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We’ll be using Facebook for quick news updates about ProMatrix and for quick links to related news.

On June 6, 2010, we announced that we were moving from our nntp newsgroups to web forums. You will find that announcement below.

The new ProMatrix web forums are now ready for you to use.

You will find the new ProMatrix web forums at http://forum.promatrix.net.

Please read the two posts in the ProMatrix Forums News and Announcements forum regarding registration and rules.

We would appreciate your feedback regarding any problems you encounter and the overall forum operation and organization. You can post your comments on the ProMatrix Forums User Questions / Suggestions forums. You can also send an email to customerservice@promatrix.com. We are sure that there will be glitches or overlooked items initially. We want to get such problems resolved quickly.

We are asking all ProMatrix users to begin using the new web forums today, Monday, June 14, 2010, for new items. Any ongoing threads on the nntp newsgroups can be continued for now, of course.

Postings to the nntp newsgroups will be shut off on Monday, June 21, 2010.

We will keep the nntp newsgroups online in a read-only state until 7/3/10. This will allow you to download and archive the ProMatrix Newsgroups messages on your own computer for future reference if you want to do that.

On 7/3/2010, the nntp newsgroups will go offline. The nntp ProMatrix Newsgroups contain a wealth of ProMatrix knowledge. Accordingly, as soon as possible after 7/3/10, we will provide an offline archive of the old ProMatrix Newsgroups messages in a format to be determined. We’re looking at several ways of doing this. Any suggestions?

See you on the ProMatrix Web Forums.

We have decided to replace the current nntp ProMatrix Newsgroups with web forums.

We considered making this move several years ago but decided not to make the move at that time because most long-time ProMatrix users preferred the nntp newsgroups. However, as time has marched on, our nntp ProMatrix Newsgroups have become dinosaurs. They make us look like dinosaurs. Many new ProMatrix users are totally unfamiliar with nttp newsgroups, but they have vast experience with web forums.

The major reasons we are making the move to web forums are discussed later in this announcement, but first let’s look at our timetable for the move.

[Note: “ProMatrix Newsgroups” refers to our old nntp newsgroups. “ProMatrix Forums” refers to our new web forums.]

Timetable
We plan to move quickly.

• 06/14/2010: You will be able to start using the new ProMatrix Forums no later than 6/14/10. We will be looking for your suggestions regarding the forum organization.
• 06/21/2010: Postings to the ProMatrix Newsgroups will end on 6/21/10. We prefer that postings stop as soon as the ProMatrix Forums become available; but we are providing a minium of a 7 day grace period.
• 07/03/2010: The ProMatrix Newsgroups go offline. We will keep newsgroups online in a read-only state until 7/3/10.
  This will allow you to download and archive the ProMatrix Newsgroups messages on your own computer for future reference if you want to do that.

The ProMatrix Newsgroups contain a wealth of ProMatrix knowledge. Accordingly, as soon as possible after 6/21/10, we will provide an offline archive of the ProMatrix Newsgroups messages in a format to be determined. We’re looking at several possibilities. Any suggestions?

ProMatrix Priority Newsgroup
For those of you who now have access to the ProMatrix Priority Newsgroup, you will have a comparable ProMatrix Priority Support forum.

Reasons for Web Forums
The reasons we have decided to finally move to web forums include the following:

• Nntp forums have been declining in popularity – probably for good reasons. Web forums are much easier to access. No newsgroup reader is required. The newer generation of internet users just isn’t familiar with nntp newsgroups. The majority of internet access providers cut off access to public usenet newsgroups several years ago and as a result the newer generation hasn’t had exposure to nttp newsgroups.
• Web forum software has made great strides in recent years and now provides features that just aren’t possible with nttp newsgroups.
• People can easily access web forums from any computer and any where.
• Now that broadband internet access has become ubiquitous, nntp newsgroups no longer have a significant performance edge over web forums.
• While there is web access to the ProMatrix nntp newsgroups, the web access is archaic and limited in features that people expect from web forums these days.
• Web forums eliminate the need for us to maintain our own newsgroup server. We can put the burden of server maintenance on our web host.
• Web forums are much easier for us to set up and administer.
• As our company changes its product mix and services, we expect the need for the ProMatrix Forums to grow. We will need the scalability that web forums provide.

Web Forum Software
For the ProMatrix Forums, we have selected phpBB web forum software running on a Linux box using Apache.

One great reason for selecting phpBB is that it is free. It’s also very powerful. But most of all, it is very compatible with the content management system we are using to build a new ProMatrix Web (Joomla!). Over the last year, we have been getting our feet wet in the open source world with PHP and MySQL. We like that world.

On or before 6/14/10, we will be letting you know how to access the new ProMatrix Forums.

As you probably know, there are no better tools for creating front-ends to MS SQL Server than Visual FoxPro 9.0 and VPME 9.1.

In the last few years, we have been assisting VPME 9.1 users in converting VPME 9.1 applications to use SQL Server data. In fact, there seems to be growing interest in using VPME 9.1 with SQL Server.

During our work in helping VPME 9.1 users make the conversion, we have learned a lot about how to perform the conversion and we have created conversion tools that make the conversion much easier. For example, we now have SQL Server versions of all the system databases that VPME 9.1 puts into an application. We also have remote view databases that allow a VPME 9.1 application to connect to the SQL Server system databases.

We are considering putting together a VPME 9.1 to SQL Server Toolkit for users who want to more easily start using SQL Server with their VPME 9.1 applications. The toolkit would include documentation describing in detail how to make the conversion and tools to make the conversion easier.

Before we put together the Toolkit, we want to find out how much interest there might be in the Toolkit from VPME 9.1 users. If the Toolkit is something you would be interested in having, please send an email to customerservice@promatrix.com to let us know. Also, if you have been involved in making a VPME 9.1 application work with SQL Server, we would like to hear about that as well.

We have revised the application update procedures for updating VPME 9.1.02, VPME 9.1.10 and VPME 9.1.12 applications to VPME 9.1.12a.

Please click the following link to download the revised VPME 9.1.12a Upgrade Documentation: Revised VPME 9.1.12a Upgrade Documentation

You will find the revised application update procedures on pages 6 to 8 of the revised document.

We are pleased to announce the release of VPME 9.1.12a.

The VPME 9.1.12a upgrade includes fixes that we wanted included in the current version of the product and the revised and updated VPME 9.1 Tutorial. We are also releasing the VPME 9.1 Completed Tutorial Application Project Files for ProMatrix Partners.

As always, the VPME 9.1.12a upgrade is free to ProMatrix Partners.

Click here to learn how to get VPME 9.1.12a.

We are pleased to announce the release of a revised and updated Tutorial for VPM Enterprise 9.1.

The new VPME 9.1 Tutorial has been updated to reflect all the changes in VPME 9.1. The new Tutorial has been thoroughly tested to make sure that VPME 9.1 users can complete it successfully.

Steve Smith, the principal architect of VPME, has declared: “The new VPME 9.1 Tutorial really covers a lot of material. Users who make a serious commitment to go through the Tutorial will certainly learn what VPME can do for them and how to use it.”

Every VPME 9.1 user should obtain and use this new VPME 9.1 Tutorial. You can download the new VPME 9.1 Tutorial files from the VPME 9.1 Tutorial Downloads page.

Tip: If you have VPME 9.1 version 9.1.12 or earlier, you should replace the Tutorial Help file in the root directory of your VPME installation with the new Tutorial Help file.

The VPME Tutorial will teach you many things, including:

• How to start a VPME application
• How to use the VPME Data Builder
• How to use the VFP Table Designer with VPME
• How to create local and remote views with VPME
• How to use the VPME Form Builders to create simple and complex forms

Note for ProMatrix Partners - Free Tutorial Project Files: The VPME 9.1 Tutorial takes you through the creation of a Visual FoxPro application. We are making the completed Tutorial application project files available to every current ProMatrix Partner later this week. You should still create the application as you progress through the Tutorial, but if you get stuck, you now have an actual Tutorial project to which you can refer for additional help.

The VPM Enterprise 9.1.12 Demo and Sample Application are now available for download from the ProMatrix Web.

Go to the Demo Registration page to register and download the new VPME 9.1.12 Demo and Sample App.

VPM Enterprise 9.1.12 is now available to all Visual Foxpro developers.

The VPME 9.1 Online Documentation, User’s Guide and Technical Reference Manual have all been updated for VPME 9.1.12.

Click here to see all the new features in VPME 9.1.12 and to learn how you can get it.

VPM Enterprise 9.1.12 is now available to ProMatrix Partners.

If you are a ProMatrix Partner, you will find a message on the promatrix.partners.news newsgroup that tells you how to download the VPME 9.1.12 release.

The VPME 9.1.12 upgrade will be available for purchase by VPME 9.1 users who are not ProMatrix Partners very soon.

If you have any questions, please send them to customerservice@promatrix.com.