Intro

Before u start using vb6 or 8 u need to know a few fundamentals of its lay out, page 1
will get u familiar with what u will need to know at the beginning in order to do the
tutorials, the tutorials will be in vb6 at first from here we will progress to vb8, dotnet,java
and asp.net one step at a time though. I want to make it clear I do not claim to be a pro
programmer or anything like that I am self taught and the reason for these tutorials is
because when I was first starting out I wished I had tutorials to follow to make the
learning easier so hopefully these help someone or u know of someone who wants to get
into programming but doesn’t know were to start.

I Want to warn you in the beginning you going to be saying . . . huh,erm ,ahh, oooo,
wtf??! Many times but just keep on reading try to understand and in the end you will
persevere, there will be more than one tutorial in this lesson because honestly not many
people manage through the first tutorial of anything there first time so if you u get stuck
move on to the 2nd and 3rd get familiar with the interface and the rest will come to you
naturally, my girlfriend said something to me which makes so much sense but I never
realized it until she pointed it out she said programming is easier than language its self
and she couldn’t be more right. Programming is basic and simple hopefully as time
passes u will realize this yourself,
Lets get started!

• Application (Project) is made up of:

• Forms - Windows that you create for user interface

• Controls - Graphical features drawn on forms to allow user interaction

(text boxes, labels, scroll bars, command buttons, etc.) (Forms and
Controls are objects.)

• Properties - Every characteristic of a form or control is specified by a

property. Example properties include names, captions, size, color,
position, and contents. Visual Basic applies default properties. You
can change properties at design time or run time.

• Methods - Built-in procedure that can be invoked to impart some action

to a particular object.

• Event Procedures - Code related to some object. This is the code that
is executed when a certain event occurs.

• General Procedures – Code

not related to objects. This code must be
invoked by the application.
• Modules - Collection of general procedures, variable declarations, and
constant definitions used by application.
• Steps in Developing Application
There are three primary steps involved in building a Visual Basic application:
Draw the user interface Assign properties to controls
Attach code to controls

• Drawing the User Interface and Setting Properties

Visual Basic operates in three modes.

1. Design mode - used to build application

2. Run mode - used to run the application
3. Break mode - application halted and debugger is available

• We focus here on the design mode.

Six windows appear when you start Visual Basic.

The Main Window consists of the title bar, menu bar, and toolbar.
The title bar indicates the project name, the current Visual Basic
operating mode, and the current form. The menu bar has dropdown
menus from which you control the operation of the Visual
Basic environment. The toolbar has buttons that provide shortcuts
to some of the menu options. The main window also shows the
location of the current form relative to the upper left corner of the
screen and the width and length of the current form.
LAYOUT

Lesson 1: Menu Editor

(Your form this is the graphical foundation of your program)

Click on your form to select it then on the tool bar about click the menu editor icon
you will see this screen:

I wont get into to much detail here just the necessity’s in the Caption Tab type in About
and below that in the name Tab type in nmeAbout. Now the best why for me to explain
what we have done is that the name you wrote in the caption will appear on the form this
is for the user of the application to navigate around the program for example if he wanted
to know about the program he is using e.g. the version he or she would click there about
button. There still isn’t any coding though this will come shortly once the tabs have been
completed click the next button and type in the following:

Caption: Donate
Name: nmeDonate
Next Button
Caption: Register
Name: nmeRegister
Next Button

Caption: Contact
Name: nmeContact
Next Button

Caption: Help
Name: nmeHelp
Next Button

Then finally click ok and your form should look like this:

Now for the fun part the Coding double click on the about on your form and you will see
the following:

Notice the name of the button being nmeAbout we name them like this so we don’t get
confused the all the labels or buttons in the application. Now between Private Sub and
End Sub type the following code: msgbox “MP3 player v1.0 beta” then close the coding
box and on the top tool bar click the start icon this will test your application do this
and then click on the About button and it should give u the following message:
And that’s it all you would do know is full in the missing code for
Donate,Register,Contact And Help. Once again here are some examples.

Code stays the same:

Msgbox “Thanku for Donating”
Msgbox “Thanku for Registering”
Msgbox “ Contact me at bradfour@gmail.com”
Msgbox “ For help E-mail me at bradfour@gmail.com”

And of cause u can type in what ever you want inbetween the inverted commas.

Lesson 2: Components

the next lesson will make use of components in this case the windows media player
component, right click on your toolbox(the toolbar on your left) click on components add
look for the windows media player:
Select it and click apply u will see it is now available in your toolbox:
Click it and drag it into your form and position it like so:

Next we will add 1 command button

1 textbox

1 label

All can be found in your toolbox

First place the command button it will call its self by default command1 in the properties
box scroll until you find the captions field :

Rename it to Play adds the textbox and clear the text field in the properties box
Then add a label and in its caption field type in URL
Your form should now look like this:

It is up to you to design the layout of your program this is very important u want its as
user friendly as possible, this is how mine is designed it doesn’t have to look the same
just as long as you know were to put the button, textbox and label your can resize them as
you like.

Now the coding this is very simple

Double click the play button and once again between the Private Sub and End Sub type
the following code:

This code is pretty self explanatory don’t u think?? You don’t have to type in the green
text as that is the explanation of the code we just used

Lesson 3: Winsock

The next lesson is the easiest of them all providing you managed to do the 2 pervious
exercises, we need to once again add a component this one is the Microsoft winsock
control

Now add a button and a textbox next to it rename the caption of the button to IP Address
and clear the textbox and your form should look like this :
(don’t forget to add the component to ur form)

Now double click the button and add your code :

And that’s it try out these 3 tutorials and try familiarize yourself with vb6 on even add
the first lesson to the last 2 once your are don with each lesson make your you save your
projects if want to compile them to exe’s go file>make an.exe

Lesson 4

Once again a nice and easy one the will put what u have learn so far together, add a text
box to your form and resize It like mine then double click anywhere on the form not the
textbox and you should see this:
Notice the code Text1.text = now is in the form load section and not the textbox area
This basically means when your run your application the form will load the code and you
will have the following :

You by now should have learn how to make 3 working applications and how to add a
menu editor to each as a practice exercise why don’t u try adding the timer to each of
those applications if your unsuccessful don’t worry ill show you how to do that in the
next tutorial and more.