>>I would assume that CT is suggesting that your validation is done with a middle tier VFP COM object that other applications could call. The would give you 'EnterPrise Wide' validation.
>
>You're right, he talks about taking advantage of automation servers. I guess my question here is more of a 'what if' scenario. Like I said, I really like the approach in this article but what if the client feels strongly about their ownership of data in my VFP app's dbc, and want access to it through a commonly known M$ Office tool like excel or < duck > Access. So even though ODBC might not be optimal, I thought is was a valid concern if I'm going to store my business rules in a table like Blankenship describes. I guess what I'm getting at is that this seems like a really good technique, so why does it feel like I'm leaving data unprotected?


Well, why can't you store the rules in a table in the database, but call the validation functions from the DBC rules as opposed to the Valid of the text box?

Generally, you can, but people don't want to wait till they hit save to know that they entered invalid data in the second field on the first page.. but, you could do it this way.

Now, the Rules are maintained at the back end, AND they are in data files.

What thinks you?

BOb