Using Digital Persona U.and.U Biometric Fingerprint Scanner

[dylim]

All,

I am contracted to make some VFP wrapper classes for the Digital Persona U.and.U biometric fingerprint scanner. However, upon installing the accompanying Platinum SDK, the only semblance of 'documentation' are sample projects in VB and C++. There was no documentation like a listing of Properties, Events and Methods! I even contacted their tech support in their website, only to be given the run-around. Isn't documentation (in whatever form) usually a standard part of a software package?

I would be very happy to find anybody who has done this or may have bumped into any documentation regarding this.

Help!

TIA

Dennis

 

[Mike Gagnon]

dylim

the only semblance of 'documentation' are sample projects in VB and C++[/code]

VB Samples should be easily translatable.

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[craigsboyd]

Yes, you would think for something that is prefaced by the word "Platinum" and includes the letters SDK that there would be an object model and such. Whether it is VB or C++ as Mike said it should be relatively easy to translate. Also, if it includes COM then the Object Browser may be a very easy way to find out what is available as far as Properties and Events as well as Constants.

[sub]craig1442@mchsi.com[/sub][sup]

"Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad." - Anon​

[/sup]

 

[dylim]

Ok, I did follow the samples in VB. So, I found (thru IntelliSense) the different PEMs and listed them down.

However, when I dropped the controls in a VFP, some of the PEMs did not appear! How's that?

 

[craigsboyd]

VFP uses an Olecontrol container for the ActiveX controls that you throw on the form...think of it as a wrapper for the actual object...which can still be found inside the olecontrol.

thisform.olecontrol1.object

...that should get you to the actual object.

[sub]craig1442@mchsi.com[/sub][sup]

"Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad." - Anon​

[/sup]

 

[dylim]

craigsboyd,

Hi. Yes I know about using .Object in an Olecontrol.

I am still using VFP6 which does not have IntelliSense yet. Will the other 'unseen' PEMs appear say if I use VFP8?

Thanks!

 

[rgbean]

Starting in 7.0 there is also an Object Browser in the Tools menu. I believe there was a version of this available to be run in 6.0 - check the UT downloads area -

http://www.universalthread.com/.

Rick

 

[dylim]

rgbean,

have trouble locating it... could u perhaps like provide a link? =) thanks!

 

[rgbean]

OK, it looks my "bad memory" strikes again. I was remembering the Class Browser (for .VCX's and SCX's) that was available before it was included with VFP - it's still available on the UT.

I guess I was using the object browser from Visual Studio (or VB) back before it was available in VFP. It may be available for download on the MS web site.

Rick

 

[craigsboyd]

Quite a few Object Browsers available for free that should suit your needs:

http://www.vbaccelerator.com/codelib/actvxdoc/article.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...53-1120-48db-8cc5-f2abdc3ed314&displaylang=en

http://mysite.verizon.net/res1ur2j/tlviewer.htm

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[dylim]

craigsboyd,

Thanks for the links!

I checked out the first two - I will download the first one (do you recommend that over the other two?) since the Microsoft download works on Win2000 (the machine is still Windows ME!)

 

[StewartUK]

dylim,

With some ActiveX controls, when you right-click on the control you get an extra Properties item at the bottom of the menu.

Hope that helps,

Stewart
PS If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[dylim]

craigsboyd,

Hi! I downloaded the one from VBAccelerator and it really lists out all the PEMs of any ActiveX control you open.

Thanks

Unfortunately, for my particular purpose it only exposed them without any remarks on how to use.

Can you explain to me the difference between OCX, TLB et al?

 

[craigsboyd]

This question is a bit outside the scope of this thread, and even this forum for that matter. That having been said...

OCX stands for "OLE Control Extension" and was MS's second stab at creating a standard for controls...the first was VBX. (which leads to another whole discussion of OLE and OLE2) Then came ActiveX (OCX is often used synonymously with ActiveX but that's not quite right, but because ActiveX is backward compatible with the OCX standard it kind of stuck). The file format of an OCX is Portable Executable (PE), no time to explain that one in detail here, do a google search if you want to know more. PE file format is the same format that exe's, dll's, and a host of other files are in - and here you thought that they were all significantly different

TLB is a "type library". Basically a binary file that contains information about data types and objects exposed by an ActiveX control. It's where object browsers usually get the bulk of their information, though exported functions and entry points are also queried, so not everything comes from the TLB file.

You may also notice VBR files. These are "Visual Basic Registration" files (or "Remote automated registration" files or "Remote Server" files - take your pick). This file is usually used by programs that create install sets to properly register a component that utilizes DCOM. If you look in the vbr you'll notice that it looks a lot like a .reg file. There's some VB header information at the top, but the rest is pretty much a .reg file. The format for the VBR was last changed in Visual Basic 5 I believe.

You'll really need to go out on the web and dig if you want to do a thorough examination of all of this. I've just provided the basics and perhaps enough to either interest you further or bore you to tears.

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[dylim]

craigsboyd,

I truly appreciate you taking pains to give me an overview of those files! I have been a Foxpro guy (ever since dBase II days!) and have not even tried dabbling in other products - that explains my naivete in TLB, VBR et al... those are VB generated files, right?

Anyways, I still am stuck between a rock and hard place as far as looking for resources for this biometric fingerprint scanner!

I might as well run the sample VB project and figured it out.