OLE Database access

Hello...

As part of the services I offer to my clients, I migrate their existing data, when they switch to my

software.

I have just run into a system that uses Visual FoxPro.

The ODBC drivers do not work on Windows 7 or later, but I was able to read the

database using the ODBC driver, on a Windows XP machine.

Apparently there is an OLE driver available for VFP, which is supported on newer

OSs.

Has anyone tried connecting to a database using an OLE driver?

I have only ever used ODBC.

Thanks in advance for any responses...

Regards,

Julian Ford

Hi, Joachim....thanks for the thought.

The problem is that the database is file-based....1 file per table.

And there are over 100 files.  So, yes, what you suggest would work,

but I would have to convert the 100+ files now, as I am writing the migration

routines, and then again when we actually switch the data to go live.....

A BIT time-consuming.... lol

So, I am going to do the development on XP.  It just means I also

have to use an older version of VAST, with an older object model.

So, once I have finished migrating into MY database, I then have to

run a migration on a current version of VAST, to bring it up to date.

I was just hoping there might be a way to skip all of this, and connect

directly from a current VAST image.

Thanks again...

Julian

On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 10:24:30 AM UTC-4, Joachim Tuchel wrote:

Julian,

it may sound silly, but did you try to use the old driver to first move the data as is to another database that is still supported on Win 7 (and 8 and on), like Access, SQL Server or maybe eben sqlite? You could then do your massaging for the actual migration using odbc as always...

This is probably easier than trying to nail some db driver functionality onto VAST...?

just a thought

Joachim

Am Dienstag, 10. September 2019 15:58:02 UTC+2 schrieb Julian Ford:

Hello...

As part of the services I offer to my clients, I migrate their existing data, when they switch to my

software.

I have just run into a system that uses Visual FoxPro.

The ODBC drivers do not work on Windows 7 or later, but I was able to read the

database using the ODBC driver, on a Windows XP machine.

Apparently there is an OLE driver available for VFP, which is supported on newer

OSs.

Has anyone tried connecting to a database using an OLE driver?

I have only ever used ODBC.

Thanks in advance for any responses...

Regards,

Julian Ford

Julian,

while I think your approach will work as well as the one I suggest, your approach sounds much mor painful to me...

The way I understand your initial post, there is an ODBC driver on XP that you can use to acess the VFP files via SQL. If so, why not write (in Smalltalk or anything else) a 1:1 table copy job from VFP to some Database server that you cann access from today's VAST, like Oracle or DB" or whatever. This 1:1 copy job should be a no brainer.

Another option: I know DB2 can load data from ASCII (think CSV, but of course a bit different) files, and I guess none of the other doesn't ship with tools to do that.

This way you'd only need a way to copy data out of VFP (no massaging of data at all) to a current database and the rest is just your usual data migration. Am I wrong?

Joachim

Am Donnerstag, 12. September 2019 04:19:09 UTC+2 schrieb Julian Ford:

Hi, Joachim....thanks for the thought.

The problem is that the database is file-based....1 file per table.

And there are over 100 files.  So, yes, what you suggest would work,

but I would have to convert the 100+ files now, as I am writing the migration

routines, and then again when we actually switch the data to go live.....

A BIT time-consuming.... lol

So, I am going to do the development on XP.  It just means I also

have to use an older version of VAST, with an older object model.

So, once I have finished migrating into MY database, I then have to

run a migration on a current version of VAST, to bring it up to date.

I was just hoping there might be a way to skip all of this, and connect

directly from a current VAST image.

Thanks again...

Julian

On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 10:24:30 AM UTC-4, Joachim Tuchel wrote:

Julian,

it may sound silly, but did you try to use the old driver to first move the data as is to another database that is still supported on Win 7 (and 8 and on), like Access, SQL Server or maybe eben sqlite? You could then do your massaging for the actual migration using odbc as always...

This is probably easier than trying to nail some db driver functionality onto VAST...?

just a thought

Joachim

Am Dienstag, 10. September 2019 15:58:02 UTC+2 schrieb Julian Ford:

Hello...

As part of the services I offer to my clients, I migrate their existing data, when they switch to my

software.

I have just run into a system that uses Visual FoxPro.

The ODBC drivers do not work on Windows 7 or later, but I was able to read the

database using the ODBC driver, on a Windows XP machine.

Apparently there is an OLE driver available for VFP, which is supported on newer

OSs.

Has anyone tried connecting to a database using an OLE driver?

I have only ever used ODBC.

Thanks in advance for any responses...

Regards,

Julian Ford