With the software industry moving more and more to open systems, we see that it will be a requirement in the future for filePro to talk with and pass data to and from one system application to another application server via the Internet or Local Area Network. To help the filePro community attract new business opportunities and expand their application development, we are releasing the fP Sockets functions and commands. routines/commands . Please note that this feature is sold and licensed separately and not included in the price of version 5. 06 filePro Plus. This product will allow the developer to open and monitor TCP/IP ports. For example, you would be able to pass billing information from a SCO Unix server to a Windows server at a clearing house regarding payments by using fP Sockets. You could pass information back and forth to another vendor's application opening the door to future development and business. Another example is that you could have a customer with 5 retail stores. Each of those stores could run an application that uses a TCP/IP socket connection to communicate with an application running on acentral server to report sales, make inventory queries, etc. With the Internet and communications becoming an important part of the software industry, you can use the fP Sockets functions and commands routines/commands to open the door to unlimited product development by using filePro.

Some filePro developers are currently using fP Sockets to "talk to assembly line machines" for a manufacturing and stamping companies. Think of the possibilities you have to develop these types of applications. To replace an employee salary and benefits by using fP Sockets could save a company thousands of dollars and they would be willing to pay you a large portion of this saving for providing this software.

Another developer is using fP Sockets to handle credit card transactions and writes:
"I have used the sockets in two ways - in a client side use to interact with a credit card system. Very fast to respond and no network issues. I have also used the sockets logic for a server side application which is always at the ready for a request and I have seen no problem. It does not poll like "inkey", but it just opens a port and sits behind it with a catcher's mitt to catch anything that comes thru the port. It is extremely fast and works just great. I am parsing an XML file, checking order status and generating an XML file and it seems to be able to respond from one socket to from 20 to 110 queries per second. The speed variation seems to depend on the traffic from computer A to computer B, with the fastest testing with the same intranet. It is a very powerful feature".