The length of Integers and Longs is different in VB6 than in VB.NET. So in .NET you need to use Integer anytime you used a Long in VB6.
Regarding callbacks in unmanaged code see if this similar post helps you.
Regarding your question - I don't think you need callback functions or the example you posted is not correct/complet - see the post indicated above and clarify your code sample.
I assume that the second parameter to MP4_ClientStart is supposed to be the address of a callback function. Likely the problem is that you've defined it here as a Long, which in VB6 is a 32-bit value, but in VB.NET is a 64-bit value. You'll probably have some success by changing your declaration to:
Declare Function MP4_ClientStart Lib "hikclient.dll" _
(pClientinfo As CLIENT_VIDEOINFO, ByVal abab As Integer) As Integer
Here is the VB.NET implementation:
Declare Function MP4_ClientStart Lib "hikclient.dll" (ByRef pClientinfo As _
CLIENT_VIDEOINFO, ByVal abab As ReadDataCallBackDelegate) As Integer
Public Delegate Sub ReadDataCallBackDelegate(ByVal nPort As Long, _
ByRef pPacketBuffer As Byte, ByVal nPacketSize As Long)
Public Sub ReadDataCallBack(ByVal nPort As Integer, ByRef pPacketBuffer As _
Byte, ByVal nPacketSize As Integer)
If Not bSaved_DVS Then
bSaved_DVS = True
HW_OpenStream(hChannelHandle, pPacketBuffer, nPacketSize)
End If
HW_InputData(hChannelHandle, pPacketBuffer, nPacketSize)
End Sub
MP4_ClientStart(clientinfo, AddressOf ReadDataCallBack)

IFDEF equivalent in VBA

I have code that needs to run on both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007, and there are a few spots where changes in the versions cause the code to halt. I tried separating these lines out with If-Else statements, but the code won't compile on either because it doesn't recognize the code used for the other. Is there any way I could tell one version to ignore a block of code, similar to a C or C++-style #ifdef, in VBA?
This is a good starting point, but it won't work with the version of Excel that its running on, since that can only be figured out at run-time, not compile time.
If you need to branch your code based on information only discoverable at run time you might consider late binding as a solution. There are two ways you can sneak around version problems.
The first way can be used if you need to Access a property or method that only exists in certain versions, you can use CallByName. The advantage of call by name is that it allows you to preserve early binding (and intellisense) for your objects as much as possible.
To give an example, Excel 2007 has a new TintAndShade property. If you wanted to change the color of a range, and for Excel 2007 also ensure TintAndShade was set to 0 you would run into trouble because your code won't compile in Excel 2003 which does not have TintAndShade as a property of the range object. If you access the property that you know is not in all versions using CallByName, you code will compile in all versions fine, but only run in the versions you specify. See below:
Sub Test()
ColorRange Selection, Excel.Application.version, 6
End Sub
Sub ColorRange(rng As Excel.Range, version As Double, ParamArray args() As Variant)
With rng.Interior
.colorIndex = 6
.Pattern = xlSolid
If version >= 12# Then
'Because the property name is stored in a string this will still compile.
'And it will only get called if the correct version is in use.
CallByName rng.Interior, "TintAndShade", VbLet, 0
End If
End With
End Sub
The second way is for classes that have to be instantiated via "New" and don't even exist in old versions. You won't run into this problem with Excel, but I will give a quickie demo so you can see what I mean:
Imagine that you wanted to do File IO, and for some bizarre reason not all of the computers had the Microsoft Scripting Runtime on them. But for some equally bizarre reason you wanted to make sure it was used whenever it was available. If set a reference to it and use early binding in your code, the code won't compile on systems that don't have the file. So you use late binding instead:
Public Sub test()
Dim strMyString As String
Dim strMyPath As String
strMyPath = "C:\Test\Junk.txt"
strMyString = "Foo"
If LenB(Dir("C:\Windows\System32\scrrun.dll")) Then
WriteString strMyPath, strMyString
Else
WriteStringNative strMyPath, strMyString
End If
End Sub
Public Sub WriteString(ByVal path As String, ByVal value As String)
Dim fso As Object '<-Use generic object
'This is late binding:
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
fso.CreateTextFile(path, True, False).Write value
End Sub
Public Sub WriteStringNative(ByVal path As String, ByVal value As String)
Dim lngFileNum As Long
lngFileNum = FreeFile
If LenB(Dir(path)) Then Kill path
Open path For Binary Access Write Lock Read Write As #lngFileNum
Put #lngFileNum, , value
Close #lngFileNum
End Sub
There is a comprehensive list of all Adds and Changes to Excel Object Model since 2003:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb149069.aspx
For changes between 1997 and 2000 go here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa140068(office.10).aspx
Yes it is possible to do conditional compilation in Excel VBA. Below is a brief resource and some example code:
Conditional Compilation
#If Win32 Then
' Profile String functions:
Private Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "KERNEL32" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, ByVal lpString As Any, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "KERNEL32" Alias "GetPrivateProfileStringA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As Any, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, ByVal lpDefault As Any, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Long
#Else
' Profile String functions:
Private Declare Function WritePrivateProfileString Lib "Kernel" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, ByVal lpString As Any, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
Private Declare Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "Kernel" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpKeyName As Any, ByVal lpDefault As Any, ByVal lpReturnedString As String, ByVal nSize As Integer, ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer
#End If
Can you post the offending lines of code?
If it is a constant like vbYes or xlFileFormat or whatever, use the corresponding numeric value.
Show me what you got, I'll see if I can refactor it.
Bill