• When calling UserQ, you can specify to have the Query Selection form appear first, or to go directly into the Query Designer.

• The Selection Form allows users to view or edit existing queries, create new queries, delete their own queries, or select a saved query that will be returned to the calling program (if specified).

• For example, you could call UserQ from a "Filter" button on your form.  When the user selects a Query, an object is returned by UserQ with properties containing all of the selected query information, such as the Where clause, Fields to show, Order-by fields, etc.  You can then use this information to query the records displayed in your form or report.

• UserQ was designed to be three things.  An ad-hoc query tool, a reporting tool (it uses FoxPro's built in report writer), and a "Filtering" selection tool, while providing the control and customizations you require in your application.

• When clicking on fields for Selection Criteria, an Expression Builder pops up as shown.

• The selections across the top read like an expression (Customer state is in the list "TX,CA").

• The "Lookup value(s)" button in the Express Builder is a powerful feature.
  When calling UserQ, you can specify for each field, where to go for the lookup values
  selection.  The button lets you select single or multiple values from the source table, a master
  table, a codes table or even remote tables using SQL Pass-thru.

• Expressions can be linked together with AND, OR and parenthesis.

• There are over 30 operators/functions to select from.

• You're not limited to using dialogs. If you know SQL you can edit your criteria manually.

• SQL Injection of non-friendly query commands are checked for and disallowed.

• And of course, query definitions can be saved, and modified or executed at a later time.

• The "View Table" button brings up a full-featured Table Viewer.

• Any of the active query tables can be viewed.

• This helps users define their queries because they can see what the data "looks like".

• Existing Table Indexes can be selected for viewing, searching and printing.

• As search characters are typed, the record pointer moves automatically.

• The 'View' button changes the View to vertical or horizontal.

• The 'Order' button and the underlined column headers allow selecting different Search Orders.

• The 'Print' button can print one or more records in various formats.

• The Table Viewer can be used separate from UserQ and has many features of its own.

• It can be used for updating records, browsing, selecting, printing, and other functions.

• It also has a mover-box capability for selecting single or multiple records.

• The right-click menu enables additional options for the user, as show above.

• Column control classes can be specified.  By default it uses checkboxes for logical fields,
  editboxes for memo fields and textboxes for the others.  It can also use comboboxes for updates.

• UserQ provides various functions to perform on the query Results.  Some of the choices are: Printing Results - which allows the use of the report designer, or the option of quickly printing with basic formatting.  The "Save" option allows saving results in various formats.  "Query the Results" allows "drilling" down into query results without re-running the previous query.  Totals and Averages can also be quickly displayed on all numeric fields in the results.

Printing Results

• UserQ provides various options for Printing results.  The user can simply print in a standard horizontal or vertical format.  Or they can create report forms, open existing report forms, copy previous report forms or delete report forms.  When you call UserQ you can even specify a fixed UDF report function to run when the user clicks on the Print Results button.  You can also specify which directory report forms are to be saved and opened from.  This prevents users from using secured directories.  The report forms use FoxPro's report designer, so this gives them a powerful tool that you are already familiar with and can provide assistance with if you want to allow users to use this feature.

Saving Results

• UserQ lets you Save results in many different formats.  This allows you to transfer information from your queries to other systems or email recipients.  You can even save the results to the Windows Clipboard in a formatted text format for pasting into emails and other documents.

The Options button

• The Options button allows Opening Files, displaying the generated SQL (for copy and pasting), displaying File info, change print font size for quick prints of results, and whether to show field descriptions from the data dictionary, the DBC, or just the field names and their characteristics (type and length).

Open New Files to Query option

• When running UserQ, you can specify whether to allow users to open tables.  Or, you can specify which files the users can query on.  You can also create connections and views to non-FoxPro databases through the "Maintain Views" and "Maintain Connections" options.

Specifying Joins

• When running UserQ, you can also specify whether users are allowed to open multiple tables, or only single tables.  When multiple tables are queried, you can easily create Join Specifications by selecting the Add Join button in the Join Tables tab.

• Implementing UserQ in applications is extremely simple. Just instantiate the parameters object, set parameters, and call UserQ.  It can be run as a general purpose query allowing files to be selected and opened.  Or it can be called from various points in your application with query files specified and various options selected.

  For developers, UserQ is also a powerful stand-alone query tool that is quick and easy to use for verifying and looking at data.  It provides browsing, printing, searching, querying and extracting information.  And of course, it allows queries to be saved and recalled easily at a later time.

To see UserQ and Expression Builder in action, take a look at our Vacation Rental Software for vacation rental properties at: www.VacationRentPro.com

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