Microsoft

1
Microsoft Visual FoxPro Roadmap
Sedna

• June 2005

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Agenda

• State of the Visual FoxPro union
• Microsoft Platform overview
• Visual FoxPro Roadmap overview
• Sedna overview
• Visual FoxPro 9.0 demos
• VFP 9.0 with VS 2005 interop demos
• Sedna early preview demos
• Visual FoxPro resources
• Summary

3
State of the VFP Union

• 5600 participated in April 2005 VFP Survey
  online
• 51 have used VFP over 10 years
• 33 are now using VFP 9.0
• 80 small company, 68 mid-size, 27 enterprise
• 71 maintaining apps, 69 new apps, 25 web apps
• 89 DBFs, 55 SQL Server, 22 MSDE
• 75 integrate Office with VFP apps
• 11 apps 1000 users, 43 100, 30 under 25
• 26 VS.NET, 21 XML WS, 25 ASP/ASP.NET, 35 COM
• 20 VB6, 13 VB.NET, 12 C, 10 Java, 8 C
• 31 plan to use VS.NET within next 2 years
• 98 plan to using VFP within next 12 months

4
Visual FoxPro 9.0 Overview

• Data Handling and Interoperability
• .NET interop XML and XML Web Services
• SQL Server interop types and language
• Extensible Developer Productivity
• Reports, forms, controls, IntelliSense, IDE
• Property sheet customization
• Flexibility for All Types of Solutions
• Smart client to Tablet PC applications

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VFP 9.0 Reporting System Goals

• Protect existing FRX investments
• Open architecture
• Better reuse story
• Design-time improvements
• Access to report objects at runtime
• More flexibility with Report Chaining
• New output types (e.g., XML, HTML)
• Report processing events

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• Service Pack 1 for Visual FoxPro 9.0
• VFP 9.0 is very stable today
• Scheduled near end of 2005

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• Sedna Extensibility and Interoperability
• .NET (Framework, Visual Studio 2005, more)
• SQL Server 2005 (including Express version)
• Longhorn (next Windows operating system)
• Office 12 (next version of Microsoft Office)
• Add extensibility using extensibility
• New C based DLLs
• New and improved Xbase components
• .NET wrapper classes for use within VFP
• Limited core product updates
• Sedna product details during development

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.NET Vision
UsersAny device,Any place,Any time
Roles/ExperiencesGet the right infoTo the right
userAt the right time
Sales
Customer
Supply
Engineering
Operations
XML Web ServicesIntegrate and orchestrate
business applications and processes
Scheduling
Authentication
Notification
Back OfficeHeterogeneous application and server
infrastructure
Customer Service
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Extending the .NET Framework
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• Leverage existing development skills
• Integration with Visual Studio
• Multiple languages T-SQL, VB.NET, C
• Works great with Visual FoxPro 9.0!
• Share data across any platform
• Native support for XML, Web services
• Interoperability with any platform, application
• Supports 64-bit Windows operating system
• Extensibility
• Native XML data type, user defined data types
• New distributed application framework Server
  Broker

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SQL Server 2005 Express

• Free light version of SQL Server 2005
• Replaces MSDE with more features
• XCopy
• No throttling
• Easier to install
• Silent mode install option
• Downloadable scripts to create databases
• Add-on Express Manager
• Breaks the 2GB barrier with new 4GB limit
• Works great with Visual FoxPro 9.0!

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A Look Ahead to Avalon

• Unified approach to UI, documents, and media
• Integration as part of development and experience
• Integrated, vector-based composition engine
• Utilizing the power of the PC throughout the
  graphics stack
• Ease of deployment
• Allowing administrators to deploy and manage
  applications securely

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.NET RoadmapDeveloper Perspective
WinFX Avalon Indigo Native to Longhorn Add-on
for WinXP
SednaVFP .NET 1st half 2007
Yukon SQL Server 2005 Whidbey Visual Studio
2005
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Visual FoxPro Roadmap

• With the recent release of Visual FoxPro 9.0,
  the Visual FoxPro team at Microsoft is now
  working on a new project, code-named Sedna, that
  takes advantage of enhancements in Visual FoxPro
  9.0. The primary goal of Sedna is to expand on
  the ability of Visual FoxPro-based solutions to
  better integrate with other Microsoft products
  and technologies.Features in Sedna will target
  Visual FoxPro interoperability with application
  components created by using Visual Studio 2005,
  the .NET Framework 2.0, and SQL Server 2005.
  Sedna will also help improve the ability for
  Visual FoxPro 9.0 solutions to be successfully
  deployed on the upcoming new Windows operating
  system Microsoft Windows Code Name
  "Longhorn." Sedna is currently scheduled to be
  released in the first half of 2007 and will
  require Visual FoxPro 9.0.As indicated in prior
  public statements, Microsoft does not plan to
  merge Visual FoxPro into Visual Studio .NET, nor
  are there plans to create a new Visual FoxPro
  .NET programming language. Visual FoxPro will
  remain stand-alone Win32 based, and will run on
  64-bit Windows in 32-bit compatibility mode. For
  deploying Visual FoxPro solutions that use
  components based on Microsoft .NET, Sedna will
  provide improvements for those components using
  COM and .NET interoperability.To help
  developers who currently use or plan to program
  on the .NET platform, members of the Visual
  FoxPro team are also working on data programming
  for the Microsoft .NET platform.For more
  information about Visual FoxPro, including
  answers to Visual FoxPro FAQ, go to the Visual
  FoxPro Developer Center Web site at
  http//msdn.com/vfoxpro.

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Sedna Features for VS / SQL

• All features early ideas, subject to change
• .NET
• Leverage .NET Framework 2.0 via interop
• Provide generic .NET interop services via VFP COM
  wrapper classes that handle Intellisense and
  interop servicing.
• Extended interop support for useful .NET classes
  including Web Services, XML, etc
• SQL Server 2005
• Revise Upsizing Wizard SQL 2005 only
• Data Explorer improvements for SQL 2005
• SQL Reporting Services integrated with VFP
  reporting (RDL)

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Sedna Features for Platform

• All features early ideas, subject to change
• Longhorn / WinFX
• Better Longhorn experience (as required)
• Output to Avalon XAML
• Indigo interop
• Windows/Longhorn shell integration
• Developer Experience
• Office 12 XML and interop (Xbase)
• Misc Xbase IntelliSense Scripts, XML Docs, RSS
  TaskPane, reporting components, etc

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• Visual FoxPro 9.0
• Visual FoxPro 9.0 with
• Visual Studio 2005
• Sedna (early preview)

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Visual FoxPro Resources

• VFP web site on msdn.com
• http//msdn.com/vfoxpro
• News, whitepapers, and samples
• .NET resources for VFP developers
• VFP team member blogs
• Product support
• Community resources
• More MSDN Developer Centers
• http//msdn.com
• Channel 9 on MSDN
• http//channel9.msdn.com

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Additional VFP Resources

• Book New in Nine VFPs Latest Hits
• Book .NET for VFP Developers (online free)
• UniversalThread.com (new Sedna section)
• FoxPro Advisor Magazine
• FoxTalk 2.0
• CoDe Focus for VFP 9.0
• VFP 9.0 retail prices same as VFP 8.0
• MSDN Subscriptions

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Summary

• Upgrade to Visual FoxPro 9.0
• VFP 9.0 works great with VS 2005
• VFP 9.0 works better with SQL Server
• VS 2005 SQL 2005 launch Nov 7th 2005
• VFP 9.0 case studies to market VFP
• Chat about VFP 9.0 online with others
• Work with the VFP team on Sedna
• Have fun here at DevCon!!!