>I agree with much that you said. However, MS is not pushing VFP too hard as >the middle tier to the non-VFP community from what I have seen.

Check out http://www.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/prodinfo/background/vfpbgrnd.htm

At the address above M$ has stated "the plan" for VFP. Weather they are pushing it to the world yet or not I don't care. The plan totally makes sense. VFP smokes all development tools at data manipulation. Nothing can touch it. VFP’s ability to package this data manipulation power into COM components which can be accessed by any other COM component (Active Server Page, VB, VC++, etc.) gives developers the ability to build world class solutions by putting the right combination of tools together. It is a new way of thinking as a developer. No longer do we pick the best tool to do a project. Now we pick the best tool for each component of a project. We at BDS (Black Diamond Software) even break total VFP solutions into components. One VFP project is the front-end and one VFP project is the middle tier containing OLE Servers. It gives us the ability to access the data from an Internet front-end at a later time. If M$ is not pushing VFP as the middle tier I feel they are making a big mistake. Maybe they just don’t want VB heads to see what a real OOP database development environment is supposed to work.

> Also, I would have to disagree with you concerning VFP's views. My research >has shown that utilizing Stored Procedures on the back-end provide the best >results in data retrieval, which VFP's views do not provide. Of course, you >can call those SP's through code as opposed to utilizing the GUI based views. >Correct me if I am still wrong here...

The best solution is to choose the right tool for the situation. There are three ways to do it – VFP remote views, SQL Pass-through or Stored Procedures. The reasons Stored Procedures are faster is because they are compiled and do not perform an execution plan every time they are run and they reside on SQL Server. The difference in time of execution between a Stored Procedure and a remote view will vary depending on the complexity of the SQL select. I could list all the pros and cons of each but this would get quite long. The real answer is usually a mix of all three. The best developers always look at all the options.

Read the following for more detailed info on this subject:

http://www.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/techmat/whitepapers/bko01.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/techmat/whitepapers/bko02.htm

>I would like to do more with VFP as a middle tier, even as the backend. I do >not see the point in a fat client that ties up the user's computer to process >data. More and more I want to use night jobs and even out-of-process VFP OLE >servers to move the processing to the server.

Most users I deal with are running 266MMX NT Workstations. The whole point in developing C/S and n-tier solutions is to distribute the processing. If I have a situation where I can take advantage of distributing processing over 30 266MMX NT Workstations to offload processing from a single dual processor SQL Server. I am going to opt for a fat client. Use VFP to do the data manipulation that each workstation and save the server to server out data sets. You have to fit the solution to the environment. There is no one answer when it comes to distributed applications.
A VFP Out-of-process OLE Server is perfect for doing night jobs. I have been developing a complete OLE Server control center for scheduling tasks. It is completely VFP table driven. Black Diamond Software will be marketing the product as a frameworks for companies wanting a jump start at building data marts or data warehouses with SQL Server and VFP.

>I want to honestly use VFP in an n-tier environment. I am making an effort to >get over the various things lacking in VFP. I know that no development tool >is perfect.

What is it exactly are the things lacking in VFP that is making your life so difficult? Make an effort to learn what VFP can do. There is a lot more VFP can do than it can’t.

>How did you get up to speed with VFP OLE servers? Where can one find the best >examples of building an effective n-tier app with VFP?

Read the following:

http://www.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/techmat/whitepapers/bko01.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/techmat/whitepapers/custole.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q157/0/49.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q168/0/53.asp

Also use M$’s knowledge base and search for “OLE Server”

http://www.microsoft.com/kb/

Check out Rick Strahl’s paper “Building Large Scale Web Applications” at www.west-wind.com for what VFP OLE Servers can do. He has got it figured out.

Read all the papers I have pointed out. There is a ton of info on the Microsoft’s web. Spend some time poking around on it for even more on VFP, ADO and OLE Servers. I think ADO will become a very important part of the COM concept and an important to VFP middle tier development. Most importantly have an open mind when it comes to disturbed application development. It is a powerful skill to know and if you get real good at it you’re going to be worth Big Bucks in the future.

Hope this helps,
Billy D.
Black Diamond Software, Inc.
Building Better Information Environments