What's new in the Visual FoxPro Community


Virtual Fox Fest 2024: Speakers, Sessions and Registration
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!
Web Connection 7.40 has been released
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.
Southwest Fox 2024: Call for Speakers
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
Markdown Monster 3.2 released
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.
Html Help Builder 5.38 released
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.
Geek Gatherings 2024: Save the Dates!
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.
Web Connection 7.35 has been released
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.
Southwest Fox 2023; Conference is ON
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.
Markdown Monster 3.0 Release
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.
Southwest Fox 2023: URGENT - Now or never, register today
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
Southwest Fox 2023: URGENT Early-Bird registration deadline looms!
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
Southwest Fox 2023: Super-saver Deadline Approaches
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.
Southwest Fox 2023: Registration Opens
Speakers (https://swfox.net/speakers.aspx) and sessions (https://swfox.net/sessions.aspx) for Southwest Fox 2023 have been announced, and registration is open! As we discussed earlier, we have a limit on the number of people who can attend in-person, and in less than 48 hours since registration opened, 1/3 of the spots have already been taken. So, if you're considering attending in-person, register (https://swfox.net/register.aspx) today or you could miss out! Also, Super-Saver Registration, which saves you $100, is available only through July 31st, so don't wait. When registering, be sure to select the proper conference on the registration site: choose either the in-person event or the virtual event.
West Wind Client Tools 7.33 released
West Wind Client Tools is a suite of FoxPro utility classes that provide Internet functionality including SMTP Email, full featured HTTP Web and REST service access, FTP, 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. v7.33 is a maintenance release that fixes a number of small issues with focus on wwDotnetBridge, wwJsonServiceClient and wwJsonSerializer improvements. Updates for registered users of v7 are free and a shareware version is available to try.
Southwest Fox 2023: Announcement and Call for Speakers
We're excited to offer you Southwest Fox 2023, a hybrid conference; you decide whether to come in-person or watch online! The in-person event will be held at the Hampton Inn & Suites Phoenix-Scottsdale. The virtual event will use the Hopin platform (the same platform we use for Virtual Fox Fest). You can get more information on the Southwest Fox Conference Web page: https://swfox.net/. The conference will take place October 19-22, 2023. We've issued the Call for Speakers for Southwest Fox (https://swfox.net/CallForSpeakers.aspx). If you are interested in presenting, please read the document referenced on that page to learn about submitting sessions.
West Wind Web Connection 7.32 released
West Wind Web Connection 7.32 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. Version 7.32 adds a number of improvements to wwDotnetBridge for dealing with collections and passing 'unsupported' types to and from .NET. There are also several improvements to Request object to retrieve all form, query string and server variables as a list. Finally several improvements in JSON serialization make it easier to work with complex objects and names that might otherwise conflict with FoxPro property names. As always, Web Connection is available as shareware and registered users of v7 are eligible for free upgrades.
Virtual Fox Fest 2023 (May): Speakers, Sessions and Registration
Virtual Fox Fest 2023 (May) is a one-day event on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. 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 2023, along with at least one brand new session. More details here: https://virtualfoxfest.com. Registration (https://virtualfoxfest.com/register.aspx) 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! We're planning Southwest Fox in Arizona this October. We expect to announce our plans for a hybrid (in-person and virtual) fall conference some time in April.
Markdown Monster 2.8 released
West Wind Technologies has released Markdown Monster 2.8 of its popular Markdown Editor and Weblog Publishing tool. v2.8 includes a major internal updates to improve performance, responsiveness and stability related to the WebView control and async retooling. There's also support to configure your own external programs, many table editor improvements, easier table editor imports from CSV/JSON, better Mermaid charting support and tons of Command Palette additions. You can try Markdown Monster for free with a fully functional evaluation copy and updates for registered v2 users are always free.
West Wind WebSurge 2.2 released
West Wind Technologies has released WebSurge version 2.2. V2.x is a major re-write of this Http REST Client and Web Load Testing tool for Windows. WebSurge makes it quick and easy to test APIs and Web Sites using an easy-to-use user interface for creating sessions of URLs to test either individually during development, or under load for stress testing. Version 2.2 brings many improvements, including support for HTTP 2.0, improved interactive request editing, easier switching between multiple target sites, request printing and improved performance and stability due to .NET 7.0 and WebView updates. A free evaluation version is available to check out WebSurge and v users can upgrade to v2 at a discount.
West Wind Client Tools 7.31 released
West Wind Client Tools is a suite of FoxPro utility classes that provide Internet functionality including SMTP Email, full featured HTTP Web and REST service access, FTP, SFTP and low level TCP/IP access to your FoxPro applications. Utility classes include object based data access to SQL Server and Web Data, a light-weight business object framework, a .NET Interop helper component, JSON and XML serialization, several configuration management classes and a rich library of utility and API functions useful in everyday Visual FoxPro development. v7.31 is a maintenance release that fixes a number of small issues with focus on wwDotnetBridge and wwJsonSerializer improvements. Updates for registered users of v7 are free and a shareware version is available to try.