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Keeping Up
In "Keeping Up," David Stevenson highlights the significant technological shift brought by Microsoft's .NET framework and Visual Studio.NET, emphasizing that these changes represent a true paradigm shift for developers, far beyond incremental improvements. He underscores the need for developers to actively engage with new tools, languages like C#, and frameworks such as ADO.NET, and advocates using resources like Component Developer Magazine and specialized Tech Conferences to stay current. Stevenson also points to upcoming events and educational materials as essential for mastering these innovations, urging the developer community to embrace this transformative period with proactive learning and adaptation.
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Building Data Access Components in C#
With the functionality provided by the .NET runtime, building data access components with C# (pronounced "c-sharp") is not difficult.In this article, we discuss how to access data stored in a SQL Server database. We will then review the steps necessary to build a Dynamic Link Library and an Executable file in C# to query a table and display the results.
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XPath Queries in SQL Server 2000
In this article, Travis Vandersypen explains how XPath Queries combined with XML-Data Reduced (XDR) Schemas enable developers to access and query SQL Server 2000 data without needing detailed knowledge of SQL or database structure. By defining XML schemas that map database tables and relationships, developers can retrieve and manipulate XML-formatted data directly via URLs using familiar XPath syntax. This approach shifts complexity to DBAs, allowing schema changes without impacting application code, and facilitates more flexible, XML-based data access and integration in SQL Server 2000 environments.
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Taking Advantage of ADSI
Paul Mrozowski introduces Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) as a COM-based toolkit that lets administrators and developers script and programmatically manage directory services—adding users, setting passwords, controlling IIS and services—using consistent provider namespaces (WinNT, LDAP, IIS, etc.). He explains basic ADSI syntax, provides Visual FoxPro and VB examples (including a SafeArray workaround), and highlights practical tips on security, provider quirks, and debugging.
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Building and using a SOAP Web Service with West Wind Web Connection
Imagine that you need some specific information in your application, such as a shipping rate. You now go to a special "service" search engine and look up the type of service you need over the Web.Now, imagine that you can get this information easily from the service and simply plug it directly into your application. Sound too good to be true? Believe it or not, the technologies to make this possible are available today. Web Services provide this functionality by bringing to application development the same interlinked mechanisms that have made the Web so popular for Web browsing. By sharing data over the Web in standard formats, "Web Services" is becoming the new industry buzzword. Microsoft is talking about Web Services as the second life of the Internet. Web Services will tie together applications, just as the Web Browser and URL links have tied together Web pages. "The Web At Your Service" is the new mantra. In this article, Rick discusses SOAP and Web Services, then creates a sample Web Service and integrates it into an application.
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Configuring IIS via code
Rick Strahl shows how to configure IIS programmatically using ADSI and the IIS Admin objects, demonstrating a Visual FoxPro class (wwIISAdmin) that automates common install tasks—enumerating sites, creating sites and virtual directories, setting permissions, and managing script maps—so developers can build reliable installers or replication scripts for multi‑server deployments and remote configuration.
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Add Speech Recognition to your Applications
In this article, David Tansey explores how developers can integrate speech recognition into their applications using Dragon NaturallySpeaking and its Developer's Suite. He details the use of ActiveX controls within Visual FoxPro to enable dictation, voice commands, and speech output, providing practical code examples for synchronizing dictation buffers, creating voice menus, and implementing voice-driven navigation. Tansey emphasizes the improved accuracy of modern speech recognition, discusses setup and training tools, and highlights considerations for deployment environments and user acceptance, ultimately demonstrating that incorporating speech interfaces is both feasible and beneficial for enhancing application accessibility and usability.
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XML, XSL and HTML in Windows Applications
Markus Egger demonstrates how HTML, XML and XSL can be used inside standard Windows applications to create highly flexible, data-driven interfaces: pull data as XML from databases or business objects, transform it to HTML with XSLT, render it in the WebBrowser control, and handle custom link navigation to integrate with native forms—offering an alternative to rigid Windows grids and controls that simplifies complex, hierarchical displays and interaction without relying on the Internet.
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Customers vs. Code: Analysis
Everything you wanted to know about customers but were too busy coding to ask.Our last column covered negotiating a contract.Assuming you got the contract, it's now time for the analysis phase, part of which is requirements gathering.
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