Deploying Visual Foxpro Solutions

Ship it! Music to your ears or words that cause a cold sweat as you realize you now need to deploy the solution you have worked on for so long? Have you planned the deployment? Do you have the proper language in your contract with your customer? Do you have the proper install package? What media is the package going to be shipped on to the client? How will it be distributed? What happens after Setup.exe finishes? Do you have the support infrastructure in place? How are you going to handle updates and changes? There's a lot to think about, and deploying a solution requires careful planning. These questions and many more are answered based on real world experience within the pages of this book.

Rick Schummer is the president and lead geek at his company White Light Computing, Inc., which is headquartered in southeast Michigan, USA. He prides himself in guiding his customers' Information Technology investment toward success. He enjoys working with top-notch developers; has a passion for developing software using best practices, and for surpassing customer expectations, not just meeting them. After hours he writes developer tools that improve productivity and occasionally pens articles for FoxTalk, FoxPro Advisor, and several user group newsletters.

Rick co-authored Hentzenwerke Publishing's MegaFox: 1002 Things You Wanted To Know About Extending Visual FoxPro and the award-winning 1001 Things You Wanted To Know About Visual FoxPro (KiloFox) with Marcia Akins and Andy Kramek.

Rick is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (VFP) and a Microsoft Certified Professional. He is founding member and Secretary of the Detroit Area Fox User Group (DAFUG), and he presents at user groups across North America, and at the GLGDW 2000-2003, EssentialFox 2002-2004, Southwest Fox 2004, and VFE DevCon 2K2 conferences. He spends his free time with his family, cheers the kids as they play soccer and compete in robotics competitions, has a volunteer role with the Boy Scouts, and loves spending time camping, cycling, coin collecting, reading, and cooking breakfast on Sunday mornings.

Rick Borup is owner and president of Information Technology Associates, a professional software development, computer services, and information systems consulting firm he founded in 1993. Rick earned BS and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and spent several years developing software applications for mainframe computers before turning to microcomputer database development tools in the late 1980's. He began working with FoxPro in 1991, and has worked full time in FoxPro and Visual FoxPro since 1993. Rick is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) in Visual FoxPro. When he's not sitting in front of the computer earning a living, he likes to spend time with his family traveling across the U.S. and abroad.

Jacci Adams is an independent consultant doing business as Lindsay-Adams Consulting in Louisville, Ohio for the past twelve years. Jacci holds a BE in Electrical Engineering from Youngstown State University. She has been developing systems with xBase languages since 1986 (yes, she even did a stint developing with FoxBase+ and FoxPro 2.x on Macs) and specializes in developing custom scientific, engineering, and medical database applications with Visual FoxPro. She is currently working with one of her long term clients to create an ASP.NET stock tracking tool.

She has been very involved with the Greater Cleveland PC User's Group (GCPCUG) for the past 10 years. She recently "retired" from an eight year stint as the Consulting SIG facilitator and main speaker and started a new .NET Web Development SIG. She co-facilitated the VFP SIG for 5 years, is still involved with them, but not as often as she would like. She is involved in the networking and marketing initiative of the Northeastern Ohio Software Association's (NEOSA) Business and Technology Group. She's also spoken at Tech Talks 2003, GLGDW 2002, DAFUG in 2001, CPVFUG in 2002, and various local user groups in the NE Ohio area. She has written a few articles for the GCPCUG PC Chronicles newsletter.