>If I may use up one of my dumb questions for the day...
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>I have a few Access 97 databases that I am about to convert/rewrite over to Visual Foxpro. I am really exciting about being able to move into Foxpro, but I groan at having to rebuild the forms and reports. I was inquiring if anyone know of any technique or program that will convert forms and reports into Foxpro. I know there are a lot of differences, but even if the layout could be brought over. If not, I would understand that.
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>It never hurts to ask, does it?

Mike,

I don't know of any conversion programs off-hand at least for the forms and reports but you might be able to convert the database portion without too much trouble. In terms of any utilities which do this check out Hallogram Publishing (there is a link on this website) as well as the Microsoft developer tools website.

Some things to consider when porting your GUI to VFP:
1) VFP supports inheritance so you may want to re-engineer your forms so that you have a parent form class that gets used for all your data entry forms, report dialogs in another class etc. This will speed up the development process and also assist you when you need to make common changes to more than one form.

2) VFP forms are very similair to Access but contain controls that have more or different functionality from their Access counterparts. I'm not sure if there is a way to decipher the Access objects because they are not table-based whereas all VFP forms/classes/menus and reports are table based, stored as metadata.

3) You may want to take this opportunity to put all your form code into business or COM objects. This will expose all the apps functionality to other user services besides VFP forms in case you decide you need an HTML or ASP front-end.

4) In terms of reports, the VFP report designer is very similair but I doubt you can copy paste the controls. Also, keep in mind that Access is a little more low-maintenance in the report preparation area because the SQL code is built into the mdb file whereas in VFP you will have to write a program or design a custom class which prepares your report cursor or runs the necessary SQL.

Good luck and have fun!

-JT