Microsoft Visual FoxPro
Typical VFP9 editing session
Design by	Microsoft Corporation
Latest release	Visual FoxPro 9. Software design is a process of problem-solving and planning for a Software solution Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product 0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) / October 11, 2007
OS	Microsoft Windows
Platform	x86 and greater
Available in	IDE: English, German, Spanish Runtime: Above, French, Chinese, Russian, Czech, Korean
Development status	Maintenance mode
Genre	Database Programming language
License	Microsoft EULA
Website	msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro

Visual FoxPro is a data-centric object-oriented and procedural programming language produced by Microsoft. Events 1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria. 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them In the world of Software development maintenance mode refers to a point in a program 's life when it has reached all of its goals and is generally considered to be Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Object-oriented programming (OOP is a Programming paradigm that uses " objects " and their interactions to design applications and computer programs Procedural programming can sometimes be used as a synonym for Imperative programming (specifying the steps the program must take to reach the desired state but can also A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer It is derived from FoxPro (originally known as FoxBASE) which was developed by Fox Software beginning in 1984. FoxPro is a text-based procedurally-oriented programming language and DBMS, originally published by Fox Software and later by Microsoft, for Fox Technologies merged with Microsoft in 1992, after which the software acquired further features and the prefix "Visual". The last version of FoxPro (2.6) worked under Mac OS, DOS, Windows, and Unix: Visual FoxPro 3. FoxPro is a text-based procedurally-oriented programming language and DBMS, originally published by Fox Software and later by Microsoft, for Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of Graphical user interface -based Operating systems developed by Apple Inc DOS, short for "Disk Operating System" is a shorthand term for several closely related Operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer 0, the first "Visual" version, dropped the platform support to only Mac and Windows, and later versions were Windows-only. The current version of Visual FoxPro is COM-based and Microsoft has stated that they do not intend to create a Microsoft .NET version. Component Object Model ( COM) is an interface standard for Software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993

FoxPro originated as a member of the class of languages commonly referred to as "xBase" languages, which have syntax based on the dBase programming language. xBase is the generic term for all Programming languages that derive from the original DBASE ( Ashton-Tate) programming language and database formats dBase was the first widely used Database management system (DBMS for Microcomputers published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on the Other members of the xBase language family include Clipper and Recital. Clipper is a computer Programming language that is used to create software programs that originally operated primarily under DOS. (A history of the early years of xBase can be found in the dBASE entry. dBase was the first widely used Database management system (DBMS for Microcomputers published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on the )

Visual FoxPro, commonly abbreviated as VFP, is tightly integrated with its own relational database engine, which extends FoxPro's xBase capabilities to support SQL query and data manipulation. Unlike most database management systems, Visual FoxPro is a full-featured, dynamic programming language that does not require the use of an additional general-purpose programming environment. A database management system ( DBMS) is Computer software designed for the purpose of managing Databases DBMSes may use any of a variety of Data models This article is about a class of programming languages for the method for reducing the runtime of algorithms see Dynamic programming. It can be used to write not just traditional "fat client" applications, but also middleware and web applications. A fat client or rich client is a computer ( client) in Client-server architecture networks which typically provides rich functionality independently Middleware is computer Software that connects Software components or applications In Software engineering, a web application or webapp is an application that is accessed via Web browser over a network such as the Internet

Recent history

In late 2002, it was demonstrated that Visual FoxPro can run on Linux under the Wine Windows compatibility suite. Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Wine is an Alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of Grape juice In 2003, this led to complaints by Microsoft: it was claimed that the deployment of runtime FoxPro code on non-Windows machines violates the End User License Agreement. ^[1]

In December 2005, VFP broke into the top 20 on TIOBE's Programming Community Index for the first time. In March 2007 it was at position 19, making it a "B" language, and as of August 7, 2007 it dropped into position 22.

In March 2007, Microsoft announced "that there will be no VFP 10"^[2], thus making VFP9 (released to manufacturing on December 17, 2004) the last commercial VFP release from Microsoft. Events 546 - Gothic War (535–554: The Ostrogoths of King Totila "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " The support of Version 9 is ongoing with service packs that were released December 8, 2005 and October 11, 2007. Events 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room the second public library of Europe. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria. 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

At the time of the end of life announcement, work on the next release codenamed Sedna which was built on top of the VFP9 codebase had already begun. TemplateInfobox Planet.--> 90377 Sedna (ˈsɛdnə) is a Trans-Neptunian "Sedna" is a set of add-ons to VFP 9. 0 of XBase components to support a number of interoperability scenarios with various Microsoft technologies including SQL Server 2005, .NET Framework, Windows Vista, Office 2007, Windows Search and Team Foundation Server (TFS). Microsoft SQL Server is a Relational database management system (RDBMS produced by Microsoft. Team Foundation Server (commonly abbreviated TFS is a Microsoft offering for Source control, data collection Reporting, and project tracking and is intended Microsoft released Sedna under the Shared source license on the CodePlex site. Shared Source is Microsoft 's framework for sharing Computer program Source code with third parties CodePlex is an Open source (but not only open project hosting Website from Microsoft. Microsoft has clarified that the VFP core will still remain closed source. Sedna was released on January 25, 2008 ^[3]. As of March 2008, all XBase components of the VFP 9 SP2 (including Sedna) were available for community-development on the CodePlex. CodePlex is an Open source (but not only open project hosting Website from Microsoft.

Meanwhile, some of the FoxPro-related technology can be seen in other Microsoft products such as SQL Server, Team Foundation Server and various portions of the . Net Framework.

In late March 2007 a grassroots campaign was started by the Spanish-speaking FoxPro community at MasFoxPro (MoreFoxPro in English) to sign a petition to Microsoft to continue updating Visual FoxPro or release it to the community as Open Source. For other meanings see Grass roots (disambiguation. A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a Political movement English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge On April 3, 2007 the movement was noted by the technical press. ^[4]

Also on April 3, 2007 Microsoft responded to the petitioner's requests with this statement from Alan Griver:

"We're very aware of the FoxPro community and that played a large part in what we announced on March 13th. It's never an easy decision to announce that we're not going to release another version of a product and it's one that we consider very carefully.

"We're not announcing the end of FoxPro: Obviously, FoxPro applications will continue to work. By some of our internal estimates, there are more applications running in FoxPro 2. 6 than there are in VFP and FoxPro 2. 6 hasn't been supported in many years. Visual FoxPro 9 will be supported by Microsoft through 2015.

"For Microsoft to continue to evolve the FoxPro base, we would need to look at creating a 64-bit development environment and that would involve an almost complete rewrite of the core product. We've also invested in creating a scalable database with SQL Server, including the freely available SQL Server Express Edition. As far as forming a partnership with a third-party is concerned, we've heard from a number of large FoxPro customers that this would make it impossible for them to continue to use FoxPro since it would no longer be from an approved vendor. We felt that putting the environment into open source on CodePlex, which balances the needs of both the community and the large customers, was the best path forward. "

Version information

Operating system compatibility

Information on executable files

Code samples

Hello World example:

MESSAGEBOX("Hello World")

Object

Output of the Hello World program. Events 48 BC - Pompey the Great is assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt after landing in Egypt. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar)

loForm = CREATEOBJECT("HiForm")
loForm. Show(1)
 
DEFINE CLASS HiForm AS Form
  AutoCenter = . T. 
  Caption = "Hello, World"
 
  ADD OBJECT lblHi as Label WITH ;
    Caption = "Hello, World!"
ENDDEFINE

loMine = CREATEOBJECT("MyClass")
? loMine. cProp1   && This will work.  (Double-ampersand marks an end-of-line comment)
? loMine. cProp2   && Program Error: Property CPROP2 is not found. 
 
? loMine. MyMethod1()  && This will work. 
? loMine. MyMethod2()  && Program Error: Property MYMETHOD2 is not found. 
 
DEFINE CLASS MyClass AS Custom
  cProp1 = "My Property"    && This is a public property
  HIDDEN cProp2     && This is a private (hidden) property
 
  PROCEDURE Init()    && Class constructor
    This. cProp2 = "This is a hidden property. "
  ENDPROC
 
  PROCEDURE MyMethod1()
    * This is a public method, calling a hidden method that returns
    * the value of a hidden property. 
    RETURN This. MyMethod2()
  ENDPROC
 
  HIDDEN PROCEDURE MyMethod2()  && This is a private (hidden) method
    RETURN This. cProp2
  ENDPROC
ENDDEFINE

Data handling

&& Create a table
CREATE TABLE randData (iData I)
 
&& Populate with random data using xBase and SQL DML commands
FOR i = 1 TO 50
    APPEND BLANK
    REPLACE iData WITH (RAND() * 100)
 
    INSERT INTO randData (iData) VALUES (RAND() * 100)
ENDFOR
 
&& Place a structural index on the data
INDEX ON iData TAG iData
CLOSE ALL
 
&& Display sorted data using xBase-style commands
USE randData
SET ORDER TO iData
GO TOP
LIST NEXT 10  && First 10 
SKIP 81
LIST NEXT 10  && Last 10
CLOSE ALL
 
&& Browse sorted data using SQL DML commands
SELECT * ;
  FROM randData ;
  ORDER BY iData DESCENDING

Output of the Data handling program.

ODBC access using SQL passthrough

&& Connect to an ODBC data source
LOCAL nHnd
nHnd = SQLCONNECT ("ODBCDSN", "user", "pwd")
 
&& Execute a SQL command
LOCAL nResult
nResult = SQLEXEC (nHnd, "USE master")
IF nResult < 0
  MESSAGEBOX ("MASTER database does not exist!")
  RETURN
ENDIF
 
&& Retrieve data from the remote server and stores it in
&& a local data cursor
nResult = SQLEXEC (nHnd, "SELECT * FROM authors", "QAUTHORS")
 
&& Update a record in a remote table using parameters
LOCAL cAuthorID, cAuthorName
cAuthorID = "1001"
cAuthorName = "New name"
nResult = SQLEXEC (nHnd, "UPDATE authors SET auth_name = ?cAuthorName WHERE auth_id = ?cAuthorID")
 
&& Close the connection
SQLDISCONNECT(nHnd)

Beta code names

• VFP 3 - Taz
• VFP 5 - RoadRunner
• VFP 6 - Tahoe
• VFP 7 - Sedona
• VFP 8 - Toledo
• VFP 9 - Europa
• VFP Next - Sedna

References

External links

Microsoft pages

• Main Visual FoxPro Microsoft page
• MSDN FoxPro support board
• VFP's online help
• Microsoft VFP 9 support
• Visual FoxPro Downloads page

Other pages

• Visual FoxPro Wiki A repository of FoxPro information (written in VFP)
• A site devoted to the history of FoxPro
• FoxPro Summary FoxPro resources and references
• Universal Thread - Online support resource
• Using Win32 (WinAPI) functions in Visual FoxPro
• VFPx A Visual FoxPro Community effort to create open source add-ons for VFP 9. 0
• Foxite.com Visual Foxpro experts forum