Reliability of VFP ver. 8 Database

[doloresmonje]

I have develop accounting program using VFP ver. 6. I am now transferring it to VFP ver. 8. My question is: Is the time and effort worthwhile? Many people claim that VFP ver. 6 Database is weak and unreliable. I often loose index of my tables due to power brownouts and blackouts and some times it is a pain in the neck to recover indexes. Is VFP ver. 8 better in this respect? I know programmer`s tools are much better but my concern is the improvement in reliability of VFP ver. 8 Database. Replies will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

CARLOS

 

[craigsboyd]

You will see a marked improvement. For an even greater increase in reliability/stability, upgrade to VFP9. As for the effort, it should be minimal in upgrading an existing VFP6 system to VFP8.

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[doloresmonje]

CRAIG:

Thanks a lot. You give me some peace of mind. I will investigate VFP ver. 9 and, more than likely will follow your advice.

Thanks again.

CARLOS

 

[craigber]

While later versions are more stable, the design of the application will have a bigger impact over the stability of the data.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[doloresmonje]

CRAIG:

Thanks for your comment. I think in this respect I did a good job.

Thnaks again

CARLOS

 

[craigber]

Carlos,

I can't comment on how the code has been written or not. I will say that I have almost no file corruption issues since I started using views and buffered data in my applications. If you've done this too, then you should start looking at hardware problems, particularly networking issues, that can cause problems.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual FoxPro MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com

Author, CrysDev: A Developer's Guide to Integrating Crystal Reports"

 

[TamarGranor]

Carlos - based on the problems you describe, the first thing I'd do is ensure that every computer that uses the application is attached to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). That'll take care of the brownout and blackout issues.

Tamar

 

[wgcs]

Regarding upgrading to VFP8 and 9, be aware that there are some significant changes to the VFP SQL-engine that cannot be reversed (there is a SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR setting that can revert to "70" or "80", but no "60").

The one that has bothered me the most is this:
PRIVATE aMyArray
SELECT * FROM mytable INTO ARRAY aMyArray

If the SELECT found no records, in VFP6, aMyArray would now be an array and have .F. in it's fields.

In VFP7,8,9, aMyArray is now unchanged (not dimensioned), so a reference to aMyArray[1,1] will crash. If aMyArray had data in it before, it hasn't been cleared.

- Bill

Get the best answers to your questions -- See FAQ481-4875.

 

[wgcs]

See also this issue: thread1252-1089922 (basically, aggregate SELECT's always return a record in 9, even when executed against an empty table)

- Bill

Get the best answers to your questions -- See FAQ481-4875.

 

[dbMark]

Since you's asked this question in the VFP Web forum (there are other VFP forums too) I'll tell you my web experience. In thread1253-812213 I detailed my problems with VFP 6 COM-compliant EXEs used on the web. Unpredictably it would error out. (This happened despite the reputation VFP 6 sp5 had of being a landmark solid and stable VFP.) Apparently there are some known quirky issues with version 6 that never got fixed until 7 or 8. I'm now in the process of switching over to VFP 9 for these web apps. Included in 8 and also included unchanged in 9 is the MS Soap interface for XML communications.

Since the price of VFP 8 is virtually the same as VFP 9, get the latest! Besides, at this point it seems VFP 9 may be the last VFP, possibly with just add-on feature packs (such as "Sedna") after this. Oh, oh, I'm entering speculation twilight zone again! Sorry. Back to the subject at hand... VFP 9 has some impressive enhancements and added features, especially in the report designer. In fact, I began using the beta version in the work environment just to be able to use the watermark feature. Saved our collective necks on a special project!

The word on the street is that VFP 8 is great but 9 is better. VFP 9 is the most stable and feature-packed VFP version yet. Believe it!

dbMark

 

[dbMark]

As for index corruption, unless you do some careful coding as CraigBer suggested or you use a SQL server with VFP as the front end, you'll still get corrupted indexes now and again. Even with UPS to thwart power glitches, users can still force a window to close, crash a computer, kick out the network cable or simply turn the computer off in the middle of your program.

 

[tamayok]

Hola Carlos,

VFP 9 is extremely reliable, fast and featured-packed. If this indeed where the last VFP, we have been left with a fantastic product... But, given it's quality - it would be a crime to end it here.

If I had a VFP 6 application I would inmediately convert it to VFP 9. It's an absolute no-brainer... In my opinion, VFP 6 is the least stable release for this product while VFP 9 is the opposite.

Make sure to add some of the recent enhancements to your application... AutoCompletion, Intellisense and Report enhancements to name a few.

Solidariamente desde San Juan, Puerto Rico.