Course Outline: Visual Basic 6.0: Intermediate to Advanced Programming
(4 Days) with Hands-On Labs
Learning Objectives
Utilize more advanced coding statements to access arrays, files, multimedia and resources of the internet
Develop applications that utilize a relational database
Create COM Components utilizing Object Oriented programming techniques
Utilize COM Components to extend application abilities
This course description should be used to determine whether the course is appropriate for you based on your current skill and technical training needs. Technical information is provided on the intended audience, course prerequisites, and covered topics. Course content, prices, and availability are subject to change without notice.
The Innovative Cyber-Classroom
Benefits Include:
Courseware is viewed onscreen instead of in a binder on the students desktop
Interactive components that can, and most likely will be used by the students for reference after the training is concluded
Cyber-Course added features:
(7806) lines of code in 178 Example Programs (with Program Outputs)
(558) Illustrations/Figures
(412) Programming Tips
(78) Good Programming Practices
(155) Common Programming Errors
(14) Look-and-Feel Observations
(39) Performance Tips
(15) Portability Tips
(76) Software Engineering Observations
(40) Testing and Debugging Tips
Course Audience
This course is designed for individuals who would like to take Visual Basic programming capabilities to the next step. Programming for Object Orientation, the Web, building COM components, building sophisticated Graphics-Oriented Interfaces and accessing Active Data Controls (ADO) are some of the techniques addressed in this class.
Course Description
Teaching Approach - This NEW Cyber Course in conjunction with its companion book contains a rich collection of examples, exercises, and projects drawn from many fields to provide the student with a chance to solve interesting real-world problems. The course concentrates on the principles of good software engineering and stresses program clarity. We avoid arcane terminology and syntax specifications in favor of teaching by example. Each of our code examples has been carefully tested.
Live-Code Teaching Approach - The course is loaded with live-code examples. This is the focus of the way the course is taught with regard to programming, and the focus of the multimedia Cyber Classrooms as well. Virtually every new concept is presented in the context of a complete, working Visual Basic 6 program immediately followed by one or more windows showing the program’s output. We call this style of teaching and writing our live-code approach. We use the language to teach the language. Reading these programs is much like entering and running them on a computer.
Overview - This complete course in Visual Basic 6 comes straight from world class leading programming trainers. Combining world-class interactive multimedia and an extraordinarily practical, thorough companion book, there’s no better way to master real-world VB 6 development for performance and reliability.
Key Topics - The Visual Basic Multimedia Cyber Classroom CD-ROM for Windows 95, 98, NT and Windows 2000 delivers comprehensive interactive training on every VB concept you need to know. The Cyber-Course contains 8+ hours of audio, plus 300+ complete VB programs - 10,000 lines of fully tested code you can run with a single click. There are 4000+ hyperlinked index entries, plus hundreds of tips for building reliable, optimized code. You also get Visual Basic 6 companion book, a great new guide to VB6 programming and the VB6 development environment. Master control structures, procedures, functions, arrays, string processing and basic graphics. Discover VB6’s powerful tools for GUI development and debugging. Even learn COM/DCOM techniques for distributed Web and network development (the advanced sections!) Book and CD-ROM course work together perfectly - making you a Visual Basic expert faster than you ever imagined!
Added Bonus contained in the course - The Official Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Working Model Software - Everything you need to begin programming right away!
Additional Overview
The Cyber Classroom contains an introductory presentation in which we overview the Cyber Classroom features. The live-code Visual Basic 6 example programs in the textbook truly “come alive” in the Cyber Classroom. We have placed executables for all these example programs “under the hood” of the Cyber Classroom, so if you are viewing a program and want to execute it, you simply click the lightning bolt icon and the program executes. You immediately see - and hear for the audio-based multimedia programs - the program’s outputs. If you want to modify a program and see and hear the effects of your changes, simply click the floppy-disk icon that causes the source code to be “lifted off” the CD and “dropped into” one of your own directories so you can edit the program, recompile the program and try out your new version. Click the audio icon and it will talk about the program and “walk you through” the code. We provided line numbers in the source code listings to help you follow the audio discussions.
The Cyber Classroom contains a set of interactive, self-review questions that reinforce your understanding of the material. These questions are provided at the end of most sections. Also, solutions to many of the end-of-chapter exercises are provided.
The Cyber Classroom also provides many navigational aids including extensive hyperlinking. The Cyber Classroom remembers in a “history list” recent sections you have visited and allows you to move forward or backward in that history list. The thousands of index entries are hyperlinked to their text occurrences. Using the full-text-search feature, you can type a term and the Cyber Classroom will locate the occurrences of the term throughout the text. The Table of Contents entries are “hot,” so clicking a chapter name immediately takes you to that chapter. The Contents menu provides direct access to all the sections in the current chapter, every chapter, every appendix, the Bibliography and the Index. Many people like to browse through our programming tips - Common Programming Errors, Good Programming Practices, Look-and-Feel Observations, Performance Tips, Portability Tips, Software Engineering Observations and Testing-and-Debugging Tips. The tips are all accessible via icons at the bottom of each chapter page.
Course Objectives
At course completion the student will be able to perform the following tasks:
Utilize more advanced coding statements to access arrays, files, multimedia and resources of the internet
Develop applications that utilize a relational database
Create COM Components utilizing Object Oriented programming techniques
Utilize COM Components to extend application abilities
Prerequisites
This course assumes the student has a good working knowledge of the Microsoft Visual Basic programming system. Attendees should have attended the VB Introduction Course or the equivalent of (3 - 6 months) experience programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.
TOPICS COVERED IN LECTURE & LAB
Arrays
Introduction
Arrays
Declaring Arrays
Examples Using Arrays
Passing Arrays To Procedures
Sorting Arrays
Searching Arrays: Linear Search and Binary Search
Multidimensional Arrays
Control Arrays
Dynamic Arrays
Variable Arguments: Param Array
Function Array
Mouse and Keyboard
Introduction
Changing the Shape of the Mouse Pointer. Mouse Events
Mouse Buttons
Shift, Ctrl and Alt Keys
Drag-and-Drop
Key Events
Key Preview Property
Sequential File Processing
Introduction
DirListBox, FileListBox, and DriveListBox Controls
Data Hierarchy
File System Objects
Creating a Sequential Access File
Reading Data from a Sequential Access File
Updating Sequential Access Files
Records and Random-Access Files
Introduction
Random-Access Files
Records as User-Defined Types
Creating a Random-Access File
Writing Data Randomly to a Random-Access File
Reading Data Sequentially from a Random-Access File
Reading Randomly from a Random-Access File
Example: A Transaction Processing Program
Object-Oriented Programming.
Introduction
Data Abstraction and Information Hiding
Implementing a Time Abstract Data Type with a Class
Class Members
Composition: Objects as Instance Variables of Other Classes
Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming
Software Engineering with Components
Type Fields and Select Case Statements
Polymorphism
Visual Basic Interfaces
Polymorphism Examples
Case Study: IShape, CPoint, Ccircle. Case Study: A Payroll System Using Polymorphism
Case Study: Polymorphic Processing of Shapes
Simulating Implementation Inheritance with Interface Inheritance and Delegation
Object Browser
Events and Classes
ActiveX
Introduction
Components, COM and DCOM
ActiveX Control Types
ActiveX Control Lifetime and Events
UserControl Object
Creating an ActiveX Control That Contains Constituent Controls
ActiveX Control Example: Clock Control. ActiveX Control Interface Wizard
Property Pages and the Property Page Wizard
ActiveX DLLs. ActiveX EXEs. Friend Access
Database Management
Introduction
Database Systems
Relational Database Model
Introducing the Microsoft ADO Data Control 6.0 and Microsoft DataGrid Control 6.0
Relational Database Overview: The Biblio.mdb Database
Structured Query Language
Revisiting the ADO Data Control and DataGrid Control
Hierarchical FlexGrid Control
DataList and DataCombo Controls. Using the Data Environment Designer
Other Programmatic Capabilities of Recordsets
Transaction Processing.
Networking, the Internet and the World Wide Web
Introduction
Visual Basic Internet Controls
WebBrowser Control
Internet Transfer Control
Other Properties, Methods and Events of the Internet Transfer Control
Winsock Control
Example: Client/Server Interaction with the Winsock Control
Winsock Control and UDP-Based Client/Server Computing
Other Properties, Methods and Events of the Winsock Control
Visual Basic Script (VBScript): An Overview
Multimedia: Images, Animation, Audio.
Introduction
Microsoft Agent Control
Multimedia MCI Control
Animation Control
RealAudio ActiveX Control Library
Marquee Control Library
Microsoft ActiveMovie Control
Data Structures, Collections and Dictionaries.
Introduction
Type Variant
Self-Referential Classes
Dynamic Memory Allocation
Linked Lists
Stacks
Queues
Trees
Collection Object
Dictionary Object
Appendix A: Operator Precedence Chart.
Appendix B: ANSI Character Set.
Appendix C: Visual Basic Internet and World Wide Web Resources.
