>>>So has anybody seen anything like this? Any thoughts about how to nail it? What else do you need to know?
>>
>>Are these formsets or proper forms?
>>My long ago experience with converted projects and formsets was not good.
>
>Forms. We wrote a custom tool that gives us a jumpstart on the conversion. It handles about 80% of the job, and we do the rest by hand.

Did something along similar problem lines early this century -
had to run other exe still based on FPW from ported vfp app.

To ease porting later on we ran FPW forms in vfp with the twist of tweaking GenScreen(X?)
to inject the name clause into every control and hook-like functions.

This way the FPW forms could be tweaked (or clobbered) via
adressing specific controls in a way similar to vfp OOP handling.

And yes, there were situations where form/control
activation or focus had to be spoon fed
(visualize breakfast boiled egg and soup spoon to crack the shell)
Explicit trumped implicit as Pythonista claim ;-)

Adding a really complex vfp control living in a container was
one of the things "acting up" even after several tweaks -
I was able to curb most, but never mastered every Gotcha.

HTH
thomas