AXDEFGEN COPY Files

Following is a list of TYPE codes that you might find in a COPY file generated by AXDEFGEN. The TYPE names are acronyms and/or abbreviations for the type descriptions. VT stands for Variant Type. For example, VT_I2 is a type of variant that contains a 2-byte signed integer. VT_UI2 is a 2-byte unsigned integer. VT_R4 is a 4-byte real number (floating point). For a more complete reference of these codes, refer to the Microsoft Developer's Network at msdn.microsoft.com.

Note that you may pass an alphanumeric data item or literal as a parameter to a property or method that expects a numeric item. The runtime automatically "parses" the alphanumeric string and extracts a number from it if possible.

In general, if a parameter is passed by reference (usually an I/O or output parameter), then it has 16384 (hex 4000) added to its value in the COPY file. For example a boolean output parameter would be 16384 + 11 (the value for VT-BOOL), or 16395. For this reason, if the TYPE in the COPY file is between 16384 and 16456, then you can subtract 16384 to find the associated TYPE code.

This table also includes possible C types that you may find in AXDEFGEN COPY files along with the corresponding COBOL data class.

AXDEFGEN COPY File Type Codes

If DATE is in numeric form, days are represented by whole number increments starting with 30 December 1899, midnight as time zero. Hour values are expressed as the absolute value of the fractional part of the number. For example:

0.00 is 30 December 1899, 12:00 A.M.

5.25 is 4 January 1900, 6 A.M.

5.875 is 4 January 1900, 9 P.M.

If DATE is in alphanumeric form, the date can be in a variety of formats. For example, the following are all valid formats:

"25 January 1996"

"8:30:00"

"20:30:00"

"January 25, 1996 8:30:00"

"8:30:00 Jan. 25, 1996"

"½5/1996 8:30:00"

You may pass a USAGE POINTER item that was filled in by a prior method or property call, or you may pass a USAGE HANDLE item which contains a handle to an ActiveX control or COM object. You may not pass a Screen Section item name as a handle of an ActiveX control. Instead, use the Format 11 SET verb to get a handle to the ActiveX control (e.g., SET my-handle to HANDLE OF screen-section-item). The IUnknown interface is part of the Microsoft COM standard. Any COM object or ActiveX control exports interfaces that are used to create, use, and destroy objects. Each interface is based on a single interface called IUnknown. This means that you may pass a pointer to any of these interfaces (objects) to a method or property that expects an IUnknown*.

The runtime automatically converts a handle to an ActiveX control or COM object to the IUnknown* type when you pass it to a method or property.

Any of these types may be followed by an asterisk to indicate that the parameter will be passed "by reference". This means that the ActiveX control or COM object method or property may modify the contents of the passed data item.

Any type name other than those in the list is a user-defined type. User-defined types are those that are created by the ActiveX control or COM object programmer or vendor. They always resolve to one of the types in the list but have different names to indicate their functions. For example, OLE_COLOR is a user-defined type that is commonly used to represent colors in ActiveX controls and COM objects. It resolves to a unsigned long which is a 32-bit unsigned integer. You must read the programmer's documentation of the particular ActiveX control or COM object in order to determine how to use user-defined types. For example, after reading about OLE_COLOR you may learn a formula to allow you to construct an OLE_COLOR if you know the red (0-255), green (0-255), and blue (0-255) components of the color you are trying to represent.

Another common user-defined type is IFontDisp*. This type is used to represent fonts. Some ActiveX controls and/or COM objects have properties whose values are fonts, or methods whose parameters are fonts. You may use INQUIRE to get a IFontDisp* into a HANDLE OF IFontDisp item. IFontDisp is defined in "acuclass.def". Then you may modify the NAME, SIZE, BOLD, ITALIC, UNDERLINE, STRIKETHROUGH, WEIGHT, or CHARSET properties of the IFontDisp item using the MODIFY verb. For example:

copy "acuclass.def"
...
77  my-font-disp  usage handle of IFontDisp
...
INQUIRE Calendar-1 DayFont in my-font-disp.
MODIFY my-font-disp Name = "Courier New"
     @Size = 15, Bold = 1.

Alternatively, you may use the double colon ("::") operator to set these properties in a single MODIFY statement. For example:

MODIFY Calendar-1 DayFont::Name = "Courier New"
    DayFont::Size = 15, DayFont::Bold = 1.

In this case, you do not use a HANDLE OF IFontDisp item. Instead, the runtime creates a temporary HANDLE OF IFontDisp item, does the INQUIRE, and sets the properties "behind the scenes" in the processing of the MODIFY statement.

Another user-defined type that you might see is DataSource*, which is sometimes used as the value of a DataSource property in an ActiveX control. It resolves to the IUnknown * type. For example, to use the Microsoft DataGrid control and the Microsoft ADO control together, set the DataGrid control's DataSource property to the IUnknown* of the ADO control. As stated above, to pass an ActiveX control or COM object as a IUnknown* you must pass the handle of the control or COM object.

For example:

01  main-screen.
    03 adoctrl, Adodc,
       COL 14 LINE 21 LINES 2.20 CELLS
       SIZE 29.00 CELLS
       LICENSE-KEY "C4145310-469C-11d1-B182-00A0C922E820".
    03 testgrid, Datagrid,
       COL 14 LINE 9 LINES 10 CELLS
       SIZE 28 CELLS
       LICENSE-KEY "CDE57A55-8B86-11D0-b3C6-00A0C90AEA82".

    03 PUSH-BUTTON LINE 27 COL 23 TITLE "Exit"
       CANCEL-BUTTON LINES 4 CELLS SIZE 10 CELLS.

...

DISPLAY main-screen.

MODIFY adoctrl ConnectionString = "DSN=Customers".
MODIFY adoctrl DatasourceName = "Customers".
MODIFY adoctrl RecordSource = "Select * from publishers".

MODIFY testgrid Caption = "Test".
SET adoctrl-handle TO HANDLE OF adoctrl.
MODIFY testgrid DataSource = adoctrl-handle.

DISPLAY testgrid.

The handle of the "adoctrl" is obtained with the SET verb. It is then passed as the value of the DataSource property in the MODIFY statement that follows.