Visual FoxExpress Jump Start

Detailed Description

In this set of training CD's we guide you through building an invoicing application. The application was designed to demonstrate the power of VFE writing very little code. You will be given enough code to get your feet wet and give you a solid foundation to writing your own methods, but the code, provided in the VFE Invoice App Snippets.txt is kept to a minimum in order to make the examples as clear and specific as possible while still giving you everything you need to know to become familiar with working with the VFE object model – including objectified data – that is, binding to field objects rather than directly to fields, a pre-requisite for n-tier development.
 
We will give you a thorough introduction to the Application Builder and show you how to access the Class Browser from within the VFE IDE to better understand the VFE framework classes. The cLayer, iLayer and aLayers and their roles in your development will be clearly explained.
 
The app uses an approach of mixing tables and views.We will create a simple Customer/Invoice/ Payment application that will demonstrate parent – child – grandchild relationships and make you comfortable using Parent Child Presentation Objects and Parent Child Forms.

You will design two different kinds of parameterized views, create a view a parameter container and learn some tricks to make working with views easier (and, we hope, your preferred method of dealing with your tables.)You’ll use updateable views for data entry and read-only views for reports and lookups.

You will be introduced to the DBCX Explorer and most of the most important properties for fields and cursors.You’ll create a number of different kinds of lookups, including a data entry combo box which brings of a data entry form when a value which is not found in the lookup table is entered. You’ll work with an number of different types of presentation designs and implement incrementally searchable grids.We’ll cover the toolbar and form handlers that are built into the framework and show how to use the debugmode() utility method to figure out how to put codes in your methods.We’ll create new properties and methods and introduce you to Access Methods, one of the most powerful features added to VFP 6.0.

You will work with Output Objects and design basic reports for your application, becoming familiar with the powerful data-driven Treeview and Output Wizard provided by the framework.
Each step of the application process will be clearly explained with text, screen shots and Screencam movies.
In the continuation of this course we will build another application, far more sophisticated, which will more closely follow the methodology we employ in building applications for our own clients.

The Student Registration Application is based entirely on views, demonstrates many-to-many relationships, and goes deeply into coding techniques and object messaging.We will deal extensively with techniques for creating views and getting beyond the limits of the VFP View Designer by creating views in code and using powerful tools (included with the materials) for hacking views.

Combined with this set of CDs, the StudentReg CDs represent the Five Day Training Course which has been developed over two years and has trained hundreds of developers to unleash the power of VFE in their own applications.

If you have any questions about our training classes, CDs or mentoring, please don’t hesitate to contact Mike, Toni, or Charles at F1 Technologies.

The presentations are done in Lotus Screencam © and each presentation ends with the extension of .SCM.They require SCPLAYER.EXE which is included on every CD.   You may play the presentations directly from the CDs, or you may move the files to your HD if you have the room.If you move the files, remember that this hypertext page will assume the files are available in the same folder. (This file is the same on both CDs, so you can put all the files in one folder.)

The first time you click on a Screencam link you may be prompted as to what program you want to use to play this file.Of course you will select Other and then point to the SCPLAYER.EXE on the CD (or on your HD if you’ve chosen to move it there.)Once a presentation begins, it can be paused with the spacebar.There is a VCR-like control panel to stop, restart or fast-forward the presentation.

The MS Word file VFE Invoice App - Step by Step.doc contains the companion text for the training course.The course is designed for hands-on participation by the student.We recommend printing out the Word doc or having it open and available in a Window while running the Screencam presentations and working in VFE, following along.

Each presentation is Zipped at its conclusion to a zip file of the same name as the SCM file. Remember, the Zip files represent the conclusion of a Screencam presentation, so if you want to set up to start at the beginning of a particular screencam, unzip the Zip file with the name of the previous Screencam.

The Zip file Invoice Data.zip contains the starter data for the app.The Word doc contains instructions for its use.

The VFE Invoice App Snippets.txt contains all of the code used in the application.Keep it open somewhere in a text editor and you will be able to copy and paste into the method windows and avoid typos.(This is a big time-saver in class.)