clipper database accessed from Visual Foxpro

[robsib]

Hello Everyone,

I have an old Clipper (Clipper 5.3) application using DBase databases. Recently I have converted NTX indexes into CDX indexes also in order to be able to use them from VFP. I see properly indexes and I can access data from both Clipper and VFP (without ODBC). And now I have a need to access the same database with record locking simultaniously from VFP and Clipper. I have already learnt that file and record locking mechanism are different so I cannot get proper record locking. Does anyone knows how to overcome this problem and get locking system properly working with both Clipper and VFP ?

 

[BruceWMoore]

I'm an old Clipper programmer from way back. I am using Clipper 5.1 and Dbase III+ on a regular basis. So far, I have not run accross a fix for this. We have the same problem between Clipper 5.1 and Dbase III+. The ability to access various files using Dbase III+ while they are in shared use by Clipper is intermittent. I have started using VFP 7.0 a lot on a recent project, but have not had occasion to use ODBC on any old Clipper DBFs. We have had occasion to use ODBC out of the UPS Worldship software (written in MS Access, I think). With that, we found that we had to close the file in Clipper to be able to access it from UPS Worldship.

Based on my existing knowledge, you have two options here for a work-around. Either close the file and only open it when you really have to have it open, or copy it to another file which can be accessed in a read-only fashion by the VFP 7.0.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Robsib,

This is very much a long shot, but I wonder if there are any third-party DBF librararies or replacable database drivers (RDDs) for sharing VFP data with Clipper. I'm thinking of things like Codebase (if it is still around).

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk