>I am a rookie to building client server applications but know how to use Foxpro tables/dbc fairly well. I have a client who wants a fairly substantial application built - and they want the backend to be VFP for now, but may wish to migrate to Client Server later. The product will be marketable -- but more valuable if it supports client/server. So I would like the application to be able to support both backends. I'm trying to figure out exactly how best to accomplish this. My fundemental question is this:
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>What is the best approach to take in building a single application that supports BOTH VFP and Client Server backends?
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>A friend (who may or may not know more than me on this subject) said I should access the VFP DBC exclusively through remote views/ODBC so that the data access methods will be similar for both backends. Are there advantages or disadvantages to this approach?
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>I realize that entire books are written on this subject. I was hoping that one of you could steer me in the right direction.
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>Thanks.

Probably, the best way to combine two back-ends is to base VFP part on local views and SQL part on remote views. It doesn't matter from front-end standpoint what kind of view is actually in use, i.e. you can just toggle aliases. Keep in mind that this approach will compromise the advantages both of VFP and SQL, and it should be used only if combination of platforms is a necessity.