>I am new to Visual FoxPro (and programming in general) and am trying to get my app set up so that the tables are shared on a network. How do I go about getting the setup program to put the shared tables on a network server and install the rest of the files on individual workstations? I have read about Programming for Shared Access and every other source that I can find, but I can't seem to get a concrete answer on what I need to do.
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>Thanks in advance for your help!

One approach is to create 2 separate setup programs - call them "Server Version" and "Workstation Version". The Server version simply installs shared tables, .DBCs etc. to a user-specified server drive/folder. The Workstation version installs your app, components, VFP runtime etc. to a workstation's drive.

A couple of things to watch out for:

- on some networks e.g. Novell, you have to specifically mark files as Shareable for them to be useable by more than 1 person at once. This is NOT the default setting for newly copied files.

- you may need to put some code in your app, so it knows enough to ask you where the data files are located when it starts up on a new workstation installation. You might want to store this location to the workstation's registry.

- be careful setting up automated installation routines for server data files. It can be all too easy for someone to re-install the data files and blow away weeks or months of work. You can't always assume these files get backed up regularly, either.