Detailed Table of Contents (PDF) here
Complete Index (PDF) here
Chapter 1: Interactive Development Environment
Life has gotten easier for developers in each version of Visual FoxPro. VFP 8 is no
exception. It brings improvements in window docking, adds IntelliSense to the Watch
window, and more.
Chapter 2: The Toolbox
It seems every new version of Visual FoxPro introduces some new tools. VFP 8 brings
three of them, all written in VFP itself. This chapter looks at the Toolbox, which provides
a new way to access controls and much more.
Chapter 3: Code References
Among the cool new tools introduced in VFP 8 is Code References, which lets you
search the files in a project or folder, provides replace capability, and much more.
Chapter 4: The Task Pane Manager
The last of VFP 8’s new tools, the Task Pane Manager, provides easy access to a number
of common tasks. It also offers one-click connection to a variety of VFP resources.
Chapter 5: Better Tools
Along with a good selection of new tools (described in Chapters 2, 3 and 4), VFP 8
brings significant improvements to a couple of existing tools and small changes to many
of the rest.
Chapter 6: Improved Data Access
There are several ways you can access non-VFP data (such as SQL Server or Oracle) in
VFP applications: remote views, SQL Pass-Through, ADO, and XML. VFP 8 introduces an
exciting new technology called CursorAdapter that makes accessing remote data much
easier than it was in earlier versions.
Chapter 7: XML Classes
VFP 8 greatly improves upon the XML features added in VFP 7 by providing new base
classes that can work with more types of XML and provide more control over XML input
and output. The existing XML functions also have a few improvements.
Chapter 8: Other Data-Related Changes
The thing that sets VFP apart from every other Microsoft development tool is its built-in
database engine. VFP 8 adds features to the engine developers have requested for years.
Chapter 9: OOP Enhancements
Visual FoxPro 8 introduces a variety of enhancements to the object-oriented portion of
the language. Two key changes are the ability to specify the class to use within a
number of container objects, and a new base class for collections. Many controls sport
new properties as well.
Chapter 10: COM and Web Services Enhancements
While VFP can work well in a COM environment, there’s always room for improvement.
Fortunately, VFP 8 provides additional capabilities to VFP COM servers and clients. It
also greatly improves the ability to work with Web services.
Chapter 11: Event Binding
VFP 7 gave us the ability to bind our code to events of COM objects. VFP 8 goes a step
farther, allowing us to bind code to events of VFP objects. In addition, this version gives
us the ability to fire events.
Chapter 12: Error Handling
VFP 8 now has structured error handling. This powerful new feature provides a third
layer of error handling and allows you to eliminate a lot of code related to passing and
handling error information.
Chapter 13: Language Improvements
Visual FoxPro’s programming language is a hybrid of Xbase, SQL, OOP, and a variety of
other components. Thanks to its long life, it’s a rich, full language. But there’s always
room for improvement. Beyond the major enhancements described in other chapters,
VFP 8 includes a variety of small changes in the language that make it easier to get the
results you need.
Chapter 14: Bits and Pieces
This is the “what’s left over” chapter—it discusses changes in VFP 8 that don’t fit into a
specific category.
Appendix: Setting up SQL Server 2000 XML Access
An add-on for SQL Server 2000 called SQLXML allows access to SQL Server over HTTP,
with results returned as XML. This appendix describes how to set it up.
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