Accessing VFP 9.0 Flat Tables

[wsjames]

I have a VFP 9.0 app using flat tables.

Previous versions of MS SQL Server were able to accessing (open/query) the VFP tables.

Are there any known reasons SQL Server 2016 (SP2) cannot access the same flat tables?

I'm told SQL Server 2016 (SP2) does not offer VFP ODBC driver???

 

[Chris Miller]

No other database offers VFP ODBC drivers, they come with VFP9 or additional downloads Microsoft offered (past tense). As VFP itself doesn't use ODBC for native DBC/DBF access, it's usually not installed.

The reason your SQL Server 2016 might not find a VFP driver is because it's 64bit and the official MS drivers (ODBC driver and OLEDB provider) are only offered in 32bit versions.

If all else fails, what you can do is this - and it sounds more complex than it is:
a) Install a 32bit SQL (Express) as a secondary instance parallel to your main SQL Server 2016 instance.
b) Create a linked server inside this Express instance to your directory of flat DBFs.
c) In your main SQL 2016 server create a linked server to the Express instance.

This way a connection to the 2016 Server can see the linked VFP database via the linked SQL Express Server. It works better than you might expect, even though it's a double re-routing of data access.

You can do this on the basis of the OleDB Provider, which offers better SQL capabilities (also for legacy DBF files). You can still find this at

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14839

(A remark for later readers: This is subject to change, don't expect MS to keep it there forever).

Chriss