Rick's Codebank

Rick's Codebank

I received an advertisement in the mail one day for a VB code repository program. It looked great but they wanted $400 for it! Being a cheapskate and in possesion of a lot of unorganized code snippets, I decided to create my own code bank program with VB4 32-bit. The program, VB Code bank, is the result. I have released it into the public domain, complete with source code and database.

VB Code bank is a simple application which, I believe, would be a good learning tool for beginners. When I was first starting out with VB it was nearly impossible to find a complete working project to learn from. Books and manuals talk all around a subject but never really show you how to do anything practical. They give you a few snippets of code, but never a project complete enough to give you the big picture.

There's a lot of practical coding in this project for beginners, including:

Starting the program with a splash screen
Programming the tree view control
Programming the toolbar control
Programming the tabstrip control
DAO programming without using the Data Control
Linking the tree view control to an Access database.
Linking to a help file
About box with e-mail link

I hope you learn as much from the project as I did.

If you make any improvement to the program (I know it's not perfect), I'd appreciate your passing the code back to me, rtharp@ccp.com.

Screenshot

Download

Click below to download a zip of the program, database, and source code. Refer to the readme.txt file within the zip for a description of the included files.

Codebank for VB 6 (size=124 KB) VB Codebank download

Codebank for VB 4 (size=117 KB) VB Codebank download

Installation

Since this program uses DAO (Data Access Objects), it requires the "professional" version of 32-bit VB.

If your version of VB has problems loading the codebank.vbp file, then you can recreate the project manually:

Click "File" then "New project"
Delete the default Form1 that VB automatically adds
Add references to:
- DAO
- Microsoft Common Dialog Control
- Microsoft Windows Common Controls
Then add each of these files to the project:
- codebank.res
- about.frm
- main.frm
- repair.frm
- splash.frm
- main.bas
- contxtid.bas

VB Tools

Some tools that I've found useful in VB programming:

API Guide
Sooner or later you will "hit the wall" with VB and need to do something that VB is not capable of. That is when you will need to access the Windows API. This handy free utility lists all the common Windows API's, their decriptions, declarations, and usage.
Axialis AX-Icons
AX-Icons is a sweet icon maker program, I use it all the time, I think it cost $20. One thing that took me a while to realize was that Windows 95 (and up) does not "shrink" icons very well. Therefore, your program icons should include both 16x16 and 32x32 formats, otherwise they look distorted in the taskbar and Start menu.
Inno Setup
Inno Setup is a powerful, free program installer. It rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability. Inno Setup is not idiot proof, it is script based, there is a steep learning curve, but there is a very active and helpful user group.
Paint shop pro
An easy to use graphics editor at an affordable price. Create graphics in any format, including animated GIF's. Download a free 30-day trial version.
VB HelpWriter
HelpWriter is an easy to use, inexpensive IDE for creating Windows help files. You can download a free trial version from their website.

VB Books

Here are some of the more useful VB books I've found. There are many VB books freely available online at: Inform IT.

Teach Yourself Database Programming
I found this to be a very thorough introduction to database programming in VB. It offers complete working examples that are missing from most other VB books.
Database Access with Visual Basic 6
This is an intermediate to advance level book that picks up where most other books leave off. Very thorough coverage of a sometimes perplexing subject.
Pure Visual Basic
This is a very handy reference book. A good book to keep within reach for a quick overview of a subject.
Code complete
This is not a book specifically for VB, instead it teaches proven effective programming practices. Using the techniques in this book, you can improve your coding and write better, more efficient programs.

VB Links

Here are some of the more useful VB websites I've found.

This is a Norton safe site

		Teach Yourself Database Programming I found this to be a very thorough introduction to database programming in VB. It offers complete working examples that are missing from most other VB books.
		Database Access with Visual Basic 6 This is an intermediate to advance level book that picks up where most other books leave off. Very thorough coverage of a sometimes perplexing subject.
		Pure Visual Basic This is a very handy reference book. A good book to keep within reach for a quick overview of a subject.
		Code complete This is not a book specifically for VB, instead it teaches proven effective programming practices. Using the techniques in this book, you can improve your coding and write better, more efficient programs.