Welcome to Microsoft Visual FoxPro. Visual FoxPro is the object-oriented relational database management system that makes it possible for you to create database solutions for the desktop to the Web. Visual FoxPro provides powerful data handling capabilities, rapid application development tools for maximum productivity, and the flexibility needed to build all types of database solutions.

Visual FoxPro 6 Language Reference Book on Archive.Org

Guidelines for Using Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes

The Visual FoxPro .vcx visual class libraries located in the Ffc folder contain a variety of foundation classes for enhancing your Visual FoxPro applications with little or no programming. You can freely distribute the foundation classes with your applications. These foundation classes are contained in the Component Gallery. The Component Gallery provides a quick and easy way to learn more about the properties, events, and methods of each of the foundation classes.

You can also open up a foundation class in the Class Designer or Class Browser to see its structure and code. This is a great way to learn how the foundation class works as well as offering excellent insights into programming with Visual FoxPro.

The following guidelines provide information about how you can add the Visual FoxPro foundation classes to your applications.

Class Types

You need to know the Visual FoxPro base class of a foundation class before you can add the foundation class to your application. Certain foundation classes can be used only as visual objects on forms, while others are non-visual and can be run programmatically without being placed on a form. The Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes documentation indicates the base class of each foundation class so you can determine if the foundation class can be added to a form, or run programmatically in your application. Note that in the Component Gallery you can right-click a foundation class to display a shortcut menu. Choose Properties from the shortcut menu, and then choose the Class tab to display the base class.

The following table lists the Visual FoxPro base classes and how they can be added to your applications.

Adding Foundation Classes to Forms

You will most often add foundation classes to forms. You can drag and drop foundation classes from the Component Gallery, Class Browser, Project Manager, and the Forms Control toolbar onto forms.

Note   You can select a foundation class you’ve added to a form and then choose Class Browser from the Tools menu to display more information about the foundation class.

Component Gallery   The Component Gallery provides the easiest way to add foundation classes to a form. For foundation classes with Category A and B base classes, you can drag the foundation class from the Component Gallery and then drop it on a form. You can also right-click a foundation class in the Component Gallery to display a shortcut menu, and then choose Add to Form to add the foundation class to the form.

Some of the foundation classes have associated builders that are automatically launched to prompt you for more information needed by the foundation class.

Class Browser   You can drag foundation classes with Category A and B base classes directly from the Class Browser to a form by using the drag icon in the upper left corner of the Class Browser. Select the foundation class in the Class Browser, click the icon for the foundation class in the upper left corner of the Class Browser, and then drag the icon over the form. Release the mouse button over the form where you’d like the foundation class to appear on the form.

Foundation classes dragged from the Class Browser to a form do not launch the associated builder. However, you can launch the builder by after the foundation class has been dropped on the form. Select the foundation class on the form, and then right-click to display the shortcut menu. Choose Builder from the shortcut menu to launch the builder.

Project Manager   Foundation classes with Category A and B base classes can be dragged from the Project Manager and dropped on a form.

Foundation classes dragged from the Project Manager to a form do not launch the associated builder. However, you can launch the builder by after the foundation class has been dropped on the form. Select the foundation class, and then right-click to display the shortcut menu. Choose Builder from the shortcut menu to launch the builder.

Form Controls toolbar   Foundation classes with Category A and B base classes added to the Form Controls toolbar can be added to a form.

If the Builder Lock isn’t on, foundation classes dropped from the Form Controls toolbar may launch an associated builder. If the Build Lock is on, you can launch the builder by after the foundation class has been added to the form. Select the foundation class on the form, and then right-click to display the shortcut menu. Choose Builder from the shortcut menu to launch the builder.

Adding Foundation Classes to Projects

When a form containing foundation classes is added to a Visual FoxPro project, the Project Manager automatically adds the visual class libraries containing the foundation classes to the project. However, there are other cases where you may need to add foundation classes to a project. For example, your application may run a Category C foundation class, so the foundation class must be added to the application’s project.

Foundation classes can be added to a project from the Component Gallery, by dragging the .vcx visual class library containing the foundation classes from the Windows Explorer, or by choosing the Add button in the Project Manager.

Adding Foundation Classes from the Component Gallery

You can drag a foundation class from the Component Gallery to a project, or you can right-click the foundation class in the Component Gallery to display a shortcut menu, and then choose Add to Project to add the foundation class to the project. When you add a foundation class to a project, the Add Class to Project dialog box is displayed, prompting you with the following options: Add class to project Choose this option to add the foundation class and its .vcx class library to the project. Again, this is done automatically for classes dropped onto a form (Categories A and B). For certain Category B and C classes where you plan to call them programmatically from within your application, you will want to choose this option. Create a new class from selected class Choose this option to create a new subclass from the foundation class you want to add to the project. This option makes it possible for you to enhance the functionality of the original foundation class, usually by adding additional program code. Create a new form from selected class Choose this option for foundation classes with a Form base class (for example, the foundation classes in _dialogs.vcx). This option makes it possible for you to create a new form from the foundation class and enhance the functionality of the original foundation class.

Adding Foundation Classes from the Windows Explorer

A foundation class can be added to a project by dragging the .vcx visual class library containing the foundation class from the Window Explorer to the Project Manager. The visual class library is added to the Class Libraries item in the Project Manager.

Adding Foundation Classes from within the Project Manager

A foundation class can be added to a project by selecting the Classes tab and then choosing the Add button. Select the class library from the Ffc folder that contains the foundation class to add to the project.

Incorporating Classes into your Application

In many situations, most foundation classes don’t require additional programming to work with your application. However, you may need to provide additional program code for certain foundation classes (those of Category B and Category C non-visual base classes).

Non-Visual Foundation Classes

For example, foundation classes are often based on the Category B Custom class, and these require additional programming. These non-visual classes often perform common tasks such as checking information in the Windows registry, handling environment settings, managing application errors, and utilizing Automation with other applications, such as performing mail merge with Microsoft Word.

You can drop these non-visual classes onto a form, but you will need to do some additional work in order for them to work with your application. In some cases, a builder is launched when you drag a foundation class onto a form.

The following example demonstrates some of the program code typically necessary to use a non-visual foundation class in your application:

1. Drag the File Version foundation class from the Component Gallery (Foundation ClassesUtilities folder) onto a form.
2. Add a command button to the form and add the following code to its Click event: WITH THISFORM._FILEVERSION1 .cFileName = HOME( )+ ‘VFP7.EXE’ .GetVersion( ) .DisplayVersion( ) ENDWITH
3. Run the form and click the command button.

You can incorporate a non-visual class in your application without dropping it on a form, as long as you include it in the project used to create the application. The following code illustrates how to executed this same File Version foundation class if the class is not dropped onto a form.

LOCAL oFileVersion
oFileVersion = NewObject('_fileversion', '_utilities.vcx')
WITH oFileVersion
   .cFileName = HOME( )+ 'VFP7.EXE'
   .GetVersion( )
   .DisplayVersion( )
ENDWITH

Note   This example assumes that the code can locate the _utilities.vcx class library or from an .app file that is built containing _utilities.vcx.

When you use a non-visual foundation class, you need to know how and when the class is used within your application so it can be scoped correctly. If only a single form uses the class, you can just drag the class onto the form. However, if the class is used by many forms or is used globally by the application, the foundation class should have a global scope in the application so it remains accessible throughout the application. A global scope may also improve performance.

Visual Foundation Classes

You can also programmatically add visual foundation classes, such as those with form base classes, to your application. The following example shows how you can add code to your application to display an About dialog box box.

LOCAL oAbout
oAbout = NewObject('_aboutbox','_dialogs.vcx')
oAbout.Show( )

You can create a subclass of the dialog box foundation class for each of your applications so that you can customize the contents of the dialog box for each application. The following example demonstrates how you can subclass the Aboutbox foundation class:

1. Drag and drop the Aboutbox class from the Component Gallery (Foundation ClassesDialogs folder) to the project for your application.
2. Select Create new form from selected class in the Add Class to Project dialog box that is displayed, and enter name for the form.
3. Change the Caption property for the new form for your application. Save and close the form.
4. Add program code (DO FORM FormName) to the procedure that runs the form, such as an About menu item procedure. -or-

Drag the Run Form button class from the Component Gallery (Foundation ClassesButtons folder) onto the form. A builder is launched, and you can specify the name of the form to execute.

If you use the Visual FoxPro 7.0 Application Framework, the Application Builder automatically handles adding forms (both .scx and .vcx form classes). The new Application Wizard or the Component Gallery New Application item installs this framework in the projects they create. The Application Builder interacts directly with the framework and enables you to specify how and where the form is launched.

By using a framework built with the Application Wizard, the Application Builder, and Component Gallery, you have a rich set of tools for creating entire applications with minimal manual coding.

Class Naming Conventions

The Visual FoxPro Foundation classes and their properties and methods use the following naming conventions.

Classes and Class Libraries

Most foundation classes are subclassed from classes in the _base.vcx visual class library, which you can also find in the Ffc folder. The naming conventions for these classes reflect the base class used. For example, a subclass of the Custom class is called _Customin _base.vcx. All classes use an underscore ( _ ) to preface the name of a class in _base.vcx.

A few class libraries do not contain classes that are subclassed from _base.vcx because these classes are shared with other Visual FoxPro components such as wizards and builders. These classes are contained in class libraries without a preceding underscore, such as Registry.vcx.

Methods and Properties

Methods are often based on an action name such as RunForm. If the name contains several words, for example, RunForm, then capitalization reflects this. Properties are usually prefaced with a single letter characterizing the data type of that particular property. For example, cFileName indicates that the property is of character type. In addition, default values for properties are also set to the appropriate data type. For example, a logical property can be initialized to false (.F.), while a numeric property can be initialized to 0.

Properties of classes that shipped in earlier versions of Visual FoxPro do not strictly adhere to these property-naming conventions, and retain their earlier names to avoid compatibility conflicts with user code referencing these properties.

Enhancing or Modifying FoxPro Foundation Classes

You can enhance or modify the Visual FoxPro foundation classes to meet the needs of your application. However, we recommend that you do not modify the foundation classes themselves. The foundation classes may be periodically updated with new functionality.

Subclassing the Foundation Class

The source code is provided for the foundation classes, so you can subclass any foundation class to override or enhance properties and methods. This choice is common when the behavior of a particular foundation class varies between different applications. One application might use a foundation class directly, while another application uses a subclass of the foundation class.

Updating _base.vcx

If you want to add global changes to the Visual FoxPro foundation classes, you can modify _base.vcx. Since foundation classes are subclassed from _base.vcx, changes to this class library are automatically propagated to the foundation classes. A common set of methods and properties are provided for all the classes in _base.vcx. However, you can alter the classes in _base.vcx if they add desired behavior to your applications (unlike the foundation classes that we recommend that you do not change).

Instead of changing _base.vcx, however, you should redefine the classes in _base.vcx to inherit their behavior from your own custom base classes (rather than from the Visual FoxPro base classes currently used). If you already have a custom class library which subclasses the Visual FoxPro base classes, you can redefine the classes in _base.vcx to inherit from your custom classes so that when components use the _base classes they will inherit from your custom classes too. You can use the Class Browser to redefine the parent class for a particular class.

Note   If you redefine the classes to inherit from your own custom base classes, you should add DODEFAULT( ) calls at appropriate locations if you desire that parent class method code be executed.

If you replace the entire _base.vcx class with your own, make sure that you have the same set of named classes; otherwise the foundation classes will have missing links.

See Also

Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes A-Z | Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes | File Version | About Dialog Box Foundation Class | Run Form button

Visual FoxPro 6 Commands

& Command

Performs macro substitution.

Parameters

& VarName

Specifies the name of the variable or array element to reference in the macro substitution. Do not include the M. prefix that distinguishes variables from fields. Such inclusion causes a syntax error. The macro should not exceed the maximum statement length permitted in Visual FoxPro.

A variable cannot reference itself recursively in macro substitution. For example, the following generates an error message:

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STORE ‘&gcX’ TO gcX ? &gcX

Macro substitution statements that appear in DO WHILE, FOR, and SCAN are evaluated only at the start of the loop and are not reevaluated on subsequent iterations. Any changes to the variable or array element that occur within the loop are not recognized. [. cExpression]

The optional period (.) delimiter and .cExpression are used to append additional characters to a macro. cExpression appended to the macro with .cExpression can also be a macro. If cExpression is a property name, include an extra period (cExpression..PropertyName).

Remarks

Macro substitution treats the contents of a variable or array element as a character string literal. When an ampersand (&) precedes a character-type variable or array element, the contents of the variable or element replace the macro reference. You can use macro substitution in any command or function that accepts a character string literal.

Tip:

Whenever possible, use a name expression instead of macro substitution. A name expression operates like macro substitution. However, a name expression is limited to passing character strings as names. Use a name expression for significantly faster processing if a command or function accepts a name (a file name, window name, menu name, and so on). For additional information on name expressions, see Name Expression Creation.

While the following commands are acceptable:

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STORE ‘customer’ TO gcTableName STORE ‘company’ TO gcTagName USE &gcTableName ORDER &gcTagName

use a name expression instead:

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USE (gcTableName) ORDER (gcTagName)

Macro substitution is useful for substituting a keyword in a command. In the following example, the TALK setting is saved to a variable so the setting can be restored later in the program. The original TALK setting is restored with macro substitution.

Note:

Performing concatenation with a single ampersand (&) when attempting to include double ampersands (&&) in a string literal might produce undesirable results. For example, suppose you assign the string “YYY” to a variable, BBB. Performing concatenation using “AAA&” and “&BBB” replaces “BBB” with “YYY” so instead of getting the result “AAA&&BBB”, the result is “AAA&YYY”. For more information, see && Command.

Example

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STORE SET(‘TALK’) TO gcSaveTalk SET TALK OFF * * Additional program code * SET TALK &gcSaveTalk && Restore original TALK setting

See Also

Concepts

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

STORE Command

&& Command

Macro Substitution (Visual FoxPro)

&& Command

Indicates the beginning of a nonexecuting inline comment in a program file.

Parameters

&& [ Comments]

Specifies inline comments that follow.

Remarks

Inserting inline comments to denote the end of the IF … ENDIF, DO, and FOR … ENDFOR structured programming commands greatly improves the readability of programs when including many such structures.

Caution:
Including double ampersands (&&) in a string literal, for example, “AAA&&BBB”, generates an error. Instead, to include double ampersands, use concatenation as shown: “AAA&” + “&” + “BBB”.

Note:

When using concatenation, use caution with placement of a single ampersand (&), which is used to perform macro substitution and thus might produce undesirable results. For example, suppose you assign the string “YYY” to a variable, BBB. Performing concatenation using “AAA&” and “&BBB” replaces “BBB” with “YYY”, so instead of getting the result “AAA&&BBB”, the result is “AAA&YYY”. For more information, see & Command.

To continue a comment on the following line, place a semicolon (;) at the end of the comment line to be continued.

Note:
In earlier versions of Visual FoxPro, you cannot place && and a comment after the semicolon that is used to continue a command line to an additional line.

Example

The following example includes the inline comments “20 years of monthly payments” indicated by the && command:

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STORE (20*12) TO gnPayments && 20 years of monthly payments NOTE Initialize the page number; variable. STORE 1 to gnPageNum * Set up the loop DO WHILE gnPageNum <= 25 && loop 25 times gnPageNum = gnPageNum + 1 ENDDO && DO WHILE gnPageNum <= 25

See Also

Concepts

* Command

MODIFY COMMAND Command

MODIFY FILE Command

NOTE Command

& Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

* Command

Indicates the beginning of a nonexecuting comment line in a program file.

Parameters

Comments

Specifies the comment in the comment line. For example:

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* This is a comment

Remarks

Place a semicolon (;) at the end of each comment line that continues to a following line.

Any text added to a method or event in a Visual Class Library (VCX) or form (SCX) Code window will cause that class to have Override behavior for the method or event. Therefore, code for the method or event in a parent class will not be executed by default (it must be explicitly executed). This includes non-executable comment lines that begin with “*”.

Example

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* Initialize the page number; variable. STORE 1 to gnPageNum * Set up the loop DO WHILE gnPageNum <= 25 && loop 25 times gnPageNum = gnPageNum + 1 ENDDO && DO WHILE gnPageNum <= 25

See Also

Concepts

&& Command

MODIFY COMMAND Command

MODIFY FILE Command

NOTE Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

Overriding and Calling Parent Class Code

? | ?? Command

Evaluates expressions and sends the results to the main Visual FoxPro window, an active user-defined window, or the printer.

Parameters

? Expression1

Evaluates the expression specified by Expression1 and sends a carriage return and line feed preceding the expression results.

The results display on the next line of the main Visual FoxPro window or the active user-defined window and are printed at the left margin of a page unless a function code specified by cFormatCodes or the _ALIGNMENT system variable specifies otherwise.

If you omit the expressions, a blank line is displayed or printed. A space is placed between expression results when multiple expressions are included.

If Expression1 is an object, the ? command returns the character string, “(Object)”. ?? Expression1

Evaluates the expression specified by Expression1 and displays the expression results on the current line at the current position of the main Visual FoxPro window, an active user-defined window, or the printer. A carriage return and line feed are not sent before the results. PICTURE cFormatCodes

Specifies a picture format in which the result of Expression1 is displayed. cFormatCodes can consist of function codes, picture codes, or a combination of both. You can use the same codes available in the Format Property and InputMask Property.

Function codes affect the overall format of the result; picture codes act on individual characters in the result. If function codes are used in cFormatCodes, they must appear before the picture codes and they must be preceded by an at (@) sign. Multiple function codes with no embedded spaces can immediately follow the @ sign. The last function code must be followed by one or more spaces. The space or spaces signal the end of the function codes and the start of the picture codes. FUNCTION cFormatCodes

Specifies a function code to include in the output from the ? and ?? commands. If the function clause is included, do not precede the function codes with an @ sign. Function codes must be preceded by a @ sign when included in PICTURE. V nWidth

Specifies a special function code that enables the results of a character expression to stretch vertically within a limited number of columns. nWidth specifies the number of columns in the output.

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? ‘This is an example of how the V function code works.’ ; FUNCTION ‘V10’

AT nColumn

Specifies the column number where the output is displayed. This option makes it possible for you to align output in columns to create a table. The numeric expression nColumn can be a user-defined function that returns a numeric value. FONT cFontName[, nFontSize [, nFontCharSet]]

Specifies a font for output by the ? or ?? command. cFontName specifies the name of the font, and nFontSize specifies the point size. You can specify a language script with nFontCharSet. See the GETFONT( ) Function for a list of available language script values.

For example, the following command displays the system date in 16-point Courier font:

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? DATE( ) FONT ‘Courier’,16

If you include the FONT clause but omit the point size nFontSize, a 10-point font is used.

If you omit the FONT clause, and output for the ? or ?? command is placed in the main Visual FoxPro window, the main Visual FoxPro window font is used for the output. If you omit the FONT clause, and output for the ? or ?? command is placed in a user-defined window, the user-defined window font is used for the output.

Note:
If the font you specify is not available, a font with similar font characteristics is substituted.

STYLE cFontStyle

Specifies a font style for output by the ? or ?? commands. If you omit the STYLE clause, the Normal font style is used. If the font style you specify is not available, a font style with similar characteristics is substituted.

Note:
You must include the FONT clause when you specify a font style with the STYLE clause.

The following table lists font styles that you can specify for cFontStyle.

You can include more than one character to specify a combination of font styles. For example, the following command displays the system date in Courier Bold Italic:

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? DATE( ) FONT ‘COURIER’ STYLE ‘BI’

Remarks

To send the results to the printer only, use the following commands:

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SET PRINTER ON SET CONSOLE OFF

To send the results to the printer and the main Visual FoxPro window or an active user-defined window, use the following command:

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SET PRINTER ON

The setting of SET ALTERNATE affects the destination for the ? and ?? commands. For more information, see SET ALTERNATE Command.

The ? command displays binary data for Varbinary data types in hexadecimal format with no limitation on size. For more information, see Varbinary Data Type.

Example

The following example displays evaluates and displays the expressions specified:

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? 15 * (10+10) ? ‘Welcome to ‘ PICTURE ‘@!’ ?? ‘Visual FoxPro’

See Also

Concepts

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

??? Command

@ … SAY Command

_ALIGNMENT System Variable

SET MEMOWIDTH Command

SET PRINTER Command

SET SPACE Command

Format Property

InputMask Property

??? Command

Sends output directly to the printer.

Parameters

cExpression

Specifies the characters that are sent to the printer.

Remarks

A group of three question marks bypasses the printer driver and sends the contents of cExpression directly to the printer. cExpression must contain valid printer codes.

Printer control codes make it possible for you to reset the printer, change type styles and sizes, and enable or disable boldface printing. These codes can consist of any combination of printable or nonprintable characters that are specific to the printer you are using. You can direct control codes to the printer in several different ways:

• Use combinations of CHR( ) and quoted strings concatenated with + to send ASCII characters directly to the printer.
• Use quotation marks to send a string containing printer codes or ASCII characters.
• Codes can be sent to the printer before printing begins and after printing ends with the _PSCODE and _PECODE system variables. For more information, see _PSCODE System Variable and _PECODE System Variable.

Printer control codes vary from printer to printer. The best source for information about printer control codes is the manual that came with your printer.

See Also

Concepts

? | ?? Command

@ … SAY Command

CHR( ) Function

@ … CLASS Command

Creates a control or object that can be activated with READ.

Parameters

@ nRow, nColumn

Specifies the position of the control or object. The height and width of the control or object is determined by the class default height and width values.

Rows are numbered from top to bottom. The first row is number 0 in the main Visual FoxPro window or in a user-defined window. Row 0 is the row immediately beneath the Visual FoxPro system menu bar.

Columns are numbered from left to right. The first column is number 0 in the main Microsoft Visual FoxPro window or in a user-defined window. When a control or object is placed in a user-defined window, the row and column coordinates are relative to the user-defined window, not to the main Visual FoxPro window.

A position in the main Visual FoxPro window or in a user-defined window is determined by the font of the window. Most fonts can be displayed in a wide variety of sizes; some are proportionally spaced. A row corresponds to the height of the current font; a column corresponds to the average width of a letter in the current font.

You can position the control or object using decimal fractions for row and column coordinates. CLASS ClassName

Specifies the class of the control or object. ClassName can be a Visual FoxPro base class or a user-defined class. The following table lists the Visual FoxPro base classes you can specify for ClassName. NAME ObjectName

Specifies the name of the object reference variable to create. The object-oriented properties, events, and methods of the control or object can be manipulated by referencing this variable. For a complete list of the Visual FoxPro base classes, see Base Classes in Visual FoxPro.

Remarks

@ … CLASS provides an intermediate step for converting programs and applications created in earlier versions of FoxPro to the preferred object-oriented programming methods of Visual FoxPro. For additional information about backward compatibility with FoxPro 2.x controls, see Controls and Objects Created in Earlier Versions.

For information about object-oriented programming in Visual FoxPro, see Object-Oriented Programming.

Example

The following example demonstrates how @ … CLASS can be used with programming techniques used in earlier FoxPro versions (in this example, use of READ to activate controls). @ … CLASS is used to create a text box whose properties can be changed with the Visual FoxPro object-oriented programming techniques.

ON KEY LABEL is used to display the Windows Color dialog box when you press CTRL+I. The TextBox is placed on the main Visual FoxPro window using @ … CLASS, and READ activates the text box.

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CLEAR ON KEY LABEL CTRL+I _SCREEN.PageFrame1.Page1.goFirstName.BackColor; = GETCOLOR( ) @ 2,2 SAY ‘Press Ctrl+I to change the background color’ @ 4,2 CLASS TextBox NAME goFirstName READ CLEAR

See Also

Concepts

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

CREATEOBJECT( ) Function

DEFINE CLASS Command

READ Command

_SCREEN System Variable

@ … CLEAR Command

Clears a portion of the main Visual FoxPro window or a user-defined window.

Parameters

@ nRow1, nColumn1 CLEAR

Clears a rectangular area whose upper-left corner begins at nRow1 and nColumn1 and continues to the lower-right corner of the main Visual FoxPro window or a user-defined window. CLEAR TO nRow2, nColumn2

Clears a rectangular area whose upper-left corner is at nRow1 and nColumn1 and whose lower-right corner is at nRow2 and nColumn2.

Remarks

If you omit CLEAR or CLEAR TO, Visual FoxPro clears nRow1 from nColumn1 to the end of the row.

Example

The following example clears the screen, main Visual FoxPro window, or user-defined window from the second row to the bottom of the window.

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@ 2,0 CLEAR

The following example clears a rectangular region. The area from row 10 and column 0 to row 20 and column 20 is cleared.

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@ 10,0 CLEAR TO 20,20

See Also

Concepts

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

CLEAR Commands

SET CLEAR Command

_WClear( ) API Library Routine

@ … FILL Command

Changes the colors of existing text within an area of the screen.

Parameters

@ nRow1, nColumn1

Specifies the upper-left corner of the area to change. FILL TO nRow2, nColumn2

Specifies the lower-right corner of the area to change. COLOR SCHEME nSchemeNumber

Specifies the color of the area. Only the first color pair in the specified color scheme determines the color of the area. COLOR ColorPairList

Specifies the color of the area. Only the first color pair in the specified color pair list determines the color of the area.

If you omit the COLOR SCHEME or COLOR clauses, the rectangular portion is cleared. An area can also be cleared with @ … CLEAR.

Remarks

This command changes the colors of text within a rectangular area of the main Visual FoxPro window or the active user-defined window. You can set the foreground and background color attributes for existing text only. Any text output to the same area after you issue @ … FILL appears in the default screen or window colors.

Example

The following example clears the main Visual FoxPro window and fills an area with color.

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ACTIVATE SCREEN CLEAR @ 4,1 FILL TO 10, 8 COLOR GR+/B

See Also

Concepts

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

@ … SAY Command

ColorScheme Property

FillColor Property (Visual FoxPro)

@ … SCROLL Command

Moves an area of the main Microsoft Visual FoxPro window or a user-defined window up, down, left, or right.

Parameters

@ nRow1, nColumn1 TO nRow2, nColumn2 SCROLL

Moves a rectangular area whose upper-left corner is at nRow1, nColumn1 and lower-right corner is at nRow2, nColumn2. UP | DOWN | LEFT | RIGHT

Specifies the direction in which rectangular area is moved. If you omit a direction clause, the area is moved upward. BY nMoveAmount

Specifies the number of rows or columns the rectangular area is moved. If you omit BY nMoveAmount, the region is moved by one row or column.

See Also

Concepts

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

SCROLL Command

Scrolled Event

| \ Command

Prints or displays lines of text.

Parameters

TextLine

When you use , the text line is preceded by a carriage return and a line feed. \ TextLine

When you use \, the text line is not preceded by a carriage return and a line feed.

Any spaces preceding and \ are not included in the output line, but spaces following and \ are included.

You can embed an expression in the text line. If the expression is enclosed in the text merge delimiters (<< >> by default) and SET TEXTMERGE is ON, the expression is evaluated and its value is output as text.

Remarks

The and \ commands facilitate text merge in Visual FoxPro. Text merge makes it possible for you to output text to a file to create form letters or programs.

Use and \ to output a text line to the current text-merge output file and the screen. SET TEXTMERGE is used to specify the text merge output file. If text merge is not directed to a file, the text line is output only to the main Visual FoxPro window or the active user-defined output window. SET TEXTMERGE NOSHOW suppresses output to the main Visual FoxPro window or the active user-defined window.

Example

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CLOSE DATABASES OPEN DATABASE (HOME(2) + ‘Datatestdata’) USE Customer && Open customer table SET TEXTMERGE ON SET TEXTMERGE TO letter.txt <<CDOW(DATE( ))>>, <<CMONTH(DATE( ))>> \ <<DAY(DATE( ))>>, <<YEAR(DATE( ))>> Dear <<contact>> Additional text Thank you, XYZ Corporation CLOSE ALL MODIFY FILE letter.txt NOEDIT

See Also

Concepts

_PRETEXT System Variable

SET TEXTMERGE Command

SET TEXTMERGE DELIMITERS Command

_TEXT System Variable

TEXT … ENDTEXT Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

= Command

Evaluates one or more expressions.

Parameters

Expression1[, Expression2…]

Specifies the expression or expressions that the = command evaluates.

Remarks

The = command evaluates one or more expressions, Expression1, Expression2 …, and discards the return values. This option is particularly useful when a Visual FoxPro function or a user-defined function has a desired effect, but there is no need to assign the function’s return value to a variable, array element, or field.

For example, to turn insert mode on, you can issue the following command:

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= INSMODE(.T.)

INSMODE normally returns a True (.T.) or False (.F.) value. In the example above, the function is executed but the return value is discarded.

If only one expression (Expression1) is included, the equal sign is optional.

Note:

There are two unrelated uses for the equal sign (=). It can be used as an operator in logical expressions to make a comparison, or to assign values to variables and array elements. In these two cases, the equal sign (=) is an operator and not a command. See Relational Operators for more information about using the equal sign (=) as an operator in logical expressions. See STORE Command for more information about using the equal sign (=) to assign values to variables and array elements.

See Also

Concepts

EVALUATE( ) Function

INSMODE( ) Function

Relational Operators

STORE Command

ON KEY = Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

ACTIVATE MENU Command

Displays and activates a menu bar.

Parameters

MenuBarName

Specifies the name of the menu bar to activate. NOWAIT

Specifies that at run time the program should not wait for the user to choose a menu from the active menu bar or to press ESC. Instead, the program continues to execute. A menu activated with the NOWAIT option does not return program execution to the line following the ACTIVATE MENU command when DEACTIVATE MENU is issued. PAD MenuTitleName

Specifies the menu title name that is automatically selected when the menu bar is activated. If you don’t specify a menu title name, the first menu title name in the activated menu bar is activated by default.

Remarks

Displays and activates the menu bar specified with MenuBarName. This command works in conjunction with DEFINE MENU and DEFINE PAD.

Note:
When you include the Visual FoxPro system menu bar (_MSYSMENU) in an application, there is no need to activate the menu. Instead, issue SET SYSMENU AUTOMATIC.

Example

The following example uses ACTIVATE MENU to display and activate a user-defined menu system. The current system menu bar is first saved to memory with SET SYSMENU SAVE, and then all system menu titles are removed with SET SYSMENU TO.

Two menu titles are created with DEFINE PAD; DEFINE POPUP is used to create a drop-down menu for each menu title. DEFINE BAR is used to create menu items on each of the menus. When a menu title is chosen, ON PAD uses ACTIVATE POPUP to activate the corresponding menu. ACTIVATE MENU displays and activates the menu bar.

When a menu item is chosen from a menu, the CHOICE procedure is executed. CHOICE displays the name of the chosen item and the name of the menu containing the item.

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*** Name this program ACTIMENU.PRG *** CLEAR SET SYSMENU SAVE SET SYSMENU TO ON KEY LABEL ESC KEYBOARD CHR(13) DEFINE MENU example BAR AT LINE 1 DEFINE PAD convpad OF example PROMPT ‘<Conversions’ COLOR SCHEME 3 ; KEY ALT+C, ” DEFINE PAD cardpad OF example PROMPT ‘Card <Info’ COLOR SCHEME 3 ; KEY ALT+I, ” ON PAD convpad OF example ACTIVATE POPUP conversion ON PAD cardpad OF example ACTIVATE POPUP cardinfo DEFINE POPUP conversion MARGIN RELATIVE COLOR SCHEME 4 DEFINE BAR 1 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Ar<ea’ ; KEY CTRL+E, ‘^E’ DEFINE BAR 2 OF conversion PROMPT ‘<Length’ ; KEY CTRL+L, ‘^L’ DEFINE BAR 3 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Ma<ss’ ; KEY CTRL+S, ‘^S’ DEFINE BAR 4 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Spee<d’ ; KEY CTRL+D, ‘^D’ DEFINE BAR 5 OF conversion PROMPT ‘<Temperature’ ; KEY CTRL+T, ‘^T’ DEFINE BAR 6 OF conversion PROMPT ‘T<ime’ ; KEY CTRL+I, ‘^I’ DEFINE BAR 7 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Volu<me’ ; KEY CTRL+M, ‘^M’ ON SELECTION POPUP conversion DO choice IN actimenu; WITH PROMPT( ), POPUP( ) DEFINE POPUP cardinfo MARGIN RELATIVE COLOR SCHEME 4 DEFINE BAR 1 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘<View Charges’ ; KEY ALT+V, ” DEFINE BAR 2 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘View <Payments’ ; KEY ALT+P, ” DEFINE BAR 3 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘Vie<w Users’ ; KEY ALT+W, ” DEFINE BAR 4 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘-‘ DEFINE BAR 5 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘<Charges ‘ ; KEY ALT+C, ” ON SELECTION POPUP cardinfo; DO choice IN actimenu WITH PROMPT( ), POPUP( ) ACTIVATE MENU example DEACTIVATE MENU example RELEASE MENU example EXTENDED SET SYSMENU TO DEFAULT ON KEY LABEL ESC PROCEDURE choice PARAMETERS mprompt, mpopup WAIT WINDOW ‘You chose ‘ + mprompt + ‘ from popup ‘ + mpopup NOWAIT

See Also

Concepts

CLEAR Commands

CREATE MENU Command

DEACTIVATE MENU Command

DEFINE MENU Command

DEFINE PAD Command

HIDE MENU Command

SET SYSMENU Command

SHOW MENU Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

Language Reference (Visual FoxPro)

ACTIVATE POPUP Command

Displays and activates a menu.

Parameters

MenuName

Specifies the name of the menu to activate. AT nRow, nColumn

Specifies the position of the menu on the screen or in a user-defined window. The row and column coordinate applies to the upper-left corner of the menu. The position you specify with this argument takes precedence over a position you specify with the FROM argument in DEFINE POPUP. BAR nMenuItemNumber

Specifies the item in the menu that is selected when the menu is activated. For example, if nMenuItemNumber is 2, the second item is selected. The first item is selected if you omit BAR nMenuItemNumber or if nMenuItemNumber is greater than the number of items in the menu. NOWAIT

Specifies that, at run time, a program does not wait for the user to choose an item from the menu before continuing program execution. Instead, the program continues to execute. REST

A menu created with the PROMPT FIELD clause of DEFINE POPUP places records from a field into the menu. When the menu is activated, the first item in the menu is initially selected, even if the record pointer in the table containing the field is positioned on a record other than the first record.

Include REST to specify that the item selected when the menu is activated corresponds to the current record pointer position in the table.

Remarks

ACTIVATE POPUP works in conjunction with DEFINE POPUP, used to create the menu, and DEFINE BAR, used to create the items on the menu.

Example

This example uses ACTIVATE POPUP with ON PAD to activate a menu when a menu title is chosen. The current system menu bar is first saved to memory with SET SYSMENU SAVE, and then all system menu titles are removed with SET SYSMENU TO.

Two new system menu titles are created with DEFINE PAD; DEFINE POPUP is used to create a menu for each menu title. DEFINE BAR is used to create menu items on each of the menus. When a menu title is chosen, ON PAD uses ACTIVATE POPUP to activate the corresponding menu.

When an item is chosen from a menu, the CHOICE procedure is executed. CHOICE displays the name of the chosen item and the name of the menu containing the item. If the Exit item is chosen from the Card Info menu, the original Visual FoxPro system menu is restored.

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*** Name this program ACTIPOP.PRG *** CLEAR SET SYSMENU SAVE SET SYSMENU TO DEFINE PAD convpad OF _MSYSMENU PROMPT ‘<Conversions’ COLOR SCHEME 3 ; KEY ALT+C, ” DEFINE PAD cardpad OF _MSYSMENU PROMPT ‘Card <Info’ COLOR SCHEME 3 ; KEY ALT+I, ” ON PAD convpad OF _MSYSMENU ACTIVATE POPUP conversion ON PAD cardpad OF _MSYSMENU ACTIVATE POPUP cardinfo DEFINE POPUP conversion MARGIN RELATIVE COLOR SCHEME 4 DEFINE BAR 1 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Ar<ea’ KEY CTRL+E, ‘^E’ DEFINE BAR 2 OF conversion PROMPT ‘<Length’ ; KEY CTRL+L, ‘^L’ DEFINE BAR 3 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Ma<ss’ ; KEY CTRL+S, ‘^S’ DEFINE BAR 4 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Spee<d’ ; KEY CTRL+D, ‘^D’ DEFINE BAR 5 OF conversion PROMPT ‘<Temperature’ ; KEY CTRL+T, ‘^T’ DEFINE BAR 6 OF conversion PROMPT ‘T<ime’ ; KEY CTRL+I, ‘^I’ DEFINE BAR 7 OF conversion PROMPT ‘Volu<me’ ; KEY CTRL+M, ‘^M’ ON SELECTION POPUP conversion; DO choice IN actipop WITH PROMPT(), POPUP() DEFINE POPUP cardinfo MARGIN RELATIVE COLOR SCHEME 4 DEFINE BAR 1 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘<View Charges’ ; KEY ALT+V, ” DEFINE BAR 2 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘View <Payments’ ; KEY ALT+P, ” DEFINE BAR 3 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘Vie<w Users’ ; KEY ALT+W, ” DEFINE BAR 4 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘-‘ DEFINE BAR 5 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘<Charges’ ; KEY ALT+C, ” DEFINE BAR 6 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘-‘ DEFINE BAR 7 OF cardinfo PROMPT ‘E<xit’; KEY ALT+X, ” ON SELECTION POPUP cardinfo; DO choice IN actipop WITH PROMPT(),POPUP() PROCEDURE choice PARAMETERS mprompt, mpopup WAIT WINDOW ‘You chose ‘ + mprompt + ; ‘ from popup ‘ + mpopup NOWAIT IF mprompt = ‘Exit’ SET SYSMENU TO DEFAULT ENDIF

See Also

Concepts

CLEAR Commands

CREATE MENU Command

DEACTIVATE POPUP Command

DEFINE BAR Command

DEFINE POPUP Command

HIDE POPUP Command

MOVE POPUP Command

ON SELECTION POPUP Command

POP POPUP Command

POPUP( ) Function

PROMPT( ) Function

PUSH POPUP Command

SHOW POPUP Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

Language Reference (Visual FoxPro)

ACTIVATE SCREEN Command

Sends all subsequent output to the main Visual FoxPro window instead of to the active user-defined window.

Remarks

Use ACTIVATE WINDOW to direct output to a user-defined window.

See Also

Concepts

ACTIVATE WINDOW Command

DEACTIVATE WINDOW Command

DEFINE WINDOW Command

HIDE WINDOW Command

SHOW WINDOW Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

Language Reference (Visual FoxPro)

ACTIVATE WINDOW Command

Displays and activates one or more user-defined windows or Visual FoxPro system windows.

Parameters

WindowName1[, WindowName2…]

Specifies the name of each window to activate. Separate the window names with commas. In Visual FoxPro, you can specify the name of a toolbar to activate. See SHOW WINDOW Command for a list of Visual FoxPro toolbar names. ALL

Specifies that all windows are activated. The last window activated is the active output window. IN [WINDOW] WindowName3

Specifies the name of the parent window within which the window is placed and activated. The activated window becomes a child window. A parent window can have multiple child windows. A child window activated inside a parent window cannot be moved outside the parent window. If the parent window is moved, the child window moves with it.

Note:
The parent window must be visible for any of its child windows to be visible.

IN SCREEN

Places and activates a window in the main Visual FoxPro window. A window can be placed in a parent window by including IN WINDOW in DEFINE WINDOW when the window is created. Including the IN SCREEN clause in ACTIVATE WINDOW overrides the IN WINDOW clause in DEFINE WINDOW. BOTTOM | TOP | SAME

Specifies where windows are activated with respect to other previously activated windows. By default, a window becomes the window on top when it is activated. Including BOTTOM places a window behind all other windows. TOP places it in front of all other windows. SAME activates a window without affecting its front-to-back placement. NOSHOW

Activates and directs output to a window without displaying the window.

Remarks

To successfully use this command on user-defined windows, any target user-defined window must have been created using the DEFINE WINDOW Command command.

Activating a window makes it the window on top and directs all output to that window. Output can be directed to only one window at a time. A window remains the active output window until it is deactivated or released, or until another window or the main Visual FoxPro window is activated.

The names of user-defined windows appear in the bottom section of the Window menu. The name of the active user-defined window is marked with a check mark.

More than one window can be placed in the main Visual FoxPro window at one time, but output is directed only to the last window activated. When more than one window is open, deactivating the active output window removes it from the main Visual FoxPro window and sends subsequent output to another window. If there is no active output window, output is directed to the main Visual FoxPro window.

Note:
To ensure output is directed to a specific window when you deactivate the active output window, you must explicitly activate the window you want to send output to with ACTIVATE WINDOW.

All activated windows are displayed until DEACTIVATE WINDOW or HIDE WINDOW is issued to remove them from view. Issuing either command removes windows from view but not from memory. Windows can be redisplayed by issuing ACTIVATE WINDOW or SHOW WINDOW.

To remove windows from view and from memory, use CLEAR WINDOWS, RELEASE WINDOWS, or CLEAR ALL. Windows that are removed from memory must be redefined to place them back in the main Visual FoxPro window.

You can use ACTIVATE WINDOW to place Visual FoxPro system windows in the main Visual FoxPro window or in a parent window.

The following system windows can be opened with ACTIVATE WINDOW:

• Command
• Call Stack
• Debug
• Debug Output
• Document View
• Locals
• Trace
• Watch
• View

To activate a system window and or a toolbar, enclose the entire system window or toolbar name in quotation marks. For example, to activate the Call Stack debugging window in Visual FoxPro, issue the following command:

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ACTIVATE WINDOW “Call Stack”

Historically in prior versions of Visual FoxPro, the Data Session window has always been referred to as the View window. Additionally, language used to control this window, such as HIDE WINDOW, ACTIVATE WINDOW, WONTOP( ), also refers to this window as the View window. Visual FoxPro continues to refer to the View window for the ACTIVATE WINDOW command.

Use HIDE WINDOW or RELEASE WINDOW to remove a system window from the main Visual FoxPro window or a parent window.

Example

The following example defines a window named output and activates it, placing it in the main Visual FoxPro window. The WAIT command pauses execution, the window is hidden, and then redisplayed.

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CLEAR DEFINE WINDOW output FROM 2,1 TO 13,75 TITLE ‘Output’ ; CLOSE FLOAT GROW ZOOM ACTIVATE WINDOW output WAIT WINDOW ‘Press any key to hide window output’ HIDE WINDOW output WAIT WINDOW ‘Press any key to show window output’ SHOW WINDOW output WAIT WINDOW ‘Press any key to release window output’ RELEASE WINDOW output

See Also

Concepts

CLEAR Commands

DEACTIVATE WINDOW Command

DEFINE WINDOW Command

HIDE WINDOW Command

RELEASE WINDOWS Command

SHOW WINDOW Command

Commands (Visual FoxPro)

Language Reference (Visual FoxPro)

Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0

• Article
• 08/29/2016

Microsoft® Visual FoxPro® database development system is a powerful tool for quickly creating high-performance desktop, rich client, distributed client, client/server, and Web database applications. Employ its powerful data engine to manage large volumes of data, its object-oriented programming to reuse components across applications, its XML Web services features for distributed applications, and its built-in XML support to quickly manipulate data.

Note that Visual FoxPro 9.0 is the last version and was published in 2007.

Download Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2

Download Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0. SP2 provides the latest updates to Visual FoxPro 9.0 combining various enhancements and stability improvements into one integrated package.

Three Hotfixes for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2

• Fix for the issue where a toolbar on an SDI form gets disabled.
• Fix for the issue where records from another user session that violate the criteria for a parent table are displayed in the browse window for a child table in a Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2 multi-user environment.
• Fix for a reporting issue where the group header of a data grouping is not printed at the top of each page as expected after you install Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2.

Visual FoxPro Samples and Updates

Find code samples and product updates for Visual FoxPro.

Visual FoxPro on MSDN Forums

Join the conversation and get your questions answered on the Visual FoxPro Forum on MSDN.

Visual FoxPro 9.0 Overview

With its local cursor engine, tight coupling between language and data, and powerful features, Visual FoxPro 9.0 is a great tool for building database solutions of all sizes. Its data-centric, object-oriented language offers developers a robust set of tools for building database applications for the desktop, client-server environments, or the Web. Developers will have the necessary tools to manage data—from organizing tables of information, running queries, and creating an integrated relational database management system (DBMS) to programming a fully-developed data management application for end users.

• Data-Handling and Interoperability. Create .NET compatible solutions with hierarchical XML and XML Web services. Exchange data with SQL Server through enhanced SQL language capabilities and newly supported data types.
• Extensible Developer Productivity Tools. Enhance your user interfaces with dockable user forms, auto-anchoring of controls, and improved image support. Personalize the Properties Window with your favorite properties, custom editors, fonts, and color settings.
• Flexibility to Build All Types of Database Solutions. Build and deploy stand-alone and remote applications for Windows based Tablet PCs. Create and access COM components and XML Web Services compatible with Microsoft .NET technology.
• Reporting System Features. Extensible new output architecture provides precision control of report data output and formatting. Design with multiple detail banding, text rotation, and report chaining. Output reports supported include in XML, HTML, image formats, and customizable multi-page print preview window. Backward compatible with existing Visual FoxPro reports.

Resources

• Visual FoxPro FAQ
• Visual FoxPro Support Policy
• Visual FoxPro Product Updates
• Visual FoxPro 9.0 System Requirements

Visual FoxPro Downloads

• Article
• 08/29/2016

Download samples, along with the final product updates including service packs for Visual FoxPro to ensure maximum productivity and performance from your Visual FoxPro development.

Visual FoxPro 9.0 Updates

• Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
  Download Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0. SP2 provides the latest updates to Visual FoxPro 9.0 combining various enhancements and stability improvements into one integrated package.
• Help Download for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2
  Download product documentation for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2.
• GDI+ Update for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2
  Security update patch for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2 for fixing Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+).
• GDI+ Update for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1
  Security update patch for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1 for fixing Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+). Note: We highly recommend that you install Service Pack 2, then apply the GDI+ SP2 update.
• Visual FoxPro 9.0 ‘Sedna’ AddOns
  AddOn pack for Visual FoxPro 9.0. This download contains six components: VistaDialogs4COM, Upsizing Wizard, Data Explorer, NET4COM, MY for VFP and VS 2005 Extension for VFP.
• XSource for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2
  Download XSource for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2. XSource.zip has its own license agreement for usage, modification, and distribution of the Xbase source files included.
• Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2
  The Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider (VfpOleDB.dll) exposes OLE DB interfaces that you can use to access Visual FoxPro databases and tables from other programming languages and applications. The Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider is supported by OLE DB System Components as provided by MDAC 2.6 or later. The requirements to run the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider are the same as for Visual FoxPro 9.0. Note: This version of the VFP OLE DB provider is the same version as the one included with Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2.
• VFPCOM Utility
  Extend Visual FoxPro interoperability with other COM and ADO components with the VFPCOM Utility. This utility is a COM server that provides additional functionality when you use ADO and access COM events with your Visual FoxPro 9.0 applications. For installation instructions and more details on the issues that have been addressed, consult the VFPCOM Utility readme.
• Visual FoxPro ODBC Driver
  The VFPODBC driver is no longer supported. We strongly recommend using the Visual FoxPro OLE DB provider as a replacement. Please refer to the following article for more information and related links to issues when using the VFPODBC driver: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/277772.

Visual FoxPro 8.0 Updates

• Visual FoxPro 8.0 Service Pack 1Download Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1), which provides the latest updates to Visual FoxPro 8.0. SP1 combines various enhancements and stability improvements into one integrated package. The download contains all the documentation for these updates. For installation instructions and more details on SP1, consult the Service Pack 1 readme.
• GDI+ Update for Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1Security update patch for Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 for fixing Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+).
• Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 Task Pane Source CodeSource code for Task Pane Manager component included in SP1 for Visual FoxPro 8.0. SP1 for VFP 8.0 included an updated Task Pane Manager component as an .APP application file but did not contain the update source code files associated with the updated version.
• Visual FoxPro 8.0 Localization Toolkit OverviewOverview document of the Localization Toolkit project results for making available various language versions of the design-time IDE DLL and help documentation as add-ons to the English version of Visual FoxPro 8.0.

Visual FoxPro 7.0 Updates

• Visual FoxPro 7.0 Service Pack 1Download Microsoft Visual FoxPro 7.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1), which provides the latest updates to Visual FoxPro 7.0. SP1 combines various enhancements and stability improvements into one integrated package. The download contains all the documentation for these updates. For installation instructions and more details on SP1, consult the Service Pack 1 readme.

Code Samples

• .NET Samples for Visual FoxPro DevelopersThis download contains different projects and source files which are designed to show how how some common Visual FoxPro functionally is created in Visual Basic .NET.
• Visual FoxPro 8.0 SamplesThis download contains different projects which are designed to show how new features in Visual FoxPro 8.0 can be used. Each project is self-contained and can be run independently of any other. There is a readme text file contained in each project that describes each sample program.
• Sample: Visual FoxPro DDEX Provider for Visual Studio 2005A Data Designer EXtension Provider allows a data source to integrate better with data tools in Visual Studio. Visual FoxPro “Sedna” included a sample for such a provider for VFP data.This is now available as a stand-alone download.

System Requirements

• Article
• 08/29/2016

To install Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0, you need:Expand table

Frequently Asked Questions

• Article
• 08/29/2016

Find answers to your frequently asked questions about Visual FoxPro.

Q: What operating system is required for Visual FoxPro 9.0?

Developing applications with Visual FoxPro 9.0 is supported only on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. You can create and distribute run-time applications for Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. Installation on Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition is not supported.

Q: Will there be a Visual FoxPro 10.0?

No. There will not be another major release of Visual FoxPro (see announcement: A message to the community, March 2007).

Q: Will there be updates to Visual FoxPro?

Yes. Visual FoxPro will continue to be supported as per the lifecyle policy (https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=7992). Visual FoxPro 9 will be supported until 2014. In support of these products we may release patch updates from time to time. These typically fix problems discovered either internally or by a customer and reported to our product support engineers.

Q: Will there be a service pack 3 for Visual FoxPro 9?

At this time there are no plans to release a service pack for Visual FoxPro. However if there arises a need to publish a collection of fixes we may release a service pack. We will make announcements on the Visual FoxPro home page.

Q: What types of applications can I build with Visual FoxPro 9.0?

With its local cursor engine, tight coupling between language and data, and powerful features, such as object-oriented programming, Visual FoxPro 9.0 is a great tool for building database solutions of all sizes, from desktop and client/server database applications to data-intensive COM components and XML Web services.

Visual FoxPro 9.0 is an application development tool for building extremely powerful database applications and components. Its data-centric, object-oriented language offers developers a robust set of tools for building database applications on the desktop, client/server, or on the Web, through components and XML Web services. Developers will have the necessary tools to manage data from organizing tables of information, running queries, and creating an integrated relational database management system (DBMS) to programming a fully developed data management application for end users.

Q: Can I use Visual FoxPro to build Web applications?

Visual FoxPro COM components can be used with Internet Information Services (IIS) to build high-powered Internet database applications. This is because Visual FoxPro components can be called from Active Server Pages (ASP). Visual FoxPro is compatible with ASP but works even better in conjunction with the more modern ASP.NET. The components will retrieve and manipulate data, and will build some of the HTML returned to the user.

Q: Can you consume XML Web services with Visual FoxPro?

Yes, Visual FoxPro 9.0 makes it easy to consume XML Web services by integrating the SOAP Toolkit into the product.

Q: Is Visual FoxPro a part of MSDN Subscriptions?

Yes, Visual FoxPro 9.0 is included in the Professional, Enterprise, and Universal levels of MSDN Subscriptions. Visual FoxPro 9.0 is available for download to MSDN Subscribers via MSDN Subscriber downloads.

Q: How long will Visual FoxPro be supported by Microsoft?

Visual FoxPro 9.0 has standard support by Microsoft through January 2010 and extended support through January 2015 as per the developer tools lifecycle support policy.

Q: How long will the SOAP Toolkit included in Visual FoxPro 9.0 be supported by Microsoft?

Licensed users of Visual FoxPro 9.0 have a special lifecycle support plan for the SOAP Toolkit, supported by Microsoft on the same support plan as Visual FoxPro 8.0 which is through April 2008 and extended support through September 2013.

Q: Is Visual FoxPro 9.0 compatible with Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005?

Yes. We improved XML support and added new data types in Visual FoxPro 9.0 which improves .NET interop and SQL Server compatibility. Moreover the ‘Sedna’ add-on pack includes improvements to the Data Explorer and the Upsizing Wizard. These have significant improvements to support SQL Server 2005.

Q: How does Visual FoxPro 9.0 compare to SQL Server?

We do not contrast Visual FoxPro versus SQL Server. We position SQL Server as a database engine and Visual FoxPro as a developer tool. While Visual FoxPro has a database engine built-in, it is not positioned as a stand-alone database engine only. The trend is for an increasing amount of Visual FoxPro based applications to use SQL Server as the data storage in the solution. Of course, this is not required; it depends on the requirements of the solution. SQL Server offers security, reliability, replication, and many other features of a full relational database engine while the Visual FoxPro database system is an open file based DBF system that does not have many of those features. We leave it up to developers and companies to position and to compare various Microsoft products and technologies with each other and decide which ones are best for them to use when and how.

Q: Are there plans to enhance the 2 GB database size limit in Visual FoxPro?

The 2 GB limit is per table, not per database. We do not have any plans to extend the 2 GB table size limit in Visual FoxPro due to many reasons including the 32-bit architecture that already exists within the product. For large, scalable databases we recommend SQL Server 2008.

Q: Is Visual FoxPro supported on Windows Vista?

Yes. Visual FoxPro 9 Service Pack 2 is fully supported on Windows Vista.

Q: Are there plans for Visual FoxPro to support 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system?

No. While Visual FoxPro will remain 32-bit and not natively use 64-bit addressing; it will run in 32-bit compatibility mode. Visual Studio 2008 supports creating native 64-bit applications.

Q: How do you position Visual FoxPro in relation to Microsoft Access?

Microsoft Access, the database in Office, is the most broadly used and easiest-to-learn database tool that Microsoft offers. If you are new to databases, if you are building applications that take advantage of Microsoft Office, or if you want an interactive product with plenty of convenience, then choose Microsoft Access. Visual FoxPro is a powerful rapid application development (RAD) tool for creating relational database applications. If you are a database developer who builds applications for a living and you want ultimate speed and power, then choose Visual FoxPro.

Q: Is Visual FoxPro part of Visual Studio .NET?

No. Visual FoxPro 9.0 is a stand-alone database development tool which is compatible and evolutionary from previous versions of Visual FoxPro. Visual FoxPro 9.0 does not use or install the Windows .NET Framework. Visual FoxPro 9.0 is compatible with Visual Studio .NET the area of XML Web services, XML support, VFP OLE DB provider, and more. Visual FoxPro and Visual Studio are complimentary tools that work great together, such as Visual FoxPro 9.0 plus ASP.NET for adding WebForm front ends and mobile device front ends to Visual FoxPro applications.

Q: What is Microsoft’s position on Visual FoxPro related to Visual Studio and .NET?

We do not have plans to merge Visual FoxPro into Visual Studio and .NET, and there are no plans to create any sort of new Visual FoxPro .NET language. Instead, we are working on adding many of the great features found in Visual FoxPro into upcoming versions of Visual Studio, just like we’ve added great Visual Studio features into Visual FoxPro. If you want to do .NET programming, you should choose a .NET language with Visual Studio.

A Message to the Community

• Article
• 08/29/2016

March 2007

We have been asked about our plans for a new version of VFP. We are announcing today that there will be no VFP 10. VFP9 will continue to be supported according to our existing policy with support through 2015 (https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=7992). We will be releasing SP2 for Visual FoxPro 9 this summer as planned, providing fixes and additional support for Windows Vista.

Additionally, as you know, we’ve been working on a project codenamed Sedna for the past year or so. Sedna is built using the extensibility model of VFP9 and provides a number of new features including enhanced connectivity to SQL Server, integration with parts of the .NET framework, support for search using Windows Desktop Search and Windows Vista as well as enhanced access to VFP data from Visual Studio.

Concurrently, the community has been using CodePlex (https://www.codeplex.com) to enhance VFP using these same capabilities in the VFPx project. Some of these community driven enhancements include:

• Support for GDI+
• An enhanced class browser
• Support for Windows Desktop Alerts
• An object oriented menu system
• Integration with MSBuild
• A rule-based code analysis tool similar to fxCop in Visual Studio
• An Outlook Control Bar control

To reiterate, today we are announcing that we are not planning on releasing a VFP 10 and will be releasing the completed Sedna work on CodePlex at no charge. The components written as part of Sedna will be placed in the community for further enhancement as part of our shared source initiative. You can expect to see the Sedna code on CodePlex sometime before the end of summer 2007.

Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. In the Visual FoxPro Documentation
2. Additional Information

Welcome to Microsoft Visual FoxPro. Visual FoxPro is the object-oriented relational database management system that makes it possible for you to create database solutions for the desktop to the Web. Visual FoxPro provides powerful data handling capabilities, rapid application development tools for maximum productivity, and the flexibility needed to build all types of database solutions.

In the Visual FoxPro Documentation

• What’s New in Visual FoxPro
  Describes the new features and enhancements included in this version of Visual FoxPro.
• Getting Started with Visual FoxPro
  Provides information about where to find the Readme file, installing and upgrading from previous versions, configuring Visual FoxPro, and customizing the development environment.
• Using Visual FoxPro
  Provides an overview of Visual FoxPro features, describes concepts and productivity tools for developing, programming, and managing high-performance database applications and components.
• Samples and Walkthroughs
  Contains Visual FoxPro code samples and step-by-step walkthroughs that you can use for experimenting with and learning Visual FoxPro features.
• Reference
  Includes Visual FoxPro general, programming language, user interface, and error message reference topics.
• Product Support
  Provides information about Microsoft product support services for Visual FoxPro.

Additional Information

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro Web Site
  Provides a link to the Microsoft Visual FoxPro Web site for additional information and resources for Visual FoxPro.
• Microsoft Visual FoxPro Community
  Provides a link to Microsoft Visual FoxPro Online Community Web site for third-party community resources and newsgroups.
• Microsoft Visual FoxPro Training and Resources
  Provides a link to the Visual FoxPro training Web site to find information about training, books, and events for Visual FoxPro.
• Accessibility for People with Disabilities
  Provides information about features that make Visual FoxPro more accessible for people with disabilities.

What’s New in Visual FoxPro

• Article
• 07/09/2007

This release of Visual FoxPro contains many new features and enhancements. The following sections describe these new features and enhancements.

In This Section

• Guide to Reporting Improvements
  A roadmap to all new Reporting enhancements.
• Data and XML Feature Enhancements
  Describes additions and improvements to Visual FoxPro data features.
• SQL Language Improvements
  Describes enhancements to SQL language such as SELECT – SQL Command.
• Class Enhancements
  Describes additions and improvements to Visual FoxPro classes, forms, controls and object-oriented related features.
• Language Enhancements
  Describes additions and improvements to the Visual FoxPro programming language.
• Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
  Describes additions and improvements made to the Visual FoxPro IDE.
• Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
  Describes improvements made to designers available in Visual FoxPro.
• Miscellaneous Enhancements
  Describes other improvements made in this version of Visual FoxPro.
• Changes in Functionality for the Current Release
  Describes changes in the behavior of existing language and functionality.
• Visual FoxPro New Reserved Words
  Lists new reserved words added to Visual FoxPro.

Related Sections

• Getting Started with Visual FoxPro
  Provides information about where to find the ReadMe file and how to install and upgrade from previous versions, configure Visual FoxPro, and customize the development environment.
• Using Visual FoxPro
  Provides an overview of Visual FoxPro features, describes concepts and productivity tools for developing, programming, and managing high-performance database applications and components, and provides walkthroughs that help get you started. With the robust tools and data-centric object-oriented language that Visual FoxPro offers, you can build modern, scalable, multi-tier applications that integrate client/server computing and the Internet.
• Samples and Walkthroughs
  Contains Visual FoxPro code samples and step-by-step walkthroughs that you can use for experimenting with and learning Visual FoxPro features.
• Reference (Visual FoxPro)
  Describes Visual FoxPro general, programming language, user interface, and error message reference topics.
• Product Support (Visual FoxPro)
  Provides information about Microsoft product support services for Visual FoxPro.

English (United States)

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Guide to Reporting Improvements

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Design-time Enhancements
2. Multiple Detail Bands
3. Object-assisted Run-time Report Processing
4. Printing, Rendering, and Character-set-handling Improvements

Show 2 more

Visual FoxPro 9’s Report System has undergone a thorough revision. This topic sketches the broad outlines of the changes, and provides you with information about where to look for details.

The following main areas of enhancements to the Report System are covered in sections of this topic.

• Design-time enhancements.
  Multiple features and changes make designing reports in Visual FoxPro better for you and your end-users. The Report Builder Application re-organizes your design experience out-of-the-box. If you want to customize the design process, Report Builder dialog boxes and Report Designer events are fully exposed for you to do so.
• Multiple detail bands.
  You can handle multiple child tables and data relationships more flexibly in the revised Report Designer. When you run multiple-detail-band reports, you can leverage the new bands, with associated detail headers and footers, both for appropriate presentation of these relationships and for more capable calculations.
• Object-assisted run-time report processing.
  An entirely re-built output system, including a new base class, changes the way Visual FoxPro provides output report and label files at run time. Object-assisted reporting provides better-quality output, new types of output, and an open-architecture based on a new Visual FoxPro base class, the ReportListener. A programmable Report Preview interface interacts with ReportListeners to give you full control over report preview experience. The Report Preview Application provides improved out-of-the-box previewing facilities.
• Printing, rendering, and character-set-handling improvements.
  Visual FoxPro 9 makes better use of the operating system’s printing features and GDI+ rendering subsystem. It also handles multiple locales and character sets better than previous versions. These changes are showcased in the Report System, and are accessible for use in custom code during report design and run-time processing.
• Extensible use of report and label definition files (.frx and .lbx tables).
  Visual FoxPro 9 handles your existing reports and labels without modification, while allowing you to add new features and behavior to these reports easily. This backward-compatible, yet forward-thinking, migration strategy is made possible by the Report System’s newly-flexible handling of the .frx and .lbx table structure.

Design-time Enhancements

Numerous changes in the Report System help you enhance the design-time experience for developers and end-users. This section directs you to information about design-time improvements.

Report Designer Event Hooks and the Report Builder Application

The Report Designer now offers Report Builder Hooks, which enable you to intercept events occurring during a report or label design session to override and extend designer activity. The default Report Builder Application replaces many of the standard reporting dialog boxes with new ones written in Visual FoxPro code. Components of the Report Builder Application are exposed as Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes for your use.Expand table

Protection for End-User Design Sessions, and other Design-time Customization Opportunities

You can allow end-users to MODIFY and CREATE reports and labels, while setting limitations on what they can do in the Report Designer interface, using the new PROTECTED keyword. Protection is available individually by object and globally for the report. You can change what end-users see on the designer layout surface, from complex expressions to simple labels or sample data, while working in PROTECTED design mode, using Design-Time Captions. You can also provide helpful instructions, for both PROTECTED and standard design mode, by specifying Tooltips for report controls.Expand table

Enhanced Data Environment Use in Reports

You can save the Data Environment you designed for a Report or Label as a visual class. You can load a Data Environment into a Report or Label design from either a visual class or a previously-saved report or label.Expand table

Miscellaneous Design Improvements

There have been numerous enhancements to the Report and Label Designers. Some features are subtle changes to make design sessions more efficient and more enjoyable, and others improve your choices for resulting output.Expand table

Multiple Detail Bands

The Report Engine can now move through a scope of records multiple times. The records can represent related sets of detail lines in child tables, or they can be multiple passes through a single table. These multiple passes through a scope of records are represented as multiple detail bands.

Detail bands can have their own headers and footers, their own associated onEntry and onExit code, and their own associated report variables. Each detail band can be explicitly associated with a separate target alias, allowing you to control the number of entries in each detail band separately for related tables.

Multiple detail band reports provide many new ways you can represent data in reports and labels, and new ways you can calculate or summarize data, as you move through a record scope.Expand table

Object-assisted Run-time Report Processing

Visual FoxPro 9 has a new, object-assisted method of generating output from reports and labels. You can use your existing report and label layouts in object-assisted mode, to:

• Generate multiple types of output during one report run.
• Connect multiple reports together as part of one output result.
• Improve the quality of traditional report output.
• Dynamically adjust the contents of a report while you process it.
• Provide new types of output not available from earlier versions of Visual FoxPro.

This section covers the array of run-time enhancements that work together to support object-assisted reporting mode.

Object-Assisted Architecture and ReportListener Base Class

The new ReportListener base class and supporting language enhancements are the heart of run-time reporting enhancements.Expand table

Report Preview API and the Report Preview Application

Visual FoxPro 9’s object-assisted reporting mode gives you complete control over report and label previews.Expand table

New Types of Output and the Report Output Component Set

Because you can subclass ReportListener, you can create new types of output. Visual FoxPro 9 supplies a Report Output Application to connect ReportListener subclasses with output types, as well as ReportListener-derived classes with enhanced output capabilities.Expand table

Migration Strategies and Changes in Output Rendering

You can use the design-time changes to improve all reports and labels, whether you choose backward-compatible or object-assisted reporting mode at run time.

When evaluating whether to switch to object-assisted reporting mode at run time, first consider items on the Reporting list of Important Changes in the Changes in Functionality for the Current Release topic, some of which are specific to this new method of creating output. .The topic includes a table of minor differences between backward-compatible and object-assisted reporting output. You can examine what effects these changes might have on individual existing reports, and use the recommendations in the table to address them. You will find additional details in the topic Using GDI+ in Reports.

Once you have experimented with your current reports, you can decide on a migration strategy for output:

• You can switch applications over to use object-assisted reporting mode completely, by using the command SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90.
• You can use SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90 but preface specific REPORT FORM commands for reports with formatting issues with SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 80, returning your application to object-assisted mode afterwards.
• You can use object-assisted mode all the time, but adjust your ReportListener-derived classes’ behavior to suit specific needs. For example, you could change the default setting of the ReportListener’s DynamicLineHeight Property to False (.F.).
• You can leave SET REPORTBEHAVIOR at its default setting of 80, and add an explicit OBJECT clause to specific reports at your leisure, as you have the opportunity to evaluate and adjust individual report and label layouts.

Printing, Rendering, and Character-set-handling Improvements

General changes to Visual FoxPro’s use of Windows’ printing, rendering and font-handling support the improvements in the Report System’s output. These changes enhance your ability to support multiple printers and multiple languages in reports.Expand table

Extensible Use of Report and Label Definition Files

Underneath all the changes to the Visual FoxPro Report System, the Report Designer and Report Engine handle your report and label definitions using the same .frx and .lbx file structures as they did in previous versions. They change the way they use certain fields, without making these reports and labels invalid in previous versions, and they also allow you to extend your use of existing fields or add custom fields.

 Tip

This change is critical to your ability to create extensions of the new reporting features. For example, you might store two sets of ToolTips in two report extension fields, one set for use by developers and one for use by end-users. In a Report Builder extension, you could evaluate whether the Designer was working in protected or standard mode, and replace the actual set of ToolTips from the appropriate extension field. In previous versions, you could not add fields to report or label structure; the Designer and Engine would consider the table invalid. You also could not add custom content to unused, standard fields in various report and label records safely, because the Report Designer removed such content.

Visual FoxPro 9 provides a revised FILESPEC table for report and label files, with extensive information on the use of each column in earlier versions as well as current enhancements.

Visual FoxPro 9 also establishes a new, structured metadata format for use with reports. This format is an XML document schema shared with the Class Designer’s XML MemberData.

The XML document format allows you to pack custom reporting information into a single report or label field. The default Report Builder Application makes it easy to add Report XML MemberData to report and label records.Expand table

See Also

Reference

Data and XML Feature Enhancements
SQL Language Improvements
Class Enhancements
Language Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Other Resources

What’s New in Visual FoxPro

Data and XML Feature Enhancements

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Extended SQL Capabilities
2. New Data Types
3. Binary Index Tag Based on Logical Expressions
4. Converting Data Types with the CAST( ) Function

Show 47 more

Visual FoxPro contains the following additions and improvements to its data features:

Extended SQL Capabilities

Visual FoxPro contains many enhancements for SQL capabilities. For more information, see SQL Language Improvements.

New Data Types

Visual FoxPro includes the following new field and data types:

• **Varchar **To store alphanumeric text without including padding by additional spaces at the end of the field or truncating trailing spaces, use the new Varchar field type.If you do not want Varchar fields translated across code pages, use the Varchar (Binary) field type. For more information, see Varchar Field Type.You can specify Varchar type mapping between ODBC, ADO, and XML data source types and CursorAdapter and XMLAdapter objects using the MapVarchar Property. You can also specify Varchar mapping for SQL pass-through technology and remote views using the MapVarchar setting in the CURSORSETPROP( ) function. For more information, see CURSORSETPROP( ) Function and CURSORGETPROP( ) Function.
• **Varbinary **To store binary values and literals of fixed length in fields and variables without padding the field with additional zero (0) bytes or truncating any trailing zero bytes that are entered by the user, use the Varbinary data type. Internally, Visual FoxPro binary literals contain a prefix, 0h, followed by a string of hexadecimal numbers and are not enclosed with quotation marks (“”), unlike character strings. For more information, see Varbinary Data Type.You can specify binary type mapping between ODBC, ADO, and XML data source types and CursorAdapter and XMLAdapter objects using the MapBinary Property. You can also specify binary mapping for SQL pass-through technology and remote views using the MapBinary setting in the CURSORSETPROP( ) function. For more information, see CURSORSETPROP( ) Function and CURSORGETPROP( ) Function.
• BlobTo store binary data with indeterminate length, use the Blob data type. For more information, see Blob Data Type.

Many of the Visual FoxPro language elements affected by these new data types are listed in the topics for the new data types.

Binary Index Tag Based on Logical Expressions

Visual FoxPro includes a new binary, or bitmap, index for creating indexes based on logical expressions, for example, indexes based on deleted records. A binary index can be significantly smaller than a non-binary index and can improve the speed of maintaining indexes. You can create binary indexes using the Table Designer or INDEX command. Visual FoxPro also includes Rushmore optimization enhancements in the SQL engine for deleted records.

For more information, see Visual FoxPro Index Types, INDEX Command, ALTER TABLE – SQL Command, and Indexes Based on Deleted Records.

Converting Data Types with the CAST( ) Function

You can convert expressions from one data type to another by using the new CAST( ) function. Using CAST( ) makes it possible for you to create SQL statements more compatible with SQL Server.

For more information, see CAST( ) Function.

Get Cursor and Count Records Affected by SQL Pass-Thru Execution

By using the aCountInfo parameter of the SQLEXEC( ) and SQLMORERESULTS( ) functions, you can get the name of the cursor created and a count of the records affected by the execution of a SQL pass-through statement.

For more information, see SQLEXEC( ) Function) and SQLMORERESULTS( ) Function.

Roll-Back Functionality Supported when a SQL Pass-Through Connection Disconnects

Visual FoxPro now supports the DisconnectRollback property for use with the SQLSETPROP( ), SQLGETPROP( ), DBSETPROP( ), and DBGETPROP( ) functions. DisconnectRollback is a connection-level property that causes a transaction to be either rolled back or committed when the SQLDISCONNECT( ) function is called for the last connection handle associated with the connection.

The DisconnectRollback property accepts a logical value.

• False (.F.) – (Default) The transaction will be committed when the SQLDISCONNECT( ) function is called for the last statement handle associated with the connection.
• True (.T.) – The transaction is rolled back when the SQLDISCONNECT( ) function is called for the last statement handle associated with the connection.

The following example shows the DisconnectRollback property set in the DBSETPROP( ) and SQLSETPROP( ) functions.Copy

DBSETPROP("testConnection","CONNECTION","DisconnectRollback",.T.)
SQLSETPROP(con,"DisconnectRollback",.T.)

For more information, see DisconnectRollback property in SQLSETPROP( ) Function.

SQLIDLEDISCONNECT( ) Temporarily Disconnects SQL Pass-Through Connections

You can use the new SQLIDLEDISCONNECT( ) function to allow a SQL Pass-Through connection to be temporarily disconnected. Use the following syntax.Copy

SQLIDLEDISCONNECT( nStatementHandle )

The nStatementHandle parameter is set to the statement handle to be disconnected or 0 if all statement handles should be disconnected.

The SQLIDLEDISCONNECT( ) function returns the value 1 if it is successful; otherwise, it returns -1.

The function fails if the specified statement handle is busy or the connection is in manual commit mode. The AERROR( ) function can be used to obtain error information.

The disconnected connection handle is automatically restored if it is needed for an operation. The original connection data source name is used.

If a statement handle is temporarily released, the OBDChstmt property returns 0; the OBDChdbc returns 0 if the connection is temporarily disconnected. A shared connection is temporarily disconnected as soon as all of its statement handles are temporarily released.

For more information, see SQLIDLEDISCONNECT( ) Function.

Retrieving Active SQL Connection Statement Handles

You can retrieve information for all active SQL connection statement handles using the new ASQLHANDLES( ) function. ASQLHANDLES( ) creates and uses the specified array to store numeric statement handle references that you can use in other Visual FoxPro SQL functions, such as SQLEXEC( ) and SQLDISCONNECT( ). ASQLHANDLES( ) returns the number of active statement handles in use or zero (0) if none are available. For more information, see ASQLHANDLES( ) Function.

Obtain the ADO Bookmark for the Current Record in an ADO-Based Cursor

The ADOBookmark property is now supported by the CURSORGETPROP( ) function. Use this property to obtain the ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) bookmark for the current record in an ADO-based cursor.

For more information, see ADOBookmark Property in CURSORGETPROP( ) Function.

If a table is not selected and an alias is not specified, Error 52, “No table is open in the current work area,” is generated. If the cursor selected is not valid, Error 1467, “Property is invalid for local cursors,” is generated.

Obtain the Number of Fetched Records

You can obtain the number of fetched records during SQL Pass-Through execution by using the new RecordsFetched cursor property with the CURSORGETPROP( ) function.

Specifying the RecordsFetched cursor property will return the number of fetched records from an OBDC/ADO-based cursor.

If records have been deleted or appended locally, the RecordsFetched cursor property may not return the current number of records in the OBDC/ADO-based cursor. In addition, filter conditions are ignored.

For more information, see RecordsFetched Property in CURSORGETPROP( ) Function.

Determine if a Fetch is Complete

You can determine if a fetch process is complete for an OBDC/ADO-based cursor by using the new FetchIsComplete cursor property with the CURSORGETPROP( ) function. Read-only at design time and run time.

This property is not supported on environment level (work area 0) cursors, tables, and local views.

The FetchIsComplete cursor property returns a logical expression True (.T.) if the fetch process is complete; otherwise False (.F.) is returned.

For more information, see FetchIsComplete Property in CURSORGETPROP( ) Function.

ISMEMOFETCHED( ) Determines Whether a Memo is Fetched

You can use the ISMEMOFETCHED( ) function to determine whether a Memo field or General field is fetched when you are using delayed memo fetching. For more information about delayed memo fetching, see Speeding Up Data Retrieval.

The syntax for this function is:

ISMEMOFETCHED(cFieldName | nFieldNumber [, nWorkArea | cTableAlias ])

The ISMEMOFETCHED( ) function returns True (.T.) when the Memo field is fetched or if local data is used. ISMEMOFETCHED() returns NULL if the record pointer is positioned at the beginning of the cursor or past the last record.

For more information, see ISMEMOFETCHED( ) Function.

Cancel ADO Fetch

In Visual FoxPro, you can now cancel a lengthy ADO fetch by pressing the ESC key.

Long Type Name Support

Visual FoxPro supports using long type names with the following functions, commands, and properties.

• CAST( ) Function
• ALTER TABLE – SQL Command
• CREATE CURSOR – SQL Command
• CREATE TABLE – SQL Command
• CREATE FROM Command
• CursorSchema Property
• DataType Property

The following table lists the data types along with their long type names and short type names.Expand table

Visual FoxPro allows ambiguous long type names to be used with the ALTER TABLE, CREATE CURSOR, CREATE TABLE, and CREATE FROM commands. If the specified long type name is not a recognized long type name, Visual FoxPro will truncate the specified name to the first character.

Transaction Support for Free Tables and Cursors

In prior versions of Visual FoxPro, transactions using the BEGIN TRANSACTION Command were only supported for local and remote data from databases. Transactions involving free tables and cursors are now supported through use of the MAKETRANSACTABLE( ) and ISTRANSACTABLE( ) functions. For more information, see MAKETRANSACTABLE( ) Function and ISTRANSACTABLE( ) Function.

Specify a Code Page When Using the CREATE TABLE or CREATE CURSOR Commands

You can specify a code page by including the CODEPAGE clause with the CREATE CURSOR or CREATE TABLE commands.

When the CODEPAGE clause is specified, the new table or cursor has a code page specified by nCodePage. An error, 1914, “Code page number is invalid”, is generated if an invalid code page is specified.

The following example creates a table and displays its code page:Copy

CREATE TABLE Sales CODEPAGE=1251 (OrderID I, CustID I, OrderAmt Y(4))

? CPDBF( )

For more information, see CREATE CURSOR – SQL Command, CREATE TABLE – SQL Command and Code Pages Supported by Visual FoxPro.

Convert Character and Memo Data Types Using the ALTER TABLE Command

Visual FoxPro now supports automatic conversion from character data type to memo data type without loss of data when using the ALTER TABLE command along with the ALTER COLUMN clause. This conversion is also supported when making structural changes using the Table Designer. For more information, see ALTER TABLE – SQL Command.

BLANK Command Can Initialize Records to Default Value

You can initialize fields in the current record to their default values as stored in the table’s database container (DBC) by using the DEFAULT [AUTOINC] option when clearing the record with the BLANK command. For more information, see BLANK Command.

FLUSH Command Writes Data Explicitly to Disk

Visual FoxPro now includes options and parameters for the FLUSH command and FFLUSH function so you can explicitly save all changes you make to all open tables and indexes. You can also save changes to a specific table by specifying a work area, table alias, or a path and file name. For more information, see FLUSH Command and FFLUSH( ) Function.

Populate an Array with Aliases Used by a Specified Table

The new cTableName parameter for the AUSED( ) function makes it possible to filter the created array to contain only the aliases being used for a specified table.

AUSED(ArrayName [, nDataSessionNumber [, cTableName ]])

The cTableName parameter accepts the following formats to specify a table, from highest to lowest in priority.

• DatabaseName!TableName or DatabaseName!ViewName
• PathDatabaseName!TableName or PathDatabaseName!ViewName
• DBC-defined table name or view in the current DBC in the current data session
• Simple or full file name

For more information, see AUSED( ) Function.

Obtain Last Auto-Increment Value with GETAUTOINCVALUE( )

You can use the new GETAUTOINCVALUE( ) function to return the last value generated for an autoincremented field within a data session. For more information, see GETAUTOINCVALUE( ) Function.

SET TABLEPROMPT Controls Prompt to Select Table

The new SET TABLEPROMPT command controls whether Visual FoxPro prompts the user with the Open Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro) to select a table when one specified cannot be found, such as in SELECT – SQL Command. For more information, see SET TABLEPROMPT Command.

Use SET VARCHARMAPPING to Control Query Result Set Mappings

For queries such as SELECT – SQL Command, character data is often manipulated using Visual FoxPro functions and expressions. Since the length of the resulting field value may be important for certain application uses, it is valuable to have this Character data mapped to Varchar data in the result set. The SET VARCHARMAPPING command controls whether Character data is mapped to a Character or Varchar data type. For more information, see SET VARCHARMAPPING Command.

SET TABLEVALIDATE Expanded

When a table header is locked during validation, attempts to open the table, for example, with the USE command, generate the message “File is in use (Error 3).” If the table header cannot be locked for a table open operation, you can suppress this message by setting the third bit for the SET TABLEVALIDATE command. You must also set the first bit to validate the record count when the table opens. Therefore, you need to set the SET TABLEVALIDATE command to a value of 5. Also, a fourth bit option (value of 8) is available for Insert operations which checks the table header before the appended record is saved to disk and the table header is modified.

For more information, see SET TABLEVALIDATE Command.

SET REFRESH Can Specify Faster Refresh Rates

You can specify fractions of a second for the nSeconds2 parameter to a minimum of 0.001 seconds. You can also specify the following values for the optional second parameter:

• -1 – Always read data from a disk.
• 0 – Always use data in memory buffer but do not refresh buffer.

The Table refresh interval check box on the Data tab of the Options dialog box now also accepts fractional values.

For more information, see SET REFRESH Command and Data Tab, Options Dialog Box.

SET REFRESH Can Differentiate Values for Each Cursor

You can use the new Refresh property with the CURSORGETPROP( ) function to differentiate the SET REFRESH values for individual cursors. The default setting is -2, which is a global value. This value is not available with the SET REFRESH command.

The Refresh property is available at the Data Session and Cursor level. The default setting for a Data Session level is -2 and the default value for a Cursor level is the current session’s level setting. If the global level setting is set to 0, the Cursor level setting is ignored.

If a table is not currently selected and an alias is not specified, Error 52, “No table is open in the current work area,” is generated.

For more information, see Refresh Property in CURSORGETPROP( ) Function.

SET( ) Determines SET REPROCESS Command Settings

You can now use the following syntax with the SET( ) function to determine how the SET REPROCESS command was declared.Expand table

For more information, see SET( ) Function and SET REPROCESS Command.

Log Output from SYS(3054) Using SYS(3092)

You can use the new SYS(3092) function in conjunction with SYS(3054) to record the resulting output to a file.

SYS( 3092 [, cFileName [, lAdditive ]])

The cFileName parameter specifies the file to echo the SYS(3054) output to. Sending an empty string to cFileName will deactivate output recording to the file.

The default value for lAdditive is False (.F.). This specifies that new output will overwrite the previous contents of the specified file. To append new output to the specified file, set lAdditive to True (.T.).

SYS(3092) returns the name of the current echo file if it is active; otherwise, it returns an empty string.

SYS(3054) and SYS(3092) are global settings — in a multithreaded runtime they are scoped to a thread. Each function can be changed independently from each other.

These functions are not available in the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider.

For more information, see SYS(3054) – Rushmore Query Optimization Level and SYS(3092) – Output Rushmore Query Optimization Level.

Purge Cached Memory for Specific Work Area Using SYS(1104)

You can optionally specify the alias or work area of a specified table or cursor for which cached memory is purged. For more information, see SYS(1104) – Purge Memory Cache.

New Table Types for SYS(2029)

The SYS(2029) function returns new values for tables that contain Autoinc, Varchar, Varbinary or Blob fields. For more information, see SYS(2029) – Table Type.

Map Remote Unicode Data to ANSI Using SYS(987)

Use SYS(987) to map remote Unicode data retrieved through SQL pass-through or remote views to ANSI. This function can be used to retrieve remote Varchar data as ANSI for use with Memo fields. This setting is a global setting across all data sessions so should be used with care. For more information, see SYS(987) – Map Remote Data to ANSI.

Memo and Field tips in a BROWSE or Grid

When the mouse pointer is positioned over a Memo field cell in a Browse window or Grid control, a Memo Tip window displays the contents of the Memo field.

For other field types, positioning the mouse pointer over the field displays the field contents in a Field Tip window when the field is sized smaller than its contents.

Memo Tip windows display no more than 4 kilobytes of text, and are not displayed for binary data. A Memo Tip window is displayed until the mouse pointer is moved from the Memo field. The _TOOLTIPTIMEOUT System Variable determines how long a Field Tip window is displayed.

You can disable Memo Tips by setting the _SCREEN ShowTips Property to False (.F.).

Memo and Field Tips will also be displayed for Grid controls if both _SCREEN and the form’s ShowTips property are set to True (.T.). Additionally, the ToolTipText Property for the field’s grid column Textbox control must contain an empty string.

Specify Code Pages

You can specify the code page used to decode data when XML is being parsed and to encode data when UTF-8 encoded XML is generated. The following language changes are available:

• nCodePage ParameterTo specify code pages, you can use the nCodePage parameter for the following XMLToTable methods:
  • ToCursor Method
  • ChangesToCursor Method
  • ApplyDiffgram Method
  CopyXMLTable.ToCursor ( [ lAppend [, cAlias [, nCodePage ]]] ) XMLTable.ChangesToCursor( [ cAlias [, lIncludeUnchangedData [, nCodePage ]]] ) XMLTable.ApplyDiffgram( [ cAlias [, oCursorAdapter [, lPreserveChanges [, nCodePage ]]]] )
• CodePage and UseCodePage PropertiesUse the CodePage Property and UseCodePage Property to specify code pages when you use the following classes:
  • XMLAdapter Class
  • XMLTable Class
  • XMLField Class
  CopyXMLAdapter.CodePage = nValue XMLTable.CodePage = nValue XMLField.CodePage = nValue
• Flag 32768The flag 32768 is available for the following functions and class:
  • CursorAdapter Class
  • XMLTOCURSOR( ) Function
  • CURSORTOXML( ) Function
  • XMLUPDATEGRAM( ) Function
  CopyCursorAdaptor.Flags = nCodePage XMLTOCURSOR( eExpression | cXMLFile [, cCursorName [, nFlags ]]) CURSORTOXML(nWorkArea | cTableAlias, cOutput [, nOutputFormat [, nFlags [, nRecords [, cSchemaName [, cSchemaLocation [, cNameSpace ]]]]]]) XMLUPDATEGRAM( [ cAliasList [, nFlags [, cSchemaLocation]]]) The nCodePage parameter must match a recognized Visual FoxPro code page.

For more information, see Code Pages Supported by Visual FoxPro.

MapVarchar Property Maps to Varchar, Varbinary, and Blob Data Types

For CursorAdapter and XMLAdapter classes, you can use the MapVarchar property to map to Varchar data types. To map to Varbinary and Blob data types, you can use the MapBinary property.

The XMLTOCURSOR( ) Function contains several new flags to support mapping of Char and base64Binary XML field types to new Fox data types.

For more information, see the MapVarchar Property and MapBinary Property.

Handling Conflict Checks with Properties for CursorAdapter Class

You can better handle conflicts when performing update and delete operations using the commands specified by the UpdateCmd and DeleteCmd properties for CursorAdapter objects by using the new ConflictCheckType and ConflictCheckCmd properties for CursorAdapter objects.

You can use ConflictCheckType to specify how to handle a conflict check during an update or delete operation. When ConflictCheckType is set to 4, you can use ConflictCheckCmd to specify a custom command to append to the end of the commands in the UpdateCmd and DeleteCmd properties.

 Note

Visual FoxPro 8.0 Service Pack 1 includes the ConflictCheckType and ConflictCheckCmd properties.

For more information, see ConflictCheckType Property and ConflictCheckCmd Property.

Improved DataEnvironment Handling with UseCursorSchema and NoData Properties

You can specify default settings for CursorFill Method calls made without the first two parameters by setting these properties. For more information, see UseCursorSchema Property and NoData Property.

Timestamp Field Support

The new TimestampFieldList property lets you specify a list of timestamp fields for the cursor created by the CursorAdapter. For more information see TimestampFieldList Property.

Auto-Refresh Support

There are a number of scenarios where you might want to have cursor data refreshed from a remote data source after an Insert/Update operation has occurred. These include following scenarios:

• A table has an auto-increment field that also acts as a primary key.
• A table has a timestamp field, and that field must be refreshed from the database after each Insert/Update in order to allow successful subsequent updates to the record when WhereType=4 (key and timestamp).
• A table contains some fields which have DEFAULT values or triggers defined that will cause changes to occur.

The following new properties have been added to the CursorAdapter class for Auto-Refresh support:Expand table

For more information about how Visual FoxPro updates remote data using a CursorAdapter, see Data Access Management Using CursorAdapters. Also, see InsertCmdRefreshCmd Property, InsertCmdRefreshFieldList Property, InsertCmdRefreshKeyFieldList Property, UpdateCmdRefreshCmd Property, UpdateCmdRefreshFieldList Property, UpdateCmdRefreshKeyFieldList Property and RefreshTimeStamp Property.

On Demand Record Refresh

In Visual FoxPro 8.0, the REFRESH( ) Function provides on demand record refresh functionality for local and remote views, however, it does not support this for the CursorAdapter. Visual FoxPro 9.0 extends REFRESH( ) support to the CursorAdapter and provides some additional capabilities:Expand table

For more information, see RecordRefresh Method, BeforeRecordRefresh Event, AfterRecordRefresh Event, RefreshCmdDataSourceType Property, RefreshCmdDataSource Property, RefreshIgnoreFieldList Property, RefreshCmd Property and RefreshAlias Property.

Delayed Memo Fetch

The CursorAdapter class has a FetchMemo Property, which when set to False (.F.) in Visual FoxPro 9.0 places the cursor in Delayed Memo Fetch mode similar to Remote Views. Delayed Memo Fetch Mode prevents the contents of Memo fields from being fetched using CursorFill Method or CursorRefresh Method. An attempt to fetch content for a Memo field is done when the application attempts to access the value. The following CursorAdapter enhancements provide support for Delayed Memo Fetch:Expand table

For more information, see DelayedMemoFetch Method, FetchMemoDataSourceType Property, FetchMemoDataSource Property and FetchMemoCmdList Property.

UseTransactions Property

The new UseTransactions property specifies whether the CursorAdapter should use transactions when sending Insert, Update or Delete commands through ADO or ODBC. For more information, see UseTransactions Property.

DEFAULT and CHECK Constraints Respected

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, DEFAULT values and table and field level CHECK constraints are supported for XML, Native, ADO and ODBC data sources. In Visual FoxPro 8.0, DEFAULT values and table and field level CHECK constraints are only supported for an XML data source. For the DEFAULT values and CHECK constraints to be applied to a cursor, call the CursorFill Method with the lUseSchema parameter set to True (.T.). For more information, see CursorSchema Property.

Remote Data Type Conversion for Logical Data

When you move data between a remote server and Visual FoxPro, Visual FoxPro uses ODBC or ADO data types to map remote data types to local Visual FoxPro data types. In Visual FoxPro 9.0, certain ODBC and ADO data types can now be mapped to a logical data type in remote views and the CursorAdapter object. For more information, see Data Type Conversion Control.

ADOCodePage Property

When working with an ADO data source for your CursorAdapter, you may want to specify a code page to use for character data translation. The new ADOCodePage property allows you to specify this code page. For more information, see ADOCodePage Property.

Read and Write Nested XML Documents

You can read to and write from your relational database into XML documents using nesting to handle the relationships between tables. You accomplish this using the RespectNesting Property of the XMLAdapter class. The XMLTable class has the Nest Method, Unnest Method and the following properties to handle nesting.

• FirstNestedTable Property
• NestedInto Property
• NextSiblingTable Property

For more information, see the XMLAdapter Class and the XMLTable Class.

LoadXML Method Can Accept Any XML Document

The LoadXML method accepts any XML document with a valid schema. Previously, the method required that the schema follow the format of a Visual Studio generated dataset. When you use the LoadXML method to read an XML document with a schema different from a Visual Studio generated dataset, the properties for the XMLAdapter, XMLName, and XMLPrefix properties are set to empty (“”). The XMLAdapterXMLNamespace property becomes equal to the target Namespace attribute value for the schema node and each XML element becomes a complexType and is mapped to an XMLTable object. The XMLNamespace property is set to namespaceURI for the element.

If you set the XMLAdapterRespectNesting property to True (.T.), the top level element declaration is ignored if it is referenced from some other complex element. For that case, the XMLTable object for the referenced element is nested into the XMLTable for the element that references it.

For more information, see LoadXML Method.

XPath Expressions Can Access Complex XML Documents

You can use XPath expressions to access complex XML documents and the new properties for reading the nodes within the document. For example, you might want to filter record nodes, restore relationships based on foreign key fields, use an element’s text as data for a field, or access XML that uses multiple XML namespaces. The following properties provide you with the ability to read the XML at the XMLAdapter level, XMLTable level, or the XMLField level.

• DeclareXMLPrefix Property
• SelectionNamespaces Property
• XMLNameIsXPath Property

You can use the following table to determine the node within the XML document that you want to start reading.

For example, if you use an XPath expression in the XMLName property for an XMLAdapter, reading begins at the first nodeExpand table

The following methods do not support the use of XPath expressions in the XMLName property:

• The ApplyDiffgram and ChangesToCursor methods do not support XPath expressions for XMLAdapter and XMLTable objects.
• The ToCursor method does not support an XPath expression for XMLAdapter when the IsDiffgram property is set to True (.T.).
• The ToXML method does not support XPath expressions for XMLAdapter and XMLTable objects and ignores XMLField objects that use XPath expressions.

For more information about XPath expressions, see the XPath Reference in the Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 4.0 SDK in the MSDN library at https://msdn.microsoft.com/library.

Cursor to XML Functions

Support for the following functions has been added to the OLE DB Provider for Visual FoxPro:

• CURSORTOXML( ) Function
• XMLTOCURSOR( ) Function
• XMLUPDATEGRAM( ) Function

When used in the OLE DB Provider for Visual FoxPro, the _VFP VFPXMLProg property is not supported for the CURSORTOXML( ), XMLTOCURSOR( ) and XMLUPDATEGRAM( ) functions because the _VFP system variable is not supported in the OLE DB Provider.

EXECSCRIPT Supported in the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider

You can use the EXECSCRIPT( ) function with the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider. For more information, see EXECSCRIPT( ) Function.

Returning a Rowset from a Cursor in the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider

You can use the new SETRESULTSET( ), GETRESULTSET( ), and CLEARRESULTSET( ) functions to mark a cursor or table that has been opened by the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider, retrieve the work area of the marked cursor, and clear the marker flag from a marked cursor. By marking a cursor or table, you can retrieve a rowset that is created from the marked cursor or table from a database container (DBC) stored procedure when the OLE DB Provider completes command execution.

For more information, see SETRESULTSET( ) Function, GETRESULTSET( ) Function, and CLEARRESULTSET( ) Function.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
SQL Language Improvements
Class Enhancements
Language Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Other Resources

What’s New in Visual FoxPro

SQL Language Improvements

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Expanded Capacities
2. Subquery Enhancements
3. Sub-SELECT in the FROM Clause
4. ORDER BY with Field Names in the UNION clause

Show 5 more

The SELECT – SQL Command and other SQL commands have been substantially enhanced in Visual FoxPro 9.0. This topic describes the enhancements made to these commands, and new commands that affect SQL performance.

Expanded Capacities

Several SELECT – SQL command limitations have been removed or increased in Visual FoxPro 9.0. The following table lists the areas where limitations have been removed or increased.Expand table

Subquery Enhancements

Visual FoxPro 9.0 provides more flexibility in subqueries. For example, multiple subqueries are now supported. The following describes the enhancements to subqueries in Visual FoxPro 9.0.

Multiple Subqueries

Visual FoxPro 9.0 supports multiple subquery nesting, with correlation allowed to the immediate parent. There is no limit to the nesting depth. In Visual FoxPro 8.0, error 1842 (SQL: Subquery nesting is too deep) was generated when more than one level of subquery nesting occurred.

The following is the general syntax for multiple subqueries.

SELECT … WHERE … (SELECT … WHERE … (SELECT …) …) …

Examples

The following example queries, which will generate an error in Visual FoxPro 8.0, are now supported in Visual FoxPro 9.0.Copy

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor (field1 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (0)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor1 (field1 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (1)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (field1 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (2)

SELECT * FROM MyCursor T1 WHERE EXISTS ;
    (SELECT * from MyCursor1 T2 WHERE NOT EXISTS ;
    (SELECT * FROM MyCursor2 T3))

*** Another multiple subquery nesting example ***
SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE table1.iid IN ;
    (SELECT table2.itable1id FROM table2 WHERE table2.iID IN ;
    (SELECT table3.itable2id FROM table3 WHERE table3.cValue = "value"))

GROUP BY in a Correlated Subquery

Many queries can be evaluated by executing a subquery once and substituting the resulting value or values into the WHERE clause of the outer query. In queries that include a correlated subquery (also known as a repeating subquery), the subquery depends on the outer query for its values. This means that the subquery is executed repeatedly, once for each row that might be selected by the outer query.

Visual FoxPro 8.0 does not allow using GROUP BY in correlated subquery, and generates error 1828 (SQL: Illegal GROUP BY in subquery). Visual FoxPro 9.0 removes this limitation and supports GROUP BY for correlated subqueries allowed to return more than one record.

The following is the general syntax for the GROUP BY clause in a correlated subquery.

SELECT … WHERE … (SELECT … WHERE … GROUP BY …) …

Examples

The following example, which will generate an error in Visual FoxPro 8.0, is now supported in Visual FoxPro 9.0.Copy

CLOSE DATABASES ALL
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor1 (field1 I, field2 I, field3 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES(1,2,3)
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (field1 I, field2 I, field3 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES(1,2,3)

SELECT * from MyCursor1 T1 WHERE field1;
   IN (SELECT MAX(field1) FROM MyCursor2 T2 ;
   WHERE T2.field2=T1.FIELD2 GROUP BY field3)

TOP N in a Non-Correlated Subquery

Visual FoxPro 9.0 supports the TOP N clause in a non-correlated subquery. The ORDER BY clause should be present if the TOP N clause is used, and this is the only case where it is allowed in subquery.

The following is the general syntax for the TOP N clause in a non-correlated subquery.

SELECT … WHERE … (SELECT TOP nExpr [PERCENT] … FROM … ORDER BY …) …

Examples

The following example, which will generate an error in Visual FoxPro 8.0, is now supported in Visual FoxPro 9.0.Copy

CLOSE DATABASES ALL
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor1 (field1 I, field2 I, field3 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES(1,2,3)
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (field1 I, field2 I, field3 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES(1,2,3)

SELECT * FROM MyCursor1 WHERE field1 ;
   IN (SELECT TOP 5 field2 FROM MyCursor2 order by field2)

Subqueries in a SELECT List

Visual FoxPro 9.0 allows a subquery as a column or a part of expression in a projection. A subquery in a projection has exactly the same requirements as a subquery used in a comparison operation. If a subquery does not return any records, NULL value is returned.

In Visual FoxPro 8.0, an attempt to use a subquery as a column or a part of expression in a projection would generate error 1810 (SQL: Invalid use of subquery).

The following is the general syntax for a subquery in a SELECT list.

SELECT … (SELECT …) … FROM …

Example

The following example, which will generate an error in Visual FoxPro 8.0, is now supported in Visual FoxPro 9.0.Copy

SELECT T1.field1, (SELECT field2 FROM MyCursor2 T2;
   WHERE T2.field1=T1.field1) FROM MyCursor1 T1

Aggregate functions in a SELECT List of a Subquery

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, aggregate functions are now supported in a SELECT list of a subquery compared using the comparison operators <, <=, >, >= followed by ALL, ANY, or SOME. See Considerations for SQL SELECT Statements for more information about aggregate functions.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of an aggregate function (the COUNT( ) function) in a SELECT list of a subquery.Copy

CLOSE DATABASES ALL 

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor (FIELD1 i)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (6)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (1)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (2)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (3)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (4)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (5)
INSERT INTO MyCursor VALUES (-1)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (FIELD2 i)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (1)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (2)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (2)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (3)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (3)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (3)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (4)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (4)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (4)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2  VALUES (4)

SELECT * FROM MYCURSOR WHERE field1;
   < ALL (SELECT count(*) FROM MyCursor2 GROUP BY field2) ;
   INTO CURSOR MyCursor3
BROWSE

Correlated Subqueries Allow Complex Expressions to be Compared with Correlated Field

In Visual FoxPro 8.0, correlated fields can only be referenced in the following forms:

correlated field <comparison> local field

-or-

local field <comparison> correlated field

In Visual FoxPro 9.0. correlated fields support comparison to local expressions, as shown in the following forms:

correlated field <comparison> local expression

-or-

local expression <comparison> correlated field

A local expression must use at least one local field and cannot reference any outer (correlated) field.

Example

In the following example, a local expression (MyCursor2.field2 / 2) is compared to a correlated field (MyCursor.field1).Copy

SELECT * FROM MyCursor ;
   WHERE EXISTS(SELECT * FROM MyCursor2  ;
   WHERE MyCursor2.field2 / 2 > MyCursor.field1)

Changes for Expressions Compared with Subqueries.

In Visual FoxPro 8.0, the left part of a comparison using the comparison operators [NOT] IN, <, <=, =, ==, <>, !=, >=, >, ALL, ANY, or SOME with a subquery must reference one and only one table from the FROM clause. In case of a comparison with correlated subquery, the table must also be the correlated table.

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, comparisons work in the following ways:

• The expression on the left side of an IN comparison must reference at least one table from the FROM clause.
• The left part for the conditions =, ==, <>, != followed by ALL, SOME, or ANY must reference at least one table from the FROM clause.
• The left part for the condition >, >=, <, <= followed by ALL, SOME, or ANY (SELECT TOP…) must reference at least one table from the FROM clause.
• The left part for the condition >, >=, <, <= followed by ALL, SOME, or ANY (SELECT <aggregate function>…) must reference at least one table from the FROM clause.
• The left part for the condition >, >=, <, <= followed by ALL, SOME, or ANY (subquery with GROUP BY and/or HAVING) must reference at least one table from the FROM clause.

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, the left part of a comparison that does not come from the list (for example, ALL, SOME, or ANY are not included) doesn’t have to reference any table from the FROM clause.

In all cases, the left part of the comparison is allowed to reference more than one table from the FROM clause. For a correlated subquery, the left part of the comparison does not have to reference the correlated table.

Subquery in an UPDATE – SQL Command SET List

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, the UPDATE – SQL Command now supports a subquery in the SET clause.

A subquery in a SET clause has exactly the same requirements as a subquery used in a comparison operation. If the subquery does not return any records, the NULL value is returned.

Only one subquery is allowed in a SET clause. If there is a subquery in the SET clause, subqueries in the WHERE clause are not allowed.

The following is the general syntax for a subquery in the SET clause.

UPDATE … SET … (SELECT …) …

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of a subquery in the SET clause.Copy

CLOSE DATA
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor1 (field1 I , field2 I NULL)

INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (1,1)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (2,2)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (5,5)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (6,6)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (7,7)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (8,8)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (9,9)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (field1 I , field2 I)

INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (1,10)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (2,20)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (3,30)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (4,40)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (5,50)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (6,60)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (7,70)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (8,80)

UPDATE MyCursor1 SET field2=100+(SELECT field2 FROM MyCursor2 ;
  WHERE MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor1.field1) WHERE field1>5

SELECT MyCursor1
LIST

Sub-SELECT in the FROM Clause

A sub-SELECT is often referred to as a derived table. Derived tables are SELECT statements in the FROM clause referred to by an alias or a user-specified name. The result set of the SELECT in the FROM clause creates a table used by the outer SELECT statement. Visual FoxPro 9.0 permits the use of a subquery in the FROM clause.

A sub-SELECT should be enclosed in parentheses and an alias is required. Correlation is not supported. A sub-SELECT has the same syntax limitations as the SELECT command, but not the subquery syntax limitations. All sub-SELECTs are executed before the top most SELECT is evaluated.

The following is the general syntax for a subquery in the FROM clause.

SELECT … FROM (SELECT …) [AS] Alias…

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of a subquery in the FROM clause.Copy

SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM MyCursor T1;
   WHERE field1 = (SELECT T2.field2 FROM MyCursor1 T2;
   WHERE T2.field1=T1.field2);
   UNION SELECT * FROM MyCursor2;
   ORDER BY 2 desc) AS subquery

** Note that the following code will generate an error ** SELECT * FROM (SELECT TOP 5 field1 FROM MyCursor) ORDER BY field1

ORDER BY with Field Names in the UNION clause

When using a UNION clause in Visual FoxPro 8.0, you are forced to use numeric references in the ORDER BY clause. In Visual FoxPro 9.0, this restriction has been removed and you can use field names.

The referenced fields must be present in the SELECT list (projection) for the last SELECT in the UNION; that projection is used for ORDER BY operation.

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of a field names in the ORDER BY clause.Copy

CLOSE DATABASES all
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor(field1 I,field2 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor values(1,6)
INSERT INTO MyCursor values(2,5)
INSERT INTO MyCursor values(3,4)

SELECT field1, field2, .T. AS FLAG,1 FROM MyCursor;
   WHERE field1=1;
   UNION ;
   SELECT field1, field2, .T. AS FLAG,1 FROM MyCursor;
   WHERE field1=3;
   ORDER BY field2 ;
   INTO CURSOR TEMP READWRITE

BROWSE NOWAIT

Optimized TOP N Performance

In Visual FoxPro 8.0 and earlier versions, when using the TOP N [PERCENT] clause all records are sorted and then the TOP N are extracted. In Visual FoxPro 9.0, performance has been improved by eliminating records that do not qualify for the TOP N from the sort process as early as possible.

The TOP N optimization is done only if the SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR Command is set to 90.

Optimization requires that TOP N return no more than N records (this is not the case for Visual FoxPro 8.0 and earlier versions) which is enforced if SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR is set to 90.

TOP N PERCENT cannot be optimized unless the whole result set can be read into memory at once.

Improved Optimization for Multiple Table OR Conditions

Visual FoxPro 9.0 provides for improved Rushmore optimization involving multi-table OR conditions. Visual FoxPro uses multi-table OR conditions to Rushmore optimize filter conditions for a table as long as both sides of the condition can be optimized. The following example shows this:Copy

CLEAR
CREATE CURSOR Test1 (f1 I)
FOR i=1 TO 20
  INSERT INTO Test1 VALUES (I)
NEXT 
INDEX ON f1 TAG f1
CREATE CURSOR Test2 (f2 I)
FOR i=1 TO 20
  INSERT INTO Test2 VALUES (I)
NEXT
INDEX ON f2 TAG f2
SYS(3054,12)
SELECT * from Test1, Test2 WHERE (f1 IN (1,2,3) AND f2 IN (17,18,19)) OR ;
  (f2 IN (1,2,3) AND f1 IN (17,18,19)) INTO CURSOR Result
SYS(3054,0)

In this scenario, table Test1 can be Rushmore optimized using the following condition:

(f1 IN (1,2,3)  OR f1 IN (17,18,19))and table Test2 with the following:

(f2 IN (17,18,19) OR f2 IN (1,2,3))

Support for Local Buffered Data

At times it can be beneficial to use SELECT – SQL to select records from a local buffered cursor in which the table has not been updated. Many times when creating controls like grids, list boxes, and combo boxes it is necessary to consider newly added records which have not yet been committed to disk. Currently, SQL statements are based on content that is already committed to disk.

Visual FoxPro 9.0 provides language enhancements that allow you to specify if the data returned by a SELECT – SQL command is based on buffered data or data written directly to disk.

The SELECT – SQL command now supports a WITH … BUFFERING clause that lets you specify if retrieved data is based on buffered data or data written directly to disk. For more information, see SELECT – SQL Command – WITH Clause.

If you do not include the BUFFERING clause, the retrieved data is then determined by the setting for SET SQLBUFFERING command. For more information, see the SET SQLBUFFERING Command.

Enhancements to other SQL Commands

The following sections describe enhancements made to the INSERT – SQL Command, UPDATE – SQL Command, and DELETE – SQL Command commands in Visual FoxPro 9.0.

UNION Clause in the INSERT – SQL Command

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, a UNION clause is now supported in the INSERT – SQL Command.

The following is the general syntax for the UNION clause.

INSERT INTO … SELECT … FROM … [UNION SELECT … [UNION …]]

Example

The following example demonstrates the use of a UNION clause in INSERT-SQL.Copy

CLOSE DATABASES ALL
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor (field1 I,field2 I)
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor1 (field1 I,field2 I)
CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (field1 I,field2 I)

INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (1,1)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (2,2)

INSERT INTO MyCursor SELECT * FROM MyCursor1 UNION SELECT * FROM MyCursor2

SELECT MyCursor
LIST

Correlated UPDATE – SQL Commands

Visual FoxPro 9.0 now supports correlated updates with the UPDATE – SQL Command.

If a FROM clause is included in the UPDATE -SQL command, then the name after UPDATE keyword defines the target for the update operation. This name can be a table name, an alias, or a file name. The following logic is used to select the target table:

• If the name matches an implicit or explicit alias for a table in the FROM clause, then the table is used as a target for the update operation.
• If the name matches the alias for the cursor in the current data session, then the cursor is used as a target.
• A table or file with the same name is used as a target.

The UPDATE -SQL command FROM clause has the same syntax as the FROM clause in the SELECT – SQL command with the following limitations:

• The target table or cursor cannot be involved in an OUTER JOIN as a secondary table.
• The target cursor cannot be a subquery result.
• All other JOINs can be evaluated before joining the target table.

The following is the general syntax for a correlated UPDATE command.

UPDATE … SET … FROM … WHERE …

Example

The following example demonstrates a correlated update using the UPDATE -SQL command.Copy

CLOSE DATABASES ALL

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor1 (field1 I , field2 I NULL,field3 I NULL)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (1,1,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (2,2,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (5,5,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (6,6,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (7,7,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (8,8,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (9,9,0)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (field1 I , field2 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (1,10)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (2,20)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (3,30)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (4,40)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (5,50)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (6,60)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (7,70)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (8,80)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor3 (field1 I , field2 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor3 VALUES (6,600)
INSERT INTO MyCursor3 VALUES (7,700)

UPDATE MyCursor1 SET MyCursor1.field2=MyCursor2.field2, field3=MyCursor2.field2*10 FROM MyCursor2 ;
  WHERE MyCursor1.field1>5 AND MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor1.field1

SELECT MyCursor1
LIST

UPDATE MyCursor1 SET MyCursor1.field2=MyCursor3.field2 FROM MyCursor2, MyCursor3  ;
  WHERE MyCursor1.field1>5 AND MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor1.field1 AND MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor3.field1

SELECT MyCursor1
LIST

Correlated DELETE – SQL Commands

Visual FoxPro 9.0 now supports correlated deletions with the DELETE – SQL Command.

If a FROM clause has more than one table, the name after the DELETE keyword is required and it defines the target for the delete operation. This name can be a table name, an alias or a file name. The following logic is used to select the target table:

• If the name matches an implicit or explicit alias for a table in the FROM clause, then the table is used as a target for the update operation.
• If the name matches the alias for the cursor in the current data session, then the cursor is used as a target.
• A table or file with the same name is used as a target.

The DELETE -SQL command FROM clause has the same syntax as the FROM clause in the SELECT – SQL command with the following limitations:

• The target table or cursor cannot be involved in an OUTER JOIN as a secondary table.
• The target cursor cannot be a subquery result.
• It should be possible to evaluate all other JOINs before joining the target table.

The following is the general syntax for a correlated DELETE command.

DELETE [alias] FROM alias1 [, alias2 … ] … WHERE …

Example

The following example demonstrates a correlated deletion using the DELETE -SQL command.Copy

CLOSE DATABASES ALL 

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor1 (field1 I , field2 I NULL,field3 I NULL)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (1,1,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (2,2,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (5,5,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (6,6,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (7,7,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (8,8,0)
INSERT INTO MyCursor1 VALUES (9,9,0)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor2 (field1 I , field2 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (1,10)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (2,20)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (3,30)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (4,40)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (5,50)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (6,60)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (7,70)
INSERT INTO MyCursor2 VALUES (8,80)

CREATE CURSOR MyCursor3 (field1 I , field2 I)
INSERT INTO MyCursor3 VALUES (6,600)
INSERT INTO MyCursor3 VALUES (7,700)

DELETE MyCursor1 FROM MyCursor2  ;
  WHERE MyCursor1.field1>5 AND MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor1.field1

SELECT MyCursor1
LIST
RECALL ALL

DELETE MyCursor1 FROM MyCursor2, MyCursor3  ;
  WHERE MyCursor1.field1>5 AND MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor1.field1 AND MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor3.field1

SELECT MyCursor1
LIST
RECALL ALL

DELETE FROM MyCursor1 WHERE MyCursor1.field1>5

SELECT MyCursor1
list
RECALL ALL

DELETE MyCursor1 from MyCursor1 WHERE MyCursor1.field1>5

RECALL ALL IN MyCursor1

DELETE T1 ;
  FROM MyCursor1 T1 JOIN MyCursor2 ON T1.field1>5 AND MyCursor2.field1=T1.field1, MyCursor3  ;
  WHERE MyCursor2.field1=MyCursor3.field1

RECALL ALL IN MyCursor1

Updatable Fields in UPDATE – SQL Command

The number of fields that can be updated with the UPDATE – SQL Command is no longer limited to 128 as in prior versions of Visual FoxPro. You are now limited to 255, which is the number of fields available in a table.

SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR

The SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR Command has a new Visual FoxPro 9.0 option, 90, that affects SELECT – SQL command behavior for the TOP N clause and aggregate functions. For additional information, see the SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR Command.

Data Type Conversion

Conversion between data types (for example, conversion between memo and character fields) has been improved in Visual FoxPro 9.0. This conversion improvement applies to the ALTER TABLE – SQL Command with the COLUMN option as well as structural changes made with the Table Designer.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
Data and XML Feature Enhancements
Class Enhancements
Language Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release
ALTER TABLE – SQL Command
SET SQLBUFFERING Command
SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR Command

Other Resources

What’s New in Visual FoxPro

Class Enhancements

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Anchoring Visual Controls
2. Docking Forms
3. CheckBox and OptionButton Controls Support Wordwrapping
4. CommandButton Controls Can Align Text with Pictures

Show 24 more

Visual FoxPro contains the following enhancements to classes, forms, controls and object-oriented related syntax.

Anchoring Visual Controls

You can anchor a visual control to one or more edges of its parent container using the control’s Anchor property. When you anchor a visual control to the parent container, the edges of the control remain in the same position relative to the edges of the container when you resize the container. For more information, see Anchor Property.

Docking Forms

Visual FoxPro extends docking support to user-defined forms. Docking forms works similarly to docking toolbars except that you can dock forms to Visual FoxPro Interactive Development Environment (IDE) windows and other forms, and controls on the form can still obtain focus when the form is docked.

Visual FoxPro includes the following new and updated properties, methods, and events to support docking forms.

• Dockable Property
• GetDockState Method
• ADOCKSTATE( ) Function
• AfterDock Event
• BeforeDock Event
• Dock Method
• Docked Property
• DockPosition Property
• UnDock Event
• DOCK Command

For more information, see How to: Dock Forms.

CheckBox and OptionButton Controls Support Wordwrapping

The WordWrap property is now supported for CheckBox and OptionButton controls. The text portions of these controls now use wordwrapping. For more information, see WordWrap Property.

CommandButton Controls Can Align Text with Pictures

The Alignment property now applies to CommandButton controls when specifying an image for the Picture property and setting the PicturePosition property to a value other than the default. The Alignment property also contains new and revised settings for CommandButton, CheckBox, and OptionButton controls. For more information, see Alignment Property.

CommandButton, OptionButton, and CheckBox Controls Can Hide Captions

The PicturePostion property contains a new setting of 14 (No text) for CommandButton, OptionButton, and CheckBox controls. You can use this setting to hide the text portions of these controls without needing to set the Caption property to an empty string. This setting is particularly useful when you want to include a hotkey for a button with a graphic without displaying the Caption text. You must set the Style property to 1 (Graphical) for this new setting to apply.

In addition, the PicturePosition property now applies to CheckBox and OptionButton controls when Style is set to 1 (Graphical).

For more information, see PicturePosition Property.

PictureMargin and PictureSpacing Properties Control Spacing and Margins on CommandButton, OptionButton, and CheckBox Controls

You can better control positioning of images on CommandButton, OptionButton, and CheckBox controls with the new PictureMargin and PictureSpacing properties. The PictureMargin property specifies margin spacing in pixels between an image and the control’s border as determined by the PicturePosition property. The PictureSpacing property specifies margin spacing in pixels between an image and text on the control.

For more information, see PictureMargin Property and PictureSpacing Property.

Collection Objects Support in ComboBox and ListBox Controls

You can now specify Collection objects as the row source and row source type for the RowSource and RowSourceType properties of ComboBox and ListBox controls. For more information, see RowSource Property and RowSourceType Property.

Setting Ascending or Descending Indexes on Cursors in the DataEnvironment

You can specify ascending or descending order for a cursor index by using the new OrderDirection property for Cursor objects.

 Note

OrderDirection is disregarded when the cursor’s Order property is empty.

For more information, see OrderDirection Property.

Grid Supports Rushmore Optimization

The Grid Control can be set to support Rushmore optimization if the underlying data source contains indexes that support this.

For more information, see Optimize Property.

Mouse Pointer Control for Grid Columns and Column Headers

The MousePointer and MouseIcon properties now apply to Column objects in a grid and Header objects in a column. For the MousePointer property, you can specify the new setting of 16 (Down Arrow) to reset the mouse pointer for a column header to the default down arrow.

For more information, see MousePointer Property and MouseIcon Property.

Rotating Label, Line, and Shape Controls

You can use the new Rotation property to rotate Label controls. The Rotation property applies to Line and Shape controls when used with the new PolyPoints property. For more information, see Rotation Property (Visual FoxPro), PolyPoints Property, and Creating More Complex Shapes using the PolyPoints Property.

Label Controls Can Display Themed Background

For Label controls, you can set the Style property to Themed Background Only to show only themed background colors when Windows themes are turned on. The label background color is the same as the parent container for the label. For more information, see Style Property.

ListBox Controls Can Hide Scroll Bars

You can use the new AutoHideScrollBar property for ListBox controls to hide scroll bars when the list contains less than the number of items that can be visible in the list box. For more information, see AutoHideScrollBar Property.

Toolbar Controls Can Display Horizontal Separator Objects

For Separator objects, set the Style property to 1 to display a horizontal line or a vertical line, depending on how the toolbar appears. If the toolbar appears horizontally, the line displays vertically. If the toolbar appears vertically, the line displays horizontally. In versions prior to this release, setting Style to 1 displayed a vertical line only.

 Note

In versions prior to this release, undocked vertical system and user-defined toolbars did not display horizontal separators. In the current release, horizontal separators now display for vertical undocked toolbars.

For more information, see Style Property.

Toolbar Controls Can Hide Separator Objects

The Visible property now applies to Separator objects so you can control whether a Separator object displays in Toolbar controls. When used in combination with the Style property, the separator’s Visible property determines whether a space or line displays as the separator when its Style property is set to 0 (Normal – do not display a line) or 1 (display a horizontal or vertical line), respectively.

For more information, see Visible Property (Visual FoxPro).

Creating More Complex Shapes

You can use the new PolyPoints property for Line and Shape controls to create polygon lines and shapes. PolyPoints specifies an array of any dimension containing coordinates with the format of X1, Y1, X2, Y2, …, organized in the order in which the polygon line or shape is drawn.

For Line controls, when you create a polygon line using the PolyPoints property, you can specify the new setting of “S” or “s” for the LineSlant property to create a Bezier curve.

For more information, see PolyPoints Property and LineSlant Property.

ComboBox Controls Can Hide Drop-Down Lists

You can now use the NODEFAULT command in the DropDown event for a ComboBox control. This will prevent the drop-down list portion of a ComboBox control from appearing. For more information, see NODEFAULT Command.

NEWOBJECT( ) Creates Objects without Raising Initialization Code

To mimic the behavior of a class opened in Class Designer or Form Designer, pass 0 to the cInApplication parameter. This feature allows you to create design-time tools that view the structure of a class.

By passing 0 to the cInApplication parameter for the NEWOBJECT( ) function, Visual FoxPro allows you to create an instance of a class without raising initialization code (such as code in the Init, Load, Activate, and BeforeOpenTables events). Furthermore, when the object is released, it does not raise its destructor code (such as code in the Destroy and Unload events). Only initialization and destructor code is suppressed; code in other events and methods is still called.

If you use the cInApplication parameter to suppress initialization and destructor code in an object, you also suppress it in the object’s child objects.

This behavior is not supported for the NewObject Method.

For more information, see NEWOBJECT( ) Function.

Specify Where Focus is Assigned in the Valid Event

To direct where focus is assigned, you can use the optional ObjectName parameter in the RETURN command of the Valid event. The object specified must be a valid Visual FoxPro object. If the specified object is disabled or cannot receive focus, then focus is assigned to the next object in the tab order. If an invalid object is specified, Visual FoxPro keeps the focus at the current object.

You can now set focus to objects in the following scenarios:

• Set focus to an object on another visible form.
• Set focus to an object on a non-visible Page or Pageframe control.

For more information, see Valid Event.

TextBox Controls Have Auto-Completion Functionality

You can add auto-completion functionality to your text box controls to make data entry more efficient. Auto-completion is the automatic display of a drop-down list of entries that match the string as it is typed into the text box. The entries come from a special table that tracks unique values entered into the text box, the control name that is the source of the value, and usage information.

The following properties support auto-completion:

• AutoComplete Property
• AutoCompSource Property
• AutoCompTable Property

By the setting the AutoComplete property, you determine the sort order for the entries. If you want more control over the list and where it is stored, you can use the AutoCompSource property to specify the table used to populate the automatic list. By default, the table is AUTOCOMP.DBF. You can use one table for each text box control or a single table can populate automatic lists for several text boxes.

If you use a single table, which is the default, the table uses values in the Source field for each entry to identify the text box control associated with the entry. By default, the Source field value is the name of the text box control. You can specify the Source field value using the AutoCompSource property of the text box. For example, you might want to make the same set of entries available to multiple Text box controls within the application such as address information. You can explicitly set the AutoCompTable and AutoCompSource properties for each of the controls to the same table and source field value. The same automatic list appears for each of them.

The text box control handles updating the auto-completion table for you based on the values actually entered in the text box. If you want to remove a value from the list, enter a string in a text box that matches the string you want to delete to filter the list for it. Select the entry in the list and press the DELETE key. The string remains in the table but no longer appears in the automatic list.

 Note

You can control the number of items that appear in the drop-down list using SYS(2910) – List Display Count.

For more information, see AutoComplete Property, AutoCompSource Property, and AutoCompTable Property.

New InputMask and Format Property Settings

The following new InputMask and Format settings are available:

InputMask PropertyExpand table

Format PropertyExpand table

For more information, see InputMask Property and Format Property.

Use PictureVal Property to Pass Images as Strings

The Image control’s new PictureVal property can be used instead of the Picture Property (Visual FoxPro) to specify a character string expression or object of an image. For an object, the format must be of an IPicture interface format compatible with LOADPICTURE( ) Function.

For more information, see PictureVal Property.

CLEAR CLASSLIB Updated

The CLEAR CLASSLIB command now automatically executes a CLEAR CLASS command on each class in the specified class library. Any errors that might occur during release of individual classes (e.g., class in use) are ignored.

 Note

Classes in other class libraries that are used or referenced by a class in the specified class library are not cleared.

For more information, see CLEAR Commands.

Screen Resolution Limit Increased

In prior versions of Visual FoxPro, the definable maximum area for a form is limited to twice the Screen Resolution for both X and Y dimensions. For example, if your monitor resolution is 1280×1024, then the max dimensions would be:Copy

Form.Width = 2552
Form.Height = 2014

Additionally, if you attempted to set Width and Height properties to these limits in design-time and then ran the form, you would see that the values have reverted to screen resolution limits (being that they were saved this way):Copy

Form.Width = 1280
Form.Height = 998

In Visual FoxPro 9.0, this limitation has been increased to approximately 32,000 pixels for each dimension and now allows for more flexibility with certain forms such as scrollable ones:Copy

Form.Width = 32759
Form.Height = 32733

For more information, see Width Property and Height Property.

ProjectHook Source Code Control Events

New events have been added to the ProjectHook class, which allow you to perform source code control operations such as check-in and check-out of multiple files at once.

For more information, see SCCInit Event and SCCDestroy Event.

AddProperty Method Supports Design Time Settings

You can specify the visibility (Protected, Hidden or Public) and description of a property using the AddProperty method with new available parameters. These settings can also be controlled from the New Property Dialog Box and Edit Property/Method Dialog Box. For more information, see AddProperty Method.

WriteMethod Method Supports Design Time Settings

You can specify the visibility (Protected, Hidden or Public) and description of a method using the WriteMethod method with new available parameters. These settings can also be controlled from the New Property Dialog Box and Edit Property/Method Dialog Box. For more information, see WriteMethod Method.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
Data and XML Feature Enhancements
SQL Language Improvements
Language Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Language Enhancements

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Class Enhancements
2. Data and XML Enhancements
3. IDE Enhancements
4. Printing and Reporting Enhancements

Show 32 more

In the current release of Visual FoxPro, you will find enhanced functionality via new and enhanced commands and functions. Expand and collapse this topic to see information about miscellaneous language additions and improvements.

Class Enhancements

Visual FoxPro contains significant language enhancements for classes, forms, controls, and object-oriented related features. For more information, see Class Enhancements.

Data and XML Enhancements

Visual FoxPro contains significant language enhancements for Data, SQL and XML features. For more information, see SQL Language Improvements and Data and XML Feature Enhancements.

IDE Enhancements

Visual FoxPro contains a number of language enhancements for features related to the IDE (Interactive Development Environment). For more information, see Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements and Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers.

Printing and Reporting Enhancements

Visual FoxPro contains a number of language enhancements to support new Reporting functionality:

• REPORT FORM CommandDisplays or prints out a report specified by a report definitions file. This command has been enhanced to support Report Listener objects.
• SET REPORTBEHAVIOR CommandControls use of Report Preview and Report Output applications with the Visual FoxPro Report System.
• SYS(2024) – Detect Report CancellationDetermines if user canceled out of a running report.

Additionally, there are improvements to the following related Printing language elements:

• SYS(1037) – Page Setup Dialog BoxDisplays Visual FoxPro default or report Page Setup dialog box or sets printer settings for the default printer in Visual FoxPro or for the report printer environment. In this version, a new nValue parameter is available.
• APRINTERS( ) FunctionReturns a five-column array with the name of the printer, connected port, driver, comment, and location. The last three columns are available if the new optional parameter is passed.
• GETFONT( ) FunctionContains an additional setting to display only those fonts available on the current default printer and clarified values for the language script.

New Reporting functionality is described in more detail in separate Reporting topics. For more information, see Guide to Reporting Improvements.

Specifying Arrays with More Than 65K Elements

You can now specify arrays containing more than 65,000 elements, for example, when using the DIMENSION command. Normal arrays and member arrays have a new limit of 2GB. Arrays containing member objects retain a limit of 65,000 elements.

 Note

Array sizes can also be limited by available memory, which affects performance, especially for very large arrays. Make sure your computer has enough memory to accommodate the upper limits of your arrays.

The Library Construction Kit, which contains the files Pro_Ext.h, WinAPIMS.lib, and OcxAPI.lib, still has a limit of 65,000 elements. For more information about these files, see Accessing the Visual FoxPro API, How to: Add Visual FoxPro API Calls, and How to: Build and Debug Libraries and ActiveX Controls. The SAVE TO command does not support saving arrays larger than 65,000 elements.

For more information, see Visual FoxPro System Capacities and DIMENSION Command.

STACKSIZE Setting Increases Nesting Levels to 64k

For operations such as the DO command, you can change the default number of nesting levels from 128 levels to 32 and up to 64,000 levels of nesting by including the new STACKSIZE setting in a Visual FoxPro configuration file.

 Note

You can change the nesting level only during Visual FoxPro startup.

For more information, see Special Terms for Configuration Files and Visual FoxPro System Capacities.

Program and Procedure File Size Is Unrestricted

In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, the size of a procedure or program could not exceed 65K. Visual FoxPro now removes this restriction for programs and procedures. For more information, see Visual FoxPro System Capacities.

PROGCACHE Configuration File Setting

In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, you could not specify the program cache size or amount of memory reserved to run programs. This configuration file setting allows you to control this. It is especially useful for MTDLL scenarios. For more information, see Special Terms for Configuration Files.

ICASE( ) Function

The new ICASE( ) function makes it possible for you to evaluate a list of conditions and return results depending on the result of evaluating those conditions. For more information, see ICASE( ) Function.

TTOC( ) Converts DateTime Expressions to XML DateTime Format

You can convert a DateTime expression into a character string in XML DateTime format by passing a new optional value of 3 to the TTOC( ) function. For more information, see TTOC( ) Function.

SET COVERAGE Command Available at Run Time

The SET COVERAGE command is now available at run time so that you can debug errors that occur at run time but not at design time. For more information, see SET COVERAGE Command.

CLEAR ERROR Command

The new ERROR clause for the CLEAR command makes it possible to reset the error structures as if no error occurred. This affects the following functions:

• The AERROR( ) function will return 0.
• The ERROR( ) function will return 0.
• The output from MESSAGE( ), MESSAGE(1) and SYS(2018) will return a blank string.

The CLEAR command should not be used with the ERROR clause within a TRY…CATCH…FINALLY structure. For more information, see CLEAR Commands.

Write Options Dialog Settings to Registry Using SYS(3056)

The SYS(3056) function can now be used to write out settings from the Options dialog box to the registry.

SYS(3056 [, nValue ])

The following table lists values for nValue.Expand table

For more information, see SYS(3056) – Read Registry Settings.

FOR EACH … ENDFOR Command Preserves Object Types

Visual FoxPro now includes the FOXOBJECT keyword for the FOR EACH … ENDFOR command to support preservation of native Visual FoxPro object types.

FOR EACH objectVar [AS Type [OF ClassLibrary ]] IN Group FOXOBJECT

Commands

[EXIT]

[LOOP]

ENDFOR | NEXT [Var]

The FOXOBJECT keyword specifies that the objectVar parameter created will be a Visual FoxPro object. The FOXOBJECT keyword only applies to collections where the collection is based on a native Visual FoxPro Collection class. Collections that are COM-based will not support the FOXOBJECT keyword.

For more information, see FOR EACH … ENDFOR Command.

SET PATH Command Enhancements

The SET PATH command now supports the ADDITIVE keyword. The ADDITIVE keyword appends the specified path to the end of the current SET PATH list. If the path already exists in the SET PATH list, Visual FoxPro does not add it or change the order of the list. Paths specified with the ADDITIVE keyword must be strings in quotes or valid expressions.

In addition, the length of the SET PATH list has been increased to 4095 characters.

For more information, see SET PATH Command.

Trim Functions Control Which Characters Are Trimmed

It is now possible to specify which characters are trimmed from an expression when using the TRIM( ), LTRIM( ), RTRIM( ), and ALLTRIM( ) functions.

TRIM(cExpression[, nFlags] [, cParseChar [, cParseChar2 [, ...]]])

LTRIM(cExpression[, nFlags] [, cParseChar [, cParseChar2 [, ...]]])

RTRIM(cExpression[, nFlags] [, cParseChar [, cParseChar2 [, ...]]])

ALLTRIM(cExpression[, nFlags] [, cParseChar [, cParseChar2 [, ...]]])

You can specify that the trim is case-insensitive using the nFlag value of 0 bit and 1.

The cParseChar parameter specifies one or more character strings to be trimmed from cExpression. A maximum of 23 strings can be specified in cParseChar.

By default, if cParseChar is not specified, then leading and trailing spaces are trimmed from character strings or 0 bytes are removed for Varbinary data types.

The cParseChar parameters are applied in the order they are entered. When a match is found, cExpression is truncated and the process repeats from the first cParseChar parameter.

For more information, see the TRIM( ) Function, LTRIM( ) Function, RTRIM( ) Function, and ALLTRIM( ) Function topics.

ALINES( ) Offers More Flexible Parsing Options

The ALINES( ) function has been enhanced to provide several additional options such as case-insensitive parsing and improved handling of empty array elements. These options are available using the new nFlags parameter that replaces the older lTrim 3rd parameter. For more information, see ALINES( ) Function.

Improvements in TEXT…ENDTEXT Statement

You can use the TEXT…ENDTEXT command to eliminate line feeds using the new PRETEXT setting. A new FLAGS parameter controls additional output settings. For more information, see TEXT … ENDTEXT Command.

Include Delimiters in STREXTRACT( ) Results

The STREXTRACT( ) function has a new nFlags setting that allows you to include the specified delimiters with the returned expression. For more information, see STREXTRACT( ) Function.

STRCONV( ) Enhanced to Allow for Code Page and FontCharSet

For certain conversion settings, you can specify an optional Code Page or Fontcharset setting for use in the conversion. For more information, see STRCONV( ) Function.

TYPE( ) Determines if an Expression is an Array

The TYPE( ) function accepts the parameter, 1, to evaluate an expression to determine if it is an array.

Type(cExpression, 1)

The following character values are returned if the 1 parameter is specified.Expand table

cExpression must be passed as a character string.

For more information, see TYPE( ) Function.

BINTOC( ) and CTOBIN( ) Have Additional Conversion Capabilities

The BINTOC( ) and CTOBIN( ) functions have update or new parameters that provide you with more control over the output of these functions. Additionally, these enhancements offer some improvements for working with Win32 API routines. For more information, see BINTOC( ) Function and CTOBIN( ) Function.

MROW( ) and MCOL( ) Can Detect the Position of the Mouse Pointer

The MROW( ) and MCOL( ) functions now have a zero (0) parameter for detecting the position of the mouse pointer based on the currently active form instead of the form returned by the WOUTPUT( ) function. Although they are typically reference the same form, if the AllowOutput property of the form is set to False (.F.), WOUTPUT( ) does not return the current active form. The mismatch of references and can lead to unexpected results. By using the zero (0) parameter, you can avoid misplacing items, such as Shortcut menus, as the currently active form is always used.

For more information, see MROW( ) Function and MCOL( ) Function.

INPUTBOX( ) Returns A Cancel Operation

The INPUTBOX( ) function contains an additional parameter that allows you to determine if the user canceled out of the dialog. For more information, see INPUTBOX( ) Function.

AGETCLASS( ) Supported for Runtime Applications

The AGETCLASS( ) fiunction is now supported for runtime applications. For more information, see AGETCLASS( ) Function.

SYS(2019) Extends Handling of Configuration Files

You can use SYS(2019) to obtain the name and location of both internal and external configuration files. For more information, see SYS(2019) – Configuration File Name and Location.

SYS(2910) Controls List Display Count

You can control the number of items that appear in a drop-down list such as the one used by AutoComplete Property. This is the setting that is available on the View Tab, Options Dialog Box of the Options Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro).

For more information, see SYS(2910) – List Display Count.

SYS(3008) Turns Off Hyperlink Tip

Visual FoxPro will display a tip such as “CTRL+Click to follow the link” when you hover over a hyperlink in the editor. If you desire to not have this tip show, you can use SYS(3008) to turn it off. This function is also useful for international applications where you do not want to display the English text for this tip. For more information, see SYS(3008) – Hyperlink Tooltips.

SYS(3065) Internal Program Cache

You can obtain the internal program cache (PROGCACHE configuration file setting). For more information, see SYS(3065) – Internal Program Cache.

SYS(3101) COM Code Page Translation

You can now specify a code page to use for character data translation involving COM interoperability. For more information, see SYS(3101) – COM Code Page Translation.

Bidirectional Support for Tooltips and Popups

For international applications that display text from right to left, you can use the following new enhancements to control text justification:

• SYS(3009) – right justifies text in ToolTips.
• DEFINE POPUP…RTLJUSTIFY – right justifies items in a popup, such as a shortcut menu.
• SET SYSMENU TO RTLJUSTIFY – right justifies an entire menu system.

The SYS(3009) function is a global setting. For more information, see SYS(3009) – Bidirectional Text Justification for ToolTips, DEFINE POPUP Command and SET SYSMENU Command.

Enhanced Font Script Support

Visual FoxPro 9.0 contains a number of enhancements that extend ability to specify a Font Language Script (or FontCharSet) along with existing Font settings:

• SYS(3007) – specifies a FontCharSet for ToolTips. This is a global setting.
• FONT Clause – the following table lists commands that support an optional FONT clause that allows for specification of a FontCharSet in the following format:FONT cFontName [, nFontSize [, nFontCharSet]]Expand tableCommandDEFINE MENUDEFINE POPUPDEFINE BARDEFINE PADDEFINE WINDOWMODIFY WINDOWBROWSE/EDIT/CHANGE?/??
• Browse – the Font Dialog Box that you can invoke by selecting the Font menu item from the Table menu with a Browse Window active now allows for selection of a font language script. You can specify a global default font script from the IDE Tab, Options Dialog Box in the Options Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro). To do this, you must first check the Use font script checkbox.
• Editors – the Font Dialog Box that you can invoke with an editor window active by selecting the Font menu item from the Format menu or right-click shortcut menu Edit Properties Dialog Box now allows for selection of a font language script. You can specify a global default font script from the IDE Tab, Options Dialog Box in the Options Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro). To do this, you must first check the Use font script checkbox.

For more information, see SYS(3007) – ToolTipText Property Font Language Script, IDE Tab, Options Dialog Box, and FontCharSet Property.

ToolTip Timeout Control

You can specify how long a ToolTip is displayed if the mouse pointer is left stationary. For more information, see _TOOLTIPTIMEOUT System Variable.

Tablet PC Features

The following features are available to assist with applications designed to run on a Tablet PC computer.

• ISPEN( ) – determines if the last Visual FoxPro application mouse event on a Tablet PC was a pen tap.
• _SCREEN.DisplayOrientation – this read-write property specifies the screen display orientation for a Tablet PC. The value returned is the current orientation.
• _TOOLTIPTIMEOUT – specifies how long a ToolTip is displayed if the mouse pointer is left stationary.

For more information, see ISPEN( ) Function, DisplayOrientation Property, and _TOOLTIPTIMEOUT System Variable.

Windows Message Event Handling

Visual FoxPro allows you to trap and handle window messages from the Microsoft® Windows® operating system using existing BINDEVENT functions. Some examples of common events you might wish to trap for include:

• A power broadcast message used to intercept standby or power-down activities.
• Media insertion and removal events, such as the insertion of a CD into a drive.
• The insertion and/or removal of a Plug and Play hard disk (e.g., USB Drive).
• Interception of screen saver queries to stop the screen saver from activating.
• Operating system level font changes and Windows XP Theme changes.
• New network connections/shares added or removed from system.
• Switching between applications.

You can use the Visual FoxPro BINDEVENT functions to register (and unregister) event handlers used to intercept messages (i.e., Win32 API window messages that get processed by the Win32 WindowProc function). See MSDN for more details.

The new BINDEVENT( ) syntax requires the hWnd (integer) of the window receiving the message you desire to intercept, and the specific message itself (integer). For example, power-management events such as standby and power-down use the Win32 WM_POWERBROADCAST message (value of 536).

BINDEVENT(hWnd, nMessage, oEventHandler, cDelegate)

The following example illustrates detection of a Windows XP Theme change:Copy

#DEFINE WM_THEMECHANGED    0x031A
#DEFINE GWL_WNDPROC    (-4)
PUBLIC oHandler
oHandler=CREATEOBJECT("AppState")
BINDEVENT(_SCREEN.hWnd, WM_THEMECHANGED, oHandler, "HandleEvent")
MESSAGEBOX("Test by changing Themes.")
DEFINE CLASS AppState AS Custom
nOldProc=0
PROCEDURE Destroy
    UNBINDEVENT(_SCREEN.hWnd, WM_THEMECHANGED)
ENDPROC
PROCEDURE Init
    DECLARE integer GetWindowLong IN WIN32API ;
        integer hWnd, ;
        integer nIndex
    DECLARE integer CallWindowProc IN WIN32API ;
        integer lpPrevWndFunc, ;
        integer hWnd,integer Msg,;
        integer wParam,;
        integer lParam
    THIS.nOldProc=GetWindowLong(_VFP.HWnd,GWL_WNDPROC)
ENDPROC
PROCEDURE HandleEvent(hWnd as Integer, Msg as Integer, ;
    wParam as Integer, lParam as Integer)
    lResult=0
    IF msg=WM_THEMECHANGED
        MESSAGEBOX("Theme changed...")
    ENDIF
    lResult=CallWindowProc(this.nOldProc,hWnd,msg,wParam,lParam)
    RETURN lResult
ENDPROC
ENDDEFINE

The following SYS( ) functions are also available to assist with handing these events:

• SYS(2325) – returns the hWnd of a client window from the parent window’s WHANDLE.
• SYS(2326) – returns a Visual FoxPro WHANDLE from a window’s hWnd.
• SYS(2327) – returns a window’s hWnd from a Visual FoxPro window’s WHANDLE.

For more information, see BINDEVENT( ) Function, UNBINDEVENTS( ) Function, and AEVENTS( ) Function. Also, see SYS(2325) – WCLIENTWINDOW from Visual FoxPro WHANDLE, SYS(2326) – WHANDLE from a Window’s hWnd, and SYS(2327) – Window’s hWnd from Visual FoxPro WHANDLE for related topics. Refer to MSDN as reference source for details on specific window messages.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
Data and XML Feature Enhancements
SQL Language Improvements
Class Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Additional Project Manager Shortcut Menu Commands
2. Modifying a Class Library from the Project Manager
3. Set Font of Project Manager
4. Generating Message Logs During Project Build and Compile

Show 15 more

To provide a more integrated development environment for your projects and applications, Visual FoxPro contains the following improved functionality for the IDE.

Additional Project Manager Shortcut Menu Commands

When docked, the Project Manager window contains the following additional shortcut menu commands that are available on the Project menu:

• CloseCloses the Project Manager.
• Add Project to Source ControlCreates a new source control project based on the current project. Available only when a source code control provider is installed and specified on the Projects tab in the Options dialog box.
• ErrorsDisplays the error (.err) file after running a build.
• RefreshRefreshes the contents of the Project Manager.
• Clean Up ProjectRemoves deleted records from the Project Manager (.PJX) file.

Modifying a Class Library from the Project Manager

When you select a class library (.vcx) file in the Project Manager, you can now open and browse class libraries by clicking the Modify button. The class library opens in the Class Browser. For more information, see How to: Open Class Libraries.

Set Font of Project Manager

You can change the text font settings for the Project Manager window. Right-click the Project Manager window (outside of the tree hierarchy window) and choose Font.

Generating Message Logs During Project Build and Compile

When you build a project, application, or dynamic-link library, Visual FoxPro automatically generates an error (.err) file that includes any error messages, if they exist, when the build process completes. When you select the Display Errors check box in the Build Options dialog box, Visual FoxPro displays the .err file when the build completes. Selecting the Recompile All Files check box includes compile errors in the .err file. Build status messages usually appear in the status bar. However, in previous versions, if the build process is interrupted, Visual FoxPro did not write the .err file to disk.

In the current release, Visual FoxPro writes build status and error messages to the .err file as they occur during the build process. If the build process is interrupted, you can open the .err file opens to review the errors.

 Note

If no errors occur during the build, the .err file is deleted.

If the Debug Output window is open, build status and error messages appear in the window. You can save messages from the Debug Output window to a file.

For more information, see How to: View and Save Build Messages.

Properties Window Enhancements

• Design time support for entering property values greater than 255 characters and extended characters, such as CHR(13) (carriage return) and CHR(10) (linefeed), has been added to visual class library (.vcx) and form (.scx) files. You can now enter up to 8k characters in length. NoteExtended property value support is only available through the Properties Window (Zoom dialog box) for custom user-specified properties as well as certain native ones such as CursorSchema and Value. For properties not supported, you can still specify values which are longer than 255 characters, or contain carriage returns and linefeeds by assigning them in code such as during the object’s Init Event.The Zoom dialog box and Expression Builder dialog box have been updated to support this. The Properties window includes a Zoom (Z) button that appears next to the property settings box for appropriate properties. WarningProperty values that exceed 255 characters or include carriage return and/or linefeed characters are stored in a new format inside the .vcx or .scx file. If you attempt to modify these classes in a prior version, an error occurs.This feature is particularly useful for setting the CursorAdapter CursorSchema property to any schema expression when schemas might exceed 255 characters.
• The Properties window font can now be specified by the new Font shortcut menu option. This new menu replaces the Small, Medium and Large font menu items used in prior versions. This font is also used in the description pane, and object and property value dropdowns. NoteBold and italic font styles are reserved for non-default property values and read-only properties, respectively. If a bold or italic font style is chosen, then the Properties window inverts the displayed behavior. For example, if one chooses an italic font style, read-only properties appear in normal font style and all others in italic.
• Colors can be specified for certain types of properties by right clicking on the Properties Window and selecting following menu items:
  • Non-Default Properties ColorSets color for properties whose values have changed from default setting (same properties that are displayed when the Non-Default Properties Only menu item is selected).
  • Custom Properties ColorSets color for custom properties.
  • Instance Properties ColorSets color for custom properties that have been added to the current class instance (same properties that appear in bold in the Edit Property/Method Dialog Box).
   NoteIf a conflict exists between color settings, the Instance setting takes priority followed by the Non-Default one.

For more information, see Zoom <property> Dialog Box, Expression Builder Dialog Box, CursorSchema Property, and Properties Window (Visual FoxPro).

MemberData Extensibility

The MemberData extensibility architecture lets you provide metadata for class members (properties, methods and events). With MemberData, you can specify a custom property editor, display a property on the Favorites tab, or change the capitalization in the Properties Window (Visual FoxPro).

For more information, see MemberData Extensibility.

Setting Default Values for New Properties

When adding a new property to a class, you can specify an initial value other than the default in the New Property dialog box. Subclasses inherit these default values unless you reset the default values to the parent class. In previous versions, you had to set the default value for the new property by selecting the property in the Properties window and setting the default value.

For more information, see How to: Add Properties to Classes.

Document View Sort Options

You can now sort items in the Document View window by name for forms and visual class libraries.

See Document View Window for more information on sorting items in the Document View Window.

Compiling Code in the Background

Visual FoxPro performs background compilation when syntax coloring is turned on in the Command window and Visual FoxPro editors for program (.prg) files, methods, stored procedures, and memos. The Expression box in the Expression Builder dialog box also includes support for background compilation and syntax coloring when turned on.

When the single and current line of code that you are typing contains invalid syntax, Visual FoxPro displays the line of code with the formatting style selected in the Editor tab of the Options dialog box.

 Note

Syntax coloring must be turned on for background compilation to function. Background compilation does not detect invalid syntax in multiple lines of code, including those containing continuation characters.

For more information, see How to: Display and Print Source Code in Color.

Rich Text Format (RTF) Clipboard Support

Visual FoxPro now supports copying in RTF (Rich Text Format) to the clipboard. Visual FoxPro preserves the style (bold, italic, and underline) and color attributes.

RTF is supported only in the FoxPro editors that allow for syntax coloring, such as the Command window and editing windows opened with MODIFY COMMAND Command. The RTF clipboard format is only supported when syntax coloring is enabled such as from Edit Properties Dialog Box. You can disable RTF clipboard format with the _VFP EditorOptions Property.

The _CLIPTEXT System Variable does not support RTF.

Find Dialog Box Improvements

The following improvements were made to Find support:

• If a word is selected in a Visual FoxPro editor, the Find Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro) when opened now displays the word in the Look For drop-down box. If Find has not yet been used for a running instance of Visual FoxPro, a word positioned under the insertion pointer will appear in the Look For drop-down. If multiple words are selected, only the first word appears in the drop-down (use copy and paste to enter multiple words).
• When a Browse window is open and you search for a word with the Find dialog box, you can search for the word again (Find Again) after the Find dialog box is closed by pressing the F3 key.
• You can now use Find to search for content in Name column of the Watch and Locals debug windows (see Debugger Window). When searching object members, Find searches in these debug windows are limited to nodes that have been expanded and one level below.

View Constants in Trace Window

Constants (#DEFINE values) can be viewed in the Trace Window when you hover over it with the mouse.

 Note

Visual FoxPro evaluates constants as expressions in the Trace Window and may have difficulty interpreting a specific #DEFINE when you hover over it with the mouse. Consequently, if there are multiple expressions on a line, they are all displayed in the value tip.

Printing Selected Text in Editor Windows

You can print selected text from Visual FoxPro editor windows. When you have text selected in the editor window, the Selection option in the Print dialog box is available and selected.

 Note

If a partial line is selected, the entire line is printed.

For more information, see Print Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro).

System Font Improvements

To improve legibility on high-resolution monitors, Error dialog boxes and the Zoom <property> Dialog Box in the Properties window now use the Windows Message Box text font.

In Windows XP, the Windows Message Box text font is set by opening Display in the Control Panel, and then clicking Advanced on the Appearance tab.

IntelliSense Saves Settings Between User Sessions

Visual FoxPro now saves IntelliSense settings, such as turning IntelliSense on, between user sessions. These settings are controlled by the _VFP EditorOptions property. In addition, the settings in the _VFP EditorOptions property are saved in the FoxUser.dbf resource file. For more information, see EditorOptions Property.

IntelliSense in Memo Field Editor Window

Visual FoxPro includes IntelliSense support in Memo field editor windows when syntax coloring is turned on.

IntelliSense Available for Runtime Applications

Selected IntelliSense features are available at run time in distributed Visual FoxPro 9.0 applications. In order to use IntelliSense at run time, you need to set the _FOXCODE and _CODESENSE variables, and EditorOptions Property.

 Note

With runtime applications, syntax coloring does not need to be turned on for an editor to support IntelliSense.

For more information, see IntelliSense Support in Visual FoxPro, _FOXCODE System Variable, _CODESENSE System Variable and EditorOptions Property.

IntelliSense Support in WITH … ENDWITH and FOR EACH … ENDFOR Commands

Visual FoxPro now supports IntelliSense within the WITH … ENDWITH Command and FOR EACH … ENDFOR Command.

WITH ObjectName [AS Type [OF ClassLibrary]]

  Commands

ENDWITH

FOR EACH ObjectName [AS Type [OF ClassLibrary]] IN Group

  Commands

  [EXIT]

  [LOOP]

ENDFOR

The Type parameter can be any valid type, including data types, class types, or ProgID. If the class name cannot be found, Visual FoxPro disregards Type and does not display IntelliSense for it.

 Note

The type reference does not affect the functionality of the application at run time. The type reference is only used for IntelliSense.

The ObjectName expression can refer to a memory variable or an array.

The ClassLibrary parameter must be in a path list that is visible to Visual FoxPro. You must specify a valid class library; references to existing objects are not valid. If Visual FoxPro cannot find the specified class library, IntelliSense does not display.

Types expressed as ProgIDs and class libraries do not require quotation marks (“”) to enclose them unless their names contain spaces.

When a user types the AS keyword, IntelliSense displays a list of types registered in the FoxCode.dbf table with Type “T”. If you have specified a valid type, typing a period within a WITH … ENDWITH or a FOR EACH … ENDFOR command displays IntelliSense for that object reference.

Visual FoxPro supports IntelliSense for nested WITH … ENDWITH and FOR EACH … ENDFOR commands. The following is an example of nested WITH … ENDWITH commands in a class defined in a program (.prg) file named Program1.prg. To use, paste this code into a new program named Program1.prg, save it and then type a period (.) inside the WITH … ENDWITH block.Copy

DEFINE CLASS f1 AS form
MyVar1 = 123
ADD OBJECT t1 AS mytext
PROCEDURE Init
  WITH THIS AS f1 OF program1.prg
    WITH .t1 AS mytext OF program1.prg
    ENDWITH
  ENDWITH
ENDPROC
ENDDEFINE

DEFINE CLASS mytext as textbox
MyVar2 = 123
ENDDEFINE

IntelliSense provides limited List Values functionality for selected properties that begin with a “T” or “F” within a WITH … ENDWITH or FOR EACH … ENDFOR command. This is done to avoid possible conflicts with the common property values True (.T.) and False (.F.). If you just type “.T” or “.F” and press Enter, the word selected in the List Value drop-down does not expand. You need to type at least two letters for IntelliSense to insert the selected word.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
Data and XML Feature Enhancements
SQL Language Improvements
Class Enhancements
Language Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Report and Label Designers
2. Menu Designer
3. Table Designer
4. Query and View Designers

Show 3 more

You might want to open the following designers and find the enhancements.

Report and Label Designers

You can use the Report Builder available in the Report Designer and Label Designer to perform reporting tasks, configure settings, and set properties for reporting features such as report layout, report bands, data groups, report controls, and report variables. For example, you can perform the following tasks:

• Prevent users from modifying reports, report controls, and report bands when editing the report in protected mode.
• Display captions instead of expressions for Field controls at design time.
• Display user-defined ToolTips for report controls.
• Set the language script for reports.
• Save the report data environment as a class.

By default, the Report Builder activates when you interact with the Report and Label designers. However, you can use the _REPORTBUILDER system variable to specify ReportBuilder.app. The Report Builder consolidates, replaces, and adds to the functionality found in previous Report Designer user interface elements, which remain in the product and are available by setting _REPORTBUILDER. You can write custom report builders to extend reporting functionality and output or run reports with report objects. For more information, see Working with Reports and _REPORTBUILDER System Variable.

Menu Designer

You can set the _MENUDESIGNER system variable to call your own custom designer for creating menus.Copy

_MENUDESIGNER = cProgramName

For more information, see _MENUDESIGNER System Variable.

Table Designer

The Table Designer accommodates the following data enhancements:

• New Data Types: Varchar, Varbinary and Blob
• Binary Indexes
• For more information, see Data and XML Feature Enhancements.

Query and View Designers

You can use spaces in table names specified in SQL statements in the Query and View designers if you provide an alias. For example, editing the following statement is valid in the View and Query designers:Copy

SELECT * from dbo."Order Details" Order_Details

For more information, see SELECT – SQL Command.

Data Environment Designer

The full path to the database (DBC) appears in the status bar when you select a database in the Add Table or View Dialog Box.

Class and Form Designers

The name of the class you are modifying appears in the title bar for the following dialog boxes:

• Edit Property/Method Dialog Box
• New Property Dialog Box
• New Method Dialog Box
• Class Info Dialog Box

The View menu for the Form Designer offers both options for specifying the tab order on forms: Assign Interactively or Assign by List.

In the Class, Form, and Report designers, you can use the following keyboard shortcut commands to adjust spacing between selected items.Expand table

For more information, see Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
Data and XML Feature Enhancements
SQL Language Improvements
Class Enhancements
Language Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Miscellaneous Enhancements
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Miscellaneous Enhancements

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Printing Dialog Boxes and Printing Language Enhancements
2. Improved Support for Applications Detecting Terminal Servers
3. Updated Dr. Watson Error Reporting to 2.0
4. Anchor Editor Application

Show 11 more

Visual FoxPro contains the following miscellaneous enhancements. You can click Collapse All to view a list of enhancments.

Printing Dialog Boxes and Printing Language Enhancements

Visual FoxPro includes various enhancements for its printing dialog boxes and printing language.

Visual FoxPro uses the latest operating system dialogs for Printer Setup and other related printing operations. If the user is running on Windows XP, the dialogs will appear Themed.

The following language functions contain new enhancements that impact general printing operations:

• SYS(1037) – Page Setup Dialog Box
• APRINTERS( ) Function
• GETFONT( ) FunctionContains an additional setting to display only those fonts available on the current default printer and clarified values for the language script.

For more information, see Language Enhancements.

Improved Support for Applications Detecting Terminal Servers

Visual FoxPro now automatically includes support for applications that are generated by the build process to detect whether they are running on a Terminal Server and prevent loading of unnecessary dynamic-link library (.dll) files that can impact performance. For more information, see BUILD EXE Command.

Updated Dr. Watson Error Reporting to 2.0

Visual FoxPro includes and updates its product error reporting to support Dr. Watson 2.0. This version includes new and improved error reporting, logging, and auditing features. For example, errors are logged while offline and are posted when you reconnect.

Anchor Editor Application

Visual FoxPro 9.0 allows you to create a custom property editor through extended metadata attributes for class members. Through this new extensibility model, you now have the ability to extend the functionality of class properties and methods, allowing you to create design-time enhancements such as a custom property editor. For more information about creating custom property editors, see MemberData Extensibility.

A sample custom property editor, Anchoreditor.app, is included in Visual FoxPro 9.0 and is located in the Wizards directory. This application is run when the Anchor property is double-clicked in the Properties window, or by choosing the Anchor property in the Properties window and clicking the ellipsis button (…).Expand table

Class Browser

You can open and view class definitions that are specified within a program (.prg) similarly to class libraries (.vcx). You can select a program (.prg) from the File Open/Add dialog box. See Class Browser Window for more information.

CursorAdapter Builder

The CursorAdapter Builder contains a number of enhancements that correspond to improvements added to the CursorAdapter class. See CursorAdapter Builder for more information.

Toolbox

The Toolbox (Visual FoxPro) is now dockable and can be docked to the desktop or other IDE windows.

Code References

The Code References Window has been updated with the following minor enhancements:

• For the results grid, the Options dialog provides a new setting to show separate columns for class, method, and line, rather than concatenating them all in a single column. 
• You can now sort by method name by right-clicking on the method header or selecting the Sort By menu item from the right-click menu.
• With the results tree list, the following new right-click menu options are available:
  • Expand All – expands all nodes
  • Collapse All – collapses all nodes
  • Sort by Most Recent First – puts the most recent result sets at the top of the list rather than at the bottom

 Note

The results beneath a tree node are not filled until the node is expanded.  This is done to increase performance if you have a large result sets.

GENDBC.PRG

The Gendbc.prg program which generates program used to recreate a database has been updated with following minor enhancements:

• Support for new Varchar, Varbinary and Blob field types
• Support for AllowSimultaneousFetch, RuleExpression, and RuleText properties for views

Environment Manager Task Pane

The Environment Manager Task Pane has been enhanced with the following features:

• Form and Formset Template Classes – you can now specify template classes for new forms and formsets with each environment set. This is setting specified in the Forms Tab, Options Dialog Box.
• Field Mapping – you can set classes to use for when you drag and drop a field onto a form with each environment set. This is setting specified in the Field Mapping Tab, Options Dialog Box.
• Resource File – the Environment Manager now supports setting of a Resource File. If one does not exist, the Environment Manager will optionally create it when the environment is set.
• The Environment Manager now contains a new <default field mapping> environment set. This set is created the first time the Environment Manager is run so that the original default Options dialog settings for Field Mapping and Form Template Classes can be saved and restored later if desired.
• For more information, see Environment Manager Task Pane.

Data Explorer Task Pane

The Task Pane Manager includes the new Data Explorer Task Pane which allows you to view and work with remote data sources such as SQL Server databases.

For more information, see Data Explorer Task Pane.

MemberData Editor

The new MemberData Editor lets you edit MemberData for your classes. The MemberData Editor is available from the Class menu when the Class Designer is active. The MemberData Editor is also invoked silently when you right-click on an item in the Properties Window and select the Add to Favorites menu item. The MemberData Editor application is specified as a builder and can be changed in the Builder.dbf table located in your Wizards directory.

For more information, see MemberData Editor and MemberData Extensibility.

New Foundation Classes (FFC)

The following are new FoxPro Foundation classes added to this version of Visual FoxPro:

• _REPORTLISTENER.VCX – a set of core classes you can use when creating custom report listeners.
• _FRXCURSOR.VCX – a class library used for working with report (FRX) files.
• _GDIPLUS.VCX – a set of classes you can use for GDI+ handling. This is intended primarily for use when creating custom report listener classes.

New Solution Samples

Visual FoxPro 9.0 contains many new samples that show off new features in the product. To see a list of these samples, select the Solution Samples task pane in the Task Pane Manager and expand the New in Visual FoxPro 9.0 node.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
Data and XML Feature Enhancements
SQL Language Improvements
Class Enhancements
Language Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Critical Changes
2. Important Changes
3. Miscellaneous Changes
4. Removed Items
5. See Also

Visual FoxPro includes functionality that differs from previous versions and might affect existing code. These behavior changes are organized according to the following categories:

• Critical Changes   Functionality changes most likely to affect existing code when running under this version of Visual FoxPro. It is extremely important that you read this section.
• Important Changes   Functionality changes that might affect existing code when running under this version of Visual FoxPro.
• Miscellaneous Changes   Functionality changes you should know about but are not likely to impact existing code.
• Removed Items   Features or files that existed in prior versions of Visual FoxPro but are no longer included.

Critical Changes

Critical behavior changes will most likely to affect existing code when running under this version of Visual FoxPro.

SQL SELECT IN (Value_Set) Clause

In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, the IN (Value_Set) clause for the WHERE clause in the SQL SELECT command is mapped to INLIST( ) function. In the current release, Visual FoxPro might stop evaluating values and expressions in the Value_Set list when the first match is found. Therefore, if the IN clause is not Rushmore-optimized, you can improve performance by placing values most likely to match in the beginning of the Value_Set list. For more information, see the description for the IN clause in the SELECT – SQL Command topic and the INLIST( ) Function.

Conversion of INLIST( ) Function in the Query Designer and View Designer

In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, the Query Designer and View Designer convert INLIST( ) function calls in the WHERE clause of the SQL SELECT command into IN (Value_Set) clauses. In the current release, this conversion no longer occurs due to the differences between INLIST( ) and the SQL IN clause. INLIST( ) remains restricted to 24 arguments. For more information, see the description for the IN clause in the SELECT – SQL Command topic and the INLIST( ) Function.

Grids and RecordSource and ControlSource Properties

In Visual FoxPro 9.0 there is a change in Grid control behavior. When the RecordSource property for a Grid control is set, Visual FoxPro 9.0 resets all ControlSource properties to the empty string (“”) for all columns. In earlier versions of Visual FoxPro, the ControlSource properties were not properly reset, so problems could occur when a RecordSource with a different structure was later bound. This change may impact scenarios involving Access and Assign methods or BINDEVENT( ) function calls made against a Grid column’s ControlSource property.

Important Changes

Important changes might affect existing code when running under Visual FoxPro 9.0.

Reporting

Visual FoxPro contains many improvements for reporting. The following are behavior changes that could impact existing reports:

• The Report Designer and Engine now make use of extensible components. You can control or eliminate use of design-time extensions by altering the value of _REPORTBUILDER System Variable. You control run-time extension use with the SET REPORTBEHAVIOR Command.
• In Visual FoxPro 9’s new object-assisted reporting mode, report fields may need to be adjusted (widened) slightly. This is especially important for numeric data where a field that is not wide enough to display the entire number will show it instead as asterisks (*****). For more information about the changes to the Report System that required this change, and features of the GDI+ rendering engine and other changes related to it, see Using GDI+ in Reports. For migration strategy and recommendations, see Guide to Reporting Improvements.
• For a table of additional, minor rendering differences between backward-compatible reporting mode and object-assisted reporting mode, see the table below.Expand tableRendering featureBehavior in backward-compatible modeBehavior in object-assisted modeRecommendationsTab stops (CHR(9) values included in report data)The width of a tab stop is determined by a number of characters in the font used.Tab stops are set at fixed-width positions, regardless of font.If you concatenated tabs with data in a stretching report layout element to create a table format within the element, you can often fulfill the same requirements using a second detail band in Visual FoxPro 9. Alternatively, change the number of tabs you concatenate with your data.Special characters and word-wrappingNon-breaking spaces are not respected; they are treated as normal space characters.Special characters such as non-breaking spaces (CHR(160)) and soft hyphens (CHR(173)) are correctly interpreted. As a result, words may wrap differently in output.Evaluate the results. In most cases, users will appreciate the change, because it more faithfully representing their original intentions in the text. If necessary, use the CHRTRAN( ) Function or STRTRAN( ) Function to replace these special characters with standard spaces and hyphens.Line spacing of multi-line objectsLine spacing is determined by a formula that does not take font properties into consideration. Lines in a multi-line object are individually rendered, so background colors for each line may appear to have a different width.GDI+ line spacing is dynamically determined using font characteristics. A multi-line object is rendered as a single block of text.Evaluate the results. In most cases, the change in line spaces will provide a more polished appearance, and in all cases this method of handling multi-line text provides better performance. If a report depends on the old style of spacing lines, you can adjust the ReportListener’s DynamicLineHeight Property to revert to the old behavior.Cursor images (.CUR files).CUR files can be used as image sources in reports..CUR files are not supported as image sources.Convert the cursor file to another, supported image format.Shape (Rounded Rectangle) curvatureLimited choices for curvature.More choices are available through the Report Builder Application dialog box interface, but some will not look the same way in backward-compatible mode and object-assisted mode.If reports have to run in both backward-compatible mode and object-assisted mode, or if they are designed in version 9.0 but must run in earlier versions, limit your choices of values of shape curvature to those allowed in the native Round Rectangle Dialog Box. If you are using the Style Tab, Report Control Properties Dialog Box (Report Builder) to design such reports, use the values 12, 16, 24, 32, and 99, to represent the native buttons, selecting the buttons from left to right. The default value in the Round Rectangle dialog box (second button) is 16.
• When you create a Quick Report, by using the CREATE REPORT – Quick Report Command or by invoking the Quick Report… option on the Report menu, and if you have SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90, the layout elements created by the Report Designer are sized differently from ones created for the same fields in previous versions. This change handles the additional width required by the new rendering mechanism of the report engine.
• If you use the KEYBOARD Command or PLAY MACRO Command statements to address options on the Report menu, you may need to revise the keystrokes in these statements, as the menu has been reorganized.
• Reports may take longer to open in the Report Designer if the report was previously saved with the Printer Environment setting enabled. You can improve performance by unchecking the Printer Environment menu item from the Report menu and re-saving the report. The saved Printer Environment is not critical for functioning of a report and is typically not recommended. Object-assisted report mode also respects different printers’ resolution settings, so saving resolution information for one printer in your report may have adverse effects in an environment with printers that have different resolutions. A saved Printer Environment may also have more adverse affects on REPORT FORM or LABEL commands invoked with the TO FILE option than they did in previous versions, if the associated printer setup is not available in the environment at runtime. In Visual FoxPro 9, the global default for this setting in the Reports Tab, Options Dialog Box, and for reports created in executable applications (.exe files), has been changed to unchecked.
• Because of changes to the way Visual FoxPro 9 uses current printer settings to determine items such as print resolution and page height dynamically, a REPORT FORM or LABEL command will not run in object-assisted mode if there are no available printer setups in the environment or if the print spooler has been stopped. You will receive Error loading printer driver (Error 1958). If you need to run reports in an environment with no printer information, perhaps creating custom types of output that do not require printers, you can supply Visual FoxPro with the minimal set of information it needs to run your report by supplying a page height and page width from the appropriate Report Listener methods. For more information, see GetPageHeight Method and GetPageWidth Method.
• By default, and by design, the Report Builder Application does not automatically show tables in the report’s Data Environment when you build report expressions. To better protect end-user design sessions, only tables you have explicitly opened, not all tables from the DataEnvironment, are available in the Expression Builder. With this change, you have the opportunity to set up the design session’s data exactly the way you want the end-user to see it, before you issue a MODIFY REPORT Command in your application. If you prefer the Report Designer’s old behavior, you can change the Report Builder Application to emulate it. For more information, see How to: Replace the Report Builder’s Expression Builder Dialog Box.
• The ASCII keyword on the REPORT FORM Command is documented as following the <filename> parameter of the TO FILE<filename> clause. In earlier versions of Visual FoxPro, you could safely use the incorrect and unsupported syntax TO FILE ASCII<filename> instead. This incorrect syntax triggers an error in Visual FoxPro 9. Note that the ASCII keyword has no effect on object-assisted mode output provided by the Report Engine, although a ReportListener Object can be written to implement it.
• The keyword NOCONSOLE has no default meaning in object-assisted reporting mode, because ReportListeners do not echo their rendering output to the current output window by default. However, a ReportListener can mimic backward-compatible mode in this respect, if desired. Refer to OutputPage Method for a complete example.
• To facilitate development of run-time reporting extensions, the Report Engine now allows normal debugging procedures during a report run. If your error handling routine assumes it is impossible for a report to be suspended, this assumption will now be challenged. Refer to Handling Errors During Report Runs for a detailed look at the associated changes, and some suggestions for strategy.
• REPORT FORM and LABEL commands are no longer automatically prohibited as user-interface-related commands in COM objects compiled into DLLs, when you run the commands in object-assisted mode. The restriction still applies to these commands when they are run in backward-compatible mode. (The topic Selecting Process Types explains why user-interface-related commands are prohibited in DLLs.) This change is not applicable to multi-threaded DLLs. A number of user-interface-related facilities also are not available in DLLs (whether single- or multi-threaded). For example, the TXTWIDTH( ) Function and TextWidth Method depend on a window handle to function, so they are not available in a DLL. The CREATE REPORT – Quick Report Command relies on the same facilities as TXTWIDTH(), and therefore is not available in a DLL. However, in many instances, creating custom output using a ReportListener does not require any user-interface activity, so a REPORT FORM or LABEL command can now be used productively in a DLL. Using the SYS(2335) – Unattended Server Mode function to trap for potential modal states, as well as the new SET TABLEPROMPT Command, is recommended. Refer to Server Design Considerations and Limitations for more information.
• Changes have occurred to the handling of group headers and footers in multi-column reports, when the columns flow from left to right (label-style layout). The revised behavior is more useful and behaves consistently with the new detail header and footer bands as well. For a description of the change, see How to: Define Columns in Reports.
• In previous versions, the NOWAIT keyword on the REPORT FORM and LABEL commands was not significant when the commands were issued in the Command window rather than in a program. In Visual FoxPro 9’s object-assisted mode, when previewing instructions are interpreted by the Report Preview Application, this keyword is significant no matter where you issue the command. The Report Preview Application uses the NOWAIT keyword, consistently, as an instruction to provide a modeless preview form. For more information about the Report Preview Application, see Extending Report Preview Functionality.
• Visual FoxPro 8 introduced the NOPAGEEJECT keyword on the REPORT FORM and LABEL commands, but applied the keyword only to printed output. In Visual FoxPro 9, NOPAGEEJECT has significance for all output targets, including PREVIEW. This keyword provides chained or continued report runs for multiple REPORT FORM and LABEL commands. To facilitate this behavior in preview mode, and to allow you to apply customization instructions to multiple previews, the Report Output Application caches a single ReportListener object instance for preview output, causing a change in behavior for multiple modeless report commands (REPORT FORM … PREVIEW NOWAIT). In the past, you used multiple REPORT FORM… PREVIEW NOWAIT statements in a sequence, your commands resulted in multiple report preview windows. In Visual FoxPro 9, when SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90, these commands will result in successive report previews being directed to a single report preview window. TipYou can easily invoke the old behavior by creating multiple ReportListener object references and associating one with each separate REPORT FORM or LABEL command, using the OBJECT keyword. For more information about using the OBJECT syntax, see REPORT FORM Command. For information about receiving multiple object references of the appropriate type from the Report Output Application, see Understanding the Report Output Application.
• In the process of reviewing and overhauling the native Report Engine, a number of outstanding issues regarding band and layout element positioning were addressed. For example, a field element marked to stretch and sized to take up more than one text line’s height in the report layout might have inappropriately pushed its band’s exit events to the next page in Visual FoxPro 8. In Visual FoxPro 9, the band’s exit events occur on the same page. Additional revisions improve record-pointer-handling in footer bands, when bands stretch across pages. These changes are not specific to object-assisted output rendering. If you have relied on undocumented behavior providing exact band or layout control placement in a particular report, you should review that report’s behavior in Visual FoxPro 9.

Rushmore Optimization

When character values are indexed, all values are considered to be encoded using the table’s code page. In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, when the current Visual FoxPro code page differed from a table’s code page, any attempt to look for a character value within that table’s index resulted in an implicit translation of the value from the current Visual FoxPro code page into the table’s code page. This could cause SQL or other Rushmore optimizable commands to return or act upon incorrect records.

In Visual FoxPro 9 and later, by default, the optimization engine no longer uses existing character indexes for tables created with a non-current code page. Instead, Visual FoxPro builds temporary indexes to ensure correct results. This can result in a loss of optimization of SQL or other commands which were optimized in earlier VFP versions. To prevent this, ensure that the current Visual FoxPro code page returned by CPCURRENT( ) Function matches the table’s code page returned by CPDBF( ) Function. This requires either changing the current Visual FoxPro code page, or changing the table’s code page. For information on specifying the current Visual FoxPro code page, see Understanding Code Pages in Visual FoxPro. For information on specifying the code page for a table, see How to: Specify the Code Page of a .dbf File. If you cannot change either the Visual FoxPro codepage or the table codepage to match, you can force optimization to work as it did in Visual FoxPro 8 and prior versions using the SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR Command with either 80 or 70 as a parameter.

SQL SELECT Statements

• A SELECT – SQL Command containing DISTINCT and ORDER BY clauses in which the ORDER BY field is not in the SELECT field list will generate an error in Visual FoxPro 9.0 with SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR 90 (Error 1808: SQL: ORDER BY clause is invalid.). The following example shows this:CopySET ENGINEBEHAVIOR 90 CREATE CURSOR foo (f1 int, f2 int) SELECT DISTINCT f1 FROM foo ORDER BY f2 INTO CURSOR res
• A SELECT – SQL Command containing DISTINCT and HAVING clauses in which the HAVING field is not in the SELECT field list will now generate an error in Visual FoxPro 9.0 with SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR 90 (Error 1803: SQL: HAVING clause is invalid.). An error is reported because the HAVING field is not in projection and DISTINCT is used. The following example shows this:CopySET ENGINEBEHAVIOR 90 CREATE CURSOR foo (f1 int, f2 int) SELECT DISTINCT f1 FROM foo HAVING f2>1 INTO CURSOR res
• The number of UNION statements that can be used in a SELECT – SQL Command is no longer limited to 9. Parentheses are not completely supported with UNION statements and unlike previous versions may generate an error. If two or more SELECT statements are enclosed in parenthesis, an error is generated during compile (Error 2196: Only a single SQL SELECT statement can be enclosed in parentheses.). This behavior is not tied to any SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR Command level. The following example shows this error:CopySELECT * FROM Table1 ;   UNION ;   (SELECT * FROM Table2 ;   UNION ;   SELECT * FROM Table3) The following example compiles without an error:CopySELECT * FROM Table1 ;   UNION ;   (SELECT * FROM Table2) ;   UNION ;   (SELECT * FROM Table3)

For more information, see SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR Command.

Disabling TABLEREVERT( ) Operations During TABLEUPDATE( ) Operations

For CursorAdapters, Visual FoxPro does not permit TABLEREVERT( ) operations during operations.

For more information, see TABLEREVERT( ) Function and TABLEUPDATE( ) Function.

Index Key Truncation during Index Updates

An error (Error 2199) is now generated when index key truncation is about to occur, typically during index creation or modification. This can happen with use of a key that contains an expression involving a Memo field, whose length in not fixed, such as in the following example:

INDEX ON charfld1 + memofld1 TAG mytag

Similar issues can also occur with the SQL engine (such as during a SQL SELECT command or View creation) where it might fail to build a temporary index to optimize a join evaluation if it is unable to accurately determine the maximum size of the key.

For more information, see Error building key for index “name”. (Error 2199).

Memo Field Corruption

Visual FoxPro will now detect if a Memo field in a class library (.vcx) or form (.scx) is corrupt when you try to open up that file in the designer. If the file contains a corrupt Memo field, an Error 41 such as following will occur:

Memo file <path>myclass.VCT is missing or is invalid.

Additionally, similar Memo errors may occur if you have a Visual FoxPro table open and try to access contents of a corrupt Memo. The following sample code shows how you can detect the Error 41 memo file corruption:Copy

TRY
  USE myTable EXCLUSIVE NOUPDATE 
  SCAN
    SCATTER MEMO MEMVAR
  ENDSCAN
CATCH TO loError
  IF loError.ErrorNo=41
    * handle error here
  ENDIF
ENDTRY
USE IN myTable

While it is possible that loss of data may occur, the following sample code may assist in repairing some or the entire file:Copy

ON ERROR *
USE myclass.vcx
COPY TO myclass_bkup.vcx&&backup
COPY TO myclass2.vcx
USE
DELETE FILE myclass.vc*
RENAME myclass2.vcx TO myclass.vcx
RENAME myclass2.vct TO myclass.vct
COMPILE CLASSLIB myclass.vcx
ON ERROR

Visual Form and Class Extended Property Support

Visual FoxPro 9 allows you to create custom properties in your visual class (SCX or VCX file) whose values can contain carriage returns and/or be of length greater than 255 characters. If you specify a property with a value like this through the Properties Window (i.e., the Zoom dialog box), Visual FoxPro will store it in a format such that you will no longer be able to edit that class in older versions of Visual FoxPro.

Class Definitions

The ability to have a property assignment set to instantiated object is no longer supported in a class definition and will generate an error. The following example shows this.Copy

LOCAL oCustom
oCustom = CREATEOBJECT('cusTest')
DEFINE CLASS cusTest AS CUSTOM
    oRef = CREATEOBJECT('myclass')
ENDDEFINE
DEFINE CLASS myclass AS CUSTOM
ENDDEFINE

You can instead assign a property to an instantiated object reference in the Init event of your class.

Merge Modules for Redistributable Components

Visual FoxPro includes merge modules (MSM files) for use in redistributing shared components with your runtime applications. Merge modules are used by applications that can create Windows Installer based setups. For example, Visual FoxPro ships with merge modules that contain the Visual FoxPro runtime libraries as well as some common components including a number of ActiveX controls.

For Visual FoxPro 9, the VFP9RUNTIME.MSM merge module contains the runtime libraries that you will need for your custom redistributable application. The VFP9RUNTIME.MSM merge module also has dependencies on the merge modules containing the Microsoft VC 7.1 runtime library (MSVCR71.DLL) and the GDI+ graphics library (GDIPLUS.DLL). Because of these dependencies, if you select the VFP9RUNTIME.MSM merge module in a Windows Installer tool such as InstallShield, the other dependent merge modules will automatically be selected as well.

Note   For Windows XP and higher operating systems, Visual FoxPro uses the GDI+ graphics library that is installed in your Windows System folder.

For Visual FoxPro 9, the merge module containing the VC runtime library no longer installs to the Windows System directory. Instead, this file is installed to your application’s directory. This is done in compliance with recommended component versioning strategies for Windows operating systems. The GDI+ library is installed into the same directory as your Visual FoxPro runtime libraries and is only installed on operating systems later than Windows XP (XP already includes the GDI+ library in its Windows System directory).

Tip   There may be circumstances where you will want to install the VC or GDI+ library to another location such as the Windows System directory. You can do this with your Windows Installer application (e.g., InstallShield) by first selecting the merge module before selecting the VFP9RUNTIME.MSM one. Once you have selected a merge module, you can change its installation path.

There are new merge modules for MSXML3 and MSXML4 XML parser components. The MSXML 3.0 component consists of the following merge modules:

• MSXML 3.0 (msxml3_wim32.msm)
• Msxml3 Exception INF Merge Module (msxml3inf_wim32.msm)
• WebData std library (wdstddll_wim32.msm)

There are two MSXML 4.0 modules that should be included with any custom setup:

• MSXML 4.0 (msxml4sxs32.msm)
• MSXML 4.0 (msxml4sys32.msm)

MTDLL Memory Allocation

Visual FoxPro contains a new PROGCACHE configuration file setting which specifies the amount of memory Visual FoxPro allocates at startup for running programs (program cache). This setting also determines memory allocated per thread for Visual FoxPro MTDLL COM Servers. In prior versions, this setting was not configurable and memory was allocated as a fixed program cache of a little over 9MB (144 * 64K). The new PROGCACHE setting allows you to set the exact size of the program cache or specify that dynamic memory allocation be used.

Since MTDLL COM Servers can use up a great amount of memory if many threads are created, it is important that memory be allocated more efficiently for these scenarios. In Visual FoxPro 9, the new default setting for MTDLL COM Servers is -2 (dynamic memory allocation). For more information, see Special Terms for Configuration Files.

Miscellaneous Changes

The following are miscellaneous changes that you should know about but are not likely to impact existing code.

CursorAdapter Changes

In the current version of Visual FoxPro, the following behavior changes apply to the CursorAdapter object:

• You can no longer call TABLEREVERT( ) Function while a TABLEUPDATE( ) Function operation is in progress.
• The ConversionFunc Property setting is now respected during ADODB.Recordset based updates.
• The target record is now kept current in the ADODB.Recordset during CursorAdapter.After… events.

Grid SetFocus Supported for AllowCellSelection

You can now call a Grid control’s SetFocus Method and have the Grid receive focus when the AllowCellSelection Property is set to False (.F.) and the grid contains no records.

EXECSCRIPT Function

The EXECSCRIPT( ) Function now allows you to pass parameters by reference.

Additionally, Visual FoxPro 9.0 tightens syntax validation of calls made from concatenation of parameters. The following code, which worked in prior versions of Visual FoxPro, now properly causes an error because the CHR(13) character breaks the call into two lines whereas it is supposed to be part of the parameter for the EXECSCRIPT call.Copy

  cRecPauseScript = "EXECSCRIPT('" + ;
    "?123" + CHR(13) + ;
    "?456" + ;
    "')"
  _VFP.DoCmd(cRecPauseScript)

To make a valid call that does not cause a syntax error, you can use the following code:Copy

  cRecPauseScript = "EXECSCRIPT('?123'+CHR(13)+ '?456')"
  _VFP.DoCmd(cRecPauseScript)

Listbox Control Click Event

In the current version of Visual FoxPro, the PageUp, PageDown, Home and End keyboard keys now cause a Listbox control’s Click event to fire. In previous versions, these keys did not trigger the Click event to fire, unlike the arrow keys.

PEMSTATUS( ) Function Returns False for Hidden Native Properties

In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, the PEMSTATUS( ) function returned True (.T.) for hidden native properties of Visual FoxPro base classes when specifying a value of 5 for nAttribute. In the current release, PEMSTATUS( ) returns False (.F.) for these hidden native properties. For more information, see PEMSTATUS( ) Function.

Changes to Options Dialog Box

• In the Options dialog box, the List display count option has been moved from the Editor tab to the View tab. For more information, see View Tab, Options Dialog Box.
• In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, you could output all the settings in the Options Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro) to the Command Window by pressing the SHIFT key when choosing the OK button to close the dialog. In the current release, these settings are now sent to the Debug Output Window. The Debug Output window must be opened in order for the settings to be directed there.

FOXRUN.PIF

The FOXRUN.PIF file that is used by the RUN | ! Command is no longer installed in the Visual FoxPro root directory. If Visual FoxPro detects the presence of a FOXRUN.PIF file during a RUN command, it will use COMMAND.COM to execute the specified RUN command. This may not be the desired SHELL program to use for a particular operating system, especially newer ones like Windows XP in which CMD.EXE is preferable.

The current behavior for a RUN command without the existence of a FOXRUN.PIF file is that the RUN command will use the SHELL program specified by the operating system COMSPEC environment variable. With Windows XP, you can view and edit this variable by right-clicking your computer desktop’s My Computer icon and selecting the Properties dialog box (Advanced tab).

The FOXRUN.PIF file is still available in the Tools directory if you need it for a particular reason.

For more information, see RUN | ! Command.

SCATTER Command

The SCATTER command no longer allows for ambiguous use of both MEMVAR and NAME clauses in the same command. You can only include one of these clauses. In prior versions, the following code would not generate an error:Copy

USE HOME()+"SAMPLESDatacustomer.dbf"
SCATTER MEMVAR NAME oCust

For more information, see SCATTER Command.

SET DOHISTORY

The SET DOHISTORY command, which is included for backward compatibility, was updated to send output to the Debug Output Window instead of the Command Window as in prior versions.

SCREEN ShowTips Property

The default value for _SCREEN ShowTips Property has been changed from False (.F.) to True (.T.). This change was made because new Memo and Field Tips support is now dependent on this setting.

AllowCellSelection Does Not Permit Deleting Grid Rows When Set to False

When the AllowCellSelection Property is set to False (.F.) for a Grid control, you cannot select a row for deletion by clicking the deletion column. For more information, see AllowCellSelection Property.

Northwind Database

The sample Northwind database has been updated. Five of the stored procedures now include calls to the SETRESULTSET( ) Function so that the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider will return a cursor when they are executed.

Foundation Classes

The _ShellExecute class contained in the _Environ.vcx FFC class library has been updated to include an additional parameter in the ShellExecute method.

Wizards and Builders

The Wizard/Builder selection dialog box now properly hides deleted entries in the Wizard and Builder registration tables.

Specifying Western Language Script Values for GETFONT( ) Function

In versions prior to this release, passing 0 as the nFontCharSet value for GETFONT( ) opened the Font Picker dialog box and displayed the Script list as unavailable. You could not specify 0 (Western) as the language script value, and setting it to 1 (Default) sets nFontCharSet to the default font setting only, which is determined by the operating system.

In this release, passing 0 to GETFONT( ) opens the Font Picker dialog box with the Script list available and Western selected. The return value for GETFONT( ) also includes the return value for nFontCharSet.

Removed Items

HTML Help SDK

The HTML Help 1.3 SDK no longer ships with Visual FoxPro.

See Also

Reference

Guide to Reporting Improvements
Data and XML Feature Enhancements
SQL Language Improvements
Class Enhancements
Language Enhancements
Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements
Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers
Miscellaneous Enhancements

Visual FoxPro New Reserved Words

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. _
2. A
3. B
4. C

Show 24 more

The following tables list new words added to the Visual FoxPro language which are now reserved:

_

Expand table

A

Expand table

B

Expand table

C

Expand table

D

Expand table

E

Expand table

F

Expand table

G

Expand table

H

I

Expand table

J

K

L

Expand table

M

Expand table

N

Expand table

O

Expand table

P

Expand table

Q

Expand table

R

Expand table

S

Expand table

T

Expand table

U

Expand table

V

Expand table

W

X

Expand table

Y

Z

See Also

Reference

Reserved Words (Visual FoxPro)

Getting Started with Visual FoxPro

• Article
• 07/09/2007

Microsoft Visual FoxPro is the object-oriented relational database management system that makes it possible for you to create state-of-the-art enterprise database solutions. Visual FoxPro includes professional productivity tools, documentation, and sample code for quickly building, managing, and deploying solutions.

In This Section

• Locating Readme Files (Visual FoxPro)
  Describes how to find the location of the Visual FoxPro Readme file.
• Installing Visual FoxPro
  Describes system requirements and how to install and add applications to Visual FoxPro.
• Upgrading from Earlier Versions
  Describes how Visual FoxPro protects your investment in applications built in previous versions of FoxPro.
• How to: Convert Earlier Visual FoxPro Files
  Describes how to convert files from earlier versions of FoxPro and Visual FoxPro.
• Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment
  Explains how you can optimize your computer system, configure Visual FoxPro and development environment settings, restore your desktop, and how people with disabilities can improve accessibility to Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Windows.

Related Sections

• What’s New in Visual FoxPro
  Describes the new features and enhancements included in this version of Visual FoxPro.
• Using Visual FoxPro
  Gives an overview of Visual FoxPro features, describes concepts and productivity tools for developing, programming, and managing high-performance database applications and components, and provides walkthroughs that help get you started. With the robust tools and data-centric object-oriented language that Visual FoxPro offers, you can build modern, scalable, multi-tier applications that integrate client/server computing and the Internet.
• Developing Visual FoxPro Applications
  Includes conceptual information about how to develop Visual FoxPro applications, instructions for creating databases and the user interface, and other tasks needed to create Visual FoxPro applications.
• Programming in Visual FoxPro
  Describes how understanding object-oriented programming techniques and the event-driven model can maximize your programming productivity and enable you to access the full power of Visual FoxPro.
• Reference (Visual FoxPro)
  Includes Visual FoxPro general, programming language, user interface, and error message reference topics.
• Samples and Walkthroughs
  Contains Visual FoxPro samples and walkthroughs that you can use for experimenting with and learning Visual FoxPro features.

Locating Readme Files (Visual FoxPro)

• Article
• 07/09/2007

The Readme.htm file is stored at the root of the Microsoft Visual FoxPro CD-ROM. Use your Internet browser to open and view the files.

To locate Readme files for additional products included in the Visual FoxPro package, see the root of each product CD-ROM.

See Also

Other Resources

Getting Started with Visual FoxPro

Installing Visual FoxPro

• Article
• 07/09/2007

The following sections describe information about installing Visual FoxPro.

In This Section

• Requirements for Installing Visual FoxPro
  Describes system requirements for installing Visual FoxPro.
• How to: Install Visual FoxPro
  Describes how to install Visual FoxPro.
• How to: Install Additional Applications
  Describes how to install other applications included with Visual FoxPro.
• How to: Reinstall Visual FoxPro
  Describes how to reinstall Visual FoxPro or install Visual FoxPro to another location.
• Troubleshooting Installation
  Describes potential issues you might encounter when installing Visual FoxPro.

Related Sections

• Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment
  Explains how you can optimize your computer system, configure Visual FoxPro and development environment settings, restore your desktop, and how people with disabilities can improve accessibility to Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Windows.
• Upgrading from Earlier Versions
  Describes how Visual FoxPro protects your investment in applications built in previous versions of FoxPro.
• Getting Started with Visual FoxPro
  Provides information about where to find the Readme file, installing and upgrading from previous versions, configuring Visual FoxPro, and customizing the development environment.

Requirements for Installing Visual FoxPro

• Article
• 07/09/2007

Visual FoxPro has the following minimum system requirements:

• Computer: PC with a Pentium class processor.
• Peripherals: Mouse or pointing device
• Memory: 64 MB RAM (128 MB or higher recommended)
• Hard disk space:
  • Visual FoxPro Prerequisites: 20 MB
  • Visual FoxPro Typical Install: 165 MB
  • Visual FoxPro Maximum Install: 165 MB
• Video: 800 x 600 resolution, 256 colors (High color 16-bit recommended)
• Operating system: Developing applications with Visual FoxPro is supported only on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. You can create and distribute run-time applications for Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. NoteInstallation on Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition is not supported.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Install Visual FoxPro

How to: Install Visual FoxPro

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can install this version of Visual FoxPro from a CD-ROM or a network to a local hard drive. You must install Visual FoxPro on a local drive, not a mapped drive. There is no other preparation required before installing Visual FoxPro. You must have administrator privileges to install Visual FoxPro. It is recommended that you run with power-user privileges to use all the provided tools effectively.

You can safely install or uninstall using Visual FoxPro Setup. If you are upgrading Visual FoxPro, you must first uninstall the previous version of of the program. Though both versions of Visual FoxPro can exist on the same computer, you cannot install the current version of Visual FoxPro in the same directory as the previous version.

If you plan to publish XML Web services using Visual FoxPro, you might want to set up Internet Information Services (IIS) on a Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 computer. Refer to your operating system documentation for instructions on how to set up and configure IIS.

 Note

Visual FoxPro setup no longer installs any Windows operating system Service Packs or versions of Internet Explorer. It is highly recommended that you install the latest versions of these components before installing Visual FoxPro. Additionally, Visual FoxPro 9.0 is supported only on Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later. For details about installing the latest Service Pack, visit the following Microsoft Web page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/.

Full installation includes all Visual FoxPro program files, online help, and samples files.

To install Visual FoxPro

1. Quit all open applications. NoteIf you use a virus protection program on your computer, override it or turn it off before running the Installation wizard. The Installation wizard might not run properly with virus protection turned on. After installation, be sure to restart your virus protection program.
2. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.The Visual FoxPro Setup start page appears automatically.
3. Click Install Visual FoxPro to launch Visual FoxPro Setup.
4. To determine if you need additional components, click Prerequisites to display any necessary components.
5. Click Install Now! to install any new components. If Visual FoxPro Prerequisites needs to only update components, click Update Now!
6. You might need to restart your computer. When finished, click Done.Visual FoxPro Setup reappears.
7. To continue installation, click Visual FoxPro.
8. After accepting the End User License Agreement and entering the Product Key and your name, click Continue. NoteVisual FoxPro cannot be installed on a mapped drive. You must install Visual FoxPro on a local drive. Do not attempt to use the Map Network Drive functionality in Setup.
9. On the Options page, select the features you want to install and click Install Now! to continue.
10. When finished, click Done to return to Visual FoxPro Setup. Click Exit to return to the Visual FoxPro Setup start page.

If you uninstall Visual FoxPro while the previous version of Visual FoxPro exists on your computer, certain shared registry keys used by the previous version of Visual FoxPro are removed. You must reinstall these critical shared registry keys.

If you run Visual FoxPro from the Start menu, Visual FoxPro Setup automatically reinstalls these keys. If you start Visual FoxPro using other means, such as running the application executable directly, the setup program does not start automatically. You should use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel and the following steps to reinstall the registry keys manually:

To manually reinstall Visual FoxPro 9.0 registry keys

1. From the Start menu, click Control Panel.
2. Click Add/Remove Programs.
3. Click Change/Remove for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0.
4. Click Visual FoxPro and Repair/Reinstall.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Install Additional Applications
How to: Reinstall Visual FoxPro
Troubleshooting Installation

Reference

Requirements for Installing Visual FoxPro

How to: Install Additional Applications

• Article
• 07/09/2007

This release includes copies of additional software that you can install and use with Visual FoxPro. These include:

• InstallShield Express Limited EditionProvides the capability to package and deploy the applications that you create using Visual FoxPro. Visual FoxPro includes the InstallShield Express 5.0 Visual FoxPro Limited Edition. NoteThe limited and full editions of InstallShield Express 5.0 are considered two versions of the same product and cannot coexist. If you install one version on a computer where another already exists, the original is uninstalled automatically. Because the limited edition contains fewer features than the full edition, you should keep the full edition on your computer.
• Microsoft SOAP Toolkit 3.0 SamplesProvides samples for demonstrating how to consume and publish XML Web services. Visual FoxPro Prerequisites installs the core SOAP Toolkit 3.0 components needed to access and publish XML Web services in Visual FoxPro.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE)Provides a personal version of SQL Server.

To install InstallShield Express Limited Edition

1. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.The Visual FoxPro Setup start page opens automatically.
2. Click Install InstallShield Express.
3. Follow the instructions in the InstallShield Express installation wizard.

You can also locate the Setup.exe file for InstallShield Express in the InstallShield folder on the Visual FoxPro CD.

 Note

Visual FoxPro 9.0 installs its redistributable merge modules in the same location as Visual FoxPro 8.0.

The version of InstallShield Express included with Visual FoxPro 9.0 automatically uses the Visual FoxPro 9.0 merge module location.

 Note

Visual FoxPro 9.0 requires certain merge modules when creating a Visual FoxPro 9.0 redistributable custom application setup program using InstallShield Express.

You need to include the following merge modules when creating your custom setup program:

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9 Runtime Libraries
• Microsoft Visual C Runtime Library 7.1
• GDI Plus Redist
• MSXML 4.0
• MSXML 3.0 (needed only for CURSORTOXML functions)
• Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9 Runtime Language Libraries (specific language library files that may be needed for international applications)
• Reporting Applications (needed for Visual FoxPro 9.0 reporting engine)

 Note

MSXML 4.0 consists of two merge modules (msxml4sxs32.msm and msxml4sys32.msm). MSXML 3.0 consists of three merge modules (msxml3_wim32.msm, msxml3inf_wim32.msm and wdstddll_wim32.msm).

To install SOAP Toolkit 3.0 Samples

1. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.The Visual FoxPro Setup start page opens automatically.
2. Click Install SOAP Toolkit 3.0 Samples.
3. Follow the instructions in the SOAP Toolkit 3.0 Samples Setup Wizard.

You can also locate the Soapsdk.msi and Soapsamp.msi files for the SOAP Toolkit in the SOAPToolkit folder on the Visual FoxPro CD.

To install MSDE

1. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.The Visual FoxPro Setup start page opens automatically.
2. Click Install Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) and follow the installation instructions that appear in the Readme file.

You can locate the Setup.exe file for MSDE in the SQLMSDE folder on the Visual FoxPro CD.

 Note

Visual FoxPro includes Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine Service Pack 3.0a. To make sure you have the most recent version and Service Pack installed, visit the Microsoft SQL Server Web page at https://www.microsoft.com/sql. In addition, if you are distributing custom Visual FoxPro applications that require MSDE, you can obtain the redistributable merge modules from the Microsoft SQL Server Web page for use with Windows Installer-based setup programs.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Install Visual FoxPro

How to: Reinstall Visual FoxPro

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• 07/09/2007

You can reinstall Visual FoxPro by uninstalling it and then installing it again. You can uninstall Visual FoxPro from the Start menu or from the original installation disk.

To uninstall Visual FoxPro

1. On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel window, double-click Add or Remove Programs.The Add or Remove Programs window opens.
3. In the Currently installed programs list, click the version of Microsoft Visual FoxPro you want to uninstall, and then Change/Remove.

If you reinstall Visual FoxPro or reinstall to another location, you might want to clean your user settings and other files installed by Visual FoxPro before reinstalling.

You can remove these files by deleting the contents of the …Application DataMicrosoftVisual FoxPro folder inside your user settings folder. To determine the location of the Application Data folder, type ? HOME(7) in the Command window. These files include your FoxUser.* resource files, which contain user settings, and folders for the Toolbox and Task Pane.

However, it is possible that your resource files are in another location. You can determine their location by typing the following in the Command window:Copy

? SYS(2005)

You should delete old Code Reference files that might be associated with projects in the project directories. These are labeled as projectname_ref.* files. You might also need to restore the default Visual FoxPro registry settings.

Visual FoxPro includes the VFPClean.app tool so you can make sure all core Xbase and other files are set appropriately.

To run VFPClean.app

• Type the following line of code in the Command window:CopyDO HOME()+"VFPCLEAN.APP"

See Also

Tasks

How to: Install Visual FoxPro

Troubleshooting Installation

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You might encounter the following issues when installing Visual FoxPro:

• If you cannot run Visual FoxPro and do not see error messages telling you what is wrong, the problem might be in your computer’s ROM BIOS or the video driver you are using.
• If you are using an extended keyboard, be sure it is compatible with the ROM BIOS. In addition, make sure that you are using a standard VGA or Super VGA Windows video driver.
• If you get a “stack overflow” error message, your video driver is out of date or not designed for your video card. To correct this problem, update the video driver.
• For additional information, see the Visual FoxPro Readme at the root of the Visual FoxPro installation CD.

Upgrading from Earlier Versions

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Conversion to Visual FoxPro Format
2. See Also

Microsoft Visual FoxPro protects your investment in applications built with previous versions of FoxPro. In Visual FoxPro, you can run many applications that were written in earlier versions with little or no conversion. You can modify and enhance applications using the Visual FoxPro language, knowing that most extensions to the language do not affect backward compatibility. In addition, you can convert FoxPro screens, projects, and reports to Visual FoxPro format.

However, it is possible that some behavior or feature changes in the current version of Visual FoxPro might affect existing Visual FoxPro source code. Therefore, you should review the new features, enhancements, and most recent behavior changes for this version. For more information, see What’s New in Visual FoxPro and Changes in Functionality for the Current Release.

Conversion to Visual FoxPro Format

If you choose to convert your dBASE or FoxPro files to the Visual FoxPro format, you can take advantage of the unique features of Visual FoxPro. You can run many files from some previous versions of FoxPro directly; others require varying levels of conversion.

You can convert most projects or components created using previous versions of Visual FoxPro simply by opening or recompiling them in this version of Visual FoxPro. When you recompile components, such as forms, screens, or reports, some modifications may be necessary. You can make modifications to these components in the same way you modify the components of this version of Visual FoxPro.

You can find additional information about upgrading from previous versions of Visual FoxPro on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site at https://msdn.microsoft.com. You can search the MSDN Archive for documentation of previous versions of Visual FoxPro.

See Also

Other Resources

Getting Started with Visual FoxPro
Overview of Visual FoxPro Features
Installing Visual FoxPro
Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment
Optimizing Your System

How to: Convert Earlier Visual FoxPro Files

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• 07/09/2007

You can explicitly convert FoxPro 2.6 and Visual FoxPro 3.0 files to the current Visual FoxPro format, which is necessary when you want to use these files with later versions of Visual FoxPro. Files that are created from later versions are converted automatically.

To convert FoxPro 2.6 and Visual FoxPro 3.0 files

1. On the File menu, click Open.
2. In the Open dialog box, browse for and select the file.The Visual FoxPro Converter dialog box opens. For more information, see Visual FoxPro Converter Dialog Box.
3. In the Visual FoxPro Converter dialog box, select the options you want.
4. To complete the file conversion, click Continue. NoteIf you are converting Macintosh or MS-DOS files that have never contained Windows records, the Visual FoxPro Transporter dialog box appears. For more information, see Visual FoxPro Transporter Dialog Box.

You can also convert FoxPro 2.6 and Visual FoxPro 3.0 files by typing one of the following commands with the file name in the Command window:

• MODIFY PROJECT Command
• MODIFY FORM Command
• MODIFY REPORT Command
• MODIFY LABEL Command

See Also

Concepts

Upgrading from Earlier Versions

Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment

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• 07/09/2007

After you install Visual FoxPro, you might want to customize your development environment. You can also specify configuration settings that load when you start Visual FoxPro.

For information on optimizing your Visual FoxPro applications, see Optimizing Applications.

In This Section

• Optimizing Your System
  Explains how to get maximum performance by optimizing your operating system, Visual FoxPro, and your application.
• Visual FoxPro Configuration
  Explains how changing the configuration of your copy of Visual FoxPro affects the way it looks and behaves, such as establishing default locations for files used with Visual FoxPro, altering how your source code looks in an edit window, and displaying the format of dates and times.
• Visual FoxPro Environment Settings
  Describes different ways to change Visual FoxPro environment settings such as using the Options dialog box, setting configuration options at program startup, and using command-line options. You can configure Visual FoxPro toolbars, dock windows, set editor options, and customize the appearance of your applications without altering code.
• Restoring the Visual FoxPro Interactive Environment
  Describes how to close down all program operations and clear the Visual FoxPro desktop to return to its interactive state.
• Accessibility for People with Disabilities (Visual FoxPro)
  Provides information about features, products, and services that make Microsoft Visual FoxPro and the Windows operating system more accessible for people with disabilities.

Related Sections

• Getting Started with Visual FoxPro
  Provides information about installing, upgrading, and customizing Visual FoxPro.
• Using Visual FoxPro
  Explains how Visual FoxPro provides the tools you need to create and to manage high-performance database applications and components.
• Samples and Walkthroughs
  Describes how to create different types of applications and components with step-by-step guides.
• Overview of Visual FoxPro Features
  Describes how Visual FoxPro gives you more of everything you have come to expect in a database management system (DBMS) — speed, power, and flexibility.
• Developing Visual FoxPro Applications
  Includes conceptual information about how to develop Visual FoxPro applications, instructions for creating databases and the user interface, and other tasks needed to create Visual FoxPro applications.
• Programming in Visual FoxPro
  Describes how understanding object-oriented programming techniques and the event-driven model can maximize your programming productivity and enable you to access the full power of Visual FoxPro.
• Development Productivity Tools
  Explains that Visual FoxPro provides developer tools for application development within the FoxPro application and the FoxPro language.

Optimizing Your System

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• 07/09/2007

Visual FoxPro is designed to be a fast relational database development system. However, applications you create with Visual FoxPro can have varying requirements and purposes. Therefore, you might want to optimize the operating system, Visual FoxPro, or your application for maximum performance.

In This Section

• Optimizing the Operating Environment
  Describes how to optimize computer hardware and and operating environment for running Visual FoxPro.
• Optimizing Visual FoxPro Startup Speed
  Describes how to optimize startup and operating speed in Visual FoxPro.
• Optimizing Visual FoxPro in a Multiuser Environment
  Describes how to improve performance when running Visual FoxPro in a multiuser environment.

Related Sections

• Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment
  Provides information about setting environment options, accessibility features, and configuration.
• Getting Started with Visual FoxPro
  Discusses how to get started, including information about installing, upgrading, and customizing Visual FoxPro to create state-of-the-art enterprise database solutions.
• What’s New in Visual FoxPro
  Lists the new features and enhancements made to this version of Microsoft Visual FoxPro.
• Using Visual FoxPro
  Provides links to information on Visual FoxPro programming features that are designed to improve developer productivity, including Access and Assign methods, support for more graphic file formats, and language to simplify programming tasks.
• Developing Visual FoxPro Applications
  Includes conceptual information about how to develop Visual FoxPro applications, instructions for creating databases and the user interface, and other tasks needed to create Visual FoxPro applications.
• Programming in Visual FoxPro
  Discusses how to access the full power of Visual FoxPro by creating applications. Understanding object-oriented programming techniques and the event-driven model can maximize your programming productivity.

Optimizing the Operating Environment

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Maximizing Memory and Virtual Memory
2. Managing Your Hard Disk
3. See Also

You can optimize Visual FoxPro performance by maximizing your computer’s hardware and operating environment. The following sections describe how you can optimize these areas:

• Maximizing Memory and Virtual Memory
• Managing Your Hard Disk

Maximizing Memory and Virtual Memory

Providing your computer with as much memory as possible is the most effective way to optimize your system for Visual FoxPro. You can also use memory more effectively by closing all other running applications on your computer. To maximize the use of your computer’s memory while running Visual FoxPro, follow these guidelines:

• Do not run other Windows applications while running Visual FoxPro.
• Use only those memory-resident programs needed for operation.
• Simplify the screen display.

You can free memory by simplifying the way windows and screen backgrounds display on your computer monitor.

• Use a color or a pattern for the desktop background instead of wallpaper.
• Use the lowest-resolution display that is practical for you. The higher resolution of the display, the more memory your computer requires and the slower your graphics and user-interface elements appear. For VGA-compatible displays that use an extended mode driver, such as Video 7 or 8514, using the standard VGA driver ensures faster display performance but provides lower resolution and less color support.

To increase the number of applications that you can run simultaneously, Microsoft Windows supports virtual memory by swapping segments of code that is the least recently used from memory to the hard disk in the form of a paging file. As a rule, the default settings in the Windows operating system for managing virtual memory meet the requirements of most users and are the recommended settings.

 Note

The paging file does not improve Visual FoxPro performance and is not a substitute for more memory.

Managing Your Hard Disk

Managing your hard disk can improve overall product speed. To get the best performance from your hard disk, provide a generous amount of disk space. If your hard disk has little free space, you can increase Visual FoxPro performance by removing unnecessary data or by purchasing a hard disk with greater capacity.

Disk input/output performance degrades significantly when a hard disk is nearly full. The more free hard disk space that is available, the more likely it is that contiguous blocks of disk space are available. Visual FoxPro uses this space for changes and additions to database, table, index, memo, and temporary files. Increasing free hard disk space improves performance of any commands that change or add to your files. More disk space also decreases the time required to read those files in response to your queries.

The way that Windows and Visual FoxPro manage files on disk can greatly affect the performance of your application. The following sections discuss managing files in directories and temporary files:

• Managing Files in Directories
• Managing Temporary Files

Managing Files in Directories

As a directory becomes increasingly congested with files, the operating system takes longer to find files. The speed of your system when searching directories is a factor that Visual FoxPro does not control. To improve the speed of directory searches, reduce the number of files in your directories by performing the following actions:

• Use the Visual FoxPro Project Manager to create and manage your files, segregate program files into separate directories, and avoid creating numerous generated files.
• When you want to distribute your application, create an application or an executable (.exe) file instead of numerous individually generated files.This process decreases the number of files in your application’s subdirectories and increases performance.
• If you delete a large number of files in one directory, copy the remaining files into a new directory or optimize the directory using a defragmenting utility program. NoteDeleting files from a directory does not automatically speed directory searching. When a file is deleted, the file is only marked for deletion and is still included in directory searches.
• When saving files, use short file paths to increase performance.For example, suppose you have a file path “C:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual FoxPro…”, which is a very long file path. Try to use shorter file paths.

Managing Temporary Files

Visual FoxPro creates temporary files for a variety of operations. For example, Visual FoxPro creates temporary files during editing, indexing, and sorting. Text editing sessions can also create a temporary or backup (.bak) copy of the edited file. By default, Visual FoxPro creates its temporary files in the same directory that Windows stores its temporary files unless you specifically designate an alternate location.

 Tip

In most cases, you should specify one location for all Visual FoxPro temporary files. Make sure that the location you specify contains enough space for all possible temporary files.

For more information, see How to: Specify the Location of Temporary Files.

Searching for Temporary Files

When Visual FoxPro searches for temporary files, for example, when you use the SYS(2023) – Temporary Path function to retrieve the temporary files path or when the TMPFILES, EDITWORK, PROGWORK, and SORTWORK settings in a Visual FoxPro configuration file do not specify a different location, the Windows API GetTempPath is used to search for the path containing the temporary files. GetTempPath searches a sequence of variables that differ depending on the operating system. Microsoft Windows 2000 and later include user variables that store the location of temporary files, while Microsoft Windows 95, 98, and Me include only global system environment variables for this purpose.

On Windows 2000 and later, GetTempPath, and therefore, SYS(2023), TMPFILES, EDITWORK, PROGWORK, and SORTWORK, searches the TMP user variable for the location of temporary files by default. If the TMP user variable does not specify a location, Visual FoxPro searches the following variables in a specific order:

• TMP system variable.
• TEMP user variable.
• TEMP system variable.

If these variables do not specify a location, the location for storing temporary files defaults to the home drive and path, or the Temp folder in the user’s Documents and Settings directory.

 Note

If more than one value is specified for TMP or TEMP, then the first value is used.

On Windows 95, 98, and Me, GetTempPath searches the TMP and TEMP global system variables in that order and then searches the current directory.

For more information, see SYS(2023) – Temporary Path and Special Terms for Configuration Files.

See Also

Concepts

Optimizing Visual FoxPro in a Multiuser Environment
Optimizing Visual FoxPro Startup Speed

Optimizing Visual FoxPro Startup Speed

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Managing Startup Speed
2. Optimizing the Load Size of Visual FoxPro
3. Optimizing Key SET Commands
4. See Also

Though Visual FoxPro is always fast, you can optimize the startup and operating speed. This section describes enhancing Visual FoxPro performance by managing startup speed and optimizing SET commands.

Managing Startup Speed

The time required to load and start Visual FoxPro relates to the physical size of Visual FoxPro, the length of the PATH statement in effect, the number of items to be found at startup, and other factors. You can control the load size, the search path, component file locations, and the startup SET command values of Visual FoxPro.

Managing File Locations

Visual FoxPro stores the FoxUser.dbf file, which contains user settings, in the user’s Application Data directory by default. You can display this location by typing ? HOME(7) in the Command window. Visual FoxPro searches for the FoxUser.dbf and Config.fpw files in the following places:

• In the startup application or executable file, if any.For example, you can start a Visual FoxPro application by typing the following code on the command line:Copy VFPversionNumber.exe MyApp.app  – or –CopyVFPversionNumber.exe MyApp.exe If the startup application or executable file contains a Config.fpw file, the configuration file is always used. You can override settings in a Config.fpw file that are bound inside an application by specifying an external Config.fpw file, using the -C command-line switch when starting an application or Visual FoxPro.
• In the working directory.
• Along the path established with the PATH environment variable.
• In the directory containing Visual FoxPro.

Controlling File Loading

You can also speed startup by preventing Visual FoxPro from loading files you don’t plan to use. If your application does not use the FoxUser or FoxHelp file, disable them in the Config.fpw file by using the following commands:Copy

RESOURCE = OFF
HELP = OFF

Visual FoxPro seeks all other Visual FoxPro components (GENXTAB, CONVERT, and so on) only in the Visual FoxPro directory. If you place components elsewhere, you must explicitly identify the path to those components in your Config.fpw file. For example, you might specify these locations:Copy

_TRANSPORT = c:migratetransport.prg
_GENXTAB = c:crosstabgenxtab.prg
_FOXREF = c:coderefsfoxref.app

You can use the environment variable FOXPROWCFG to explicitly specify the location of Config.fpw. For details about the FOXPROWCFG variable, see Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment.

Optimizing the Load Size of Visual FoxPro

If you don’t plan on using any of the Visual FoxPro components listed previously, set them to an empty string to speed startup.

To optimize the load size of Visual FoxPro, use the following syntax:Copy

        cFileVariable = ""

Replace cFileVariable with _TRANSPORT, _CONVERT, or other variables as appropriate.

Optimizing Key SET Commands

You can optimize the operation of Visual FoxPro by tuning the values of certain SET commands.

The following table shows SET commands that have the greatest effect on performance, and their settings for maximum performance. You can specify SET command values by including them in the Config.fpw file, by typing them in the Command window, or by setting them in the Options dialog box.

Command Settings for Maximum PerformanceExpand table

See Also

Reference

SET ESCAPE Command
SET REFRESH Command
SET SYSMENU Command
Command Window (Visual FoxPro)

Concepts

Optimizing Visual FoxPro in a Multiuser Environment
Optimizing the Operating Environment

Other Resources

Optimizing Your System
Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment

Optimizing Visual FoxPro in a Multiuser Environment

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Managing Temporary Files
2. Sharing Tables
3. See Also

When you run Visual FoxPro or Visual FoxPro applications in a multiuser environment, you can improve performance by managing storage of temporary files and controlling the way tables are shared.

Managing Temporary Files

In most multiuser environments, it is recommended that you save temporary files to local disks or memory when networked computers contain large amounts of free disk space. Redirecting storage of temporary files can improve performance by reducing frequent access to the network drive.

On small networks with older networked computers and slow hard disks, you might experience better performance by leaving Visual FoxPro temporary files on the file server; however, when in doubt, direct temporary files to the local disk. When working on large, heavily used networks, always redirect temporary files to the local disk.

By saving all temporary files to a single directory on a local hard drive, you can safely erase the contents of the temporary file directory on the file server prior to each Visual FoxPro session. This action purges the system of any temporary files that were created but not erased by Visual FoxPro due to a system reboot or power loss.

For more information about temporary files, see Optimizing the Operating Environment and How to: Specify the Location of Temporary Files.

Sharing Tables

If users share tables on a network, the way you manage access to them can affect performance.

• Avoid opening and closing tables repeatedly.
• Buffer write operations to tables that are not shared.
• Provide exclusive access to tables.
• Limit the time on locking tables.

Providing Exclusive Access

You can enhance performance for the APPEND, REPLACE, and DELETE commands and operations that run at times when no other users require access to the data, for example, overnight updates, by opening data files for exclusive use. When tables are open for exclusive use, performance improves because Visual FoxPro does not need to test the status of record or file locks.

To open data files for exclusive use, use the EXCLUSIVE clause in the USE and OPEN DATABASE commands. For more information, see USE Command and OPEN DATABASE Command.

Limiting the Time on Locking Tables

You can reduce contention between users for write access to a table or record by shortening the amount of time for locking a record or table. Instead of locking a record while the user edits it, lock the record only after it has been edited. Using optimistic row buffering provides the shortest amount of time that records are locked. For more information, see Buffering Data.

See Also

Concepts

Optimizing Applications in Multiuser Environments

Visual FoxPro Configuration

• Article
• 07/09/2007

The configuration of Visual FoxPro determines how your copy of Visual FoxPro looks and behaves. For example, you can establish the default locations for files used with Visual FoxPro, how your source code looks in an edit window, and the format of dates and times.

You can make changes to the Visual FoxPro configuration that exist for the current session only (temporary), or specify them as the default settings for the next time you start Visual FoxPro (permanent). If the settings are temporary, they are stored in memory and are discarded when you quit Visual FoxPro.

If you make permanent settings, they are stored in the Microsoft Windows registry or Visual FoxPro resource file. The Windows registry is a database that stores configuration information about the operating system, all Windows applications, OLE, and optional components such as ODBC. For example, the registry is where Windows stores the associations between file name extensions and applications so that when you click a file name, Windows can launch or activate the appropriate application.

For an example of how to change the registry, you can examine Registry.prg in the SamplesClasses directory, which contains numerous methods based on Windows API calls and makes it possible for you to manipulate the Windows registry.

Similarly, Visual FoxPro stores its application-specific configuration information in the registry. When you start Visual FoxPro, the program reads the configuration information in the registry and sets the configuration according to those settings. After reading the registry, Visual FoxPro also checks for a configuration file, which is a text file in which you can store configuration settings to override the defaults stored in the registry. After Visual FoxPro has started, you can make additional configuration settings using the Options Dialog Box or SET commands. For more information, see How to: View and Change Environment Settings.

 Note

The run-time version of Visual FoxPro does not read the Windows registry when starting up, as registry settings are designed primarily to configure the development environment. If you intend to distribute your Visual FoxPro applications using a run-time library, you can establish configuration settings in two ways: with a configuration file, or with a program that manipulates the Windows registry on the user’s computer.

Visual FoxPro also maintains a resource file, Foxuser.dbf, that stores information about the current state of the program when you quit. For example, the resource file contains information about the location and size of the Command window, current keyboard macros, the toolbars that are displayed, and so on. The Foxuser.dbf file is an ordinary Visual FoxPro table, which you can read and change as required by your application.

 Tip

If the data in the Foxuser.dbf file becomes corrupted or invalid, it can cause Visual FoxPro to behave in an erratic manner. If you do not manually store anything in the table, for example keyboard macros, deleting the table might help.

See Also

Tasks

How to: View and Change Environment Settings
How to: Change Configuration Settings in the Windows Registry

Reference

Options Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro)
ODBC Registry Foundation Class
Command Window (Visual FoxPro)
SET RESOURCE Command

Other Resources

Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can make changes to the Visual FoxPro environment by using the Options dialog box, editing the Windows registry, overriding default configuration settings, customizing the Project Manager, and configuring Visual FoxPro toolbars.

In This Section

• How to: View and Change Environment Settings
  Describes how to view and change environment settings.
• How to: Specify the Location of Temporary Files
  Describes how to change the default location for saving temporary files in Visual FoxPro.
• How to: Change Configuration Settings in the Windows Registry
  Describes how configure Visual FoxPro by making changes to the Windows registry using the Registry Editor.
• Setting Configuration Options at Startup
  Describes how to set or override default configuration opens when starting Visual FoxPro.
• How to: Specify the Configuration File
  Describes how to specify or suppress configuration files when starting Visual FoxPro.
• How to: Create a Configuration File
  Describes how to create configuration files to use when starting Visual FoxPro.
• Special Terms for Configuration Files
  Provides a list of special terms you can use in configuration files.
• How to: Use Command-Line Options When Starting Visual FoxPro
  Explains how to specify startup options by using a command-line switch.
• How to: Configure Visual FoxPro Toolbars
  Describes how to customize, display, and hide toolbars.
• How to: Dock Windows
  Describes how to dock Visual FoxPro windows to the main Visual FoxPro window or to each other.
• How to: Set Editor Options
  Explains how to configure Visual FoxPro editors.
• How to: Display and Print Source Code in Color
  Describes how to configure settings for displaying and printing program files, methods, stored procedures, and memos in color.
• Automating Keystroke Tasks with Macros
  Describes how to record and save keystrokes using macros.

Related Sections

• Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment
  Explains customizing development environment settings.
• Visual FoxPro Configuration
  Explains configuring Visual FoxPro.
• Restoring the Visual FoxPro Interactive Environment
  Describes closing operations and clearing the Visual FoxPro desktop to return to its interactive state.

How to: View and Change Environment Settings

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Displaying Environment Settings
2. Saving Environment Settings
3. Setting the Environment Using the SET Command
4. See Also

To view and change environment settings, use the Options dialog box. The Options dialog box contains a series of tabs representing different categories of environment options.

To display the Options dialog box

• On the Tools menu, click Options.

The Options dialog box appears and displays tabs from which you can choose desired settings. For details about options you can set using each tab, see the Options Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro).

Displaying Environment Settings

When you run Visual FoxPro, you can verify environment settings by using the Options dialog box or the DISPLAY STATUS Command. Also, you can display the values of individual SET Commands to verify settings.

To display multiple environment settings

• On the Tools menu, click Options to display the Options dialog box and view the current settings. – OR – 
• Type DISPLAY STATUS in the Command window.

To display individual environment settings

• Use the SET( ) Function in the Command window to display the current value of any SET commands.

For example, to view the current status of SET TALK, type:Copy

? SET("TALK")

 Note

Because settings are valid only for the current data session, you must capture your settings and place them in a program or a form’s Init event code for every private data session.

For more information, see SET Command Overview.

To echo Options dialog box settings to the Debug Output window

1. On the Tools menu, click Debugger.
2. Click the main Visual FoxPro window to select it and on the Tools menu, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, make setting choices.
4. Hold down the SHIFT key and click OK.The settings are echoed to the Debug Output window.
5. Click the Visual FoxPro Debugger window to select it and copy the setting commands from the Debug Output window.

Saving Environment Settings

You can save the settings you make in the Options dialog box for the current data session or as default (permanent) settings for your copy of Visual FoxPro.

To save settings for the current session only

1. In the Options dialog box, select your settings.
2. Click OK.

When you save settings for the current session only, they remain in effect until you quit Visual FoxPro (or until you change them again). To save changes permanently, save them as default settings. This action stores your settings in the Windows registry.

To save current settings as default settings

1. In the Options dialog box, select your settings.
2. Click Set As Default. NoteThe Set as Default button is disabled until you make a change to the current settings.

You can override default settings either by issuing SET commands or by specifying a configuration file when you start Visual FoxPro. For details, see Setting Configuration Options at Startup.

Setting the Environment Using the SET Command

You can programmatically modify most options displayed on the tabs in the Options dialog box using SET commands or by assigning a value to a system variable.

 Note

When you configure the environment using SET commands, the settings take effect only for the current session of Visual FoxPro. When you quit the program, the system discards your settings. This means you must reissue the SET commands. However, you can automate this process by issuing SET commands at startup or using a configuration file. For details, see Setting Configuration Options at Startup.

 Tip

To save a configuration made with SET commands, open the Options dialog box and save your settings there.

To set the environment programmatically

• Use the SET commands that you want.

For example, the following lines of code set a default path, add a clock to the status bar and use a year-month-date (yy.mm.dd) format for dates:Copy

SET DEFAULT TO HOME()+"VFP"
SET CLOCK ON
SET DATE TO ANSI      

For more information, see SET Command Overview.

See Also

Tasks

Get Application Information from the Windows Registry Sample
How to: Change Configuration Settings in the Windows Registry

Reference

DISPLAY STATUS Command

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

How to: Specify the Location of Temporary Files

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can specify a different location for temporary files using the Visual FoxPro interface or by using the TMPFILES, EDITWORK, PROGWORK, and SORTWORK settings in a Visual FoxPro configuration file.

To specify the location of temporary files

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, click the File Locations tab.
3. In the File Type list, click Temporary Files, then Modify.
4. In the Change File Location dialog box, type a new location or click the ellipsis (…) button to browse and select a location for temporary files.

For more information, see Options Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro) and File Locations Tab, Options Dialog Box.

See Also

Reference

Special Terms for Configuration Files

Concepts

Optimizing the Operating Environment
Setting Configuration Options at Startup

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

How to: Change Configuration Settings in the Windows Registry

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can set the Visual FoxPro configuration by making changes directly in the Windows registry. To change the Windows registry, use the Registry Editor, a utility provided with Windows.

 Note

Use caution when changing the Windows registry. Changing the wrong registry entry or making an incorrect entry for a setting can introduce an error that prevents Visual FoxPro, or even Windows itself, from starting or working properly.

To change configuration settings in the registry

1. In Windows, start the Registry Editor.
2. In HKEY_CURRENT_USER node, browse to the SoftwareMicrosoftVisual FoxPro directory and open the folder for the current version of Visual FoxPro.
3. In the Options folder, double-click the name of the setting to change, and then enter a new value.
4. Close the Registry Editor.Your change will take effect the next time you start Visual FoxPro.

You can also make changes to the registry by calling Windows APIs from a Visual FoxPro program.

See Also

Tasks

Get Application Information from the Windows Registry Sample

Reference

SYS(3056) – Read Registry Settings

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings
Accessing APIs

Setting Configuration Options at Startup

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Using SET Commands in Applications
2. Using a Configuration File
3. See Also

You can establish configuration settings when you first start the program, which allows you to override default settings.

Using SET Commands in Applications

One way to establish configuration settings is to issue one or more SET commands when your application starts. For example, to configure your system to display a clock in the status bar when the application starts, you can issue this SET command:Copy

SET CLOCK ON

The exact point at which you issue the SET command depends on your application. In general, you issue SET commands from your application’s main program file, which is the program or form that controls access to the rest of your application. You can also issue SET commands from the Load or Init events of the form. If you are using private data sessions, it may be necessary to make these settings in the BeforeOpenTables Event of your DataEnvironment object. For details about specifying a main file for an application, see Compiling an Application.

If your application has a form set as main in the project manager, and it then launches a menu, you can add SETUP commands by entering them in the menu’s Setup option. For details see How to: Add Setup Code to a Menu System in Designing Menus and Toolbars.

 Tip

An efficient way to manage SET commands for startup is to create a procedure that contains all the commands that you want to issue. You can then call the procedure from the appropriate point in your application. Keeping all the SETUP commands in a single procedure makes it easier to debug and maintain your configuration settings. You can also put the code in the class on which your application object is based, or the class on which your forms are based.

Using a Configuration File

In addition to setting the Visual FoxPro environment using the Options dialog box or SET commands, you can establish preferred settings and save them in one or more configuration files. A Visual FoxPro configuration file is a text file in which you can specify values for SET commands, set system variables, and execute commands or call functions. Visual FoxPro reads the configuration file when starting up, establishing the settings and executing the commands in the file. Settings made in the configuration file override default settings made in the Options dialog box (and stored in the Windows registry).

Using a configuration file provides several advantages. You can:

• Override the default settings established in the Options dialog box.
• Maintain several different configuration files, each with different settings, so that Visual FoxPro can load a configuration suitable to a particular user or project.
• Make changes more easily than if you establish settings with the SET commands in the program initialization sequence.
• Start a program or call a function automatically when Visual FoxPro starts.

For instructions about working with configuration files, see How to: Create a Configuration File and How to: Specify the Configuration File.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Use Command-Line Options When Starting Visual FoxPro
How to: Add Setup Code to a Menu System

Reference

_STARTUP System Variable

Other Resources

Compiling an Application
Designing Menus and Toolbars
Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

How to: Specify the Configuration File

• Article
• 07/09/2007

When Visual FoxPro starts, you can specify a configuration file or bypass all configuration files, allowing Visual FoxPro to use its default settings.

When Visual FoxPro loads a configuration file, the settings in that file take precedence over corresponding default settings made in the Options dialog box.

To specify a configuration file

• In the command line that starts Visual FoxPro, specify the -C switch and the name of the configuration file that you want to use (including a path if necessary). Do not put a space between the switch and the file name.-or-
• In Windows, double-click the name of the configuration file to use. Visual FoxPro will start using the configuration file you have selected.

If you want to avoid using any configuration file, including the default file Config.fpw, you can suppress all configuration files. This causes Visual FoxPro to use only the default settings established in the Options dialog box.

To suppress a configuration file

• In the command line that starts Visual FoxPro, add the -C switch with nothing after it.For example, to avoid any configuration file found in the startup directory or the system path, use this command line:CopyVFPVersionNumber.exe -C

Specifying an External Configuration File

You can use an external configuration file in addition to an internal configuration file in circumstances where you need to configure settings separately. For example, setting SCREEN=OFF should be performed in an internal configuration file.

You can set Visual FoxPro to read an external configuration file following an internal configuration file by using the new ALLOWEXTERNAL directive in the internal configuration file. When you include the setting ALLOWEXTERNAL=ON in the internal configuration file, Visual FoxPro searches for an external configuration file, usually Config.fpw, and reads its settings. You can also specify a different configuration file using the -C command-line switch when starting Visual FoxPro.

 Note

For .exe and .dll file servers, Visual FoxPro supports only those configuration files bound inside the server. Therefore, Visual FoxPro disregards the ALLOWEXTERNAL setting.

To read an external configuration file after an internal one

1. In the internal configuration file, set the special term ALLOWEXTERNAL to on.CopyALLOWEXTERNAL = ON
2. When you start your program, either specify a second configuration file using the -C command-line switch or have a second configuration file in the default program path.

For more information about command-line switches, see How to: Use Command-Line Options When Starting Visual FoxPro.

The settings in an external configuration file take precedence over those in the internal configuration file, if duplicate settings exist, because the external configuration file is read after the internal file. Visual FoxPro does not begin initialization until it reads both files.

If you want to specify the configuration file as read-only, place the file in your project and mark it as Included. If you want to specify that the file can be modified, place the file in your project and mark it as Excluded. You can then distribute the file separately with your application or executable file. By convention, configuration files use the .fpw extension.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Use Command-Line Options When Starting Visual FoxPro
How to: Add Setup Code to a Menu System

Reference

_STARTUP System Variable

Concepts

Setting Configuration Options at Startup

Other Resources

Compiling an Application
Designing Menus and Toolbars
Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

How to: Create a Configuration File

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Starting Applications or Programs Automatically
2. See Also

To create a configuration file, use the Visual FoxPro editor, or any editor that can create text files, to create a text file in the directory where Visual FoxPro is installed. Earlier versions of Visual FoxPro created the file Config.fpw in the startup directory. Config.fpw became the default configuration file. You can create any program file and use it to establish default settings and behaviors by starting Visual FoxPro using that file either by double clicking the file or using a command line reference.

If you are creating a new configuration file, you can save it using any name you want. By convention, configuration files have the extension .fpw.

When you start Visual FoxPro, you can use a default configuration file from the following locations in order:

• Current working directory
• Directory where Visual FoxPro is installed
• Directories listed in the DOS path

If Visual FoxPro does not find a configuration file in these locations, Visual FoxPro uses only the default settings established in the Options dialog box.

 Note

For details about specifying an alternative to the default file name or location for the configuration file, see How to: Specify the Configuration File.

Enter configuration settings using one of these methods:

• Make settings with the SET command.
• Set system variables.
• Call programs or functions.
• Include special terms used only in configuration files.

To enter SET commands in a configuration file

• Enter SET commands without the SET keyword and with an equal sign.For example, to set a default path type, use this format:CopyDEFAULT = HOME()+"VFP" To add a clock to the status bar, use this command:CopyCLOCK = ON

To enter a setting for a system variable, use the same syntax you would use in the Command window or in a program.

To set system variables in a configuration file

• Enter the name of the system variable, an equal sign (=), and the value to set the variable to.For example, the following command specifies an alternative spell-checking program:Copy_SPELLCHK = "SPLLCHK.EXE"

You can also call functions or execute programs from within a configuration file by using the COMMAND command. For example, you can start an initialization program as part of the startup process.

To call functions or execute commands in a configuration file

• Enter COMMAND, an equal sign (=), and the command to execute or function to call.For example, to include the Visual FoxPro version number in the caption of the main Visual FoxPro window, use this command:CopyCOMMAND =_SCREEN.Caption="Visual FoxPro " + VERS(4) The following command launches a specific application when Visual FoxPro starts:CopyCOMMAND = DO MYAPP.APP

You can also use special terms in a configuration file that do not correspond to SET value, system variables, or commands.

To use special terms in a configuration file

• Enter the special term, an equal sign (=), and the setting.For example, to set the maximum number of variables available in Visual FoxPro, use this command:CopyMVCOUNT = 2048

For a complete list of special terms for configuration files, see Special Terms for Configuration Files.

Starting Applications or Programs Automatically

You can insert commands into a configuration file that automatically launches programs when Visual FoxPro starts. You can use these commands either to start an entire application or to start just a program, such as one that initializes system variables.

To start applications from a configuration file

1. Assign the name of your application to the _STARTUP System Variable anywhere in the configuration file:Copy_STARTUP = MYAPP.APP -or-
2. Use the COMMAND command, which must be the last line in your configuration file:CopyCOMMAND = DO MYAPP.APP

See Also

Tasks

How to: Use Command-Line Options When Starting Visual FoxPro
How to: Add Setup Code to a Menu System

Reference

_STARTUP System Variable

Concepts

Setting Configuration Options at Startup

Other Resources

Compiling an Application
Designing Menus and Toolbars
Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

Special Terms for Configuration Files

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Remarks
2. See Also

The following table lists special terms you can use in configuration files. You can also SET commands, system variables, and the _STARTUP setting in configuration files to customize the Visual FoxPro environment.

Remarks

Expand table

See Also

Reference

SET Command Overview

Concepts

Setting Configuration Options at Startup

Other Resources

Optimizing Applications
Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

How to: Use Command-Line Options When Starting Visual FoxPro

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In addition to using the SET command and a configuration file, you can specify startup options by including a command-line switch. For example, using command-line options, you can suppress the display of the Visual FoxPro splash screen, which displays at the startup of Visual FoxPro, or specify a nondefault configuration file.

To use a command-line switch

• On the command line or in a shortcut, add the switch after the name of the Visual FoxPro executable file, VFPVersionNumber.exe where VersionNumber represents the version number of this release or any Visual FoxPro-created .exe file. NoteIf the command-line switch requires arguments, such as a file name, do not put a space between the switch and the argument. For example, to specify a configuration file, use a command such as:CopyC:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual FoxPro VersionNumberVFPVersionNumber.exe -CC:MYAPP.FPW Separate multiple options with single spaces.

The following table lists the command-line switches available in Visual FoxPro.Expand table

See Also

Tasks

How to: Configure Visual FoxPro Toolbars

Concepts

Setting Configuration Options at Startup

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings
Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment

How to: Configure Visual FoxPro Toolbars

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Activating and Deactivating Toolbars
2. Customizing Existing Toolbars
3. See Also

Visual FoxPro includes the following customizable toolbars.Expand table

You can place as many toolbars on your screen as you need while working. You can dock toolbars to the top, bottom, or sides of your screen to customize your working environment. Visual FoxPro saves the positions of the toolbars so they remain where you last placed them.

To dock a toolbar

• Drag the toolbar to the top, bottom, or side of your screen.-OR-
• Use the DOCK Command to dock the toolbar.

Activating and Deactivating Toolbars

By default, only the Standard toolbar is visible. When you use a Visual FoxPro designer tool (for example, the Form Designer), the designer displays the toolbars that you commonly need when working with that designer tool. However, you can activate a toolbar any time you require it.

To activate a toolbar

• Run the associated tool.–OR–

To deactivate a toolbar

• Close the associated tool.–OR–

You can also programmatically activate and deactivate toolbars that have been previously activated by using the DEACTIVATE WINDOW or ACTIVATE WINDOW commands as in the following example.Copy

IF WVISIBLE ("Color Palette")
DEACTIVATE WINDOW("Color Palette")
ENDIF

Customizing Existing Toolbars

The easiest way to create custom toolbars is by modifying the toolbars already provided with Visual FoxPro. You can:

• Modify an existing toolbar by adding or removing buttons.
• Create a new toolbar that contains buttons from existing toolbars.

You can also define custom toolbars by creating a custom toolbar class using code. For details, see Designing Menus and Toolbars.

You can modify any of the toolbars provided with Visual FoxPro. For example, you might want to remove a button from an existing toolbar, or copy buttons from one toolbar to another.

To modify an existing Visual FoxPro toolbar

1. From the View menu, choose Toolbars.
2. Select the toolbar you want to customize and choose Customize.
3. Remove buttons from the toolbar by dragging them off of the toolbar.
4. Add buttons to the toolbar by selecting an appropriate category in the Customize Toolbar dialog box and then dragging the appropriate buttons onto the toolbar.
5. Complete the toolbar by choosing Close in the Customize Toolbar dialog box and then closing the toolbar window. TipIf you change a Visual FoxPro toolbar, you can restore it to its original configuration of buttons by selecting the toolbar in the Toolbar dialog box and then choosing Reset.

You can create your own toolbars comprised of buttons from other toolbars.

To create your own toolbar

1. From the View menu, choose Toolbars.
2. Choose New.
3. In the New Toolbar dialog box, name the toolbar.
4. Add buttons to the toolbar by selecting a category in the Customize Toolbar dialog box and then dragging the appropriate buttons onto the toolbar.
5. You can rearrange buttons on the toolbar by dragging them to the desired position.
6. Complete the toolbar by choosing Close in the Customize Toolbar dialog box and then closing the toolbar window. NoteYou cannot reset buttons on a toolbar you create.

To delete a toolbar you created

1. From the View menu, choose Toolbars.
2. Select the toolbar you want to delete.
3. Choose Delete.
4. Choose OK to confirm the deletion. NoteYou cannot delete toolbars provided by Visual FoxPro.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Use Command-Line Options When Starting Visual FoxPro
How to: Set Editor Options

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings
Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment
Designing Menus and Toolbars

How to: Dock Windows

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Docking Modes
2. See Also

You can dock certain Visual FoxPro Integrated Development Environment (IDE) windows to the Visual FoxPro desktop window, each other, or user-defined forms. The following windows are dockable:

• Call Stack
• Command
• Data Session (View)
• Debugger
• Document View
• Locals
• Output
• Properties
• Trace
• Watch

 Note

Historically in prior versions of Visual FoxPro, the Data Session window has always been referred to as the View window. Additionally, language used to control this window, such as HIDE WINDOW, ACTIVATE WINDOW, WONTOP( ), also refers to this window as the View window.

When you drag a dockable window to a Visual FoxPro desktop window boundary, the dockable window repositions itself against the chosen boundary. The state and location of docked windows persist from the last user session.

To dock windows programmatically and retrieve their dock states, see DOCK Command and ADOCKSTATE( ) Function.

You can change the dockable status of a dockable window.

To enable or disable dockable status

1. Right-click the title bar of an open and dockable window.
2. Click Dockable to enable or disable the dockable status of the window. A check mark appears when the window is dockable.-OR-
3. Click the desired window to make the window active.
4. On the Window menu, click Dockable to enable or disable the dockable status of the window. A check mark appears when the window is dockable.

For more information about retrieving the dockable status for a window programmatically, see WDOCKABLE( ) Function.

Docking Modes

You can dock windows in three different modes:

• Normal dockingWindows dock to a boundary of the Visual FoxPro desktop window.
• Linked dockingWindows dock to each other and share a dockable window container.
• Tabbed dockingWindows dock to each other and share the full window through the use of tabs.

You can use tabbed docking and linked docking together.

To create normal docking

1. Make sure the docking status of the window or windows is set to Dockable.
2. Drag the window title bar to a boundary of the Visual FoxPro desktop window.

To create linked docking

1. Make sure the docking status of the window or windows is set to Dockable.
2. Drag the title bar of the desired window to a boundary or docking zone of the target window.

The docking zone is indicated when the window you are dragging changes shape to fit the target window. Visual FoxPro creates an additional title bar for link-docked windows.

To create tabbed docking

1. Make sure the docking status of the window or windows is set to Dockable.
2. Drag the title bar of the desired window to the title bar of the target window.

Visual FoxPro adds tabs to the bottom boundary of the docked windows.

To undock windows

• To undock normal-docked windows, drag the title bar of the desired window away from the shared window boundary.-or-
• To undock link-docked windows, drag the title bar of the desired window away from the shared window.-or-
• To undock tab-docked windows, drag the tab of the desired window away from the shared window.

You can disable docking behavior by holding the CTRL key while dragging a window.

Deleting or editing the FoxUser.dbf resource file, which contains your settings, restores or changes your default window settings. For more information about altering your settings, see FoxUser Resource File Structure.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Dock Forms
How to: Dock Toolbars

Reference

Visual FoxPro System Windows
Document View Window

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

How to: Set Editor Options

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can configure the window of the Visual FoxPro editor to display text the way you want such as setting the font, text alignment, or syntax coloring. You can also make the editor easier to use by setting preferences for indentation, wordwrap, automatic backup copies, and other features.

To configure the editing window, set your preferences in the Edit Properties dialog box that appears after you open a program or text file open and select Properties from the Edit menu. For details about settings you can configure, see Edit Properties Dialog Box.

To display the Edit Properties dialog box

1. Open the editing window for a program, text file, or control.
2. From the Edit menu that becomes active, select Properties. TipYou can display the Font dialog box directly by right-clicking the editing window and choosing Font from the shortcut menu.

For more information about opening a program or text file, see How to: Create Programs.

By default, the settings that you make in the Edit Properties dialog box persist for that file. For example, if you change the font, the font for all text in the current window changes. If you open another editing window, the default settings apply.

You can choose to save your settings so that they apply to all files of the same type, or not to save the new settings at all. If you apply your settings to similar file types, Visual FoxPro uses the settings you make when you edit files with the same extension, for example, all .prg files, or all method code in the Form Designer.

To avoid persisting changes to editor settings

• In the Edit Properties window, clear the Save Preferences option and then click OK.

To apply editor options to similar files

• In the Edit Properties dialog box, select Use These Preferences As Default and then click OK.

You can also set the color and font that the editor uses to identify keywords, comments, and other elements of programs. For details, see Editor Tab, Options Dialog Box.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Change Configuration Settings in the Windows Registry
How to: Display and Print Source Code in Color

Reference

Editing Window
Editor Tab, Options Dialog Box

Concepts

Restoring the Visual FoxPro Interactive Environment

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

How to: Display and Print Source Code in Color

• Article
• 07/09/2007

In this article

1. Displaying Source Code in Color
2. Printing Source Code in Color
3. See Also

You can display and print code with color syntax in the Command window and Visual FoxPro editors for program (.prg) files, methods, stored procedures, and memos.

The following sections contain more information about displaying and printing code in color:

• Displaying Source Code in Color
• Printing Source Code in Color

Displaying Source Code in Color

You can turn on syntax coloring separately for each editing window; however; the color syntax settings that you choose in the Editor tab of the Options dialog box apply to the Command window and most other editing windows. For more information, see Editor Tab, Options Dialog Box and Editing Window.

 Note

To display color syntax in run-time applications, Visual FoxPro must be configured to display color syntax. Run-time applications display only the default color settings because run-time applications do not check the Windows registry for settings that you change in the Options dialog box, which specifies the default settings for color syntax.

When color syntax is turned on, Visual FoxPro performs background compilation for the current and single line of code that you are typing. When a line of code contains invalid syntax, Visual FoxPro displays the line of code with the selected formatting style.

To display color syntax in an editing window

1. Open the editing window that you want to display color syntax.
2. On the Edit menu, choose Properties.
3. In the Edit Properties dialog box, select the Syntax coloring check box.
4. Click OK.

Syntax coloring is activated for the editing window you selected. For more information, see Edit Properties Dialog Box.

You can also display source code files to the screen in color using the TYPE command. For more information, see TYPE Command.

To customize color syntax settings

1. On the Tools menu, choose Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, choose the Editor tab.
3. Under Syntax color settings, choose the color settings that you want.
4. When you are finished choosing settings, click OK.

The color settings you chose take effect.

To set formatting for invalid color syntax

1. Turn on syntax coloring for the editing window.
2. On the Tools menu, choose Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, choose the Editor tab.
4. In the Background Compile box, choose the formatting style you want.

Invalid syntax displays in the editing window with the formatting style you chose.

Printing Source Code in Color

You can print source code in color wherever color syntax appears, such as program files, methods, stored procedures, and memos.

 Note

To print your code files in color, you must be connected to a color printer to select the color printing options available for your printer. Background colors set in the Editor tab of the Options dialog box are not printed. If you select color printing for source code files, hyperlinks appear underlined.

To print source code in color

1. Open the program file or code you want to print.
2. On the File menu, choose Print.
3. In the Print dialog box, choose your color printer, and then click Preferences.
4. Select the color printing options available for your printer.
5. When you are finished, click Print.

When connected to a color printer, you can also print source code in color using the TYPE command with the TO PRINTER clause.

For more information, see Print Dialog Box (Visual FoxPro) and TYPE Command.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Set Editor Options
How to: View and Change Environment Settings

Other Resources

Visual FoxPro Environment Settings

Automating Keystroke Tasks with Macros

• Article
• 07/09/2007

If you find yourself repeating the same keystrokes, or if you want to automate some keystroke tasks for your users, you can record and save these keystrokes in macros by using the Macros dialog box.

 Note

To use macros, any keyboard you use must have function keys F1 to F9, and a CTRL key or an ALT key.

In This Section

• How to: Clear Macro Definitions
  Provides instructions on how to use the Macros dialog box to clear macro key definitions.
• How to: Create, Save, and Restore Macro Sets
  Describes how you can create macro sets through the Macros dialog box.
• How to: Edit Macros (Visual FoxPro)
  Explains how the Macros dialog box makes it possible to edit existing macros.
• How to: Record Macros (Visual FoxPro)
  Describes the steps to record keystroke macros in Visual FoxPro.
• How to: Set a Default Macro Set
  Explains how you can create and set your own default macro set in Visual FoxPro.

Related Sections

• Visual FoxPro Environment Settings
  Describes different ways to change Visual FoxPro environment settings such as using the Options dialog box, setting configuration options at program startup, using command-line options. You can configure Visual FoxPro toolbars, dock windows, set editor options, and customize the appearance of your applications without altering code.
• Optimizing Your System
  Provides information about optimizing your operating environment.
• Development Productivity Tools
  Discusses the different tools available to help make creating Visual FoxPro applications easier and faster.

How to: Clear Macro Definitions

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can clear macro key definitions through the Macros Dialog Box.

To clear a macro definition

1. From the Macros dialog box, select a macro from the Individual Macro list.
2. Choose Clear.

See Also

Reference

Macros Dialog Box

Other Resources

Automating Keystroke Tasks with Macros

How to: Create, Save, and Restore Macro Sets

• Article
• 07/09/2007

A macro set is a defined set of keys and their associated macros stored in a file with the extension .FKY. You can create macro sets through the Macros Dialog Box.

To create a macro set

1. From the Macros dialog box, create individual key macros.
2. Choose Save.
3. In the Save Current Macros To box, enter a name for the macro set and choose Save.

To restore a macro set

1. From the Macros dialog box, choose Restore.
2. Select a macro set file and then choose OK.

See Also

Reference

CLEAR Commands
Macros Dialog Box
RESTORE MACROS Command
SAVE MACROS Command

Other Resources

Automating Keystroke Tasks with Macros

How to: Edit Macros (Visual FoxPro)

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can edit existing macros through the Macros Dialog Box.

To edit a macro

1. From the Macros dialog box, select a macro from the Individual Macro list and then choose Edit.
2. Modify the macro contents.
3. Choose OK.

See Also

Reference

CLEAR Commands
Macros Dialog Box
SET FUNCTION Command

Other Resources

Automating Keystroke Tasks with Macros

How to: Record Macros (Visual FoxPro)

• Article
• 07/09/2007

You can record keystroke macros in Visual FoxPro through the Macros Dialog Box.

To record a macro

1. From the Tools menu, choose Macros.
2. In the Macros dialog box, choose Record.
3. Press the key or type the key combination you want to define.
4. Enter a name for the macro or accept the default and then choose OK.

Visual FoxPro begins recording every keystroke.

 Note

Macro names cannot contain spaces.

To stop recording a macro

1. From the Tools menu, choose Macros.
2. In the Stop Recording Macro Dialog Box, choose from the following:
   • To save the macro as is, choose OK.
   • To continue recording, choose Continue.
   • To discard the macro, choose Discard.
   • To insert a literal keystroke (the literal meaning of a key instead of any meaning currently assigned to it), choose Insert Literal.
   • To insert a pause, select Seconds, add the amount of time, and choose Insert Pause.

See Also

Reference

Macros Dialog Box
ON KEY LABEL Command
SET FUNCTION Command
Stop Recording Macro Dialog Box

Other Resources

Automating Keystroke Tasks with Macros

How to: Set a Default Macro Set

• Article
• 07/09/2007

A default macro set exists when Visual FoxPro starts. You can create and set your own default macro set through the Macros Dialog Box.

To set a default macro set

1. From the Macros dialog box, create or restore a macro set.
2. Choose Set Default.

See Also

Reference

Macros Dialog Box
RESTORE MACROS Command

Other Resources

Automating Keystroke Tasks with Macros

In the Visual FoxPro Documentation
What’s New in Visual FoxPro
Describes the new features and enhancements included in this version of Visual FoxPro.

Getting Started with Visual FoxPro
Provides information about where to find the Readme file, installing and upgrading from previous versions, configuring Visual FoxPro, and customizing the development environment.

Using Visual FoxPro
Provides an overview of Visual FoxPro features, describes concepts and productivity tools for developing, programming, and managing high-performance database applications and components.

Samples and Walkthroughs
Contains Visual FoxPro code samples and step-by-step walkthroughs that you can use for experimenting with and learning Visual FoxPro features.

Reference
Includes Visual FoxPro general, programming language, user interface, and error message reference topics.

Product Support
Provides information about Microsoft product support services for Visual FoxPro.

Additional Information

Microsoft Visual FoxPro Web Site

Provides a link to the Microsoft Visual FoxPro Web site for additional information and resources for Visual FoxPro.Microsoft Visual FoxPro Community

Provides a link to Microsoft Visual FoxPro Online Community Web site for third-party community resources and newsgroups.Microsoft Visual FoxPro Training and Resources

Provides a link to the Visual FoxPro training Web site to find information about training, books, and events for Visual FoxPro. Accessibility for People with Disabilities

Provides information about features that make Visual FoxPro more accessible for people with disabilities.

This release of Visual FoxPro contains many new features and enhancements. The following sections describe these new features and enhancements.

In This Section

Guide to Reporting Improvements

A roadmap to all new Reporting enhancements.Data and XML Feature Enhancements

Describes additions and improvements to Visual FoxPro data features.SQL Language Improvements

Describes enhancements to SQL language such as SELECT – SQL Command.Class Enhancements

Describes additions and improvements to Visual FoxPro classes, forms, controls and object-oriented related features.Language Enhancements

Describes additions and improvements to the Visual FoxPro programming language.Interactive Development Environment (IDE) Enhancements

Describes additions and improvements made to the Visual FoxPro IDE.Enhancements to Visual FoxPro Designers

Describes improvements made to designers available in Visual FoxPro.Miscellaneous Enhancements

Describes other improvements made in this version of Visual FoxPro.Changes in Functionality for the Current Release

Describes changes in the behavior of existing language and functionality.Visual FoxPro New Reserved Words

Lists new reserved words added to Visual FoxPro.

Related Sections

Getting Started with Visual FoxPro

Provides information about where to find the ReadMe file and how to install and upgrade from previous versions, configure Visual FoxPro, and customize the development environment.Using Visual FoxPro

Provides an overview of Visual FoxPro features, describes concepts and productivity tools for developing, programming, and managing high-performance database applications and components, and provides walkthroughs that help get you started. With the robust tools and data-centric object-oriented language that Visual FoxPro offers, you can build modern, scalable, multi-tier applications that integrate client/server computing and the Internet.Samples and Walkthroughs

Contains Visual FoxPro code samples and step-by-step walkthroughs that you can use for experimenting with and learning Visual FoxPro features.Reference (Visual FoxPro)

Describes Visual FoxPro general, programming language, user interface, and error message reference topics.Product Support (Visual FoxPro)

Provides information about Microsoft product support services for Visual FoxPro.

Guide to Reporting Improvements

Visual FoxPro 9’s Report System has undergone a thorough revision. This topic sketches the broad outlines of the changes, and provides you with information about where to look for details.

The following main areas of enhancements to the Report System are covered in sections of this topic. Design-time enhancements.

Multiple features and changes make designing reports in Visual FoxPro better for you and your end-users. The Report Builder Application re-organizes your design experience out-of-the-box. If you want to customize the design process, Report Builder dialog boxes and Report Designer events are fully exposed for you to do so. Multiple detail bands.

You can handle multiple child tables and data relationships more flexibly in the revised Report Designer. When you run multiple-detail-band reports, you can leverage the new bands, with associated detail headers and footers, both for appropriate presentation of these relationships and for more capable calculations. Object-assisted run-time report processing.

An entirely re-built output system, including a new base class, changes the way Visual FoxPro provides output report and label files at run time. Object-assisted reporting provides better-quality output, new types of output, and an open-architecture based on a new Visual FoxPro base class, the ReportListener. A programmable Report Preview interface interacts with ReportListeners to give you full control over report preview experience. The Report Preview Application provides improved out-of-the-box previewing facilities. Printing, rendering, and character-set-handling improvements.

Visual FoxPro 9 makes better use of the operating system’s printing features and GDI+ rendering subsystem. It also handles multiple locales and character sets better than previous versions. These changes are showcased in the Report System, and are accessible for use in custom code during report design and run-time processing. Extensible use of report and label definition files (.frx and .lbx tables).

Visual FoxPro 9 handles your existing reports and labels without modification, while allowing you to add new features and behavior to these reports easily. This backward-compatible, yet forward-thinking, migration strategy is made possible by the Report System’s newly-flexible handling of the .frx and .lbx table structure.

Design-time Enhancements

Numerous changes in the Report System help you enhance the design-time experience for developers and end-users. This section directs you to information about design-time improvements.

Report Designer Event Hooks and the Report Builder Application

The Report Designer now offers Report Builder Hooks, which enable you to intercept events occurring during a report or label design session to override and extend designer activity. The default Report Builder Application replaces many of the standard reporting dialog boxes with new ones written in Visual FoxPro code. Components of the Report Builder Application are exposed as Visual FoxPro Foundation Classes for your use.

Protection for End-User Design Sessions, and other Design-time Customization Opportunities

You can allow end-users to MODIFY and CREATE reports and labels, while setting limitations on what they can do in the Report Designer interface, using the new PROTECTED keyword. Protection is available individually by object and globally for the report. You can change what end-users see on the designer layout surface, from complex expressions to simple labels or sample data, while working in PROTECTED design mode, using Design-Time Captions. You can also provide helpful instructions, for both PROTECTED and standard design mode, by specifying Tooltips for report controls.

Enhanced Data Environment Use in Reports

You can save the Data Environment you designed for a Report or Label as a visual class. You can load a Data Environment into a Report or Label design from either a visual class or a previously-saved report or label.

Miscellaneous Design Improvements

There have been numerous enhancements to the Report and Label Designers. Some features are subtle changes to make design sessions more efficient and more enjoyable, and others improve your choices for resulting output.

To learn about:	Read:
Improvements to the Report and Label Interactive Development Environment (IDE), such as: Enhanced Report Designer toolbar, and easier access to the Report Designer Toolbar from the View menu New global Report Properties context menu Improvements and additions to existing context menus Revised and extended Report menu	Report Layout and Design
Changes to global report and label design options	Reports Tab, Options Dialog Box
Using the new PictureVal property of the Image control to specify images in reports	How to: Add Pictures to Reports PictureVal Property
New picture template characters (U and W) and updated format instructions (Z, now supported for date and datetime data), useful in reports and labels	Format Expressions for Field Controls InputMask Property Format Property
Receiving improved HTML output, which leverages run-time reporting enhancements, when you choose Save As HTML… while designing a report or label	How to: Generate Output for Reports Tip: Other Visual FoxPro components that invoke Genhtml.prg, the default _GENHTML implementation, automatically share the improved HTML output, although these components have not changed. These include the FRX to HTML Foundation Class and the Output Object Foundation Class.
Report document properties enable you to include information about the report in the report. Document properties are included as elements and attributes in XML and HTML output.	How to: Add Document Properties to a Report Document Properties Tab, Report Properties Dialog Box (Report Builder)
You can dynamically change the properties of report controls at run time based on the evaluation of an expression.	How to: Dynamically Format Report Controls Dynamics Tab, Report Control Properties Dialog Box (Report Builder)

Multiple Detail Bands

The Report Engine can now move through a scope of records multiple times. The records can represent related sets of detail lines in child tables, or they can be multiple passes through a single table. These multiple passes through a scope of records are represented as multiple detail bands.

Detail bands can have their own headers and footers, their own associated onEntry and onExit code, and their own associated report variables. Each detail band can be explicitly associated with a separate target alias, allowing you to control the number of entries in each detail band separately for related tables.

Multiple detail band reports provide many new ways you can represent data in reports and labels, and new ways you can calculate or summarize data, as you move through a record scope.

Object-assisted Run-time Report Processing

Visual FoxPro 9 has a new, object-assisted method of generating output from reports and labels. You can use your existing report and label layouts in object-assisted mode, to:

• Generate multiple types of output during one report run.
• Connect multiple reports together as part of one output result.
• Improve the quality of traditional report output.
• Dynamically adjust the contents of a report while you process it.
• Provide new types of output not available from earlier versions of Visual FoxPro.

This section covers the array of run-time enhancements that work together to support object-assisted reporting mode.

Object-Assisted Architecture and ReportListener Base Class

The new ReportListener base class and supporting language enhancements are the heart of run-time reporting enhancements.

Report Preview API and the Report Preview Application

Visual FoxPro 9’s object-assisted reporting mode gives you complete control over report and label previews.

New Types of Output and the Report Output Component Set

Because you can subclass ReportListener, you can create new types of output. Visual FoxPro 9 supplies a Report Output Application to connect ReportListener subclasses with output types, as well as ReportListener-derived classes with enhanced output capabilities.

Migration Strategies and Changes in Output Rendering

You can use the design-time changes to improve all reports and labels, whether you choose backward-compatible or object-assisted reporting mode at run time.

When evaluating whether to switch to object-assisted reporting mode at run time, first consider items on the Reporting list of Important Changes in the Changes in Functionality for the Current Release topic, some of which are specific to this new method of creating output. .The topic includes a table of minor differences between backward-compatible and object-assisted reporting output. You can examine what effects these changes might have on individual existing reports, and use the recommendations in the table to address them. You will find additional details in the topic Using GDI+ in Reports.

Once you have experimented with your current reports, you can decide on a migration strategy for output:

• You can switch applications over to use object-assisted reporting mode completely, by using the command SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90.
• You can use SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90 but preface specific REPORT FORM commands for reports with formatting issues with SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 80, returning your application to object-assisted mode afterwards.
• You can use object-assisted mode all the time, but adjust your ReportListener-derived classes’ behavior to suit specific needs. For example, you could change the default setting of the ReportListener’s DynamicLineHeight Property to False (.F.).
• You can leave SET REPORTBEHAVIOR at its default setting of 80, and add an explicit OBJECT clause to specific reports at your leisure, as you have the opportunity to evaluate and adjust individual report and label layouts.

Printing, Rendering, and Character-set-handling Improvements

General changes to Visual FoxPro’s use of Windows’ printing, rendering and font-handling support the improvements in the Report System’s output. These changes enhance your ability to support multiple printers and multiple languages in reports.