ProSysPlus | VPM on the Web

VPM2Web Jumpstart
Curriculum | Pricing/Enrollment

Online/Video Training: The Gain Without The Pain

We at ProSysPlus have a definite bias in constructing Web projects: we use the best tools for the job, not the ones that might come for free and are therefore handy. Nor are we swayed by the "technology du jour from Microsoft. ASP is slow. ADO does less than VFP, and much less than VPM (do you really want to give up VPM's Referential Integrity engine -- a major strength of VPM?). "Best of breed" is our approach to web tools, and web technologies. We don't teach graphic design (although we do recommend the use of Fireworks, because it is integrated with Dreamweaver).

Approaches that require coding on the page (whether it's ASP or Active FoxPro Pages) don't tweak our interest: we want to leverage the knowledge built into a VPM app, rather than recreate that knowledge by hand. Not that these approaches aren't very clever, and, if one did not have a framework, would make moving Data to the Web easier. We have a framework, and the goal is to eliminate coding, not add to it. ASP.NET is an interesting new development: the code is kept separate, using "code-behind" technology. Anyone who's worked with Web Connection (see below) will be familiar with code-behind techology.

No one approach is right for all situations, however. An approach like AFP (Active FoxPro Pages) is very easy to implement for simple programs, and so we'll demonstrate how to use an ASP-based approach as well as a class-based approach. The class-based approach we will teach utilizes Web Connection, in our estimation the best developed and best supported FoxPro web framework.

A key question: how do we at ProSysPlus access the VPM data engine, including field validation and businessrules, in a web application? LIke everyone else, we have been waiting for the ProMatrix Data Server, which will provide the functionality needed to work with any kind of web progamming model. In order to bridge the gap, we have modified VPM to work with Web Connection, and potentially with other Web Models: any of the FoxPro-based Web frameworks (in which you can instantiate a class) can use our modified VPM to access the VPM data engine. A video appendix, distributed on the CD from the course, will show you how to modify your VPM to gain this same technology. Of course, we're going to switch to VPME8, and so haven't put in the time and effort required to work with non-VPM frameworks like Cold Fusion or ASP.NET.

We will cover the familiarize you with the internet, from setting up web and ftp sites, to setting up an email server. You'll be exposed to web design, and web design tools. Our preference for web design is Dreamweaver for HTML, which now incorporate Homesite for HTML.

And, when VPME8 is released, we will be redoing the course: and since we're pretty sure this will be within the year, you'll be eligible to receive the videos from the revamped course for only $75! You can wait until VPME8 is released to buy the course, but can you afford to put off your clients any longer?

The course will be one week in length, with 3 hours a day of instruction. The outline of the instruction, by days, is below:

Day
1	Web 101	http, HTML, Javascript, CGI, ISAPI -- all those initials you keep reading about and understand some of the time. <s> You will learn what a internet protocol is, and learn how to set up a web site, an ftp site, and an email server.
1	COM	What is COM? How is it used with VPM? Why do you want to avoid it where possible?
2	HTML	It's hard to design a web site if you can't design in HTML
	Dreamweaver	The premiere Windows' page designer (and probably shares top spot for the Mac) -- learn about frames, layers, forms, objects, the object-model, and manipulating the DW interface. We'll design a basic web site.
	Javascript; JScript	Should you learn how to code Javascript? When should you avoid it? Guess what, you already know 90% of what you need to know to program in it.
3	VPM on the Web	We'll show you how to use the subclass of VPM we've created, to access data without an interface. We'll cover the data situations you deal with in every application, including one-to-many and one-to-many-to-many situations. We won't cover the modifications we made to VPM, because that would eat up class time: those are provided in an appendix to the videos you will receive with the class.
3	The Response Object	The heart of all web frameworks is the utilization of the web server Response Object, however named or hidden. Understand how this object works, and you can write your own framework. Don't understand how it works, and you won't really understand what is happening in any framwork you happen to use.
4	Web Connection	The Class Model of Web Connection. We'll put together a small site utilizing the VPM data engine.
4	VFP Asp Framework	We'll make up our minds about what VFP-based ASP-based framework we use for demonstration sometime before the class begins. <s> They're all pretty nice, if you like that style of programming. We'll build the same site we built with Web Connection, so you can see the strengths and weakness of each approach.
5	ASP.NET	OK, so we fibbed: you actually can use our modified VPM with ASP.NET. So, we'll build the same site yet again, this time using ASP.NET. But, and this is the truth <s>, we probably won't finish because of all the typing required. And, this is the truth, what we're doing with our modified VPM will go out the window when VPME8.5 becomes available. It is going to be HOT!!!
	Linux Connectivity	What if you want to run on Linux? What would be required? Here's what you need to know. Uh, didn't Microsoft way Linux was evil? <s> What can't you do on Linux?
	High Availability	What can you do to keep your application available through high traffic and high water.
	Alternative Technologies	PHP, Perl, Python, Cold Fusion, J2EEE -- what are they? Should we be concerned? Should be we using them?

Cost	Training: $695. Enrollment in a video/online course within the past year qualifies for a $100 discount. Prior enrollment in the VPM2Web course qualifies for 1/2-price enrollment.
Method of Enrollment	Enrollment is through the ProMatrix Web Site.
When/Where	Next offered 3/17 - 3/21/2003 1-4PM EST (UTC -0500)