moving a VFP7 database to be Unicode-compatible

[Cobbletree]

I have well over 30,000 names in a genealogical database built on VFP7. I would like to move it to a database that is fully Unicode-compatible, so that I can properly enter and retain names and places with spellings which are not restricted to Extended ASCII. Which Unicode-compatible programs are equipped to convert VFP7 data in a lossless fashion? I am in Canada, though the program (The Master Genealogist 6.12) comes from America.

 

[craigber]

This article may help.

http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/foxunicode/foxunicode.asp

SQL Server Express is free and supports UniCode.

You may want to look at Personal Ancestral File (PAF). It's free from

http://www.familysearch.org.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com/blog

 

[Cobbletree]

Thanks for mentioning SQL Server Express. I'm definitely staying with TMG (The Master Genealogist). But if I can have it built on SQL Server Express rather than on VFP, that takes my game to the level I'm looking for. I like the format of TMG though I do want to streamline it, eliminating the functions I don't use in it. The ability to tie other people in using the "Witness" feature is a must with me. That's because census data is one of the core pieces of evidence that I work with. Also it's critical that I can put variant versions from the various sources I pull from. PAF doesn't have either the "Witness" feature or the "variant source" feature. So, with TMG not having Unicode so far, I've been using workarounds for my non-extended-ASCII data, such as c¥ for ? within TMG, and a .rtf document for Chinese-type characters. If I can ramp up by TMG with a lossless conversion from VFP file extensions to SQL Server Express extensions, and keep the same format with Unicode-capability added, that would be awesome.