Southwest Fox 2009

I hope you'll consider joining everyone at Southwest Fox 2009. The Visual FoxPro conference for Visual FoxPro developers will be held October 15-18, 2009 at the Arizona Golf Resort and Conference Center. Register by July 1st for the Super Saver registration that offers $125 off the conference fee and includes one free pre-conference session.

Southwest Fox includes a terrific selection of sessions from great presenters. Each of the 28 regular conference topics will be offered twice and the conference materials will include a white paper for each, so you can learn about the topics you can't fit into your schedule. There will be four sessions to choose from in each of the regular conference slots, so you'll always be able to find a topic that appeals. Plus the four pre-conference sessions give you a chance to come up to speed in areas you know you need.

You can find the complete list of speakers (http://www.swfox.net/speakers.aspx) and topics (http://www.swfox.net/sessions.aspx) on the Southwest Fox website.

Going to a conference is one of the best investments you can make in your career. The opportunity to learn about Visual FoxPro and related technologies from industry experts is worth the cost of admission. But a conference also gives you the chance to interact with your colleagues, renewing old relationships, turning virtual friendships into live ones and forming new ones. The time you spend talking with people between sessions, at meals, and in the hotel bar or lobby after hours turns out to be as valuable as the sessions themselves.

If you've never been to a VFP conference or to Southwest Fox, make 2009 the year you give it a try. If it's been a while since you made it to a conference, I urge you to come back. And if you were at Southwest Fox last year, you know why you shouldn't miss this year's edition.

On top of all the benefits Southwest Fox offers you personally, there's also a benefit for your local user group. For each member of a user group who attends, their group will receive $25. That will help run the group, contributing toward bringing speakers in from elsewhere, and providing occasional meeting refreshments. Please let your local user group know if you plan on attending so they can let the organizers know you are a part of the group.

Cathy to speak at Southwest Fox 2009

I'm excited to announce that I will be speaking at Southwest Fox 2009 and will be making two presentations:

Making the Most of VFP 9 SP2 Reports (Part I)

In addition to lots of bug fixes, VFP 9 SP2 offered up some major enhancements to the Visual FoxPro Report Writer. This session (the first of a 2-part series) explores the new Dynamics, Advanced, and Rotation features. It also takes you behind the scenes and explains how these features are implemented. If you want to write professional reports with lots of pizzazz, this session is a must-see.

You will learn:

• How to correctly install SP2 and obtain the hotfixes
• How to use the new Dynamics feature (e.g. negative numbers in red)
• How to use the new Advanced features (e.g. HTML-related properties)
• How to use the new Rotation feature
• How the new features are implemented behind the scenes

Making the Most of VFP 9 SP2 Reports (Part II)

Part I of this 2-part series shows you how to use the new reporting features introduced in VFP 9 SP2. This session steps it up several notches by showing you how to add your own features. Not only will you learn how to implement those features on your reports, but you'll also learn how to make the features available in the Report Builder's UI. In addition, you'll see a "best practices" methodology that makes it easy for developers to share their enhancements with one another. You don't want to miss this session. Come be a part of history in the making!

You will learn:

• How to dynamically shrink a font
• How to create text and graphic watermarks
• How to modify the Report UI to include your custom features
• How to data-drive all your custom features
• How to share new features with other developers

There's a wonderful lineup of speakers and sessions this year so I hope you all can make it to Mesa, Arizona from October 15 through the 18th. You can read all the details on the website: www.swfox.net.

SET TALK appears to be on when running reports with SP2

I've been using VFP 9 SP2 ever since it first came out which was a long time ago. Yeah, I know there was that nasty Data Group bug, but to me, the enhancements in SP2 far outweighed the negative. Now that Microsoft has released a hotfix for the Data Group bug, I'm hoping more developers jump on the bandwagon and start adopting SP2. That said, a colleague reminded me last night about a bug where text is echoed to the screen as if a mysterious SET TALK ON had been issued.

This is a bug, but it’s one that you can easily fix yourself. You see, some of the new enhancements in SP2 were not implemented in the core VFP exe. They were implemented with a creative use of several Report Listener subclasses that reside in the FFC directory. When you run reports with SP2, the default behavior is to utilize these Report Listeners instead of the base VFP Report Listener class. The bug exists in one of those classes so you can change it yourself.

Modify the fxListener class of the _ReportListener class library and change the code in the LoadReport method. Simply move This.setFRXDataSessionEnvironment() so it comes before This.createHelperObjects() and the problem is solved.  

If you’re running on Vista, however, you have to be aware of the Virtual Store and work around it. When you edit the fxListener class, Vista makes a copy of the _ReportListener class library in the Virtual Store and your modifications are actually saved there and not in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9\FFC directory as you expected. Because a Virtual Store is specific to each user, it means the change you just made only works for the login you’re currently using. As soon as you switch to another login, the changes don’t exist for that user. To permanently fix the bug, move the _ReportListener class library from your Virtual Store back to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9\FFC directory, overwriting the original. Also, be sure to delete the _ReportListener class library from the Virtual Store for all users. If you forget this step, those users could be accessing an old copy of the class library.

VFP 9 SP2 Hotfix Updated

The VFP 9 SP2 Hotfix which addresses the Report Data Group bug (download from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/KB968409) has been updated. This latest file includes the missing VFP9T.DLL (Multi-threaded runtime) file. In addition, the other hotfixes are no longer password protected.

Installing VFP 9 SP2

Now that Microsoft has related the HotFix for the Report Data Group bug (read about it here), developers who have been holding off are now upgrading to VFP 9 SP2. This is great and I'm glad to see it. However, I'd like to take the time to remind everyone about some "gotchas" that might happen if you don't follow the right procedure when upgrading. 

If you have VFP 9 SP1 installed on your machine, there's a problem with the installation when upgrading from SP1 to SP2. It doesn't tell you there's a problem, but it doesn't fully install everything. The recommended procedure is to completely uninstall VFP 9 from your machine. Then re-install VFP 9, without any service packs. Once that step is completed, install Service Pack 2. Do NOT install SP1 .. skip that entirely. Just go straight to SP2. 

If you are running Vista, you also have to remember about the Virtual Store so as not to get bitten. Whenever you change a file in the Program Files directory, Vista creates a copy in your Virtual Store and redirects all future access to the new file. When Visual FoxPro opens a class, it does something that makes the O/S think it's been changed. Therefore, if you have ever opened any classes in VFP's FFC directory, those classes are now copied and sitting in your Virtual Store. That means when you upgrade to SP2, it installs new FFC files in the Program Files directory, but Vista keeps referring to the old ones in the Virtual Store whenever you access them. It completely ignores the new ones loaded with SP2. To get around this, delete the files from your Virtual Store ... HOWEVER ... if you have actually changed any of the FFC classes, you'll need to make copies of the files in the Virtual Store before deleting them so you can go back and compare your changes to the new SP2 versions and merge as needed.  

For those of you who want to install SP2 and still keep plain-Jane VFP 9 or VFP 9 SP1, that's not a problem. Rick Schummer wrote a great whitepaper that explains how to do this (Rick's whitepaper). 

VFP 9 SP2 Hotfix Minor Glitch

A few days ago I blogged about Microsoft releasing a hotfix for the VFP 9 SP2 Report Data Group bug (read it here). Last night, Rick Schummer blogged about a slight glitch with the hotfix and let us all know that Microsoft will have a resolution quickly. Instead of repeating what he said, I'll just point you to his blog post: (read it here). 

 

Microsoft fixes Data Group Bug in Reports!

Woo Hoo!!   Yippee!!  Hooray!!  I'm jumping for joy!!

I'm extremely excited to let everyone know that Microsoft has fixed the serious Data Group bug in VFP 9 SP2 reports which I blogged about here. The bug is officially described in the following Microsoft KB article, where you'll also find detailed instructions on how to get the fix. 

FIX: The group header of a data grouping is not printed at the top of each page as expected after you intall Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2 (968409)

I've heard lots of developers say they've held off upgrading to SP2 because of this one bug. So those of you that fall in this category .. it's time to upgrade!! There are no more excuses!! 

Several people in the FoxPro Community, myself included, worked hard at getting this bug fixed and spent a lot of time testing it. Please ... I don't want to hear any bitching from anyone about how long it took to get this. Instead, let's all focus on the positive side which is the fact that Microsoft listened and provided a fix to a serious bug.

P.S.  Read Rick Schummer's blog for more thoughts about this bug fix.