Close

News

Visual FoxPro 9.0 Generally Available, Supported Until 2014

Visual FoxPro 9.0, the latest update to a database technology Microsoft acquired in 1992, is generally available this week and will be supported through 2014.

Visual FoxPro, which can be used to create desktop, client-server and Web service database applications, is an outlier at Microsoft. The FoxPro database engine is one of three supported by Microsoft -- the SQL Server database engine is the flagship, while the JET database engine powers the Access database in Microsoft's widely deployed Office suite.

Microsoft evolved the positioning of Visual FoxPro from a database engine like SQL Server into a development tool, but Visual FoxPro is on a separate track from Microsoft's flagship development environment, Visual Studio. While the Visual Studio and Visual FoxPro teams swap features, Visual FoxPro is a stand-alone database development tool.

The outsider status has always left Visual FoxPro's loyal user base with concerns about the product's future. But this week, Microsoft posted its support schedule for Visual FoxPro 9.0. It will adhere to Microsoft's latest support policy of five years of mainstream support and five years of extended support. Mainstream support will last until Dec. 31, 2009 and extended support will run until Dec. 31, 2014.

Given that Fox Software began development of the technology in 1984, the support deadline suggests the product will enjoy at least a 30-year lifespan.

The 9.0 version that became generally available this week was released to manufacturing in December and has been available to MSDN subscribers since then. Billed as one of the biggest overhauls of Visual FoxPro since Microsoft updated and renamed FoxPro 2.6 as Visual FoxPro 3.0, the new version features the ability to create .NET-compatible solutions, better data handling and interoperability, developer productivity enhancements and new reporting features. With a user base that favors the tool for building fat client applications, the new version includes several smart client user interface improvements, especially to the appearance and functionality of forms.

The new version features backward compatibility with Visual FoxPro 8.0, allowing distributions developed in version 9.0 to run on the 8.0 database engine as long as new features and commands aren't used.

According to a FAQ, Microsoft has no plans to support 64-bit technology in Visual FoxPro or go beyond the 2 GB database size limit in the FoxPro data engine.

The estimated price of Visual FoxPro 9.0 is about $650 for a new version and $350 for an upgrade.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

Reader Comments:

Fri, Aug 15, 2008 Anonymous Anonymous

vanishingly!clusters receptacle tiled!differentiation brutalizing

Tue, May 27, 2008 Siva Prakasam Chennai, India

It is very sad to see that the support extended up to 2014. It is the only best software to develop applications in Windows based because of its native Backend, Front End , OOPS Cocepts and powerfull reporting Tools. More supports should be given in order to give webbased applications in VFP.

Thu, Dec 13, 2007 Aruna Chicago

We have an application developed in VFP 8.0 the data is still in free tables with VFP 8.0 front end. 2gb file size limit is limiting some of the reporting capabilities on this system. Any suggestions as what way we should go if we were to migrate to a different RDBMS?

Mon, Nov 26, 2007 Anonymous Anonymous

yea I need it too, anybody can suggest us free downloadable ebook for Visual foxpro 9.0?

Fri, Aug 17, 2007 Trupti India

anybody can suggest me free downloadable ebook for Visual foxpro 9.0???

Fri, Sep 22, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous

Is the 2 Gig limit really a limit? Think about it an experienced programmer can split the tables logically and any query can use UNIONS to get the results as if coming from a single table. The processing time maybe a bit more but it is transparent to the user. So a lot can be done before you switch to $QL $erver.

Thu, Jun 1, 2006 RO Illinois

The only reason we switched from FoxPro to SQL Server 6 years ago was the 2GB limit - while wishing Microsoft would increase that limit, one can certainly see the profit from not changing that simple rule.

Tue, Mar 22, 2005 Cy Welch Sacramento CA

And actually the size per table is in theory 4 GB if memo fields are included. You get a 2GB DBF file and a 2GB FPT file (memo data) which if it works out just right can equal 4GB total. I work with datasets in VFP 8 that work with data at County and State levels tracking over 50000 clients at this point with nothing anywhere close to 3GB in size. And actually Ken is right about a 2GB database (dbc in VFP) which would be up to 2+GB of meta data (the database container contains both normal field and memo data) about tables (millions?) of 2-4 GB tables. That is potentially LOTS of data.

Thu, Mar 17, 2005 Ryan Jentzsch Alpha Centari (Actually Santa Clara, UT)

Great article. Just expanding on David and Rene's comments: Visual FoxPro offers a rich and mature front end UI with easy to create connections and operability with .NET, Web Services, Oracle, SQL Server and other systems.

I'm always amazed by the quality and features at each version release of this product. The VFP developers deserve praise above praise they always deliver a great product. Long live the Fox!

Thu, Mar 17, 2005 Craig Healy Indianapolis

Each table has its own dbf so there is a 2gb *table* limit with FP local tables, not a 2GB *database* limit. The database can have infinite size as long as no individual table exceeds 2GB. That usually leaves lots of time to migrate the customer/s to a different backend like mysql.

Thu, Mar 17, 2005 Ken Levy Microsoft

The article is correct, VFP 9.0 can only handle one 2GB database file (DBF) at a time. And yes, David Stevenson is correct in expanding on the fact that more than one database table can be combined in one application for handling larger amounts of data total.

Wed, Mar 16, 2005 Rene Spruit Heerlen The Netherlands

And I can't agree more with David.
I am still supporting databases builded in foxpro verion 2 running without a problem on Win XP desktop as frontend.
What the most powerfull feature of Visual foxpro is the fact that is able to run on allmost any backend OS.
Beat that with Oracle or SQL databases !
Nice article by the way, but a bit incomplete.

Wed, Mar 16, 2005 David Stevenson St. Petersburg, FL

Nice article, Scott. One clarification is in order, however, related to your reference to a 2-gig database size limit. Visual FoxPro has a 2-gig per file size limit -- which means 2 gigs per table, not per database. And, one fact often overlooked by people considering where VFP "fits" is that it can act as a great front-end to SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL or other databases in addition to using its own super-fast native tables. While it may end up with a lifespan of 30 years (pretty amazing, huh), and while it will still run code from the 80's, its OOP capabilities combined with XML, Web Services, COM+, .NET Interop and many more modern features means that it's definitely not the Fox of the old days.

David Stevenson
Editor, FoxTalk 2.0
www.foxtalknewsletter.com

Add Your Comment Now:

Your Name:(optional)
Your Email:(optional)
Your Location:(optional)
Comment:
Please type the letters/numbers you see above