Samples

The IDE ships with 26 sample projects, in the Samples section of the New / Open Project dialog. This page says how a sample opens, what each one shows, and what it needs before it runs.

The New / Open Project dialog on its Samples section: two columns of sample cards named without their numbers, the first, Reports (Experimental), selected, then HelloWorld, WebView2 Examples, Chromium Embedded Framework Examples, GetIPAddresses and MyCodeLibrary.The New / Open Project dialog on its Samples section: two columns of sample cards named without their numbers, the first, Reports (Experimental), selected, then HelloWorld, WebView2 Examples, Chromium Embedded Framework Examples, GetIPAddresses and MyCodeLibrary.

How a sample opens

A sample opens like a template. Double-click its card, or select it and press Open. The New Project Options box opens first. Continue makes the sample as a new project, unsaved, in memory. The first save asks for a file name, and the sample on disk stays as it is. See What a new project is.

The box’s rows apply to a sample too. The Project Name starts as the sample’s own project name, such as HelloWorldProject for HelloWorld, and Continue sets the project’s name, description and application title to the text of the box. The Include Common Controls row shows for the samples that reference WinNativeForms and not WinNativeCommonCtls yet, and Visual Styles does not show for a sample that has a manifest already, such as TreeView + ListView + ImageList. See New Project Options.

A card shows the sample’s name without its number, and the cards are in the order of the numbers. The numbering is the IDE’s own: 1a and 1b follow 1, and 10 follows 9. The documentation names a sample by its number, as in Sample 6, so the table below gives both.

Where a sample builds

Samples 10 to 16 build into the IDE’s own folder. Their Build Output Path is ${IdePath}\addins\${Architecture}\${ProjectName}.${FileExtension}, so a build of one installs the add-in in the folder of the running IDE, as addins\win32 or addins\win64. It loads at the next start of the IDE. Holding Shift while a project loads stops add-ins loading; see Opening projects. Add Ins describes add-ins.

The other samples build into a Build folder beside the project’s file, once the project is saved.

The samples

Sample Project type What it shows Where the documentation uses it
0. Reports (Experimental) Standard EXE A form that opens two reports. One takes its rows from an ADODB recordset made in memory, the other from a class that implements ITbRecordset none
1. HelloWorld Standard EXE The smallest program: a Sub Main that shows a message box none
1a. WebView2 Examples Standard EXE Four forms on the WebView2 control: a browser with a log of its events, a local web page that exchanges calls with twinBASIC, the Monaco editor with a live preview, and a Markdown preview. Uses the WebView2 package the WebView2 tutorials
1b. Chromium Embedded Framework Examples Standard EXE The same four forms on the CefBrowser control. Uses the CEF package the CEF tutorials
2. GetIPAddresses Standard EXE Calls the Windows API through Declare, and shows the machine’s IPv4 addresses in a message box none
3. MyCodeLibrary ActiveX DLL A COM class with one method, for a host such as VBA to call none
4. MyVBEAddin (NEW with ToolWindow) ActiveX DLL An add-in for the VBA editor: a tool window made from a user control, and an item on the editor’s Add-Ins menu that shows or hides it. References the Microsoft Add-In Designer and the VBA Extensibility 5.3 type libraries the FAQ on add-ins
5. MyCOMAddin ActiveX DLL A COM add-in for Excel and Access: a ribbon tab, twinBASIC Test, with a button that shows a message box. References the Microsoft Add-In Designer and the Office 16.0 object library the FAQ on add-ins
6. CustomControls Standard EXE Ten forms, each opening the next, on the controls of the CustomControls package: anchoring, borders and corners, buttons, a data grid, docking, fill patterns, a slider, text boxes and text rendering the CustomControls tutorial
7. Package Package TWINPACK The smallest package: a class and a module, each with a Show method Creating a TWINPACK Package
8. FilePropertyViewer (CustomControls) Standard EXE A form that asks for a file and lists its properties in a grid. Uses the CustomControls package and the FileProps package none
9. ActiveX Control WebView2 + Monaco ActiveX Control A control for other programs to host. It holds the Monaco editor in a WebView2, with two events and two methods that read and set the text. Uses the WebView2 package the WebView2 tutorial on the user data folder
10. twinBASIC IDE Addin Standard DLL Two toolbar buttons and a tool window of buttons that call the Host object: the project, the DEBUG CONSOLE and the active editor Add Ins, the FAQ on add-ins and the tbIDE reference
11. twinBASIC IDE Addin (Chart) Standard DLL A line chart in a tool window, which an AddinTimer updates every half second with random numbers the tbIDE reference
12. twinBASIC IDE Addin (Monaco) Standard DLL A Monaco editor in a tool window. Each change prints the text to the DEBUG CONSOLE the tbIDE reference
13. twinBASIC IDE Addin (ListView) Standard DLL A list in a tool window, with rows of HTML, icons from a style sheet in the project, and a text box in one row. Clicks and key presses reach twinBASIC as events the tbIDE reference
14. twinBASIC IDE Addin (VirtualListView) Standard DLL A list of 5 million rows in a tool window, which asks twinBASIC for the HTML of a row only when it needs the row the tbIDE reference
15. twinBASIC IDE Addin (GlobalSearch) Standard DLL The project of the Global Search add-in that ships with the IDE: a search of the project’s files in a tool window, where a click opens a match the tbIDE reference
16. twinBASIC IDE Addin (TODO Widgets demo) Standard DLL Two toolbar buttons that add a TODO note as a widget inside the code editor and list the notes in a tool window. The notes are saved in the project none
17. Static Library Example (SQLITE3) Standard EXE Links SQLite into the EXE from .obj files, so that the EXE needs no DLL. It makes a database in memory, adds three rows and shows each in a message box Static Linking
18. Static Library Example (libdeflate) Standard EXE Links libdeflate into the EXE from .a files in the same way. It compresses a string and expands it again, and prints the bytes to the DEBUG CONSOLE Static Linking
19. MDI Forms Standard EXE An MDI form with red and blue child forms. Its File menu adds a child, and its Window menu arranges and lists them none
20. TreeView + ListView + ImageList Standard EXE A form of buttons that fill and clear a TreeView and a ListView, change their icons from an ImageList and switch the ListView’s views. Uses the WinNativeCommonCtls package none
21. Windows Service Simple Example Standard EXE A Windows service that runs for 15 seconds, in an EXE that installs itself. Uses the WinServicesLib package none
22. Windows Service Complex Example (inc Event Logging and IPC) Standard EXE Two services in one process, which write to the event log and answer requests over named pipes, and a form that installs, starts, stops and queries them. Uses the WinServicesLib, WinEventLogLib and WinNamedPipesLib packages none
23. OOP Inheritance Example (Animals) Standard EXE A small class hierarchy that prints to the DEBUG CONSOLE, with Inherits, Protected, Overridable, Overrides and an inherited event Inheritance

Samples 10 to 16 use the tbIDE package, and its reference uses Samples 10 to 15 as its examples.

Before you run a sample

Most samples run with Start (F5) as they are. These need something more.

Samples 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 to 16 are not programs. Each makes a DLL, a control or a package, so Start has nothing to run and ends with a compile error in the console. Build them instead:

  • A build of Sample 3, 4, 5 or 9 registers the file for the current user, and Clean removes the registration. The file must match the program that loads it: for 64-bit Office, choose win64 in the build box.
  • The registration of Sample 4 adds it to the VBA editor, and the registration of Sample 5 adds it to Excel and to Access. Each then loads when that program starts.
  • Samples 10 to 16 install themselves in the IDE, as Where a sample builds describes.

Sample 23 has no Main, so Start ends with a compile error there too. Open Main.twin, put the caret inside Sub DemoAnimals and press F6. See Run Or Preview.

Samples 1a, 1b and 9 use a browser engine. Samples 1a and 9 need the WebView2 Runtime. Sample 1b needs the CEF runtime, which is a separate download: see Runtime files. The first form of Samples 1a and 1b opens a web site, so it needs a network connection. Samples 1a and 1b make the folders tbVirtualHostDemo and tbMonacoDemo in your Documents folder, and Sample 9 makes tbMonacoActiveXDemo in your local application data folder. These folders stay after the sample ends.

Samples 21 and 22 install Windows services, which needs administrator rights, so they do it only from a built EXE that you start with Run as administrator:

  • Sample 21 only shows a message box in the IDE. The built EXE offers to install the service, TBSERVICE000, which then starts on demand. The sample has no command that removes it. To remove it, run sc delete TBSERVICE000 from a command prompt started as administrator.
  • Sample 22 opens its form in the IDE too, but Install refuses there. Its Uninstall buttons remove the services. Launch in-process named pipe server needs no service, so you can try the form’s named pipes without installing anything.

See Also

  • New Project – the dialog, and New Project Options
  • What Start runs – the startup object, and what Start does without one
  • Add Ins – the add-in samples, 10 to 16