INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING THE CUSTOMER
 INFORMATION  INPUT FORM


We will now construct the Customer Form, which will we store in a file
called FRMCUST.FRM and we will nickname this file FRMCUST.

Why do we need to nickname this form FRMCUST?  Because off the title form menu 
option MnuFileOpenNotes, we told visual basic to display:

If the user hits open-notes:

	FRMCUST.SHOW 
	FRMTITLE.HIDE

The customer form has 14 objects:


    

  1. Form (default)		

  2. Label		“Customer Information”

  3. Label		“Name:”

  4. Label		“Address:”

  5. Label		“City:”

  6. Label		“State:”

  7. Label		“Zip:”

  8. Textbox for Name		

  9. Textbox for Address		

  10. Textbox for City		

  11. Textbox for State		

  12. Textbox for Zip		

  13. Command Button for “Okay” to send user to the notes form		

  14. Command Button for “Exit” to send the user back to the main menu	

	



OBJECT	PROPERTY	VALUE
1.Form	Caption		Customer Info
	Name		Frmcust

2.Label	Caption 	“Customer Information”
	Autosize	True
	Fontsize	24

3.Label	Caption		“Name:”
	Autosize	True
	Fontsize	12

4.Label	Caption		“Address:”
	Autosize	True
	Fontsize	12

5.Label	Caption		“City:”
	Autosize	True
	Fontsize	12

6.Label	Caption		“State:”
	Autosize	True
	Fontsize	12

7.Label	Caption		“Zip:”
	Autosize	True
	Fontsize	12
 
For the textboxes, it is vital you name them correctly because we will use these names 
during the programming code!


8.Textbox for Name:

	Name	TxtName
	Fontsize	12
	Text	(put in blanks)

9.Textbox for Address:
	Name	TxtAddr
	Fontsize	12
	Text	(put in blanks)

10.Textbox for City:
	Name	TxtCity
	Fontsize	12
	Text	(put in blanks)

11.Textbox for State:
	Name	TxtState
	Fontsize	12
	Text	“WY)

12. Textbox for Zip:
	Name	TxtZip
	Fontsize	12	
	Text	(put in blanks)	
 
For the Command Buttons:


13. Command Button for “Okay” to send user to the notes form:
	Name	CmdOK
	Caption	Okay

14. Command Button for “Exit” to send the user back to the main menu
	Name	CmdExit
	Caption	Exit


To complete the form, we must program what we want Visual Basic to do in response to
 the user.

We need to specify two things:

1. What do we want the user to do when they click on the Exit button?

	We want to hide the customer form and show the title form:

		FRMTITLE.SHOW
		FRMCUST.HIDE

2. What do we want the user to do when they click the Okay button?

	We want to verify that the user filled in all the text boxes: 

	If they did not fill in all the text boxes, we want to display a
	message:

		“Please complete customer information form”

	Else if they did complete all the information:

We want to load the notes form, copy all the information entered on the customer form to 
the note form, and hide the customer form.


VARIABLES	


To do all this coding, we are going to create some new variables. 


Variable:	A placeholder that stores data in RAM for you.


Variable Name:	A name that the computer will you to store and locate
			 the value of the variable.  

			Variable names converts to an address in RAM

Variable Value:	The actual contents of a variable


In programming, you put a new variable on the left hand side of the equation and then
 assign its value on the righthand side of the equation:

Variable Name = Variable Value

Lastname= “Lacity”
Counter = 5

Notice that alphanumeric variables use “     ” whereas numeric variables do not.

 Visual basic automatically starts building variables for you.

Assume the user enters the following on the FRMCUST

Name: 		Mary Lacity
Address:	4356 Lindell
City:		St. Louis
State:		MO		Zip: 63402	

Visual Basic creates the following variables in RAM:


TxtName.Text = “Mary Lacity”
TxtAddr.Text = “4356 Lindell”
TxtCity.Text = “St. Louis”
TxtState.Text = “MO”
TxtZip.Text = “63402”


Notice that the variable names are a concatenation of the object name and the property type.

	Object name:    TxtName
	Property type:   Text

Notice the variable value is equal to the property value:
		“Mary Lacity”	

Back to out visual basic assignment, I am going to create three variables that will
correspond to the three lines on the top of the FRMNOTES form.  I will create these 
variables to eventually tell Visual Basic where to put the name, address, city, state, and
zip on the FRMNOTES

Line1 = TxtName.Text
Line2 = TxtAddr.Text
Line3 = TxtCity.Text & “,” & TxtState.Text & “ “ & TxtZip.Text

I am also going to create a variable for a carriage return:

NL = Chr(13) & Chr(10) 

(See page 198 of your Visual Basic textbook--this isn’t such an obvious command, 
trust me on this one.”

Now I am ready to specify how to layout all the variables gathered on FRMCUST
 to FRMNOTES:

Frmnotes.TxtCustomer.Text = Line1 & NL & Line2 & NL & Line3

This will place our information as follows:

Mary Lacity
4356 Lindell
St. Louis,MO 63402

 The coding to make sure the user fills in all the text boxes is:

IF 	TxtName.Text = “” OR 	TxtAddr.Text =“” OR TxtCity.Text = “” OR TxtState.Text = “”
	OR TxtZip.Text = “” THEN
	Msgbox “Please Complete The Customer Information Form”
ELSE
	FRMCUST.HIDE
ENDIF

Note: The VISUAL BASIC editor wants the IF -THEN portion all on 1 line


When will the IF expression be true?   When one or more of the statements are true.

	Thus, only one of the fields has to be blank for the expression
	to be true.

	When the expression is true, the THEN portion of the IF command
	is executed.

	Msgbox “Please Complete The Customer Information Form”

	When the expression is false, the ELSE portion of the IF command
	is executed:

		FRMCUST.HIDE

The last piece of coding we will do for FRMCUST is known as a load event.


 Load Event



Description:   Occurs when a form is loaded as the result of a reference to an
 unloaded form's properties or controls.

Syntax: 

	Sub Form_Load ( )

Remarks

Typically, you use a Load event procedure to include initialization code for a form. 
For example, specifying default settings for controls, indicating contents to be loaded into 
combo boxes or list boxes, and initializing form-level variables.

In code, when you reference a property on an unloaded form, the form is automatically
 loaded, but is not automatically made visible until you either use the Show method.

For our example,we will use: 	

		Sub Form_Load ( )
			FrmNotes.Show

To get to this Sub Form-Load window in Visual Basic, put your cursor 
anywhere on the form where there are now objects and double click.

Be sure to save this form as FRMCUST.FRM

 Note: Check the tab properties on your text boxes.  You want the user to go to the
 name textbox first, the address second, the city third, the state forth, zip fifth.