>>I would say yes, but Data integrity has been lost, correct?
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>Exactly. And if the data tier is responsible for its own data integrity then in general, the business rules that apply to data should be handled by the data tier.
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>It would be so nice if we could compartmentalize our tiers. If you built a model that had the data accessed by one and only one business tier (Thou shalt access this data only through these business objects) then you could dumb down the data tier and put any and all rules in the business tier. But if there are other paths to your data (ie, SQL Query Analyser) then it might be smart to put some of the rules in the data layer. Of course, it is SO ANNOYING when you try to delete records from the 'back end' and you keep getting constraint/RI errors because the DB WON"T LET YOU DO IT! This wouldn't happen if all the rules were in the business tier. This is perhaps, not a good thing.
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That's what I've been thinking. Only access through the Bis tier, but I was wondering how you keep people from mucking with the back end directly. I guess it's time to put some of this book-learning into practice :)

>That's why intelligent databases were created in the first place (VFP'ers didn't need them). So that data could be properly protected and insulated from the hordes of VB'ers who might discover ADO and think 'now here's a big word I can spell!'
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ROFL. To funny.