Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations SkipVought on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Import FoxPro database into Access2000

Status
Not open for further replies.

irishhelp

MIS
Nov 21, 2001
25
0
0
CA
A department in our agency has a FoxPro 2.6 database that isn't working well. Can the entire database be imported into Access? or must it be completed a table at a time?? As no one in the agency has any knowledge of how to use FoxPro any suggestions would be helpful.
 
Foxpro works with .DBF files - each .DBF file is the equivalent of an access table. Access can import .DBF files. Each DBF will have to be imported seperately but could be imported into the one access database.
 
Thanks Tom. We also noticed that there were lots of different file extensions. Do they represent queries or indexes or ??? Should these be imported as well. We did try one table but didn't see a primary key or anything of that sort.
 
Is it so bad that it can't be fixed? What I mean is, is the fox app unrepairable to the point that it is worth rewriting using Access? If so, here are some definitions:

.DBF - actual data file
.FPT - memo file related to data file. If the table has any memo fields, you will also need to import the data in the memos.
.IDX - index file for table. You can open these to refer to the indexes but access can't use them directly.
.CDX - compound index files.
Dave S.
 
Another alternative is to simply attach to the FoxPro tables and just use them natively. That way any programs you currently have running against them won't have to be abandoned.

Rick
 
I would be a little wary going into Access.

How big is the FoxPro database? Also what version of FoxPro are you using? Our experience here is that when Access databases get too large they start getting kind of "kludgy". Weird errors pop up, database sharing quirks and that sort of thing. FoxPro is better suited to handle the larger amounts of data.

If you really must abandon the FoxPro databases, instead of going to Access, you might want to consider going to SQL Server. It is better suited to handling larger amounts of data than Access is and shouldn’t give you the problems that Access will down the road.
[spidey] [americanflag] [unclesam]
 
The version of FoxPro is 2.6. Initially, when the user clicks on the database icon, she gets the following message:

"An error has occurred in your program. To keep working anyway, click Ignore and save your work in a new file. To quit this program, click Close. You will lose information since your last Save."

She then added the following:
Then below are the two choices, "Close" or "Ignore".

FoxPro did not give this message until partway into 2000 (or was it 2001)
when we were given new computers (or was it when we got a new server? I
can't exactly remember). Anyway, ignoring this message did not seem to ever affect the data being input.

While the database includes almost 11,000 records in the client table, there is really not a lot of data in each record (maybe 12 fields).

They have also come across the problem that they now cannot add any new records to the client table. They wondered if they could delete a record but everyone is a bit cautious of doing that as they aren't sure how it will affect the database and whether it will pick up information in other tables.

The database was designed by someone who worked for the agency and who has since left (on not the best of terms). We don't know whether to upgrade to 6.0 or develop a new one in Access (which more people know how to manipulate).

The current problem is that they cannot enter any new records.

Thanks for all your help.
 
If this is a FoxPro for Windows application, then you need to patch the runtime files to the High Speed CPU version. The original code is only "good" up to about 300mHz. (The last up date to 2.6 was in 1994, and 90mHz was state-of-the-art then!) Do you have the original source code and/or the developers FoxPro environment? Does anyone there have experience with FoxPro development?

Rick
 
Thanks Rick
No one seems to have the original source code and/or developers FoxPro environment nor does anyone have experience with FoxPro development. As it turns out, while information goes in, very little information ever comes out. The program is taking a good look at what information is collected and what has been pulled from it over the years, what is necessary, what would they like, etc. They would like it in Access as there are more people who know how to use Access and courses are easier to take.

Again, thanks for your help.
 
You can always have an access front end to a SQL Server database. That way you get the familiar front end but the power of SQL server.

No one has the foxpro development environment? Its probably still there somewhere. Look for files called foxpro.exe or foxprox.exe on the servers.
Cheers,
Jamie
 
Since you only have about 11,000 records with 12 (I presume small) fields. Our experience is that Access starts balking around the 50,000 record mark. Of course our tables are a good deal more than 12 fields.

What version of Access are you planning on using. You can import the data into Access from FoxPro. When you begin the import process select the ODBC() Databases selection in the "Files of Type" combo box. It's best if you have the FoxPro drivers on the machine before you do this. When you make the selection, the "Select Data Source" form will come up. In the list will be FoxPRo Tables. Select that and then go through the rest of it and point to the FoxPro tables, sit back and enjoy while it pulls in the data. [spidey] [americanflag] [unclesam]
 
I also have a FoxPro 2.6 database with FPT and CDX files and need to locate a ODBC driver that is suitable. The microsoft one that I have doesn't support CDX or FPT.

Does anyone know where I can locate one?

Thanks:)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top