FoxPro - Updating VCX file doesn't appear to be working

Question

I am being asked to make an update to a process that imports data from an email into an accounting program called SBT Pro. A program called EC Internet Transaction Gateway is what initiates retrieving the email, parses the email and then imports the data into various DBF files.

I found the VCX file that ECI runs and does the email parsing/importing. Added the field that is wanted to the file, but it doesn't appear to be importing the new field into the database.

Thinking there was a chance that the value is blank after it gets parsed, I put the new value where the name field would be and it still imported the name as if I made no changes.

I am guessing there is something simple I am supposed to be doing to the VCX that I am not doing or missing, but I've never used FoxPro before being asked to do this. So am sort of clueless as to what that could be.

In case it matters, I am using Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0.

Answer 1

SBT is a HUGE beast of an accounting system. I used to work with it from its MS-DOS days through the early 2000's. Sometimes, the only way I was able to find out how / where things were being done was by forcing the debugger to stop at a given point and stepping through one method at a time. You already have a good point that you are trying to force a value after the inbound has been parsed.

A little more information might help, such as which version of SBT are you working with. I know that SBT was bought out by AccPac a long time ago, but some still might recognize it by either name reference.

Although I do have a somewhat old copy, it might give me enough to help you through some of SBT's data management classes to find out what is up. So, what version of SBT are you running?, and it may be that you might need to provide the class that is doing the parsing. However, with respect to the class, since there are so many levels of inheritance, please let me know the class, the parent class, it's parent class, etc up the chain. You may need to go to each parent level so I know the underlying origin from SBT's infrastructure to look into more detail on.

Found a link for their site...

http://www.ecinternet.com/eci_home_partners.html

They developed their package from pulling engineer from the AccPac / SBT solutions. You might be able to get some assistance from them more directly and see if it is a bug or not that has subsequently been corrected.

Answer 2

It sounds like you need to make a programming change to a FoxPro class library (.vcx). The way to do this is to open Visual FoxPro 6.0 and get to the Command Window. Then issue the following command in the Command window. Substitute your information in the below example:

MODIFY CLASS TheNameOfMyClass OF TheNameofMyVCXFile.vcx

or to see a list of classes in the VCX, do this

MODIFY CLASS ? OF TheNameofMyVCXFile.vcx

This will open the VCX in the class designer. From here, you can navigate to the specific method or property to make your change.

Once the change is complete, press control+w to save the VCX.

See more on this here