1. Microsoft® Visual FoxPro® Roadmap Sedna
June 2005

2. Agenda State of the Visual FoxPro union Microsoft Platform overview
Visual FoxPro Roadmap overview
Sedna overview
Visual FoxPro 9.0 demos
VFP 9.0 with VS 2005 interop demos
Sedna early preview demos
Visual FoxPro resources
Summary

3. State of the VFP Union
5600+ participated in April 2005 VFP Survey online
51% have used VFP over 10 years
33% are now using VFP 9.0
80% small company, 68% mid-size, 27% enterprise
71% maintaining apps, 69% new apps, 25% web apps
89% DBFs, 55% SQL Server, 22% MSDE
75% integrate Office with VFP apps
11% apps users, 43% 100+, 30% under 25
26% VS.NET, 21% XML WS, 25% ASP/ASP.NET, 35% COM
20% VB6, 13% VB.NET, 12% C#, 10% Java, 8% C++
31% plan to use VS.NET within next 2 years
98% plan to using VFP within next 12 months

4. Visual FoxPro 9.0 Overview
Data Handling and Interoperability
.NET interop – XML and XML Web Services
SQL Server interop – types and language
Extensible Developer Productivity
Reports, forms, controls, IntelliSense, IDE
Property sheet customization
Flexibility for All Types of Solutions
Smart client to Tablet PC applications

5. VFP 9.0 Reporting System Goals
Protect existing FRX investments
Open architecture
Better reuse story
Design-time improvements
Access to report objects at runtime
More flexibility with Report Chaining
New output types (e.g., XML, HTML)
Report processing events

6. Service Pack 1 for Visual FoxPro 9.0
VFP 9.0 is very stable today
Scheduled near end of 2005

7. Sedna = Extensibility and Interoperability
.NET (Framework, Visual Studio 2005, more)
SQL Server 2005 (including Express version)
Longhorn (next Windows operating system)
Office 12 (next version of Microsoft Office)
Add extensibility using extensibility
New C++ based DLLs
New and improved Xbase components
.NET wrapper classes for use within VFP
Limited core product updates
Sedna product details during development

8. .NET Vision Users Any device, Any place, Any time
Roles/Experiences Get the right info To the right user At the right time
Customer
Operations
Sales
Supply
Engineering
XML Web Services Integrate and orchestrate business applications and processes
Scheduling
Authentication
Notification
Back Office Heterogeneous application and server infrastructure
Plant
Operations
ERP & Billing
Customer
Service

9. Extending the .NET Framework

10. Leverage existing development skills
Integration with Visual Studio
Multiple languages: T-SQL, VB.NET, C#…
Works great with Visual FoxPro 9.0!
Share data across any platform
Native support for XML, Web services
Interoperability with any platform, application
Supports 64-bit Windows operating system
Extensibility
Native XML data type, user defined data types
New distributed application framework: Server Broker

11. SQL Server 2005 Express Free light version of SQL Server 2005
Replaces MSDE with more features
XCopy
No throttling
Easier to install
Silent mode install option
Downloadable scripts to create databases
Add-on Express Manager
Breaks the 2GB barrier with new 4GB limit
Works great with Visual FoxPro 9.0!

12. A Look Ahead to Avalon Unified approach to UI, documents, and media
Integration as part of development and experience
Integrated, vector-based composition engine
Utilizing the power of the PC throughout the graphics stack
Ease of deployment
Allowing administrators to deploy and manage applications securely

13. .NET Roadmap Developer Perspective
WinFX = Avalon + Indigo
Native to Longhorn
Add-on for WinXP
.NET Roadmap Developer Perspective
Sedna VFP + .NET
1st half 2007
Yukon = SQL Server 2005
Whidbey = Visual Studio 2005
Even though Whidbey is scheduled for release in mid-2005 and Orcas is synchronized with Longhorn, these versions of Visual Studio will appear sooner for many developers who participate in the beta programs. In effect, 2004 is the year for many folks to get ramped up on Whidbey and Yukon, extending into the first half of The second half of 2005 and on into 2006 will probably be the ramp-up of Longhorn/Orcas early developer adoption activities.

14. Visual FoxPro Roadmap
With the recent release of Visual FoxPro 9.0, the Visual FoxPro team at Microsoft is now working on a new project, code-named Sedna, that takes advantage of enhancements in Visual FoxPro 9.0. The primary goal of Sedna is to expand on the ability of Visual FoxPro-based solutions to better integrate with other Microsoft products and technologies. Features in Sedna will target Visual FoxPro interoperability with application components created by using Visual Studio 2005, the .NET Framework 2.0, and SQL Server Sedna will also help improve the ability for Visual FoxPro 9.0 solutions to be successfully deployed on the upcoming new Windows operating system Microsoft ® Windows ® Code Name "Longhorn." Sedna is currently scheduled to be released in the first half of 2007 and will require Visual FoxPro As indicated in prior public statements, Microsoft does not plan to merge Visual FoxPro into Visual Studio .NET, nor are there plans to create a new Visual FoxPro .NET programming language. Visual FoxPro will remain stand-alone Win32 based, and will run on 64-bit Windows in 32-bit compatibility mode. For deploying Visual FoxPro solutions that use components based on Microsoft .NET, Sedna will provide improvements for those components using COM and .NET interoperability. To help developers who currently use or plan to program on the .NET platform, members of the Visual FoxPro team are also working on data programming for the Microsoft .NET platform. For more information about Visual FoxPro, including answers to Visual FoxPro FAQ, go to the Visual FoxPro Developer Center Web site at

15. Sedna – Features for VS / SQL
All features early ideas, subject to change
.NET
Leverage .NET Framework 2.0 via interop
Provide generic .NET interop services via VFP COM wrapper classes that handle Intellisense and interop servicing.
Extended interop support for useful .NET classes including Web Services, XML, etc…
SQL Server 2005
Revise Upsizing Wizard – SQL 2005 only
Data Explorer improvements for SQL 2005
SQL Reporting Services integrated with VFP reporting (RDL)

16. Sedna – Features for Platform
All features early ideas, subject to change
Longhorn / WinFX
Better Longhorn experience (as required)
Output to Avalon XAML
Indigo interop
Windows/Longhorn shell integration
Developer Experience
Office 12 XML and interop (Xbase)
Misc Xbase – IntelliSense Scripts, XML Docs, RSS TaskPane, reporting components, etc…

17. Visual FoxPro 9.0
Visual FoxPro 9.0 with
Visual Studio 2005
Sedna (early preview)

18. Visual FoxPro Resources
VFP web site on msdn.com
News, whitepapers, and samples
.NET resources for VFP developers
VFP team member blogs
Product support
Community resources
More MSDN Developer Centers
Channel 9 on MSDN

19. Additional VFP Resources
Book: New in Nine: VFP’s Latest Hits
Book: .NET for VFP Developers (online free)
UniversalThread.com (new Sedna section)
FoxPro Advisor Magazine
FoxTalk 2.0
CoDe Focus for VFP 9.0
VFP 9.0 retail prices same as VFP 8.0
MSDN Subscriptions

20. Have fun here at DevCon!!! Summary Upgrade to Visual FoxPro 9.0
VFP 9.0 works great with VS 2005
VFP 9.0 works better with SQL Server
VS SQL 2005 launch: Nov 7th 2005
VFP 9.0 case studies to market VFP
Chat about VFP 9.0 online with others
Work with the VFP team on Sedna
Have fun here at DevCon!!!