For the sake of example, follow these steps(I assume here that you have already created a database file named “dbEmployee” and a table named “tblEmployee”):
1. Click Start>All Programs>Microsoft Visual Studio 2008>Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.
2. Click File>New>Project>Select Visual F# in the project types>Select F# application in the Visual Studio installed templates category.
3. Click the Project menu>Add reference>Click the .Net tab>Locate then double-click System.Windows.Forms. Do step 3 again and this time, select System.Drawing and System.Data from the .Net tab.
4. Enter the following code after the line “// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.net “:
// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.net
//specifies the memory location of the class files
//that will be needed in our application
open System
open System.Windows.Forms
open System.Data
open System.Drawing
open System.Data.OleDb
//creates a font
let ffont=new Font("Verdana", 9.75F,FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Point)
//creates a connection object
let oleconn = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;
Data Source=C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\dbEmployee.mdb")
//creates an OleDbDataAdapter
let dataadpter = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter("Select * from tblEmployee", oleconn)
let deletecommand=new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand()
//generates a dataset
let dataset11 = new DataSet()
//fills the dataset with recod values
dataadpter.Fill(dataset11,"tblEmployee")|>ignore
//creates a form
let dataform = new Form(Text="Add Navigational Buttons Manually",AutoScaleDimensions=new System.Drawing.SizeF(60.0F, 13.0F),ClientSize=new System.Drawing.Size(300, 200),StartPosition=FormStartPosition.CenterScreen)
//creates our controls
let exitbutton=new Button(Text="Exit", Location=new System.Drawing.Point(200, 170))
let label1=new Label(Text="Employee number:",Location=new System.Drawing.Point(0, 10),AutoSize=true)
let label2=new Label(Text="Firstname:",Location=new System.Drawing.Point(0, 50),AutoSize=true)
let label3=new Label(Text="Lastname:",Location=new System.Drawing.Point(0,100),AutoSize=true)
let emplabel=new Label(Location=new System.Drawing.Point(140,10),BorderStyle=BorderStyle.FixedSingle)
let fnamelabel=new Label(Location=new System.Drawing.Point(100,50),BorderStyle=BorderStyle.FixedSingle)
let lnamelabel=new Label(Location=new System.Drawing.Point(100,100),BorderStyle=BorderStyle.FixedSingle)
let topbutton=new Button(Text="Top", Location=new System.Drawing.Point(40, 170))
let bottombutton=new Button(Text="Bottom", Location=new System.Drawing.Point(120, 170))
//assings the font to our form
dataform.Font<-ffont
//adds the controls to our form
dataform.Controls.Add(exitbutton)
dataform.Controls.Add(label1)
dataform.Controls.Add(label2)
dataform.Controls.Add(label3)
dataform.Controls.Add(emplabel)
dataform.Controls.Add(fnamelabel)
dataform.Controls.Add(lnamelabel)
dataform.Controls.Add(topbutton)
dataform.Controls.Add(bottombutton)
//binds the fieldnames to our label
emplabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(0).Item(0))
fnamelabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(0).Item(1))
lnamelabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(0).Item(2))
//when the topbutton is clicked
//assigns 0 rowindexnumber value causing the
//first record to be displayed
topbutton.Click.Add(fun top->
emplabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(0).Item(0))
fnamelabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(0).Item(1))
lnamelabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(0).Item(2)))
//when the bottombutton is clicked
//assign the index number of the last row as a rowindexnumer
//since we only have two records on our table
//so the index number of the last row is understood to be 1
//when manipulating large number of records, i suggest using
//dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Count() to
//automatically count the number of records
bottombutton.Click.Add(fun bottom->
emplabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(1).Item(0))
fnamelabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(1).Item(1))
lnamelabel.Text<-Convert.ToString(dataset11.Tables.["tblEmployee"].Rows.Item(1).Item(2)))
//when the exit button is clicked
exitbutton.Click.Add(fun exit->
//close the form and dataconnection
dataform.Close()
oleconn.Close())
//executes our application
dataform.Show()
Application.Run(dataform)
5. This will display the following output:
6. Simple...right?