2023-04-16

Capture Form portions - FoxyCapture

Recently Tom Knauf from Germany asked for a feature in FoxyPreviewer3 to allow users to pick specific parts of their reports and export them to the clipboard or save as image in an easy way.

Nothing new on this, I even published about 10 years ago a solution for that, but it was not working anymore.

So, I took the opportunity to create it from scratch, but this time thinking of a good way to make it work safely with FoxyPreviewer3.

FOXYCAPTURE is a custom VFP class that you can toss in any VFP form.

To activate it, just call the method "StartCapture", and select the rectangle portion of your form you's like to capture. After dragging, a shortcut menu will allow you to either save as PNG or send the image to the clipboard.

Source code and a sample form included, please let me know if you find any issues or make any improvements.

Below some animated images showing how it works.


Picture1 - Capture to image file



Picture2 - Capture image to the clipboard, and paste it to WhatsApp web:


Files to include in your project:

  • FoxyCapture.vcx
  • FoxyCapture.vct
  • fc_Save.Bmp
  • fc_Clipboard.bmp


Related Methods / Properties

Method:

StartCapture - Starts capturing the mouse events to capture the form surface


Properties:

BorderColor - Numeric, the RGB value of the border color to drawn to determine the rectangle to be captured

ShowBorder - Logical, determines if the dotted shape borders will appear in the captured image or not


Download link:

LATEST UPDATES

- 2023-04-22 v1.04 - Now instead of trying to bind all the form objects it draws an invisible container on the screen, where the dotted rectangle used for selecting the screen contents is drawn.
This brought the advantage of allowing to select any part of the form, Grids, PageFrames, Textboxes, etc, without the need of Disabling objects. Forms with grids are working fine as well.


2022-10-13

FoxyPreviewer3 and its files

FoxyPreviewer3 needs to create several files in order to run, so here I will explain what happens behind the scenes, so that people can get the most benefit from it.

Initilization
At initialization, FP search for 2 files - if not found it will restore from the embedded app
 - LibHaru.dll - the PDF engine created by Takeshi Kano, that is used to generate PDFfiles using ".nPDFType=1". This file will be stored at the same folder that FoxyPreviewer.App resides.
 - FoxyPreviewer_Settings.dbf - stores the user customized settings. This table can be edited as you like. Whenever a user changes an option in the settings screen it gets updated, and it will be loaded at initialization. This file will be recreated if you delete it.

Folders
Also at initialization 3 folders will be created:
 - \FP_IMAGES - Here all the images used for creating the toolbar buttons will reside. FP3 will restore them from the APP, and whenever you or your users change the button colors or behaviors, the new images created will be stored there. If you open that folder, you'll see all buttons that you used previously. The images are stored there physically so that in the next run they wont need to be recreated. All buttons, the original, the new "font based" buttons need some GDI+ processing, and some users could not like the delay needed to recreate them at each run. If you remove any image, or even the whole folder FP3 will recreate it on the next run.

FoxyPreviewer3 and sending e-mails

FoxyPreviewer3 - Getting support

When asking for support for FoxyPreviewer, to help me reproducing your environment, please immediately after your issue execute the following line of code:

_Screen.oFoxyPreviewer.GetFoxyScript()





This will create a script that will help me to mimic partially your environment, so that I can reproduce what is happening at your side.

Please revise that file, erase any data that you feel is sensitive and send it for support.


2022-10-06

FoxyPreviewer3 and localization strings

FoxyPreviewer's default language is English.

Right now there is suport to 22 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Turkish, Czech, Persian, Arabic, Italian, Indonesian, Polish, Swahili, Russian , Simplified Chinese , Traditional Chinese , Dutch, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Kazakh and Serbian.

Special tweaks were applied to allow double-byte languages, such as Chinese and Japanese.


To change the default language there are 2 options:

1 - Setting the _Screen.oFoxyPreviewer object, by passing  pass the English language name or the local language name - for instance, to change the language to French or spanish:

_Screen.oFoxyPreviewer.cLanguage = "SPANISH"  && or
_Screen.oFoxyPreviewer.cLanguage = "ESPANIOL"

_Screen.oFoxyPreviewer.cLanguage = "FRENCH"   && or
_Screen.oFoxyPreviewer.cLanguage = "FRANÇAIS"

2 - Users can change by themselves to their desired language in the Settings form:



Some of the languages are not updated. FP3 brings new facilities and dialogs that still need to be updated.. 

If you're interested, please download the Localizations table from the link below and send it back to vfpimaging at hotmail dot com

I'll be happy to update the localizations table in the future updates.

2022-09-25

FoxyPreviewer3 and embedded images in your EXE

For security reasons a file embedded in your EXE can't be accessed by an external library, such as FoxyPreviewer3. That means that FP3 can't deal with the images in your reports when you run the reports from your EXE. We still save some options to deal with that:

OPTION #1 - Store the image files outside your EXE, in a drive location, that can be passed with the full address, so that FoxyPreviewer.App can "see" these files and include them in your desired output.

OPTION #2 - To make these images appear automatically, without the need of removing the image files from your project. 

  • Include the program "FOXYGETIMAGE.PRG" in your EXE project. This file is found at the main folder of FoxyPreviewer. This file will provide access to FoxyPreviewer (and any other VFP program) to get the needed images from the executable. Please note that this may bring some security issues to your EXE, because this program will allow FoxyPreviewer and other programs to access the embedded images of your EXE. I recommend you to open this file, and analyze it. You can make any changes you find necessary to it, for example to make it allow only some specific files to be accessed. Right now, FOXYGETIMAGE.PRG allows accessing only image files, with the extensions: "BMP", "GIF", "PNG", "JPG", "JPEG", "TIFF", "TIF", "EMF".
  • Set the new property: _Screen.oFoxyPreviewer.nSearchImgMode = 2 or 3 - That's an additional setting to tell FP3 to turn on or off this setting. That is to avoid an unnecessary process, forcing VFP to search in the disk for a file that is already available. This can slow down a little the report run. Behind the scenes, FP3 will store the image files at the FP_IMAGES\TEMP folder during the report run. These files will be deleted immediately after the report is rendered.

Property:
nSearchImgMode - Numeric, determines how FoxyPreviewer will search for images while rendering; 1=Default, images available at the current Path (images embedded in the EXE are not available); 2=Uses "FoxyGetImage.prg" embedded in the main EXE to get only files not found in disk; 3=Always retrieve images from the EXE using "FoxyGetImage.prg"


Below is the file FOXYGETIMAGE.PRG contents:


* PROCEDURE FoxyGetImage.prg
* To be used with FP3 if you use embedded images in your EXE
* Retrieves image files embedded in the main EXE
* To be included in the main VFP EXE project. This may bring security issues - use at our own risk
LPARAMETERS tcImageFile, tlTempFile
LOCAL lcPictVal, lcReturn
m.lcPictVal = ""
IF INLIST(UPPER(JUSTEXT(m.tcImageFile)), "BMP", "GIF", "PNG", "JPG", "JPEG", "TIFF", "TIF", "EMF")
	TRY
		m.lcPictVal = FILETOSTR(m.tcImageFile)
	CATCH
	ENDTRY
ENDIF

IF m.tlTempFile AND NOT EMPTY(m.lcPictVal) && Store in a TempFile in disk
	LOCAL lcTempFile, lcTempPath
	IF PEMSTATUS(_Screen, "_FoxyTempImagesPath", 5)
		lcFolder = _Screen._FoxyTempImagesPath
	ELSE
		lcFolder = SYS(2023)
	ENDIF 	
	m.lcTempFile = ADDBS(lcFolder) + JUSTFNAME(m.tcImageFile)
	STRTOFILE(m.lcPictVal, m.lcTempFile)
	m.lcReturn = m.lcTempFile
ELSE
	m.lcReturn = m.lcPictVal
ENDIF

RETURN m.lcReturn







2022-09-18

Sending e-mails with Microsoft Powerscript and VFP, inspired by Doug Hennig

After finally releasing FoxyPreviewer3, I started receiving several requests for sending e-mails. FP3 currently supports the use of CDOSYS - the good and old way Windows used to allow us to send e-mails. The usage was really simple, but it's not compatible with TLS - evolved from the good and old SSL protocol, providing more security to the process.

Unfortunately, there is no simple way for Foxers to send messages using TLS, unless if we use some bridges to access other platforms. So, this was the right time to make tests, inspired by Doug Hennig's session on the last VFF - Virtual Fox Fest - the new online VFP conference, when he presented the amazing session Windows PowerShell: Batch Files on SteroidsThe organizers of VFF were very kind offering a recorded version of all sessions for free for the community in YouTube. At the end of this post you'll find the link to his presentation on YouTube. By the way, the next release of VirtualFoxFest will be soon, on October 13, 19 and 25 2022.

So, first of all I just googled about sending e-mails with PowerScript, and found tons of posts all over, in all languages. And here is my first script to send e-mails. This is raw code, no error handling, very few parameter checking. Needs development, but looks promising, and very effective!

  • create a script in Powershell, and test it
  • since we can't send parameters directly, we need to change the script to adapt it to our needs. One easy way is to store the Script in a "TEXT / ENDTEXT", and using TEXTMERGE make the needed replacements
  • Save the script using the ".PS1" file extension
  • Use the WScript.Shell.Run to run the PS1 file script in invisible mode. Powershell allows us to save the outputs in a text file. This file will be used for us to store the returning values we need
  • Delete the temporary PS1 and Output files


Before you go:

HOW TO RUN POWERSHELL SCRIPT FILE ON WINDOWS 10

On Windows 10, to run a script file with the PowerShell console, you have to change the execution policy.

To change the execution policy to run PowerShell scripts on Windows 10, use these steps:

  • Open Start.
  • Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
  • Type the following command to allow scripts to run and press Enter: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
  • Type A and press Enter (if applicable).




Save the script below as SENDPSEMAIL.PRG


* FILE  : SENDPSEMAIL.PRG
* AUTHOR: VFPIMAGING http://vfpimaging.blogspot.com 2022-09-08
* Send e-mails using PowerShell 

FUNCTION SendPSEmail(tcDest, tcSubject, tcBody, tcAttachment, tcServer, tcUser, tcPwd, tcPort)

	LOCAL lcBodyAsHtml, lcCredentials, lcPSScript, lcSender
	m.lcSender = m.tcUser
	IF "<" $ m.tcUser
		m.tcUser   = STREXTRACT(m.tcUser, "<", ">")
	ENDIF

	m.tcPort = TRANSFORM(m.tcPort)
	m.tcDest = [@('] + STRTRAN(m.tcDest, [,], [';']) + [')] && Adjust for multiple recipients
	IF EMPTY(m.tcAttachment)
		m.tcAttachment = ""
	ELSE
		m.tcAttachment = [Attachment = ] + [@('] + STRTRAN(m.tcAttachment, [,], [', ']) + [')]
	ENDIF

	IF "<html>" $ LOWER(m.tcBody)
		m.lcBodyAsHtml = "BodyAsHtml = $true"
	ELSE
		m.lcBodyAsHtml = ""
	ENDIF

	IF EMPTY(m.tcPwd)
		m.lcCredentials = "$cred = Get-Credential"
	ELSE
		m.lcCredentials = "$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $pass -AsPlainText -Force" + CHR(13) + ;
			"$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential $user, $pass"
	ENDIF


	* Here starts the Powershell script
	TEXT TO m.lcPSScript NOSHOW TEXTMERGE
$to = <<tcDest>>
$user = '<<tcUser>>'
$pass = '<<tcPwd>>'

<<lcCredentials>>
$mailParam = @{
    To = $to.Split(';')
    From = '<<lcSender>>'
    Subject = '<<tcSubject>>'
    Body = '<<tcBody>>'
    SmtpServer = '<<tcServer>>'
    Port = <<tcPort>> #587 or 465
    Credential = $cred
    UseSsl = $true
    <<tcAttachment>>
	<<lcBodyAsHtml>>
}

try
{
	# Send Email
	Send-MailMessage @mailParam 
}
catch
{
	$_.Exception.Message
	# $_.Exception.Message | out-file C:\Temp\error.log && #=Comment
	Write-Output 'Message send failed.'
}
	ENDTEXT
	* End of script

	lcReturn = RunPowerShell(m.lcPSScript)
	IF EMPTY(ALLTRIM(m.lcReturn))
		m.lcReturn = "Message Sent successfully"
	ENDIF
	RETURN m.lcReturn	
	


*************************************************************
* Run PowerShell script hidden
* by VFPImaging - Adapted from Antonio Lopez FUNCTION PS_ExecScript(tcScript)
FUNCTION RunPowerShell(tcScript)
*************************************************************
	LOCAL loWShell AS "WScript.Shell"
	LOCAL lcCmd, lcEcho, lcFile, lcSetEscape, lcText, loPS
	IF EMPTY(m.tcScript)
		RETURN .F.
	ENDIF

	m.lcFile = ADDBS(SYS(2023)) + SYS(2015) + ".ps1"
	m.lcEcho = FORCEEXT(m.lcFile, "log")

	STRTOFILE(m.tcScript, m.lcFile)
	m.lcCmd = "cmd /c powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned " + ;
		"-File " + IIF(" " $ m.lcFile, '"' + m.lcFile + '"', m.lcFile) + ;
		" > " + IIF(" "$ m.lcEcho, '"' + m.lcEcho + '"', m.lcEcho)

	m.lcSetEscape = SET("Escape")
	SET ESCAPE ON
	m.loWShell = CREATEOBJECT("WScript.Shell")

	m.lcCmd = "cmd /c powershell -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned " + ;
		"-File " + IIF(" " $ m.lcFile, '"' + m.lcFile + '"', m.lcFile) + ;
		" > " + IIF(" "$ m.lcEcho, '"' + m.lcEcho + '"', m.lcEcho)
	m.loPS = m.loWShell.RUN(m.lcCmd, .F., .T.)

	DOEVENTS
	SET ESCAPE &lcSetEscape.

	TRY
		m.lcText = FILETOSTR(m.lcEcho)
	CATCH
		m.lcText = ""
	ENDTRY
	ERASE (m.lcFile)

	TRY
		ERASE (m.lcEcho)
	CATCH
	ENDTRY

	RETURN m.lcText
ENDFUNC



Adapt the codes below according to your SMTP server and run!


CLEAR 

* Here is our HTML body
TEXT TO lcHTML NOSHOW
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html><body><font size="3" face="Verdana">
<h1>CONGRATULATIONS!</h1>
<br/><br/><br/>
<p>You successfully managed to send an e-mail using PowerShell and VFP</p>
<br/><br/><br/>
<table><tbody><tr>
<td><img height="65" src="http://www.files.foxypreviewer.com/Logo1.png" width="65" /></td>
<td><table><tbody style="font-family: "Calibri">
<tr><td>CESAR<br/><a href="https://www.FoxyPreviewer.com">FoxyPreviewer</a></td></tr>
<tr><td>+55-44.98765.4321<br/>
<img height="16" src="http://www.files.foxypreviewer.com/Mail.bmp" width="16" />  <a href="mailto:vfpimaging@hotmail.com">vfpimaging@hotmail.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
</body></html>

ENDTEXT 


lcReturn = SendPSEmail("yourdestination@hotmail.com", ;
		"PowerShell E-mail " + TRANSFORM(DATETIME()), ;
		lcHTML, ; && Message body (plain text or HTML)
		GETFILE(), ; && attachment (comma separated)
		"smtp.office365.com", ; && SMTP Server
		"VfpImaging <vfpimaging@hotmail.com>", ; && User
		"yourpassword", ; && pwd
		587) && SMTP port 25, 465, 587
? lcReturn

RETURN 



Running the script above, if you omit the password it will ask you for the credentials:




Below is the video session from Doug Hennig

 


Related links:

POP, IMAP, and SMTP settings for Outlook.com

Send-MailMessage

How to pass credentials to the Send-MailMessage command for sending emails

Powershell tutorials

Send-MailMessage: Sending Emails from PowerShell

How to Send an Email Using Windows PowerShell