>We currently have a project that uses lots of forms and pageframes to display all the possible information. Problem is, different groups use different fields, not all fields are required, so shouldn't be viewed by others, and they just aren't happy until they get it their way (I guess they heard I was a fry cook at burger king). Anyway, the higher authorities have decided that real solution is to allow each user who has design rights to design the screen themselves, picking and choosing which fields should be displayed, and in what order.

A couple thoughts...

We've done something like this...and you can allow users to do "mock-ups" in VB, or any other tool they're licensed for, of what they would like out of a draft of a DB, and follow these ideas when designing your app. But as far as the system goes, you can't be allowing a zillion apps built with different tools and different people to have write-access to the same data - it's going to be a nightmare, I have no doubt.

I recommend only one app, built by you (and team), with vfp (naturally) based on the mock-ups provided by users with whatever tool. At this point you can either re-use the same forms you design only once in vfp, altering control display and access at run-time based on user group, or, if radically different, create new forms for individual groups, launched as neeeded. We keep user groups in a login-table...and users with multiple group entries must select which group as they are entering the system, plus a feature which allows them to go back and change user groups.