The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

December 1997

The LA Fox Developer is the monthly newsletter of

the LA Fox Developers Group. The purpose is

information sharing among application developers

and users working with FoxPro.

LA Fox Address

LA Fox

Barry R. Lee

714/375-3300

P.O. Box 6624

Huntington Beach, CA 92615-6624

LA Fox Board of Directors

Barry R. Lee, President/Newsletter Editor

Bill Anderson, Vice President/Programs

Twila Miller, Treasurer/Membership

Chuck Williams, President Emeritus

George Dvorak

Bill Seldon

Mike Cummings

Michael Meer

George Porter

LA Fox is the oldest FoxPro developers group in

Southern California. The newsletter contains regular

columns as well as articles from other user groups.

XPro User Group

Randy Unruh

310/399-9159

2210 Wilshire Blvd. - #161

Santa Monica, CA 90403

OC FoxPro Developers Group

Mike Vincent

(714)970-9147

Membership/Subscription

The annual membership fee for the LA Fox Develop-

ers Group, including subscription to The LA Fox

Developer Newsletter, is $45.

Disclaimer

Neither the LA Fox User Group, the XPro User

Group, the OC FoxPro Developers Group, their

officers or board of directors or their members make

any express or implied warranties of any kind with

regard to any information disseminated, including,

but not limited to, warranties of merchantability and!

or fitness for a particular purpose.

Opinions provided by newsletter articles, or by

speakers, members, or guests who address the

meetings, are individual opinions only, and do not

necessarily represent the opinions of the group. All

opinions and information should be carefully consid-

ered, and the group is not liable for any incident or

consequential damages in connection with, or arising

out of, the furnishing or use of any information or

opinions. Brand names and product names may be

trademarks or registered trademarks of their respec-

tive owners

Out and About (Con’t from Page 1)

System using Visual FoxPro" it sounds like one you shouldn’t miss.

Here’s a “brief’ synopsis:

The largest underground storage tank testing company in the United States

operates their order entry, field operations, and reporting using a distributed

FoxPro system. This system has been in continuous operation since 1983

and was originally written in Fox. Last fall it was upgraded to Visual

FoxPro 5.0, and communications previously carried out over modem

between field computers and the central office were converted to Internet

communication. This system operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,

and supports a company that has expanded to over 200 field locations and

12 sales offices. Database size is growing at the rate of 100 MB per week.

This system includes:

• User and group access authorization and access concrol to each table;

Tracking of revisions of all records with ability to view and recall prior

versions;

• A uniform object oriented visual interface with simple class libraries;

Internet based synchronization of the database between more than 200

locations;

Automatic propagation of table structure changes from the central server

to field computers;

Use of OLE to imbed drawings, scanned images, and photographs;

A naming convention that allows automatic generation of a data dictio-

nary;

Transparent splitting of very large tables (> 2GB) into separate files that

can reside on separate disks or even seøarate servers:

•

Per-table SQL query optimization

Each feature will be described in detail.

The discussion will also cover:

How half a million lines of code were converted from FoxPro for DOS and

Windows to Visual FoxPro last fall by two people in 6 weeks;

Internet communication issues;

Strategies used for deploying and maintaining 200 field computers;

Database problems that have come up and their resolution;

Performing system customization regularly required by specific custom-

ers.

Elsewhere...

January 19-23, 1998. Application Developers Training Company is offering

an intensive 5-day training class in VFP in Los Angeles. January 19-20 is

the “Fundamentals” portion, January 21-22 is the “Intermediate” class, and

January 23 is the “Advanced” level class. Cost of the class vary: Introduc-

tory Only (2 days) - $695; Intermediate Only (2 days) - $695; Advanced

Only (1 day) - $395. They’re also offered in combinations: Intro and

Intermediate -$1,195; Intermediate and Advanced -$895; and all three

seminars - $1,495. For more information, contact ADTC at 800/578-2062 or

visit their WebSite at http://www.appdev.com.

May 17 to 18, 1998 - Visual FoxPro DevCon ‘98. Microsoft and Advisor

Publications surprised all of us by announcing their next DevCon for May of

1998 to be held in Orlando at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Hotel.

Call (800) 368-3204 or (203) 268-3204 to make your reservations. You can

(Con't page 3)

Page 2