>why cant you use the native switch from a local to a remote datasource ..
>that is in the system preferences ?

It's not a clean switch, atleast 90% of the time the app will use local VFP data all of the time. Then on occaision we would have to display data that doesn't come from local dbc, nor do we want to store it local, but rather sneak in the occaisional remote view to the oracle source without having to flip the switch.