Learn how to manipulate and extend forms in Microsoft® Visual Basic with IBM® Forms Server COM API.

In this tutorial, you will create an application that shows you how to read, modify, and write forms using the Form Library

a name"wp1297184" span translate'0' Once you have set up and initialized your application with the API and loaded a form into memory, your application is ready to start working with the form. The following code uses spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span ...

a name"wp1340736" span translate'0' This example assumes that you are developing a program in spanspan translate'0'Microsoftspanspan translate'0'®spanspan translate'0' Visual Basic using spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'Microsoftspanspanspan ...

a name"wp1298179" span translate'0' Next, you must free the memory used by the form. This is the last operation in the main spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' of the program.span span translate'0' span ...

a name"wp1292544" span translate'0' Use the sample form that accompanies the API to test the Calculate Age application.span a name"wp1298562" span translate'0' span translate'0' Copy the file calculateAge.xfd to the folder that contains your application. The file is located in ...

a name"wp1297653" span translate'0' Once a form is loaded into memory, a developer can set the values associated with any of the item or option nodes located in the form by calling spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'SetLiteralByRefExspanspanspanspan ...

a name"wp1296167" span translate'0' All applications that use the API functions must initialize the Form Library to ensure correct error and memory handling behavior. The sample application does this in a separate method calledspanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span ...

h2 COM Tutorials: API 8 COM TCOM Tutorials h2 Developing an application in Visual Basic: API 8 COM TDeveloping an application in Visual Basic Setting Up Your Application: API 8 COM TSetting Up Your Application Initializing the Form Library: API 8 COM TInitializing the Form ...

a name"wp1298040" span translate'0' Once you have finished making the desired changes to the form, you should save it to disk. If you want to retain the original form (calculateAge.xfd), you should save the modified form under a new name. This program saves the modified form as ...

a name"wp1296634" span translate'0' Before your program can begin working with a form, you must load it into memory. CalculateAge does this by defining a spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'LoadFormspanspanspanspan translate'0' spanspan ...

a name"wp1124024" span translate'0' By working through this section you have successfully built the Calculate Age application. In the process, you have learned how to initialize, compile, and test form applications using the following methods from the Form Library:span a ...

a name"wp1007018" span translate'0' If you distribute applications that use the Form Library, you will also need to distribute a number of API files. Refer to spanspan translate'0'Developing and distributing applications API 8 COM TDeveloping and distributing ...

div id"wp2428628" a name"wp2428628" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp2428629" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' checks the format of either all items on ...

div id"wp2045240" a name"wp2045240" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp1567256" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' verifies the correctness of the given ...

div id"wp4348291" a name"wp4348291" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp4348295" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' determines the XFDL version of a form. ...

div id"wp1796857" a name"wp1796857" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp1965557" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' encloses a file in a form. The file must ...

div id"wp3380671" a name"wp3380671" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp4782645" span translate'0'Updates the XForms model by inserting, replacing, deleting, or appending data anywhere within the XForms instance data. Call this spanspan translate'0'span ...

div id"wp1974598" a name"wp1974598" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp1885078" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' sets the literal of a node. You should ...

div id"wp1981716" a name"wp1981716" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp1472038" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' sets the formula for a node.span ...

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div id"wp1498192" a name"wp1498192" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp1498193" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' returns the namespace URI for the ...

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Contains the functions that manipulate forms. These are the primary functions that you use for adding, revising, deleting, and validating form content.

div id"wp1595974" a name"wp1595974" h2 span translate'0' Descriptionspan h2 a name"wp3380165" span translate'0'This spanspan translate'0'span translate'0'span translate'0'functionspanspanspanspan translate'0' copies an instance from a form's XML ...