Visual FoxPro to Visual Basic NET

This book is a how-to book for Visual FoxPro developers. It describes the FoxPro development process and describes the VB .NET equivalents. In addition, it points out new VB .NET features that are not required in FoxPro, as well as VB .NET features that do things that FoxPro doesn't do. This book will take FoxPro developers by the hand, describing every step of the FoxPro development followed by the best practice VB .NET equivalent. Since many developers never upgraded to VFP 8, techniques in both versions will be compared with the VB equivalents. With the discontinuance of Microsoft Visual FoxPro there will soon be no demand for FoxPro developers. Without a book to help them make the transition to another development environment, many VFP developers will be out of a job. This book is exactly what they need to keep their jobs and even advance their careers. Starting with simple examples, you¿ll see how the multi-user, local area network applications that Visual FoxPro developers are used to building are constructed in Visual Basic .NET. You¿ll learn how to use Crystal Reports to build reports like the ones you build in FoxPro. You¿ll discover how to use DataAdapters and datasets instead of DBFs. You¿ll see examples of the paradigm shift that client-server programming imposes, and why .NET solves that problem (even when you wouldn¿t need to solve it in FoxPro.) And you¿ll learn how to give your FoxPro and Visual Basic applications smart client remote data access.You¿ll understand how to begin the construction of a database project in Visual Basic with a container form and a MainMenu instead of using _Screen and MSYSMENU. You¿ll learn how variables are declared and used; how menus are controlled; how to use events, and why you have to use events in VB when they¿re unnecessary in FoxPro. You¿ll learn how to build inheritable forms, Visual Basic¿s answer to FoxPro¿s form class templates, to reduce programming to a minimum. You¿ll learn why properties are like variables in FoxPro, but more like functions in VB. And you¿ll learn where Visual Basic adds features that you didn¿t have in FoxPro and didn¿t know that you needed. You¿ll learn where to look for all of those FoxPro commands and functions that you need. And in case you haven¿t yet used SQL Server with FoxPro, the examples will demonstrate how it¿s done first in FoxPro, then in VB .NET.Shows how to build a typical application in Visual FoxPro, including DBF, SQL Server and Internet access; then demonstrates how to build the same type of application in VB .NET Highlights the main differences in specific issues, including printing, events, data access, creation and use of properties Contains an appendix listing the principal FoxPro commands and functions and their Visual Basic equivalents Includes a table showing where to find the settings in the FoxPro¿s Tools, Options menu pages in VB .NET Shows how to access data remotely from your FoxPro and VB .NET applications Explains how project DLLs are created and used in other projects within a solution Shows how to use middle tier business objects to simplify ongoing development Source code downloadable from www.samspublishing.com