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Formula One 5.0 ActiveX Read Me

Thank you for your interest in Formula One. This document provides general information about this version of Formula One.

IMPORTANT: Please read this document completely before using Formula One.

Contents

• About the Installation Program
• Installing the Product
• What Does the Installation Program Do?
• After Installation
• If you Experience Installation Problems
• Distributing Applications
• List of Installed Files
• Formula One README Files
• Redistributing Applications
• Moving the ActiveX Control
• Using the UnInstaller
• New in this Version
• Known Limitations
• Changes in Previous Functionality
• Visual C++ Programmers Please Note
• Stand-Alone Applications
• PowerBuilder Programmers Please Note
• Contact Us
• Developer Services

Formula One was developed for Windows 95 and NT 4.0 machines. The installation program will only install on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 machines.

Previous major versions of Formula One (eg. 3.0, 4.0) can reside on the same machine as this release of Formula One.

The installation program can be used to install both trial and working versions of any component.

You will be prompted for a valid serial number during installation. If you enter a valid serial number, Formula One successfully installs as a working developer version.

The product is installed as a trial (demo) version if you do one of the following:

• Hit the enter key at the serial number prompt.
• Unsuccessfully attempt to enter a valid serial number 3 times.

The trial version of a product is NON-REDISTRIBUTABLE and will expire after 14 days. You cannot deploy applications with this version. The trial version displays the VCI Trial Dialog every 30 minutes reminding you that you are working with an evaluation version of the product. If you wish to continue evaluating the product after the 14-day trial period, contact Visual Components.

The installation program creates new directories and copies product files to your hard disk.

To install a Visual Components ActiveX control on your hard disk:

1. Insert the installation CD in your drive.
2. Locate and double-click SETUP.EXE.
3. Follow the instructions on your screen.

The installation program performs the following tasks during the installation process:

• Allows you to identify the components you want to install, select a directory to hold the program files, and a folder in which to place the program on your desktop.
• Copies the files to your hard disk.
• Updates system files in your Windows system directory or the location of your choice.
• Records your serial number. During the installation process, you enter the product serial number provided on the installation media and product registration card. The serial number is recorded and displayed in your product's About Box. You are required to provide your serial number to receive technical support and upgrade pricing on future product releases.
• Registers the ActiveX control with the Windows Registration Database. This makes the control visible and available to your development environment.

Once you have installed the product, you can determine if you have a full or a trial version of the product by executing the AboutBox method. Text in the About Box/Trial Dialog tells you whether you are using an evaluation copy or not.

After you have successfully installed a full version on your system, you can distribute that OCX to your end-users without worrying that the Trial Dialog might display on their system every 30 minutes. If you have any concerns as to which version you are deploying, check the About Box.

If you experience problems installing this product, please read the file INSTPROB.DOC located included on your installation CD. This file contains suggestions for fixing the most common installation problems. If problems persist, contact Visual Components Developer Services for further assistance.

Please read the license agreement included in your package. You are bound by the licensing restrictions contained in this agreement.

The following files are installed in the Formula One program directory (VCI\FormOne5 by default):

In addition, the following subdirectories are created in the program directory to hold sample code or redistributable files.

A number of additional README files are provided to provide important information on a range of topics. Unless otherwise mentioned, these README files are located within the program directory:

The table below shows all the files necessary for Formula One control to operate properly. If you have purchased Formula One and are deploying an application, you must ensure that the first three groups of files listed below exist on your client's machine and are the proper version. The correct versions of these files are provided on the product CD. If your client's machine has older versions of these files, you should update them.

The files in the first group are the Formula One redistributable files. These files may be in the Windows system directory, on the computer's path, or for WinNT and Win95, in the directory specified by your application's Per Application Path key in the Registry Database. The .OCX file must be registered on each user's machine. The Formula One Setup program registers the OCX on your development machine. To register the OCX on the user machine, use the REGSVR32.EXE utilities. These utilities are available from Microsoft. To run these utilities type the following at the command prompt on each user's machine:

The files in the second group are Microsoft redistributable files necessary for this ActiveX control to operate. Your programming environment should have installed and registered these files. If they were not installed, or they are older versions, the Formula One installation program updated and registered them. These files were then copied to the REDIST32 directories in the installation directory, depending on which installation options were chosen. Copy these files from your development machine to your users machines. You may run the installer again and install only these files. These files must be present on your user's machine.

Our ActiveX controls require OLE2 support to be installed on a machine. In order to run an application containing one of our controls you must ensure OLE2 has been installed on the user's machine. The third group of files in the table lists the OLE2 files accessed by Formula One. Normally, copying these files to the user machine is all that is required. However, some older Windows 3.x machines do not have the new OLE2 files installed. You must then install full OLE2 support and ensure that these files are properly registered on the machine. OLE2 files can be downloaded from Microsoft. Microsoft's installer should handle registration for you, but you can also register the files manually using the REGSVR32.EXE. The result code from REGSVR32 will indicate whether any of the files need to be registered.

The fourth group of files should be present on any system running Windows. You should not remove or update these files. They are included only to form a complete list of files needed to use this ActiveX control.

Special Note: Some developers develop an application on one machine and then move it to another to build an executable. When building an executable containing one of our components, make sure the component is properly installed on the make machine. The license key that is copied from the registry when an executable is built is only available when the component has been properly installed on a machine.

During the installation process, the ActiveX control and the directory in which it is installed are registered in the Windows Registration Database in Windows 95 and Windows NT. This makes the ActiveX control visible and available to your development environment. However, if you move the ActiveX control to a different directory, or rename the directory that contains it, the information in the registry is no longer valid. This may cause the ActiveX control to be unable to locate its help file. If you find it necessary to move the ActiveX control or rename its directory, use the REGSVR32.EXE utilities provided with most Microsoft development products to reregister the ActiveX control in its new location.

The help file must be in your path for the ActiveX control to locate it. Windows For Workgroups and Win32s Registry Databases do not support Per Application Paths. The installer copies these files to the Windows system directory. The ActiveX control, DLL, and HLP files must always be in the system directory or on your path.

Formula One files can be removed from your system with the Windows 95 Add\Remove Programs item or by double-clicking the UnInstaller icon in the Program Manager folder. Using the UnInstaller will remove all files and Registration Database entries made during the installation. If you are using Visual Basic, it will create a support cache file (VCF15.OCA) that must be removed manually.

The UnInstaller creates a log of operations during the installation which it "undoes" to "uninstall" the product. You should run the UnInstaller before running the installation program additional times. If you run the installation program a second time without using the UnInstaller first, only the options selected in the second install will be written to the UnInstall log and later be uninstalled. For the UnInstaller to work properly, you should reinstall your original options in addition to the options you wish to install.

The Windows Start menu is not always updated immediately by the operating system. This means that sometimes uninstalled shortcuts do not always disappear right away. Because of this limitation, an uninstalled shortcut can temporarily continue to appear in the Start menu even though it really has been uninstalled. If you wait for a while, run some other programs, or restart the system, the shortcut should eventually disappear from the Start menu.

To verify that the program has been uninstalled:

1. From the Start menu, go to Settings/Taskbar/Start Menu Programs/Advanced.
2. When the Explorer displays, click on the existing program folder.
3. Check to see if the shortcut exists in the program folder. If it does not, then the shortcut has been uninstalled correctly, but the Start menu has not been updated correctly.

Introducing BookViews. Formula One 5.0 provides an F1BookView object. A BookView is a windowless, invisible workbook which has its own selection and view settings to facilitate background calculations and perform tasks without disturbing the current worksheet selection.

Internet and Intranet Development. Formula One now works with Internet browsers to provide ActiveX workbook controls for internet and intranet application deployment.

New API objects. New API objects include F1BookView, F1CellFormat, F1EventArg, F1FileSpec, F1NumberFormat, F1ObjPos, F1ODBCConnect, F1ODBCQuery, F1RangeRef, F1Rect, and F1ReplaceResults.

Workbook Designer. The Workbook Designer user interface has been enhanced to more fully conform to industry standards and to provide more ease of use.

OLE Property Pages. You can now access Formula One property pages from the context menu.

Global Languages. Extended properties and methods are now available to facilitate the use of double-byte character sets.

Internet Explorer Functionality

Constants. Internet Explorer does not recognize constant names (i.e., F1ObjArc).

Solution. Use constant values (i.e., 4 for F1ObjArc).

Title Property Conflict. Formula One's Title property conflicts with the Title property in Internet Explorer forms. The Formula One property does not get set because the form's property overrides it.

Solution. Use Formula One's TableName property, which provides the same functionality as the Title property.

Visual InterDev 1.0 Functionality

Script Wizard. Formula One crashes when you are in the Script Wizard and attempt to access any of Formula One's methods in the "Insert Control Window".

Solution. You can still write code against the control in the Script Wizard's CodeView window.

Visual Basic 5.0 Functionality

Context Help. Launching our help file from the Visual Basic 5.0 Object Browser or by pressing F1 with a Formula One control selected on the form causes the VB5 help file to launch as well as ours. This causes the Search and Find features to access the VB5 help file and not ours. This is a known bug in VB5.

Solution. Microsoft has fixed this problem in the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2 release. Install VisualStudio97 SP2 to obtain the fix to Visual Basic 5.0.

Documentation Notes

The sections "Connecting to the Data Source" and "Querying the Data Source" in Chapter 11, "Working with Databases" of the Formula One User's Guide should indicate that the ODBC Query dialog box and the Select Data Source dialog box are not available from the F1BookView object. Consequently, when you use the ODBCConnectEx and ODBCConnect methods, pConnect should never include a null string (" "). In addition, when you use the ODBCQuery or ODBCQueryEx methods you should always set the bForceShowDlg argument to false.

The Delete Key Command

The DELETE key clears the current selection depending on the setting of the AllowDelete property. The DELETE key used to present the Clear Dialog in 4.X versions of Formula One. This change in functionality was made to more fully conform to commercial spreadsheet application standards.

In order to use any projects created with a previous version of the Formula One ActiveX control, you need to perform the following steps after successfully installing Formula One:

1. Delete any wrapper classes for the OCX and any reference to it from your project directory.
2. Delete your DEBUG folder and make a change to the control in the resource and save it.
3. Comment out any #include statements that reference the wrapper header files.
4. Go to the Build menu and choose Update All Dependencies.
5. Go to the Component Gallery.
6. Go to the OLE Controls Panel.
7. Select VCI Formula One.
8. Click Insert. This will update your Class.

In order for drag-and-drop functionality to work in stand-alone applications, you will need to add OleInitialize and OleUninitialize to your stand-alone application.

The OleInitialize and OleUninitialize functions need to be added to any C++ application that uses Formula One.

Specifically, you should call ::OleInitialize(NULL) in the start up code. ::OleUninitialize() should be called in the exit code of the application.

A keyword name collision currently exists in PowerBuilder with events that have a cancel parameter. PowerBuilder generates an informational error message during compile for applications with OLE controls using such events. The PowerBuilder error message is as follows:

(0006) Information C0148: The identifier 'cancel' conflicts with an existing property with this name. The new definition of 'cancel' will take precedence and the prior value will be ignored until this version of 'cancel' goes out of scope.

Action: No resolution. PowerBuilder PTrack Number 343867

Please fill out the registration card enclosed in your package and mail it in today. You must register your components in order to gain access to technical support and several other valuable services.

By registering your serial number(s), you help accelerate the support process, receive notification of product upgrades, and become eligble to purchase product updates.

Additionally, registering gives you access to many free services through the Visual Components site on the World Wide Web at http://www.visualcomp.com. These services include:

• VisualSolutions Knowledgebase: The VisualSolutions Knowledgebase is designed to help developers get quick and useful solutions to the various questions they might encounter. Created with data from the Visual Components Developer Services database, the VisualSolutions Knowledgebase allows live querying for solutions to the most frequently asked questions. There are also code examples that demonstrate solutions to some problems. Each problem in the VisualSolutions Knowledgebase has been through a review process to verify the technical information. Access it directly at http://www.visualcomp.com/faq/vskb.htm.
• Case Tracking: Now you can open technical support cases or check on the status of your already opened case through Visual Components Case Tracking. Cases opened through the Web are entered into the Developer Services database, which greatly speeds the support process. Then with your Person ID and open case numbers, you can interact directly with the engineer who is handling your case by checking case notes and by adding any details that might be helpful in reaching a solution. Access it directly at http://www.visualcomp.com/caseqbe.htm.
• Environment Specific Support: The use of ActiveX components (OCXs) can vary slightly from development environment to development environment. Developers can learn about these specific issues through the Visual Components environment specific support pages. There are pages of general information, frequently asked questions, and demos on using Visual Components in PowerBuilder, Optima++, Delphi, Visual Basic, and Visual C++. The environment specific support section begins at http://www.visualcomp.com/environ/envhome.htm.
• FAQs: There are extensive lists of frequently asked questions available. They can be accessed from http://www.visualcomp.com/faq/faqmain.htm.
• Maintenance Releases: Current product holders can download maintenance releases of their products when they become available at http://www.visualcomp.com/maintain.htm.