ProFox February 2019

profox@leafe.com

39 participants
27 discussions

Re: String Reference to Object
by Gene Wirchenko 25 Feb '20

25 Feb '20

At 11:07 2018-02-15, Gene Wirchenko <genew(a)telus.net> wrote: >At 10:57 2018-02-15, "Fernando D. Bozzo" <fdbozzo(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>To talk with an example, if you have this: >> >>oObj = createobject("custom") >>reference = "oObj" >> >>The you have at least 3 options: >> >>1) The way you know => &reference..referredto >> >>2) Using evaluate => =Evaluate(reference + ".referredto") >> >>3) My preferred: Caching the object and then using it: >> >>oRef = Evaluate(reference) >>? oRef.refered1 >>? oRef.refered2 >>... > > I was hoping to avoid evaluate(), but your third way makes > sense. I will check if it works in all the contexts I am thinking > of. (I was using "object" and "reference" rather loosely.) Unfortunately, it does not work in my usual use case: as an alias. Example: use ccli where=evaluate("ccli") && Nope ? where.clcode Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko

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[NF] Migrating Skills From Foxpro to Xojo
by Paul H. Tarver 29 Jul '19

29 Jul '19

I hijacked the original thread with a reply changing the subject and adding an [NF] flag to the subject because a small comment Kevin made caused me chase a different rabbit for a little bit. I have reviewed Xojo on a couple of different occasions over the past few years and I have tried to work my way through the book that was written to teach people how to program it and I find myself drifting by the 3rd or 4th chapter every time. Not a fault of the author; just rather a fault of me wanting something a little more advanced. Anyway, I've run into a couple of hurdles with trying to learn Xojo and perhaps someone here has some suggestions to help me out. Try not to laugh at what may be very dumb questions! :) 1) I build a lot of similar but customized apps using a shared library of tools I've developed over the past 25 years. Every app I build contains a LOT of forms, reports and programs shared by all my applications as well as a lot of forms, reports and programs which are copied from previous projects and then customized for the current client. While I have seen multiple Xojo advocates confirm a similar process is possible, but I cannot find clear explanations of how to make that happen. 2) Every Foxpro application I build starts with a .PRG which reads a configuration .INI file and then setups up the environment, displays a splash screen, checks my version numbers, calls a database update process if a version change is detected and if all is good, it displays the main screen for the user. Once the user chooses to exit my application, a shutdown process is initiated and everything is closed in an orderly way. That having been said, I have been unable to find source code to a simple, complete Xojo application or instruction book that can walk me through the start to finish logic and firing order of all the start-up and shut-down events and allow me to compare that to the process I'm so familiar with in Foxpro. 3) Are there any good white-papers or books by Foxpro programmers that can provide insights into translating my Foxpro knowledge and skill directly into Xojo. I use Foxpro on a daily basis for my business because I cannot find a language that satisfies my clients' needs the way Foxpro does. I would love to be able to say I have a backup language like Xojo, but I get only so far before I give up and go back to what I know and love. So let's assume Kevin is correct when he states Xojo is " a viable language for VFP developers" because I do not want to go down the rabbit hole of considering all the other alternatives for this sake of this discussion and share with me any tips that can help me understand Xojo on a higher level beyond just creating a simple form. I want to understand Xojo at a Complete Deliverable Application level and talk about mimicking the features I depend upon in Foxpro to share a library of tools, forms and code across hundreds of similar custom applications. Paul H. Tarver -----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Kevin J Cully Sent: Friday, February 22, 2019 8:11 AM To: profoxtech(a)leafe.com Subject: RE: false news.... Well, a lot of that article is correct, even though I don't want it to be. VFP as a *language* is as secure as the programmer programmed it to be. VFP as a *database* isn't secure itself. You can encrypt fields. You can encrypt the directory that the data is stored in. But DBF data isn't secure. You wouldn't store social security numbers or credit card numbers in Excel spreadsheets, right? I've haven't recommended DBFs for storage for over a decade now. There are better storage mechanisms such as Postgres, MariaDB, and even SQLite which can be set up as an encrypted database. VFP as a language is still valid, although it will never be able to create 64bit applications but that is a different subject. [Insert Xojo plug here as a viable language for VFP developers.] I had a potential client where they based their primary keys based on employee Social Security Numbers. They didn't like it when I told them that they'd need a complete rewrite. Notice this would have been the case no matter what language/technology they were using. It was just piss poor design. It appears from the article, that when the vendor was notified of the situation, that they were able to quickly address it although the article didn't say what that solution was. Probably encrypted the field? Hash the field with an external secured table containing the sensitive data? Who knows. To me, that's a win. Hopefully the vendor contacts all customers notifying them that there is a vulnerability and that there is a solution available. As Ted Roche always says "Security is a process". -Kevin -----Original Message----- From: ProFox [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Dave Crozier Sent: Friday, February 22, 2019 6:07 AM To: 'ProFox Email List' <profox(a)leafe.com> Subject: VFP: false news.... Ignorance and stupidity still runs in the so-called “expert consultant” fraternity. “An outdated software that is used by about 200 Vermont municipalities and the Vermont Tax Department has long contained flaws that exposed sensitive information including Social Security numbers, according to an IT consultant and the software company’s founder.” “You could make a strong case that Visual FoxPro shouldn’t be used on a government level,” Johnson said. https://vtdigger.org/2019/02/05/consultant-outdated-software-left-worker-in… Thankfully the software owners realise that it isn’t a fault in VFP, it is a fault in the designing of the infrastructure. Expert: Ex - Out of date Spurt – a drip under pressure!! Dave Crozier Software Development Manager Flexipol Packaging Ltd. ﴾⚆ᨎ⚆﴿ Flexipol® Packaging Ltd T 01706 222 792 E DCrozier(a)flexipol.co.uk W https://www.flexipol.co.uk/ Follow us: Unit 14 Bentwood Road, Carrs Industrial Estate, Haslingden, Lancashire, BB4 5HH This communication and the information it contains is intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. Its contents are confidential and may be protected in law. If you have received this e-mail in error you must not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. Unauthorised use, copying or disclosure of any of it may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone or email. Flexipol Packaging Ltd. has taken every reasonable precaution to minimise the risk of virus transmission through email and therefore any files sent via e-mail will have been checked for known viruses. However, you are advised to run your own virus check before opening any attachments received as Flexipol Packaging Ltd will not in any event accept any liability whatsoever once an e-mail and/or any attachment is received. It is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they have adequate virus protection. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terms & Conditions: Notwithstanding delivery and the passing of risk in the goods, the property in the goods shall not pass to the buyer until the seller Flexipol Packaging Ltd. ("The Company") has received in cash or cleared funds payment in full of the price of the goods and all other goods agreed to be sold by the seller to the buyer for which payment is then due. Until such time as the property in the goods passes to the buyer, the buyer shall hold the goods as the seller's fiduciary agent and bailee and keep the goods separate from those of the buyer and third parties and properly stored protected and insured and identified as the seller's property but shall be entitled to resell or use the goods in the ordinary course of its business. Until such time as the property in the goods passes to the buyer the seller shall be entitled at any time --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/related multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html image/jpeg image/jpeg image/png image/png image/png image/png --- [excessive quoting removed by server]

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Re: AW: Custom Scrollbar
by Gene Wirchenko 25 Mar '19

25 Mar '19

At 06:06 2019-01-10, Frank Cazabon <frank.cazabon(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Gene, I've knocked up a quick demo which I hope meets your >requirements and emailed you the link to the download on google drive. I was beat last week, and did not get to it. I have a couple days off (today and tomorrow) and am digging into it. Preliminary: I should have stated code only. Never mind. Converting it to code only will help me learn. <BEG> I do not use database containers. I hope this does not break your solution. I was concerned because of the validation rules, but this, at least, does not appear to be an issue. Focus should be set on a control in the grid at the start. I assume that there is a simple statement to do that. Validation of each column is not done at the start of row-level validation. This is important. What if the data displayed is invalid? I may be able to get this myself. I have not done much yet, but this looks as if it works. So how did I miss it? I think bad documentation is to blame, but while converting it to code, I ought to find out. I think I probably got snookered by Before/AfterRowColChange(). [snip] Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko

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[NF] Learn about Stored Procedures
by Stephen Russell 19 Mar '19

19 Mar '19

Here is a very simplistic tutorial on how to make stored procedures in SQL SERVER. You can apply the same concept to most other RDBMS you want to use. https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertutorial/168/different-options-for-creat… If you do this you can stop writing SQL CODE in VFP and pass it to the backend where that db engine has to make a plan to execute the query every time. If you have that SQL Code in a stored procedure the db engine can look it its stats to determine the best plan to execute the code. I have some long stored procedures that are in the 3000 lines long arena that are called for every Bill of Lading report we print. Granted it combines Sales data, testing data, item specifications data as well as customer and our employee system data. This generates a CofA or Certificate of Analysis report for every lot number on the truck. Sprocs are great because they make it much harder to hack into your backend data. Nothing new here, right? https://www.xkcd.com/327/ -- Stephen Russell Sr. Analyst Ring Container Technology Oakland TN 901.246-0159 cell --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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Creating a copy of a database -- best practice?
by mbsoftwaresolutions＠mbsoftwaresolutions.com 07 Mar '19

07 Mar '19

I can easily do something like this: CREATE DATABASE C:\Backup\MyDBC.dbc OPEN DATABASE C:\Production\MyDBC.dbc liNumTables = adbobjects(laTables,'TABLE') for ii = 1 to liNumTables lcFile = forceext("C:\BACKUP\" + laTables[ii],'dbf') use laTables[ii] copy to (lcFile) database C:\Backup\MyDBC.dbc with cdx use endfor ...and that would get me a copy of all of the tables with their indexes. Great. But what's the easiest way to get all of the DBC meta-data into that new Backup database copy? I can't USE the MyDBC.dbc and do a COPY TO as that only makes the result a DBF and FPT. Trying to think about a good disaster recovery plan (besides using CleverFox from Rick Schummer and Frank Perez...which is probably the best option!) for automating backups at the client who just got that ransomware virus. tia, --Mike

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MariaDB limitation on memo fields -- caps out at 255
by mbsoftwaresolutions＠mbsoftwaresolutions.com 04 Mar '19

04 Mar '19

My VFP9SP2 app connects to my web database with no issue. My client wanted to host the database on his network there so I installed MariaDB there and everything seemed to fire up just fine. HOWEVER, there's a problem with the memo fields capping at length=255. Given that it works with a different (my web) MariaDB database, I'm sure this is a configuration issue. Question is: where do I find/set that? His network OS is Windows 2016 Server. My web database is using a Linux OS iirc. tia, --Mike

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Old VFP8 app on a Windows 7 computer suddenly fails
by Tracy Pearson 01 Mar '19

01 Mar '19

It won't start. AVG is installed. Here's the details from the Event Viewer message <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> - <System> <Provider Name="Application Popup" /> <EventID Qualifiers="16384">26</EventID> <Level>4</Level> <Task>0</Task> <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2019-02-28T16:46:35.000000000Z" /> <EventRecordID>907913</EventRecordID> <Channel>System</Channel> <Computer>Owner-PC</Computer> <Security /> </System> - <EventData> <Data>pcplus9.exe - Application Error</Data> <Data>The application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b). Click OK to close the application.</Data> </EventData> </Event> We are currently seeing if the customer will upgrade to our latest version which is running VFP 9. And uninstalling AVG. Any thoughts?

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VFP: false news....
by Dave Crozier 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

Ignorance and stupidity still runs in the so-called “expert consultant” fraternity. “An outdated software that is used by about 200 Vermont municipalities and the Vermont Tax Department has long contained flaws that exposed sensitive information including Social Security numbers, according to an IT consultant and the software company’s founder.” “You could make a strong case that Visual FoxPro shouldn’t be used on a government level,” Johnson said. https://vtdigger.org/2019/02/05/consultant-outdated-software-left-worker-in… Thankfully the software owners realise that it isn’t a fault in VFP, it is a fault in the designing of the infrastructure. Expert: Ex - Out of date Spurt – a drip under pressure!! Dave Crozier Software Development Manager Flexipol Packaging Ltd. ﴾⚆ᨎ⚆﴿ Flexipol® Packaging Ltd T 01706 222 792 E DCrozier(a)flexipol.co.uk W https://www.flexipol.co.uk/ Follow us: Unit 14 Bentwood Road, Carrs Industrial Estate, Haslingden, Lancashire, BB4 5HH This communication and the information it contains is intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. Its contents are confidential and may be protected in law. If you have received this e-mail in error you must not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. Unauthorised use, copying or disclosure of any of it may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone or email. Flexipol Packaging Ltd. has taken every reasonable precaution to minimise the risk of virus transmission through email and therefore any files sent via e-mail will have been checked for known viruses. However, you are advised to run your own virus check before opening any attachments received as Flexipol Packaging Ltd will not in any event accept any liability whatsoever once an e-mail and/or any attachment is received. It is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they have adequate virus protection. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terms & Conditions: Notwithstanding delivery and the passing of risk in the goods, the property in the goods shall not pass to the buyer until the seller Flexipol Packaging Ltd. ("The Company") has received in cash or cleared funds payment in full of the price of the goods and all other goods agreed to be sold by the seller to the buyer for which payment is then due. Until such time as the property in the goods passes to the buyer, the buyer shall hold the goods as the seller's fiduciary agent and bailee and keep the goods separate from those of the buyer and third parties and properly stored protected and insured and identified as the seller's property but shall be entitled to resell or use the goods in the ordinary course of its business. Until such time as the property in the goods passes to the buyer the seller shall be entitled at any time --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/related multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html image/jpeg image/jpeg image/png image/png image/png image/png ---

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[NF] Registering DLL's
by Tracy Pearson 27 Feb '19

27 Feb '19

I use INNOSetup for my installer. I install and register over 24 DLLs during this process. As of late, up to 5 DLLs are not registering. I have writing a program that starts RegSvr32 to register each of these DLLs manually. It isn't always the same 5 DLLs, but it is commonly 2 of them. Most machines just work. There have been more than 20 computers that haven't. Note: I have over 3000 install sites that might have multiple machines installed. One of our tech's remotes in, runs this special EXE as administrator and finds the ones that are not registering. Then starts an Administrative Command Prompt and manually calls the RegSvr32 to register them. Problem is solved. Does anyone have some idea why this failure happens? I feel like I can rule out Anti-Virus since manually running it allows it to register.

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[NF] Change DVD Internal Player to 0
by Charles Hart Enzer, M.D. 26 Feb '19

26 Feb '19

I have Toshiba Internal Player in a Dell Inspiron 3650 running under WIN 10 64 bits I want to convert the Player to Region 0 Thank you Shai / שי Charles Hart Enzer, MD(Ohio, USA), FAACAP Aliyah: Cincinnati to Jerusalem's German Colony May, 2017 Volunteer Associate Professor of Psychiatry University of Cincinnati Medical Center WebSite: http://EnzerMD.com If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact -- not to be solved, but to be coped with over time -- Shimon Peres, Ninth President of Israel --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html ---

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ProFox February 2019