HTML & VFP session from SW Fox 2009

1. HTML and Visual FoxPro

2. About Me
 President/Founder F1 Technologies since 1990
 Co-author Visual FoxExpress
 Speaker
 Consultant
 Xbase Developer since dBase III/FoxBase 1987
 Web Developer since 1994

3. Contact Me

4. Agenda
 HTML Features in VFP
 Generating HTML with VFP
 Parsing HTML with VFP

5. HTML Features in VFP
 Save as HTML
 Web Publishing Wizard
 GenHTML
 Foundation Classes
 HTML Report Listener

6. Save as HTML
 What
 Allows forms, menu, reports and tables to be saved
as HTML.
 How
 Open/Create a Form, Menu, Report or Table
 From File Menu Choose Save as HTML
 Why
 Limited use for forms & tables
 Useless for menus.
 Moderately Useful for reports.

7. Using the Web Publishing Wizard
 What
 Generates HTML, Script and more for use in publishing data
 How
 Tools -> Wizards –> Web Publishing
 Why
 Generate HTML to publish on the web or distribute
 Generate Code to use in applications to generate HTML on the
fly.
 Most useful output formats are IE only.

8. GenHTML.PRG
 What
 Default HTML generation program for VFP
 Referenced by _GENHTML
 GENHTML.PRG in VFP HOME() directory.
 Called by all we’ve covered so far
 How
 Do (_GENHTML) WITH …
 Why
 Automate publishing reports/data to HTML

9. HTML Foundation Classes
 What
 HOME() + [FFC_INTERNET.VCX]
 _DBF2HTML
 _FRX2HTML
 _SCX2HTML
 HOW
 FFCSample.PRG, FFCSAMPLE2.PRG & FFCSAMPLE3.PRG
 Why
 Generate an HTML Table, Output an SCX layout to HTML,
Output a report to HTML

10. HTML Report Listener
 Most Useful of Built-In
Features
 See Cathy
Pountney’s Session:
Making the Most
of VFP 9 SP2
Reports

11. HTML Report Listener
 New Advanced Page in Expression Dialog in
SP2
 HTML Related Properties
 HTML.Link
 HTML.Anchor (Name)
 HTML.Alt-Title
 CSSClass.OverrideFRX
 CSSClass.ExtendFRX
 HTML.PrintablePageLink
 Example: FanList2.FRX

12. Generating HTML with VFP
 SQL Select directly to HTML
 XML & XSLT
 CursorToHTML Class
 GenForm Class
 HTML Text Merge

13. SQL Select to HTML
 What
 Use VFP SQL Select to generate HTML
 How
 How
 SQL Select to Text File w/ HTML
 SelectToHTML.PRG
 Why
 Easy
 Performance

14. XML & XSLT
 What
 Uses XML and XSLT (via COM or .NET interop) to convert XML
to HTML
 XSLT = EXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations
 How
 XSLTExample.prg, XSLTExample2.prg, GenericXSLT.PRG
 Why
 Output data to HTML using XSLT
 Use .NET framework
 Performance

15. CursorToHTML Class
 What
 Class to render HTML from VFP data
 How
 Instantiate, set properties, render
 TestCursorToHTML1 - 6.PRG
 Why
 Fast, Flexible, Easy, All VFP

16. Parsing HTML with VFP
 What
 Read HTML into VFP
 How
 ALINES()
 STREXTRACT()
 IE Automation
 ParseDemo.PRG
 ParseDemo3.PRG
 Why
 Data Mining
 HTML manipulation

17. Conclusion
 VFP has a number of built-in ways to generate
HTML
 Most uses are limited
 It’s easy to roll your own HTML generators
 VFP’s String Handing Capabilities make it easy
to parse HTML
 IE Automation is also an easy way to parse
HTML