What's New in Visual FoxPro 9.0 Beta

Below is the draft of what we are working on for the dialog that appears while the setup is running when installing Visual FoxPro 9.0...

Here are some of the many new features in Visual FoxPro 9.0 Beta:

Flexibility to Build All Types of Database Solutions

Ø Create .NET compatible solutions with hierarchical XML and XML Web services.

Ø Exchange data with SQL Server through enhanced SQL language capabilities and newly supported data types.

Ø Enhance your user interfaces with dockable user forms, auto-anchoring of controls, and improved image support.

Ø Personalize the Properties Window with your favorite properties, custom editors, fonts, and color settings.

Ø Build and deploy stand-alone and remote applications for Windows based Tablet PCs.

Ø Create and access COM components and XML Web Services compatible with Microsoft .NET technology.

Ø Visual FoxPro 9.0 allows you to build end-to-end solutions, from data entry forms to complex report outputs.

Reporting System Features

Ø Extensible new output architecture provides precision control of report data output and formatting.

Ø Multiple detail band support for data with multiple one-to-many relationships.

Ø Output reports supported include in XML, HTML, image formats, and customizable multi-page print preview window.

Ø Customizable print preview window with improved display quality and multiple page support.

Ø New ReportListener class provides access to report generation and rendering events at runtime.

Ø Flexible report chaining allows for more complex print jobs.

Ø Powerful design-time hooks with customizable builders.

Ø Backward compatible with existing Visual FoxPro reports.

Data-Handling and Interoperability

Ø New Data Types - Varchar, Varbinary, and Blob types allow for improved interoperability with SQL Server.

Ø Extended SQL Enhancements – more capabilities with SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements.

Ø CAST() – new function allows you to convert between different data types.

Ø New Binary Index – support for new index type to improve performance using Deleted tag.

Ø XMLAdapter – improved nested hierarchical XML and XSD schema support.

Smart Client User Interface Features

Ø Dockable Forms – allow for professional functioning Windows applications.

Ø Anchoring – lets you control movement of controls on a form as the form is resized.

Ø Buttons – improved control over position of image on a button with text alignment.

Ø Checkboxes – new wordwrap support for checkbox captions.

Ø Labels – support for rotating text for label captions.

Ø Shapes and Lines – ability to create polygons and Bezier curves.

Ø Lists and Combos – use collections as databinding row source.

Ø Images – bind to non file-based pictures.

Extensible Developer Productivity

Ø Property Sheet – support for new font and color display options, extended characters and long expressions.

Ø Member Data Extensibility – ability to specify custom property editors and favorites.

Ø Background Compile – see valid and invalid syntax as you type command lines.

Ø Task Pane – new and improved task panes such as the Data Explorer pane.

Ø Extended System Capabilities – no limits for arrays, procedure size, and nesting levels.

Ø String Functions – powerful new enhancements for working with strings.

Ø ICASE() – new inline function similar to DO CASE statement.

Ø International – greater support for use of FontCharSets in applications.