What's new in the Visual FoxPro Community

West Wind Technologies has released version 5.43 of its Web Development framework for Visual FoxPro. Web Connecton makes it easy to build Web and distributed applications with Visual FoxPro using pure Visual FoxPro code within the Visual FoxPro environment. Version 5.43 is a maintenance release that provides a few small enhancements and bug fixes. Web Connection is distributed as shareware and as always registered users of V5 can update to this latest version for free.

Starters and Beginners - C#.NET & WinForms for VFPers CFUDG's June meeting features our own Professor Tom Corrigan who will talk on "A C# Starter Kit for Windows Forms Database Programming". The focus is on setting up a Windows Forms data editing solution using C#.Net and SQL Server from the perspective of a VFP programmer. Topics include: - Database concepts: C# approach vs. VFP approach - Organizing the solution into projects - Implementing the MVC (ModelViewController) paradigm - Tips and tricks for keeping things simple (All the code involved will be available to attendees). Bill Drew will do "Beginner to Beginners: Strings, File Handling, and Windows Forms." Come join us on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 5:30 pm. Tech Nexus, 200 S. Wacker Drive, 15th floor. RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/cfudg609 Our next meeting will be July 14. Future speakers include Cathy Pountney and Rick Borup.

West Wind Technologies has released version 5.43 of its Visual FoxPro client Internet and utility library, West Wind Internet and Client Tools. This utility library includes a wide variety of Internet functionality including SMTP and POP3 email access, a rich HTTP client, FTP client and a basic Socket client. The utility library also includes a lightweigth business object library, XML helper class, a FoxPro based SOAP client, a new wwDotNetBridge class to interop with .NET and much more. This update is primarily a maintenence release and provides a few fixes and updates to existing functionality. There are also a number of enhancements to the wwDotNetBridge, XML and SOAP classes to improve usability. As always registered users of version 5 can update for free, and a shareware version is availble to try out the product for free.

The Philadelphia VFP User Group will meet next Tuesday, June 9 at 7 PM at Valley Forge Pension Management, 715 Twining Road, Suite 202, Dresher, PA 19025. As usual, feel free to bring dinner and come as early as 6:30. Those present will be eligible to win a 1-year MSDN Premium subscription, including Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite. (The subscription must be activated by 6/30/2009.) Bob Pierce will speak this month. His topic is "Nothing but Net": Visual FoxPro can be a great tool for interacting with the Internet. This session will include many different ways to use VFP to send emails, download content, send files using FTP, publishing content, and run a VFP web server. All of the techniques use freely available tools that can easily be integrated into your applications with a minimum of effort. Also, make your calendars for another exciting summer of Southwest Fox previews. Menachem Bazian will speak on July 14, Tamar Granor will present on August 11, and Toni Feltman will visit on September 8. All three will be previewing material for October's Southwest Fox conference (www.swfox.net).

The next VFP Boot Camp will be in Kansas City, Missouri, July 6-8, 2009. Registration ends on June 19, 2009 for this highly-acclaimed VFP workshop delivering three jam-packed days of solid, hands-on learning. From the fundamentals of VFP development through the very latest VFP 9.0 features, this boot camp is designed to quickly get your VFP skills up to speed. Attendees will receive a 500-page manual in both print and electronic format. For more information, visit http://visionpace.com/developereducation.html or email info@visionpace.com. To register, call 888-904-7900.

West Wind Technologies has released Version 1.0 of the West Wind Web Toolkit for ASP.NET. This toolkit provides a host of controls, components and important re-usable utilities for every day ASP.NET and .NET development. The toolkit contains a host of AJAX controls, a number of jQuery plug-ins and JavaScript helpers, a powerful two-way databinding control, a data driven localization provider and a large library of every day utility classes and functions that are useful in every day development both for Web and plain .NET apps and much much more. West Wind Web Connection developers will also find many familiar utility features in this toolset. The Web Toolkit consolidates many components covered in articles and blog entries into a single comprehensive set of libraries that come with full documentation and support, as well as full access to source code. The toolkit is free for personal or open source and the free download includes all source code and access to the Subversion repository.

Yes, it's the 3rd Tuesday and that means MadFox! The meeting is at Salty Dog Solutions' HQ in beautiful downtown Madison, WI. The students are gone and we are in summer mode! Tonight's meeting will begin with our usual Q&A and member demonstrations. Stein Goering will present "e-Payments through common payment gateways using VFP/WestWind." If there's time after that I'll demonstrate the wonderful "QuickPDF Library" for manipulating PDF Documents via ActiveX. Lastly, we'll take a look at FoxCharts. We have some great door prizes, beer and snacks, and here is a new, improved Code mag! Plus afterwards we'll head over to some venue for libations and bird watching. Where: 1308 Spring St., Madison WI 53715 (map) When: 5:30pm, May 19th

In May, we'll be learning from three of our members who will form a panel to show effective, Internet-based mechanisms for promoting yourself and keeping in touch with clients. 1) Steve Munson -- on social networking with Twitter, My Space, and Facebook 2) Jim Day -- on a Time and Billing tool 3) Jim Wiggins -- on sharing project progress and expectations with your clients. To reserve a perch in our new eagles nest meeting room at Tech Nexus, 200 South Wacker, Suite 1500, RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/cfudg512. The meeting will be at 5:30 on May 12, 2009. Our next meeting will be on June 9.

The Philadelphia VFP user group will meet Tuesday, May 12, at 7 PM. Member Jerry Noble will demonstrate his search engine which sequentially searches for customers on 10 different criteria using class code which allows for the use of navigation keys and auto-capitalization. He will also show how he uses a Bar Code Scanner to search for and populate the application with the information found on the Vehicle Registration Card.