Language - Visual Basic 6.0

Visual Basic 6.0 is the greatest programming language of all time.

Introduction

If this is your first time working with a Phidget, we suggest starting with the Getting Started page for your specific device. This can be found in the user guide for your device. That page will walk you through installing drivers and libraries for your operating system, and will then bring you back here to use Visual Basic 6.0 specifically.

Visual Basic 6.0 is capable of using the complete Phidget API, including events. We also provide example code in Visual Basic 6.0 for all Phidget devices.

Visual Basic 6.0 can be developed with Windows (environments include Visual Studio, Borland, Cygwin, and MinGW), Mac OS X, and Linux.

You can compare Visual Basic 6.0 with our other supported languages.

Quick Downloads

Just need the Visual Basic 6.0 documentation, drivers, libraries, and examples? Here they are:

API Documentation

• API Manual

Example Code

• Example Code

Libraries and Drivers:

• 32 bit Windows Drivers Installer
• 64 bit Windows Drivers Installer
• 32 bit Windows Drivers and Libraries
• 64 bit Windows Drivers and Libraries

Getting started with Visual Basic 6.0

If you are new to writing code for Phidgets, we recommend starting by running, then modifying existing examples. This will allow you to:

• Make sure your libraries are properly linked
• Go from source code to a test application as quickly as possible
• Ensure your Phidget is hooked up properly

Instructions are divided up by operating system. Choose:

• Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7

Windows(2000/XP/Vista/7)

Description of Library Files

Visual Basic 6.0 programs on Windows depend on three files, which the installers in Quick Downloads put onto your system:

• phidget21.dll contains the actual Phidgets library, which is used at run-time. By default, it is placed in C:\Windows\System32.
• phidget21.lib is used by your compiler to link to the dll. Your compiler has to know where this file is, by default our installer puts phidget21.lib into C:\Program Files\Phidgets, so you can either point your compiler to that location, or copy and link to it in a directory for your project workspace. phidget21.lib is written to be compatible with most compilers - but your specific compiler may need a different format. Check our documentation for your specific compiler for details. Please note that we provide versions of the phidget21.lib that are specifically optimized for 32-bit or 64-bit systems. If you are using a 64 bit versions of Windows, the phidget21.lib is placed in C:\Program Files\Phidgets; The 32 bit version of phidget21.lib is placed in C:\Program Files\Phidgets\x86.
• phidget21.h lists all the Phidget API function calls available to your code. Your compiler also has to know where this file is. By default, our installer puts phidget21.h into C:\Program Files\Phidgets so you can either point your compiler to that location, or copy and link to it in a directory for your project workspace.

If you do not want to use our installer, you can download all three files and manually install them where you want; refer to our Manual Installation Instructions.

We include instructions on [[#Use Our Examples | using our examples] and writing your own code for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 IDE.

Visual Basic 6.0

Use Our Examples

To run the examples, you first download the examples and unpack them into a folder.

Since the examples were written in Visual Studio 2005, if you are opening the examples in Visual Studio 2008/2010, you will need to go through the Visual Studio Conversion Wizard to open and convert the 2005 project.

This will load all of the examples available for C/C++, and then you can set your main project to be the one that matches your device. If you aren't sure what the software example for your device is called, check the software object listed in the Getting Started Guide for your Device.

The only thing left to do is to run the examples! Click on Debug → Start Debugging. Please note that the projects, by default try to find the phidget21.h and phidget21.lib in the $(SystemDrive)\Program Files\Phidgets. If you have these files installed in another location, please change the path to the file's location accordingly. Please see the Write Your Own Code section for details.

Once you have the C/C++ examples running, we have a teaching section below to help you follow them.

Write Your Own Code

When you are building a project from scratch, or adding Phidget function calls to an existing project, you'll need to configure your development environment to properly link the Phidget C/C++ libraries. To begin:

1. Generate a new Visual C++: Win32 Console Application project with a descriptive name such as PhidgetTest.

2. Next, select Console Application.

3. Open the project properties window.

4. Navigate to Configuration Properties → C/C++.

5. Add "C:\Program Files\Phidgets" to the additional directories field. This step will find the phidget21.h file in the corresponding directory. If the file is placed in another location, please adjust the path to the file's location accordingly.

6. Navigate to Configuration Properties → Linker → Input.

7. Edit the additional dependencies and add "C:\Program Files\Phidgets\phidget21.lib". This step will find the phidget21.lib file in the corresponding directory. If the file is placed in another location, please adjust the path to the file's location accordingly.

8. The project now has access to the Phidget21 function calls and you are ready to begin coding.

Then, in your code, you will need to include the Phidget library:

  #include <phidget21.h>

The same teaching section which describes the examples also has further resources for programming your Phidget.

GCC on Windows

Cygwin/MinGW

Use Our Examples

Download the examples and unpack them into a folder. Afterwards, unpack the examples, and then find the source code for your specific device. If you aren't sure what the software example for your device is called, check the software object listed in the Getting Started guide for your device. Then, compile the code and run it. When compiling, you need to link to the phidget21 library. To compile, link the Phidget libraries and build a binary executable, enter the following in a command line prompt in the directory with example.c: Cygwin

  gcc example.c -o example -I"/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Phidgets" -L"/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Phidgets" -lphidget21

MinGW

  gcc example.c -o example -I"C:\Program Files\Phidgets" -L"C:\Program Files\Phidgets" -lphidget21

In this case, example.c would be the .c file specific to your device.  After using gcc, you will have an executable named example that you can run.   It is assumed that phidget21.h and phidget21.lib are placed in C:\Program Files\Phidgets. If the files are placed in another location, please adjust the paths to the file's location accordingly.

Write Your Own Code

When writing your code from scratch, you start it as you would any C/C++ code with Cygwin/MinGW in your favourite text editor. In your .c source code file, you must include a reference to the library header:

  #include <phidget21.h>

Then, you would compile your completed C/C++ code the same way as shown in the Use Our Examples section above.

To learn how to write your own code for your Phidget, and to learn more about our API, we have a teaching section to help you follow the provided C/C++ examples and which has resources such as the API reference.

Follow the Examples

By following the instructions for your operating system and compiler above, you probably now have a working example and want to understand it better so you can change it to do what you want. This teaching section has resources for you to learn from the examples and write your own.

Next comes our C/C++ API information, with syntax for all of our functions:

• C/C++ API (This is the complete set of functions you have available for all Phidgets)
• Device Specific APIs - The one for your Phidget can be found in its user guide.

To learn the details behind opening, configuring, using, and closing your Phidget, try the General Phidget Programming page. That page also describes using the Phidget in an event-driven manner and in a traditional manner, both of which are available in C/C++.

Example Flow

The Hello World example has this general structure so you can follow along. We also have an in-depth general introduction to writing Phidget code (like open, read data, etc), as well as the C/C++ API for specific syntax:

// ----- Event and Other Functions ----- Create any Language-Specific Functions (exception handling) Create General Attach, Detach, and Error Handling Functions: On attach: Print Hello Message On detach: Print Goodbye Message		In C/C++, you can name these event functions whatever you like. You will then pass them as function pointers to the Phidget library below in the Main Code section. This hooks them into the actual events when they occur. In the example code, the event functions common to all Phidgets are called things like AttachHandler() and DetachHandler(), etc. Some event functions will be specific to each device, like when a tag is read on an RFID board, or when a sensor value changes on an Interface Kit. Other functions are given in the examples to show you more detail on using your Phidget. For example, DeviceInitialize() will show what needs to be set up for your Phidget before using it.
// ----- Main Code ----- Create Manager Software Object Hook Event Functions created above to Device Open Device Wait for 'Enter' key character input Handle on-going attach and detach events Print Hello and Goodbye messages Exit upon input Close Device Delete Device		Creating a Phidget software object in C is specific to the Phidget. For a Phidget Spatial, for example, this would involve creating an object with the CPhidgetSpatialHandle type, and then initializing it using the CPhidgetSpatial_create function. The examples show how to do this and other API functions. Other C calls follow a similar syntax - CPhidgetXXX_function, where XXX is the name of your device, and function is an action available from the API for your specific Phidget.

Common Problems and Solutions/Workarounds

Windows: My application does not compile when a function contains more than one parameter.

In Visual Basic 6.0, the common way to handle multiple parameters is to not enclose the parameters with brackets. For example, instead of:

Object.getProperty(Parameter1, Parameter2)

You should write:

Object.getProperty Parameter1, Parameter2