Day two was a great day. I find that the size of the conference is perfect for the technologies being discussed. A lot of attention is given to the decline of conference sizes over the past 5 or 6 years. This is true for VFP and other conferences as well. But clearly, the number of “heads” do not diminish the worth of the presentations or the work that the speakers have put into them. I like the intimate atmosphere and will be looking forward to attending more conferences like it.

Fox Trails

Brian’s Fox Trails presentation was great. I didn’t know what to expect (even though I had heard of Fox Trails, and knew what it was supposed to do). I’m not a Ruby guy, and I’ve honestly never evaluated the technology. But his Ruby-borrowed techniques for accessing data and functions in FoxPro was eyeopening and insightful.

One of Ruby’s tenets is: “Don’t repeat yourself”. Brian was quickly to repeat himself… and he almost did. A hearty laughter ensued… Another Ruby tenet is “Convention over Configuration”, making applications more “self aware”. Using directory naming conventions, for example, allows you to write code that can assume certain things about its environment. I’ve always been a big advocate of “Reconfigure over Recode”. I should change mine to “Convention over Reconfigure over Recode”!

He introduced us to “MVC Architecture”, which stands for Model (data and access), View (presentation layer), Controller (business logic). This architecture parallels 3-Tier architecture which many VFP developers are used to. Those of you who have evaluated or are using Ruby will get Fox Trails right away. Those of you who do not, should take a moment to have a look.

Some additional information here and here. Check it out!

VFP Service Architecture

I’m really bummed I didn’t think of this before. I’m really bummed that I didn’t hear Stewart’s session 10 years ago. Come to think of it, ‘bummed’ is not really the word.

Stewart showed us how we can use service architecture, stored on the server as a process, to pass various tasks to the server for processing. As he mentioned, there are literally hundreds of services that you can create on the server. He demonstrated the Mailslot Messaging and PDF report generation. This means that you don’t have to rely on user’s workstation settings to send mail. It also means that they don’t need a PDF writer installed to print to PDF! You configure the service on the server, hit the service from VFP, and send mail; or print a PDF using GhostScript; or zip a file; or run some encryption; or send data via FTP; you get the idea. This architecture can dramatically reduce the amount of workstation configuration needed.

Later in the day, Stewart and I sat through Stephen Bodnar’s MapPoint presentation. I think his bulb went off when mine did. We asked Stephen, “could MapPoint be used as a service”? Because of cost and installation issues, it seemed like a perfect fit for service architecture. We’ll need to read the EULA agreement though. Stephen was skeptical. (More on MapPoint in a few sections.)

I also saw some old Fox commands that I don’t think I’ve ever had an occasion to use: “Save To” and “Restore From”. “Save to” allows us to store current variables and arrays to a variable file or memo field and “Restore from” allows us to retrieve variables and variable arrays saved in a variable file or a memo field, placing them into memory (according to the VFP9 documentation). Come to think of it, I’ve probably used them before, but just can’t remember. They seem too useful!

Developing in n-tier fashion

Michael Babcock showed us how to write non-monolithic applications in multiple tiers. He went through the basics of tier development ,from 1-tier up to n-tier and talked about Logical (same process) verses physical n-tier design (when you can’t see through the tiers, like when using a com server or the Internet).

Mike used the phrase “pass the buck” often to remind us that each tier has a job, and that all tasks (business calls, UI, data access, etc) should be handled in the appropriate tier. In other words, object responsibility. This discipline is forward-thinking and allows you to scale and upgrade applications easily. If you have ever wondered what it would take to build a web UI using your business and data access in VFP, n-tier (and perhaps with some Fox Trails) is the way to go. The same holds true for .NET front ends, mobile applications, and the like.

His business object demonstrations were great, showing the group how to correctly use the business object tier. He also went through the proper methods for using the user interface and data tiers of the design. He walked through real-world scenarios of how you might use an Oracle back end verses a CSV file using the same UI and Business Object. Mike was engaging, well prepared, and his presentation was spot on.

Map Your Data

Using MapPoint, automating it, and utilizing it through ActiveX on a VFP form, Stephen Bodnar brought us through the basics of using the tool. MapPoint with VFP is very cool. He talked about his trip back from an Advisor conference in San Diego back to Detroit (they were grounded on 9/11); then showed us the map of their travels (we hear that Whil Hentzen is a speed demon, averaging something like 80mph on the trip back).

The idea with MapPoint is to use maps to show geographic information in a better context. Just like Google and Yahoo.

I’ve been waiting to see this presentation all day because I have about a million and one needs for a solution like this. Whether showing a map of property sales, or inspection routes, this tool can certainly be used in many different contexts. I’ve been preparing myself for diving into GIS applications (probably ESRI’s tool) for this very purpose. Now I can evaluate MapPoint as an alternative, feeling confident that it will work with VFP and that it will give me the routes and maps I need for my apps.

MapPoint has its problems, though. It is not updated frequently, and all address data needs to be exact for the tool to work correctly. You need to spend about $200 per license on every machine that uses MapPoint.

I also learned a new trick. In VFP (starting in VFP7) the Object Browser can be used to create a set of #DEFINE statements which lists all the constants in a type library by using drag and drop from editor window. The only problem with this approach is that VFP truncates decimals if contained in the constant. Rick Strahl’s tool, “Get Constants” circumnavigates this known VFP bug from the object browser. His tool is here.

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On to day 3, the final day of FoxForward 2007!