This is an idea that I have been toying with over the past little while. I have several very large FireFly projects (FireFly itself being one of them) and they contain many forms and modules.
Currently, all forms are under the "Forms" branch of the tree and all modules are under the "Modules" branch of the tree. In order to provide some type of grouping so that I can find the files more quickly, I usually prefix the names of the files so alphabetically they will be listed next to each other (eg. modCommand_Edit.inc, modCommand_File.inc, modCommand_Format.inc, etc...). This works okay but it is a little cumbersome and a bit of a hack.
I think it would be very cool to be able to create user defined groups and be able to move any of your forms and/or modules into the group. For example, the modules that I listed in the previous paragraph are all code modules that each deal with a section of FireFly's main top menu. I could create a group called "Main Menu code" and move those modules in there. My Project Explorer tree would then look like this:
[-] FireFly3.ffp
[-] Main Menu code
[+] modCommand_Edit.inc
[+] modCommand_File.inc
[+] modCommand_Format.inc
[+] Forms
[+] Modules
[+] Resources
[+] Special Functions
Just imagine the types of groupings that you could do:
- Have a group that keeps all forms related to a Tab Control in one place.
- A group that contains all of the Classes for the project.
- A group having Forms *and* Modules related to a specific functionality (for example, in my accounting program I have main areas for General Ledger, Customers, Suppliers, Inventory, etc.). Say that I want to keep all of my General Ledger related objects together:
[-] FireFly3.ffp
[-] General Ledger
[+] frmChart_Main
[+] frmChart_Search
[+] frmChart_Edit
[+] frmReports
[+] modReports_Income.inc
[+] modReports_Trial.inc
[+] modReports_Balance.inc
[+] modReports_Cashflow.inc
[+] Customers
[+] Suppliers
[+] Company Setup
[+] Forms
[+] Modules
[+] Resources
[+] Special Functions
Anyway, I hope that you get the idea. This is something that I believe has potential. Instead of thinking about your project in terms of forms and modules, we can think of our project in terms of the functionality of each component in the project. Seems to me to be easier logic for finding things. Of course, this would be in addition to the current Form/Module Layout and Sub/Function Layout approaches already built into FireFly.
Any comments regarding this type of approach?
[EDIT]
Sorry John - looks like I edited your post rather than reply to it!!!!! ARRRGH! Sorry.
Here is my reply to part of your post.
Quote
Sounds like you're creating a "collection object" that would have properties, inheritances, etc.
Nope. It's just an additional method to allow grouping of files in the FireFly Project Explorer. It does not generate any type of code for an application whatsoever.
That sounds very interesting, expecially for large projects.
I am just writing version 4 of my Taxi Dispatching software, which is a quite big project of 7 different exe's. The biggest has about 35 different forms and quite a few modules. That functionality would be really helpful!
I am looking forward to it!
Paul,
Yes, I can see me little Apothesoft program could benefit from such an idea also. I vote yes.
Also, I noticed you mensioned you have an accounting program.
Do you sell it?
I am currently using BookKeeper by Avanquest but there are several things I don't like about it. I have been looking to replace it. I don't need anything fancy. Just keep the books, do payroll and print accounting reports.
I would be interested in purchasing your accounting program. Is it for sale?
Quote from: Marty Francom on January 15, 2010, 01:28:08 PM
I would be interested in purchasing your accounting program. Is it for sale?
It is not totally written yet. I started it a year or so ago and have been writing it on and off while working on FireFly. I wrote a DOS version many years ago and I am still using that version today. I figured that I would finally create a Windows version - especially when I got hooked on SQLitening. I wanted the accounting program to be 100% FF3 and SQLitening.
I'll probably post here eventually to ask people to try it out. I am in no rush to finish the program but once FF3 matures a bit then I will switch focus to it. I have always wanted to create some consumer software instead of software targetted to a relatively small programmer market.
I am stealing the best ideas from QuickBooks, MS Office Accounting, PeachTree, MYOB, Sage 11, Simply Accounting and Bookkeeper.
Many of you out there probably don't know, but my educational background is in business with a degree in accounting and a professional designation. I must be such a geek/nerd. :)
Given your avatar, who would have known? ;D
You are still working on that accounting app? Does it look anything like the one we toyed with before? Had a pretty cool interface all it needed was content! :P
Rolf,
Saw pictures of the taxi app, that looks pretty cool. I started working for a company doing barcoding and handhelds last Sept since Sara Lee decided to do the 'Proud to be an American' thing and ship everyone's job to India (Come March they will have pretty much no American support, so if you have stock...sell now!). Just recently started playing with GPS on WinMobile...pretty wild stuff. How do you make use of MapPoint in your app? Does everyone buying it have to get their own copy of it too or is there some Web API, etc? In my desktop/laptop version I just open up google maps in a browser passing Lat/Long in the URL...but would be much cooler to show realtime position of multiple things. WinMobile is much easier to process GPS too with its own API instead of reading COM Ports.
Oh, and on topic, I love the category idea!
Hi Roger,
I use MapPoint local, so the customer has his own Mappoint CD. Working with the online Mappoint service is of course also possible. The application is written in VB6. At present I am just toying a little with GoogleMaps. It is also relativle easy to display a whole fleet there. But working locally with Mappoint gives one more control.