.NET for VFP Combo - .NET for VFP Devs & Converting VFP Apps to .NET

Presenter: Mike Yeager

This event took place on Monday, March 19, 2012.

Two Extensive Training Classes for VFP Developers - .NET Training for VFP Developers and Converting VFP Applications to .NET

WHERE:      Onsite at EPS Software Offices (6605 Cypresswood

Dr. Suite 300, Spring/Houston, TX 77379) or remotely via GoToMeeting
CLASS #1:    .NET Training for VFP Developers - March 19 - 21, 2012 (Monday – Wednesday)
CLASS #2:   Converting VFP Applications to .NET - March 22 & 23, 2012 (Thursday & Friday)

EPS Software will be teaching two comprehensive classes, specifically for Visual FoxPro developers who wish to utilize the latest Microsoft .NET technologies. Costs are the same for either on-site or remote access. Sessions will be taught by industry experts Mike Yeager, Thom Chichester and Joe Reynolds.

CLASS #1: .NET Training for VFP Developers
In the first three day class, attendees will leverage their existing VFP knowledge to learn an overview of Visual Studio and the .NET Platform from a VFP perspective. C# and VB.NET, WPF & Silverlight, Windows and Web applications, and much, much more. Please see the full agenda for both seminars listed below.
  Only $749 for the 3-day .NET Training for VFP Developers class - March 19 - 21.  To register for the 3-day class only, click here

CLASS #2: Converting VFP Apps to .NET
The last two day class will discuss overall strategies, planning, architecting and real world techniques for converting existing VFP applications to .NET. Attendees will also get the opportunity to discuss their projects and have their questions personally answered by experts who have real world experience with VFP, .NET and conversion projects. Please see the full agenda for both seminars listed below.
  Only $599 for the 2-day Converting VFP Applications to .NET class - March 22 & 23.  To register for the 2-day class only, click here


  Or attend BOTH classes for a discounted price of $999!
  To register for BOTH classes, click here




Registration is extremely limited. For more information please e-mail info@eps-software.com or call Christopher at 832-717-4445 x 13.
Discounts are available for companies who have previously attended our classes - call Christopher for details. Please note that all sales are final.

Monday
Introduction to .NET and Visual Studio
 

9:00 – 9:20** Introduction/Setup
9:20 – 10:00 Overview of Visual Studio and the .NET Platform from a VFP Perspective
This session provides a general overview of .NET. What are the main features? How does development compare to development in VFP? Why is .NET so important?
10:00 – 10:15 BREAK
10:15 – 12:00 The Main Languages: C# and Visual Basic
No matter what you do in .NET, you likely need to know some C# or VB.NET, or both. This part of the training will get you started.
12:00 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 15:30 Object-Oriented Development
Object-Oriented development is second nature for many VFP developers. .NET's object model is an evolution of VFP's object model, so most people will feel right at home. But there are differences.
15:30 – 15:45 BREAK
15:45 – 17:00 Advanced Object-Oriented Development
.NET offers a lot more object-oriented features than what VFP has, and many of them are core to writing code in .NET: Interfaces, Generics, Delegates, Events, just to name a few.


Tuesday
Data Access & the Business Tier
9:00 – 10:30 Databases and Data Access in .NET vs. Visual FoxPro
Data handling is one of VFP's great strengths. How does it work in .NET? This is the question this session will answer by providing an overview of SQL Server and .NET data access.  We will also touch on other topics such as nHibernate and the Entity Framework.
10:30 – 10:45 BREAK
10:45 – 12:00 Building Business Logic
The logic components are the heart of every application. This session shows how to build the center-piece of every application.
12:00 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 14:45 Quality & Testing Techniques
This session covers quality control techniques such as unit testing and static analysis.
14:45 – 15:00 BREAK
15:00 – 17:00 Creating Services
Over the last few years, services have become a central part of software development.  This session shows how to build a service based interface on top of the previously created business logic.


Wednesday
User Interfaces
9:00 – 10:30 The Basics of Building a Windows Application
This session focuses on building a Windows app on top of the previously created business logic.  This session covers WPF as well as other UI technologies.
10:30 – 10:45 BREAK
10:45 – 12:00 The Basics of Building a Web Application
This session focuses on building an HTML based Web Application (ASP.NET Web Forms & MVC) on top of the previously created business logic.
12:00 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 15:00 The Basics of Building a Silverlight Web and Phone Application
Silverlight is Microsoft's technology for building Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and thus a very important topic for business application developers. This session will explore the basics of Silverlight as well as take a look at how to apply this knowledge to building applications for the Windows Phone.
15:00 – 15:15 BREAK
15:15 - 16:15 Food for Thought - Other Important Concepts

                <br />
                    Other .NET languages, dynamic programming, functional programming, parallelism, 
                    multi-threading, cloud computing and Windows Azure.&nbsp; <i>(Exact topics covered 
                    will depend on time available)</i>
                    </td>
        </tr>
        <tr bgcolor="Lavender">
            <td style="width: 15%">
                16:15 - 16:30</td>
            <td style="width: 60%">
                <strong>BREAK</strong></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td style="width: 15%">
                16:30 - ??</td>
            <td style="width: 60%">
                    <b>Experts Roundtable</b><br />
                    Discuss your training and project questions, various .NET concepts and more!&nbsp; 
                    Ask the experts who have &quot;been there and done that&quot;.</td>
        </tr>
        </table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><b>Thursday<br />
</b><strong>Conversion Strategies and Integrating .NET with VFP</strong></span><table
    border="1" cellpadding="8" frame="hsides" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Calibri"
    width="100%">
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            9:00 – 10:30</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>VFP to .NET Migration</b><br />
            The Strategy of VFP Migrations, with much information accessible also to non-technical
            business managers. This session will be a detailed overview, based on best practices
            and real world experience of the optimal way to transition a mission critical application
            from any version of FoxPro to .NET and SQL Server.
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr bgcolor="lavender">
        <td style="width: 15%">
            10:30 – 10:45</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>BREAK</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            10:45 – 12:00</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>VFP with a Backend Database<br />
            </b>In many incremental conversions it makes sense to port the database from DBF
            files to a database (such as SQL Server or Sybase ADS) while retaining the VFP application. This session shows you
            what's available, what the pitfalls are and how to decide if this is the right approach.
        </td>
        <tr>
        <td bgcolor="lavender" style="width: 15%">
            12:00 – 13:30</td>
        <td bgcolor="lavender" style="width: 65%">
            <b>LUNCH BREAK</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            13:30 – 14:30</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>A Survey of Conversion Products &amp; Tools &amp; Techniques<br />
            </b>This session presents products and tools available for integrating .NET into
            VFP, integrating VFP into .NET, converting from VFP to .NET and even compiling .NET
            code from VFP source.&nbsp;
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td bgcolor="lavender" style="width: 15%">
            14:30 – 14:45</td>
        <td bgcolor="lavender" style="width: 65%">
            <b>BREAK</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            14:45 – 17:00</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>Open Discussion / Q &amp; A<br />
            </b>Roundtable discussion of the challenges of converting a VFP application to .NET.
            <br />
            <br />
            Time permitting, we’ll also discuss:<br />
            <b>
                <br />
                Productivity Tools<br />
            </b>A survey of the tools we've found most useful for developing software quickly,
            efficiently and with higher quality.
        </td>
    </tr>
</table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri"><b>Friday<br />
</b><strong>Converting a VFP Application to .NET</strong></span><table
    border="1" cellpadding="8" frame="hsides" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Calibri"
    width="100%">
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            9:00 – 9:30</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>Evaluating the Application &amp; Developing a Plan</b><br />
            This session introduces a minimally functional VFP application written in a 
            typical VFP-oriented fashion. We&#39;ll explore how to develop a strategy for doing 
            a conversion to .NET.
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            9:30 – 10:30</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>Converting the Database &amp; the Migration Process</b><br />
            This session focuses on the differences between databases designed for VFP and 
            those designed for .NET. Using the sample application database and some 
            conversion tools we create a new database and create the process for migrating
            the data, taking the changes into account.
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr bgcolor="lavender">
        <td style="width: 15%">
            10:30 – 10:45</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>BREAK</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            10:45 – 12:00</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>Converting Reports to SSRS</b><br />
            Modern report engines typically give developers the option of running reports purely
            server-side or client side, the way VFP did it. This session goes through the process
            of converting both the layouts and the logic to SSRS, emphasizing
            server-side reporting.
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr bgcolor="lavender">
        <td style="width: 15%">
            12:00 – 13:30</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>LUNCH BREAK</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            13:30 – 14:30</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>Building a Solution Structure &amp; Framework</b><br />
            Using the a framework and building blocks, this session implements a Visual Studio Solution structure, and implements a custom inheritance level. A                 main window, navigation and role-based security system are implemented.
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr bgcolor="lavender">
        <td style="width: 15%">
            14:30 – 14:45</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>BREAK</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            14:45 – 15:45</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>Converting Report Forms &amp; Grid Forms</b><br />
            This session walks through converting  forms to run previously converted reports and the grid forms used to look up data in the application. This is a hands-on look at what it takes to implement these types of forms in the new .NET framework.
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr bgcolor="lavender">
        <td style="width: 15%">
            15:45 – 16:00</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>BREAK</b></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="width: 15%">
            16:00 – 17:00</td>
        <td style="width: 65%">
            <b>Converting Edit Forms &amp; Finishing the Application</b><br />
            This session separates business logic from UI and uses tools to implement the business
            objects and forms. The two are then integrated and brought into the main application
            completing the conversion of the sample application.
        </td>
    </tr>
</table>

** Please note that times are approximate and meant to be flexible depending on class participation and questions.