FoxCentral News

Virtual Fox Fest 2025 (May): We've got sessions

Southwest Fox Conference — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:03:42 GMT

Virtual Fox Fest 2025 (May) is on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. April 22, 2025 is the last day you can save $20, so please go register now. If you register after April 22nd, the price goes up to $139

Virtual Fox Fest 2025 (May): Speakers, Sessions and Registration

Southwest Fox Conference — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 18:05:37 GMT

Virtual Fox Fest 2025 (May) is a one-day event on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. We have some 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 2025, along with at least two brand new sessions. 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!

West Wind WebSurge 3.0 released

West Wind Technologies — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:29:55 GMT

West Wind Technologies has released WebSurge version 3.0. This release is a major update to this Http REST Client and Web Load Testing tool for Windows. WebSurge makes it easy to create and test HTTP and REST APIs or any Http content. Test individual requests for API or Request testing, or test under load for heavy duty stress testing. Version 3.0 adds many enhancements and improved performance. New features include the ability to share sessions online, content previewers for Pdf, Images and media, support for Visual Studio .http files and more. A free evaluation version is available and v2 users can upgrade to v3 at a discount.

Markdown Monster 3.6 released

West Wind Technologies — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 08:05:41 GMT

West Wind Technologies has released Markdown Monster 3.6 of its rich Markdown editor. Markdown Monster 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 3.6 adds a new split sidebar panel, a brand new link checker, improved YouTube embedding and PDF printing and new support for the Admonitions extension. A fully functional evaluation version of Markdown Monster is available for free and registered users of v3.x can upgrade for free.

West Wind Web Connection 8.2 has been released

West Wind Technologies — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 08:38:04 GMT

Web Connection is a rich and mature tool for building HTML Web applications and HTTP REST API Services using Visual FoxPro. You can continue to use the FoxPro tools and IDE you already know to build Web applications. v8.2 is a small maintenance release that fixes a few small bugs and adds a few useful enhancements. There are several fixes and updates to wwDotnetBridge adding better event support and fixing a couple of issues related to .NET support libraries specifically the SFTP/FTP libraries. You can now access .NET fields via an explicit GetField() and SetField() methods. A new wwHeap class allows for fast string and blob iteration and that's been applied in a few places internally. As always, Web Connection is available as shareware. v8 is paid upgrade from prior major versions, but minor version updates are always free and there's a free shareware version available.

Markdown Monster 3.5 released

West Wind Technologies — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 08:19:42 GMT

West Wind Technologies has released Markdown Monster 3.5 of its rich Markdown editor. Markdown Monster 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 3.5 adds many enhancements including better support for running on ARM devices, a new split panel sidebar and a new and improved PDF engine. A fully functional evaluation version of Markdown Monster is available for free and registered users of v3.x can upgrade for free.

West Wind Web Connection 8.1 has been released

West Wind Technologies — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 03:40:25 GMT

Web Connection is a rich and mature tool for building HTML Web applications and HTTP REST API Services using Visual FoxPro. You can continue to use the FoxPro tools you already know to build Web applications. v8.1 is a maintenance release that fixes a few small bugs and adds a few useful enhancements. You can now create Response output greater than 16mb directly. There are further improvements to the COM Server pool startup to improve stability and performance, and requests now log the size of requests for logging if request content is captured. As always, Web Connection is available as shareware. v8 is paid upgrade from prior major versions, but minor version updates are always free and there's a free shareware version available.

West Wind Client Tools 8.1 released

West Wind Technologies — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 04:55:26 GMT

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 8.1 is a service release that fixes a few small issues and adds a few small enhancements to the wwDotnetBridge .NET Interop functionality. Minor version updates for existing v8.0 users are always free, and a free shareware version is also available to try out functionality.

Southwest Fox 2024: Decisions, decisions

Southwest Fox Conference — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 22:00:56 GMT

Thanks to our generous speakers stepping up and shouldering some of the financial risks, additional sponsorship, and our hope that the community will respond with more registrations, we are announcing that Southwest Fox 2024 will go on as planned in-person and virtually September 26-29, 2024. That said, it is with heavy hearts that we announce this is the final in-person Southwest Fox conference that we are going to put on as it’s clear the economics no longer work. Our plan is to move forward with Virtual Fox Fests in the future. This is your last chance to hang out with the Fox gang in Phoenix, so if you were thinking about attending sometime, this is the time. A final reminder, the Early-Bird discount expires today, Wednesday, July 31st. https://geekgatherings.com/Registration

Southwest Fox 2024: in-person, STILL in jeopardy

Southwest Fox Conference — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 02:50:25 GMT

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

Southwest Fox 2024: in-person, in jeopardy

Southwest Fox Conference — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 05:32:45 GMT

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

Southwest Fox 2024: Super-saver Deadline Approaches

Southwest Fox Conference — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:15:56 GMT

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

Web Connection 8.0 has been released

West Wind Technologies — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 16:23:57 GMT

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.

Southwest Fox 2024: Registration Opens!

Southwest Fox Conference — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 23:43:14 GMT

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.

West Wind Client Tools 8.0 has been released

West Wind Technologies — Thu, 30 May 2024 15:38:10 GMT

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.

Markdown Monster 3.3 released

West Wind Technologies — Wed, 22 May 2024 23:16:05 GMT

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.

Virtual Fox Fest 2024: Getting close

Southwest Fox Conference — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 23:31:15 GMT

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

Virtual Fox Fest 2024: Speakers, Sessions and Registration

Southwest Fox Conference — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 22:56:02 GMT

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 Technologies — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 03:22:45 GMT

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

Southwest Fox Conference — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 18:25:39 GMT

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