Can t avoid this: What you must include for deployment

Can ‚ t avoid this: What you must include for deployment

You must include a number of files with your application. First, you will have one or more executable files (APP, EXE, DLL, or FXP). After the main executable, what you need to ship depends on the architecture of your application.

With VFP runtimes , minimally you need to ship the VFP8R.DLL and one of the language resource files (VFP8RCHS.DLL, VFP8RCHT.DLL, VFP8RCSY.DLL, VFP8RDEU.DLL, VFP8RENU.DLL, VFP8RESN.DLL, VFP8RFRA.DLL, VFP8RKOR.DLL, and VFP8RRUS.DLL). The VFP 8 runtime files depend on the Visual C++ Runtime file (MSVCR70.DLL) and the Microsoft Graphics Device Interface Plus (GDI+) runtime DLL (GDIPLUS.DLL). If you need the multithreading runtime for a Visual FoxPro component, then you need to ship the VFP8T.DLL and the appropriate language resource file. If you are using a different version of Visual FoxPro, substitute the 8 with the version you are using. More details are provided (including the dependencies) in Chapter 3, ‚“Packaging the Installation. ‚½

Along with the executable, you need to deploy all the files the application depends on marked ‚“excluded ‚½ in the Project Manager (see Figure 6 ). You might exclude a file in the Project Manager for a number of reasons:

• File is specific to an installation. A company logo for instance can be referenced as LOGO.GIF, and shipped separately or even replaced by one of the end user ‚ s after installation.

• File is used or opened in an external application (like a PDF or Word document). This is especially important if this file will be changed by the end users after installation.

• Large files can bloat the size of an executable. If the executable resides on the server or another machine in peer-to-peer network, that means the executable will take longer to be pulled across the network and loaded.

• Reference, documentation, Help, and other developer-specific files can be accessed via the Project Manager during development and may not be needed in the customer environment.

  
  Figure 6. Marking files as excluded in a project means they will not be included in the executable during the build process. In this project the free table and one report would need to be deployed along with the executable.

Data can be deployed in various ways. You might deploy an empty database for a new application, update existing structures for an existing database, convert data from one set of tables to a new set of tables, and even move data from VFP DBF files to a backend database. You may find shipping the tables is the best way, or you may take the initiative to create the structures programmatically via scripts or a program.

Metadata like a data dictionary is typically deployed with each and every release because it is common to change metadata between releases. Stonefield ‚ s Database Toolkit and other products that subscribe to the DataBase Container eXtensions (DBCX) standard require you to deploy the various metadata files.

If you include any functions from the FOXTOOLS.FLL you need to ship this file along with your executable. It seems Microsoft includes one or more FoxTool functions in the base product with each major release of Visual FoxPro and the need to use this component gets reduced. We wish Microsoft would just roll the rest of the features into the base product to reduce the number of files we need to be concerned with in our installation packages.

You need to distribute a resource file (FOXUSER.DBF/FPT) if you want to deploy label definitions for users to create their own labels via the Report Designer. You also need the resource files if you include the Visual FoxPro Diary/Calendar in your application, or want to customize the Print Preview toolbar (removing the Print Report button). You also need a resource file to store BROWSE window definitions, although this is not a common feature in Visual FoxPro applications any more because the grid control is used instead. You can also name the resource file something other than FoxUser to avoid conflicts with the default resource file from another Visual FoxPro application.