>Does anyone know of a way to access JavaDB/Derby from within VFP? Thanks for your help. Incidently , we have found 1 ODBC driver but it is $350.00 + per license and we need many many licenses.

With a name like JavaDB it looks like it's very Java-oriented. Meant to be consumed from Java via JDBC.

I don't know of any way to attach to or consume a JDBC driver/service from within VFP. Looking for ODBC/OLEDB led to the following:

Successive links list:
http://db.apache.org/derby/
http://db.apache.org/derby/quick_start.html
http://db.apache.org/derby/faq.html#clientserv
http://wiki.apache.org/db-derby/UsesOfDerby (ODBC drivers, near the bottom)
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0409cline2/index.html (old, c.2005. Shows W2K3 Server but not Vista or W2K8)

If the driver you found was the Easysoft ODBC/JDBC Gateway, it's listed at 199GBP per machine, 799GBP unlimited per LAN, 3199GBP unlimited per WAN. If you need a lot of licenses one of the latter options may not be too expensive on a per-machine basis. You could also negotiate a custom licensing agreement.

Using a ODBC to JDBC gateway is not optimal. Each layer between your app and the data consumes resources, is a potential source of bugs, reduces performance and may require configuration and/or ongoing maintenance. I don't know if the IBM driver is architected the same way, maybe it's unavoidable with JavaDB/Derby.