NO meeting August 11

We're taking August off. Be sure to mark your calendar now for our upcoming meetings:

September 9--Toni Feltman
October 13--Christof Wollenhaupt

Also, consider coming to Southwest Fox, October 15-18, in Gilbert, AZ. Check it out at http://swfox.net/.

July 14: Tamar E. Granor: “Can’t this application go any faster?”

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, July 14. Tamar E. Granor will do a Southwest Fox preview of her session “Can’t this application go any faster?”

Abstract: What do you do when your customer says that your application is too slow? How can you figure out what's slowing things down? How can you make it faster?

Optimization of a VFP application is more than just applying Rushmore correctly, though that's an important step. In this session, we'll explore techniques for measuring performance of a VFP application and look at things you can do to speed it up.

Tuesday, June 9--Bob Pierce on “Manufacturing Automation powered by VFP – Part 1.”

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 9. Bob Pierce will present “Manufacturing Automation powered by VFP – Part 1.”

Smooth-On Inc., with $50 Million annual production recently moved into a much larger facility to accommodate our growth.  It was decided that we take the opportunity to modernize the operation using automation controlled by Visual FoxPro.  In our process we use 600 chemicals to produce 1400 formulas that go into 6000 finished goods that are sold globally through our distributer network, and ecommerce.  I will explain why VFP was selected for this project, some of the pitfalls of that choice, and the complexities of interaction with pumps/valves/ mixers/sensors in the real world.  There was quite a bit of planning and advanced preparation. But not unexpectedly a lot of nuance we didn’t anticipate and a number of things we missed altogether.  Although the process is not complete, we are well on our way; In Part 2 I will discuss further developments including full formula automation and automation of the pack out process.

May 12--Rick Schummer: "Inspiring Everyday Practical IntelliSense"

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May 12. Rick Schummer will present the “director’s cut” of his Southwest Fox 2014 session “Inspiring Everyday Practical IntelliSense”

Abstract: Microsoft introduced Visual FoxPro's highly extensible IntelliSense capability 14 years ago with the release of Visual FoxPro 7.0. I remember seeing the first live demo of IntelliSense at DevCon and recall the chills it sent up my spine because I knew this new feature would instantly make me more productive. This single VFP feature has been heralded as "the greatest thing since sliced bread" and is, at least in my mind, the single biggest productivity boost to developers. Yet to this day I feel I under-use it and wish I would take the time to make things better for myself.

This session reveals how IntelliSense works using scripts and settings, and how it can be implemented, using real world examples authored by numerous Visual FoxPro developers. The implementation will be demonstrated and analyzed with the number one goal of inspiring you to boost your own productivity in the VFP IDE, and later to share those items that might help other developers in the FoxPro community.

Discover the details needed to take advantage of Quick Info, Member Lists, Command and Keyword expansion, Types, and MRU Lists. Techniques include leveraging the FoxCode object, text merge, and more. If time allows, we will explore other IntelliSense implementations and extensions like MY, IntellisenseX, ISX, and FoxCodePlus.

Bio: Rick Schummer is the president and lead geek at White Light Computing, Inc., headquartered in southeast Michigan, USA where the team guides the customer's Information Technology investment toward success. He enjoys working with top-notch developers, thrives on the mode of continuous learning, has a passion for developing software using best practices, strives to surpass customer expectations, and shares his knowledge with others whenever he can. After hours you might find him creating developer tools that improve developer productivity, or writing articles for his favorite technology journals and his blog.

Rick is a co-author of VFPX: Open Source Treasure for the VFP Developer, Making Sense of Sedna and SP2, Visual FoxPro Best Practices for the Next Ten Years, What's New In Nine: Visual FoxPro's Latest Hits, Deploying Visual FoxPro Solutions, MegaFox: 1002 Things You Wanted To Know About Extending Visual FoxPro, and 1001 Things You Always Wanted to Know About Visual FoxPro. He is a regular presenter at user groups across North America and is founding member and Secretary of the Detroit Area Fox User Group (DAFUG). Rick is the lead organizer of the Southwest Fox Conference, and is a regular presenter at other conferences in North America, Europe, and Australia. He is an administrator of VFPX, and a Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP from 2002 to 2011. Rick was awarded the FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2010.

April 14: Jim Connolly--Document Management within Visual FoxPro

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00 PM. This month, member Jim Connolly will speak on “Document Management within Visual FoxPro.”

Abstract: I created programs that will create an electronic filing system. The programs read the bar codes from the invoicesAnd files them in electronic storage. This allows the end user to view the documents with a single click in the app. I will show the class how to setup the bar code reader and to accept individual scans for easy access. There are some recommended programs that will assist in the process. I will present them along with the Fox Pro program.

We need speakers for upcoming meetings. Please let Jim (JConnolly@jtca.com) know if you have something to share with the group.

March 10: Bill Fitzgerald on SQL Server Reporting Services

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, March 10 at 7 PM.

Member Bill Fitzgerald will present “SSRS 101: SQL Server Reporting System for beginners”:

SSRS – SQL Server Reporting System has been evolving quietly over the past decade and has now emerged as Microsoft’s preferred tool for preparing and displaying database reports. It is the default reporting system for SQL Server and .NET, and also is a powerful standalone report generator. At the same time there has been a decline in the support for the  integration of Crystal Reports with .NET, creating a need that Microsoft has moved to fill.

SSRS is well supported, there are many tutorials available and perhaps most important for some of us – it’s free!

This presentation will look at SSRS from a VFP programmer’s point of view and show how one VFP programmers made the journey to learning enough about SSRS to do most of the things we do with the VFP report writer. (Alas- not all- but most.) It will also show a few things that can’t be done with the VFP report writer.

 

February 10: Open Mike VFP Tips and Tricks

This month is part 2 of our VFP Tips and Tricks series. Come prepared with one or two (or more) short items you want to share with the group. They can be about the VFP UI, the language, application design, great tools, or pretty much anything else VFP-related. (And it’s okay to come even if you have no tips to share.)

We’re looking for speakers for future meetings. If you have something longer than a tip to share with the group, email Jim Connolly.