Hi there,

I ´do not know if this is an issue but I am curious to know if anyone has tried runiing a stratfrane-based program on a tablet running Win 8.1 or 10?

Best regards

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

My organization has a lobby management/queuing system that was developed using StrataFrame. The application includes a kiosk component that runs on our touch screen kiosks and we have lobby "hosts" that are present to help clients.  The hosts use Microsoft Surface tablets to access parts of the same application. Since the application was developed for a touch environment, everything works fine on the tablet. We started with the original Surface Pros which were too heavy and had short battery life (They make good door stops now). Today we are using the newer Surface Pros that are much lighter and have much longer run times between charges. The tablets are running Windows 8.1 and the Kiosks are running Windows 7. We tried using a Lenovo tablet with an atom processor but while it was very light and had good battery life it was somewhat slow. I feel that the new Surface Pros are a good platform for a SF application. One special item we used in developing the application is MyCommandButton from Namtuk Software to provide more visually interesting buttons. 

-Larry

Hi Larry,

thank you for sharing your experience. I am still undecided what to use and hope that Microfour will release the new 2.0 Version (because of the WPF-UI) but somehow I have lost my belief in that.

Best regards

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

We are still running our SF based lobby management application on tablets, although we are now using the newer version of the Surface due to the lighter weight and longer battery life.

Unfortunately I share your pessimism regarding SF 2.0. It's been over a year and a half since Trent last posted anything regarding its development, or anything on the forum for that matter. Which leads me to the conclusion that StrataFrame is not a priority for Micro Four. I originally bought into SF because they were using it to develop their own applications, so you knew it had to work. However it now appears that the downside of that is their primary product is a medical application and not development tools so the development resources get focused on the medical application. My guess is that SF 2.0 is at a point where they can use it internally but it is not at a point where they can release it as a product. Its too bad because the roadmap for 2.0 pointed to a terrific development tool. I feel that SF 1.0 is still the best framework available for developing Windows Forms applications and my team uses it extensively, but I'd like to be able to use WPF and have an enhanced business layer.

-Larry

Hi Larry,

even more unfortunate are my feelings about the SF-future. I wrote an e-Mail to Trent asking about the future if SF and the release-date for 2.0 but never got an answer. 4 weeks later I wrote the same to the sales-department but they did not answer too.

To me, it seems that SF is dead which is a real pity because I like it very much and it was and is a pleasure and fun to work with. But when I look at the last years there were no more updates and I did not even get a mail to renew my subscription (maybe they were ashamed that nothing is happening).

So let's hope that our pessimism ist wrong and we will see the new version but right now I have to make a decision about a new project I will start the next days and I am even thinking about moving back to VFP.

Best regards

Thomas

Hi Thomas,



As many of the SF users, I am also disappointed by not been able to have access to SF 2.0.  I had the privilege to see a demo of their new Business Object Entities last year, and it was simply amazing! they are currently using it in combination of SF 1.0 BOs.

I don't know when or if they will ever be able to release it to us, but despite that, the current SF version is by far much better than VFP and in my case it is rock solid to continue to build new applications.

Edhy Rijo

Hi Edhy,

I agree with you but I am now in a special situation where I have an old app written in VFP and a newer Version one written in VB.NET & SF. Due to some legal issues it could be that I have to write as quick as possible a third version. I would have liked to do it with WPF and SF but by now it seems to  be the easiest way to take the VFP-application and transform it into a new one.

Best regards

Thomas

Hi Thomas,
I understand your comment now, and I am sorry for the legal issues.

Sure, I would love to do some WPF or Universal Windows App, but today I using DevExpress controls to manage my applications UI and SF framework.

Couple of weeks ago, I have to do a small, quick application that will read VFP data and fill up a PDF document, with SF and DevExpress, I was able to do a very nice utility application in about a week and that was my first time using DevExpress PDF Document Server library. 

So for now I can still do very good with SF and looking forward to SF 2.0 or at least their new Business Objects.

Edhy Rijo

Hi Edhy,

have you any experience with using the same vfp-data from a SF-app and also a VFP-app at the same time? Which means adding, editing and deleting data. I am curious if data and index integrity is maintained.

Best regards

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

No, all I have done with SF and VFP is to read the VFP data.  Be aware that the VFPOleDB driver is 32 bits so your SF/.NET application must be compiled as a 32bit and also I believe the driver cannot read free VFP tables, only the ones attached to a database DBC.

Also, if you want to use a VFP like database with SF, technically you can use SQL Server 2016 Express LocalDB you can create your own SF class to connect to the LocalDB database based on the current SQL connector class.

Edhy Rijo