====================================== FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego ====================================== FoxDev TipsLetter #01-06 3 June 2001 Website: Editor: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS: * Calendar * Tech Tips: Why Projects Don't Compile Steve Settimi Carpe Appum Dan Covill * Links: Where Can I Find...? * Other Stuff: FoxGang Party Barbara Peisch A Code Puzzle Dan Covill Why Web Advertising Doesn't Work Jakob Nielsen Truth and the Web Dan Covill Let Them Fail * Administrivia ====================================================================== CALENDAR: All meetings are in Escondido, at 6:30 pm. June 6 *** CHANGE OF SUBJECT *** ------- Eric Lendvai Does a Framework! EL SoftWare, Inc's new revolutionary framework will allow Visual FoxPro Programmers to create active web sites using only Visual FoxPro. For those of you that feel left out of the.NET framework from Microsoft, this will be the ideal solution to develop full fledged active web sites. You will learn how to manage Pages, Page Templates, Page Components, Forms (Generated from SCX), Cascading menus, Data Access, Security Issues, Remote Web Site Updates, Page Access Logs, and much more. Web sites created with this new framework can be accessed from virtually any browser, including the latest PDAs running Windows CE. June 20 *** EXTRA MEETING *** ------- We are fortunate to have Beth Massi from GoAmerica (formerly Flash) in town doing some training, and she has offered to give the group an intro to COMCodeBook. Meeting location TBA. July 11 (The 1st Wed in July is the 4th) ------- Our own Art Bergquist will show us how to to use OLE automation from within VFP to control Outlook and Word. August 1 [regular date, for a change!] -------- Tips and Tricks. Got some really cool utility you'd like to show off? Or maybe you've discovered a better way to accomplish something. This is your chance to show off! Just reply to this e-mail with a brief description of what you'd like to show. Sept 13 *** SPECIAL DATE *** ------- Doug Hennig - topic TBA We've rescheduled our regular meeting to right after Devcon so that we can bring you Doug Hennig, the creator of Stonefield Database Toolkit, and regular author in FoxTalk. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Escondido meetings are at Bergelectric, 2222 Meyers Avenue. Take the Nordahl exit from Highway 78 (west of I-15). Head South. Right on Meyers Ave, first right past Mission. It's a one-story building on the right (there's no sign). ====================================================================== TIPS ====================================================================== WHY PROJECTS DON'T COMPILE by Steve Settimi I've always wanted to know why certain project builds fail to complete a full recompile even when you check the box to recompile all. Always thought that it was a file locking problem where one of the compiled files still had an outstanding handle not closed. The message from VFP7 is a welcomed error message that I've never seen in previous versions but reaffirms my suspicions. Application file 'c:\documen~1\admini~1\locals~1\temp\xxxx.fxp' is not closed Side bar, but interesting: Notice where it's pointing? That's the default location of temp files in Windows 2000. Stephen Settimi settimi@sprintmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CARPE APPUM (Seize Your App) by Dan Covill I recently stumbled on what looks like a nice, simple solution to the age-old problem of getting users out of your app so you can install an upgrade or fix a problem. This is a VFP class, using a timer, with actions triggered by the existence of zero-length text files. SEIZE.WRN puts up a warning message on each user's screen. SEIZE.NOW shuts the application down (no more Mr. Nice Guy!). SEIZE.OFF (not really necessary) cancels a SEIZE warning. Since these are only text files, a system administrator doesn't even need FoxPro to cause an orderly system shutdown. You'll need to customize it to shut your app down safely, but the guts are there and they work. It's only 278 lines of code, complete with instructions and a test program. It works! It's a free download from: www.ping.be/~0150/vfp.htm They have some other stuff you might want to look at, too. Dan Covill Middleton Consulting Inc. dcovill@san.rr.com ====================================================================== LINKS ====================================================================== This is a (semi) permanent list of places to look for technical help when you get blind-sided by the latest urgent requirement. We don't give specific URLs for MSDN articles because (a) they're too long and (b) they change too often! ------------------------------- MSDN ON LINE: There's a ton of stuff here, look at the Magazines tab, and read some of the regular columns. MSDN Library Look in Technical Articles | Visual Studio | Visual FoxPro 3-Tier Apps: MSDN Library: "Building Three-Tier Client/Server Applications with Visual FoxPro" ADO MSDN Library: ADO Jumpstart for Microsoft Visual FoxPro Developers John V. Petersen, April 1999 DNA (Distributed interNet Architecture): MSDN On-line: "Top Windows DNA Performance Mistakes and How to Prevent Them" MTS: Microsoft Transaction Server MSDN Library: "Microsoft Transaction Server for Visual FoxPro Developers" ODBC: MSDN Library: "Using Visual FoxPro to Access Remote Data" ODBC drivers are part of MDAC - Microsoft Data Access Components - and are available for download at: "www.microsoft.com/data" VS Installer: MSDN Library: a. "Using Visual Studio Installer for VFP 6.0 Applications" b. "VFP 6.0 and VS Installer Tutorial" VFP General: This is the most complete set of FoxPro links you're likely to find: http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_visual_foxpro.html WEB Development: These products all work well with VFP. WestWind www.west-wind.com FoxWeb www.foxweb.com AFP www.afpweb.com and www.afpages.com X-WORKS www.x-works.com Windows General XML - What's New in XML for Microsoft Windows 2000 See also OLE DB drivers for XML in MDAC 2.6 at "microsoft.com/data" [Contributions solicited. DC] ====================================================================== OTHER STUFF ====================================================================== FOXGAN PARTY 2001 Barbara Peisch The FoxGang Party 2001 will be held at 7:00 pm of the last day of the Advisor Devcon in San Diego, which is September 12. The party will be at the Sheraton, which is the conference hotel, in an area called "Water Works". Details and RSVP at this website: http://63.193.37.117/foxgangparty/foxgang.htm There will be a cash bar and free munchies. Everyone is welcome, but I need to your R.S.V.P. by September 1, so I can give them a head count. If you have questions, e-mail me: barbara@peisch.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A CODE PUZZLE by Dan Covill This code is from a system I took over. It compiles and executes correctly, but... There's a "gotcha" in here that I missed for several weeks, and it nearly led me to make a catastrophic mistake on my first modification. (nLATHEnn are eight programs that generate lathe control files, four design codes x two setup options.) ------------------------------- do case case DesignCode = '1' if Setup = '1' do 1LATHE01 endif if Setup = '2' do 2LATHE01 endif case DesignCode = '2' if Setup = '1' do 1LATHE02 endif if Setup = '2' do 2LATHE02 endif case DesignCode = '3' if Setup = '1' do 3LATHE01 endif if Setup = '2' do 3LATHE02 endif case DesignCode = '4' if Setup = '1' do 4LATHE01 endif if Setup = '2' do 4LATHE02 endif endcase ------------------------------- Can you spot the original programmer's logic flaw? And how would you fix it? Dan Covill Middleton Consulting Inc. dcovill@san.rr.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WHY ADVERTISING DOESN'T WORK ON THE WEB Jakob Nielsen [from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for September 1, 1997] "The Web is very different from television: it is mainly a cognitive medium, whereas TV is mainly an emotional medium. This makes TV much more suited for the traditional type of advertising which is flashy and promotes superficial qualities of products... Where TV is warm, the Web is cold. It is a user-driven experience, where the user is actively engaged in determining where to go next. The user is usually on the Web for a purpose and is not likely to be distracted from the goal by an advertisement (one of the main reasons click-through is so low). This active user engagement makes the Web more cognitive, since the user has to think about what hypertext links to click and how to navigate. This again makes the Web less suited for purely emotional advertising. The user is not on the Web to "get an experience" but to get something done." [Jakob Nielsen is one of the leading gurus of usability. See the entire article at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9709a.html ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TRUTH AND THE WEB by Dan Covill Saw this in some E-mail newsletter a couple of weeks age. "Composing e-mail or posting something on the Net is as easy as writing on the walls of a public rest room, and about as like a source of truth." Good thought. Remember it as you reinstall SULFNBK.EXE. To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, "The relationship between Truth and the Internet is like that between the letter Q and the color green. Occasionally you will see a green Q, but you learn not to depend on it." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LET THEM FAIL [From a letter posted on the ACM's Ubiquity forum, in reply to an article warning that "distance learning" - i.e., courses over the internet - may be open to cheating.] "In a prosperous society, the majority of people will choose to learn as little as possible. Let them. In good times, they may find prosperous niches. Let them do this as well, and be glad that society has sufficient surplus. In bad times, they may find themselves in trouble, and have to work at McDonald's or wind up on the streets. Let them do this, too. It is their choice. "Those who wish to cheat will find ways of doing it. Research, coursework, and examinations are either important parts of education, or they are not. If they are important parts, those who cheat are simply cheating themselves. If they are not, they should be revised so that they are. "There will always be a minority of students who are honest, hardworking, and interested in everything. Continue to nurture these students and give them the tools to succeed. As for the rest, let them fail." [The article was titled "Technology and Degree Inflation", at: http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/m_thirunarayanan_4.html ] --------------------------Administrivia------------------------------- This newsletter is a service to all FoxPro developers, provided without charge by the FoxPro Developers Network of San Diego (FPDN). Anyone may subscribe (or unsubscribe) at our web site . The link is on the home page. The Resources button on the website will take you to the back issues of the newsletter. The editor (Dan Covill) is solely responsible for the content. E-mail him with YOUR tips, comments, or complaints. Editor: Dan Covill 858-272-2448 dcovill@acm.org Board of Directors: Eric Lendvai - President 760-734-4929 eric@elsoftware.com Art Bergquist - Vice Pres 760-740-0428 abergquis@cs.com Claude Nikula - Secretary 619-615-6318 crndev@home.com Barbara Peisch - Treasurer 760-729-9607 barbara@peisch.com Dan Covill - Director 858-272-2448 dcovill@acm.org Thad V'Soske - Director 619-544-9900 tvsoske@hanoverdirect.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------