GRAFUG: Winging It with VFPX

Yesterday I presented a smattering of topics to the Grand Rapids Area Fox User Group. It does not matter if I am presenting to customers, at a conference, or in front of a user group, I like to prepare. But this week was nuts and I had only a couple of hours Friday night to put together all the new material I wanted to present. It is definitely not my style to slap together something at the last minute, but it was unavoidable.

I discussed three things:

1. Installing VFP 9 SP2 and the importance of doing it.
2. Showed how I am using VFPX components in my applications
3. The Advantage Database Server

The key thing I want to discuss in this blog post is how easy Emerson Santon Reed made the second part of the presentation go with his new Themed Controls. I wanted to show something new and the Themed Controls were only released last week. If you are not familiar with the Themed Controls, take a look on VFPX. The Themed Controls absolutely rock! The project currently includes the OutlookNavBar (formerly known as Outlook2003NavBar), the ZoomNavBar, and the ToolBox.

When Emerson first released the Outlook2003NavBar I wanted to use it as a toolbar along the left side of my applications, but unfortunately it was only designed to work on forms. I made the enhancement request to have it work on toolbars and I am pleased to say the newest version does. It works great and was very easy to implement. I literally downloaded the file, reviewed the samples, and implemented it into the Southwest Fox Event Management app I have written. All this in less than two hours. Wow!

Mike Potjer brought up the new FoxCharts during the discussion so I showed what Cesar has put together by demonstrating the sample included in the project.

It is important to note that both the Themed Controls and FoxChart both leverage GDIPlusX. This demonstrates the synergy we already see from the VFPX projects. Very, very exciting things are happening in the Fox Community these days and I was glad to have the opportunity to share this with the folks in Grand Rapids who are always gracious hosts. Even when I am unable to prepare properly.