Visual FoxPro "Sedna" Community Technology Preview - October 2006 ================================================================= This CTP of Sedna contains add-ons to Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1. Please uninstall previous CTPs from your machine before installing this CTP. The Sedna CTP Setup is a self-extracting install program that will install the CTP onto your disk. By default the CTP will be installed to the "Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9\Sedna October CTP" folder under your the Program Files folder. This installation contains four components: Upsizing Wizard, Data Explorer, NET4COM and MY The following sections describe these components and provide guidance on how to get started. SQL Server Upsizing Wizard ========================== This is an update to the Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1 Upsizing Wizard. In this CTP the Upsizing Wizard will install to the "Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9\Sedna October CTP\UpsizingWizard folder under Program Files. To launch the new wizard run the 'UpsizingWizard.app' from this location. This update includes: * Updated, cleaner look and feel * Streamlined, simpler steps * Step 5 allows the user to decide whether to use bulk insert or not. This can improve upload performance. * Allows you to specify the connection as a DBC, a DSN, one of the existing connections or a new connection string. * Fields using names with reserved SQL keywords are now delimited. * If lQuiet is set to true when calling the wizard, no UI is displayed. It uses RAISEEVENT() during the progress of the upsizing so the caller can show progress. * Performance improvement when upsizing to Microsoft SQL Server 2005. * Trims all Character fields being upsized to Varchar. * BlankDateValue property available. It specifies that blank dates should be upsized as nulls. (Old behavior was to set them to 01/01/1900). * Support for an extension object. This allows developers to hook into every step of the upsizing process and change the behavior. Another way is to subclass the engine. * Support for table names with spaces. * UpsizingWizard.APP can be started with default settings (via params) for source name and path, target db, and a Boolean indicating if the target database is to be created. Database Explorer ================= This is an update to the Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1 Data Explorer. In this CTP the Upsizing Wizard will install to the "Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9\Sedna October CTP\DataExplorer folder under Program Files. To launch the new wizard run the 'DataExplorer.app' from this location. This update includes: * Fixed drag and drop of VFP table from Data Explorer to a form. * Fixed issue: "Drag/drop of VFP table/view from the Data Explorer to a form does not set the RecordSource." * Fixed issue with free tables not showing their columns when expanding the node. * Drag and drop operations now respect Field Mapping settings for SQL Server data * Allows sorting to apply to specific objects, not all. * Display SQL ShowPlan for local views * Display ShowPlan information for VFP table/view queries in the query results * Add Showplan parameter setting to the Options dialog, use in showplan features * Context menu item to launch the new UpsizingWizard. NET4COM ======= The NET4COM library is a collection of COM classes that wrap a subset of the .NET Framework 2.0. The .NET Framework is a rich collection of namespaces and API that provides a comprehensive set of functionality that developers can use to build applications that run on the .NET platform. While VFP does have a rich library of API, there are some features that either do not exist in the VFP libraries or are harder to use than in the Framework. NET4COM brings together a small subset of the .NET Framework — a collection of commonly used API that brings to VFP functionality that does not exist. The setup for the June CTP will install the NET4COM DLL along with some sample files to disk. Setup will also register the COM components in NET4COM.dll. The NET4COM folder contains the following: NET4COM.dll -- The DLL for the COM components that wrap a subset of the .NET Framework 2.0. Source -- Folder containing project file and source code for NET4COM VFPSamples -- Folder containing VFP sample code that uses NET4COM VB6Samples -- Folder containing VB6 sample code that uses NET4COM FFC -- FFC wrappers for NET4COM VFP FFC wrapper class library for NET4COM: To use the wrapper classes copy the FFC folder to VFP FFC folder: HOME()+"FFC\". The samples demonstrate use of NET4COM from Visual FoxPro or Visual Basic 6.0. NET4COM Uninstallation: ----------------------- Use the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel to remove Visual FoxPro Sedna June CTP. This will unregister the NET4COM COM components and remove the installed files. Note: Uninstalling the CTP will not: * Delete the FFC files you may have copied to HOME()+"FFC\" * Delete new files created in the CTP install location MY for VFP ========== The MY library for Visual FoxPro is similar to NET4COM. MY is implemented natively for Visual FoxPro and, similar to NET4COM, exposes commonly used functionality in a hierarchy that is easy to discover and navigate. Sedna CTP Setup will install the MY library and related files in the "MY" folder under the selected install destination. To install MY into Visual FoxPro: * Browse to the MY folder * Run MY.APP The MY folder contains a help file: MY.CHM that describes, setup and usage of MY and includes the API reference for the different APIs.