Using the ebm Form Editor, Part 2

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2 - A Real Sample Program (or a Sample 'Real' Program)

Rather than slowly building a program piece by piece, we'll look at a working example, and take it apart. The source code for this example program can be downloaded and installed, preferably to a directory called 'eg_2'. The only piece missing is the output from the Form Editor. The Franklin form file (eg_2.fff) has been included, so you can load that and export it as eg_2.cpp. At that point, the resulting files can be compiled, and the program run.

Although simple, the program code answers some of the questions raised in the last article:

how do I initialize objects?
how do I handle objects settings like checking a checkbox, or coloring a rectangle?
how do I set up my source so I can modify my form in the Editor, but not erase my source code?

The key to all of this is to arrange your source files so the Form Editor's source output remains a separate file, and all other coding goes into a second file. This requires 'cracking open' the object definition to add functions and variables, so the Form Editor provides a way to edit this, via the menu option Source/Class Text. This displays a dialog where you can add text which is pasted into the source code in the header, and is updated with each exporting. Specifically, the text is placed in the public section of the class definition. The example source shows how this works - look at the eg_2.fff file to see what the text looked like originally, and then eg_2.h file to see the result:

class CWindow1 : public CWindow
{
  private:

  public:

    CRect *Rect1;
    CButton *Button1;
    CCheckbox *Checkbox1;
    CTextEdit *TextEdit1;
    CWindow1();

    // text here is from the 'class text' menu option of the Form Editor
    int m_count;
    S32 MsgHandler( MSG_TYPE type, CViewable *from, S32 data );
    void Initialize(void);
    // text end
};

This option allows you to add other functions, variables, etc, and have the source code maintained by the Form Editor.

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