Sydney Visual FoxPro User Group

VFP: Sydney Visual FoxPro User Group - Wed 26 April

2006-04-24T11:38:00.000+10:00

A reminder about the Sydney Visual FoxPro User Group this Wednesday. The site seems to be down at the moment (I am investigating)) so I have repeated the details here:

Wednesday 26 April 2006
6:30 - 8:30pm

Microsoft Headquarters at North Ryde
1 Epping Road
North Ryde

Adam Cogan will be presenting on Rules to Successful Projects

This is a continuation of his talk at OzFox Lite.

User Group resumes this Wednesday 22 Feb

2006-02-19T23:39:00.000+11:00

A reminder that we resume this Wednesday 22 February 2006 with 3 great talks from Scott Scovell, Ekasenna Tjhauw and Craig Bailey.

Details on the website: www.svfpug.com.au

Sydney Visual FoxPro User Group returns 22 Feb 2006

2006-01-11T22:34:00.000+11:00

A preliminary timetable has been posted on the site for 2006.
www.svfpug.com.au

On my main blog I made mention of some of the aims for the year:

http://craigbailey.blogspot.com/2006/01/vfp-sydney-vfp-user-group-returns-on.html

October meeting - 26 Oct 2005 - 6:30pm

2005-10-22T10:42:00.000+10:00

See you at 6:30pm this Wednesday 26 October 2005 at Microsoft headquarters in Sydney.
See David Bower presenting on Data shadowing in VFP, and then Paul Tikotin discussing VFP9 reporting.

Free pizza and drink provided (as usual).
www.svfpug.com.au

Sydney VFP User Group this Wendesday

2005-10-03T10:42:00.000+10:00

Our postponed meeting from September is on this Wednesday 5 October at 6:30pm.
Note: we have changed the venue for this meeting only.
This meeting we are at the Talman office at Lane Cove. Details are on the UG web site
www.svfpug.com.au
3 great talks, free pizza, plenty of parking, see you there.

Fantastic meeting earlier tonight

2005-08-31T21:51:00.000+10:00

What a fantastic meeting we had tonight.
So much content we went an hour over time!
Each month this user group keeps getting better.
A big thank you to Ekasenna Tjhauw, John Burrows and Paul Hemans for their excellent presentations.
Congratulations to Castro for winning this month's really cool prize

August meeting - 31 Aug 2005 - 6:30pm

2005-08-24T17:25:00.000+10:00

This month we have another fantastic line up:

1. Paul Hemans on Using VFP with PDAs

2. Ekasenna Tjhauw on calling VFP COM objects from SQL Server

3. John Burrows on calling VFP COM objects from Crystal Reports

Plus a really cool prize

See our main page for other notices and links including jobs and past presentations

Updated VFP and WMP presentation

2005-07-31T13:53:00.000+10:00

I’ve updated the presentation to work with VFP8 on one of the samples

This shows how to overcome the resize issue

http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/WMP/Help/index.htm

In particular this topic

http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/WMP/Help/index.htm?page=_1KV0RC7FM.htm

Code is here

http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/WMP/Code/VFPWMP.zip

Solution Explorer presentation

2005-07-29T13:13:00.000+10:00

Here's a link to Scott's presentation on Solution Explorer
http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Jul/SolutionExplorer/Solution%20Explorer%20Project.ppt

Great prize at next month's meeting

2005-07-28T14:47:00.000+10:00

In addition to all the other great reasons to attend Sydney VFP UG we have a great prize next month.

It is a fully hooded navy blue long sleeve fleecy jacket.

http://www.svfpug.com.au

UG site updates

2005-07-28T11:29:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Michael, Scott and everyone who came along last night - it was huge return to proper form. The buzz is building again which is great

We've got our next two months of presentations all organised and they look great
http://www.svfpug.com.au/Timetable.htm

The site has links to presentations (eg Ken's Senda video and my WMP presentation)
http://www.svfpug.com.au

See you next month for another 3 great presentations

VFP Resources

2005-07-25T13:21:00.000+10:00

A list of resources for VFP users is here. If you are an old hand at VFP you'll no doubt know about these - but if you are new to the community these may be a great help:
http://craigbailey.blogspot.com/2005/07/vfp-resources.html

RSS feed for this blog

2005-07-23T18:28:00.000+10:00

For those who want to subscribe to this blog the atom feed is:
http://svfpug.blogspot.com/atom.xml

27 July 2005 meeting details posted

2005-07-17T13:16:00.000+10:00

Don't miss our next meeting on 27 July 2005 - it's gonna be big (3 speakers talking on Cursor Adaptors, Solutions explorer and Windows Media player, plus more)
Details of topics on the SVFPUG site
Also I'll be telling you about our plans to start an Aussie VFP Podcast show, similar to Andrew MacNeill's fantastic show here

Note, we are having a break from the webcast format - this meeting will be only for Sydney members (sorry to our remote members who will be disappointed by this - but we felt that the technology issues were getting in the way - we'll try the webcast thing again later this year)

VFP UG on tomorrow night

2005-05-24T10:19:00.000+10:00

Just a reminder that the Sydney VFP UG meets tomorrow night.
If you can't be there in person then why don't you try joining us via webcast.
Details of how to join the webcst are here
http://svfpug.blogspot.com/2005/03/ug-webcast-details-for-25-may-2005.html

Be there by 6:30pm for pizza.

Andrew Coates and Doug Henry presenting.
Details at www.svfpug.com.au

Binding to System events in VFP9

2005-04-04T10:32:00.000+10:00

Scott Scovell's presentation from the March 2005 UG is available here
http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2005Mar/Scott%20Scovell%20-%20Binding%20to%20Windows%20Message%20events.zip

This was an excellent presentation, and the zip file includes example code and a full whitepaper.

Webcast guidelines

2005-04-03T08:57:00.000+10:00

Here's my first attempt at some guidelines to make the user group experience better:

1. If you are not presenting, mute your phone
Use the mute button or *6
This will remove almost all the static and interference we were getting at the last meeting
The only reason you'll need to come off mute is too ask a question, or if you are presenting. Possibly if we wanted to check all are receiving loud and clear, but this can also be done via the Live Meeting interface.

2. If you are presenting, you are in control until you hand over to the next presenter
If you are presenting you are responsible for handling questions, wrapping up ontime, etc.
Make sure you keep an eye on the Live Meeting question box.
Then hand over to the next presenter, with a simple 'Now I'll hand over to...' and then mute your phone
This will avoid those awkward silences when we don't know who is doing what.

3. Make use of the Live meeting question box.
Instead of coming off mute and interrupting during a presentation, enter your question in the Live meeting box. Presenters will need to ensure they keep an eye on this and if the don't intend to answer it until later, they should still acknowledge it so that the question raiser doesn't feel they need to repeat it.

4. Get online early if possible
Live Meeting 'announces' people as they join (not sure if we can turn this off) which is kinds distracting.
It also announces people as they leave, so if you could stay online until the end that would be good.

5. If you are presenting, make sure any materials are loaded ready for you to start immediately control is handed over to you.

This will make for a very smooth, clear UG meeting.

Any other ideas? Please let me know.

Thanks

Visual FoxPro training

2005-03-21T12:23:00.000+11:00

Does anyone provide Visual FoxPro training in Sydney?

I received a call from Jyotsna (pronounced 'Joshna') who is looking for VFP training. She is moving from 2.6 to VFP and would like some help. She's read books and online articles but is really after an intensive course.

If anyone knows of some training options or would be prepared to provide training on a contract basis please contact her at
samjyo@yahoo.com or on 02 9672 4423

UG webcast details for 27 April 2005

2005-03-14T16:26:00.000+11:00

April details

You have been invited to a Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
Meeting Title: VFP User Group
When: Wednesday, 27 April 2005 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Audio Information: http://blogs.msdn.com/acoat/articles/395020.aspx
PIN: 444127
VOIP may also be available for attendees

At the time of the meeting, click on the following link to attend: http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend?id=acoat123218&pw=078982
If you cannot click the meeting link above, or it does not work, please do the following: Browse to: http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend

Type your name
Type the Meeting ID as: acoat123218
Type the Password as: 078982

UG webcast details for 25 May 2005

2005-03-14T16:24:00.000+11:00

May UG webcast login

Here’s the attendee information for the MAY VFP user group

You have been invited to a Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
Meeting Title: VFP User Group Presentation
When: Wednesday, 25 May 2005 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Audio Information: +61 2 9870 2922
PIN: 444127
Alternative Dial-in numbers below
The session may also have VOIP available for attendees

At the time of the meeting, click on the following link to attend: http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend?id=acoat618298&pw=767417

If you cannot click the meeting link above, or it does not work, please do the following: Browse to: http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend
Type your name
Type the Meeting ID as: acoat618298
Type the Password as: 767417

Australia, Adelaide
+61 8 8217 7432

Australia, Brisbane
+61 7 3218 7022

Australia, Canberra
+61 2 6122 4672

Australia, Melbourne
+61 3 9286 3225

Australia, Perth
+61 8 9420 8419

Australia, Sydney
+61 2 9870 2922

New Zealand, Auckland
+64 9 357 5566

New Zealand, Wellington
+64 4 474 7656

UG webcast details for 30 March 2005

2005-03-07T14:58:00.000+11:00

Here is the webcast login information

https://livemeeting.microsoft.com/rm/microsoft/join?id=acoat420218&role=attend&pw=735406

Sydney VFP UG survey results

2005-03-07T14:39:00.000+11:00

Here's a summary of your replies to the UG survey:

Topics
1. Should our presentations be predominantly VFP only?
(ie exclude topics on SQL Server, interacting with Office etc)
You said:
In general yes, these days we use VFP with a variety of other tools, so it is important we know about them and how to use them effectively
However, we are a VFP UG, so we should focus on the strengths of VFP

2. Do you want to see topics that deal with web development using VFP?
(eg West-Wind and others)
You said:
Yes

3. Do you want to see topics on 3rd party tools?
(eg Stonefield Query, XFRX, FoxFire, Frameworks, HTML Help Builder etc)
You said:
In general yes, but only for around 25% time max of UG meetings. It is important that they don't turn into sales presentations and may be best presented as a comparison of features

4. Are you interested in topics covering VFP and .Net?
You said:
Yes, but only if it is useful to our development (ie not just for the sake of discussing .net)

5. Are you interested in topics that cover VFP and Linux?
You said:
In general no

Involvement
6. Would you like to be a UG presenter?
Thank you to those who offered to present

7. If yes, is there a particular topic you would like to present on?
There are some interesting suggestions for topics coming through, many thanks, these include:
- More on CursorAdaptors
- Windows Messaging Events (BINDEVENTS)
- Using PDAs and Fox
- Using C++ in Fox
- Using web browser control for rich UI's
- VFP COM and .Net or VFP COM Forms as Application servers
- Implementing good design
- More on using Geographic data
- Microsoft Empower program

Format
8. Is the 6:30-8:30pm slot ideal for you?
(Some other UGs go for 3 hours+)
Most said this was ideal, a few were happy to go for longer

9. Do you like joining with the Melbourne group or would you prefer to be separate?
Most people like the idea of the combined group as it leads to greater variety of presenters and knowledge. However, most found the technology too distracting and would thus prefer to be separate. So there are actually two issues here.
I will discuss this with Microsoft. Also, some training on presenting may be appropriate.
I feel this is important because some of our members are unable to physically attend (eg our friends out at the CSIRO).

Other thoughts:
Here's some extra suggestions from people for the UG(s)
- Social functions
- Some nights dedicated to development, others to tools, the attendence numbers may be a helpful guide to future meeting topics
- Sydney vs Melbourne UG code challenge:
Two open source projects that run for 4-6 months where members of both UG's collaborate to produce the best solution to a given problem. An independent judge determines a winner and source code made available to both UG's. Fame and fortune to the winning UG.
- please provide automatic reminder notifications of UG meetings the day before

- Did you know the Singapore Foxies are possibly dialing into our UG webcast?

Many thanks,
Craig

UG homepage updated

2005-02-21T17:35:00.000+11:00

I've updated the homepage and added a few more links to VFP related sites

Sydney VFP UG survey

2005-02-21T17:32:00.000+11:00

I'm starting to plan out the year for the UG meetings.

If you've got a few spare minutes I'd appreciate your thoughts on the following questions. Drop me an email with your responses to cb@talman.com.au

Topics
1. Should our presentations be predominantly VFP only?
(ie exclude topics on SQL Server, interacting with Office etc)

2. Do you want to see topics that deal with web development using VFP?
(eg West-Wind and others)

3. Do you want to see topics on 3rd party tools?
(eg Stonefield Query, XFRX, FoxFire, Frameworks, HTML Help Builder etc)

4. Are you interested in topics covering VFP and .Net?

5. Are you interested in topics that cover VFP and Linux?

Involvement
6. Would you like to be a UG presenter?

7. If yes, is there a particular topic you would like to present on?

Format
8. Is the 6:30-8:30pm slot ideal for you?
(Some other UGs go for 3 hours+)

9. Do you like joining with the Melbourne group or would you prefer to be separate?

Sydney VFP UG meeting postponed until March

2005-02-21T16:30:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone,
I'm very sorry to inform you that UG is postponed for this month.
I had originally planned to resume the meeting this Wednesday (23 March) but due to my late return from OS and a stack of distractions I haven't been able to organise a proper set of presentations for the meeting.
I considered resuming with a 'lite' meeting but then thought better of it. Your time is valuable, so I'd rather make sure the user meeting is a good use of our time.
See you next month.
Cheers,
Craig

David Bower session code added

2004-11-24T22:18:00.000+11:00

Dave Bower's code for his Losing Focus presentation have been added here
http://www.svfpug.com.au/assets/2004Nov/LosingFocus.zip

Webcast dial in numbers

2004-11-22T17:54:00.000+11:00

For those people connecting to our webcast this Wednesday, you will need to dial one of the following numbers in order to get audio (the VoIP option is not available this month).
Login details are available from my previous blog here: http://svfpug.blogspot.com/2004/11/november-webcast-login.html

Australia, Adelaide +61 8 8217 7432

Australia, Brisbane +61 7 3218 7022

Australia, Canberra +61 2 6122 4672

Australia, Melbourne +61 3 9286 3225

Australia, Perth +61 8 9420 8419

Australia, Sydney +61 2 9870 2922

New Zealand, Auckland +64 9 357 5566

New Zealand, Wellington +64 4 474 7656

November Webcast login

2004-11-13T10:12:00.000+11:00

Here's the details for this month's VFP User Group Webcast login. Note you need to dial in on your phone to pick up audio (it is not available VoIP as I had previously advised):

Attendee Login details for UG

You have been invited to a Microsoft Office Live Meeting. At the time of the meeting, click on the following link to attend:
http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend?id=acoat253115&pw=091676
Meeting Title: VFP UG Meeting
Audio Information: +61 2 9870 2922 PIN: 444127 -- Other numbers for around ANZ will be provided soon
If you cannot click the meeting link above, or it does not work, please do the following:
Browse to: http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend
Type your name
Type the Meeting ID as: acoat253115
Type the Password as: 091676

November meeting details

2004-11-04T13:03:00.000+11:00

The details of next meeting's speakers are on the website www.svfpug.com.au
Details of how to join the webcast will be posted closer to the event.

User Group Webcast details

2004-10-27T16:35:00.000+10:00

Here are the details to join the Sydney VFP User Group Webcast at 6:30pm EST on Wednesday 27 October 2004. (Note you only need to dial in if you want to send audio - you can hear audio via the web link)

You have been invited to a Microsoft Office Live Meeting. At the time of the meeting, click on the following link to attend:
http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend?id=acoat888222&pw=801696

Meeting Title: VFP User Group Meeting
Audio Information: Dial-in numbers below PIN: 444127

If you cannot click the meeting link above, or it does not work, please do the following:
Browse to: http://www.placeware.com/rm/microsoft/attend
Type your name
Type the Meeting ID as: acoat888222
Type the Password as: 801696
_________________________

Dialin numbers

Australia, Adelaide
+61 8 8217 7432

Australia, Brisbane
+61 7 3218 7022

Australia, Canberra
+61 2 6122 4672

Australia, Melbourne
+61 3 9286 3225

Australia, Perth
+61 8 9420 8419

Australia, Sydney
+61 2 9870 2922

New Zealand, Auckland
+64 9 357 5566

Analyst Programmer job

2004-10-23T15:12:00.000+10:00

We've added a jobs page to the UG site.
Currently we have a 6 month contract job in Melbourne.
Details at www.svfpug.com.au/jobs.htm

Next meeting 27 Oct

2004-10-22T18:27:00.001+10:00

This month we've got:
Andrew Coates presenting on VFP and MapPoint
Ekasenna Tjhauw talking on Secure Web Services
Craig Bailey giving a summary of FoxPro Devcon

We webcast the UG meetings. Details of how to join the webcast will be posted here shortly.

Next meeting 27 Oct

2004-10-22T18:27:00.000+10:00

VFP UG webcast replay

2004-10-01T13:57:00.000+10:00

Details of how to replay the UG meeting from last Wednesday were posted on Andrew Coate's blog here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/acoat/archive/2004/09/30/235778.aspx

I have also copied them here:
http://www112.placeware.com/cc/lmevents/viewRecordings
Enter your name
ID: msft092904ac
Password: KJS89Q
Click Submit
On the next page, please enter your Email and Company Name (if required) and click Submit.
Choose between the pure Windows Media format (audio only) and the Microsoft Office Live Meeting Replay (which allows you to actually see what was on the screen as well as move forward and back in the presentation based on the slides)

VFP UG link updated

2004-09-29T20:08:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Chuck for fixing up our User group bio on the Australian User groups page. Check it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/msdn/localresources/usergroups.aspx

Web cast debrief

2004-09-29T20:01:00.000+10:00

Well, a big well done and congratulations to Paul, Craig and Castro for their excellent presentations, and especially to Andrew for coordinating the event.
A few technical issues were experienced, but given we are pushing new ground this is to be expected. We'll have these sorted for next month. And speaking of next month, please join us to hear Andrew Coates speaking about VFP and MapPoint (he's the great speaker I was referring to in my question).
I'm here at Devcon getting ready to start some sessions in approx 4 hours time (yep, jet lag will do that for you) but I wouldn't have missed the online web cast for anything - a very exciting event. And let's hope it paves the way for other groups to use the technology - we were the guinea pigs on this one I guess (I knw web casts have been around for a while, but switching speakers and machines is not common).
Thanks again to everyone, especially for bearing with us for the few technical hitches, we'll see you again next month.

VFP UG Webcast details

2004-09-29T18:36:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the late notice - details of how to connect to the user group are at
http://blogs.msdn.com/acoat/archive/2004/09/27/234694.aspx

September 29 meeting

2004-09-24T09:42:00.000+10:00

Don't miss our September meeting (next Wed 29 at 6:30pm)
We have 4 great speakers, each discussing a mini topic, including web services, XML, VFP9 and ActiveX controls.
Also, this will be a combined meeting with the Melbourne VFP user group - and looks to be our biggest meeting so far.
See our website for more details: www.svfpug.com.au

September meeting line up

2004-09-08T09:52:00.000+10:00

We are lucky to have Craig Franklin, Eka Tjhauw, Castro Shehata and Paul Hemans all speaking at our September 29 meeting.

And coming up in October Andrew Coates will be presenting on MapPoint which has just been released in an Australian version. This is a preview of his bonus talk at OzFox (yes you heard it here first, Andrew will be one of the OzFox bonus speakers)!

And in November we are privileged to feature David Bower giving a post-Southwest Fox brain dump.

VFP9 Reporting white papers

2004-09-01T13:06:00.000+10:00

For more details on VFP9 reporting see the whitepapers on MSDN as detailed by Ken Levy
They are excellent articles by Cathy Pountney
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnfoxgen9/html/VFP9Reports1.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnfoxgen9/html/VFP9Reports2.asp

September agenda added

2004-08-30T09:20:00.000+10:00

The details of our 29 September meeting have been updated here.
This will be a combined meeting with the Melbourne VFP User Group!

VFP9 Report System Presentation

2004-08-27T10:18:00.000+10:00

If you want a quick memory jogger for when you start to play with the new VFP9 reports, I've uploaded my powerpoint presentation to http://www.intense.com.au/Downloads/VFP9ReportSystem.ppt

Thanks to Tristan for looking after us

2004-08-26T10:34:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Tristan Kington for looking after us at User Group last night.

XFRX - Print to PDF, Word, Excel

2004-08-25T23:58:00.000+10:00

The product I demonstrated for printing to PDF, Word, Excel, HTML etc was XFRX. You can find details at http://www.eqeus.com

Sydney + Melbourne combined webcast

2004-08-25T22:24:00.000+10:00

At our next meeting on 29 September 2004, the Sydney VFP User Group will be combining with the Melbourne VFP User Group via webcast.
The meeting will be available for anyone on the net to view.

VFP9 Beta Refresh

2004-08-25T22:09:00.000+10:00

The VFP9 Beta Refresh is available here.
Well worth getting if not for the AnchorEditor tool alone.

This is a community blog

2004-08-25T22:04:00.000+10:00

This is a community blog. If you are a member of the Sydney VFP User Group and would like to post entries here, please email me and I will add you as a member to this blog. You will then be able to add posts.

Welcome to the Sydney VFP User Group

2004-08-25T21:32:00.000+10:00

The Sydney VFP User Group meets on the last Wednesday of each month at Microsoft Headquarters.

6:30pm - 8:30pm
Microsoft Sydney Office
Theatre 2
1 Epping Road
North Ryde NSW 2113

Pizza and drinks are provided

Note - if you come after 6:30pm you will need to call security to let you in - the number to call will be on a notice at the door

See our website for more details.