What's New in Visual FoxPro 7.0

Microsoft Visual FoxPro version 7.0 contains the following features and functionality:

Enhanced Integrated Development Environment

• Enhanced Development Environment
  Visual FoxPro includes IntelliSense support through the integrated development environment (IDE). Visual FoxPro commands and functions are completed automatically when you type appropriate activators, such as a comma, parenthesis, or space. This functionality also is customizable, and is available for both native and user-defined classes.
• More Control of the IDE
  Visual FoxPro includes dockable windows and extensive enhancements to system menus, window behavior, and editing functionality—making the entire development process more manageable and productive.
• Bookmarks and Shortcuts
  Visual FoxPro provides bookmarks and shortcuts that enable you to move easily through your code.
• Document View
  Using the Visual FoxPro Document View window, you can view and navigate to any procedure, function, #DEFINE definition, or preprocessor directive in your application.

New and Enhanced Language Features

• New and Enhanced Commands and Functions
  For more effective programming, more than 50 commands, functions, and system variables have been enhanced or added to Visual FoxPro.
• Event Binding
  Visual FoxPro supports the ability to bind to events from other COM components, such as Microsoft ActiveX^® Data Objects (ADO) recordsets.
• Strong Typing
  In Visual FoxPro, strong typing in classes, objects, and variables provides control that makes coding easier and less error-prone. Strong typing also supports Microsoft IntelliSense^® technology for these items in the code editor.
• Interface Implementation
  Visual FoxPro COM components can implement the properties, events, and methods of a valid COM interface that is defined by another COM component.

New Development Tools

• Object Browser
  The Object Browser makes it possible for you to display the classes, properties, methods, events, and constants available for Visual FoxPro and other referenced COM object libraries.
• Task List Manager
  For easier development, the Visual FoxPro Task List Manager enables you to keep track of shortcuts to locations in your code, so that you can easily return for further editing. Task List Manager also helps you organize personal and group-wide development to-do lists.
• Database Container Events
  In databases created in Visual FoxPro, you can use several database-related actions to provide security and tracking or to control access from the Database Properties dialog box or from an external file.
• Active Accessibility
  Visual FoxPro supports Microsoft Active Accessibility^® 2.0 and uses the accessibility interface (IAccessible) to implement full support for all Visual FoxPro user interface elements—including forms, dialog boxes, and menus—at design time and run time.
• OLE DB Provider
  The new OLE DB Provider makes it possible for you to access Visual FoxPro data from other languages and applications, as well as from Visual FoxPro.
• InstallShield Express
  Visual FoxPro 7.0 features InstallShield Express, so that you can deploy your Visual FoxPro applications easily. Visual FoxPro 7.0 also includes all of the files you might need to create data applications that access local and remote data.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000)
  MSDE 2000 enables you to build desktop and shared solutions that easily migrate to Microsoft SQL Server™ to grow with your business needs. MSDE 2000 is compatible with SQL Server, and provides the reliability of SQL Server—along with many SQL Server features—in a desktop data engine. MSDE 2000 also offers royalty-free licensing and distribution.

XML Features

• XML Functions
  In Visual FoxPro, you can implement data exchange easily across the Web by using new XML functions:
  • XMLTOCURSOR( ). Converts XML text to a Visual FoxPro cursor or table.
  • CURSORTOXML( ). Converts a Visual FoxPro cursor to XML text.
  • XMLUPDATEGRAM( ). Mirrors changes made to a buffered table or cursor in an XML updategram.

XML Web Services

• Enhanced Build Options
  In the Visual FoxPro Project manager, you can publish a COM .dll or .exe file as an XML Web service as easily as you have created COM servers in the past. Visual FoxPro includes the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit functionality, so that you can add the elements required for successful deployment of your XML Web services.
• XML Web Services
  Through new foundation classes, Visual FoxPro provides a set of extensions to the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit 2.0. These extensions simplify the use of XML Web services in your application.