>>I have a payroll system written in FoxBase (about 10 years ago). I migrated it to FP DOS when I inherited it 5 years ago. We are now rebuilding it in VFP (v6 sp3). There are 4 companies, each with its own personnel file, payroll files, etc. However, the rules are basically the same for all companies.
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>>I would like to use the same forms to edit each company's records. That is have one personnel form, one payroll corrections screen, etc.
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>>In FPDOS or FPWin, we would simply pass a parameter to the screen, and in the setup code select the appropriate table, give it an alias, and process away.
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>>In VFP, from what I have seen, the form's controls are instantiated before the INIT for the form, so a parameter can't be used to select the appropriate table...the table needs to be open at the time the controls are instantiated since they are bound.
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>>I guess I'm just searching for a clue or an idea. This seems to be a problem that is much more complicated in VFP than it was in FPWin.
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>>Thanks in advance.
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>Hi Steve,
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>I'm not sure I completely understand the problem here, but here's one thing to keep in mind. You can modified certain properties of the DE in the Init method with bound controls. Naturally, the property has to be writable at run-time (such as the cursor alias or cursor source). You do, however, have to do this prior to the tables being physically opened. If you set AutoOpenTables to .F. you can modify these properties in the Init, then issue This.DataEnvironment.OpenTables without any problem.
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>The new Session base class in VFP 6.0 SP3, however, offers the opportunity to create formless business rules classes. By adding a customized DataEnvironment object and Form object to the class (when necessary) all sorts of intersting possibilites open up.

George-

This turned out to be the best solution. I use one of the table sets in the DE, then modified the CursorSource in the Form's init. It works like a charm.

Guess I'm just a little slow getting into the OOP way of doing things, but I'm getting there.

--Steve.