>I wish to know whether from people here who have done Outlook automation in VFP or
>written apps with e-mail notification or direct-mail notification features whether VFP had
>been a good choice to do it or it could have been better in another language like VB particularly.
>Someone at work has commented on VFP not being reliable or stable when using ActiveX Data Controls
>(ADO) to automate Outlook and MS Office 97 and is thus trying to introduce VB. First of all, I might sound
>ignorant here, but what part does ADO really play here? I believe that his statement '...using ActiveX Data
>Controls (ADO) TO AUTOMATE Outlook and MS Office 97' does not seem right. If ever he meant that
>ADO has a part here, how reliable is VFP in handling ADO's?
>
>I have not automated Outlook in my app so I need a little help here.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>E. Sia

I would say he's just throwing some buzzwords out just to keep you on your toes. ADO is not a tool with which you would automate an ActiveX control or Server of any sort.

To automate Office 97 programs you would use VFP's CreateObject and the object model of the particular Office program. You can build a VFP program to have Outlook send mail either automatically (responding to some data-driven event) or on-demand.

I have been using ADO with VFP for quite some time with no problems, other than those caused by the learning process.