February 12--Tamar Granor on Thor

At our February 12 meeting, Tamar Granor will reprise her June presentation "Try Thor's Terrific Tools" with some updates based on changes to Thor.

January 8: Menachem Bazian--PHP in the Real World

Our next meeting will be next Tuesday, January 8 at 7 PM. Feel free to come as early as 6:30 for dinner. This month, we’ll be providing dinner; please email tamar@tamargranor.com if you plan to join us, so we have enough food.

Menachem Bazian returns for another look at PHP with a session titled “PHP in the Real World”: This session will discuss programming PHP in the real world. The session will follow the evolution of a simple application from original problem description through implementation. Attendees will be introduced to CodeIgniter, a low weight, high performance PHP framework which I use as the basis for my PHP applications. There will be a few other goodies thrown in for good measure too!

December 11: Bob Pierce on synchronizing offline SqlServer/MySql data with live Fox data

Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 11.

This month, Bob Pierce will speak on synchronizing offline SqlServer/MySql data with live Fox data: I have a couple of projects that I need to have VFP tables interact with SQLServer/MySQL to be consumed by a program that is disconnected/remote. I plan to be converting the my main application over to SQLServer but am not yet ready to make that jump, so I am using some small scale projects to become familiar with some of the issues and allow me to solve a couple problems in the short run. I will explore a couple of techniques I have tried and give a sense of some challenges I faced to get to a working solution.

Mark January 8 for the return of Menachem Bazian with more on PHP. We’re looking for speakers for meetings after that. Let Jim Connolly (JConnolly@jtca.com) know if you have something to share with the group.

November 13: Dan Baker on Using VFP as your CMS

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 13 at 7 PM. Member Dan Baker will speak on “Using VFP as Your Content Management System for an Information-Rich Website.” This is part 1 of what Dan sees as several presentations on this subject. Dan Baker is a market research analyst in the telecom market who lives in the Poconos and has used his VFP skills to develop what he calls a “information rich” website for his business. The website is an on-line magazine, Black Swan Telecom Journal http://bswan.org. Here’s a short list of the topics Dan plans on discussing in his first talk on the subject. 1. Why website development is a VFP business opportunity of its own, regardless of whether VFP web applications are used or not. 2. What is an “information-rich” website actually? Why is the VFP desktop with FTP uploads an excellent choice for managing a website of this type. 3. The kind of websites where a VFP solution does not make sense as a business opportunity. 4. Why a VFP developer should not be intimidated by rich websites or by competition from Dreamweaver and traditional web designers. 5. How to create a professional site by “standing on the shoulders of giants”, borrowing great design concepts all over the web. 6. Why VFP is often a better choice than web-based content frameworks. 7. How I organize images, CSS, articles, “include” files and other content in folders for easy management. 8. How you can retrieve server-side files and webpage components without using any on-line database. 9. How an information rich website’s pages are organized. 10. Naming conventions in organizing your webpage. 11. Bringing out the artist inside. A quick discussion on the value of images and how to manage them. 12. Helpful training websites and places to find great stuff to enhance your knowledge and make life easier as a website developer. Dan also plans to distribute sample web files including simple server-side code written ASP so that you can play with the concepts and see how the website is organized on your own. In addition, we’ll have a Southwest Fox 2012 review. We need speakers for upcoming meetings. Please let Jim Connolly (JConnolly@jtca.com) know if you have something to share with the group.

October 9: Tamar Granor--"VFP: Ideal for Tools"

Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 9 at 7 PM. As usual, feel free to bring some dinner and come as early as 6:30 PM. Tamar Granor will be previewing her Southwest Fox session, called “VFP: Ideal for Tools.” Abstract: We've had developer tools written in the FoxPro language since the days of FoxPro 2.0. Quite a few come with VFP, and the community has built lots more. In this session, we'll explore the Visual FoxPro language features that make building developer tools possible. We'll look at how the VFP language allows you to dig into projects, classes, data and code. Examples will be drawn from a variety of VFP tools, including those in VFPX.

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.