Visual FoxPro 8.0

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Visual FoxPro 8.0

• Name
• Title
• Company

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Agenda 2.0

• 10 Years of Visual FoxPro
• Road to VFP 8.0
• Goals and overview of VFP 8.0
• VFP 8.0 features and technology
• Resources
• Summary

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10 Years of Visual FoxPro

• Eric Rudder, Sr VP, Developer and Platform
  Evangelism at Microsoft, has expressed
  Microsoft's thanks for the "Microsoft and FoxPro
  10 Year Anniversary Card" sent to Microsoft.

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(No Transcript)
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Beyond VFP 8.0
6

• Microsoft Executive Support forVisual FoxPro 8.0
• VIDEO

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Road to Visual FoxPro 8.0

• Base it on wish list customer feedback
• Add new runtime features - end users
• Enhance SQL Server connectivity
• Increase .NET interoperability
• Maintain backward compatibility

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VFP 8.0 Goals - Overview

• Provide a better Smart Client
• Increased Windows Platform support
• Improve Distributed Client (Web/COM)
• More XML, .NET, SQL Server connectivity
• Improve Developer Productivity
• New base classes and error handling
• Increase Discoverability
• Better navigation and documentation

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Visual FoxPro 8.0 and .NET

• Works well with Visual Studio .NET
• Greatly enhanced XML support
• XML Web services
• ADO.NET
• VFP OLE DB Provider
• ASP.NET Web forms
• .NET Windows forms
• Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET
• VFP and .NET teams working together

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Productivity Enhancements

• Taskpane
• Toolbox
• Empty class
• AddProperty() and RemoveProperty()
• Collection class
• Structured Error Handling
• TRY/CATCH/FINALLY
• Event Binding
• BINDEVENT() and RAISEEVENT()

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Productivity Enhancements

• Getfile() dialog
• Auto-increment
• Table designer
• View Designer
• Child member subclassing
• VCX support for more classes
• Many new features for Grid control
• Code References tool
• Stability is a feature!

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New Report Writer Features

• Page X of Y
• Allow user to suppress printing dialog
• Chain multiple reports as one print job
• Print Page Header and Footer when Summary Band is
  on it's own page
• Stretchable page Footer and Summary
• Use DBC Field Caption Properties when dropping
  fields into a Report
• Option for printer environment saving

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XMLAdapter Class

• Beyond XMLToCursor/CursorToXML
• Hierarchical XML support
• Multiple VFP data cursors to XML
• XML to multiple VFP data cursors
• XML diff grams
• VFP data cursors, tables, DBC
• ADO.NET compatible
• XMLTable and XMLField classes
• Full control of XSD schema used

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CursorAdapter Class

• Similar to DataAdapter in ADO.NET
• ADO/OLEDB
• ODBC
• Native VFP cursors
• XML and XML Web services
• Programmable events
• Stored procedures control

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CursorAdapter Class
Data Source
DBF
VFP Cursors
Remote Views SQL PassThrough
Native
SQL
VFP Client
ODBC
DBF
CursorAdapter Auto-Update Object
Methods/Events Custom Commands Stored Procedures
VFP Cursors
Native
SQL
ADO/OLEDB
XML
HTTP
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New Data Features

• DataEnvironment subclassing
• DataEnvironment Builder
• CursorAdapter class
• CursorAdapter Builder
• XMLAdapter class
• Form BindControls property
• Enhanced VFP OLE DB Provider
• VFP 8.0 and VS .NET interoperability

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VFP 8.0 XML Web Services

• OLEDB
• ASP.NET
• WinForm
• Phone
• Pocket PC
• Tablet PC

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VFP 8.0 Performance

• LOCAL a110000x1SECONDS()FOR i 1 TO
  10000 a1iCREATEOBJECT("Custom")ENDFORRELEASE
  a1x2SECONDS()? x2-x1
• VFP 7.0 24.5 seconds
• VFP 8.0 0.45 seconds

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Visual FoxPro 8.0 Features

• Structured TRY/CATCH error handling
• Windows XP Theme Support
• Extended SQL Server connectivity
• Expanded Visual Studio .NET compatibility
• Hierarchical XML integration with VFP data
• Enhanced XML Web services
• Native VFP object event binding
• Auto-increment support
• View designer enhancements
• New imaging support using GDI
• New base classes and subclassing
• New features in form controls
• More development productivity
• Much, much more!

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GotDotNet.com VFP Web Site

• http//gotdotnet.com/team/vfp
• VFP 8.0 case study template download
• Sr VP Eric Rudder on VFP 8.0 video
• New VFP with VS .NET resource links
• More updated content coming soon

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Resources

• MSDN Subscriptions
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro
• http//gotdotnet.com/team/vfp
• http//asp.net
• http//foxcentral.net
• http//www.universalthread.com

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Summary Call to Action

• Educate and evangelize to others
• Great new features in VFP 8.0
• VFP 8.0 works great with SQL Server
• VFP 8.0 works great with VS .NET
• Upgrade applications for VFP 8.0
• MSDN now, stand-alone mid-March
• Submit VFP 8.0 case studies
• Be active in the FoxPro community
• Use and talk about VFP 8.0!!!