Hacker’s Guide to Visual FoxPro
An irreverent look at how Visual FoxPro really works. Tells you the inside scoop on every command, function, property, event and method of Visual FoxPro.
WDOCKABLE()
This function, added in VFP 7, lets you check whether a specified window is dockable, and lets you change that state.
Usage
lDockable = WDOCKABLE( cWindow [, nNewState | lNewState ] )
|
Parameter |
Value |
Meaning |
|
cWindow |
Character |
The name of the window. |
|
nNewState, lNewState |
Omitted |
Return the current dockability status of the window. |
|
0 or .F. |
Make the window not dockable. |
|
|
1 or .T. |
Make the window dockable. |
|
|
lDockable |
.T. |
The window is currently dockable. |
|
.F. |
The window is not currently dockable. |
Beginning in VFP 7, many of the VFP system windows can be docked. This includes the Command Window, the Data Session window, the Property Sheet, the new Document View window, and several others. In most cases, the names of these windows are what you’d expect (“Command” for the Command window, “Properties” for the Property Sheet, and “Document” or “Document View” for the Document View window). Only FoxPro old-timers are likely to guess the name for the Data Session window—it’s “View”, which was the caption of that window in older FoxPro versions.
Because dockable windows have some behaviors (like being always on top) that developers may find annoying, rather than just make this change unilaterally, the VFP team decided to give people a choice. All of the affected windows can be made dockable or not dockable. Interactively, you do this by right-clicking on the title bar and checking or unchecking the Dockable item.
This function lets you do the same thing programmatically, and also provides a way to find out the status of any window. Note that, when you change the dockability of a window, the function returns the new value. We were prepared to rant about having to pass a numeric value but getting back a logical value—until we tried it. It turns out that, despite the documentation, this function happily accepts logicals for the new value, so you can just save the current value and restore it later without having to do any type conversions. Nice job by the Fox team.
If you pass the name of a window that can’t be dockable, the function returns .F. without choking. That’s true even if you try to make said window dockable. However, if you pass the name of a nonexistent window, you get an error (appropriately, in our view). Be aware that “nonexistent” in this context includes system windows that aren’t open at the moment.
Note that WDOCKABLE() returns .T. for toolbars, both VFP’s and yours, and .F. for forms.
Example
* Check on Command window
? WDOCKABLE( "Command" )
* Make it dockable
? WDOCKABLE( "Command", 1 )