Articles

We hope you enjoy the following technical articles. Use the category index above to locate articles of interest, and review the summary descriptions on this page, or select any article directly from the dropdown at left.

SQL	Web Development
Reporting	Visual FoxPro
.NET Framework	Java

SQL

xmlRSDocs Deployment and Use

LSN, August 2007 updated February 2011 with complete xmlRSDocs 2008 docs

Here are the docs for Lisa’s SQL Server Reporting Services documentation framework concept. There is a general description of XMLRSDocs and RDLDocumenter, as they originally appeared in 2005, here, and you can read their origin story here.

The concept and focus of xmlRSDocs have morphed quite a bit in the 2008 version, and no doubt additional blog posts will discuss why and how.

These docs are completely reproduced as a readme.htm file you’ll find in the full download for xmlRSDocs, in the Spacefold Downloads section.

Reporting

Data Visualization in Reports with VFP 9.0 SP2

CMN and (minorly) LSN, September 2007

This whitepaper is the session notes for Colin’s third session at the September 2007 LA Fox BootCamp. It is an integral part of the backstory for VFP-TMM. The complete source is available in Spacefold downloads.

VFP 9.0 Reporting System Fundamentals

CMN, February 2007

Based on a whitepaper prepared for OxFox 2007 and refined for LA Fox Bootcamp 2007. Enjoy!

Gaining Image Control in Reports

LSN, April 2006

The ability to use image controls in reports is one of the subtler changes to the VFP 9 Report System, and it’s easier than it may look. It’s also ridiculously under-documented. Here is some information that will help.

PDF Power to the People

LSN, June 2005

PDF document output is one of the most often-requested enhancements to Visual FoxPro, but it is not available out-of-the-box. In this article, originally published in FoxTalk, Lisa shows you how to generate PDFs in all versions of FoxPro, and showcases some VFP 9.0 techniques and print-related features that can make PDFs easier to create now than in any previous version. She also discusses the importance of “application transparency” and provides code to reliably install GhostScript on-the-fly. The source for this article includes a pre-VFP 9 class, PDFClass, posted here for the first time, and discussed in this additional post. Vista implementation notes added, September 2008, in this post. Improvements to CreateInstallDBF.PRG and some other helpful notes added by Adrian H, June 2010, in this additional blog post.

A print job to call your own

LSN, October 2005

VFP handles a single REPORT FORM run, or a set of REPORT FORM commands chained with NOPAGEEJECT, as a single print job — but sometimes you’d like to send additional printing instructions in mid-report-run. Lisa shows you how to use some of VFP 9.0’s reporting enhancements to tackle this common task, and others like it, with a print job under your direct control. Both SQL Server and VFP reporting people will find some additional background information here.

Extending the Report Designer in VFP9 with Report Builders

CMN, August 2005

In this, part one of a series, Colin introduces the Report Builder API and show you how to construct your own simple builder applications. He also introduces the default ReportBuilder application and describes some of its features.

Techniques for Alternative Previews in VFP 9.0

CMN, 10 August 2005

Quite a few of the discussions on the Universal Thread Visual FoxPro forum recently have been on the subject of the new Report Preview screen in Visual FoxPro 9.0, and how to control it. A particular concern is the behavior of the preview toolbar when a REPORT FORM.. PREVIEW is issued in a topform application. Colin has strived to show in his sessions that the default preview application is just that – a default – and that alternative forms of a preview solution are not only possible, but easy to implement. In this article Colin shows an alternative user interface for the report preview window that you can take away and customize to your heart’s content.

Exploring and Extending Report Preview in VFP 9.0

CMN, 27 June 2005

This article is based on a session Colin gave at the Advisor Visual FoxPro DevCon in June 2005, in which he described the new report previewing abilities of Visual FoxPro 9.0, and demonstrated the basic techniques that it uses “behind the scenes”. (Updated for SP1).

Observations on Right-Aligned Labels in VFP 9.0

CMN, 23 April 2006

Alex Sosa asked a question on the Universal Thread recently about right-aligned text in Visual Foxpro 9.0. After some back-and-forth email messages, Colin decided to summarise his findings in a small article.

.NET Framework

Image Manipulation and Storage, part 1

CMN, 5 September 2005

This is the first installment of a series of articles discussing the development of a console utility written in .NET C#. In this first article, Colin looks at creating a multi-project solution in Visual C# 2005, and sketches out the application requirements.

Web Development

Coming soon!

Visual FoxPro

VFP SP2-TMM

LSN and CMN, beginning November 2007

This is a table of contents page/project plan for what we expect to be an ongoing effort, as time permits. Please read here for details.

Coverage and Advanced Testing

LSN, 28 October 2007

This article covers (no pun) some truly timeless topics, even though it is taken from session notes originally delivered in 1998. Understanding coverage and code profiling, and creating good test practices, policies, teams, and plans, are requirements that never go away.

Log4Fox: A Logging API for Visual FoxPro

LSN, 23 Sept 2007

Logging is a standard requirement in any development environment. In this article, originally published in FoxTalk January 2006, Lisa takes a classic logging library, log4j and applies the architecture to VFP. Extended, with additional examples and code, December 2008, as discussed in this blog post.

Object-Oriented Menus in Visual FoxPro

CMN, 15 May 1996

Based on Colin’s session notes from the 1996 FoxTeach Conference, this article looks at designing a class library to compensate for the lack of object-oriented menus in Visual FoxPro.

Programming for multiple database back-ends

CMN, 15 November 1998

Based on a real production application, this article looks at an architecture designed to work transparently with either SQL Server or Visual FoxPro, with a single code base. The article was translated into German and published in the journal Fuchs in 1999.

Introducing the Visual FoxPro Debugger

CMN, 23 June 1999

This article is based on Colin’s session notes from the Microsoft VFP DevCon in 1999.

Manipulating the Windows Registry in VFP

CMN, 15 June 1995

The Windows Registry used to be a hot topic, and FoxPro programmers found it a mystery like everyone else. Portions of this article, published in the Inside VFP Journal in May/June 1996, found their way mysteriously into a Visual Basic Journal, and even MSDN!

Programming Events using the FoxPro Library Construction Kit

CMN, 15 july 1993

This is Colin’s first published article, and it’s about trapping keyboard events using the C API in FoxPro, published in Foxtalk, July 1993.

SQL