Introduction

If you want to share Magic resources with others Magicians, (a few samples : calendar, tool to help interpreting the profiler result, game, calldll samples, demonstration of advanced Magic, DLL, Microsoft VC++/Borland C++ project sample, validation of bank card number, of SS number, cool graphics ...). Send me a mail, with description (or an html page, so you can have longer description, a counter, your logo, ...), and your contribution for the Magic RAD developers.

Other valuable magicwares are available on this places :

• Magicu-l shared folder (for magicu-l subscribers)
• Hotfudge

Magic programs

FTP sample

This ftp program shows how to add MGET and MPUT functions to NETGET.DLL and GET.DLL. Kevin Collins also ask me for visual progression of ftp GET/PUT commands.

Magic debugger

This Magic debugger (for Magic V7 or Magic V8) is a must have ; I use it intensively, as a break point or triggered by an application event, so you can see (and modify) your fields at runtime. Thanks to Demjanenko Gennadi for publishing this tool, that has as a big advantage to other similar tools that it doesn't use a DB file. Highly recommended. (11/05/99).

Lost Tasks

LostTasks (for Magic V8) allows to find in your Magic application all Tasks (not Programs from the Program Table!) that either are not called (by Event or Call_Task operator) or being called by Call_Task have Cnd=No or are placed within Block operator with Cnd=No. It's a good sample of the power of the export document feature (note that Magic crashes if GET.DLL is loaded and that you use the export document function).
(Demjanenko Gennadi - 04/05/2000)

Join

This Join program takes as parameter 2 at 5 exported programs, and make a magic program (look at PREF()&'_join.'&STR(TERM (),'3P0Z0')), with this programs as subtasks. Another tool from Demjanenko Gennadi. This program is for Magic 8, but you can use it to join older exports of Magic programs. You can now Mark/Copy then Paste magic tasks between programs. (11/05/99).

Delete empty files

A sample of a Magic (7) program without any field or file, but that actually does something : it delete all files that are empty. (11/16/99)

Convert from number to string

A Magic 7 task to convert from a number (183) to a string (a hundred eighty three). Designed primary for French (and for Belgium, as I think the Belgian way is better !), I also try it for English, as it's based on a table, but I'm not sure it's really the strict spelling. (11/16/99)

Set a date to today

This Magic 7 task need to be called by a CTL event (say CTRL-J). When the focus is on a date field, and that you type the shortcut, then the date field will be set to today. (A tip published on the Magic User List, but I lost the mail so I can't give credit here) (11/16/99)

1 to n relation

This samples demonstrate various programming techniques, in C/S or Web mode. (popad@metrom.ro - 10/30/99).

Matrix

This Magic Application show a matrix like application. Another contribution from popad@metrom.ro. (11/17/99)

DLLs and tools

Comdrivr

Comdrivr.dll is a tool that allow Magic to use (read/write) a COM port. It's available at magicu-l shared folder or at this mirror : ComTestr.zip. Free without support, other versions are available for older Magic.

Magic Date Utilities

MGDATUTL is a UDF Date Extensions for Magic RAD software. A complete description is here. (11/28/99)

Misc Tools

• Winkbd 1.0 : it's a 32 bits console program that generate (win_kbd > win_kbd.lng) a file you can use as a Gui Translation File ([MAGIC_ENV]GuiTranslationFile) ; it calls the standard win32 API. I tried it on my system and found the same file than the win_kbd.fre supplied with Magic.
• Resdll 1.0 : it's an example of a resource only DLL, that can be used to store in a single place (and only one read on disk) BMP for your Magic application (the format is @"name of DLL"."Name of image"). Just modify the res.rc to add/remove bitmap in the DLL, then type make. A Magic interface is included in GET.DLL.
• Cursor 1.0 : change the cursor to "Wait" style, ... A sample Magic DLL with source code and makefile for LCC-Win32. (Enhanced function also included in GET.DLL and almost any Magic DLLs, but MSE now implements it in Magic V8, but with a different way)

Magic DLL and compilers

• How to compile a Magic DLL with LCC-Win32. Cursor 1.0 is a small sample of a Magic DLL.
• How to compile a Magic DLL with Visual C++ 5.

DLL calls since Magic 8.2

I have extracted from the GET.DLL demo the wrappers where use of the Magic V8.2 functions (calldll function and Call UDP operation with the @ prefix) can be used in place of GET.DLL functions. (15/11/99)

Send email with Outlook trough OLE Automation

EMail from Magic is available at magicu-l shared folder for subscribers.

DDE

This application (Magic V7) uses DDE to interface with Excel. (popad@metrom.ro - 06/19/2000).

Magic Technotes

• Some considerations about international settings and problems with exported CTLs. (updated 11/22/99)
• A new (and better) behavior for dates : since version 8.2 (at least), when you put a 2 digits year in a 4 digits picture, then the 2 missing digits are set according to the [MAGIC_ENV]Century setting. So in 1999, you just have to put 99, and in 2000 you won't need at all to put the year, in 2001, 1 will be enough. The previous behavior was to pad with 0 the year. (11/16/99)
• How to choose the printer dynamically and by code. (11/17/99)
• How to make a modal dialog box ? (updated 27/07/2002)
• If you want to use the INIPUT function to change a logical name, you lost the '\' : the solution is to use an '*' after the '=' or to use '\\'.
  So INIPUT('[MAGIC_LOGICAL_NAMES]TEMP=C:\TEMP') will save 'C:TEMP', but INIPUT('[MAGIC_LOGICAL_NAMES]TEMP=*C:\TEMP') or INIPUT('[MAGIC_LOGICAL_NAMES]TEMP=C:\\TEMP') will save 'C:\TEMP'. (11/17/99)
• You can fill dynamically a combo or list box, just use an expression at Control Properties/Details/Label, and put a dummy label (1,2 for instance). The expression is usually a big string virtual field, you have initialized by the name from a small file (more than 20 token is not a good idea). Remember there are special characters : the ',' (the list separator), the '-', and the '\'. So the label 1\,2,3\-5,6\\7 will display 3 tokens : 1,2, 3-5 and 6\7. GET.DLL provides functions to deal with lists, as well as several functions that returns such lists (printers list, disk list, ...). (11/17/99).
• Jump to row : use CTRL-J to activate this window in toolkit mode, then you can put a value, and go there. Very useful when switching between programs. (11/17/99)
• You can replace the Magic splash screen and the Magic main window title, but only with the runtime engine, it won't work with the toolkit engine. Look at the [MAGIC_ENV]CopyrightMessages (to remove MSE Copyright messages), [MAGIC_ENV]LogoFile (to precise a custom splash screen, actually a .bmp file), [MAGIC_ENV]RTUserCopyright (to change the Magic title). (11/28/99).
• An interesting file in your Magic folder : ddfa is an export of the files definition of DDF files (DDF files is the Btrieve way to describe the structure of btrieve files). (12/15/99).
• This technote explains what is and how to use the Magic Profiler. (12/19/99)
• Some precisions about the Magic "Exit" Operation and using DOS commands reliably in all Windows OS and configurations. (01/17/00)
• How to import a tabulation-delimited file ? (04/26/00)
• How to use the Magic command line options. (04/26/00)
• If you use the PDlg (Printer Dialog) option in the I/O table when printing GUI, then you should add in the End task expression : EOF(0,1), so the task will not execute if the user has chosen the Cancel button. (06/06/00)
• You can use a different file/table name than the original one : specify it in the expression of the DB Files tables at task level. But as you can specify only once the file, you can't open 2 different files if you don't have it twice in the table repository. (09/01/00)
• You can use as SQRT function (square root function) the power of 0.5 (in Magic 4 ^ 0.5 will evaluate as 2). The math equation is :

  

  (11/06/2000).
• How to send or retrieve an email from Magic ? (updated 28/07/2002).
• If a screen does not correctly refresh, try to put a delai(0) after the instruction. (04/01/2001).
• How to call DLL from Magic ? (28/07/2002).

Environment files

Printer command and translation files

• This document (From HP) describes the PCL commands. PCL is the language of laserjet compatible printers.
• You'll find at Epson informations about Dot Matrix printers.

Games

Cheese Terminator

MagTris

The Magic Quest

Cool

Screen Gallery

Le sorcier

Work your Magic

Magic CNN video

I have uploaded the CNN ad from MSE Site as it's now 300K (you'll need the Real player). (12/29/99).

Buttons in a Resource-only DLL

It's a demonstration of the result you can get in a few minutes with 2 tools from GET.DLL. The first make easy the creation of the four states bitmap used for Magic image buttons, the second lets you put in a DLL all your bitmaps (for better performances and deployment). You'll also need a tool to create icons (Icon Forge for instance), and another tool to reduce colors and have the bitmap in "RLE BMP" (look at Paint Shop Pro and Jasc Image Robot), and LCC-Win32 to compile the resources.

To install this 17 common buttons, decompress the file in a folder, then copy the buttons.dll in your Magic folder, import btA in a CTL and run the demo program.

GET.DLL can also dynamically make images buttons, that have over the Magic way several advantages : you can assign mnemonics, the buttons colors match the user ones, greater flexibility (you can go back to normal buttons easily, or change to any other of the proposed styles), it's easy (you just have to make a file that associates buttons titles to their icon, then launch a call in your startup program), you can do MLS, and the button size is not fixed (so better results for an application that displays in several resolutions). (11/16/99)

The Magic Egg

This hidden demo (posted on the Magic User List) since Magic 8.2 lets you look at the MSE peoples. (This is an "Easter Egg") (11/16/99)