Using Visual FoxPro resources in. NET-Preface

This article, which I wrote for Programmer magazine, was published in the 9th issue of the magazine in 2002, and it should be the first ever article on Visual FoxPro in the "programmer" magazine, thanks to Mr. Editor ...

Writing this article is very difficult, because the area involved is too new, there is little information to learn from, even the original. Fortunately, since last year I have been on and off a little bit about C #,. NET, and lately there have been some thoughts about "Visual FoxPro and. Net", though labored and finally mission.

The Visual FoxPro support for. NET should be this way:

Fully supported. Fox, like VB, has completely changed into. NET language, but has not heard of Microsoft has this plan. Visual FoxPro 8, which has not yet been released, is certainly not built on the. NET platform and retains the original system. In the long run, I am 100% in favor of Visual FoxPro joining the ranks of. NET languages!!!

Supports. NET based on the COM platform. We know that visual FoxPro can support COM systems Well, the. NET system can have a smooth transition to COM system, so we can achieve this by using the COM components written in. NET with visual FoxPro; tune in Visual FoxPro A. NET component. Visual FoxPro 8 will certainly provide tools or commands to facilitate this conversion.

Exchange data. There are basically three ways to exchange data, the first is to take advantage of the smooth transition between COM and. NET, followed by database-level exchange, and then XML Web Service.

. NET does not resemble a visual FoxPro embedded database (which may be considered a. NET database), Visual FoxPro provides an OLE DB driver for the DBF series database so that ADO can be used in. Net. NET access to Fox data. Similarly, visual FoxPro can access various data sources, including SQL Server, through ODBC, and it is noteworthy that visual FoxPro 8 provides better support for SQL Server.

Some people say that the core of. NET is the XML Web service, and I'm not talking about this right or wrong, but XML Web service is really important in. NET! At present, Microsoft's Cross-platform, is to want the data cross-platform, rather than Java as the application itself across the platform, XML Web Service is the embodiment of this idea! Visual FoxPro can support XML Web Service very well (I've written a number of articles), which is the best way to communicate between visual FoxPro and. NET in the current system!

In October, the beta version of Visual FoxPro 8 was released, and I sent it to the people who worked for Fox and gave it to the people who cared about Fox. Good luck to Fox!

Body

. NET should be the topic that developers talk about most, and in the Fox community at home and abroad, people are also concerned about the interaction between visual FoxPro and. Net. Here's a topic that we're going to discuss today: how to. NET uses the resources provided by Visual FoxPro. The author thought, with Visual FoxPro 7 as the starting point, the answer may be this:

• New OLE DB Provider, convenient. NET developers visit Fox series database

• The COM components written by Visual FoxPro can be used in. NET to protect technical investments by developers

• Connecting to the world through XML Web Service,fox, the same connection. NET

• Visual FoxPro for. NET Toolkit, it is useful to rewrite more than 225 fox functions in the. NET language. NET Resources