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.

March 13--Triple-header

Our March meeting features a tripleheader.
Part 1—Bill Fitzgerald: A tool for keeping SQL Server Tables in synch with VFP tables

Abstract:
Some richly-featured VFP applications might co-exist with SQL Server/.NET applications indefinitely, with the need for current reference data on both platforms.

This tool is aimed at synchronizing reference tables that are used and updated in a VFP application, but are needed for read only reference in SQL Server/.NET applications.

Part 2—Tamar Granor: The Method Tracker

Abstract:
The Method Tracker is a new developer tool that fills the niche between the Debugger’s Event Tracker and Coverage Profiler. It allows you to track the start and end of each method in form or class without adding any code to the tracked object. You can control what methods are tracked, and even track changes to properties.

Part 3—Open discussion on multi-user applications

February 14: Menachem Bazian on Class Design

Just in! Our February 14 meeting will feature Menachem Bazian, presenting his Southwest Fox 2011 session "Class Design Strategies":


When is a class needed and when isn't it? How can you design classes that add power and flexibility not only to your current application but to all your projects? How can you simplify the development and maintenance by using classes?

The "textbook" answer is to do a full blown object orientation analysis and design. But what do you do if you don't have the time for that formal process?

This session, which is both theoretical and practical (code based), will discuss how to think in "OO" mode and how the traditional Cowboy Programmer approach of Visual FoxPro and the formal world of Object Orientation can come together and live in harmony.

The session will also discuss how to modify classes safely.

January meeting: Bob Pierce on status info

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, January 10. Our speaker this month will be Bob Pierce. He will demonstrate building a small VFP project that can be used to display status info and data that is simple to build yet has a modern App/Gadget feel using just basic VFP controls and classes.  If there is time he will discuss his recent adventures in bar-coding and lot control and some of the issues he ran into as well as the advantages it has delivered already and future planned enhancements.

We’re looking for speakers for upcoming meetings. If you have something to share with the group (whether it’s 10 minutes or the whole session), please get in touch with Bob, rpierce@smooth-on.com.