New videocast on Inno Setup 5.0 with VFP

I've just posted a new videocast on using Inno Setup 5.0 with VFP apps. This videocast describes how to customize an Inno Setup script so you can install your database files to a location that's independent of where the EXE and other workstation files are installed.

The videocast is available from a link on my FoxPro developers page at www.ita-software.com/foxpage.aspx. To launch the video, click on the 'Video' link under the title Deploying Multi-User VFP Apps with Inno Setup 5.0. The video should start playing automatically. Total running time is 16:31.

Technorati Tags: InnoSetup, FoxPro, VFP

Southwest Fox 2005 papers published

The white papers from my two presentations at the Southwest Fox conference in Phoenix, Arizona last October are now available on my website. Integrating RSS with Visual FoxPro Applications explores ideas for leveraging RSS in VFP apps, while Roll Your Own Windows Installer Setups is a primer on using the Windows Installer XML toolset (WiX) to deploy VFP apps.

Both papers are available in PDF and HTML. Tip: choose the PDF version if you can. The HTML version is what you get when you save a Word document as HTML, which looks pretty good at 600x800 but degrades rather badly in larger browser windows because there is no width constraint.

Southwest Fox conference organizer Bob Kocher didn't place any restrictions on publishing the papers from his conference, but as a courtesy I feel it's appropriate to wait about three months before doing this so as not to diminish the value of the content for those who paid to attend the conference. And speaking of Southwest Fox, be sure you don't miss the 2006 edition coming up on October 19-22.

Technorati Tags: SouthwestFox, RSS, WiX, FoxPro, VFP

"A New Look for IE"

From Max Stevens over at the Microsoft IEBlog, several screen shots and accompanying commentary on what's new in the IE 7 user interface.

Blogger Spell Checker

Blogger's spell checker doesn't recognize the word 'blog'. Gee, you'd think it would know that one.

SnagIt 8.0 Installer Options

In my blog post last Monday I commented that the installer for SnagIt 8.0 installs the plugins for Microsoft Office applications without asking if you want them. This is true if you run a 'typical' install, which most people probably will do. I haven't gone back to verify this, but I'm pretty sure the installer for SnagIt 7.0 presented this choice as part of the typical install. In any case, it turns out these choices are still available for SnagIt 8.0 but you have to choose a 'custom' install to see them.

Technorati Tags: SnagIt

SnagIt 8.0

Techsmith has released version 8.0 of its SnagIt screen capture tool. The SnagIt user interface has been overhauled and some new features have been added, including the ability to output to PDF.

My first impressions of this new version are positive, although the installer seemed a bit more aggressive than 7.0 in that it installed the SnagIt plugins for all my Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) without asking -- or at least, if there was an option to not install these, I missed it. Another change from 7.0 is that the SnagIt Editor tool now includes several of the features that used to be available only in SnagIt Studio. As a result, SnagIt Studio no longer installs with SnagIt, but it is still available for download.

SnagIt has long been a favorite for screen capture duties, and it's good to see a new version come along even if it will take a bit of getting used to.

Technorati Tags: SnagIt

FeedDemon 2.0 Beta 1

FeedDemon 2.0 Beta 1 has been released and is available for public download. Read Nick Bradbury's blog post for complete information and a link to the download.

Note that FeedDemon v2.0 uses the same feed cache as v1.6, which itself is still in beta but has now been superseded by v2.0. The current release version of FeedDemon remains 1.5, which I believe uses a different cache location than 1.6 and 2.0.

Nick recommends you install 2.0 to a different folder than 1.5/1.6. I have v1.6 installed in the default location C:\Program Files\Bradbury\FeedDemon and v2.0 installed in C:\Program Files\Bradbury\FeedDemon2, and can now run either one.

Based on the stability of the beta releases throughout FeedDemon's history, I've been comfortable using 1.6 since its first pre-release version and am now using 2.0 Beta 1 with no discernible problems. Version 2.0 does have some major differences from 1.6, notably the use of a treeview instead of separate folders to organize and view your subscriptions. Although 2.0 Beta 1 appears to be stable, the beta forum is active with feedback and suggestions and I'm anxious to see Beta 2.

Technorati tags: FeedDemon

User Interface Localization in WiX

The latest version of the WiX toolset makes a change that could affect your current compile and link steps. The WiX user interface (WiXUI) files that come with WiX v2.0.3719.0 -- wixui_featuretree.wixlib, wixui_minimal.wixlib, and wixui_mondo.wixlib -- require a localization file to be referenced in at link time. The WiX download includes a U.S. English localization file named WiXUI_en-us.wxl. This is a standard XML file you can edit for other languages.

Using a project named wixdemo as an example, your compile and link steps prior to v2.0.3719.0 might have been:

candle wixdemo.wxs
light -out wixdemo.msi wixdemo.wixobj wixui_mondo.wixlib

Under v2.0.3719.0 the compile (candle) step remains the same but the link must incorporate the localization file using the -loc parameter, like this:

light -out wixdemo.msi wixdemo.wixobj wixui_mondo.wixlib -loc wixui_en-us.wxl

As before, you need to include the <UIRef Id="WixUI" /> element in your WiX source file (which would be wixdemo.wxs in this example) in order to incorporate the WiX user interface into your setup.

Freezing Fog

As if Monday mornings weren't bad enough already. You gotta love living in the Midwest in January.

XSource for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1 - Follow Up

Yesterday I posted about the release of XSource for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1 and said I was off to explore what's in the download. The download is an executable file (VFP9SP1_XSource.exe), so I was expecting an installer of some kind. Turns out it's simply a self-extracting archive that prompts you to accept the license agreement and then extracts the single file xsource.zip to a location of your choice. The expected location is HOME() + Tools\XSource, which is where the copy of xsource.zip from the original release of VFP 9.0 is located.

The SP1 version of xsource.zip contains the same 2459 files as its pre-SP1 counterpart, although most now have an updated date and time stamp. So the good news is, everything we're used to seeing in xsource.zip is still there and is now available under the new permissive license.

Microsoft releases fix for WMF vulnerability

Microsoft released a fix for the so-called WMF (Windows Metafile) vulnerability this afternoon. This comes in advance of the customary monthly rollout of security updates expected next Tuesday. See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-001: Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution (912919) at www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-001.mspx
for details and downloads.

XSource for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1

Microsoft has released XSource for Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP1. This download comes with its own license agreement, dubbed the Microsoft Permissive License (Ms-PL), which overrides the VFP 9.0 SP1 license agreement with respect to the XBase source files contained in the XSource download. In his January Letter, Microsoft Visual Studio Data Products Manager Ken Levy states "Our goal is to encourage VFP developers to enhance and redistribute any of the VFP 9.0 Xbase components in XSource to share with the VFP community including via the SednaX community project."

A quick glance at the license shows that Microsoft is granting us the rights to reproduce, prepare derivative works, and distribute this stuff royalty-free worldwide (this is my interpretation - I am not a lawyer, so read the complete license and get your own legal advice). There's no question this is going to stimulate a lot of good and creative things to come. Right now I'm off to read the license more thoroughly and to explore what's in the download.

Craig Boyd's RegEx Library for VFP

Craig Boyd has written and published a regular expressions (RegEx) library for Visual FoxPro. Check out his blog post for full information, VFP code examples, and a link to download the FLL. Looks like I'm going to have to dust off my copy of "Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes" and finally get serious about learning this stuff. Nice work, Craig.

Print+Print Preview - Firefox Extension

Another great little extension for Firefox is now available. The Print+Print Preview extension turns the default Print button on the Firefox toolbar into a Print/Print Preview drop-down button. I've often wished Firefox had a Print Preview button, but with this extension you don't need one 'cause the Print button now does double duty.

Web Developer Extension reaches 1.0

After spending several months at version 0.9x, Chris Pederick's excellent Web Developer Extension for Firefox has reached version 1.0. If you do any Web design and development work, this is a really useful tool to have in your toolbox. Check out the features page for an overview, and read the list of enhancements for details about what's new in this release.

More feeds added to the FoxBlogs tag cloud

The FoxBlogs tag cloud is now up to 42 feeds. Thanks to everyone who has asked to be added and/or referred me to other lists of VFP-related blog feeds. Also, the list of feeds on the FoxBlogs web page (below the cloud) now has links to both the XML URL and the HTML URL for each blog.

FoxBlogs tag cloud updated

Thanks to feedback from several folks in the Visual FoxPro community, I've updated the FoxBlogs webpage with several more feeds that were missing from the first go-around. Also, you can now download the FoxBlogs feed list as an OMPL (Outline Processor Markup Language) file - look for the link at the bottom of the FoxBlogs page. The OPML file contains both the XML URL and the HTML URL for the feeds in the list.

FoxBlogs - The Visual FoxPro Community TagCloud

I've created a new page on my website called FoxBlogs. FoxBlogs is a TagCloud that pulls together keywords from blogs across the VFP community. Tag clouds are a very cool way to view and link to what people are blogging about. Visit the new FoxBlogs page and find out what the Visual FoxPro community is blogging about!

ITA Website Redesign

Just as the cobbler's kids are the last to get shoes, so the developer's website is the last to get updated. But finally, after months of playing around with it, the overhaul and redesign of my own website (www.ita-software.com) is ready for prime time.

The original site was seriously out of date, not only in appearance but in the mechanics of its design. Like most sites of its vintage (circa 1995), it used HTML tables for layout and HTML font tags for style markup. The site was entirely static, with no dynamic content at all, and there were even a couple of animated GIFs (remember when we thought those were cool?) decorating the home page.

The new site design is entirely CSS-based. Following my own advice, along the lines of the presentation I made to the Detroit Area Fox Users Group (DAFUG) earlier this year, the site redesign accomplishes these objectives:

• Migrate from HTML to XHTML


• Eliminate the use of deprecated HTML tags such as <font> to control style


• Eliminate the use of HTML tables to control positioning of elements on the page


• Separate the positioning of elements on the page (layout) from their appearance (style)


• Separate both layout and style from page content

To that end, the site uses two CSS style sheets, one to control positioning (CSS-P) and the other to control style. The content for each page is thereby freed to reside in simple HTML pages within the appropriate <div> tag. This approach is not difficult to implement and makes the site easy to maintain because each aspect of the design -- layout, style, and content -- can be manipulated separately.

Another objective was to make it a three-column layout with a fluid center. In other words, the width of the center column, where the main content of each page resides, should shrink and expand with the browser window while the left and right columns retain their width. This is accomplished through the use of CSS positioning. There are many resources that describe this technique, both in books and online, and I am indebted to several of them for this and other ideas behind my own site's design. In particular, the following books were very helpful:

DHTML and CSS for the World Wide Web, 3rd edition, by Jason Cranford Teague
HTML & XHTML The Definitive Guide, 5th edition, by Musciano & Kennedy
Designing with Web Standards, by Jeffrey Zeldman
Stylin' with CSS, A Designer's Guide, by Charles Wyke-Smith

The new site also has an XML-driven dynamic news feed, which appears at the bottom of the right column on each page. The news headlines in the right column point to a news page, which in turn draws content from an XML feed with full descriptions for each news item and other information in addition to the headlines. In future this may become a true RSS feed, but right now it's kind of a hybrid that suits my particular purpose. Other improvements in the news feed will also be forthcoming as I get around to them.

Finally, cross-browser compatibility remains both an elusive objective and an ongoing challenge for all web designers. My new site design has been tested in Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0, Firefox 1.5, Opera 8.51, and Safari on the Mac. As far as I know it renders as intended on all of those browsers, with the exception that IE does not respect the max-width and min-width property in the container div. I ran into a couple of other random behaviors with IE, too, which forced me to change the design a little bit to accommodate it, but that's a topic for another day.

By adhering to standards as much as possible, the site is cross-browser compatible to the extent the browsers themselves adhere to the standards. Earlier (non-released) versions of my site redesign incorporated various hacks to accommodate anomalies in specific browsers. The final design contains no hacks and lets the browsers fend for themselves. Call this lazy design if you will, but I prefer to call it forward thinking. < s >

Tech Note 1: The site now uses ASP.Net to drive the dynamic content, so the page name extensions are now .aspx instead of .htm. Because many people have bookmarked my FoxPro developers page, I've set it up so the old foxpage.htm now redirects automatically to foxpage.aspx. The redirect will remain in place indefinitely, but please update your bookmarks anyway.

Tech Note 2: This site was built largely using Dreamweaver 8, the latest release from Macromedia (now part of Adobe). I use both Dreamweaver and FrontPage, depending on the particular need and design objectives for a site. Both are good tools, but I have to say that this latest version of Dreamweaver is terrific, making it very easy to work with CSS as well as facilitating the dynamic XML content. Through 12/31 there is a special upgrade price of $399 for the entire Studio 8 bundle of products, which besides Dreamweaver includes Fireworks, Flash Professional, Contribute, and FlashPaper. See the Macromedia website for details if you're interested.

All brand names referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

Great Lakes Great Database Workshop 2006

Whil Hentzen announced today that the Great Lakes Great Database Workshop, aka Whilfest, will return in 2006. Mark your calendars for April 21-24, 2006 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After a two-year plus hiatus, GLGDW has undergone some changes: The 2006 workshop will feature 90-minute sessions, all in one track, focused on examining "Best Practices for Visual FoxPro". Early details are available online at www.hentzenwerke.com/conferences/glgdw2006.htm. Registration information is expected to be available on Dec 20th.