Hi Scott,

VisualRep was created at the end of 1999 and it is always a work in progress. At the time I needed a report engine with an object model capability and could not find any. The object model enables the developer to instantiate a class within the VRep.exe and run a report while passing the report name or the report ID. It is 2 products in one, the other part of the product enables you to create or modify reports, while providing you E-mail capability and reports as PDF, HTML, Excel and much more. It is workable as Addhoc Reporting engine for your users as well. It has also Multi Lingual Module where you can translate your report or the entire VisualRep interface to any language. It is shipped with 6 different languages. VisualRep is build on top of Visual FoxPro and support VFP versions from VFP6 to VFP9. It automatically generates report and creates complex SQL statements without the need of any SQL knowledge. It has a 5MB of help file where it is all covered. It also was covered in the FoxPro Advisor on February 2004 issue. No matter what framework you will decide to work with, VisualRep can do the job with any framework you choose. VisualRep has users that don’t really use Visual FoxPro such as: MS SQL or MS Access users that need a report engine. http://www.dfarber.com/VRep.htm for any question you may have you can post it in the VisualRep news group under the News.ProMatrixGroup.com

Regarding the xCase product it will be like committing suicide<s> if you will not design your model using a data modeling tool for such a big project that you are facing. The problem is that I did not see any other tool that integrates your changes and design into the data dictionary of your current framework. xCase by itself can port all your design to any client server including VFP DBC. But xCase2VPM
(http://www.ProSysPlus.com) does much more then that. Regarding the cost as you mentioned before, you don’t need to buy all up front. xCase2VPM and the Visual ProMatrix (http://www.promatrix.com) will be enough up front and the time saving will pay for itself right up front. Later on get the additional products when the time is right.

Regards,

Doron


>Hi Doron,
>
>Yes, I have the Visual ProMatrix demo which I've just reviewed quickly. I'll take a closer look over the next 6 to 7 weeks.
>
>I've never heard of VisualRep? I can assume that this is your product? How does it compare with FoxFire? Also, does it replace VFP's report manager or enhance it? I'm using VFP 9 SP1.
>
>I've been interested in xCase for a LONG time. We will probably use that product for this project as the database is going to be fairly large and a bit complex. I see that you indicate that there is a special version to enhance Visual ProMatrix. Good deal!
>
>Thanks for your considerable input and valuable information. I appreciate it!
>
>
>
>>Hi Scott,
>>
>>I am using the Visual ProMatrix Framework found at: http://www.ProMatrix.com, and it is very easy to use and the learning curve is not as brutal as the other you mentioned. Their new version can use either Cursor Adapter or Views. They have News Group which is available for the public and can be found at: News.ProMatrixGroup.com where you can even ask more specific questions.
>>
>>There are several 3rd party products that work with Visual ProMatrix framework Data Dictionary. One of them is VisualRep the Report and Query Engine that can be found at: http://www.dfarber.com/VRep.htm or at:
>>http://www.promatrix.com/Vrep/VisualRep.htm. The VisualRep engine can also work with the DBCX DD,DBC and all other client servers. It has also DSN wizard that enables the end user to create her/his Data Source Name. To get you the idea of some of the integration check this web site at:
>>http://www.dfarber.com/VRep/VPM/VisualRep_Benefits_4_VPM.htm . VisualRep will grab all relations, format, captions, Input Mask and will create report based on your data dictionary setup. No need to create another data dictionary to maintain your reports.
>>
>>Another product that works with the Visual ProMatrix framework is called xCase2VPM while you design all your tables using xCase found at: http://www.xCase.com and the xCase2VPM product found at: http://www.prosysplus.com/ will update the Visual ProMatrix data dictionary and will create all the parameterized views in a separate DBC, and also create the list definition for any List of fields(In A grid) for any form that you may create and much more. Using their product there is no need to open the Visual ProMatrix data dictionary and set up any relations. They have also developed libraries that even enhance the Visual ProMatrix much more. xCase2VPM update the fields captions, format, relations and via xCase you create fields validations and based on certain conditions you can enable or disable fields in your forms and much more. It is all data driven which is fed by xCase while xCase2VPM update the Visual ProMatrix data dictionary.
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Doron