Thanks to everyone who attended the February 9, 2008 GRAFUG meeting.
The final Sedna version has been officially released from Microsoft. You can download it from the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C04BCF8C-0944-49F0-AC2B-563518CE1D70&displaylang=en.
The free DBI controls can be downloaded from http://www.dbi-tech.com/Special_Offers_SednaComponents.asp.
There’s a new VFP 9 book in the works that describes SP2 and Sedna. It’s a conglomerate of well-known authors and it should be really good. Of course, I’m a little partial because I’m one of the authors! J I’ll be writing the chapter on the Report Writer.
Jody Meyer showed us her MAGI application which is rich with features that allow the customers to customize the application to do whatever they want. They can add fields to tables, change the size of fields, add new tables, and add these fields to data entry screens and reports. How many times has a customer complained that a description or code field isn’t long enough. No problem for Jody, they user can change this. The user can customize any data grid to show the data in any order they want, move columns, and pretty much anything. They can create new menu options which run anything you want; data entry forms, reports, and even third party applications. They can create new reports or customize existing reports. Jody takes great care in the system that separate out anything the users have customize so as not to overwrite their changes during an update with a new version.
The system is truly a remarkable system. One feature that completely impressed us is her grid with totals. The last line of the grid was shaded a different color and contained totals for the columns in the grid. In reality, there are really two grids on the screen. The total line is a separate grid with just the one row and no headers showing and the bottom scroll bar is visible. The data grid doesn’t show a bottom scroll bar, but does have a vertical scroll bar. Behind the scenes, Jody keeps the two grids in sync. Whenever you hit the horizontal scrollbar … which belongs to the total grid … she programmatically moves the data grid so it stays in sync. To the user, they don’t realize they are two grids on the screen. It was really cool.
NOTE – There is a temporary change in location for March’s meeting!!!
Jay recently made a presentation to the Chicago group and I really wanted to attend it, but couldn’t swing it. So I did the next best thing .. I invited him to speak to us in Grand Rapids! His presentation describes how to build a customization infrastructure so you can customize your application differently for multiple customers.
Jay has been a Fox developer for the past 18 years. He has developed his own applications and worked on a number of major vertical market applications at corporate based in Indianapolis. He is past president of the Indianapolis FoxPro SIG. He was a contributing author to VFP 3.0 Special Edition published by Que. Currently, he is consulting with manufacturing companies on ERP technology. A new business venture – a web enterprise – will launch in 2008.
Rick will be showing us a bunch of stuff, including VFP 9 SP2, one of his apps, and Advantage Database Server.
Andy Kramek and Marcia Akins are coming to Grand Rapids for a special all-day marathon meeting involving 5 topics. There will be a nominal fee ($10 for members, $40 for non-members) which includes snacks & lunch. More specific details will follow in a separate email.