Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0 Readme

This document contains the most recent notes from the Microsoft Visual FoxPro product team and has more updated information than the online help documentation. For information about new features since previous versions of Visual FoxPro, see "What's New in Visual FoxPro 8.0" in the Visual FoxPro Help. It is also very important that you read the "Behavior Changes Since Visual FoxPro 7.0" topic so that you are aware of product changes that might impact you when migrating your existing applications to Visual FoxPro 8.0.

For the latest information about Visual FoxPro, please visit the Visual FoxPro home page at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro.

1. Getting Started with Microsoft Visual FoxPro

This section contains system requirements and installation information. 

1.1. System Requirements

Visual FoxPro has the following minimum system requirements:

• Processor:   Pentium class
  
  
• Memory:   64 MB RAM (128 MB or higher recommended)
  
  
• Available Hard Disk Space:
  • Visual FoxPro Prerequisites - 20 MB
    
    
  • Visual FoxPro Minimum Install - 165 MB
    
    
  • Visual FoxPro Maximum Install - 165 MB

    Note   You must install Visual FoxPro on a local hard drive, not a mapped drive.

• Video:   800 x 600 resolution, 256 colors (High Color 16-bit recommended)
  
  
• Operating System:   Developing applications with Visual FoxPro 8.0 is only supported on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 and later, and Windows XP. You can create and distribute run-time applications for Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 or later, and Windows XP.

1.2. Installation

You must have administrator privileges to install Visual FoxPro. Microsoft recommends that you run Visual FoxPro with at least power-user privileges to be able to use all the provided tools effectively.

1.2.1. Installing Visual FoxPro

You can safely install or uninstall using Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup. If you are upgrading to Visual FoxPro 8.0, you must first uninstall Visual FoxPro 7.0. Though Visual FoxPro 8.0 and Visual FoxPro 7.0 can exist on the same computer, you cannot install Visual FoxPro 8.0 in the same directory as Visual FoxPro 7.0.

If you plan to publish XML Web services using Visual FoxPro, you might want to set up Internet Information Services (IIS) on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer. Refer to your operating system documentation for instructions on how to set up and configure IIS.

Important   Unlike Visual FoxPro 7.0, the Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup no longer installs any Windows operating system Service Packs or versions of Internet Explorer. It is highly recommended that you install the latest versions of these components before installing Visual FoxPro 8.0. Additionally, Visual FoxPro 8.0 is only supported on Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 or later. For details about installing the latest Service Pack, visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/.

To install Visual FoxPro

1. Quit all open applications.

   It is recommended that you temporarily turn off any virus detection software that you might have running (see note below regarding Norton AntiVirus).

2. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.

   The Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup start page appears automatically.

3. Click Install Visual FoxPro to launch Visual FoxPro Setup.

   If the Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup start page does not automatically appear, you should run the VfpStart.hta file as follows:

   1. On the Windows Start menu, click Run.
      
      
   2. In the Run dialog box, type <CD Drive Letter>:\Vfpstart.hta in the Open text box, and click OK.

      For example, if drive D is your CD drive, type D:\Vfpstart.hta in the Open text box.

4. To determine if you need additional components, click Prerequisites.

   Visual FoxPro Prerequisites displays any necessary components that need to be installed before Visual FoxPro.

5. Click Install Now! to install any new components. If Visual FoxPro Prerequisites needs to only update components, click Update Now!.

   You might need to restart your computer.

6. Click Done when finished.

   Visual FoxPro Setup reappears.

7. Click Visual FoxPro to continue installation. After accepting the End User License Agreement and entering the Product Key and your name, click Continue.

   Note   Visual FoxPro cannot be installed on a mapped disk drive. You must install Visual FoxPro on a local hard disk drive. Do not attempt to use the Map Network Drive functionality in Setup.

8. On the Options page, select the features you want to install and click Install Now! to continue.
   
   
9. When finished, click Done to return to Visual FoxPro Setup. Click Exit to return to the Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup start page.

If you uninstall Visual FoxPro 8.0 while Visual FoxPro 7.0 exists on your computer, certain shared registry keys used by Visual FoxPro 7.0 are removed. You must reinstall these critical shared registry keys.

If you run Visual FoxPro 7.0 from the Start menu, Visual FoxPro 7.0 Setup automatically reinstalls these keys. If you start Visual FoxPro 7.0 using other means, such as running the application executable directly, the setup program does not start automatically. You should use Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel and the following steps to reinstall the registry keys manually:

To manually reinstall Visual FoxPro 7.0 registry keys

1. On the Start menu, click Control Panel.
   
   
2. Click Add/Remove Programs.
   
   
3. Click Change/Remove for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 7.0.
   
   
4. Click Visual FoxPro and Repair/Reinstall.

Possible Error with Norton AntiVirus

Users with Norton AntiVirus or other virus detection software installed and enabled might receive a warning dialog box after clicking one of the links on the Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup page. The dialog box contains text similar to the following:

------------------------

Norton AntiVirus has detected a potential threat in the displayed Activity.

For your protection, Norton AntiVirus halted the script so you can choose an appropriate Action from the list below.

File:    CD-ROM Drive Letter>\vfpstart.hta

Object: Windows Script Host Shell Object

Action:   Run

Norton AntiVirus recommends that you prevent the script from running unless you know and trust the source of the script.

Action: Stop this script (recommended)

Choose "Stop this script" if you do not trust the script source or the current script activity.

----------------------

This occurs because Norton Antivirus has detected that a script is trying to run from the Visual FoxPro 8.0 startup page. To allow setup to complete, in the dialog box, select Allow the entire script once from the Action menu, and click OK. The setup page uses Windows Scripting to start the various setup programs. Norton AntiVirus captures scripting activity and warns the user of possible threats.

1.2.2. Installing Additional Applications

This release includes copies of the following additional software that you can install and use with Visual FoxPro:

• InstallShield Express Limited Edition

  Provides the capability to package and deploy the applications that you create using Visual FoxPro. The new Visual FoxPro Limited Edition version of InstallShield Express 3.54 included with this release is an updated version from the one that shipped with Visual FoxPro 7.0. This updated version of InstallShield Express includes the following new features:

  • Upgrade View

    Creates new product versions that automatically uninstall the previous version (must be MSI-based) and install the new one.

  • Windows XP support

    Conditionally installs the project or individual files based on the presence of this operating system.

  • Merge Modules path modification

    Provides the ability to add additional directories to the search path used to populate the Merge Module view.

  • Windows Installer 2.0 support

    WI 2.0 is used by default, with an option to revert to WI 1.2 engines.

  • Detects previous installations

    Installation detects existing versions of InstallShield Express and displays a warning message about overwrite during installation.

  • Post-setup EXE

    Specifies that a dialog box containing a check box for launching an .exe file is included at the end of an installation.

    Note   The limited and full editions of InstallShield Express 3.54 are considered two versions of the same product and cannot coexist. If you install one version on a computer where another already exists, the original is uninstalled automatically. Because the limited edition contains fewer features than the full edition, you should keep the full edition on your computer.

• Microsoft SOAP Toolkit 3.0 Samples

  Provides a link for installing additional samples for using the SOAP Toolkit 3.0. The Visual FoxPro Prerequisites setup stage installs the core SOAP Toolkit 3.0 components needed to consume and publish XML Web services in Visual FoxPro.

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE)

  Provides a personal version of SQL Server. Visual FoxPro 8.0 includes Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine Service Pack 3.0. To make sure you have the latest version and Service Pack installed, please visit the Microsoft SQL Server Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/default.asp.

To install InstallShield Express Limited Edition

1. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.

   The Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup start page opens automatically.

2. Click Install InstallShield Express.

   The InstallShield Express installation wizard opens.

3. Follow the instructions in the installation wizard.

You can also locate the Setup.exe file for InstallShield Express in the InstallShield folder on the Visual FoxPro CD.

Note   Visual FoxPro 8.0 installs its redistributable merge modules in a location different from Visual FoxPro 7.0:

Visual FoxPro 7.0: \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Merge Modules\

Visual FoxPro 8.0: \Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules\

The version of InstallShield Express included with Visual FoxPro 8.0 automatically uses the new Visual FoxPro 8.0 merge module location.

Note   When creating Visual FoxPro 8.0 redistributable custom application setup programs using InstallShield Express, you need to include the following merge modules in your custom setup program:

• VFP8 Runtimes
  
  
• VC7 Runtime
  
  
• GDI Plus
  
  
• MSXML 4.0 SP1

To install SOAP Toolkit 3.0 Samples

1. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.

   The Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup start page opens automatically.

2. Click Install SOAP Toolkit 3.0 Samples.

   The SOAP Toolkit 3.0 Samples Setup Wizard opens.

3. Follow the instructions in the Setup Wizard.

You can also locate the Soapsdk.msi and Soapsamp.msi files for the SOAP Toolkit in the SOAPToolkit folder on the Visual FoxPro CD.

To install MSDE

1. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.

   The Visual FoxPro 8.0 Setup start page opens automatically.

2. Click Install Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE).

   This option installs MSDE without an installation wizard.

3. Click Yes to verify that you want to install MSDE.

You can also locate the Setup.exe file for MSDE in the SQLMSDE folder on the Visual FoxPro CD.

1.2.3. Instructions for Machines with a Previous Visual FoxPro 8.0 Beta Installation

If you are installing Visual FoxPro 8.0 on a computer that has an older Beta version of Visual FoxPro 8.0, you need to first uninstall that Beta release. You can uninstall the Beta version using Add or Remove Programs from the Windows Control Panel. In addition, you need to remove the Beta settings and data files. The following steps walk you through the process of uninstalling the Beta version and installing the released version of Visual FoxPro 8.0.

To uninstall Visual FoxPro 8.0 Beta

1. On the Windows Start menu, point to Settings, and click Control Panel.
   
   
2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
   
   
3. Locate Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0 Professional, and click Change/Remove.
   
   
4. In the Visual FoxPro Setup dialog box, click Visual FoxPro.
   
   
5. In the Visual FoxPro 8.0 Maintenance dialog box, click Uninstall Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8.0 Professional.

To install the released version of Visual FoxPro 8.0

• Follow the steps in Section 1.2.1.

To remove Beta settings and files

1. Remove old Toolbox and Task Pane files.

   These files are automatically created using the latest Visual FoxPro 8.0 format and settings. To remove these files, you need to delete the contents of your Application Data directory. You can determine the location of this directory using the HOME(7) function by typing the following line in the Visual FoxPro Command window:

   ? HOME(7)

2. Run VFPClean.app to make sure that all core Xbase and other files are set appropriately. To run VFPClean.app, type the following line in the Visual FoxPro Command window:

   DO HOME()+"VFPCLEAN.APP"

3. To update your IntelliSense tables, perform the following steps:
   1. On the Tools menu in Visual FoxPro, click IntelliSense Manager.
      
      
   2. In the IntelliSense Manager dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
      
      
   3. Click Clean Up.
      
      
   4. In the Maintenance dialog box, click Restore FoxCode. 
4. It is also recommended that you delete your FoxUser.* resource files.

   These files are stored in your Application Data directory, which you can locate by typing ? HOME(7) in the Command window. However, it is possible that your resource files are in another location. You can determine their location by typing the following in the Command window:

   ? SYS(2005) 

5. Delete old Code Reference files that might be associated with projects in the project directories. These are labeled as follows:

   projectname_ref.*

6. In addition, you might need to restore the default Visual FoxPro 8.0 registry settings. To restore the default settings, delete the following registry key using the RegEdit program and restart Visual FoxPro:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualFoxPro\8.0\

2. Known Issues

This section lists known issues in this release of Visual FoxPro. 

2.1. Altered Functionality

The following items involve product behavior changes that might affect the way your applications appear or behave. Make sure to also read the "Behavior Changes Since Visual FoxPro 7.0" Help topic.

• ActiveDocs are no longer supported in Visual FoxPro 8.0.

  If you install Visual FoxPro 8.0 on a computer with Visual FoxPro 7.0 already installed, ActiveDocs will no longer work. The Visual FoxPro 8.0 installation process overwrites registry keys for .app files. To enable ActiveDoc support on a computer with both Visual FoxPro 7.0 and Visual FoxPro 8.0, you need to update the registry to reestablish the .app ActiveDoc association with the Shell Run registry command. This can be done by creating and running a .reg file with following contents (make sure the VFP7run.exe path matches that of your computer). For example:

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Visual.FoxPro.Application.8\shell\run]
  @="&Run (VFP7 ActiveDoc)"
  [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Visual.FoxPro.Application.8\shell\run\command]
  @="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\VFP\\vfp7run.exe \"%1\""

  Note   Run-time redistributable Visual FoxPro 7.0 applications hosting ActiveDocs still function fine even after installing a Visual FoxPro 8.0 run-time application.

• The new Grid LockColumns and LockColumnsLeft properties allow you to prevent columns from scrolling. If these properties are set, the ability to move columns is disabled within that pane.
  
  
• You can now evaluate the Caption property at design-time when using hooks such as the ASELOBJ( ) function. If you set the Caption property to an expression, it might be evaluated and possibly cause an error if memory variables or other references are not in scope.
  
  
• The Label Caption property now supports ability to display a DBC field caption that is an expression when dragging and dropping a field from the Database Designer or DataEnvironment to a form. Therefore, you can no longer have a label caption expression that begins with an equal (=) sign enclosed in quotation marks (""), for example, ="=".
  
  
• The new Grid AllowCellSelection property should not be set during a grid event such as Valid or AfterRowColChange.
  
  
• The FOR EACH control structure uses a specified object variable to iterate through a collection. In Visual FoxPro 7.0, this object variable was assumed to derive its parent from the collection. That was not always the case with certain collections, including new native collections in Visual FoxPro 8.0. Therefore, the value returned by functions such as SYS(1272) - Object Hierarchy when passed the iterator variable within a FOR EACH statement no longer includes a parent reference.
  
  
• If you are porting custom IntelliSense scripts from Visual FoxPro 7.0 to Visual FoxPro 8.0 and are using the HandleCustomScripts method from FoxCode.prg, the default return value in Visual FoxPro 8.0 is now False (.F.) instead of True (.T.). This change provides better flexibility for handling multiple custom scripts.

  The source code for FoxCode.prg, which is part of the IntelliSense Manager application, FoxCode.app, exists in the XSource.zip file located in the ...\Program Files\Microsoft Visual FoxPro 8\Tools\XSource folder.

2.2. Documentation Issues

In general, documentation for new and enhanced language features, including complete syntax, should be available in the "What's New in Visual FoxPro" section of the Help file. However, recent updates, sample code, remarks, related links, and so on might be missing from some of the topics. For a complete list of all new features, please refer to the "What's New in Visual FoxPro 8.0" topic.

This section contains information not included in the Help file:

• The XMLAdapter PreserveWhiteSpace property does not apply to data contained in a CDATA section.
  
  
• In "Keyboard Shortcut Behavior for CTRL+TAB" from the topic, "Behavior Changes Since Visual FoxPro 7.0", replace Form AllowTabs with EditBox AllowTabs.

2.3. Feature Issues

This section describes the most recent information about features included in this release of Visual FoxPro.

• Pressing the F1 key to open Help for some Solution samples might not function properly. If pressing F1 does not open the correct help topic, you can manually navigate to that topic using the Contents pane in the Help file.

  To locate the correct Solution sample topic, in the Help file, click the Contents tab. Click Microsoft Visual FoxPro, then Samples and Walkthroughs. Click Samples, then Solutions Samples.

• When the Document View window is link-docked with another IDE window, the contents of the Document View window might disappear when you click the title bar or scroll bar. You can reload the contents by clicking the editing window.
  
  
• Labels that use Windows XP Themes and that are in a container do not display the correct back color when appearing on a page using Windows XP Themes. You can fix this by setting the label's BackStyle property to Transparent or disabling Themes for the page.
  
  
• In Visual FoxPro 8.0, the Report Designer supports the capability to have stretchable report objects in the page footer. If you have an object that is marked as stretchable, any user-defined function (UDF) defined in the page footer band is evaluated once per detail record instead of once per page.
  
  
• When creating remote views, the View Designer does not properly save SQL SELECT statements that contain both the owner name and a long table name that is enclosed in quotation marks (""), for example, SELECT * from dbo."Order Details". The remote view fails to load properly the next time you attempt to open it in the designer. To avoid this problem, remove the owner name from the SELECT statement, for example, SELECT * from "Order Details".
  
  
• The SET TABLEVALIDATE command is supported in the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider. When used in the Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider, the SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR and SET TABLEVALIDATE commands affect all connections for a particular client. If you change one of these settings for a specific client connection, the setting applies to all other existing connections with the same client.
  
  
• Resizing the Form or Class designer containing a form with a Windows XP-themed page frame might cause certain controls to disappear. To address this behavior, caused by a refresh issue with the designer, activate another window in front of the designer.
  
  
• The Refresh method for a Grid control does not visually update the grid if it is not visible.
  
  
• The AutoFit method for a Grid control might not resize to adequately display the entire contents of a column if you use the Column DynamicFontBold property.
  
  
• If the AllowCellSelection property for a Grid control is set to False (.F.), the Enabled property for that grid is disregarded and treated as if set to True (.T.).
  
  
• If the AllowCellSelection property for a Grid control is set to False (.F.), a CommandButton control on the same form whose Cancel property is set to True (.T.) does not intercept the ESC key when the grid has focus. You can provide this functionality by trapping this keystroke in the Grid KeyPress event.
  
  
• The Visual FoxPro OLE DB Provider included with Visual FoxPro 8.0 appears as "Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Visual FoxPro 7.0 Type Library" when displayed in the Object Browser.
  
  
• InstallShield Express provides settings in the Visual FoxPro Options dialog box to control locations to search for merge modules. You can open the Options dialog box by clicking Options on the Tools menu. By default, InstallShield includes the following locations for merge modules installed by InstallShield and Visual FoxPro:

  InstallShield Express: ...\Program Files\InstallShield\Express\Modules\i386\

  Visual FoxPro 8.0: ...\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules\

  Note   With the version of InstallShield Express that ships with Visual FoxPro 8.0, if the same merge module file exists in both locations, the file in the InstallShield Express merge module location is always displayed and used. Because some of the merge modules in the Visual FoxPro location are more recent, it is recommended that you copy the VFPOLEDB.msm, MSXML3.msm, and MSXML4.msm files to the InstallShield Express merge module folder location.

• If you deploy custom Visual FoxPro applications for redistribution, you might need to include the MSXML3.msm merge module if the application uses the XMLTOCURSOR( ) function, and the target computer runs an operating system earlier than Windows 2000. This merge module is not installed with Visual FoxPro Setup.

  After first installing Visual FoxPro, you can install MSXML3.msm using the following instructions:

  1. Insert the Visual FoxPro CD.
     
     
  2. On the Visual FoxPro CD, locate and open the MSXML3 folder.
     
     
  3. Copy the MSXML3.msm file to the location of your Visual FoxPro 8.0 and InstallShield redistributable merge modules:

     ...\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules\

     ...\Program Files\InstallShield\Express\Modules\i386\

     Note   If you are running InstallShield Express or a different Windows Installer-based installation tool, you might need to quit and restart the tool so that the MSXML3.msm merge module appears in the list of available merge modules that you can include with your custom application.

• Because a DLL COM Server does not provide for full user interface support as does an EXE Server, avoid placing a SCREEN=ON statement inside a Config.fpw file embedded in your DLL.