APPLICATION DEVELOPER ISSUES - Key Persons
Adam Cogan of Superior Software, Sydney, Australia, who was in town to attend the Microsoft Exchange Server Conference in Dallas, gave a presentation on Building e-Business Applications Using XML. XML has rapidly become a subject that no one can afford to ignore these days as it is central to just about every new development for the Internet (and is certainly also usable and useful in some non-Internet situations). Adam, whose presentation carried over into the Microsoft Access SIG, also demonstrated SSW's performance analyzer for Access applications. You can find some sample code and downloadable trial copies of SSW applications at the Superior Software website. Adam is also President of the Sydney Microsoft Access/SQL/ASP User Group.
Brian Moore, Developer Tools Specialist from Microsoft's South Central District Office (and the local Microsoft developer guru replacement for Thomas Lewis), presented an overview of the Microsoft.NET Framework and Services. Brian discussed the conceptual framework of .NET, particularly the Common Runtime Language (CRL), the use of XML and the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). He also demonstrated Visual Basic.NET and how it fits in Microsoft's .NET strategy. Following his presentation, which spanned both the Application Developer Issues and the Microsoft Access SIGs, Brian answered several questions from concerned developers regarding the direction of Visual Basic in the .NET world. All attendees also received the Visual Studio.NET beta. To view more information on some of the changes that Visual Basic.NET makes from Visual Basic 6.0, go to msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/vb6tovbdotnet.htm.
SIG Co-Leader Daniel Ogden gave a presentation on Using Windows 2000 as an Application Development Platform. Dan discussed the many benefits Windows 2000 offers to the developer compared to Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0 including reliability, robustness, preemptive multitasking, security, the Win98 interface, plug and play drivers, laptop power management and networking enhancements. Dan also touched on such features as system file protection, kernel driver memory protection, Kerberos security, Active Directory, COM+, disk quotas, file encryption and performance enhancements to support his conclusion that Windows 2000 is the superior platform, Microsoft or otherwise, for application development. Following Dan's presentation, which spilled over into the Microsoft Access SIG, the attendees were treated, through the courtesy of Microsoft, to a drawing for several Microsoft products including two copies each of Windows 2000 Server and Visual Studio Enterprise 6.0. September's attendance at all of the North Texas Microsoft Developer SIGs was the largest yet of any month since our move to Microsoft. While we will miss our sponsor at Microsoft, Thomas Lewis (who have moved on to bigger and better things in Redmond), Microsoft continues to enthusiastically support our use of their facilities.
SIG Co-Leader Daniel Ogden, Esq. gave a presentation on Current Trends in Intellectual Property and Internet Law. The attendees present peppered Dan with many questions throughout his presentation and probably learned more about this important area of law for developers than they have ever cared too. In particular, attendees quizzed Dan regarding such things as the patentability of Internet ''one-click shopping'' and ''basket'' checkout, protection against ''cybersquatting'', and copyright protection for software code. Since this area of law is constantly changing, this topic will probably be revisited in the future as events warrant. Once again Microsoft, in our June meeting, generously provided us with some terrific prizes for our grand drawing after the conclusion of the Access SIG, including a copy of Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server. Based upon the trend at the first three North Texas Microsoft Developer SIGs monthly meetings at Microsoft, it is safe to say that in future meetings we will be provided with equally valuable prizes.
Gerry Burns and John Harbaugh of Motient Corporation (formerly ARDIS) presented the Motient wireless data network and its wireless integration into Microsoft Exchange. Included in their discussion, which spanned both the Application Developer Issues SIG and the Microsoft Access SIG, was be a background of Motient's wireless data network (which is the largest in the country) and the BlackBerry email service, the wireless extension of the Outlook desktop. Also, issues surrounding the wireless enablement of other software applications were discussed. Unfortunately, due to our inability to meet in the Microsoft Addison MPR Room, the meeting was held in the lobby. Thanks to Gerry and John for their forbearance in a difficult situation!
Greg Nicholson of Microsoft Corporation discussed Office XP-Data Access Pages, SmartTags, and SharePoint Team Services.. In his presentation, Greg covered several of the new features in Office XP that are of interest to developers, namely SmartTags, SharePoint Team Services, and Data Access Pages (DAP). In particular, Greg illustrated how DAP in Access 2002 has improved greatly from DAP in Access 2000. One major improvement is that the requirement to have Office Server extensions (and thus a licensed copy of Office) installed on every computer that wants to view DAPs has been eliminated. DAPs can now be used, as Greg pointed out, as a front end client for Access applications with nearly as rich capabilities as using Access itself as the front end client, but having several advantages such as being able to access Access applications from the web, not having to have an Office license on the client side, and not having to worry about end user security issues. Greg also discussed how developers can program SmartTags via VB 6.0 that can be used in Office XP applications. Greg's presentation covered both the Application Developer Issues and Access SIGs. Following the Access SIG, numerous t-shirts and other goodies from the Microsoft Extreme Office XP event that was held on June 2 were given away to everyone who attended, along with copies of Visio 2000 to three lucky winners. Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for all of the North Texas Microsoft Developer SIGs, Greg has been promoted to the national channel sales group with Microsoft and thus we are losing him as our chief contact for our meetings at Microsoft's facilities. More than anyone, Greg is responsible for us being able to meet at Microsoft for over the past year and we are very appreciative to him for all of his efforts at supporting our SIGs. Three cheers for Greg Nicholson-we wish you the best in your new endeavors at Microsoft.
Job Titles:
- Co - SIG Leader
- SIG Co - Leader
Co-SIG Leader Larry Linson discussed the Video Training Corporation Visual Basic for Applications CD. The NTPCUG is now an official distributor for these self-study courses, and offers a substantial discount to members. The NTPCUG also has a library of the courses, which members can check out on payment of a deposit. The VBA CD covered basic event programming, variables & constants, control structures, bookmarks and navigation, responding to keyboard events, and other. Larry pointed out that, while the author used and recommended a naming convention, it was not the most-commonly used, Reddick Naming Convention for Access.
SIG Co-Leader Larry Linson led a discussion on VBA Add-Ins for Microsoft Office 2000 Developers, including the Code Librarian, Code Commenter, Error Handler, Multi-Code Import/Export, and String Editor, which are included in the Office 2000 Developer Edition (for more on this topic, see the article by Ken Getz, Increase Office 2000 Programming Productivity in the July 2000 issue of Access - VB - SQL Advisor). Larry's presentation demonstrated the value of VBA to application developers as these add-ins can be used across the entire spectrum of VBA-enabled applications and also demonstrated the value of using Microsoft tools and technologies in application development. Once again, Microsoft provided several valuable prizes including various Microsoft games including Monster Truck Rally. Attendance at all of the North Texas Microsoft Developer SIGs meetings continues to be strong and is sure to increase once the summer vacation season is over.
SIG Co-Leader Larry Linson gave a presentation on Developing Multi-User Microsoft Access Database Applications. Due to the scope and subject matter of this topic, Larry's presentation spanned not only the Application Developer Issues SIG, but also the Microsoft Access SIG. Larry covered some of the common pitfalls encountered in developing multi-user Access databases applications and provided some pointers on when to use each of the several configurations possible when using Access in a networked environment. While the July meeting of the North Texas Microsoft Developer SIGs did not feature any Microsoft-sponsored drawings, several valuable prizes contributed by attendees were given away after the conclusion of the Access SIG.
Matt Hester of Microsoft Corporation spoke on Using UML in Microsoft Visio 2000 for Database Development. Matt, whose presentation spanned both the Application Developer Issues and Access SIGs, discussed the nature of UML (Unified Modeling Language) and using modeling in general to generate the structure of database code. He also examined how Visio 2000 is able to utilize UML to generate code that can be used in Access or Visual Basic database development. Finally, Matt also gave us a brief preview of Visio 2002 and the changes it incorporates. As he stated, Microsoft has consolidated the Technical and Standard Editions of Visio into the base version of Visio 2002, and has made the features that were previously available in the Enterprise Edition as a separate add-on. Unfortunately, Microsoft has also taken the database modeling code-generation features out of Visio 2002 and instead put those features into VB.NET, which somewhat diminishes Visio 2002's value as a database development tool. Visio 2002, however, does retain the backward database engineering modeling feature of Visio 2000, which provides developers an ongoing tool in Visio 2002, albeit incomplete, for modeling database development. For more information on the developer features of Visio 2002, go to msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/NewInVis2K.htm and msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/autovis2k.htm.
Job Titles:
- Distributed Systems Account Manager
Thomas Lewis of Microsoft Corporation provided us with an overview of the next version of Visual Studio. After viewing Steve Ballmer's video presentation of Visual Studio 7.0 in April, and the May presentation by Thomas, there is no question that the next version of Visual Studio will be one of the most significant products for developers that Microsoft has ever released. Not only will Visual Basic become fully object oriented in the next release, Visual Studio 7.0 will feature a unified IDE and will automatically generate XML code. In addition to an as always excellent presentation, Thomas, through the courtesy of Microsoft, also provided several Microsoft products and books for our mega-drawing held after the conclusion of the Access SIG. While we can not guarantee that such valuable Microsoft prizes will always be given away, it is not at all unlikely that there will be similar drawings in the future.
Job Titles:
- President of Metroplex Access Developers
Toi Beveridge Wright, President of Metroplex Access Developers, presented Introduction to N-Tier applications Using Access, Visual Basic, and Active Server Pages. Toi's presentation spanned the both Application Developer Issues SIG and the Microsoft Access SIG, The N-Tier approach is used on web based database applications, from somewhat small to very large. The user interface is "thin-client" using the web browser with Active Server Pages executing on the server, business rules and data access components that are created with Visual Basic, and an Access database (although it could well be a server database if you need the capacity).
Job Titles:
- Senior Managing Consultant With Software Architects, Inc
Tom Davis, Senior Managing Consultant with Software Architects, Inc., will present How to Write Efficient SQL and Stored Procedures. SQL is a powerful relational database development language that all serious database application developers should become familiar with.
Tuc Goodwin, Beginning VB SIG Leader, discussed Microsoft Office Automation. Among other things, Tuc demonstrated using VBA code to automate Microsoft Excel, including, for example, the formatting of Excel worksheets. Tuc's presentation ably displayed both the power and practicability of using Automation in Microsoft Office application development..