Ken's dBASE Page

Visual dBASE 7.5 Tutorial? Please note that the tutorial in question was written many years ago, and while helpful, was not as good as it could have been. There is an updated tutorial available at the dataBI website (noted above), go to the "Knowledgebase" link. The associated source code for the original tutorial has long since been deleted from this website and is no longer available. This should also be available from the dataBI website. In addition, see the links noted below -- Michael Nuwer has many updates and additions to the tutorial that are not on the dataBI website.

As this page has been expanding ... I felt it useful to throw together a small menu (at the top of the page) using Flash buttons. Hope it helps.

Watch these pages -- in the next day or two I hope to announce the availability of the 3rd Edition of The dBASE Book.

In the last couple of years (dBASE PLUS 2.7, dBASE PLUS 2.8) has been updated to include code to help dBASE be a better "Windows Citizen", as it were. This means working with the UAC properly, and using Windows suggested folders for where to put files, and a lot of other changes.

The dBASE Book has been worked on since last fall, updated, edited, changed, modified to include as much information as this author can deal with to change your applications to be more UAC compliant, explaining how to deploy properly and more. I have redone all the screen shots, and the layout of the book a bit, hopefully some of the concerns (reading page numbers, for example) will be taken care of. I am waiting for one of my editors to complete some checking of my work, and a book cover for it.

I cannot give a date for when the book will be available, but I am hoping for some time in April. A lot will depend on the publisher (I may be working with someone other than my current publisher -- they are really expensive for a book that has a limited audience ...). My editors have been great, and I really hope folk like it.

This edition (the third) will be broken into two volumes, because there is so much information there, most Print on Demand shops cannot put it all into one volume.

I can't get into details, but there is a new version of dBASE in Beta. It has some interesting and exciting changes, some will be a challenge to use properly. I can't give an expected date for when it will be available. The number is going to be different from what you're seeing below ... That will all be explained when the software is released (and in a new edition of the book, which I have no idea how long will take to get completed).

Release 2.8 came out in April. In May dBase, LLC announced a software package called dBDos, which is meant to allow people to run their dBASE for DOS applications in Windows without having to upgrade them. While the first release appears to have some issues, they are working on those. That said, dBASE PLUS 2.8 has many fixes to it.

All of the work done on getting the electronic version of the book ready for dBase, LLC has caused me to think seriously about updating the book again. So, I am working on the third edition of The dBASE Book. The goal is to include major changes to the software since the 2nd Edition was released 5 years ago, and to update the sections that deal with deploying dBASE on Windows Vista and Windows 7. (Of course, by the time I get everything done, Windows 8 will be a concern, and ... well, we'll see how much I get done in that area.)

In addition, the development team is working on dBASE PLUS release 3.0. If all goes the way it sounds like (and I can't talk about it, as I am under an NDA -- so please don't ask), the odds are that I will have yet another (4th) edition of the book somewhere down the road.

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or corrections you would like me to consider for the 3rd edition, please let me know in a private email.

Various Issues
Windows Vista™
Issues with Windows Vista™ and Windows 7™ are addressed in two places: dBase, LLC's Support Site and dBASE PLUS and Windows Vista™ (the information on the dBase, LLC site is more accurate and more up-to-date).

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and dBASE PLUS
It seems that some newer machines and XP Professional have settings that affect this. The difficulty appears to be that if it is set to on in both the BIOS and the Operating System, dBASE PLUS no longer runs (however, it's not just dBASE -- apparently Microsoft Office 2003 also has the same problem ...).

Rich Muller posted on the dBASE newsgroups after testing: "You can add PLUS.exe and PLUSrun.exe as an exception in the configuration. You can also turn off DEP by setting a switch in the Boot.ini. Also application compatibility toolkit should help. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875352"

dBL/dBASE Open Source Projects
These are at another site, and are really in their infancy. As of September, 2005, they have pretty much not been updated for a year. Hopefully some interest will come back and these will start being worked on again. This is not an easy task, as each of these needs to be flexible, and able to be incorporated into other projects. Anyway, for details on what's happening with these:

BDE "Insufficient disk space" Error Fix
The BDE in all releases earlier than 5.2.0.2 (the version that ships with dBASE PLUS 2.5 and later) and later releases one assumes, has an error that can occur if you or your users have free disk space on the hard drive that is an exact increment of 4 gigabytes (i.e., 4, 8, 12, 16 ...). The file BDE4GigFix.zip includes the .DLL file that solves this issue (it's a "patch" for the BDE), and also a small program that will load it. Details are in the file "BDEFix.prg" contained in the .zip file. Note that if you have dBASE PLUS 2.5 or later, this should not be an issue, and you do not need this file.

Ken's Message Board 2.2
This is the second complete version of Ken's Message Board, nearly a year after the first (life's been crazy) -- with a few major changes in 2003. Updates include: encoding username when passing it by a link, which resolves issues with spaces in the username; dynamic external objects; ability to specify whether to allow profanity (and to specify what words are considered profane); ability to keep a user from posting destructive scripts as part of the text of a message; minor cleanup here and there. If you have an existing version, you will will want to run all three of the MAKE programs. After downloading it, unzipping to a folder, check out "readme.htm" for details on how to use it, set it up, etc. KenMessageBoard2_2.zip -- June 25, 2003.

A Wrapper for the MessageServer
Updates/wrapper for the MessageServer application provided as sample code in Visual dBASE 7.5 -- this gives a bit of functionality to the sample application, including allowing you to set your own table, and create fieldlists, or templates (mail-merge messages). MailServerWrapper.zip -- February 15, 2000. Check the README.TXT file contained in the .ZIP for details ... and the header code in the .CC for more details.

A Message Server using FUNCky 6.0 and Visual dBASE 7.5
This is similar to above, but it uses the FUNCky 6.0 (this is what is on your CD for dBASE -- versions 7.5 through dBASE PLUS) for Visual dBASE provided by Dirk Lesko and folks at dLESKO, Inc. -- note that you MUST have FUNCky 6.0 for this to work. FUNCkyMailServerWrapper.zip. February 16, 2000. Check the README.HTM file contained in the .ZIP for details ... and the header code in the kmFUNCkyMailServerWrapper.prg for more details. (This should work with later versions of dBASE ...)

Vesper 9.03
This version of Vesper is even more of an overhaul than the previous versions. Vesper9_03.zip This one was modified based on needs of the current Vesper, some items were removed (subscription data, for example, as the heralds are putting the monthly minutes up on the web now), and others were added (heraldic certifications ...). This uses a few features of dBASE PLUS (mostly new form properties), and also does some limited web stuff (the website used by the heralds is run off a Linux server, and hence the software only generates a few static web pages, not a fully interactive web-based package). See the README.TXT file for, among other things, a description of the folder structure needed for the application. All source code is documented as usual. Some minor bug fixes from earlier versions have been added. Last updated: March 14, 2006

Project Explorer Updates, dBASE PLUS 2.8
The developers at dBASE PLUS were working on fixes for the Project Explorer when the decision to focus exclusively on dBASE PLUS 8 came down the pipeline.

I was given some of these changes and updates (included in dBASE PLUS 8, but not in dBASE PLUS 2.8) and have been granted permission by the CEO (Mike Rozlog) to make them available to the dBASE community. Note that these should only be applied in dBASE PLUS 2.8. This means that you should not make these changes for dBASE Plus 2.7 (or earlier), or for dBASE Plus 8.

To use these, download the .ZIP file, read the information in "Changes.rtf", and unzip the files to the appropriate locations.

The file is dUFLPPlus_AB.zip (dated April 12, 2013). This file is approximately 4.1MB in size. As always see the WHATS.NEW file for details on what has been changed, and use the form Library.wfm to find items you may be looking for. (Note -- this was changed back to a .zip file due to concerns by people of virii and all that ...)

Note: This is most likely the last version of the dUFLP for versions of dBASE prior to dBASE PLUS 8. I am hoping for submissions to the dUFLP that include ADO based classes, etc.

New to the dUFLP? (This information is also in README.TXT in the library)
If you are new to the dUFLP, you need to know some basics, such as how to set things up, and get around in it. The following are the basics:

Create a folder on your hard drive, such as:

C:\dUFLP

Run the file you downloaded (with a filename such as: dUFLPPLUS_U.zip), and extract the contents to the folder above.

Once you have done this, start dBASE and use the Navigator to point to that folder (use the "Look in:" combobox at the top of the Navigator).

NEW SETUP OPTION: Click on the "Programs" tab, and double-click on this file to create the Source Alias for the dUFLP:

Setup.prg

(This program does the following:

Runs 'SetupSourceAlias.prg',
Copies the .H files for the dUFLP (and BDE) to the dBASE\PLUS\INCLUDE folder,
Runs ComponentPaletteUpdate.prg)

OR, you can do this the hard way:

SetupSourceAlias.prg

Once you have done that, after you start dBASE again, you may want to run the program (double-click on it):

ComponentPaletteUpdate.prg

so that when you decide to use some of the visual controls that are contained here, they will appear on the Component Palette of dBASE properly. (Note that this will not harm anything in your dBASE setup, it simply adds some information to a special table that is used by dBASE to know what icons to display for controls, and what tabs to place them on.)

Finally, to get a sense of what is contained in this library, you should change the tab in the Navigator to "Forms", and find the one called:

Library.wfm

Double-click this file. This will run a form that shows you what is in the library, allows you to search the library, and even open the source code files in the Source Code Editor of dBASE.

dUFLP for Visual dBASE 5.5/5.6 LIW55B.ZIP (dated March 2, 1997). This is freeware code, with the only caveat being that the authors all request that you include the documentation that credits them. There will be no further updates to this version of the library. All focus as far as the dUFLP goes is on the 32-bit version (just like with the product itself ...).

SEQVALUE.CC
Romain sent me this at my request, as it is not in the dUFLP for 5.x. The file is SEQVALUE.CC used for handling autoincrementing fields in Visual dBASE 5.5 and later. This should work "as is", it's just the .CC itself. Download seqvalue.cc -- read the comments at the beginning of this custom class to understand how to use it.

A copy of Michael's tutorials can be found at: dBASE Online Training
This was done because there have been some issues with the server that Michael's tutorial normally resides on.

It should be noted that the newsletter has hit its final issue (#21) due to a lack of articles being written, and because the main editor (J.P. Martel) just doesn't really have the time to put into it anymore.

Marc van den Berghen
Mark has some interesting code available, some for free, some not. The code includes a wheelmouse dll that allows your wheel mouse to work with some of the UI controls and more ...: VdB-Logic

Migrating from dBASE IV to Visual dBASE 5.x
Ok, I took an older (1995) Borland Conference paper I wrote and converted it to HTML, and tinkered a VERY small amount. This paper, when unzipped, is an HTML document with a bunch of images ... If you want some help converting your dBASE IV applications over to Visual dBASE 5.x (note that this paper does not cover Visual dBASE 7 -- that's a whole 'nother thing completely). To download the paper, click on the link here: migrate2vdbase.zip.

The Knowledgebase
The Knowledgebase at the dataBased Intelligence website no longer includes the 5.x How To documents. Luckily Bowen Moursund has them available on his website at: http://www.bmmnet.us/Downloads/how.zip.