posted Wednesday
If you plan to be at the in-person conference, please register today if you have not already done so. We are still short of our minimum to make the in-person side of the conference happen by *six* people. Even if we get six more in-person registrations, we are taking a financial risk. If you plan to attend virtually, please register for the virtual conference as this impacts the choice we have to make in the coming days. Plus, if you register now, you get the early-bird discount, which expires on August 1. The conference takes place September 26-29, 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona and we really hope you can be there. Head over to the registration Web site now: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration
posted Monday, July 8, 2024
We really want to have an in-person conference. We love the chance to see members of our community face-to-face and interact both during conference hours and outside them. If that matters to you, we need you to show up this year. Without at least 15 more in-person registrations by July 26, we will have to switch to an all-virtual conference, and we won’t be planning any future in-person events. For those signed up for the in-person conference, do not make plane reservations until we announce the decision for the in-person conference, which we expect to make soon after July 26th. We extended the Super-Saver rate through the end of the day Tuesday, July 9, 2024 as an added incentive. The conference takes place September 26-29, 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona and we really hope you can be there. Head over to the registration Web site today: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration
posted Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Hear that sound? Tick, tick, tick, tick... That's the countdown clock at Geek Gatherings getting closer to the Super-saver deadline for Southwest Fox! June 30th is this Sunday and we thought we would pass along one more reminder just in case you forgot to add it your reminder list or put a yellow sticky note on your monitor. We still need people to register to make the in-person side of the conference happen. The conference takes place September 26-29, 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona and we really hope you can be there. If you really want to attend in-person, we would hate to see you miss out on a seat in the room (the in-person limit is 40 registrations). Whether you plan to attend in-person or virtually, surely you don't to lose out on the Super-saver discount ($200 for in-person or $100 for virtual). We plan to release three videos from Southwest Fox 2023 from the following sessions in early July on our YouTube channel (Advanced Reporting with Microsoft Excel, ParallelFox 2.0, and Logging: Clear Cut Solutions for Your Apps). Head over to the registration Web site today: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration
posted Wednesday, June 26, 2024
It's been a bit, but Web Connection is turning 8.0 in this major version upgrade for the popular FoxPro Web development framework. Web Connection is a rich and mature tool for building HTML Web applications and HTTP API Services using Visual FoxPro, so you can continue to use the tools you already know to build Web applications. The upgrade brings a completely revamped COM Pool manager that improves reliability and stability and improves server load times significantly which especially impacts high load applications. Additional improvements in the .NET and .NET Core server interfaces improve logging and provide several small admin enhancements. There have been a lot of improvements for creating and calling REST services including new Token Authentication support for services. There are also new wwFtpClient (with FTP, FTPS and SFTP support) and wwZipArchive classes that replace older versions with more functionality and many small enhancements and updates to core library and framework features. As always, Web Connection is available as shareware. v8 is a paid upgrade but we have a 1 year grace period for free updates.
posted Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Southwest Fox 2024, the highly acclaimed developer conference is September 26-29, 2024. Super-Saver Registration for in-person, which saves you $200 (or $100 for virtual), is available only through June 30th, so don’t wait. Head over to the registration Web site today: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration. You’ll have to select either the in-person event or the virtual event. Registration fees start at $599 for in-person and $349 for virtual. More details are available on the conference’s registration page. A total of 15 regular conference topics to pack your days with learning opportunities and inspiration.
posted Thursday, May 30, 2024
West Wind Client Tools is a suite of FoxPro utility classes that provide Internet and general purpose utility functionality including SMTP Email, full featured HTTP Web and REST service access, FTP, FTPS, SFTP and low level TCP/IP access to your FoxPro applications. There's support for JSON and XML serialization, an easy to use REST Service Client which is ever more important these days. Utility classes include object based data access to SQL Server and Web Data, a light-weight business object framework, a .NET Interop helper component, a configuration management class and a rich library of utility and API functions useful in everyday Visual FoxPro development. Version 8.0 introduces new SFTP support and updates to FTP and SFTP implementations. Notable enhancements include improved performance and features in the JSON serializer and REST Service integration. Additionally, there are several small improvements in wwDotnetBridge, making it easier to work with complex .NET types. Upgrading from previous versions is required for this major release and a free shareware version is also available to try out functionality.
posted Wednesday, May 22, 2024
West Wind Technologies has released Markdown Monster 3.3 of its rich Markdown editor that makes it easy to create Markdown content with its many easy to use and unobtrusive support features. The tool is equally suited to experienced, code-only users who can UI keep features out of the way, or novices that are just learning to work with Markdown features and want to discover Markdown functionality interactively. Version 3.3 is an extensive maintenance version rollup release that has many fixes and small enhancements to improve user experience. A fully functional evaluation version of Markdown Monster is available for free and registered users of v3.x can upgrade for free.
posted Friday, April 19, 2024
Virtual Fox Fest 2024 (https://virtualfoxfest.com/) is on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, which is less than three weeks from now! We are getting close, and the preparations are in full swing. Ready to sign up? Just click https://geekgatherings.com/Registration. Speaking of getting close, the Geek Gatherings YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@geekgatherings) is closing in on 1000 subscribers and we would love to leap far over this milestone. Please subscribe and check the notification bell so you can be one of the first to learn when we release the videos from last year’s Southwest Fox. The channel has over 60 videos with session content from all the Virtual Fox Fest conferences over the last four years. That is over 75 hours of viewing. Here is a link to a session from 2022: DevOps with Visual FoxPro (Joel Leach) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNFk1CpBzjE&t=7s
posted Sunday, March 10, 2024
Virtual Fox Fest 2024 is a one-day event on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. We have some great speakers (https://virtualfoxfest.com/speakers.aspx) delivering great sessions (https://virtualfoxfest.com/sessions.aspx), live chatting during presentations, and getting to hang out virtually with new and old friends. This event will feature classic sessions (from previous conferences), updated for 2024, along with at least one brand new session. More details here: https://virtualfoxfest.com/. Registration is open! Details, deadlines and cost are available on our Web site. You register for the conference here: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration. Don't procrastinate, get this done today!
posted Tuesday, February 27, 2024
West Wind Web Connection 7.40 is a maintenance update for this popular FoxPro Web development framework. Web Connection is a rich and mature tool for building HTML Web applications and HTTP API Services using Visual FoxPro, so you can continue to use the tools you already know to build Web applications. This update fixes a few small issues and also includes several nice improvements: Many improvements to automatic server launching specifically the local Web Connection Web Server. .NET 8 can now be auto-installed if you chose to use the Web Connection Web Server locally from the Wizard or during install. Additional improvements to REST service Bearer Token Authentication and updates the JSON Service client that allows simplifies calling JSON services from FoxPro code. As always, Web Connection is available as shareware and registered users of v7 are eligible for free upgrades.
posted Tuesday, February 27, 2024
We've issued the Call for Speakers for Southwest Fox. If you are interested in presenting, please read the document referenced on that page to learn about submitting sessions. The conference will take place September 26-29, 2024. https://swfox.net/CallForSpeakers.aspx
posted Thursday, January 25, 2024
West Wind Technologies has released Markdown Monster 3.0 of its rich Markdown editor that makes it easy to create Markdown content with its many easy to use and unobrusive support features. The tool is equally suited to experienced, code-only users who can UI keep features out of the way, or novices that are just learning to work with Markdown features and want to discover Markdown functionality interactively. Version 3.2 has been updated to .NET 8.0, adds an AI Image Generator, now supports saving with elevated rights, improves custom keyboard mappings, improves how dropped and pasted links and images are labeled and more. A fully functional evaluation version of Markdown Monster is available for free and registered users of v3.x can upgrade for free.
posted Wednesday, January 24, 2024
West Wind Technologies has released Help Builder 5.38. Help Builder creates online and offline documentation with easy Markdown based content editing to quickly create content and publish output to the Web, PDF, MS Word or CHM files. Help Builder uses Web based HTML templates to create great looking online documentation, while letting you focus on creating great content. Version 5.38 is a maintenance release. This release updates theme styling, adds a new Open on Web Site shortcut on the Topic Context menu, and allows for script embedding that in content that doesn't render in the preview, but renders on generated live output so you can render things like MathJax and Mermaid Charts. Help Builder is available as shareware, and registered users of V5.x can update for free.
posted Thursday, December 21, 2023
We have locked in our dates for our 2024 conferences and hope you will save the dates to attend. Our one-day Virtual Fox Fest 2024 will be Wednesday, May 8, 2024. It still has the same great features everyone loves about VFF: great speakers delivering great sessions, live chatting during presentations, and getting to hang out virtually with new and old friends. This event will feature classic sessions from previous conferences, updated for 2024. We’re excited to offer you Southwest Fox 2024, a hybrid conference, September 26-29, 2024. You decide whether to come in person or watch online! The in-person event will be held at the Hampton Inn & Suites Phoenix-Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona. The virtual event will use the Ring Central Hopin platform (the same platform we use for Virtual Fox Fest). Web sites will be updated in the new year. Call for speakers will be announced later in February so get your ideas prepared.
posted Monday, November 13, 2023
West Wind Web Connection 7.35 is a maintenance update for this popular FoxPro Web development framework. Web Connection is a rich and mature tool for building HTML Web applications and HTTP API Services using Visual FoxPro, so you can continue to use the tools you already know to build Web applications. This update fixes a few small issues and also includes several nice improvements for server and client side REST Services: Servers add a Bearer Token Authentication implementation and JsonServiceClient gains a number of improvements to simplify request processing for REST calls. There are also improvements to the JSON serializer, wwDotnetBridge and List, Collection and Dictionary handling. As always, Web Connection is available as shareware and registered users of v7 are eligible for free upgrades.
posted Wednesday, September 6, 2023
We have good news to share today. Thanks to the support of the Visual FoxPro community and our many sponsors, Southwest Fox 2023 will proceed as planned October 19-22, 2023 in Scottsdale, AZ and online via Hopin (now owned by RingCentral). We really appreciate all the support people have shown for the conference with registrations! That said, the decision comes with a calculated risk because we are still many registrations short of covering all the conference expenses. Please continue to spread the word to your colleagues, clients, user groups and anywhere else Visual FoxPro is spoken. If you haven't yet registered, there's still room for you: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration.
posted Tuesday, August 29, 2023
West Wind Technologies has released Markdown Monster 3.0. This release is a major update that brings many internal changes for better performance and responsiveness, as well as a host of new features, user improvements to the user interface and external integrations. Markdown Monster is a rich Markdown editor that makes it easy to create Markdown content with many support features that make common tasks quick and easy. The tool is equally suited to experienced, code-only users who can UI keep features out of the way, or novices that are just learning to work with Markdown features and want to discover Markdown functionality more interactively. Version 3.0 is a paid upgrade, and you can try Markdown Moster for free with a fully functional evaluation copy.
posted Monday, August 28, 2023
The fate of Southwest Fox is being decided Wednesday, August 30th. Help us make the decision to keep this conference going easy. We won’t charge your credit card until September. There is no more time for you to procrastinate. It simply is now or never. If you are going to Southwest Fox this year (in-person or virtually), please head over to the registration Web site, right now, before you forget: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration
posted Wednesday, August 16, 2023
WILL SOUTHWEST FOX 2023 TAKE PLACE? THAT DEPENDS ON YOU. We have to decide by August 31 whether to hold Southwest Fox 2023 or not. So far, registration for both the in-person and virtual conferences has been slow. We have three options: a hybrid conference as planned, a virtual conference only, or no conference. If you want us to decide to hold the conference, register (for either the in-person or virtual event) before August 30. Credit cards will not be charged until September. If you are registering for the in-person conference, DO NOT book travel until you hear our decision. Please head over to the registration Web site today: https://geekgatherings.com/Registration
posted Friday, July 28, 2023
Super-saver deadline for Southwest Fox approaching! July 31st is next Monday, so one more reminder just in case you plan to attend either in-person or virtually. We still need people to register to make the in-person side of the conference happen.