CLEAR MACROS, RESTORE MACROS, SAVE MACROS, PLAY MACRO, SET MACKEY, Set(“MacKey”)

Maybe it’s because there’s always been a whole programming language to play with, but keyboard macros have never been a big thing in FoxPro. Other than the defaults that used to be set up on the function keys (you know, like F7 for DISPLAY MEMORY), we rarely record and use macros in FoxPro. We never include macros in our applications.

The most important command in this group is CLEAR MACROS, which lets you get rid of any defined macros—until VFP 5, it was usually the defaults on the function keys we were clearing. We used RESTORE MACROS occasionally, too, to get the defaults back. PLAY MACRO executes a macro by name, while SAVE MACROS lets you store a group of macros. Finally, SET MACKEY specifies which key starts recording a macro.

Usage

CLEAR MACROS

This command should be part of the startup routine of any VFP 3 or FoxPro 2.x application. That way, when the user drops his pen or his cat on the keyboard, he won’t end up with records full of “SET” and “DISPLAY STRUCTURE.” It doesn’t hurt in VFP 5 and later, either, though there are no defaults in there.

Usage

RESTORE MACROS [ FROM MacroFile | FROM MEMO MemoField ]
SAVE MACROS TO MacroFile | TO MEMO MemoField

Macros can be stored in either of two places: a special macro file (with an FKY for “function key” extension) or in a memo field. In either case, they’re stored in a special format where two bytes are stored for each character. One byte stores bit flags for the special modifier keys—Alt, Ctrl and Shift—while the second character stores the keystroke. You can open an FKY file or a memo field containing macros and see the commands, but there’s a lot more stuff in there, too. Check out the help topic “Macro File Format (.FKY)” for the underlying format. Hacking one of these files could lead to some cool applications, based on replaying macro files, such as testing data-entry portions of apps automatically.

RESTORE MACROS by itself loads the macros from a special file called DEFAULT.FKY. If you don’t have that file, it restores the (nonexistent since VFP 5) default function key assignments.

Usage

PLAY MACRO MacroName [ TIME nDelay ]

As the name suggests, this command plays an existing macro. The TIME clause is pretty cool—it lets you slow the thing down in case there are places where you need to wait for FoxPro to catch up. It’s good for debugging macros, too. You can see what’s going on.

Like KEYBOARD (often a good alternative), PLAY MACRO doesn’t actually make anything happen immediately. It stores the name of the macro to be played back when the program reaches a wait state (like BROWSE or READ EVENTS).

This command’s behavior when you issue it more than once is yet another reason we don’t use macros in applications. If several PLAY MACROs have been issued before a wait state, when the program finally reaches a wait state, the macros are played in reverse order. The last macro you played executes first. Bleh.

Usage

SET MACKEY TO [ KeyLabel ]
cKeyLabel = SET("MACKEY")

Through VFP 3, Shift+F10 brought up the Record Macro dialog. Starting in VFP 5, Shift+F10 was taken over by the context menus and there’s no keystroke assigned for Record Macro—you have to use the menu (from the Tools menu, choose Macros, then Record). SET MACKEY lets you assign a key (or a different key, in VFP 3 and FoxPro 2.x) for the task. SET(“MACKEY”) tells you the current setting. If you SET MACKEY TO without a key label, it restores the default setting—no shortcut key in VFP 5 and later, Shift+F10 in earlier versions.

Example

RESTORE MACROS FROM MyMacros
PLAY MACRO ThisCoolMacro
CLEAR MACROS

See Also

On Key Label, Set