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PresentationsIf you are interested in having me present to your organization please send me an email. I have a pretty busy schedule, but love presenting and usually find a way to accommodate most engagements. GLGDW 2003
Creating Help - Made Easy!Do you cringe when a user asks how to work a part of your application for the umpteenth time? Have you thought that having a help file for your custom application might eliminate 90% of your support calls from your clients, but think it is too painful to create and integrate into your application? About to embark on the development of a vertical market application that will require a help file and you wake up in a cold sweat because you have never developed one? This presentation will demonstrate how easy it is to implement a help system in your custom applications, the various options you have when implementing a help system, and some of the tools available to ease the pain of developing help. The session will step through all the elements of the help (soup to nuts) with the actual creation and implementation of a help system from scratch. There will also be discussions on when and why help systems are necessary, and how to work with customers when developing help for them to use. Creating and Using Real World Builders – Made EasyBuilders are a handy way to set attributes on objects without opening up the Visual FoxPro Property Sheet or writing a line of code. How many times a day do you find yourself jumping to the Property Sheet, moving to the correct tab, and searching down the seemingly endless list to find that one property that you need to tweak? Dozens, hundreds, or does it just feel like a thousand? Builders are yet another shortcut to increasing your productivity in ways you may have not imagined. Right-click on the object, select Builder… from the menu, and let a builder do the work for you. Builder technology has been around since Visual FoxPro 3.0, yet to this day when the topic of builders comes up in conversation amongst developers, it is usually met with blank stares. There are a number of native builders that ship with Visual FoxPro. Some are cool, some are okay, while others seem to be a little more than useless. The most important part of this technology is not the alternative property sheet user interfaces that ship with VFP, but the fact that they are extendible, even replaceable, and most of all easy to create. This session will demonstrate builder technology inside of Visual FoxPro, how to leverage the existing builders (especially the cool ones included in VFP 8), and create and register your own builders (traditional and non-traditional ones). We will step through creating several builders from scratch, using the “old-fashion” builder techniques, using BuilderB techniques, and finally showing how the data driven BuilderD technique will knock your socks off! Essential Fox 2003
Creating and Using Real World Builders – Made EasyBuilders are a handy way to set attributes on objects without opening up the Visual FoxPro Property Sheet or writing a line of code. How many times a day do you find yourself jumping to the Property Sheet, moving to the correct tab, and searching down the seemingly endless list to find that one property that you need to tweak? Dozens, hundreds, or does it just feel like a thousand? Builders are yet another shortcut to increasing your productivity in ways you may have not imagined. Right-click on the object, select Builder… from the menu, and let a builder do the work for you. Builder technology has been around since Visual FoxPro 3.0, yet to this day when the topic of builders comes up in conversation amongst developers, it is usually met with blank stares. There are a number of native builders that ship with Visual FoxPro. Some are cool, some are okay, while others seem to be a little more than useless. The most important part of this technology is not the alternative property sheet user interfaces that ship with VFP, but the fact that they are extendible, even replaceable, and most of all easy to create. This session will demonstrate builder technology inside of Visual FoxPro, how to leverage the existing builders (especially the cool ones included in VFP 8), and create and register your own builders (traditional and non-traditional ones). We will step through creating several builders from scratch, using the “old-fashion” builder techniques, using BuilderB techniques, and finally showing how the data driven BuilderD technique will knock your socks off! Fishing with a ProjectHookThis session will detail how to use the projecthook class, Project Object, and File Object included with Visual FoxPro. This session will introduce this important developer class and built in COM objects and demonstrate some of their powerful uses. There will be several demonstrations of real world functionality VFP developers can write with these classes to enhance their development environment. We wrap up the session with an example that ties both the VFP projecthook and the Project/File Objects in a utility to assist developers to build applications faster. GLGDW 2002
Get More Productive with Visual FoxProRapid Application Development is a leftover buzzword from the 90’s. Are you as productive with VFP as you can be, or wish to be? How do other developers use the world’s best database application development tool to bring applications to market quicker? Are there tips I can learn to save me 10 minutes a day or an hour a week? This session will demonstrate as many tips and productivity ideas that can be crammed into a 75 minute session. As the old saying goes, there are always three ways to accomplish something in Visual FoxPro. Sometimes we only know one way and there are two other ways that are faster or better. Sometimes we don’t even know that you can accomplish certain things with the VFP. I am constantly amazed, even after using Visual FoxPro for more than seven years, how much I have learned just looking over the shoulder of others as they develop with this product. VFP 8 (Toledo), while focused on features that effect the end user’s experience, has a number of excellent productivity enhancements. The session will have productivity tips for developers working with all versions of VFP, including the marketing beta of VFP 8 (which attendees take home from this conference). Deployment in the Real WorldDo you regularly lose sleep the night before the big release? Have you struggled with the new InstallShield Express – Visual FoxPro Limited Edition deployment package? Have you wrestled the older VFP Setup Wizard which left you begging for a DOS batch file and the XCOPY command? This session will discuss many deployment issues including preparing the customer, preparing the development staff, ideas to consider when preparing a release, check lists, mechanisms to deploy your custom applications, building the setup files, some tips with the VFP deployment tools, a quick demonstration of one or two other commercial tools for deploying your applications, and things to consider once a release is shipped and successfully deployed. Visual FoxExpress DevCon 2K2Introduction to Visual FoxPro (8 hour Pre-Conference session)If you're fairly new to Visual FoxPro, whether migrating from FoxPro 2.x, selecting VFP as your first developer tool, or moving from another development tool such as PowerBuilder, Visual Basic or Delphi, this session will provide a broad overview of the capabilities and features of Visual FoxPro 7.0, and how they're used in creating applications. This session is an open forum with some pre-canned session topics to introduce VFP to developers just learning VFP. Included will be discussions of:
Essential Fox 2002
DevTools: Build, Grab, or Buy (for the real world)Are you in the market to increase your productivity in the minute-to-minute working with Visual FoxPro? Are your clients demanding shorter deadlines and expressing the need to get their projects to market faster and faster? Are you finding certain tasks in the VFP IDE to be tedious, repetitive, or just plain old mundane and wish there was a better way? This session will cover ways of eliminating some of those tedious, repetitive tasks. There are literally hundreds of free developer tools available on the various public forums for VFP developers to use and numerous commercially available developer tools to purchase. First this session will discuss some of the reasons to write your own tools, then demonstrate various techniques to generate home grown developer tools. Second, this session will show some of the nicer freebies off the Internet, and finally discuss what third-party tools you might want to purchase to advance developer productivity in Visual FoxPro. Integrating Adobe Acrobat with VFPThe Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) is an effective way to share information electronically. Most people use PDF files to generically transfer any document without the need of the recipient to have the native applications. PDF files can be used in collaborative environment, using the markup tools that make electronic review a piece of cake. PDF files are rapidly becoming the standard when publishing web output to work around the formatting limitations of standard HTML. This session shows how VFP developers can leverage this technology to enhance their applications. The session will demonstrate how to print reports to PDF files (with user and without user intervention), how to display a PDF in a VFP form, how to use Acrobat Reader as an alternative report preview, how to merge PDF files together using VFP, how to populate and extract data from an Acrobat Form, and how to use JavaScript to pull data directly from tables into a PDF file. GLGDW 2001
DevTools: Build, Grab, or BuyAre you in the market to increase your productivity in the minute-to-minute working with Visual FoxPro? Are your clients demanding shorter deadlines and expressing the need to get their projects to market faster and faster? Are you finding certain tasks in the VFP IDE to be tedious, repetitive, or just plain old mundane and wish there was a better way? This session will cover ways of eliminating some of those tedious, repetitive tasks. There are literally hundreds of free developer tools available on the various public forums for VFP developers to use and numerous commercially available developer tools to purchase. First this session will discuss some of the reasons to write your own tools, then demonstrate various techniques to generate home grown developer tools. Second, this session will show some of the nicer freebies off the Internet, and finally discuss what third-party tools you might want to purchase to advance developer productivity in Visual FoxPro. Introduction to Visual FoxPro (Pre-Conference)If you're fairly new to Visual FoxPro, whether migrating from FoxPro 2.x, selecting VFP as your first developer tool, or moving from another development tool such as PowerBuilder, Visual Basic or Delphi, this session will provide a broad overview of the capabilities and features of Visual FoxPro 7.0, and how they're used in creating applications. This session is an open forum with some pre-canned session topics to introduce VFP to developers just learning VFP. Included will be discussions of:
GLGDW 2000
Fishing with a ProjectHookThe ProjectHook was introduced in Visual FoxPro 6.0 to open access to VFP project files. Prior to this functionality a developer wanting information from the project file had to USE the PJX table and "hack" it. The Project and File Objects, along with the ProjectHook class allow VFP developers to access project details via a COM interface. This session will step through several examples and specific implementations to demonstrate this powerful addition to the Visual FoxPro developer environment. Working with Adobe Acrobat and VFPThe Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) is an effective way to share information electronically. Most people use PDF files to generically transfer any document without the need of the recipient to have the native applications. PDF files can be used in collaborative environment, using the markup tools that make electronic review a piece of cake. PDF files are rapidly becoming the standard when publishing web output to work around the formatting limitations of standard HTML. This session shows how VFP developers can leverage this technology to enhance their applications. Introduction to Visual FoxPro (Pre-Conference)If you're fairly new to Visual FoxPro, whether migrating from another development tool such as PowerBuilder, Visual Basic or Delphi, or from FoxPro 2.x, this session provides a broad overview of the capabilities and features of Visual FoxPro, and how they're used in creating applications. Microsoft Developer Days 1998Visual FoxPro 6.0: Building Scalable Database Components and SolutionsOne of the enjoyable presentations I have made was at the Microsoft Developer Days 98 on September 2, 1998. I was fortunate to introduce Visual FoxPro 6.0 to the developers in the Detroit area and surrounding region. The session introduced a number of new features and described in detail the design goals of VFP 6. The introduction of the Fox Foundation Classes, the new Application Wizard and Component Gallery, Y2K compliance, robust testing tools (Coverage Profiler), Access and Assign methods, Active Documents, and high performance COM components were discussed. It also demonstrated better integration with Visual Studio. This presentation was made on the behalf of Microsoft as they launched Visual Studio 6.0. Approximately 400 people attended this all day event. FoxCon ToledoI have presented at all of these gatherings:
User GroupsDetroit Area Fox User Group (DAFUG)I have made over two dozen presentations at DAFUG:
Grand Rapids Area Fox User GroupThe "Rick and Steve Roadshow" made a stop in the Grand Rapids area on November 9, 2002. I rehearsed my Get More Productive with Visual FoxPro session. The "Rick Roadshow without Steve" made a stop in the Grand Rapids area on May 5, 2002. I presented my Developer Tools: Build, Grab or Buy session. Sterling Heights Computer ClubI have made many presentations to the Sterling Heights Computer Club, here is a short list:
Midwest FoxPro User GroupSat in on a panel discussion with the likes of Jim Booth, Markus Egger, Andy Kramek, Marcia Akins, Doug Hennig, Whil Hentzen, Drew Speedie, and Craig Berntson for a one night with questions from moderator Doug Carpenter and others from the audience. This happened on April 24, 2003, the night before Essential Fox 2003. The "Steve and Rick Roadshow" (Sawyer and Schummer) made a stop in the Kansas City area on July 26-27, 2001. I presented my Working with Adobe Acrobat and VFP, Fishing with a ProjectHook, and Developer Tools: Build, Grab or Buy. Greater Cleveland PC User Group (FoxPro SIG)The "Rick Schummer MegaFox Tour 2003" made a stop in the Cleveland area on May 27, 2003. Presented an encore presentation of my Get More Productive with Visual FoxPro session. The "Rick and Steve Roadshow" (Schummer and Bodnar) made a stop in the Cleveland area on September 24, 2002. I rehearsed my Deployment in the Real World session scheduled to be presented at WhilFest in November 2002. The "Steve and Rick Roadshow" (Sawyer and Schummer) made a stop in the Cleveland area on March 27, 2001. I presented my Working with Adobe Acrobat and VFP session that I originally presented at WhilFest in November 2000. Mid-Michigan Fox User Group (Lansing)The "Rick Schummer MegaFox 2003 Tour" made a stop in the Lansing Michigan on May 17, 2003. I presented my Deployment in the Real World session originally presented at WhilFest in November 2002. Chicago FUDGThe "Rick Schummer MegaFox Tour 2003" made a stop in the Cleveland area on June 4, 2003. Presented an encore presentation of my Get More Productive with Visual FoxPro session. The "Steve and Rick Roadshow" (Sawyer and Schummer) made a stop in the Chicago area on March 5, 2002. I rehearsed the updated Developer Tools: Build, Grab, or Buy session presented at Essential Fox 2002. I was invited to present my Fun with Metadata and Developer Tools at the Chicago Fox User and Developer Group (FUDG) back in January 1997. This was a fun presentation and road trip. OtherRick has presented to many organizations including the Sterling Heights Rotary Club, Oakland University's Applied Technology in Business Program (ATiB), and Oakland University's Management Information Systems Club.
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