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Visual FoxPro version 3.0 is a robust, 32-bit Rapid Application Development
(RAD) tool with full object orientation and integrated client server
capabilities. Visual FoxPro maintains the power synonymous with the FoxPro
name and has backwards compatibility with previous versions of FoxPro.
Developer Productivity
Reusing code has never been easier. Visual FoxPro uses the full range of
OLE objects and controls and makes it easy to create your own class
libraries with inheritance and encapsulation.
Features SUMMARY
- Full visual object orientation features.
- OLE Automation controller.
- Support for OLE Controls (.OCX files).
- Improved event model, data dictionary.
- Integrated development environment features: Forms Designer, Query
Designer, Project Manager.
- Developer oriented Wizards, Builders.
- Visual FoxPro is a mature, stable Windows product with a great
third-party community of support, backed by leading PC database vendors.
While FoxPro still supports standard Xbase procedural programming, new
extensions to the language provide the power and flexibility of object
oriented programming.
Although Visual FoxPro lets developers code objects and classes from
scratch at the command line, Visual FoxPro is the only Xbase product that
allows developers to create classes visually. The Visual Class Designer
PowerTool eliminates the need to learn a new development syntax for
classes.
With the Visual Class Designer PowerTool, developers can drag and drop
controls that are available right from the Controls toolbox such as a table
grid control and then attach the Xbase code already familiar to them to
drive the control.
Because the object model in Visual FoxPro fully supports inheritance, any
changes to the parent class automatically update the class wherever it is
reused.
Visual FoxPro also fully supports subclassing, encapsulation and
polymorphism.
Visual FoxPro has an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Visual
FoxPro features a Project Manager container interface that graphically
allows drag and drop access to the tables, queries, forms, reports, and
programs that make up a database or application. It allows you to draw the
rules and relationships that make the tables and objects work together.
The Forms Designer allows you to add classes, OLE custom controls, or
server objects (for example, Excel) to forms.
Visual FoxPro's new Query Designer interface graphically shows the tables
and fields in a query and enables you to use the mouse to add tables,
select output fields, and create join conditions.
Visual FoxPro has evolved to a true event-driven model. Now developers can
fully access the standard set of Windows-based events such as mouse
movements that enable dragging and dropping of objects.
As a result of Customer requests, we added a new data dictionary in Visual
FoxPro. In the past, developers spent time writing code to perform basic
relational database functions. Visual FoxPro increases productivity by
allowing developers to set business rules at the table level. It
automatically enforces the rules when the table is used anywhere in the
application.
Visual FoxPro is a mature, stable Windows and 32 bit product supported by
the PC database industry leader.
Flexibility
Visual FoxPro leverages your investments in code and training while
building a solid foundation for the future.
Features SUMMARY
- Leverages companies' Windows, Windows For Workgroups, and Windows NT
systems.
- Will ship in Spring 1995 already fully Windows 95 exploitive.
- Transition from MS-DOS to Windows at your own pace, regardless of
whether you're using FoxPro, or dBASE.
- Enables scalability. Visual FoxPro will expand to meet the requirements
of the job, from the smallest task to the largest project
Visual FoxPro is a fully 32-bit database development tool that will run in
both 16- and 32-bit Windows environments, so it will exploit all the
Windows platforms in a company.
Companies can run Visual FoxPro on the Windows, Windows for Workgroups, and
Microsoft Windows NT operating systems while preparing for the upcoming
Windows 95 operating system. Visual FoxPro is one of the first applications
for Windows 95. Solutions developed in Visual FoxPro will be fully 32-bit
by default, but will also run on 16-bit Windows-based systems.
Flexible Migration Strategy
Visual FoxPro enables the following three-pronged migration strategy to
protect companies' investments in Xbase solutions and training. You can
transition to Visual FoxPro at your own pace, regardless of whether you're
using FoxPro, or dBASE.
- First, Visual FoxPro runs any legacy application that runs under FoxPro
version 2.6. This means that companies can run unchanged existing FoxPro
solutions regardless of whether they are written in FoxPro for Windows,
FoxPro for MS-DOS, or dBASE for MS-DOS.
- Second, developers can also use the built-in converter to automatically
bring FoxPro version 2.x screens and projects to the modeless Visual
FoxPro version 3.0 format.
- Third, developers can move gradually to an object oriented programming
paradigm if desired by modifying FoxPro version 2.6 code on a property
specific basis, thereby learning the new object syntax from the pure
coding perspective.
Ease of Data Access
Visual FoxPro helps you integrate all the data in your organization whether
it resides in applications, client/server databases, or local data stores.
Features SUMMARY
- Client/Server capabilities, integration with BackOffice.
- Row and table buffering for improved transaction processing.
- Updatable parameterized views.
- Local and remote views are designed in the same manner, so prototyping
locally and upsizing is seamless. Upsizing wizard in Pro Edition.
- Office application integration.
Visual FoxPro has built-in client server connectivity tools. Companies can
create powerful client server applications that combine the power and
graphical user interface of Visual FoxPro with the speed, portability, data
storage capability, and built-in security of an ODBC data source or server.
Visual FoxPro will ship with the newest 32-bit ODBC version 2.0 drivers,
even in the Standard Edition of the product. These ODBC drivers deliver
data to applications from multiple database and file formats, including:
Microsoft SQL Server version 4.2; dBASE III and dBASE IV; Microsoft Access
versions 1.x and 2.0; Paradox versions 3.x and 4.0; Microsoft Excel
versions 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0; and formatted text files. ODBC database drivers
are also available today from 140 additional vendors, providing ODBC access
for more than 55 database formats. ODBC is available under Windows, Windows
for Workgroups and Windows NT.
Visual FoxPro has built-in batch processing capabilities, which are
especially beneficial for corporate transaction processing solutions.
Visual FoxPro brings snapshots of information from the backend server,
allowing users to manipulate it locally. Only when additions or
modifications to the data have been made does the user send a snapshot of
the updated information back to the server, greatly reducing the network
traffic in client server environments. In a multiuser environment where
users attempt to make changes to records on the remote server at the same
time, Visual FoxPro automatically informs users of incremental changes to
the data.
Visual FoxPro also allows users to update live backend data directly from
their desktops. Users can create parameterized views, an important factor
in building a fast, efficient client server application because these views
allow users to minimize the amount of data that is pulled down from the
server. Users can, for example, specify guidelines or parameters such as
"only customers in the state of California" and then update the live
backend data from their Visual FoxPro front end.
Because local views of FoxPro data are designed in the same manner as
remote data views with Visual FoxPro's View Designer, developers can easily
prototype client server solutions locally, and then upsize them to backend
servers. This capability allows developers to fine tune their design
efficiently against small sample data stores before adding the additional
layer of complexity inherent in working with remote, heterogeneous data.
The upsizing wizard in the Professional Edition automatically adapts data
to run on SQL Server backends.
Visual FoxPro integrates well with back-office solutions. Visual FoxPro is
32-bit and has SQL Server for Windows NT connectivity built seamlessly into
the product.
Visual FoxPro integrates well with other office applications. FoxPro
supports OLE automation and can drive other Windows applications right from
FoxPro. OLE support in FoxPro allows in-place editing of an object from
another application without leaving FoxPro.
Visual FoxPro uses the same default toolbox used in other Microsoft Office
applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Visual FoxPro also
uses Microsoft Office features such as full right mouse click support,
ToolTips, and menus.
Visual FoxPro also integrates well with Microsoft's other Visual Tools such
as Visual C++. For example, OLE controls built into Visual C++ can also be
used in Visual FoxPro.
NOTE: Some of the products discussed in this article are manufactured by
vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or
otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.