September 11: Menachem Bazian on SQL Server 2012 (and maybe some Php)

Menachem Bazian returns for another Southwest Fox preview on Tuesday, September 11. He'll present "SQL Server 2012"; the abstract is pretty simple: Learn what's new in SQL Server 2012 and what features it brings to your Visual FoxPro applications. If time permits, he'll also revisit some of the Php material from last month's session.

Getting to our meetings on public transit

New Yorker Peter Rooney and I have had an ongoing discussion for some time about whether it's possible to get to our meetings by public transit. With the demise of New York's VFP user group, our Philadelphia group is the closest to the Big Apple. This month, with the strong incentive of Menachem Bazian's PHP session, Peter finally gave it a try. Here's his report:

Yes, I did it! I considered it an adventure and a proof of concept.

I'm coming from New York City. By Greyhound bus from Port Authority New York: 2pm - 4pm, $15.75 one way. You can schedule and buy/print the ticket online at etickets@greyhound.com .

Arrives Philadelphia, 11th St (Chinatown), across the street from the Septa Market East Station.

By express Septa train directly to Fort Washington. Leaves about 4:14, arrives 4:34. Cost round trip $10.50.

From the station, it might be walkable, but better to take bus #201 from a bus shelter near the station. Leaves about every 20 minutes. Cost $2.00,.

Arrives across the road from De Vry University about 5:40.

If the meeting goes to 9:30, there is a problem because the #201 bus stops running. at night, so it's not a way to get back to the Fort Washington Station. (and you wouldn't want to walk).

To get a taxi, call 877 711 8294, and figure about 20 minutes to be safe. Or maybe somebody can drive you to the station.

Trains from Fort Washington back to central Philadelphia leave at 38 minutes after the hour. A 9:38 train arrives at Market East Station at 10:10; a 10:38 train arrives at 11:10.

Unfortunately, the last bus from Philadelphia to NY leaves at 11:05. To get around that limitation, you can take the Septa to 30th St station, and catch another Septa train to Trenton NJ. Cost probably $5. Then from Trenton, take NJ Transit which runs about every 30 minutes, and costs about $7. It's pretty fast.

Total cost: about $50. Next time I'll rent a car, get a passenger, and see what that costs.

I'll add a couple of things. First, Bolt or Megabus may offer a cheaper alternative to Greyhound. Second, we have some members who drive in from central New Jersey each month; it may be possible to connect up with them to avoid having to go all the way to downtown Philadelphia. (In fact, Peter got a ride back to Hamilton, NJ, and used transit from there.) In any case, I'm delighted that Peter finally made it to one of our meetings and that he's willing to give it another try. If you're interested in being Peter's car passenger next time, post a reply here and I'll make sure he sees it.

September 11: Bazian returns for SQL Server 2012 session

After his highly successful PHP session,Menachem Bazian has agreed to join us again on September 11 to preview his Southwest Fox session "SQL Server 2012": Learn what's new in SQL Server 2012 and what features it brings to your Visual FoxPro applications.

August 14: Bazian on PHP

Menachem Bazian returns to Philly for a Southwest Fox preview on August 14. He'll be rehearsing his preconference session "PHP for the VFP Developer." Here's his abstract:

Often a Visual FoxPro application will have to share data with a web application. You may be asked to write web reports or simple routines to interact with your data.

When it comes to web technologies, Linux is far more prevalent than Windows. In fact, 66.1% of all internet web servers are running Apache whereas only 18.4% are using IIS. When it comes to server side languages, PHP commands 77.3% of the market.

PHP and Apache also have the benefit of being cross platform. Apache runs on Linux and Windows, PHP runs on Apache or IIS.

Although PHP can look very strange at first, there are strong correlations between Visual FoxPro and PHP. Learning to work with PHP is not that difficult, even if you have never seen it before.

This session will give a primer on PHP and discuss how you can work with your client-server data in both Visual FoxPro and on your web application.

No July meeting; Bazian in August

We're having no meeting on July 10. Stay home and enjoy the All-Star Game. But save August 14, as Menachem Bazian will preview one of his Southwest Fox sessions.

June 12-Tamar Granor: Try Thor's Terrific Tools

Our next meeting is Tuesday, June 12 at 7 PM. I’ll be doing a preview of my Southwest Fox session “Try Thor’s Terrific Tools.” Abstract: The VFPX project, Thor, includes dozens of tools to aid in development. In this session, we'll look at some of what Thor has to offer. The session will explore as many Thor tools as time allows, including Document View, Create Locals, Compare Objects, and much more. We'll also see how to make any Thor tool available with a keyboard shortcut. We’ll also look at how to add your own tools to Thor.

April: Jim Connolly and Steven McCann on using West Wind Web Connect to put a legacy application online

Our next meeting is Tuesday, April 10 at 7 PM. As usual, feel free to come as early as 6:30 and bring some dinner. This month, member Jim Connolly and his co-worker, Steven McCann, will present the work they’re doing with West Wind Web Connect. They show the web site for Volpe Express Trucking. They created a customer interface for rating, tracking and access to accounts receivable. They also created access for the employees to allow access of the tracking of the deliveries and the drivers. They interface with Google APIs to allow tracking and to calculate distances between stops. They use XFRX to present reports on the Web site. They’ll explain how West Wind gives them the ability to interface with their legacy FoxPro system and can show examples of easy web pages to interface with FoxPro. Jim has been working since 1985 with FoxPro. He created the Volpe Express legacy system since 2003. Steven has been working with FoxPro since 2008 and has been working for Jim since the fall of 2011.